Ten years.

That was how long it'd been since the final showdown. Since Stan and Ford left to travel around the world on the Stan o' War, since Dipper and Mabel went back home, since they left Gravity Falls for ever.

Dipper jumped off of the bus. He'd just come back from six months in the amazon jungle. There had been a nasty occurrence with a radioactive leak and a colony of bats.

Not a good mix.

He rubbed his arm, where a long, green scar stretched down. He should have known they would be able to shoot radioactive slime. It was a simple calculation.

Dipper looked up at the University he'd hopped off at. It was very prestigious, the best one in the state. Oh, not to mention, the logo was pink. He shook his head as he walked through the grounds towards the dorms. Perfect for Mabel.

Knocking on the door, he glanced down the hallways of the dorm room. It was carpeted and very tidy, the odd student here and there walking through. It looked like one of those academies out of movies, you know the ones, where not a single hair was out of line.

The door opened, and Dipper looked back to the front to see Mabel gaping at him, "Dipper?"

"Hey, Mabel," Dipper grinned, "Guess who's back from the jungle?"

Mabel squealed, barreling into him with a tight hug that took the breath out of him. She stepped back, moving out of the way so he could walk in, "You'll have to tell me all about it!"

"Sure, I can do better than that," Dipper said, walking inside the dorm and throwing his bag down on the floor. He leaned over it and searched through it, pulling out a big book. "Check it out."

Mabel walked over to the table and gasped, "No. Way! Ahh, it's adorable!"

Dipper looked down at the journal's red cover, the golden pine tree with a painted "1" on it. He smiled, "Not the word I was thinking of, but it'll do. I thought I'd take a leaf out of Great Uncle Ford's book - no pun intended."

Mabel opened the front cover. On the inside, it had a photo, one that Mabel definitely remembered.

Mabel grinned, looking down at the photo, "Shooting Star, Question Mark, Ice, Fez and Pine Tree."

Dipper frowned slightly, "Don't. I've been called that way too many times before in my life."

Mabel giggled, then had a look at the first page of the journal, which quickly explained the mystery of Gravity Falls - the journals and who wrote them, "It's awesome, Dip. You want anything to eat?"

"Um," Now that he thought about it, Dipper was a little hungry, "I guess I can stop for lunch. But I've been called out by Tyler to check out that mailbox in the middle of the woods. The guy on the other side apparently says that the weirdness bubble surrounding Gravity Falls is slowly expanding. Apparently it's starting to take over the rest of Oregon."

Mabel paused in the kitchen, she turned back to Dipper, "You're going back to Gravity Falls?"

"No," Dipper said. "Not if I can help it. I... think it'd be too hard. To see the 'Shack again... and Wendy."

"Speaking of Wendy," Mabel said, "She said we could meet up on Skype this afternoon. That'd be pretty cool, huh? Soos might join in, too."

"Yeah, I guess..." Dipper mumbled, running a hand through his hair.

Mabel walked back to the table with two packet-sandwiches, "This is all I got. Working on a student salary, here."

"That's fine," Dipper took one of the sandwiches, opened it and took a bite out. Some meat he'd never tasted before. Gross. He wrinkled his nose, "Ugh, what is this?"

"Tofu!" Mabel took her sandwich and bit out of it, grinning, "Isn't it invigoratingly disgusting?"

Oh. That's why it was a new type of meat. It wasn't meat. Dipper put down his sandwich, smiling politely, "You're the same as ever, Mabel."

Mabel had pulled out her phone and was typing something on it, she grinned and held up the phone, "Say heloooo!"

"What up, Dippy-Fresh?" A certain red-headed 25 year old peered at him through the screen.

Dipper's eyes widened before he relaxed into an easy-going grin, "Hey there, Wendy. How are you doing?"

"Great, man! Everyone's talkin' about you coming back to Oregon. You've gotta see what Soos has done with the shack. There's, like, a permanent cheese fountain now."

Dipper laughed, "A cheese fountain?"

"Yeah," Wendy said, "Oh, oh, and guess who became Gravity Falls' number one Paranormal Activity detective? This chick. You should have seen the squash with a human face and emotions we found yesterday."

"Woah," Dipper breathed, taking the phone from Mabel, "I remember reading about those in Ford's journals."

"Awesome. Hey, speaking of which..." Wendy went on to explain about how Lil' Gideon had attempted to re-create the journals after they'd burnt, how he was now Wendy's business partner, writing down everything weird that she killed. She turned the camera around and showed Dipper the large collection of dead eyebats, but Dipper was no longer concentrating on that.

There was something not quite right.

On the wall, just behind Mabel...

Dipper took a deep breath. It's not possible. It's not possible. It's not possible.

Mabel's shadow...

"Yo, Dippy-Fresh, you all good, man?" Wendy was saying.

Dipper hung up the phone without an explanation, eyes still trained on the wall.

"Dipper?" Mabel asked, "What's wrong?"

Dipper's eyes widened, he began to hyperventilate.

On the wall, large cuts were appearing, and out of them was leaking blood. Actual, human blood. Underneath the dripping blood was a black outline, the shadow of a distorted triangle with a wide psychotic grin, hundreds of razor sharp teeth pointing out. Fingers long and tapered into knives.

The blood dripped down the wall slowly, spelling out a message.

HEY THERE, PINE TREE. LONG TIME, NO SEE!

((This book was more appropriate for upload.))