Ordeal

Chapter 1

Gravity Falls just hasn't been itself in ten years. It was a small town in the middle of virtually nowhere, filled to the brim with the supernatural and the science fiction. It was like a childrens' book with no limit to how great it could be. Ghosts, shapeshifters, demons, zombies, cloning, shrinking, rainbows, time travel and inter-dimensional portals. In Gravity Falls, gnomes were weirder than you think, and teens could potentially eat your brains.

Then it hit a limit.

Mabel Pines, single child of Mason and Annabelle Pines, was trudging through an abandoned convenience store. The counter had been splattered with zombie guts and most of the shelves have been toppled over. The brunette blew out some bubblegum, before leaving the haunted place. She tossed the gas canister that was in her hands and admired her work. Sighing at the dreaded building, she pulled out a match stick and lit it.

The tall woman turned and flung it over her shoulder, and it lit the trail of gasoline into the store. The brunette hid her green eyes under a pair of sunglasses, and walked off. The place went up in flames, even patterning itself to show the outline of a symbol. It was done subconsciously, but it was that cartoony drawing of a shooting star.

"Zombies..." she muttered, shoving her cold hands into her coat pockets. "Trust no one..."

Mabel had this ominous sense for danger, so when her gut tells her to run, she does it. It might be because she was potentially insane, but it's been proven from time to time to save her life. From ambushes, to escaping monsters, and going on the right path. It was just her own thing. It's been so long since she felt happy. This was her burden, to stay in this murky place. To stay in Gravity Falls, even after the... gravity falls event.

She tried running away, going anywhere but here, but this place haunted her. She just didn't feel right being gone from this place, and the farther she went, the more tired she got. Tired from sickness, headaches, complete body malfunction, and even nightmares. She couldn't sleep.

This was the only place sleep was peaceful, where there weren't any poetic visions. They were just normal dreams, or just no dreams at all. But most of the time, she'd lie awake, tearing up at how her life had gone to crap. She had so many opportunities, to start over, to free herself from this. She had the chance to wipe out her memory of all this, and she'd be scot-free from all the pain. But she didn't do that. Her friends and family have. She couldn't.

Mabel just didn't want to forget her time here.

With her twin brother.

Her nose started bleeding. "Not now..."

She toppled over and a wave of nausea runs over her. There was nobody to help her here. Actually, nobody stayed, except the monsters. This place had been abandoned seven years ago. They shut down all ties to the sleeping town: Gravity Falls. She'd been living off of waste this whole time, suffering from her traumas and these demons. She'd been so alone, for so long, she had experienced visions and hallucinations of people that weren't even there. It took her a year to notice.

Radiation had been a problem here. There was an outbreak of a particle that came from another dimension. It only made them stronger. And she became violent and bloodlusted around those absorbent creatures. So, in some way, the radiation made her strong too.

The fog made it impossible to track around the place. But Mabel knew Gravity Falls since she was a child. She knew what lurks behind every corner of this damned place.

She wiped off the crimson liquid from her lips, the taste of copper just made her stomach lurch. The air was getting harder to breathe, her chest was hurting. She hugged herself, her heart beat slowing for a moment.

"Just keep on going, Mabester..." she reminded herself, using one of the many nicknames she made to keep her sane. Or, that's what she thought she was doing. "...almost—agh—home."

Home was... not a house. Not an apartment, not a tent, or even a small newspaper bed on the street. It was more refined than that. It was an underground bunker, holding a cryogenic tank for the worst of the worst and a comfortable living space for herself and the people she'd see.

Mabel trekked towards a lone pine tree in the middle of a forest, slumping against it, and tugging on a rope that was tied to a branch up above. She felt the grass vibrate, and walked over to the chalk range she drew. Slowly, the ground uncovered itself around the pine tree, and steps were pushed forward to make a spiral staircase down to the bunker. The brunette walked down and leaned against the curved wall for support.

In no time, she was in the bunker, the place she ransacked for supplies before realizing this was where she'd spend the rest of her life in. The creator of this bunker really thought of everything. She'd have to thank her grand uncle, but by doing that, she'd have to get out of Gravity Falls. She couldn't do that after years of isolation. No, this was much better. Mabel pressed a secret button on the walls and the ground reverted to where it goes, hiding her from everything.

She went over to the shelf and took another sack of brown meat, ripping the packet with her teeth and chugging it down. She was hungry, and if she knew anything, even brown meat tastes better while you were hungry. She starved herself once a week, just to get it to taste better than usual. Otherwise, she'd be eating the bland stuff for the rest of her life. Of course, it was counterproductive of staying in shape to battle monsters forever, but it was her choice and her life. This was how she liked to live it.

She plopped onto the couch, removing her coat and cradling her bruised side. She left it like that since there was nothing she could do against it. Except taking medicine, which was a bad idea since those had a side effect and left her sleepy for a week. There was no one but herself, so it was a week of starving she'd need to go through, and she did not want to do that. Even if she did it once a week.

"Mabel, are you okay?"

Mabel glared at the person sitting beside her, and muttered, "Go away."

"It's not my fault I'm here." her brother's voice rang through her head, and his image placed a hand on her knee, massaging it. "You're the one who called me here. You don't want me to go away."

"You're not my brother." she replied coldly.

"No. I'm just a figure created in your head. This is how you thought I'd look like if I was here." he informed, "I'm not your brother. I'm what you want you think your brother is. And judging by your memories, it's not the same."

Mabel shut her eyes, turning her head away and groaning in pain. When she looked back, she saw him shorter, with his pine tree hat, orange shirt, navy-blue vest and gray shorts. Her eyes watered.

"Mabel, don't cry, I'm here."

"No, you're not." she sobbed, eyes and nose hurting.

Dipper pulled her into a hug. "I'm here... it's okay."

As the tears fell, Mabel desperately clung onto air and he vanished just like that.

"You lied..."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"Look, Gideon, if we were there, I'd have stopped this car and told you to get off your ass!" she exclaimed furiously. "Now stop asking."

"Gee, Pacifica, ten years." Gideon replied. "I've been good for ten years straight. No bad marks or anythin'. Even Becka aknowledges it."

Pacifica didn't even look at him. "I don't know who Becka is. Is she you seventieth girl or something?"

"No. How could she know all my life if she's my 'seventieth' girl?" the white-haired man asked, pulling up his fingers before crossing his arms and leaning back against the seat. "If you must know, she's the person who looks over me when I got outta prison a decade ago."

"Oh, those were the times." the blonde replied sarcastically. "We'd probably be kings and queens of Gravity Falls by now. But nooo, some radiation came in and the whole place is a ghost town." She narrowed her eyes and checked the fuel for a moment. "Then, eight years later, you come back in my life and I still remember hating you."

"But we don't remember why." Gideon responded.

Pacifica fell silent, glancing at the white-haired man who was two years younger than her, but sounded far older than her. He was wearing a black shirt that had a picture of a white tie, a sky-blue jacket and similar colored jeans. His hair was toned down, but the puffiness was still there, and his cheeks were as chubby since he couldn't get to remove them.

"What did you see in your dreams?" he asked.

"What did you see in yours?" she retorted, dodging the question.

"Probably the same as what you dreamed of." he slyly answered, also dodging the question. Both didn't trust each other very well, and they had this mutual friendship that sided to the untrustworthy side. "Okay, we can't do this till we tell each other the truth."

Pacifica started, taking a breath. "You first."

"In my dreams, I keep seeing this girl in this black and white background. And everytime she appears, she seems to be scared, tired and helpless. She seemed so young too. Like, twelve or thirteen. She keeps avoiding triangles." Gideon explained, as the blonde nodded. "Then, there's this other kid, who doesn't even try avoiding the triangles. And just, walks the place like he owns it."

"Did the girl wear some kind of sweater and the boy wear a hat?" Pacifica inquired.

"Yeah, how'd you..." Gideon trailed away, not even bothering to continue. It was a dumb question to ask. "Anyways, this boy seemed to... I dunno... mutate into some demon thing and flew away. And this girl just keeps bawling..."

"It's always the crying." Pacifica replied. "That demon boy just flies away and she's finally alone and she starts tearing like she had a connection with him. I would've told her that he's a frickin' demon, he would've killed you."

"Yeah, I had that thought too."

"But everytime, I didn't feel that way. It's like logic was thrown out the window and I suddenly feel sympathy for the girl."

"Then there'd be people that walk past her, and the faces, I knew—recognize," he corrected, "...I recognized those faces." Gideon continued, "I remembered you. So, I went to your place to see if you had the same problem."

"Am I supposed to be flattered?" she remarked at the part where he 'recognized' her, and he shrugged. The Northwest sighed, "I don't have faces that I recognize. All I know is that there was a sign titled Gravity Falls."

"We find hints, connect things, and tackle them head-on. It's a pretty nice strategy we have." Gideon replied as he waved his hand at the road. "And now, we're blindly heading towards a ghost town."

"No. We're not heading towards it." Pacifica responded, flooring the other pedal. "We're here."

A/N: Just this thing I'm doin'. I've written some light stuff, time to delve into the darker side of things. Please help review, as it keeps me encouraged that people would go out of their way and contribute.

I'm out, and have a nice day.