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Just as a forewarning to readers, this story explores the darker side to Gravity Falls. It's going to get pretty messed up as I'm not going to shy away from some sticky subjects, although I try to keep everyone as in character as possible. Read at your own risk.

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Dipper sighed for the millionth time, arms crossed tightly over his chest as the bus trundled down the worn dirt road. The leafy trees had long since given way to evergreens and towering pines as they rolled down the highways and off the beaten path along worn dirt roads, and Dipper quietly noted the graffitied billboard announcing their arrival to Gravity Falls. The sky above was cloudy and gray, the storm clouds pregnant with the possibility of rain. His sixteen year old twin sat across from him, deep asleep with her chin bobbing up and down on her chest. Mabel wore a bright pink sweater with a star stitched onto the front. Dipper occasionally wondered why she worked so hard to knit her own sweaters. However, after as many years as she'd had practice, she had gotten surprisingly good at it. He could no longer tell the difference between the store bought clothes that their mother would pick out for her and the hand knitted sweaters, and he was slightly jealous of her skill (although he always declined her offers to make sweaters for him).

He glanced out the window again, watching the wind whip the tops of the pine trees back and forth like spiky fingers scraping the sky, struggling to pull the world down to them. Dipper resisted a shiver as he felt almost as if eyes were on him, pulling his brown hair down over his birthmark on his forehead. He simply resumed trying to read instead of focusing on his sleeping sister. It wasn't that she looked cute while she was sleeping, as he tried to reassure himself as he strained to keep his eyes on his book of world history. It took a great deal of effort not to stare as he forced his head down, a bead of sweat forming on his neck as he attempted to keep his attention on reading.

Stop looking at your sister's chest, a small voice in the back of his head said. Nose to the grindstone, you sick fuck.

Dipper felt a tightness in his stomach as the bus finally pulled to a rolling stop in front of the dirty stained bench which served as the Gravity Falls bus stop. A withered man in a black suit stood in front of it with a deep frown etched onto his face, and he leaned on a cane with an eight ball attached to the top. Dipper gently shook Mabel awake by the shoulder, announcing their arrival.

"Are we finally there?" Mabel asked sleepily, rubbing her eyes.

"I guess so," Dipper said uneasily, tucking his book back into his bag. He stared out at their great uncle whom they had never even met, and the old man stared back at him through the window. For a brief moment Dipper froze with the horrid feeling that the old man could actually see through him, as if all of his thoughts were suddenly exposed before the wizened man. However, he quickly shook the thought away, helping Mabel with her bags as they nodded to the bus driver and exited the bus.

"Welcome to Gravity Falls," the old man said as if he'd practiced the phrase a hundred thousand times. "Get your shit in the car and let's get a move on, I've got tourists to scam."

"Hi!" Mabel held out a hand to him, dropping one of her bags in the process. "I'm Mabel! You must be our Grunkle Stan!"

"Yeah, sure thing, sweetheart," he shook her hand gingerly, as if it were glass and he might break it, and quickly stuck his hands back in his pockets. "And I guess your brother over there must be Dipstick."

Dipper watched the display awkwardly, watching Stan Pines closely. "You two hurry up and hop in the car already," he nodded to a nearby El Dorado that looked to be nearly as old as the driver.

"I call shotgun!" Mabel said cheerfully, picking up her bags.

"You can't," Grunkle Stan opened the back seat for her. "Shotgun's already there."

Much to Dipper's surprise, there literally was a shotgun sitting in the front of Stan's car. It even had a seat belt over it.

"Um... G-Grunkle Stan?" Dipper asked uneasily, staring at the weapon. "Is that even legal?"

"Is that even legal?" Stan flapped his hand about mockingly as they buckled up. "Christ, kid, don't be such a pansy."

Dipper had a sinking feeling that it was going to be a very, very long summer 'vacation'.

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Dipper stared at the bizarrely named 'Mystery Shack' before them, his heart feeling heavy as he looked up at it. The building itself seemed to be nearly falling apart. Even as they approached the large wooden 'S' from the sign fell off and landed to the ground with a whoomph, and Dipper held back a groan. This whole place looked like a death trap, and he hadn't even set foot inside yet.

"Welcome to the Mystery Shack," Stan said in a rehearsed tone. "World famous tourist trap and slash or designated building with a built in crapper."

He led them in through the front, holding the door open with his cane, and Dipper and Mabel tentatively entered the gift shop. Mabel walked in with wide eyes, staring about at the merchandise and the vending machine, but Dipper's eyes were drawn elsewhere. Behind the counter with her boots propped up on the counter sat a positively gorgeous red headed girl who couldn't have been much older than him with the most vibrant emerald eyes he had ever seen, chugging heavily at a glass bottle with amber liquid inside as she flipped through a magazine. When she spotted Stan however, she choked and quickly hid the bottle behind the counter, dropping the magazine and sitting up straight with a practiced grin.

"What's up, Mister Pines?" the red head smiled at them, and Dipper felt his heart skip a beat when her gaze landed on him.

"Kids," Grunkle Stan held out his cane at the cashier. "This useless sack of meat is Wendy. Don't drink anything she gives you, it's probably got something in it. I can't go sending Shermie back alcoholics."

"Fair enough," Wendy grinned again with a slight shrug, and Dipper felt a light heat in his cheeks as she glanced at him. He had to force himself not to stare, looking instead about the gift shop.

"Hi there!" Mabel bounded right up and stuck out her hand. "I'm Mabel and I'm super adorable and lovable!"

"Sure you are," Wendy giggled as she shook her hand, her words slurring slightly. "My name's Wendy Corduroy – but I guess Mister Pines already got the introductions out of the way..."

"Get back to work," Grunkle Stand deadpanned at her, putting his hands on the shoulders of his niece and nephew and drawing them through the doorway.

"You got it Mister Pines," Wendy had the bottle back in her hand before he had even left the room. Grunkle Stan grumbled something incomprehensible as they passed a number of attractions, all of which looked as if they had been glued together from different stuffed animal parts. Mabel took it all in with wide eyed wonder, as she did everything, and Dipper was slightly jealous of her ability to overlook all of the blatantly obvious schemes at work. There was simply no such thing as a 'were-jackalope' or the disturbingly hairy underwear laden 'Sascrotch'. There was however a glass jar on one of the counters full of what he hoped were false eyeballs. It almost felt as if they were watching him as they passed, and he suppressed a shiver. It was all fake, obviously. At least, that was what he attempted to convince himself.

He led them through a decrepit kitchen with a single rickety wooden table pushed against one window. The paint was peeling from the walls to reveal the pine wood beneath it, and the old refrigerator was stained and dirty, almost looking as if it were about to fall apart. A buck toothed man with an olive green hat sat at the kitchen table as he tinkered with a screwdriver in one hand over a broken clock, his question mark tee shirt stained with oil.

"Hey there Mister Pines!" he perked up immediately upon seeing Stan.

"Kids," Stan didn't even bother acknowledging him. "This here is Soos. Call him Mister Ramirez."

"You can call me Soos," Soos shrugged with a small smile. "Everybody else does."

"Nobody calls you that Soos," Stan scowled, leading the kids away. "Get back to work."

"You got it, Mister Pines!" Soos called after him cheerfully. "We're practically best buds. Right, Mister Pines?"

"I'd burn this building down with all of you inside if the insurance paid well enough."

"That's just his way of saying 'we're cool dudes', no worries," Soos beamed at them.

Stan grumbled something unprofessional under his breath and led them up the crooked and decrepit stairs, leading them past a bedroom and all the way up to the attic. It was dusty and full of cobwebs and cardboard boxes, and the unnerving triangle shaped window with a circle in the center gave Dipper an odd sense of discomfort, though for what purpose he could not ascertain.

"You two will be staying up here," Stan motioned toward the dusty attic. "Make sure you two clean all the spiders out first."

"Are you serious?" Dipper frowned.

"As serious as a fake heart attack," Stan deadpanned, thrusting a broom into his hands. "And after you're done with that, get outside and start chopping firewood. Chop chop, Dipshit."

Dipper looked to Mabel, who was busy rummaging through a box of junk that had been carelessly tossed onto one of the beds. Stan left them to their own devices shortly afterwards, and Dipper fought to keep the sudden urge to smack him with the broom handle down.

"Dipper!" Mabel said eagerly as he began sweeping up a layer of dust, which made him sneeze. "Check out what I found!"

"Is that a grappling hook?" he said between sneezes.

"Oh my gosh I can't wait to test this out...!" Mabel was practically dancing from foot to foot. "Do you think Grunkle Stan will let me keep it?"

"Probably not," Dipper rubbed his nose miserably with the crook of his arm.

"Grunkle Stan!" Mabel shouted down the stairs. "Can I have this grappling hook that I found in a box of creepy old people stuff?"

"Eh, why not?" they heard the muffled reply, and Mabel cheered.

Dipper peered about through the box that she had been rifling through, and gradually came across a worn, beaten old ball cap with a pine tree on the front. It was packed away for who knows how long, Grunkle Stan wouldn't miss a dusty old relic like this. Probably. He dusted it off and slipped it atop his head, forcibly grinning at Mabel to display his new find.

"See, Dipper?" Mabel beamed at him. "I told you this summer vacation was gonna be great!"

"If you say so, Mabel..." Dipper said with a slight frown. However, he couldn't keep the look on his face with her infectious cheerfulness, and gave a little smile to match her own. So long as he still had Mabel, perhaps the summer wouldn't be quite so bad.

Probably.

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In the hearts of men there lurk terrible things.

Great mysteries of time that will never be unwound, wicked webs weaved with malice, contempt and fear. Amongst all those terrible things, however, there was always a shining beacon in Dipper's life. Mabel was there for him when he had been bullied mercilessly throughout grade school, and she had even taken up karate in order to better protect him from the children that would make his life miserable. Mabel was there when their parents had been so busy fighting with each other that they had utterly forgotten that it was Dipper and Mabel's birthday, and she had given him a little cupcake with a candle in it. Mabel was there for him when he had been hunted down in seventh grade and had his arm broken by a much larger boy who had been intent on 'teaching him a lesson'. She had even signed his cast in a myriad of different styles as he slept, and digging up the old stained white cast had always made him smile.

And yet, for all the good that she brought, Mabel could be horrifically annoying at times.

"Come on, Dipper...!" Mabel whined, almost dragging him out of the bed. The morning sunlight pooled in through the window, seeming far too bright for his eyes to handle. "You said you'd come explore with me today!"

"I can't feel my arms," Dipper moaned into his pillow. Just from her proximity he could smell her enticing perfume, and he tried to ignore it. "Grunkle Stan had me chopping wood until sundown. And he's probably going to make me do it again today."

"Well," Mabel mused aloud, letting go of him. "He can't do that if you're not actually here."

Dipper frowned, slowly sitting up.

"... You make a fair analysis of the situation."

"Graci, graci," Mabel took a little curtsy. "Now, up and at 'em, tiger! Let's go explore!"

Dipper followed her down from the attic with a small mischievous grin, giving the room one last glance before he left. For the strangest reason, he could have sworn that there was something watching him through the window. But of course, that was impossible.

Probably.

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This ain't no place for no hero.

This ain't no place for no better man.

This ain't no place for no hero to call home.

~ Short Change Hero, The Heavy

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A/N

Hey all, thanks for reading this new story, I really hope to have it turned into a novel length story soon. If I missed any grammatical errors or maybe you just liked it, please let me know in the comments, I really appreciate it. ^-^

See you in the next chapter!