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Gravity Falls, Oregon, 1999
Day 1
It’s a crisp autumn day. Nature’s vibrant warm colors of flame-red, apricot-gold, and sunflower-yellow turn muddy brown. They crunch underfoot. And the sky is perpetually white. The winds sound like a dying man’s sigh. Gravity Falls seems like a timeless centerpiece in the Oregon countryside. Foliage looms over mankind, peaceful and ominous at the same time.
The Pines twins are in their last year of high school. Ahead of them is an uncertain future and the road is bolstered by extreme anxiety. Failure is all too common for ambitious. Mabel wants to be a famous fashion designer but that career is very cutthroat. Dipper aims to be a filmmaker and dabbling in the paranormal is a fun hobby. Not many artistic types make it as a world-wide sensation.
They’ve spent countless summers in Gravity Falls and have gathered many sentimental memories from their trips. The town is dilapidated, dingy, and no vacation resort but it’s a second home. But like any sugary-sweet memory, it melts away.
What are they doing this time you ask? Being recklessly brave as all teenagers are. Death is a force unfathomable and powerless in the face of their seeming invincibility. Their lifeblood is danger. What do they have to fear?
“Mabel, don’t waste the battery. I could only afford so-”
“And miss out on these memories? It’s better than scrapbooking.” Their voices crackled thanks to unsophisticated videotaping tech. The image gets blurry and sharp as the lens tries to focus.
“Do you even know how to work that thing?”
“Nope!”
Dipper’s driving a secondhand vehicle into town. He quickly sticks his hand in a greasy paper bag and pops a salty fry in his mouth.
Between sips of a milkshake Mabel asks, “What’re we going to do today?”
Dipper sighed. “You already know.”
“Yeah, but this is for memories! C’mon. Don’t you wanna be the best documenter? Show me an award-wining smile!”
“We’re gonna go see Pacifica and hang out at the arcade.”
“Aaaand?”
Dipper’s somber features crumble to a smile. Nobody can be mad with Mabel’s upbeat positivity. “We’re going to look into a mystery. Ever hear of Bill Cipher? He’s a local legend. With this, it’ll be the beginning of my filmmaking career and I hope that-”
“Guys,” Mabel whispered. “Look at this.” She’s trying hard not to laugh. In the distance is Dipper running to Pacifica, capturing her lips into a kiss and spinning his lover around in his arms. “This is like straight out of a movie! Like Jack and Rose! I’m gonna cry!”
Neon lights and chaotic noise are signs of an arcade. Pacifica gives Mabel a raspberry and smiled. She’s happy to be out of that stuffy mansion, to escape from snobby parties and rigid decorum. “Hey Braces, isn’t that camera heavy?”
“No, I think I make a better filmmaker than Dipper!”
“I bet I can get a higher score in karaoke than you.”
“As if!”
“Loser has to pay for a meal.”
Day 2
“We’re gonna spend the day in a dusty library?” Pacifica asked. They’re all back to town in the early morning.
“Yeah, maybe some old books will give us better information than the townsfolk,” Mabel laughed.
“Yesterday I tried interviewing people about Bill Cipher. But nobody wanted to talk.”
“Who?” Northwest’s tone is sharp, as if they were talking about a used-cars salesman.
“Bill Cipher,” Dipper’s voice was a low murmur. At the slightest utterance of the evil being’s name, could he magically appear out of thin air? “Gravity Falls is full of supernatural mysteries –and the unexplained. Bill Cipher is a warlock. A spirit that haunts the depths of the woods, or so the legend goes.”
“This isn’t going to be like the time we watched a cursed VHS tape and had to go digging up plots under houses for a well, right?” Mabel asked.
“I don’t know. We probably won’t find anything since there hasn’t been any evidence gathered besides the missing persons reports.”
Pacifica liked going on adventures, but lately the twins’ escapades have been insanely dangerous. Anything to get the adrenaline pumping, right? But there’s a clear distinction between thrill-seeking and pressing your luck. Dipper and Mabel are now chasing legends that are ominously, supernaturally treacherous.
“Why do all this? I know you’re obsessed with the supernatural but…”
“Because,” Dipper’s lighthearted optimism corrodes into somber dread. “I want to find out where Ford is.”
Stan’s brother, Ford, vanished when the twins were ten. Ford was a scientist and supposedly got lost during fieldwork. He never came back. The only thing found was his torn long coat. Stan and a search party went out into the dense forests but nobody returned with good news or a smiling face. He couldn’t have gotten lost. The man had inhuman navigation skills and the best gadgets. Ford dabbled in the paranormal; did he get trapped by some strange entity or murdered by a weapon-wielding psychopath? Dipper wanted to solve this mystery, figure out where and why Ford disappeared.
“What do we have so far?” Pacifica panned the camera at a stack of books at a table stashed between two high bookshelves. Two books are open, their pages yellowed by time.
“Not much. Nothing helpful. It says that Bill Cipher is a dangerous prankster that can possess people, create illusions, and gets people lost.”
“Hey, what about this?”
Pacifica tried the black light. She and the Pines twins would use it to send each other secret messages on their adventures. Maybe it’d be worth a shot to use here –and it is.
The pages light up with graffiti. A stamp of a long-gone society. Morose drawings too. “You think people tried to find Bill Cipher like us?”
Dipper nodded.
Mabel scribbled down the names that show up. It’s the same names printed on missing posters.
In the evening the three gathered just outside the dense woods where Bill Cipher is supposedly seen. Dipper holds up a lamp, it’s bright flame doing nothing to the sinister darkness around him. A subtle wind carries a hint of dread and apprehension.
“A sequence of disappearances inspired a group of friends to look for Bill Cipher,” his brave voice wobbled. “Tomorrow we will carry on where they left off. Wendy Corduroy, Robbie Valentino, and Tambry-”
“Speak up!” Mabel called.
Dipper cleared his throat and his face becomes stern. “They went into these very woods to investigate –but they never came back. What lead them astray? Was it really Bill Cipher or was it their own carelessness? Did they get lost? We might be the only ones who will solve this mystery.”
Day 3
“That’s everything,” Dipper throws the last of their supplies in the trunk and shuts the door. He smiled when he sees Pacifica holding the camera.
“This’ll be your last moments before hitting stardom, Dipper. When we get back, we’ll be legendary –even more than that Nil Lifer,”
“Bill Cipher.”
Dipper stands up straight, hope gleaming in his eyes. He brushes brown hair under his signature cap. “I’d like to thank Grunkle Stan for believing in us and being the greatest role model and,” he laughed. “This is gonna be one of the best trips in my life. I hope my book becomes a bestseller and –do I look any cooler?”
“I’m gonna miss civilization,” Mabel said. “And food.”
“We’re already pretty far from civilization,” Pacifica laughed.
Mabel pushed her and smiled. “Yeah but I bet there’s no mall or arcade in these magical woods.”
The twins stroll to the car, arguing as siblings do.
“…you didn’t just pack candy again, did you? We don’t need another Fun Dip incident.”
“I packed more than that, Dipper.”
Pacifica stares into the camera, her beautiful blue eyes full of joy and laughter, and her pretty long hair waving in the wind. “If we are going to get lost,”
“We’re not!”
“Then I’m happy to get lost with Mabel and Dipper. This mystery will be a cakewalk. Maybe this’ll jumpstart my acting career,” she winked and laughed. “Just kidding! I think I’ll open up my own shop, a café. A simple life sounds nice.”
For a forest fearfully said to be scary and dangerous it looked the complete opposite. Birdsong accompanies the adventurers into a sunlit trek. Deer leap through colorful foliage and pretty flowers arc like a wild painter’s brush. Guided by a compass and map, there’s no way they could get lost. Camping equipment clanks loudly in sync with their steps.
Are you lost?
The day is uneventful. Nightfall swathes the once-beautiful woods and the three set up camp for the night. Mabel takes a bite of juicy fire-roasted sausage. Other than the crackling campfire, the environment is still and quiet. Soundless.
Treading carefully or not you’re bound to step into a trap.
“You think there’s actually a warlock or it’s just some deranged serial killer?” Mabel is all smiles.
“Neither would be fun to run into,” Pacifica huddled closer to her boyfriend and pulled her jacket over her shoulders. It’s always colder at night but this night feels deathly cold. “We left the car behind so we don’t have a quick escape route.”
“How can you take everything so lightly, Mabel?” Dipper’s always been envious of his twin’s disregard for danger. With all the knowledge he has, Dipper was still scared of everything.
“Because,” she shrugged. “We’ve survived worse. A haunted mansion, a giant gnome army, a trip to an abandoned store. What’s here to be afraid of? Wild animals?”
“That’s funny,” Pacifica laughed nervously. “The further we go into the woods, the fewer animals I’ve seen. Even the big scary ones.”
Day 4
Dipper opens his eyes to complete darkness. He hears Pacifica breathing next to him and feels the warmth from being in a sleeping bag and layers of blankets. His lungs burn as if a ghostly hand is pressing down on them and has a serpentine grasp. Pines sits up and blinks dark spots from his vision. He narrows his eyes, listening closely to hissing wind outside.
He swears he can hear someone. But who? Who the hell would be out in the woods at…Dipper quickly checks his watch…3AM? He unzips the tent door and grabs a heavy flashlight, useful for guidance as it is for a weapon. Senses alert and frantically attentive, Dipper jumps at every noise. When his boots hit earth they sink into something squishy. The flashlight identifies blood. Blood? Worry creases Dipper’s features. Mabel’s tent is open. He quickly follows the trail.
Pine Tree, Shooting Star, Warrior Llama all trinkets to be added to the trees. Players in a game they’ll never win.
Dipper stumbles into a glade surrounded by trees. The blood trail ends here. No footprints or other clues indicate Mabel’s whereabouts.
“Mabel?” Dipper’s whisper is swallowed by the immense quiet. He feels like running but he plants his feet firm onto the ground. “Mabel?”
A figure dashes out from the trees and Dipper screams. He falls back and glares at a laughing teen wearing an outlandish mask. A mask painted pink and decorated with crazy jewels.
Dipper’s face turns red from embarrassment. How could he be so easily scared by one of Mabel’s pranks?
“You should’ve seen your face, oh my god! I’m happy I got that on camera!”
“That’s not funny Mabel, I was worried! I saw blood outside the tent and-”
“You mean the blood-red slime I bought at the store?”
“Oh my god guys, are you okay?!” Pacifica breathlessly ran up to the twins, following the same fake blood trail that Dipper had.
Dipper stands up and glared at Mabel. “Yeah, Mabel just pulled a prank on me.”
“Oh it was funny! C’mon Dipper, don’t be such a baby. Don’t you remember Grunkle Stan pranking us during our first summer at Gravity Falls? Are you seriously that sacred of the woods?”
“I thought something happened to you!”
“Oh please,” she waved a hand. Her silver braces gleaming in the dark. “Like anything would be brave enough to fight me. Why are you so paranoid?”
“Why are you so careless?!”
Mabel’s brows furrowed and her pretty smile drops into a frown. “I just know how to have fun, unlike you, Mr. I Need An Overly Complicated Plan To Do Anything. Ugh,” she kicks up some dirt with her pink sneakers. “This trip is so boring! I’m starting to think this Bill Cipher is a hoax. We haven’t seen-”
“Guys, look.”
Northwest’s flashlight highlights eerie-shaped trinkets stringed up on tree branches above them. They are crudely put together with twigs and straw and most are triangles with eyes at the center. But others carry a disturbing quality. Childish and menacing.
Stitched Heart, Ice Bag, Fancy Phone, all that remains is a gruesome warning to trespassers.
Fun little toys, puppets on strings, to be used and broken by the puppet master.
Horrified, nobody spoke. They could only stare. Finally, Dipper managed to find his voice. “We should leave.”
“Really? I think it was just some dumbasses playing on the Bill Cipher legend,” Mabel said, uncertainty clear in her tone. “Didn’t Stan open up a history exhibit for it and some teen stole the sign? Or maybe the old locals like scaring annoying teens? I don’t think this is supernatural.”
“No, this feels different,” Pacifica mumbled. “We shouldn’t be here.”
“Let’s pack up and go.”
“At night?”
“I don’t want to sit around and wait for whatever’s out there to find us.”
“We should’ve made it back to the car by now,” Pacifica kept her pace steady but they’re all tired. Their lungs and knees burned, but nobody dared to stop and rest for long.
“It should be daylight by now,” Mabel added. “It’s 7AM and it’s still dark.”
Northwest sighed. “Don’t tell me, the watches are broken and the compass doesn’t work?”
“I just bought the compass right before our trip,” Dipper said.
His girlfriend wrapped an arm around his. “So we’re lost?”
“Cool. How’d that happen, Mr. Tour Guide?”
Dipper looked over his shoulder to glare. “You didn’t help plan for it, I had to do it all by myself. And things can happen even with the best possible planning, Mabel. I –wait, wait.”
Dipper stuck an arm out and everybody froze, deathly still. “Do you hear that?” A question that can bring hope or dread. Lost in the dark and in the woods where nature beats man, that question can only have one outcome. Taking the wrong turn, falling into despair, the pale face of Death hovering over you –it is all inevitable. And what’s more terrifying than knowing something constantly lurks just outside of view?
An inhumane screech sends their fear to phenomenal levels. Their senses go up in flames and instinct kicks in. They run as a galloping monster sprints out from the trees. None look back to see it, but the bone chilling screams is enough imagery alone.
Pacifica doesn’t stop running until her legs give out and she rolls down a steep hill. With panicked breaths and heart pounding in her ribcage she frantically looks for the creature that had been chasing them. Nothing looms above her and its quiet again. She shakily stands back up, hearing Dipper and Mabel’s screams fade.
No matter which direction she started walking, Pacifica is forever stuck aimlessly wandering the woods. She wipes tears from her face, vaguely aware of her limp. She freezes, rigid as a post, when she sees someone coming towards her and mirroring her limp.
The pale teen looked familiar, but Pacifica has never seen anyone like him in town. He has dark hair, a long nose, and a dark hoodie with a stitched heart on the front.
“H…Help me…please,” he wheezed.
Her blue eyes gleam warily and she takes a subtle step back. “Who are you?”
“Robbie. Please, help me. The warlock, he got me! We gotta get out of these woods, man!”
Though injured and panicked, Pacifica notices Robbie stumbling over, quickly closing the gap between them.
Robbie Valentino. One of the people who disappeared. If he’s alive then that means he was trapped under some crazy sorcery or he’s dead and it’s a trick by Bill Cipher. Either way, Pacifica isn’t going to let him get close. She ignores the blazing pain in her leg and runs screaming.
The whooshing of the wind and Robbie’s footsteps add to the ice in Northwest’s veins. She’s tackled to the ground and stares up in horror at the monster above. Robbie’s face peels off to show bone and rotting flesh. A smile that’s more skeletal than human. His hoodie is shredded and there’s a gaping hole, a cage of rib bones lacking a beating heart.
Valentino’s smile is slack and eerie. Pacifica’s initial confidence of making it out alive is instantly snuffed. Her heart plummets into her gut as he speaks, a mix of gurgles and growls, blood trickling out of his mouth.
“Tell me. Why did I have to die? I was gonna be a star. I was gonna get out of this dusty dumpster town and be a musician. I want to go back…I WANT TO GO BACK HOME!”
Northwest screams and kicks Robbie –but that only affords her a temporary escape. The undead teen tackles her again and claws her arm with dirt-caked and chipped fingernails. Robbie’s laughing is unhinged. “That warlock, he trapped us here! I can go back. I just…I just need a heart and it’ll break the spell.
The zombie raises an arm, like lion claws ready to strike, when an invisible force clamps around Pacifica’s throat and drags her body back. She sputters and chokes, watching as she flies from Robbie and falls into a deep hole. Pacifica staggers up, finally able to suck in oxygen, and uses it to squeeze her lungs of all the air. “Somebody help me!”
But of course, it’s all fruitless. From down below she can only see a small patch of sky and trees, which gave her an alarming sense of claustrophobia. Robbie appears around the lip of the earth and claws desperately at it. He’s muttering to himself and restlessly pacing around while poking the gaping wound in his chest, tears leaking from his white glazed eyes. “You can’t do this to me, Cipher! I need her heart to go home! Why?!” Valentino’s deranged and miserable screams rattles Pacifica’s last slivers of hope.
Northwest’s face darkens with terror as she realizes that she, like Robbie, is never going to go home. She wonders, because at this point what else could she think of, what Bill Cipher’s visit entails. If she is going to die, would she be a prisoner to these enchanted woods like Robbie?
Mabel Pines continues to drag her legs on an on as she leans against trees for support. She lost sight of Dipper and Pacifica and now her only company is her heightened anxiety. Is this what happened to Bill Cipher’s last victims? She’s dealt with violent and scary monsters before but Cipher? He’s the scariest being on earth!
She hears twigs snap behind her, but Mabel doesn’t turn to face the originator of the jarring sound. Shutting her eyes and taking a deep breath, she says, “Go on then! If you’re gonna kill me, don’t be such a coward!” And with lightning speed she turns on her heels and throws a fist at –the air.
Her frame deflates under the weight of despair. Tired, hungry, and being chased by a paranormal entity scorches her senses like a match to paper. “I have to find Dipper and Pacifica.” Just as she takes a step, an object sails out from the trees and hits her, dragging her back.
An axe had sunk into her shoulder. Screaming, Mabel eyes the gleaming blade showing her terrified reflection. Blood pools beneath her and blazing pain shoots down her shoulder to her fingertips. Looking up from where it had been thrown from she sees a red-haired lumberjack woman slowly walking towards her. The red hair and pale face are interwoven with pointy branches and flowers. It’s as if nature itself had moved into a hallow shell and is piloting the empty body. Every movement is delayed and slow.
“N-No, stay back! You…you…ugh!” Any movement is wrought with agonizing fire. Mabel can’t move and the crunch of the red-haired woman’s boots matches her frantic heartbeat.
“You’re Wendy! You…you and your friends disappeared while looking for Bill Cipher.”
The teen stopped as if she understood and contemplated Mabel’s words. Then, out of the long waterfall of hair a smile stretches across a gnarled and pale face full of rot and mushrooms.
Mabel suddenly remembered the newspapers Dipper and Pacifica collected about the mysterious legend. About how some people go mad and cannibalize if they get lost in the wilderness too long. Old man McGucket supposedly saw Bill Cipher and survived, but he had gone mad, and lived in a junkyard. Mabel bitterly smiled. I guess I’m going to find out if it’s true or not.
Wendy gripped the axe handle and wrenched the weapon free. Ignoring Mabel’s screams, the lumberjack raised it again, to swing down dead center of Mabel’s heart. Lowering down, Wendy scooped up the organ and took a bite, the flowers and branches quivering as nutrients relocated to the foliage instead of her slowly decaying body. Bill Cipher could have the rest, but a heart is what’ll make her last until the next quarry comes along. And in these woods, you never know when your next meal might be.
Dipper is surrounded in dense darkness. The further he ran, the more the sinister eerie woods closed in on him. With every inhale he feels the sharp frosty needles of air slice his throat. Serrated branches cut his flesh and tear his clothes while he swings his arms to get them away. Dipper is desperately fighting to stay alive, but he knows all their fates are sealed. Ever since the first night here he’s heard the eerie almost voiceless murmurs and screams emanating from within the woods. And no matter where he turned or walked he’d always end up by a broken down shack.
It looks almost identical to the Mystery Shack. He wondered if Cipher can take memories from a person’s mind and manipulate them into horrifying counterfeits. He stayed still, staring at the looming house ahead. I can stay here in the woods and die, or I can face whatever is in the house and die. Trembling, he slowly puts one foot in front of the other and walks to the house. “If this is the last you see of me…I’m sorry. I’d stay if it meant that Mabel and Pacifica made it out alive but,” he chuckled humorlessly. “I guess this is where our movie ends.”
Inside is a replica of what an evil being’s mind would look like if set up in artistic medium. There are no appliances or furniture, just dead animals and chaotic symbols drawn on every face of a decaying wall. Dipper climbs up creaky wooden stairs, trying not to linger by the bloody handprints on either side. When he steps onto the platform he sees a six-fingered man in a red turtleneck.
“Ford…”
The grey-haired square-jawed man smiles demonically. He’s wielding a shovel, something he’d often bring along when treasure-seeking. His body is a mere imitation of the healthy man he had been. Truly a puppet to be used for the morbid humor of a legendary warlock.
Features set in resignation, Dipper hoped that at least this last footage would help others stay away from the cursed woods. At the cost of his obsession with the supernatural and finding his lost Grunkle, he met the same entity that killed Ford.
A tall, lean being with a long gold-colored robe and black twig-like limbs appears next to Stanford. The strange being is wearing a crown marked by glowing runes and a veil. Only its sharp smile is visible. “Humans never learn. Their selfish pursuit for the unknown brings them eternal misfortune.”
Dipper feels tears slide down his face, and his body shaking with terror, the warlock being more monstrous and inhuman than he imagined.
“But for me it is an endless fountain of fortunes. You and your friends will be amusing puppets. My magic thrives on blood rituals and sacrifice. Tell me Pine Tree, was it worth it? Do you want to know what death has in store for you?”
Dipper’s death scream is silenced as a clawed hand draws across his throat like a knife blade. He chokes on his own blood and gurgles uselessly while thrashing on the floor. As his vision and hearing fade, Bill Cipher’s laughter follows him into a restless and tormented afterlife.
Stanley wakes up and clutches his chest, feeling as if somebody had violently pulled his heart from its place. It’s midnight and a cold wind scratches across the shack’s windows. He can’t shake an eerie feeling latching onto his shoulders like a stubborn poltergeist. Grabbing a pistol he steps outside in tank top, shorts, and slippers to search the darkness. Past the totem pole is endless forest.
At the doorstep he finds a bundle of twigs and cloth. He slowly unwraps the package and stifles a scream of surprise. Inside is a gift of blood and flesh. Dipper’s hat and ear, Mabel’s star earrings and fingers are coated in blood. This is no prank. The old man falls to his knees and cries. Greif knocked all the air from him.
“Why…god why? Why’d you kids have to go chasin’ Bill Cipher?” The twins had told him they were just going camping, but as soon as he saw the gory trinkets encased in broken branches and cloth, Stan knew. He stands up and runs a short distance facing the towering trees. Enraged and hurt he unleashes his anger by heartbroken scream. “Bill Cipher you bastard! Give them back! Give the twins back!”
But he knows that it is useless. A cry that falls on deaf ears.