Ah, summertime. A time for leisure, recreation, and takin' 'er easy…

Unless you're the Pines Family.


Three screams of terror echoed through the dark forest.

A golf cart rocketed through the brush, hardly deterred by the rocks, bushes, and roots in its way. Manning the vehicle was a tween boy with brown hair and brown eyes. Beside him was a girl who looked nearly identical to him save for her longer hair, her blushed cheeks, and braces attached to her teeth.

Behind them, seated in the back seats that faced the opposite direction, were two older gentlemen. One was dressed in a suit, his short and thin gray hair whipped in the wind, and he was holding on to the rails of the cart for dear life. The other man looked nearly identical to him but with a slimmer build compared to the other's broad form, dark gray foofier hair, a cleft chin, oddly blue eyes, and six fingers on each hand. And unlike his terrified brother, he had a pen and paper in hand as he eagerly wrote down some notes.

The broader man gasped at what he saw and shouted, "Look out!"

A large log was thrown and landed in their way. The boy hurriedly swerved out of the way and the cart narrowly toppled over before straightening out with a thud. The girl next to him groaned and looked green.

"Mabel?" the boy called out worriedly.

The girl gagged. "I'm fine…just the sugar snacks disagreeing with me." She gags again, trying to keep the contents of her gut inside.

With some concern, the boy looks back at the men behind them. "What about you guys?"

"We are doing fine, my boy," the blue eyed older twin said, looking up and down at his notes and the thing chasing them. "Just jotting down a few notes and–" He suddenly yanked back when he was leaning forwards too far. "Stanley!"

"Now's not the time, Poindexter!" Stan frowned. He straps the other in the cart's seat belt, much to the other man's annoyance. Stan stands up holding on to the golf cart with one hand and a raised shotgun in the other, held high threateningly. "Ya wanna eat us? Then go ahead and try, you bastard!"


My name is Dipper. The girl about to puke is my sister Mabel. The old guy taking notes with a huge grin on his face is our great uncle Ford. And the other old guy holding Ford back and shouting profanities is our other great uncle, Stan, and Ford's own twin brother.

You may be wondering what we're doing in a golf cart, in the middle of the night, fleeing from a creature of unimaginable horror.

Rest assured. There's a perfectly logical explanation.

It all started when Mabel and my parents died in an accident two years ago. I woke up in the middle of the night from a strange dream…


Two Years Ago


Dipper wakes from an unsettling dream to go to the bathroom. His mind is still groggy from sleep as he tries to piece together what he saw and what was said. The words were nonsensical, like it was spoken backwards or in gibberish. As for what he saw…not much.

There was fire (in many colors, but mostly light blue), a red sky, and a series of symbols, but most of it was all a blur. A very prominent one he could recall clearly resembled a tree.

He snorts awake, realizing that he nearly fell asleep standing up at the toilet.

"Maybe Mabel and I shouldn't have had that ice cream eating contest…" he muttered drowsily.

He finishes his business and exits the bathroom. A smoky smell invades his nostrils, making him sniff the air.

Why is he smelling smoke?

Through his closed eyelids, flickering lights danced and Dipper could feel heat to his left. Has the heat been turned on? The nights don't get cold at this time of year, so why…

Dipper opened his eyes and looked to the left to see the stairs that lead down to the first floor were on fire.

On. Fire.

His brown eyes grew wide when the realization sunk in and he made a dash for his sister's room, screaming her name along the way.

"Mabel! Mabel! Mabel! The house is on fire!" he shouted. He slams open Mabel's door, an act that shockingly didn't wake the girl. He runs over to her bed and shakes her awake. "Get up! The house is on fire!"

"W-What?!" Mabel asked, her waking mind trying to catch up.

Dipper doesn't elaborate as he turns to Mabel's opened door and sees the light of the fire illuminating the hall. It's closer now. He hurries to Mabel's window and tries to open it. Mabel appears to his side and helps to get the window panel up. Once they did, they crawled out and carefully lowered themselves onto the dormer of the living room window. From there, they cautiously slid off and landed into some bushes below, getting scratched up and a bit bruised, but nothing too bad.

They scurried towards the road, seeing that some people had started coming out of their homes to see what was happening.

The twins look back at their burning home, utterly confused.

"What's going on?" Mabel asked.

"I-I don't know!" Dipper replied, feeling helpless. He could see the inferno through the cracking windows. It appeared that it had spread all throughout the first floor.

"Where's Mom and Dad?" Mabel asked suddenly, looking around for their parents.

Dipper looked around too, seeing no signs of them. Their cars were still in the driveway, so they haven't left. A horrific thought came to mind.

Morgan and Caroline Pines were still in the house.


Present Day


Neither…made it out alive…

Some time after that, Mabel and I were taken in by our twin great uncles, living in a cabin in the woods in a sleepy town called Gravity Falls of Roadkill County, Oregon.


Soon after arrival, Dipper and Mabel find themselves in their new, shared room: the attic. Stan's handyman, Soos Ramirez, gave them a brief tour of their new home prior, ending it with showing them their new bedroom.

"It's a bit big, so I hope there is enough room for the two of you little doods. And look! There's even a loft!" Soos said, pointing at the area accessible by a small ladder. "If you doods want any furniture to be moved, don't be afraid to ask ol' Soos here."

"This attic is amazing!" Mabel beamed.

Dipper notices an animal on one of the beds.

"And there's a goat on my bed." Definitely not something Dipper would think to find on his bed. Honestly though, this doesn't beat the time he found a very unnerving drawing underneath his bed at the child asylum.

Even if the goat's eyes unsettled him.

"Oh, that's just Gompers," Soos said. He takes a nearby broom to nudge the animal out.

"Hey, friend," Mabel said, holding out her arm and Gompers chewed on her sleeve. "Oh! Yes, you can keep chewing on my sweater." She giggles.

"Is the goat this surprise you mentioned earlier?" Dipper asked Soos. He hopes his uneasiness wasn't noticeable.

"Oh, no, dood," Soos shook his head. "The surprise is up in the loft."

Mabel heads up there and gasps with delight. "Oh my gosh, a pig!" Just sitting patiently in a doggie bed is a 15 pound, pink pig. The small swine grunted twice. "And he said 'Mabel'!"

"Are you sure about that?" Dipper asked skeptically.

"You're right. He probably said 'doorbell'." Mabel misses Dipper's deadpanned look as she keeps her focus on the piggy. "Did you say 'Mabel' or 'doorbell'?" The pig repeated his two grunts from earlier. "Definitely 'Mabel'." The animal waddled over to Mabel, nuzzling her sleeve. "I'm gonna call you Waddles." She picks up the pig in her arms and turns to show Dipper. "Isn't this amazing, Dipper? This place just keeps gettin' better!"

"Uh, yeah," Dipper said hesitantly. He's not sure if he's ready to share the sentiment.


My sister tends to see the bright side of things. It is a little annoying at times, but it's actually comforting.

Meanwhile, I'm having a hard time getting used to my new surroundings. It's honestly no different from when I went to the Piedmont Juvenile Asylum.

I hope I don't have to go back there.

And then, there are my great uncles, Stan and Ford…

Grunkle Stan had transformed the house into a tourist trap he called 'The Mystery Shack.' The real mystery was why anyone came.


"Ladies and gentlemen, behold! The Sascrotch!" Stan shows his gullible customers the hairy, ape-like creature in its undies.

The tourists gleefully took pictures of the exhibit, clearly enamored, and gave their money to the greedy conman.

"Thank you for your patronage!" Stan grinned, leafing through the many banknotes in his hand.

From the sidelines and out of view, Ford rolled his eyes.


And why did great uncle Ford even allow it. The house was his, apparently.


And, unfortunately for Ford, he wasn't hidden enough as his brother decided to add him into the 'Mr. Mystery' gimmick.

"Don't look away just yet, folks, because we have ourselves a rare sight!" Stan slung an arm over Ford's shoulder and pulled him close. "My elusive clone!" Ford frowns deeply while the awestruck tourists murmured. "Bet ya can't tell us apart, huh? Who's the real Mr. Mystery and who's the clone?"

Having enough, Ford pulled himself out of Stan's hold and made a brisk brake for it for the employees only door.

"That was a chance of a lifetime! Who knows when he'll make another appearance! That will be 12 dollars extra."

The tourists were more than happy to pay.

Suckers.


Speaking of Ford, he has a more respectable job as a field researcher working for a local college.

As for his field of expertise…


"Watcha doin', Grunkle Ford?" Mabel asked as the man as he looked through the gladstone he placed on the table. She had to resist the urge to braid the man's armpit length hair, put together in a low ponytail.

"Just making sure I have everything I need for some exploration, dear."

"It looks like one of those wizard bags," Mabel said. She looks inside. "Is there an owl in there too?"

Ford snaps the bag shut and snatches it up. "No! I can assure you if there's an owl in this bag, he's long dead." He freezes up when there is a buzzing noise. "It's happening again! What is that?!"

"Uh, your cellphone, Ford?" Stan said matter of factly from his recliner. From a spot on the floor next to the recliner, Dipper watched Ford with a curious look.

Ford fishes out the device from the inside of his trenchcoat. He stares at the owlishly.

"Oh." He pockets the device again and takes his bag.

Dipper got up and approached Ford. "Hey, uh, do you need a hand with anything?" He was honestly feeling a little stir-crazy in the shack, but he also didn't want to go out alone. Maybe now he can catch things up with his mysterious uncle.

His shoulders slump when Ford shook his head.

"I'm afraid not, Dipper. I'm sorry. On the dark, weird road I travel, I'm afraid you cannot follow," Ford said grimly. "I'll be back before dinner…probably."

Dipper stood still as he watched the man leaving the house, a part of him feared it would be the last.


I have no idea.

The guy has a lot of PhDs and I can't pinpoint exactly what he's doing in a place like this. He's so secretive and almost always in that locked basement. And when he isn't in the basement doing who knows what, he's in the creepy part of the forest doing who knows what. All he did with us was take our blood samples for some reason.

It's kinda disappointing. Especially since he seemed pretty cool when I first met him during the holidays three years ago. I've wanted us to play Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons again…

*Sigh* So…yeah…

This is my life now. Parents dead, sister too blindingly optimistic, a shyster for one uncle and a recluse for another and now Mabel and I have to live in this boring town…

At the time, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do next. My parents are gone because of… And I wasn't sure of how I was going to move on…

Until one fateful day…