L Ø S T

‘Oh come on, it's not that bad in here! It's spacious and I can spy on all the woodland atrocities!’ Bill cackled, but felt a strange sensation. ‘I hope some idiotic meatsack walks through here eventually, the animals are boring…’

“DIPPER COME ON! WE LEAVE IN FIFTEEN MINUTES!” Mabel hollered. Dipper Pines soon stumbled down the stairs and into the kitchen, quickly grabbing a random mug from the cabinet and filling it with coffee that had been made by Mabel only two minutes earlier. “Dipper, you can't keep oversleeping like this, Professor Morris isn't going to put up with it for much longer…” Dipper took a long gulp from his mug and set it back down on the counter. “What do you even do at night?” His sister questioned. “Well...you know that project that's due in May?” He asked sheepishly. “Oh Dipper…” Mabel cooed. “It's January, Bro-Bro. You shouldn't be worrying about it. The professor hasn't even given you a theme yet! Wait. How are you even writing it if you don't have a theme?” Dipper smirked and took out a small, folded piece of paper out of his back pocket and proudly unfolded it. “‘Dipper Pines, theme: boy lost in enchanted forest due to being misled by forest ranger. Gets trapped and is saved by supernatural entity.’ Pretty cool, right? She said that she's noticed my attitude towards supernatural-themed things and came up with it just for me! She even said she'd give me extra credit if I managed to finish it by April!" He beamed. Mabel frowned and shook her head, pouring a bowl of cereal and Mabel Juice in a bowl. “Dipper, there is no way you can possibly finish a story like that within the course of only nine months, yet alone twelve! Which teacher is this, I wanna talk to her! That's complete-” The older Pines twin was suddenly cut off due to the home phone going off. “I'll get it!” Dipper called. “Hey kid, uh, it seems me and Ford need a place to stay. And uh...we've...we have something to tell you.” He could hear the old man sigh. “Dipper, who is it?!” Mabel called. “It's Grunkle Stan!” He called back. “Okay, Stan, what's up?” He asked. “We can't talk about it here, Ford and I’ll be back in a week. Wait until then, but until then, DO NOT ANSWER THE DOOR! DO NOT ANSWER THE PHONE! AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, ABSOLUTELY DO NOT ANSWER THE DOOR, DO YOU HEAR ME?!” His great-uncle yelled into the phone. Dipper winced, slightly taken aback as to how serious Stan sounded. “Well what about you? How will we know to answer you guys when you arrive?” He questioned. The other man went silent for a few short seconds. “I'll knock and say a secret word.” Dipper frowned. Typical. “Okay...and what will this supposed ‘secret word’ be…?” Stan pondered this. “Pumpernickel.” He said at last. Dipper nearly choked on his own spit. “W-What?” He asked, obviously confused as to why of all the phrases and words that could've been used that his great-uncle resorted to pumpernickel. “Don't ask, kid. Just, don't leave the house. You have enough food, right?” Dipper shook his head. “No, we've needed to go shopping for the last few days. Mabel and I were planning to go grocery shopping after school-” “Which reminds me,” Stan piped up. “No school for the next week until Ford and I get over there.” “What?! But...but I have a test in Latin this Wednesday!” Dipper groaned. Great. He was already failing the course, God forbid why he even took it in the first place, and now he would miss one of the biggest tests in that class? “Go to the store now, and buy more food than you think you'll need. And bring some sort of pocket weapon with you just in case. And make the trip as short as possible. Got it?!” Stan screamed. “G-Got it. Bye, Grunkle Stan. See you soon.” He hung up the phone and walked back into the kitchen, a concerned look on his face. “So? What'd Stan say?” Mabel asked. “He said he couldn't leave the Shack for the next week, and that he and Ford would be visiting next week for God knows how long. And to apparently ‘buy more food than we think we need’, whatever that means…” Dipper scoffed. What the Hell? What was even happening? “So you mean we pretty much have to prepare for some sort of apocalypse?” Mabel piped up. “Basically.” Dipper concluded. “Whatever it is, I hope we're ready for it. Stan said he and Ford have something really important to tell us, and it must be pretty important because we can't answer the phone or go to school for the next week either.” Mabel gasped. “B-but... I have a quiz today in English! I studied for three whole hours, Dipper! And what about Pacifica? I promised that we'd have a sleepover on Friday at her house!” Dipper sighed. “Stan didn't say anything about inviting someone else to stay with us for the week…” Mabel squealed. “DIPPER! Are you really saying she can stay with us for a week?!" He took a deep breath and nodded. High pitched squealing erupted once more as his sister was bouncing up and down, blabbering about all the things she and her friend would do together. “WAIT! If she's going to be staying over, we've got to buy marshmallows, and edible glitter, and more sparkles!” Mabel exclaimed. He chuckled. “I already told you that Stan advised us to stock up for the week, but we've gotta make this shopping trip shorter than normal, okay?” Mabel stared at her younger brother, a frown forming. “Why?” She questioned. “Beats me, but he made it clear not to leave for any other reason. So grab your wallet and let's get going.”