~~~~~~~~~Dipper's POV~~~~~~~~~

"This is getting us nowhere!" Andy complained as he spun upside down; one of the few times I could see his entire face. "Hundreds of students with ghost followers, and not one has seen or heard anything weird?!"

"And school ended an hour ago," Ally added, arms crossed with a worried look. "The students that remain are gonna leave real soon."

Just as we told (y/n), we stayed behind to look around for any more information while she went home to rest. Granted, I hadn't been able to concentrate as much as I should, worrying about her wellbeing.

"How about we head home for now?" I suggested. "There's not much to do, unless we go look in the forest again. But it's gonna be late pretty soon."

Andy sighed. "Home it is. So much for progress."

He started to fly away, Ally right behind him. I was about to follow as well, when something caught my eye; a quick movement, like someone trying to hide.

"Hello?" I asked, standing on my toes as if it was gonna help me see better. "Is anyone there?"

From behind a tree peeked the little girl from Melanie's house, Lizzie, dressed in the same way we had first met her over the weekend, and her eyes still as wide and curious as before. She kept glancing between me and the others, who were far enough to not listen.

I smiled at her, kneeling down to meet a child's eye level. "It's okay. We're not gonna hurt you."

But she hid back behind the tree, and when I walked over to look at her, she was already gone. I let out a sigh, part of me worried about her. (y/n) said she hadn't left her house in years, and we were quite a distance away from it. Did she follow us all this way?

That's when I felt my hat leave my head, making me turn so sharply I nearly tripped. "Hey!"

My hat was now floating away. How? I had no idea. But it was getting farther and farther away by the second, so I gave chase. "Get back here!"

One of the perks of being part ghost is that I couldn't really get tired, if just a little fatigued. So when a familiar house started to grow in my line of sight, I was only panting a little.

But I grew nervous as I realized whose house it was. The Jones'.

My hat happily floated through the front door, as if just coming home after a long day at work. It's not like I could be seen or heard, so I followed it inside, looking around for it. The only people around were maids cleaning around as far as I could tell, and I assumed the parents must've still been at work while Melanie was with her posse at the mall or something.

It headed downstairs, into the basement where a big revelation had been seen, and I had to pause in order to take it in. The first time I tried to touch the door, I felt it. Then a second time, and I went through no problem. But it also came with the disadvantage of falling right through the stairs.

And the floor itself.

This time, the impact against solid ground was painful, and I had to take a good few seconds to catch my breath. The area around me smelled damp, dirty, but it was too dark for me to see.

There was another smell that lingered around, too. Something faint, but revolting, putrid.

"Stupid girl," a voice from above said, and a few seconds later, raise of light started to shine down. "Looking through my house, finding that box, I should sue... I should sue and send her to prison!"

The light from above made it difficult to make out a face, and the walls around me muffled the tone of voice.

Was she talking about (y/n)? She had to be, who else had been tampering with their stuff?

But a thought quickly crossed my head; I had fallen through the basement floor. Someone was digging down to an area under the basement floor, where I had landed.

And it stinks. No, it doesn't just stink. Every second I spent down here, the smell got so much worse. Nothing I couldn't handle, but I was struggling not to puke.

We also found Allison's box down here. Buried, hidden away in her old house. I started to feel cold as the thoughts of what this could potentially mean started to fill my head.

Had I just stumbled into a grave...?

"Good," the person above said with a laugh. "You're still there. In the dirt where you belong." A shovel clanked against something beside me, making me flinch away as a bone rolled down a small hill of dirt.

I forced myself to swallow down my scream, forgetting I was invisible for a moment.

Then another sight made me grow as cold as ice.

A familiar hat fell down the hole; my hat. Same baseball cap style, same blue and white colors, same pine tree logo on the front.

Except this one was solid. It belonged to the me that was concrete, the one still lost.

Instinctively, I reached for it, but remembered I did have the capability to grab some things at certain times, and maybe it wasn't the best choice to move my hat when my possible murderer was just above me.

"Enjoy your offering," said the voice. Then just as fast, the light went away as the area was buried again, this time, with me inside. Thank God I couldn't feel it, or else I would've been suffocated right then and there.

For a moment, I considered the possibility that it could've been my body here with me as well, but our theory was that I was still somewhat alive, not stripped of skin and nothing but bones. This had to be someone else, someone who had been dead for long time.

Someone like Ally...

I leaped up, jumping as high as I could, and managing to land on the basement floor. Whoever had just been here was gone, and I heard the basement door above slam shut, as well as my ghostly hat being left on the floor.

Maybe I wasn't buried in the ground. Maybe I wasn't skin and bones yet. But they had my hat and hid it from the police, there had to be some link to me somewhere. And even if not, this was still important, possibly for Ally's closure.

I had to tell (y/n) about this. And fast.

~~~~~~~~~Your POV~~~~~~~~~

"We lost Dipper!" Allison yelled as soon as her and Andy flew into the room, both pale as... well, ghosts.

I sat up from my bed, with Midnight hissing at the sudden movement disturbing her slumber. "What?! What happened?!"

"We don't know!" Andy flinched away from Midnight, trying to get closer to me. "The three of us agreed to head back home, and when we looked back, he wasn't there!"

"I told you all to be careful!" I was already putting my jacket on, heading for the door before even zipping it up.

But as I swung the door opened, I flinched at the sight of someone standing in front of me, fist in the air, ready to knock. "Aunt Beck?!"

She laughed. "Sorry about that, I was just about to knock."

"No, it's okay," I replied as I shook my head, trying to sound polite and totally not in a rush. "What's up?"

"There's a friend waiting downstairs to see you. Since you came home early, she was dropping off your homework."

My first thought was of Mabel and Pacifica. Could we really be considered friends? We're only stuck together because of her brother, though Mabel did seem like that kind of person.

I thanked Aunt Beck, heading downstairs and hoping the interaction would be quick.

But I nearly skipped the last few stairs as I spotted who was in my living room. Melanie, in all her evilly grinning glory, sitting gracefully in the middle of the couch.

She smiled, her posture claiming innocence, but her eyes as filled with rage as ever. "Good afternoon, (y/n). I noticed you went home early."

"Uh, yeah." I took the last few steps more cautiously than before, worried I might trip from shock. I could already picture her cackling over my corpse. "I felt sick."

"Convenient," she said as she stood up, walking closer to me. "Considering you were last spotted in the woods the day before."

I could feel a coldness growing in my chest, having to grip the staircase railing to keep my composure. "What are you insinuating? That I was off hiding Dipper's body or something?"

"I wouldn't put it past you."

I snickered, though not an inch of this was funny. "Yeah? And what sort of reason would I have to do this, hm? What motive?"

Ally was at my side now, gesturing me to walk forward. "(y/n), we might not have time for-"

"Revenge, mostly," Melanie interrupted. "He did cause you a bit of a stir a bit ever since he came back."

"You're really making me seem like a murderer just because he caused me to trip one time? Are you serious?!"

Her smile only grew at that, leaning closer to my face. "If the shoe fits..." She practically spit that last word at me, and I tightened my grip as to not rip her extensions clean off.

But the sight of Ally and Andy behind her, both visibly angry, both eased my rage, if only a little. So I took a step closer, getting in her face and not daring to break eye contact, fearing she'd take it as a sign of guilt. "Not that it's any of your business, but I was with Mabel and Pacifica yesterday. You can ask them if you want proof. But you don't get to walk into my house and accuse me of murder!

"I mean, for all we know, maybe you did it out of jealousy, since you saw him talk to me that last night..."

That seemed to get under her skin, her pupils shrinking with rage. "You little-!!"

But then another figure walked downstairs, confusion zooming through her gaze, making us both pause. "What's going on here?"

"Nothing, Aunt Beck," I replied as I kept my glare focused against Melanie's. Then I shoved past her, heading for the door. "I was just leaving. Thanks for the homework."

"But- (y/n)! Darling!" Aunt Beck rushed to my side, grabbing my shoulder. "You're still not feeling well."

"I'll be back before sunset." Then I swung the front door open, Dipper's familiar but terrified eyes staring back into mine.

"I need to tell you something."

I said my goodbyes to Aunt Beck, throwing one last glare at Melanie before closing the door behind me. I wasn't worried about her snooping around, Aunt Beck would never allow a stranger upstairs. She barely even lets me inside her room as it is. I knew she wouldn't be allowed in my room.

So instead, I nodded to Dipper. "Tell me on the way."

Thanks for reading!!! 'Till next time!!!

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