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It was late at night, and Dipper once again could not sleep, and although he knew every word the journal contained he was reading it again. Just to pass the time. God what was he stupid back then. Memories of the first time he and his sister, Mabel, spent the summer in Gravity Falls came flooding back. Skipping the pages to his own first journal entry, he started reading his own handwriting. “Trust no one” it said, god he wished he’d listened. “When you battle a hundred gnomes side by side, you realize they probably always got your back”. Yeah no. Mabel has always been a little selfish, always listening to herself and herself only. And while some times that was a good quality, most times it’s a nuisance. Oh how much he had done for her. Always there to help her, and get shit in return. It had gone from bad to worse the following year they spent back in California. Mabel decided that brothers would always be there so she should just focus on her new friends she made in our new High School. And Dipper was done. Done with being second choice, done with being made felt like trash and done with his sisters antics. Honestly what was he thinking. How many times did he sacrifice pieces of his own life just so his sister could be happy. At first she apologized every time she made a mistake, but that never happened anymore. Their great sibling bond had gone to hell and there was no getting it back. Dipper spent most of his time alone, doing research and reading. Their parents were getting a divorce, and Dipper couldn’t be happier. Many nights he had laid awake at night listening to them fight, while Mabel slept on peacefully. She wasn’t aware how bad things were for him and their parents. And because Dipper was, he would get yelled at by their parents because apparently it was all his fault, and not their own sick minds. ‘Oh they were expecting one child, not two’ and ‘Mabel is such a sweetheart, you shouldn’t have even been born’. He was fine with that. He didn’t care, not that he could change it now, unless jumping off a cliff was an option. It was their fault anyway. If you can’t handle kids, you should not get pregnant. Jumping off a cliff sounded so appealing but that was the easy way out. And Dipper never went for easy. He’d try and try, never getting anywhere. Closing the journal once again he looked out his triangular window, the book resting on his lap. It was now a year later and they were back in Gravity Falls. This time for good. Their parents had decided they couldn’t deal with their divorce while also caring for two kids so they shipped us off to Oregon. Mabel had decided she wanted her own room for sleepovers, so she got the bigger empty one downstairs, while Dipper stayed alone up in the attic. The alarm next to his head read ’03:42’, and Dipper decided he should try sleeping again. Putting the journal back on his nightstand, he turned off the light and turned his head to the window. The rain making soft tapping noises against the glass. The weather report said that there was a heavy storm coming that would last a few days, and Dipper wished he’d thought of that as foreshadowing.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Dipper was awakened by the soft sunshine, lighting up his face and his surroundings. Judging by the soft glow it was still early, however not early enough for his Grunkle Stan to be up, who he could hear walking around downstairs.
Pushing off the blankets that had smothered him in his sleep, he went to the bathroom to get changed. After brushing his teeth and splashing some water in his face, he looked up in to the mirror and noted that the lack of sleep left a mark on him, in the form of two dark bags underneath his eyes. Opting for splashing some more water around his eyes to help wake him up some more, he left to go downstairs.
“Heya kid, you’re up early again” Grunkle Stan grumbled looking up from his newspaper, a cup steaming coffee sat on the table in front of him. Dipper making his way to the coffee pot to pour himself some too, responded with his own tired grumbling. “Good morning grunkle Stan” he said as he almost missed his cup while pouring the much needed black liquid. “I forgot to close my blinds yesterday so the sun woke me up, after that I couldn’t go back to sleep”. Dipper sat down across from the old man, taking his cup with him.
“Well good, that means you can start cleaning the shop early” Stan said with a smile, money on the back of his mind. Dipper gave him a tired smile in response. Dipper took the morning silence to become a bit more aware of his surroundings. Birds could be heard, chirping away in the forest that surrounded the shack. If he trained his ears he could hear the gnomes fighting over some trash outside. The glow of the sun filtered through the window of the kitchen. It was peaceful and nice. The weather would be great today, so was the weather report wrong? He shrugged it off sipping on his coffee. His focus went to the man in front of him.
Grunkle Stan was a good guy. Not really cut out to take care of kids, but he did his best. Sometimes Dipper could see a flicker of a pained regret in his eyes, but it would be gone the moment he looked back. He knew Stan was hiding something, and it was big. Honestly Dipper suspected there was a secret room hiding somewhere in the shack, because one moment Dipper or Mabel would think the shack was empty but then their Grunkle would appear out of nowhere. But that was just ridiculous, he would’ve noticed a room like that by now. His thoughts went back to the time Soos found that door leading to the wax museum and shuddered. If it was anything like that, that hidden room could stay closed for all he cared. But his curiosity didn’t stop him from wondering what his Grunkle was hiding.
Ending his train of thoughts he noticed that his cup was now empty. He could hear Mabel waking up in her room. Looking up at the clock he decided he should work on the shop now so he could get off a bit earlier. Wendy was coming over so Mabel and Dipper were only needed for opening up and closing. Dipper had the morning shift, and Mabel would close up.
“I’m gonna start on the shop” was all he said before he disappeared behind the door. Grunkle Stan watched him go, a bit of worry evident on his face. ^ ^ ^Dipper had restocked the shelves and was now sweeping up dust in the corner, when he heard the door open. Looking up he saw the redhead that was Wendy. “Hey Dip! Starting early?” She said with a grin. It was a mystery she could be in a good mood this early. ”What do you need the extra money for?”
He responded with a chuckle “Nothing really, just woke up earlier than usual”.
“Yeah I can see that” Gesturing to his eyes. “You should take better care of yourself man, especially if you keep working here every day”. “Yeah yeah I know” He waved her off. Wendy looked up at the clock hanging on the wall and noted that the shop officially opens in 10 mintues. “Normal people don’t get out of bed at 8 am to visit a shop like this, so I think I’ll have an easy morning shift” She said, grabbing a magazine and propped herself up on the cash register. Dipper finished throwing away the dust and rubble then waved at Wendy. “I’m gonna go out now, Mabel should be here soon”. Mabel liked to keep Wendy company until her friends got here. Wendy waved back not looking up from whatever she was reading.
Walking back into the kitchen he saw Mabel was making her fabled Mabel Juice™. Flashbacks from the last time Mabel forced that sparkly stuff down his throat made their way into his mind, and had to physically shake his head not to gag. Nightmare fuel was a better name for whatever was in that blender. “Heya DipDot, do you want some?” She said as she noticed Dipper come in. ‘Definitely not’ he thought as he looked at the blended glitter, shivers going down his spine. “No thanks Mabes, I just had coffee” He said letting her down easy.
Although he felt betrayed by his sisters behavior towards him, he couldn’t just shake off his brother behavior, even though she didn’t deserve it. ‘Even though she took him for granted. Even though he didn’t-‘.
His depressing train of thoughts were interrupted by Mabel’s cheerful voice. “Alright then” as she turned back towards the counter. “There is some leftover in the fridge if you change your mind. ‘I definitely won’t’ he thought, as he glared at the pink glittery goo. “Maybe later!” He yelled without turning around, leaving to go back up to his room.
If the weather report wasn’t wrong he should take this chance to explore some of the forest, before the storm arrived. Weather has always been a little weird in Gravity Falls, but with mudslides and falling trees waiting around every corner when it rained, he had to be careful. "Death by mud" wasn't something he'd like on his tombstone.
He felt better today, better than he had been for the past weeks.
Grabbing his bag, he stuffed in the journal and his own notebook. He liked reading yeah sure, but documenting the weird creatures himself is what he really loved. So he had taken to writing his own journal. It looked a lot less professional than the Author’s but he didn’t care. Slinging the bag around his shoulders he shouted a goodbye to a passing Stan as he ran out the backdoor. He was running because there was a good chance that if he stayed around for much longer, Grunkle Stan would find him something to do, or worse he could’ve ran into Mabel’s friends. He was not about to sit through another make-over. Never again.
He passed the tree line and followed the path. The chirping of the birds was background noise to him, as he was deciding what creature he wanted to find today, flipping the pages of journal number three. The sun lighting up the path in front of him. And in the far distance from a bird eye’s view, clouds were forming over the mountains. Not like Dipper could see them.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Dipper had been walking for a while now, enjoying the sun as he passed by two gnomes fighting over a piece of wood. 'Spring is beautiful in the woods of Gravity Falls' he noted as he walked along a little stream. He was scribbling away in his notebook as he walked, still being aware of his surroundings as he avoided a low hanging branch. So far he had found a few interesting plants. One of them was a beautiful fiery red, but as he got closer he became wary of it as he noticed the scorch marks on the forest floor around it. He took a seat a distance away as he observed the plant. An insect, attracted to the colourful petals, flew close to it and as it went to land on the flower, the poor thing suddenly burst into flames. The roasted insect fell to the floor and Dipper saw the flower shake a few petals off. He sketched what it looked like, and wrote down a few notes. "DO NOT TOUCH" was one of them, heavily underlined. They weren't in the journal and he wondered if the author hadn't discovered them yet, or if they didn't grow here when the author was around. And if that was the case, why did they suddenly start appearing now? Did something change? Dipper pondered over this as he chewed on his pencil. After a few more minutes of walking he decided he needed a break and sat down on top of a fallen tree, letting his bag fall by his side. Dipper sighed and looked at his surrounding area. He had picked a good spot, he thought as he stared at the running water a couple of meters towards his right. He knew where he was. He was getting dangerously close to unexplored area's of the woods. Grunkle Stan always reminded them to not venture in too far, for who knows what kind of animals made these woods their home. Dipper had an idea, but normal animals were not the things to be scared of when you know what else roams the forest. As he looked up ahead he saw the light getting dimmer as more leaves blocked the sun and the flora getting more overgrown. He had been at this edge before many times. Something was always calling out to him, but it gave him a bad feeling so he never dared to set foot in it. Even now he could feel a slight pull but he ignored it as he brought his eyes back to the water. Should it be different this time? Would he dive deeper into the forest now, than he had ever been? He wanted to, but his logical mind was stopping him. However, what did he care? Would it really matter if he was eaten alive by the supernatural wildlife, or if he was killed by the plants themselves?'Not really' he concluded after thinking it over. He had realised no one really cared about his existence. And besides, curiosity may have killed the cat but that sucker had 9 lives anyway. If satisfaction brought it back, then it was worth knowing.He had made up his mind. Grabbing his bag he stood up and made his way into the darkness of the trees.^^^^Dipper was vaguely aware he was in trouble.He had lost track of time a while ago, and now a soft rain was coming down from the skies above him. But he didn't care. He was unfocused. Walking towards nothing and letting his feet guide him towards whatever fate had in store. Dipper was in a haze, aware of his own thoughts, yet he couldn't control his body. He was sober, yet high. He didn't understand and he didn't care to understand. His eyes were unfocused as he stared ahead as he walked. Every now and then a raindrop would hit his hat and slide down from the edge. He thought it was the most interesting thing he'd ever seen and every time it happened he would concentrate his eyes on the phenomenon. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that if it was raining it meant that it was becoming night, as the storm was predicted to arrive around midnight. The sun was going down, darkening the woods even more. The strangest thing was that he had not encountered even one animal. Birds had stopped chirping and all signs of wildlife had dissapeared. Like not even a fly wanted to be in this part of the woods. When he walked in, he had immediately felt a heavy negative energy hanging around, but he ignored the alarm bells. He had wanted to know what was causing it since the first time he'd found this part of the forest. As day became night, Dipper finally found the end of his hike.He was watching another raindrop fall down in front of his eyes, as he noticed the lack of solid ground in front of him. He was now standing on top of a cliff staring down. A lightening strike lit up the ground beneath him and allowed him to see how far down the ground was. It was a long way down. Jagged rocks and more trees covered the ground below him, but they didn't even come close to a quarter of the height of the cliff, and this was Oregon. Tree's here were tall.'...' Dipper stared down. He crouched down at the very edge and rested his arms on his knees. A lot of questions were going through his head 'Why did I come here', 'Did I know this was here', 'If I somehow did..' he didn't finish that last thought. Was he really that far gone? He thought that if he just focused on things that kept him occupied, he'd eventually come to love living again. But was this really the end of the road? He had tried, god knows he tried. But he was tired, no, exhausted of keeping up this humanly act.Thunder rumbled around the boy as he was questioning his existence. Unaware of the shadows that had been watching him from the start. Just because you don't see something, doesn't mean it's not there. He wished he'd remembered that when he shrugged off the absence of the woodland creatures.