A/N Happy Halloween everyone! I was planning to post this like, a week ago and aim to be done by today but life keeps throwing stuff at me. Boo. Oh well, Halloween may only be one day a year, but the Halloween Spirit can last all year if you like spooky stuff and dressing up in costumes like I do. I think that if it were up to me there would be a Summerween and Winterween and Springween! Yeah! This one is going to be short(ish) and I hope to have it done by my birthday coming up in a little over a week. Fingers crossed.

Enjoy!

Chapter One

"I can't believe we're doing this instead of trick or treating," Mabel muses with a smile, glancing up at the spooky, abandoned old mansion on the outskirts of town. She glances at her brother and admires her handiwork on his costume, impressed with the subtle details she threw in for authenticity. "Can you imagine how much candy we could've gotten with these costumes?"

"You don't have to stay," Dipper offers with a shrug, smiling back at her.

"Phshsh," she scoffs with a wave of her hand, "are you kidding? I'm still in, this is the most exciting thing that's happened since… well, since we got home."

Dipper perks up, excitedly, "I know right? And on Halloween too! How perfect is that?"

"Well, it would be slightly more perfect if it didn't affect the acquisition of free candy," Mabel points out, running her tongue over her teeth, still marvelling at how smooth they feel without the recently removed braces.

"Well with any luck we'll still have time," Dipper says, "maybe. But again, you can go if you want, I don't mind. I know this isn't really your thing."

"Not the same without you broseph," she retorts, "you know that. I'd rather spend Halloween with you exploring a spooky old mansion than go trick or treating alone."

"You wouldn't be alone," Dipper chuckles, "I'm sure Noah and the others would still be down for picking you up and letting you join them. Plus I heard that Noah's going as Han Solo this year…" he teases with a sing-song voice.

Mabel blushes, not bothering to mention that was the real reason she insisted they dress as Luke and Leia for Halloween, well that and the fact that it seems like such an obvious choice for brother and sister twins to dress up as, so much that it's shocking they hadn't done it before. But Noah's definitely her latest crush and when she heard in a roundabout way that he was going as Han Solo how could she not? Dipper of course needed no convincing so it worked out perfectly. But that was all before Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford filled them in on the spike in paranormal activity happening right there in their boring old hometown.

"Yeah well, doesn't matter," Mabel says with a pang of regret as she reminds herself that there are other ways she can impress her crush later, she promised herself that Dipper would come first from now on if it ever needed to be a choice and she's going to stick to that, "This might not be my favourite thing in the world, but I still enjoy it. I miss all the weird stuff about Gravity Falls, and nothing like this happens here. I don't want to wait until next summer for us to deal with something weird like this. It's too bad it has to conflict with Halloween though and…why is that again?"

"Ford says that if they don't deal with the ghost thing while it's still a non-threatening Level 3, it has the potential to get out of hand and become a legitimate threat to the town," Dipper explains, "and he said that there's no telling when that could happen so it's best to deal with it as soon as possible."

"OK well, I guess that makes sense?" Mabel shrugs, a little uncertain, "But how do we know it's not that strong already?"

"Well when I talked to Stan an hour ago he told me that Ford determined it's still a Level 3," Dipper replies, "and since their flight was delayed…"

"We're going instead," Mabel nods, "I'm a little surprised they said it was OK for us to investigate without them."

"You scared?" Dipper smirks, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. "You really don't have to come in, you can still go trick or treating."

She rolls her eyes, "Ugh, how many times do I have to tell you I'm in? I'm not letting you do this alone…"

"It's just a recon walk through, no ghost hunting. I came prepared and we're protected anyway so I'd be fine," Dipper laughs clutching at the silver and glass vial filled with salt and other things on a silver chain around his neck hidden under his Luke Skywalker costume. Hidden under her white Leia dress Mabel has one that's almost identical. They were gifts from Stan and Ford that they acquired on their travels and found them to be effective at repelling spirits.

"Stan said it will make their jobs a little easier if I did a little prep work before they fly in in the morning." Dipper continues, perking up again, grinning from ear to ear in anticipation, "It's so cool that Ford and Stan are trusting me…us with this but I mean it, if you want to go trick or treating with Noah, you don't have to worry about me. I'll be fine."

Mabel smiles at her brother, happy to see him so happy as he geeks out over the opportunity to assist Grunkle Ford and Grunkle Stan with their work. "I already said like, a billion times that I'm in and besides there's no way I'd really be able to enjoy trick or treating knowing you were here alone and not even Noah and his Han Solo costume could fix that. I'd feel a lot better knowing I'm here to watch your back," Mabel insists, by now she's got the impression that Dipper would rather she didn't come along, and she has a pretty good idea why but she's having none of that, "We're a team, remember? Mystery Twins for life, am I right?"

She holds out her fist and he grins, bumping her fist with his.

Dipper takes a deep breath, excited and slightly nervous, "OK, but even though this is only a Level 3, we should stick together. I've got your back too."

"Thank you Captain Obvious," Mabel giggles, "I think that's a given so let's go already. Maybe if we finish quickly enough we can still do some trick or treating later tonight."

"I don't know," Dipper muses, glancing at the huge mansion that's big enough to rival the place formerly known as Northwest Manor, "we've got a lot of ground to cover but who knows? Maybe we'll get the best of both worlds this Halloween."

"Well then what are we waiting for?" Mabel starts skipping down the long, decaying driveway towards the old mansion and Dipper quickly follows along behind her, filling her in on the history of the place that he researched over the last couple of days when they first learned that Stan and Ford were coming to deal with the spikes in paranormal activity there.

The mansion had originally belonged to a wealthy family who owned a successful vineyard back in their day. For generations the Hartwell family and their vineyard thrived and were considered to be local royalty.

"They even had close ties with the Northwests by the way," Dipper adds as he tells the story.

The mansion hosted elaborate parties that could last for weeks and attracted guests from far and wide. Most of whom would come to see if Henry Hartwell's widowed daughter Elizabeth was truly the psychic medium she and her father claimed her to be. They hosted séances and psychic readings that held surprising accuracy and while skeptics tried to explain how she did it and prove her to be a fraud, none could.

During the prohibition, the Hartwells continued to thrive despite a majority of their wealth supposedly coming from wine production which had apparently stopped save for a small portion meant for communion at the local churches. While Henry Hartwell insisted it was because of wise business investments and Elizabeth's business as a fortune teller and medium, rumours started to spread about how they could've possibly managed to flourish while their local competitors went under. First there were rumours that they were closely tied to the mob, and then that they were practicing dark magic and devil worship. Elizabeth's abilities that had once been proclaimed as a divine gift were now considered the result of witchcraft.

The Hartwell's downfall came when Elizabeth's daughter Abigail tragically died from mysterious circumstances. Instead of showing their sympathy, the townspeople, their friends and acquaintances shunned them, accusing Elizabeth of murdering her own child for power. Devastated and heartbroken and unable to deal with her daughter's death and the scorn of the society that once loved her, Elizabeth committed suicide.

"How sad," Mabel murmurs as they reach the servants door in the back of the mansion where they finally find a way in. The main entrance had been boarded shut as well as the main storey windows, so when Dipper tries the servant's door and the rotting wood gives way, allowing him the chance to push the door open he lets out a little cheer.

"Henry Hartwell eventually killed himself several years later, coincidentally on Halloween, a few days after the market crash of 1929," Dipper continues as they make their way inside, "and with no heir the mansion sat dormant for several years before the property was converted into a hotel."

"So did people report spooky stuff happening?" Mabel asks, wondering why if there was a famous haunted mansion turned hotel in town, how did Dipper not know about it?

"That's the weird thing, I guess," he says, "because despite the dark history, and the fact that they discovered arcane books and relics that suggested that the Hartwell's indeed had practiced or were at least interested in Dark Magic and the dark arts, any reports of paranormal activity in the hotel were so rare that it's been considered clean."

"Yeah, you'd think that considering the history and all that stuff this place would be crawling with ghosts," Mabel turns on her flashlight as they make it down the long narrow stairway to the basement.

"You'd think," Dipper agrees, glancing around at the dank basement, "however one resource mentioned that a few locals of the time came and blessed and cleansed the mansion shortly after Henry Hartwell's death."

"Oh, well that explains it I guess," she chuckles, "so it's been free of ghosts until now."

"Pretty much," he shrugs, "Ford says that's one of the side effects of Weirdmageddon. Somehow, it's reawakened some of the spirits who had long been put to rest. One of the reasons Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford are so busy."

Mabel stops walking and her breath hitches as she's gripped with a momentary pang of guilt.

"You OK?" Dipper asks, noticing this and misinterpreting it as fear. He scans the room with his EMF meter but there's no sign of any ghosts or anything paranormal.

"Yeah, yeah," she waves him off, because he doesn't know, "I'm fine. So then what happened. I thought this place was a museum or something before it was abandoned, not a hotel."

"It was," Dipper leads the way through the basement as they find a way to the main floor, "when the hotel closed in the 1970's it remained empty for several years until it was restored back to it's former self and made into a local history museum that closed back in 2002."

Shining their flashlights through the darkness they could see they were in a large room with large wooden barrels and lots of wine shelves, some still holding wine bottles, but most of them are either broken or empty. Dipper sees a few doors and with his EMF meter in hand he starts towards them, hoping to find some stairs. Mabel wanders in another direction, distracted by what looks like a bunch of paintings or canvasses leaning against a wall.

"Dipper, check this out," Mabel says, pulling one away from the pile to see a portrait of a young man and a small child with golden curls and rosy cheeks. The painting is mouldy and ruined from time and lack of care, but it's also a nice painting, or would've been back in the day. She pulls it out and turns it around so Dipper can see.

"Must be Henry and Elizabeth," Dipper says.

"Where's her mother?" Mabel wonders out loud.

"She apparently died during childbirth."

"Sad," Mabel sighs, "I can't help but feel sorry for them, you know?"

"Yeah, except that there was evidence against them found in the mansion after Henry's death that proved they might not be so innocent."

"Because they might have practiced magic?" Mabel scoffs.

"Dark magic. Anyway, most of it is all speculation and stuff," Dipper shrugs, "nothing had been absolutely proven. Come on, let's find the way upstairs, I don't think there's any paranormal activity down here."

Mabel looks at a few more of the canvasses leaning against the wall and finds a creepy looking painting of a woman in a black veil with a black background. Through the lace veil the woman's eyes seem to glow as though the woman in the painting is looking right through her, deep into her soul. Met with a sudden and eerie chill Mabel startles, dropping the flashlight which rolls away from her, stopping next to one of the large wine selves.

"Mabel, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," she chuckles awkwardly, "saw a creepy looking painting and dropped my flashlight. No big deal." As she goes to retrieve her flashlight she trips over something and tumbles forward falling into the wall which seems crack under her weight.

"You OK?"

"Yep, just a little bit of a klutz today," she laughs at herself, dusting off her white Leia dress before grabbing her flashlight. "My blood sugar's probably just low because of the lack of Halloween candy."

Dipper rolls his eyes with a chuckle, "Come on, if we hurry we still might have time to fix that problem. I think I found the stairs."

"OK," Mabel agrees, pausing when she thinks she feels a draft along the wall. She sees that she made the wall crack and pushes it making the crack deeper and feels a spine tingling chill as the cold draft gets stronger. Curiosity getting the better of her, she shines her flashlight through the crack in the wall but can't seem to see anything but darkness.

"What are you doing?" Dipper asks.

"Don't know, it looks like there might be a room back here or something," Mabel says, pushing harder on the wall to get a better look where she sees something shiny on the floor nearby, reflecting the light of her flashlight. Unable to resist shiny things she reaches into the hole with her hand to try and grab it but her hand brushes against another wall as she blindly feels for whatever caught her eye, "wait no, never mind it's—ouch!"

"What's wrong, what happened?"

"Nothing, just cut my hand on something," Mabel grumbles, pulling her hand out to see a bleeding cut on her palm. "Must've been a nail or broken glass or something. Ow!"

"Let's see," Dipper says, coming over to join her and hissing in sympathy when his light reaches the gash on her palm. It doesn't look like it's very deep or all that serious, but it's bleeding pretty badly, "Oh man, you cut yourself pretty good! Here," he says, taking off his backpack to pull out a small travel-sized first aid kit.

"You brought a first aid kit?" Mabel teases as they kneel down on the floor to let Dipper put his over-preparedness to work.

"Figured it wouldn't hurt since we'll be exploring a dilapidated and abandoned mansion," Dipper shrugs, "Nothing wrong with being prepared. Turned out to be a good idea too."

"I hope I didn't get blood on my costume," Mabel whines as Dipper dabs at the wound and wipes some of the blood away, frowning when more blood blooms from the wound. He presses a sterile gauze pad hard against her palm to staunch the bleeding as she releases a small moan, "Ow."

"Yeah because the costume is so important…must save the costume!" Dipper rolls his eyes even though he knows that she can't see it. The sarcasm rings loud and clear in his voice though.

"Hey I worked really hard on making these costumes perfect," Mabel huffs in defense, "though in hindsight, maybe making white costumes wasn't the best idea for a Halloween spent exploring a spooky old mansion instead of trick or treating."

"They still turned out really cool," Dipper grins.

"A worthy addition to my scrapbook!"

"Yep!" he replies, peeling back the cloth and frowning when he sees it's still bleeding. With her free hand Mabel shines the light on the wound and groans with annoyance.

"Aw man, and it's my sketching hand too! Drawing, writing and everything is going to be a pain!"

"Maybe we should get you home," Dipper says, "take care of this properly and then go trick or treating instead."

"What? We just got here and Grunkle Stan and Ford need us to do this for them!" Mabel protests, "It's not that bad, just…blargh!"

"I don't know…what if you need stitches?"

"I can tell you right now I do not need stitches," Mabel groans in annoyance, "Stop being Mr. Worrypants! I'm fine. It's no big deal."

He looks at the wound one more time and nods, breathing a shaky sigh, "Yeah, OK. It looks like the bleeding's finally slowed enough…"

"Yeah, see no big deal—yeouch!" She can't really see it in the darkness, so when Dipper suddenly sprays her hand with an antiseptic spray she flinches and hisses when it starts to sting. "Ow! You brought the stingy stuff too?"

"This place is old, do you want to get tetanus or something?"

"Touché, but warn me next time, bro-bro!"

"OK, Mabel I'm using the stingy spray, yes it will hurt," he deadpans, "better?"

"Warn me before!" she punches him lightly on the shoulder in retaliation as he laughs, but soon she's laughing too. It's much better than him worrying over something so trivial, especially when it comes to her. It's a complex he's always sort of had, but since Weirdmageddon it's only gotten worse and Mabel hates it because she knows it's her fault.

Dipper wraps her hand in gauze and satisfied with his first aid work he gets up, "That should hold for now. You sure you don't want to turn back?"

"Yes I'm sure!" she exclaims, letting him help pull her to her feet as she tries not to let his overprotectiveness annoy her too much. "You did a great job, feels better already! Now didn't you say you found the stairs?"

"OK," he sighs almost reluctantly but then he gains his resolve and is back to being excited about being a part of a paranormal investigation. "It's this way," he grabs his EMF meter, slightly disappointed but also relieved that it's showing no signs of ghostly activity so far, a reassurance because he's starting to feel a little creeped out somehow, like they're being watched, but it's good to know it's nothing more than his imagination. He holds the device out as he leads the way to the stairs he found. As they start to climb they both freeze when they feel a chill of icy cold air send a tingling sensation up their spines.

"Did you feel that?" Mabel asks in a whisper, afraid to look behind her. She senses something in the air that has her heart pounding and makes it almost hard to breathe.

"Yeah," he says with an uneasy shiver, looking at the EMF meter and still getting nothing. "But it's nothing to worry about, there must be a draft or—wait, oh crap, seriously?" he groans, slapping himself on the forehead.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm an idiot," he replies, turning the device on. Suddenly the lights and alarms whirl with activity and Mabel can see his eyes widen in surprise and terror.

"What does that…?"

"Move, move, move," Dipper hisses, pushing her ahead of him and urging her to hurry up the stairs.

Mabel dares to look behind her, first at Dipper and then past him where she sees a faint glow near the paintings she had found. Standing next to them is the woman in the black veil from the creepy painting. She's semi-transparent, revealing the crack Mabel made in the wall behind her, illuminated by her supernatural glow. She's pointing at them with a long bony finger and smiling, a wide, unnatural and sinister smile. Letting out a little shriek she grabs Dipper's hand and runs up the stairs, pulling him along behind her.

When they reach the top Dipper pushes the door at the top of the stairs and is relieved when it opens with ease. He pushes Mabel through, slamming the door behind him. They run through what looks like a simple hallway and keep going until they find themselves in an elaborate looking foyer. The EMF meter in Dipper's hands goes quiet and he breathes a sigh of relief.

"You forgot to turn your ghost detector thingy on?" Mabel exclaims incredulously, "I can't believe you didn't even turn it on!"

"Yeah, yeah, rookie mistake, I know but I could've sworn I had it on!" he groans, "Whatever, it doesn't matter...we need to get out of here, like now."

"Why?" Mabel asks.

"Because my EMF meter was off the charts!"

"Meaning…"

"The ghost or ghosts haunting this place isn't a Level 3 anymore," he explains.

"So it's like a 4?" Mabel asks. Dipper shakes his head. "5? 6? 7?" Mabel guesses as he keeps shaking his head, "10?"

"Off the charts."

"So…11 then?"

"At least."

"Well," Mabel offers, "maybe she's a friendly ghost."

"Doubt it, especially if she was practicing witchcraft and dark magic."

Mabel nods, realizing it's silly to think the ghost would be friendly as much as she likes to believe that the Hartwells had been innocent in life. Even if they were, that doesn't mean they'd be nice as ghosts. Ford said that many ghosts over time lose the ethics and morals they might have had when they were alive, eventually morphing into dark entities that no longer resembled the people they used to be. Besides, the feeling she got when they were downstairs, subtle at first when she felt the draft in the wall but far more stronger when she saw the apparition as they were fleeing the basement, was terrifying. It was a cold, sinister and hopeless feeling, one she would like never to feel again. Despite trying to remain optimistic on the outside, Mabel knows she's only fooling herself. Even if the Hartwells were innocent victims of circumstance in life, as ghosts, they're definitely something to be feared.

"Maybe we'll get lucky?" she shrugs weakly with a crooked smile, hiding behind her humour and foolish optimism.

"This isn't funny," Dipper grumbles, coming across as irritated, but Mabel knows it's because he's scared too. "That apparition was off the charts and all my defense equipment Ford had me bring is useless against anything stronger than a level 8."

"What about these necklace thingies they gave us?" Mabel asks, pulling hers out from under her dress, "Shouldn't they protect us?"

"Yeah if we were dealing with a Level 8, sure, but not with whatever Level that thing was!" Dipper sighs, "I don't understand what happened, I mean, Ford said that his readings showed as a level 3 just hours ago. How did it get so strong so fast?"

"I don't know, bro-bro."

"Maybe…I don't know maybe it's a post-Weirdmageddon thing. Nothing really made sense then, maybe it's making the weird, paranormal stuff even more unpredictable and stronger now…"

Mabel swallows back her secret guilt and quietly places her hand on his arm, "Well, let's get out of here then."

"Yeah," Dipper sighs, checking his EMF meter again, visibly glad to see it's still on and not showing signs of ghost activity. "Well we can't go out the way we came in it looks like, so we're gonna have to find another way out."

"Good thing we found the main door!" Mabel declares cheerfully, gesturing to the large wooden doors in the foyer leading outside. "Maybe we couldn't get it open from the outside, but we might be able to open it from the inside!"

"Hope so," Dipper says as he unlocks the door and tries to push it open. Unfortunately, it won't budge thanks to the planks of wood boarding it up. He puts his body into it trying to get it to open but it won't work. Even when Mabel gets in there and they both try to ram into the door at the same time it still won't move.

Suddenly, just as they try to ram into the doors one more time to get them to open, Dipper's EMF meter goes off at the same moment they hit the door and are both pushed back by an unearthly force. They both fly across the room to land on the floor with a hard thump.

Mabel groans and reaches for her flashlight as Dipper does the same, "You OK?" Mabel asks.

"Yeah," Dipper releases a small moan of pain, "nothing's broken but ow, gonna feel that tomorrow! You?"

"Same," she replies, rubbing at a sore shoulder. "Hey your ghost detector's not beeping anymore, does that mean she's gone?"

"Um…" he finds it with his flashlight and picks it up off the floor, "oh man, oh man oh man um...not necessarily. It's broken."

"Can you fix it?"

"I think so?" He doesn't sound so sure.

Mabel looks around but she doesn't have that same weird feeling she did in the basement. She climbs to her feet and reaches for the door, but stops when she feels a strange, almost electric energy. Like there's a force field blocking it. "I don't think we can get out this way."

Dipper stops tinkering with the broken EMF meter and joins her, tentatively touching and reaching an invisible barrier of energy, "Oh crap..."

"What?"

"We're kinda trapped."

A/N Hope you like the first chapter! Please leave a review to let me know what you think so far! Reviews are like candy, I'm dressing up as Stan this year so Trick or Treat!