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As Pacifica walked in the hot summer night, the dry, nearly-brown grass crunched audibly under her feet. She was jittery, looking over her shoulder suspiciously at every little sound, as experience had taught her that it was not safe to walk alone in this town at night, especially in the woods. She could have taken the main road to meet her destination, but she chose instead to take a shortcut through the forest. She wasn’t too far from where she needed to be when she heard what suspiciously sounded like footsteps behind her. Skin prickling with fear, Pacifica looked behind herself cautiously and found...
Nothing. There was nothing there.
Pacifica heaved a heavy sigh of relief. She was just hearing things. Simply the sounds of the night playing tricks on her. She picked up her courage and started walking forward again. Much to her dismay, however, not too long after she restarted her trek the sound of footsteps picked up again, only this time they were much, much closer.
Whatever was following her sounded like it was only a yard or so behind her. If it so chose, it could probably just reach out and touch her. Pacifica shuddered at the thought, and quickened her pace. The footsteps, of course, only followed suit. This led to Pacifica breaking into a full on sprint. Going through the woods had been a terrible idea! Why had she chosen to do this, after all that she’d heard? After all that she’d seen?
After a minute or two that had felt like eternity, Pacifica could see a clearing up ahead, and a building sitting in said clearing. Yes! She’s made it! She was almost there! She just had to outrun-
It was at that moment that Pacifica tripped over a root in the ground, slamming onto the forest floor with a force that temporarily knocked the wind out of her. Terrified, Pacifica scrambled up, gasping for air and trying desperately to get away from whatever had been chasing her. It had to be caught up to her already, though. There was no way that it wouldn’t use her momentary vulnerability to its advantage. Preparing for the worst, Pacifica squeezed her eyes shut and hoped that whatever happened next would just be over quickly. However, when after a couple moments nothing happened, she cautiously opened her eyes to find that she was alone near the edge of the forest.
Not willing to wait around and see why she was not immediately attacked, Pacifica tore off again towards the building in the clearing, this time making a more conscious effort to avoid any obstacles she may trip over. Very soon she arrived at her destination, the Mystery Shack.
She briefly considered knocking on the front door, but she decided against it, not wanting to run into Dipper and Mabel’s crabby great uncle. Instead, she went around to the window of the room that the twins shared in the summer months and picked up a wayward pebble, deciding to go about this in the good old fashioned way. Using the skills that she’d learned from being on the school’s softball team, she brought her arm back and then lobbed the pebble towards the window. She wasn’t greeted by the sound of rock hitting glass, though, and instead heard…
“OW! What the-?”
Wincing, Pacifica realized that she’d failed to notice that the window had been open. She watched as Dipper came to the window, rubbing his head where the pebble had hit him and looking around to see where the offending stone had come from.
“Pssst! Down here!” Pacifica whispered, waving her arms to get the boy’s attention. He looked down in surprise.
“Pacifica? What are you doing here?” he asked. They may have gradually become friends ever since they helped save Pacifica’s family’s party during his first summer in Gravity Falls, but it was still common knowledge that the Mystery Shack was not on Pacifica’s top ten list of favorite places.
“Help me up and I’ll explain!” she hissed in response. “And hurry, there’s a bunch of creepy shit out here at night!”
Dipper rolled his eyes at the blonde. “You can come right in the front door. Stan fell asleep in front of the TV again, and it doesn’t look like he’s moving until morning.”
Pacifica almost considered insisting that Dipper instead find a way to help her in through the window, but after her encounter in the woods, she decided she’d rather not be outdoors for any longer than necessary. “Ugh, fine,” she conceded.
She walked around to the entrance of the house portion of the Shack and carefully opened the door, making sure not to make too much noise as to wake anyone up. As she walked towards the twin’s bedroom she passed the living room, in which she saw the eldest Pines exactly where Dipper had said he would be; snoring loudly while “The Duchess Approves” was playing on the TV, the glow from the box the only light in the dark room.
She continued on until she had made her way up to the teenagers’ bedroom, where she found Dipper waiting for her. “Hey, see you made it past the sleeping troll,” he commented brightly.
“Oh, shut up!” Pacifica retaliated, although it was friendly in nature. She then glanced at the floorboards, not quite wanting to make too much eye contact.
“Hey, what’s that mark on your cheek? Did you fall or get attacked or something on your way here?” Dipper asked with concern when he noticed a red welt on the left cheek of his friend’s face.
“No – well, yes, actually – but that’s not what caused the mark,” Pacifica muttered, not quite sure how to breach the subject. So, naturally, she chose to bring up a different one. “Where’s Mabel?”
“Mabel’s having a sleepover at Candy’s house,” Dipper replied, still eyeing Pacifica’s face skeptically. “Are you alright? I can get you some ice for that or something-“
“It’s fine!” Pacifica cut him off, her voice a little too anxious for her own liking. Dipper raised his eyebrows at the outburst.
“Alright, no ice. So, are you gonna tell me why you decided to show up here at nearly one AM?” he asked.
Pacifica sighed heavily. “Honestly I’d just like to sit here for a while and chill, if that’d be okay with you?”
Dipper was still obviously concerned and curious (he was always curious), but he covered it up by shrugging. “Sure, you can hang here. I was just going over some of my old notes to see if they needed any updating.” He gestured to his bed, which was laid out with the three original journals, as well a few of his own and several loose pieces of paper.
Pacifica smiled in response.
“Thanks.”
She followed him over to his bed, where she settled down on the corner to watch him work. It wasn’t particularly fascinating, but it did give her something to occupy her mind, and the fact that she was near someone that she trusted helped calm her nerves. After about ten minutes of sitting in silence, she pulled one of the loose sheets of paper towards her. On it were details about a terrifying looking beast called a “Gremoblin.” She couldn’t help but shiver a little at the thought of her two closest friends facing creatures like this on a daily basis.
“So…” Pacifica said, breaking the silence.
Dipper looked up from his work, pen hanging halfway out of his mouth. He removed the pen and tapped it against the notepad sitting in his lap. “So…?” he echoed.
“Obviously you know how horrible my parents can be, right?” Pacifica asked. Dipper nodded, prompting her to continue. “Well, they started yelling at me tonight again. I don’t even remember what it was about – probably something stupid – but anyways, I decided that I’d had enough of it, y’know? So I stood up for myself, and it quickly turned into an argument, and then a full-on fight. It kept getting worse and worse, until eventually…” Pacifica trailed off, shifting her head downward in a small attempt to obscure the welt on her face. Dipper immediately caught on to what she was insinuating, though.
“They hit you,” he supplied, his voice full of anger that anyone would do that to his friend.
Pacifica nodded, her eyes starting to mist over with unshed tears. “At that point I just ran off to my room and vented for like half an hour before I decided that I needed to get out of there. So, I came here.” Despite all of the life-threatening paranormal danger that surrounded it, the Mystery Shack really was the place that Pacifica felt the safest at.
“Paz, I’m really sorry that happened to you,” Dipper said. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
Pacifica started to shake her head “no,” before she reconsidered. “Could I maybe stay here tonight?” she asked in a small voice, her eyes starting to brim with tears.
“Of course,” Dipper replied. “You’re always welcome here. You can stay for as long as you like.”
Pacifica offered a small smile in response. “Thanks,” she choked out, concentrating on trying to keep herself from crying. Noticing this, Dipper gave her a sympathizing look.
“Pacifica,” he began, his voice very sincere. “It’s alright to cry if you need to.”
Those words seemed to have a magical effect, as at that moment a fat tear fell from her waterline, rolling down her cheek. As soon as she felt that wetness on her face, the dam holding back her tears broke. She pulled her knees up to her chest and supported her head with her arms as sobs started to rack her body. Dipper shifted the clutter on the bed so that he could get closer to his crying friend. Hesitantly he raised his hand to place comfortingly on her shoulder. As soon as he touched her, though, Pacifica jolted at the contact. Dipper winced and retracted his hand, watching her face carefully.
“Sorry, do you want me to not-?” he began, but he was cut off by Pacifica.
“No,” she breathed between her weeping. “It’s fine. You just startled me.” Nodding, Dipper placed his hand back on her shoulder.
A few minutes later, Pacifica seemed to have cried herself out, and she sagged against Dipper heavily, leaning her head on his shoulder. In response he shifted his arm so that it was draped across her shoulders in a comforting manner. “Feeling better?” he asked. Pacifica nodded silently. “Do you wanna stay up here for a while, or do you wanna sneak downstairs and see if we can steal some ice cream?” Pacifica shrugged, apparently not being pulled too strongly in either direction at the moment. “Tell you what, how about we stay up her for just a little while, and then we can go get ice cream. Does that sound like a plan?” Pacifica nodded in approval of the plan, and Dipper smiled. “Alright then.”
“Hey Dipper?” Pacifica asked, her voice small and slightly hoarse.
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for everything.”
“No problem, Paz.”