HERE'S CHAP 1 OF THE 2nd INSTALLMENT!!! I know it's short, but bear with me.
I'll draw more pictures for the fanfic, it'll just take a moment.
Comments and Kudos are always welcome!!!
Winter was a long season in The Unknown.
Mist and fog obscured vision far and wide. Not a sound was heard, nor creatures rustling, except a woman and young boy running quickly, an old, rusted and blood soaked lantern held tightly within the boy's grasp, against his body.
Tears mixed with blood from scratches down his cheek, cotton fell from his ears, the boy shuddered.
"This should be far enough." The woman panted, collapsing as her leg gave out, her fiery hair down in haphazard waves, her dress covered in blood and dirt. Her whole body shook.
The boy stopped as well, trying to swallow his tears. "B-but-" he panicked, gripping the lantern tighter, knuckles white.
"Don't argue, Greg! We don't have time!" The woman, Beatrice, yelled as she began helping Greg lift his shirt, the "curse" going haywire against his spine as his body held far more than it was capable, but without another vessel, he was stuck and they knew it.
She took a deep shuddering breath, having never done this before. In truth, she was frightened, beyond so, her own throat clogging up.
Greg hiccuped, gently setting the lantern between them as he collapsed to his knees as well. "This is our last hope. Please, Cloud Woman-" he held his hands together, eyes squeezed shut so tight he saw light, "- please have not led us astray."
With that prayer, Greg took a deep breath to steel himself, Beatrice copying.
'Please let this work. For Greg. For my family. For The Unknown.' Beatrice bit her lip.
"There's an old black train a-comin'
Scraping long the iron
You don't need no ticket, boys-" Greg choked on the song, only for Beatrice to give him a comforting smile.
"There's an old black train a-comin'
Scraping long the iron
You don't need no ticket, boys,…." She began, her voice like a small bird as she sang for him.
Both the light of the curse and the lantern glowed a bruised purple, the light seeping out to underneath them, wrapping them in what looked like smooth silk, sending them to the only other place they know with a strong magical pull; Gravity Falls.
'"Dip…Dipper…heehee…do you like that? You're blushing so much." A sweet voice teased, the body blurry and unrecognizable. It ran a finger against his freckles and kissed him lightly, then kissed his nose.
Dipper gasped, body warm as the figure laid weight on his torso, as if the shadowy tempter was laying on top of him. The figure had grazed their teeth against his neck, the touch gentle but possessive. Dipper spluttered, grabbing the figure's hips as a swelling feeling bloomed in Dipper's chest, him squeezing the figure, almost unable to with how there was little mass to it, moving his hands to embrace them fully. "My chest hurts." He looked away, his Adam's apple bobbing with nerves for a moment before he turned his head back, pouting before kissing the figure roughly, the tension in his chest not easing.
The figure giggled, a light snort leaving them as Dipper pulled away. "What can I do to make you better?" They asked, laying their head against his heartbeat.
Dipper's eyes softened, lifting his head again to nuzzle them, not daring to let go. "Just…just let me stay like this." He whispered, the warm feeling beginning to spread again as the figure didn't answer, simply beginning to massage and caress Dipper, their touch suggestive, nails sharply carving into his body.
"Don't worry. You can hold me as long as you wish. I promise." The figure began to kiss him hurriedly, thighs tightening against Dipper's hips, it's hands entwined with his own. His body began to feel hot. Too hot. The darkness they floated in began to become brighter, Dipper's Soul writhing inside as if gasoline was thrown onto it.
He wanted the figure on him. He needed the figure to love him.'
"Dipper!" Dipper jolted awake, fixing his hat as he felt Mabel shake him by his shoulder. Glaring, he looked around, noting they were getting closer to Oregon.
"What is it?" He glanced at her, her hair braided to the side, acid washed overall shorts stained with paint and a goth tank top under.
Jumping in her seat, she showed him her phone. "Paz said we have to be wide awake by the time we get there for a surprise! You suck at waking up, so, tada!" She snorted, going back to her phone.
Before Dipper could snark back, he released a yawn, rubbing his eyes and looking for his own phone, seeing what updates were currently on his paranormal group site, as well as if there'd been any more sightings of cryptids around, whether that was proving or disproving the beings. "Did she say what kind of surprise?"
Mabel hummed. "No. Silly, Dipper, that's the point of surprises." She smiled, but both twins' smiles fell slowly as they saw the sign that they were entering Gravity Falls, Oregon.
"It's been…a bit…hasn't it?" Mabel spoke softly.
Dipper nodded, a mixture of longing and hesitation making his fingers twitch.
They hadn't been to Gravity Falls in 3 years. Paz visited them in California when she could, but their parents had refused to allow them back after none of them could explain where they'd went missing that year.
The Grunkles couldn't even properly rejoice that they were all safe before Mabel and Dipper's parents had shown up with police, having been shocked to see their kids back, though furious then that the Grunkles couldn't keep an eye on them. It had been a huge fight, not physically of course, though Paz looked ready to jump in when the police, who were originally there to do a search and rescue, had to keep the Grunkles back.
"How do you think the Grunkles are doing?" Dipper asked, something nagging in the back of his mind.
Mabel smiled at the mention of their favorite old guys, she made a "oh", noise and tried digging through her "smaller" bag, Waddles snorting as he moved around their feet. "I almost forgot! I made them scrapbooks so they could see what we've been up to these last couple years!" She laughed lowly, "I'm so excited to show them. I bet they have lots of fisherman tales to tell us too! I brought fresh scrapbooking supplies for that as well." She grinned with stickers on her fingers.
Dipper smiled, his twin's energy contagious. "I bet they do."
They never did remember where they had disappeared to, though being amongst so much forestry and mountains made Dipper feel lonesome. He searched with his eyes, trying to spot something passed the trees and bushes. He almost felt a sense of guilt, as if there was something he wasn't supposed to forget.
His lips burned, the caramel tints of his eyes jolting to gold as he gazed through the trees and passed some buildings.
Mabel sighed, seeing her brother go quiet again, making sure everything of their's was counted for, and that Waddles had his collar on properly. With a ding of her phone, she looked, her own light brown eyes flashing the same gold for a moment as she replied happily to her sweetheart.
"So~, what's the surprise, Paz?" Dipper asked as he set their things down inside Paz' new jeep, letting the couple hug and catch up on some of their physicality before daring to talk to them. He felt a twinge at the sight.
Paz kept playing with Mabel's fingers while they went to the jeep, she looked to him, a smile intended for him on her lips. "Don't you know the thing about surprises, Dipstick? Can't tell. Actually, hold on." She went to fiddle with a compartment, Dipper catching his sister tilting her head sideways to look at Paz' shorts going higher on her thighs as she searched, leading him to facepalm, deciding then and there that he was going to reintroduce himself to the woods later that night.
Eventually she made a sound of success and with her arm in the air, the twins saw she held blindfolds. "Found them!" She almost skipped over, handing them each one. "Put these on after you get in the jeep."
Dipper was hesitant, but Mabel just walked and got into the passenger seat, excited to be back and not caring what she had to do to get there.
Sighing in defeat, Dipper got in back with the luggage he and Mabel brought, as well as a happy as could be Waddles.
He didn't like the idea of covering his eyes, but Dipper did so anyway, not wanting to be a spoiled sport and ruin both the girls' smiles. To keep himself calm, he pet Waddles, the large pig enjoying the attention in the heat.
It was eerily quiet when Paz finally drove up onto the gravel and stopped. She had warned them on the way to not remove the blindfolds until she said to, so as Mabel kept chatting, not concerned in the slightest, Dipper tried getting his thoughts in order, or at least he tried.
"Alright, Dipper first since I know he'll stay still. Come on." Paz grabbed his hand, pulling him out of the pink jeep roughly, her only being able to do so since his guard was down.
"Ow! Didn't have to do that you rotten bitch." He grumbled, though the familiar scent of woods and pine drew him into an almost immediate calm, his memories already running through the summers of their childhoods in Gravity Falls.
Paz snorted in amusement. "Of course I did. Now come on." She pushed his wide shoulders forward, him still not being able to hear much of anything.
He stood where she said to and soon heard Mabel being brought next to him, Waddles snorting around, the slow pace of hooves in the rocks indicating he was exploring. Before he could open his mouth and ask, Paz had put one hand on each of their backs, pushing them forward. "There we go. Now stay. Okay, grab your-MABEL NO! Just…just grab it." Paz warned, Dipper being able to "see" what his twin was doing without actually seeing. "Okay, on my count. One…two…THREE!"
All Dipper and Mabel could see right after was confetti in their faces and the loud cheering of "surprise " and "welcome home".
After quickly processing, they saw the Grunkles, Wendy, The Gang, Soos, Melody, Gideon and his prison crew, as well as some of their creature friends and some townsfolk, all smiling and immediately talking. It was a huge party, the Shack having been renovated to be larger.
Both the twins smiled large, running at the same time to tackle the Grunkles first, laughing and yelling.
After a few hours, Dipper began to feel a little more whole. He felt much more at ease, much more talkative and even messed up Gideon's hair playfully, that's how much he'd missed Gravity Falls. He sipped his juice, thankful no one spiked it. He looked down into his cup, after staring at the party for a while, something in him, as if excess energy was making his hands twitch, was off. Someone was missing…though looking around again, no one was.
"Hey, Dipper. It's great to see you both again. I was feeling a little stupid talking to these lugs." Grunkle Ford approached him, patting his back with a smile.
Dipper smiled back. "We missed you guys too. We did try telling mom and dad they were being ridiculous. Once everyone leaves, be warned, Mabel has scrapbooks to show you guys." He laughed.
"Speaking of, how did you convince your parents to let you both come back?" Grunkle Ford raised a brow.
Dipper chuckled rottenly. "We didn't. At first, Mabel wanted to run away, but I didn't want you and Grunkle Stan to get into trouble, so I convinced Mabel that on our summer break from graduating High School, we come here instead. About a town or two over there's a pretty decent university where Mabel and I can enroll and have actually been looking at. That way we're close but also going to school. Pluuuus, I think we know a relative who has 12 PhD's." He said innocently, taking out a pen and fiddling with it.
Grunkle Ford chuckled, ruffling his hair gently. "Very smart. We can talk about all of that tomorrow. For now, come on and enjoy catching up." He gripped Dipper's shoulder for a moment and walked back into the party.
Dipper downed his drink, setting the cup down and began to walk back into the crowd, excited to catch up with Wendy and the gang, when he swore he saw a person outside from the corner of his eye, but when he looked, there wasn't anyone on the edge of the brush that lead into the forest. His heart clenched painfully.
"Hey, Dipper! Come on and play a dare with us!" Wendy yelled to him, her red hair up in a ponytail that stuck out the back of a very old and worn blue pine tree cap.
Dipper looked over, smiling as he laughed, running to join Wendy and the gang.
Far off on the other side of town, in the forest behind Northwest Manor, a circlet of Edelwood trees stood coldly. No animal would dare make the trunks a home or use the twigs for nests, or leaves for cover. Though beneath the tall trunks, Edelwood oil had long been gathering at the bases, the oil spreading out like acid, killing the grass and weeds near it with not even a hiss.
Even the large frog stuffed animal that had been cherished so dearly, lie within an icy home, in a state of moth eaten and decay.