Chapter Text
◬ Date Published: 19/01/2019◬
◬ Date Revised: 31/05/2021◬
...
The large header caused you to squint and quietly mutter a small, “Huh.”
Ducking your head to get into your car again, you drove ahead much more steadily to entertain your curiosity and gawk at the unfamiliar scenery around you. There were bright red mushrooms with white spots and large pine trees. It was pretty.
It was a quite a sight to see, especially with your previous living conditions in the city. Pollution and rubbish everywhere. Alleys full of stray cats and dogs- even homeless people laid on their unsanitary mattresses. The mood wasn’t entirely uplifting, so the new environment was a pleasant change of pace.
Here? It was clean, colourful and beautiful. Nature is quite a wonderful thing, and you often took that for granted so now was the time to appreciate it.
But your little moment of happiness ended when you saw what looked like the tip of a red pointy hat behind a tree trunk. You became even more alarmed after seeing large, wide beady eyes under the hat staring back in horror before disappearing behind the tree.
This caused you to swerve the car in panic - causing an extremely loud screech noise coming from the tires.
The blaring sound pierced your ears and prompted the car to veer off the road into the edge of the forest, hitting the base of a large tree with a big crash. Upon the impact, your body jolted forward violently and your head knocked against the glass window. Within seconds, a large airbag inflated in front of you.
A silence followed the series of events you just experienced, and you opened your eyes, furrowing your eyebrows in distress. Despite that, your mind could only be diverted to what you had witnessed before.
Holy shit.
You shook your head. That was just a hallucination, right? At this point, you were only focusing on what you saw, not the crash. No, there was no way. You know what you saw. You weren’t crazy.
It looked like a gnome.
A loud groan escaped your lips as you instinctively placed a hand to your nose, a slight pain shooting through the rest of your face upon contact. The airbag rested the impact, but it still hurt like a bitch.
Weary, you undid your seatbelt quickly and got out of the car to survey the damage, stumbling out and grazing your palms on the floor to regain your balance. Finally squeezing out of the car, you sorta… tripped over your legs before standing hunched, staring at the mess. The bottom half of your body was fine, but your temple and nose was bleeding, noticed only when you saw your red fingers.
You let out an annoyed sigh and went to grab your face, before wincing.
The hood of the car was smashed open and dark smoke was coming out of it, but weirdly enough, the tree you hit didn’t even have a splinter out of place. It looked perfectly fine, which was odd considering the amount of damage the car took. You made a mental note of that in your head.
Checking behind the car, you decided to look and see if the car left a trail to follow since the ground was just grass. But the grass wasn’t squashed, it again, looked perfectly fine.
Huh. That’s… weird.
It was enough to make you chalk this town as something other than ordinary.
You got back in the car and tried to start it up again, but obviously, that didn’t work. It was worth a shot though, as all it did was confirm your next action. The only problem was you had no clue what that action was going to be. You sat there in your front seat, contemplating on what to do next, mindlessly tapping your fingers on the steering wheel.
As you stared out through the cracked windshield, your eyes wandered to the small but thick notebook on the seat next to you. It contained all the notes and plans you had for the portal, and was filled unevenly with colourful sticky notes sticking out its side, the corners of the cover flipped and bent over.
Its appearance pulled you to grab it and stuff it into your coat pocket, before stepping out of the car begrudgingly, already tired of the airbag taking up so much space.
It was time to get help. Meaning you have to keep going until you find that town.
With that, you kicked a stone away from your foot, clearly frustrated at the sights before you, but you persevered and began walking to small town Gravity Falls.
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It wasn’t long until you started seeing a few properties and buildings, one appearing to be a food service. Someone could possibly help you out in towing your car if you were friendly enough and asked them ‘Pretty please?’ with a cute smile, but at that moment, you were feeling grouchy.
Pine trees started to crowd the path until a very large log with a sign on top came into view, with the words, Greasy’s Diner.
It seemed humble enough and you were absolutely starving, so you sped up your walking pace, more than eager to enter into a warmer and far more inviting establishment. You made the rash decision to move the hooded top from your head considering it made you look unapproachable.
With a deep breath, you walked in, the door playing a pleasant ring and the smell of pancakes slapping you in the face. The scent called you back into the situation, and it prompted you to suddenly straightened up and smoothed your hair over, forcing a smile on your face.
Come on Y/N, get a grip. Everything is going wrong today, but that means that anything from now could be better.
While glancing around and taking a look at the place, you sat down in an empty booth, only then noticing how dark the day had gone from the large window to your right. Your eyes continued to pry into the intricacies of the interior, before settling on a familiar set of H/C locks.
They seemed to be talking to someone happily - quite excitedly, even - and were seated at the very back of the restaurant, as if to show that they shouldn’t be disturbed. You narrowed your eyes carefully and stood up slowly, walking towards the pair’s table.
When you stopped in front of it, the familiar one looked up at you while sipping their drink and their eyes widened, as yours did too. When he recognised you, he started choking on his drink before muttering a small, “Y/N,” before dying again.
You just stood there, baffled at the person seated in front of you until you finally took notice that your brother was choking. When he finally calmed down, you muttered, “B/N?”
He stood up and whispered quietly, “Excuse me,” to the girl on the opposite side of the table and she just replied with a quick nod. You gave a glare to the girl, one she most definitely did not deserve since your bad mood was only attributed to an earlier incident and had nothing to do with her. Your cold stare made her own eyes widen slightly before making her turn away. You shifted slightly, feeling guilty before a harsh grip on your body tugged you from your thoughts.
B/N grabbed you by the arm and dragged you outside of the diner, the same way a mother would pull their child by the ear to the naughty corner. You frowned, “Ow- sto-”
“Y/N,” he began, his hands extended in front of him, palms facing you, "I don’t have time to talk to you right now… because… well, I’m on a date, alright? I’ll can… explain when I catch up with you later. I’ll be at the Mystery Shack in an hour, just meet me there.“ His tone was alarmed and rather hasty and you managed to catch him before he made a full turn to walk back inside the diner.
"Hey-hey-hey, hold on. Mom said you were training and here you are! Why would she say that? Did she lie? Does she know your hours away from home?” You babbled quicker than your brain could think, but they were just the questions you were hoping would be answered.
But? Instead? Your brother shook his head, mumbled a 'later’ and walked back into Greasy’s Diner.
You stood there, absolutely dumbfounded. Your mother said that he was training with your dad. You always knew when she’s lying. Her voice would stutter slightly and her tone would be a higher pitch than usual. Then why did she say your brother was with dad? And how was he so far away from home and left undetected?
Maybe he actually was but considering how far away from home you were there was no way he could get here before you. You put your hand under your chin and paced outside the doors, thinking of every possible variable. Yes, your brother had been distant, ever since he learned that you were moving out. If he had slipped out of your Dad’s watchful eye, he STILL wouldn’t have been able to get here until another 3 hours at least.
Ever since you left, you grew distant from him, but when you saw him in Greasy’s Diner, he seemed to know something you didn’t.
So you’re either crazy, mum’s crazy, or he’s just crazy.
You ran a shaky hand through your hair and decided to look for the place he told you to meet. You needed an explanation.
The Mystery Shack, he said. You frowned and looked around for anyone to help you. A small plump cop and a taller, thinner one stood next to the other leaning against their police car. They seemed to be laughing at each other’s jokes or something.
You ran over to them, internally hyping yourself with conversation with someone that wasn’t your family, “Hello there, excuse me for interrupting, but can you please show me where the Mystery Shack is?”
The smaller one with glasses and a moustache stopped and glanced at you and pointed to the path you came from, “Uh, this is just a guess but I believe it’s few metres over there.”
That’s very helpful, officer, thanks.
“Alright, thank you.” The thinner cop whispered something to the other and they both started giggling like idiots. You rolled your eyes as you walked back to the direction they pointed at, and once out of sight, you sprinted, anxious to sit somewhere much more relaxed and stable.
After a few minutes of following on and off the path, you somehow wandered into the forest alongside it. You internally groaned but decided to continue anyway, thinking you couldn’t possibly get more lost than you already are. The day had passed the afternoon time, and it was getting increasingly difficult to see in the dark.
As you continued, a small hint of light blinded your vision for only a mere second, but it was enough to spike your interest of the source. The Mystery Shack? A moving car?
No, the glint could be seen again when you retraced your step, implying that it was a still object. It could be a parked car, bouncing of something, metal, perhaps? The idea excited you, convincing you that you had finally encountered a more urban area.
With a few glances to the left and right, the light shined in your eyes again and you realised it was just diagonal to you- much closer than you thought. Nearing the origin, you were surprised to find yourself holding your hands over your face to shield away from the intensity. Your pace slowed, much more weary as you closed in on the light.
Finally, you stopped when you saw a statue half stuck into the ground. It was glimmering from the sunlight, despite all the moss that was growing on it, and the stone exterior made a surprising reflection of light. It was all on its own, completely isolated from the rest of the world. It didn’t come to that much of a surprise when you realised how long you had been walking around, deep into the forest to find something as bizarre as this.
A direct beam was glowing towards its hand, which was extended out, as if to expect someone to hold or shake it. A crazy thought ran through your mind. You stepped closer to the statue to have a better look. It was quite odd, it’s appearance.
It was a triangle, with an eye and top hat. You felt a sudden pull towards it, an urge. Its extended hand seemed to be calling your name in whispers, stating the same thing in a jubilant tone, Let’s make a deal!
Shivers ran down your back as you approached it, only a metre away now. That human gut instinct was telling you to get further from it, but you could only still in its presence.
“What the hell is this?” you asked yourself audibly, wondering if maybe the strange voice you were hearing whispering into your ear would answer your question, but to no avail.
Tick tock.
With more hesitation, “How lonely do I have to be to be shaking hands with a statue? Am I really that far gone?” you whispered aloud, smiling a little. The stare you had on the statue brought your attention back and your demeanour changed to be more serious. Your hand was only a few centimetres away before a strike of nostalgia shot through you like a bullet.
You faltered for a moment - like you snapped out of a trance - and your attention was stolen from something in your peripheral vision.
An axolotl?
You didn’t know they lived in these parts, you’ve read that they’re almost extinct. Sad, really, but that’s not what made you suspicious. An axolotl out of water? It was rested nicely on a large rock, and it stuck its tongue out at you before moving away.
You shook your head, the statue’s overwhelming aura and influence now reaching a halt as you thought back to the matter at hand.
Meeting my brother in the Mystery Shack. Right.