Ah, the Gravity Falls Lake. Nothing was better than the smell of fish and the sound of waves as it hit the hard sand. Ideally a lake is almost as good as beach except it has harder sand and waves that are way smaller. None of it mattered to 13-year-old Dipper, however, since he was only there to take notes on some of the weird behavior in the gravitational pull of the waves.

The boy was sitting on the sand, tongue out the side of his mouth as he glanced up at the lake and back down at his own journal, in which he was sketching in. Inside the journal was a chart of the different water rising levels that had occurred in the past few days.

The lake was usually busier during this time of the summer, since summer was over halfway and almost over, which meant people were trying to cram in as much bonding and fishing as possible. Memories of Stan forcing the kids to be part of his fishing crew for the day danced in Dipper's head. He snorted and rolled his eyes, but following those actions, was a smile.

The lake wasn't bustling today...for that matter, the past few days. As if something was driving people away from the lake or maybe it was just Gravity Falls overall. Dipper couldn't blame them. The town was never heard of and practically a dump.

The boy rubbed his neck as a shock of pain seared through his neck and shoulders. He had been in the same position, hunched-over, for far too long and it was starting to cause him to pay the consequences. He stood up and stretched then rubbed his eyes as he glanced to his phone for the first time in hours. It was 6:00PM and he had about...20 missed phone calls. Half from Mabel. Half from Stan.

And he missed all of them.

Whoops.

He gulped and slid his journal under his arm as he dialed the phone with his older arm and called back his sister while walking back home. He would've started to run to get there sooner...but the chances of everything just dropping if he had done that would've been up high.

Right before he could even say a "hello?", Mabel shouted through the phone, almost loud enough for his eardrums to burst.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, GOOFUS?!" She screamed.

The teen pulled back the phone and blinked as he pulled it back. "I was just by the lake!! I told you guys before I left-"

"We were watching old DuckTective episodes, Dipper!! Nobody's gonna pay attention to you when we have DuckTective!!"

"Nice to know you and Stan care a whole lot about me." He scoffed with sarcasm. "I'm on the way back. Did I miss dinner?"

"Nah, i'm at the table as we speak. Say hi to Grunkle Stan!!" The girl put her phone on speaker phone, getting a confused stare by her great-uncle.

"U-uh...hi...Stan?" He responded awkwardly.

"Get your butt over here or i'm feeding your mac n cheese to the pig." Was the only thing Stan responded with.

Mabel laughed. "Waddles would love that!! Stay away as long as you want, Dipper!! Let's sacrifice the mac n cheese as a peace offering to the piggy!!"

"WHAT?!" Dipper yelped as he started to jog, moving his journal underneath his arm and holding it tighter. "No way!! I'm on the way, I swear!!"

"Aw, man." The girl sounded slightly disappointed. "Poor Waddles."

"I'm hanging up now!! I can't have two hands doing two things at the same time!"

"Can too, you're ambidextrous!"

"...That only applies to writing, Mabel."

"Tomato, Tomatoe!!"

"Whatever." He snickered as he hung up and pushed the phone into his pocket as he ran as fast as he could to the shack. Luckily enough it wasn't too far of a run.

When he reached the shack, his food was kind of cold, which meant he had to warm it up. He was just glad the two didn't feed it to Waddles after all. It was a total Stan-and-Mabel-plan thing to do.

After he finished eating, he trudged upstairs with a yawn and took off his vest, shoes and hat then placed them on the table beside him, along with his journal. Mabel played 20 questions with him, just asking what he was doing, and when he explained, she just groaned and said it was boring.

Her brother rolled his eyes as he said his goodnights, blew out the lantern and slipped into his covers. When he closed his eyes, everything was nice. Pitch black. No dream...so far.

But then, there was a glowing blue light...no...two..three...four...they just kept doubling up and soon they were all screeching at the kid, sharp teeth on them as if they were ready to sink their teeth into him. Dipper covered his ears and shut his eyes and soon felt the pain as he yelled in pain and soon awoke, jolting up with his heart pounding and sweat pouring down his face.

He gulped and stared ahead then glanced at his journal. This wasn't the last nightmare he was going to have. He could feel it.

THEME SONG

https://youtu.be/Z6usKhzL8uI

Fast forward to a couple days later. Dipper's eyes were stinging constantly and the bags under his eyes kept getting darker and darker with each day that passed. His paranoia was on edge about everything and he nearly passed out eating, or watching tv or just doing anything on multiple occasions.

His hair got messier, and he cared less about his appearance than he usually would. Just about everyone was noticing this. Even Stan, who genuinely pretended not to care about anything. Mabel nagged him every night to get some sleep, but it wasn't that he didn't want to sleep, it was because something was keeping him up...and he had no clue why or what it was.

"Shortie!! Get over here and sweep the gift-shop!" Stan yelled out from the kitchen. "Broom's in here."

"Are you referring to me being the shortie?" The boy groggily replied with some small irritation.

"Who else is shorter than you?" The old man scoffed and tossed his great-nephew the broom.

The teen's hands fumbled to catch it for a second, but he did manage to catch the wooden object. As he went to trudge to the gift-shop, Stan stopped him by putting his hand on the kid's shoulder, getting his attention.

"Hey, er, kid? You doing alright? You look like you just dragged yourself out of the graveyard."

The boy blinked with an eyebrow raised.

"...It means ya look like a zombie, kid. You look dead. And i'm not saying that to make fun o' ya."

"I don't know." He was silent for a couple more seconds. "I...don't know at this point...I don't know."

The old man sighed and stood up, giving a small smile. "Hey, you know who had sleeping troubles? My brother. Why don't you go talk to him? Maybe you nerds can crack the case, huh?" He suggested this, knowing Ford was his best option and maybe, just maybe, the kid liked Ford a little more. It was hard to tell.

The boy nodded reluctantly and rubbed his eyes as he went to walk off, broom still in his hands.

"Kid?"

He turned his head.

"Broom. You're off the hook for now."

"O-oh, yeah. Sorry, Grunkle Stan." Dipper tossed back the broom and his uncle caught it with one hand.

As he walked off to the gift-shop, he was greeted in the doorway by his sister, who was leaning on the doorframe. She stood up and looked at him. "So, what was that about??"

"Stan told me it'd be my best bet to talk to Grunkle Ford about this sleeping situation." He said as he rubbed his eyes. "So that's...probably what i'm going to do."

"Aw..."

He tilted his head slightly. "Aw? Aw what? Do you want me to keep looking like a...a...zombie?"

"I wanted to crack the case!!! Mystery Twins!! For old times sake. C'mon, we don't even know where Grunkle Ford is and you love solving mysteries!! Maybe we can get more team members in on it!"

Dipper blinked as his mound processed all of this going through his head. If this had to do with the supernatural, which was a good 99.9%, that meant he must've tampered with something and if he tampered with something...then Ford might get flustered.

If they did solve it, just the two of them, they could easily figure out how to take care of it without Ford getting tangled into the mess. Her brother looked over and gave a sigh but a nod as he gestured his fist for a fist-bump. Mabel grinned and fist-bumped back excitedly.

"DIPPER AND I ARE GOING TO FIND NEW ATTRACTIONS WE'LL BE BACK LATER!!!" Mabel shouted as she grabbed her twins hand and dragged him towards the door.

Before there was an answer back, Mabel slammed the door shut. "Alllrriighhtt!! Mystery Twins back in action!!"

Dipper yawned. "Yayyy." He said with the least enthusiasm imagined.

"You don't sound too excited, Dippingsauce." She frowned.

"I am. Excited to get some sleep later when this is figured out." He rubbed his eyes. "You said you had some new members in mind? JUST for the day."

"I do!! One that could possibly help us...well they couldn't and wouldn't be part of the team really. Not the main part. But like the part where they're recognized for helping the team. But-"

"Who is it?" He interrupted his sisters babbling.

"You'll have to wait and see!!" She grabbed his hand again and started to walk and walk and walk until they finally made it to the destination safely, somehow, considering Dipper nearly tripped and almost fell sometimes .

The two were in front of a blue tent with a weird looking star on top; eye in the middle. Dipper raised his eyebrow and the two poked their heads in. It looked like Gideon was getting ready for his next show; he stopped putting hairspray in his hair as he looked over to the twins and gave a smile.

"Oh!! Hello, Pines Twins!!" He waddled and exited the stage as he started to continuing waddling over to the teens.

Dipper just stared. "You've gotta be kidding me."

COMMERCIAL

"Out of all the people in town...why in the world would you pick Gideon? I thought you hate him." The boy grumbled.

"I don't hate him! He's a changed person! I just have limits is all." She elbowed him as the pre-teen walked over to the two. "Heyyy!! Look at you!! Your show business looks like it's been doing good!"

"Thanks for noticin'!" He smiled. "What brings y'all to the tent of telepathy? Are you here to watch a show?" He said the last bit with too much hope.

"No, actually." As the girl responded, his smile dropped ever so slightly, but he just picked it back up anyways. "We were hoping you could help us out. Dipper's having this weird sleeping problem and we can't figure out why. Since you had Journal 2 for a while, I was wondering if you maybe have some sort of clue that could come close to figuring out the problem."

"Sleeping problem, you say?" Gideon scratched his chin for a second. "Nothin' comes to mind."

"Okay, well, thanks for "helping", we'll be leaving now." Dipper turned around and started to leave but his sister stopped him with her hand on his shoulder while he just groaned.

The kid frowned slightly but brought his expression to a smile in no time. "However, mind if I stick around?"

"Yes." Dipper answered loudly.

"Nope!!" Mabel said at the same time and huffed at her sibling. "Don't mind him, he's just a grumpy-grump today."

"Splendid!! I'll cancel my show for the day and we can get this show on the road!" He smiled. "Not literally though because i'm cancelling it, but you know what I mean."

The kid ran off and Dipper sighed once more. "Why can't we just solve this ourselves? Remind me why we need a kid tagging along doing absolutely no good?"

"He's only like 3 years behind, it's not like hes a toddler." She sighed. "We need to figure this out and quick, because the grumpy you isn't a good you."

"I'm not grumpy!!!" He defiantly shouted, getting shushed by his sister.

"Okay, okay!!! You don't have to shout at me. Jeez." She rubbed her ears.

The teen just remained silent, not answering his sibling back, and the two stood there in silence as they waited for Gideon to come back. He came back several minutes later, still in the suit and still with his hair all up and fancy.

"I'm ready to go!"

"Awesome!" Mabel smiled and glanced at her brother as she started to exit the tent, Gideon following behind and Dipper at the very back.

"What'd you get yourself into this time, Pines?" Gideon was now walking beside Dipper, trying to get every detail.

"It's none of your..." He started to talk but his sister gave him a small glare mixed with disappointment, so he switched up his sentence. "I don't know. I just went to the lake to study the gravitational pulls in the lake and when I came back home and tried to sleep I had this weird vision of glowing blue dots with teeth." He muttered. "It could be a kind of fairy or spirit, but we need more leads."

The white-haired kid snorted in amusement for a moment. "I suppose so."

Dipper blinked and rolled his eyes and Mabel slowed down so that she could walk beside the two. "Where should we check first, Dippin' Dots?"

"Library usually has the answer to everything." The teen rubbed his eyes.

"To the library it is!!" She threw her fist into the air with a grin.

The three headed into town and got a couple looks from adults who were probably wondering why kids were walking alone, but then again, pretty much everyone in the town knew who they were. Once they reached the library, Dipper searched the isles and piled tons of books onto the table Mabel and Gideon were waiting at.

The smell of books and dust filled the air, and sometimes they had to blow off some of the dust off of the books. Supernatural study books weren't a huge topic to be researched supposedly. The three sighed and took their books and took a crack at it, trying to see if they could find something relating to Dipper's issue.

Hours were spent in the library and sometimes Mabel had to poke her brother awake because he started to doze off in the middle of reading a novel. He mumbled a 'thanks' and continued researching, but about after the 5th time, Mabel decided that enough was enough and they should continue solving this case tomorrow.

Gideon got up and made a comment on how he'd be willing to help tomorrow since it was such a big case and they would need all the help they could get. Mabel thanked him and waved him goodbye as the boy exited the library. She shook her brother's shoulders lightly and his eyebrows furrowed in his slumber. She shook him again and said his name over and over and finally he sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"Mabel..? Erg...I fell asleep again, didn't I?" He yawned.

"You did, you goober."

"...You didn't write that on my forehead, did you?"

She paused and snapped. "Darn it, I should have!!!"

He sighed in relief. "That's a no." He looked to the chair where Gideon sat earlier. "Where'd Gideon go?"

"He left. Library's closing soon, c'mon, it's late and we probably missed dinner." She checked her phone. "Don't worry, I told Grunkle Stan, so he saved us some food."

The teen slowly nodded and stood up. "M'kay." He sleepily replied.

The two headed out and watched the lights to the library go off and the librarian walk out, locking the place up for the night.

"Did you find any information that's useful?"

"Nah, we tried all the books you put on the table and none of them seemed to relate to your problem."

"Looks like this is a 2 day mission then, huh?"

"Seems like it's gonna be that way."

The sunset finished setting and the sky reverted to it's dark blue with the glowing stars that shone bright at night. The two kept walking and talked sometimes, otherwise they admired the stars and sky and how it was barely busy at this type of night. Cars were away, everyone was heading to bed and it was almost silent. Almost.

Surprising the both of them, Stan was standing out in front of the shack, hand up as he was watching for the kids. He looked more relieved when he saw them coming up to him.

"I thought you were going to talk to Ford about this problem." He looked at his great-nephew.

"I...I did!" Dipper quickly lied. "I talked to him and he said that it was probably just the bad dreams and it should go away soon."

"Bad dreams?" Stan raised his eyebrow. "Kid, are you okay-"

"I'M FINE!" He blurted quickly, getting the two to look at him. His face turned hot and he hated the feeling of staring. "I-i'm just tired, i'm going to sleep."

"Without dinner?"

"I'm not hungry." He quickly responded as he pushed past his uncle and sister, who looked at each other.

The brunette fast walked inside and then headed up the stairs, rubbing his eyes as he glanced over his shoulder to the door. Mabel and Stan were in the doorway, talking and they caught him glancing at them so that caused them to stare. The teen's eyes widened and he quickly turned around, bolting up the stairs, catching himself before he fell.

He skidded into the attic and took off all his clothes but his shorts, t-shirt and socks and he hopped into bed, nuzzled into the covers to the point where his eyes were only showing, and he stared at the ceiling. His thoughts clouded his mind and his heart was beating ever so fast. He blinked and his eyes felt like they were going to die. They hurt so bad. He just wanted to sleep normally but apparently that was too much to ask for.

Dipper started to close his eyes. Something in the back of his head was nagging him and bringing him closer to a slumber.

And it worked.

COMMERCIAL

It was black. Nothing was to be seen except for the utter darkness of...wherever he was. This was a new dream. Dipper stood up and looked around. The only light he could see was the one that was shining right down on him.

"Hello...?" His voice echoed and played again and again. "Is anyone here?"

"Well, well, well, well, lookie who we have here!" A shrill, familiar voice rung out.

The voice sent shivers up his spine, but when he turned around, he already knew who it would be. Sure enough, the teen was right. It was none other than the triangular monster who was called by the name Bill.

"What do you want?" Dipper glared at him.

"What do I want? The real question is what do you want. And that is a rhetorical question, because I already know what you want. To stop getting these nightmares and get a somewhat normal sleep!! Amiright?"

The brunette blinked and went to open his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, he was cut off. "This isn't free. There's a price. I want-"

"That stupid gun you've been talking about for the past week or two? Already got that figured out." He snarkily replied.

"Watch the attitude, kid, you're pushing my limits." He warned.

"I'm pushing your limits? I've had it up to here-" He raised his hand up. "-with you invading my dreams and my life!! Pushing your limits?! You're pushing mine!! You've been pushing my limit for over a year!! Ever since I met you!! I don't want your help!! JUST LEAVE!!!"

Bill stared for a moment, blinking and in awe. He was genuinely surprised at the outburst and practically had no words for whatever just happened.

"Teenager mood swings." He muttered as he rolled his eye and spoke normally. "If you want to reconsider, i'm willing to offer no more nightmares in exchange for that gun. I'll be in touch." He snapped and like that, the dream was over.

The boy sat up and rubbed his eyes. He sleepily leaned over and looked at his phone that was laying on the table by his hat. The clock read: 1:26AM. That wasn't even a sleep through the night. That jerk ended his dream there on purpose. Mabel was in bed and the sky was still dark. The teen sighed and slumped back into his covers after putting his phone back.

He closed his eyes and the second he fell back into his sleep...was a nightmare waiting for him. The same blue dots with the teeth, trying to shred him to pieces.

Dipper woke up in sweat and with his eyes hurting once more. This had to stop and he was going to get to the bottom of it. Today. The clock read 8AM and he was ready to go. The brunette got up and out of bed and put on his normal attire. He headed down the stairs and right before he got to open the door, Mabel grabbed his shoulder.

"Where do you think you're going? On the adventure? Without me? Shame on you!!" She teased around.

"I wasn't....I..." He groaned and his stomach rumbled, but he ignored it. "I want to get this solved and out of the way, Mabel. Can we at least get moving??"

"You're lucky I already ate and drank 4 cups of Mabel Juice!!!" She smiled and put her hands on her hips. "Lets go!"

Dipper sighed and gave a small smile. The two headed out and started to walk back into town to get Gideon, just because Mabel had promised that he could come along again. Her brother wasn't too enthused, though. When they reached the tent, Gideon was there and waiting. He greeted the two and soon they were on their way.

As they walked back from town, Mabel squinted and her eyes widened as she pointed to across the street and waved at a blonde girl with purple clothing on. It was easily recognized that the person was none other than Pacfica Northwest.

The blonde looked over and ran across the street. "Mabel? What are you guys doing in town??"

"What, a girl can't go into town to shop for clothes?" She grinned then laughed. "I'm kidding. I don't have any money!! We're on an adventure and Gideon's tagging along!"

He waved and she cringed. "H-hey...uh if it's not too much to ask...I...well...can..."

"You...wanna join?" Mabel finished her thought.

"Y-yeah that!! Asking is so hard..." She muttered the last part.

"ABSOLUTELY!!" She grinned and hugged Pacifica, who squirmed, trying to be let go.

"Let me go!!" Pacifica exclaimed and was soon let go a couple of seconds later. She dusted off her outfit and sighed. "Where to next?"

"The lake." Dipper quickly responded as he started to run in front of the group, eyes focused on the prize, which in his case, was the lake.

The 3 looked at eachother and Mabel grinned. "Last one to the lake is a rotten egg!!" She then took off in a bolt as well, easily catching up with her brother. Pacifica made a face at the thought of running and getting sweaty so she didn't run and to her surprise, Gideon didn't either because he didn't want to mess up his hair. The town was small anyways so it was pretty easy to know where everything was.

Mabel won and Dipper came behind in second. Gideon and Pacifica tied each other, but played a game of rock-paper-scissors to sort the winner, just because Mabel had to have everyone ranked. The brunette boy looked around as he scanned the lake. He still had that weird vibe, but he knew whatever was causing his nightmares, had to be here.

"So, what are we supposed to do? Wait around and do nothing?" Pacifica asked.

"We're waiting until it gets dark." Dipper responded as he sat on the sand and continued to stare at the lake.

"More time to play games!!" Mabel exclaimed excitedly as she sat beside her brother. 

Time passed by and Mabel forced the gang to play the games of rock paper scissors, duck duck goose, mafia, i spy and all sorts of old fashioned games. Sometimes it helped kill time but sometimes it was just a pain because it was so boring. Night finally came and as soon as the sun set, the moon came out. It shone across the lake and filled the night sky. 

Dipper stood up and glanced around, looking for the weird blue dots that he had repeatedly saw for nights and nights. He squinted as he came closer to the shore of the lake. Something was bubbling near the water. Everyone made a face as they came slightly closer. Mabel shouted for him to be careful as his shoe touched the water. 

A glowing blue hand shot out of the water and grabbed Dipper by the arm, getting him to scream as he stumbled and fell into the lake. Everyone shouted his name in alarm as they rushed over and checked the water to make sure he was still alive. Mabel's heart raced as she cried his name out countless times, and as she did so, his head shot out of the water, gasping for air.

"DIPPER!! YOU'RE OKAY!!" She cried out as she rubbed her watery eyes.

"Kind of!!" He choked out as he spit water out from his mouth. "I-i'm kind of trying not to be drowned-" He yelped as he was dragged back underwater.

"What's going on?!" Pacifica questioned, totally lost.

"Pines Boy got himself into some sorta situation with spirits and ghosts again." Gideon said.

She sighed. 

"Come on, guys!! We're a team, and a team is there for another team player!!" Mabel shouted as she tossed her phone onto the sand and waded into the freezing water. "Dipper?!" She shouted.

Dipper was shot up and tossed onto the shore and coming after him were about 10 blue ghosts of...children. Mabel got wide-eyes as she quickly retreated from the lake, her skirt, shoes, and socks soaked. The ghosts looked mad for some reason. 

"W-wait let me-" The boy coughed and tried to speak, but was grabbed by the neck as if they were attempting to... kill him.

"STOP!!!" Mabel shouted with her eyes watering as she got everyone's attention. 

The ghost dropped her sibling, and she ran over and hugged his soaking wet body, hugging it so tight that it was impossible to be let go. He took shaking breathes and his eyes stung, and he hugged back.

"Why did you stop us, girl?" A voice echoed.

She looked up at the ghosts and let go of her brother as she stood up and faced them. "W-why are you hurting my brother?" 

"He bothered us." One said.

"Yeah, and he's gonna pay for it." Another said. 

"What'd he do? I'm sure he'd be happy to apologize for it!!" 

"He trespassed our grounds on the night that we died. That's what he did."

"He didn't mean to upset you, I can promise you that!"

"How do you know?" One hissed back. 

"Because I know Dipper!!! He would never intentionally hurt someone!! He's a good person and whatever it takes for him to get out of this...nightmare...curse...i'll do it and help!! What do you guys need? A soul? A box of crayons? Teeth? More crayons??"

"Mabel, let me get myself out of this!" Dipper stood up slowly. "I got myself into this. I need to get myself out."

"No way. It's either I do it, or we both do it. As a team." She put her hand out. 

"...A team helps a team player..." Pacifica quietly said to herself as she walked over and placed her hand on top of Mabel's. "A team is a team." She smiled a little, getting a grin back from Mabel.

"I'll help too!!" Gideon waddled over and placed his hand on top of Pacfica's.

Dipper stared and gave a smile as he placed his hand on Gideon's. It felt small and chubby, but that besides the point. The point was that the two had come a long way to realize what friendship meant, and it meant a lot to Dipper that they were willing to help out. 

"Thanks, guys." He smiled.

They all removed their hands, putting them back at their sides and looked back to the ghosts, who were staring in awe at the sight they had seen. 

"Wow." Was what one said.

"We want to be set free. So we can see our mommies and daddies again." One other spoke. "We miss them very much."

"How do we do that?" Mabel questioned.

"The chosen one." Another with pigtails said.

Dipper slowly walked over and stood in the middle of the ghosts, looking awkward. "So...how's this work, exactly?" 

"Do the thing you guys did with the hands!" 

"You mean like this?" The boy stuck his hand out.

All of them nodded as they stuck theirs out too, and one by one, they touched Dipper, and as they did so, they poofed away, turning into sparkles who got carried away by the wind. One by one, the sparkles drifted away into the night sky. It was sort of peaceful to look at. The gang watched as they floated away.

Mabel walked over and put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm proud of you, broski." She smiled. 

He gave a small shrug. "It was nothin'."

"Don't play that hero act with me!" She laughed and punched him on the shoulder lightly. 

"I should get going. My parents are probably worried about me." Pacifica barged into the conversation, looking at the twins. "Thanks for...letting me come along. Some rough stuff was going down at home and i'm so glad I got to spend the day...hanging by the nasty lake and fighting off ghosts."

"Helping ghosts." Mabel corrected.

"Whatever." She turned around and gave a wave as she started to walk off.

"I should go too. I missed my dinner and ice cream." Gideon said before muttering something about how he hates nuts on his ice cream. "I'll catch up with y'all later!" And just like that, he was off too.

Mabel wrapped her shoulder around her brother. "Stan's gonna kill us, isn't he?" Dipper asked as they started to walk off.

"You didn't tell him before you left?!" She gasped.

"...No...and I left my phone at home."

"Mine's dead!!"

He laughed. "We have a long lecture to look forward to!!!"

She laughed back and it was silent for a moment. "Was it worth it? Sneaking out, almost dying, learning about trueee friendship?"

"It got rid of my nightmares, so yes." He went silent. "...Hopefully, at least."

When the two reached the shack, nobody was at the front of it, considering the time. Dipper bit his lip and Mabel looked back and forth and right as they snuck inside, the door shut behind them. The pair turned around to face...Stanford.

"Where have you two been all day?" He questioned.

"I...erm...well..." Dipper started to speak, but was having a hard time searching for words.

"Stanley and I both tried calling you."

"...I left mine here."

"Mine's dead!"

"He also told me you told him that you talked to me about this...sleeping issue you've been having. Which, may I remind you, I have never heard about, coming from you." He raised his eyebrow. "It'd be a lot easier for you to say the truth. Lies only make things worse."

"Thank you!!!" Mabel fist-pumped in victory. "Take that, Grunkle Stan!!!"

"LYING HAS IT'S BENEFITS!!!" He was heard yelling from down the hallway.

"STANLEY, THIS IS NOT HELPING THE LESSON I'M TRYING TO TEACH TO THE KIDS!!" Ford shouted back.

"I...kept getting nightmares...after I went to the lake a few days back...and it was about the same dots trying to eat me or torture me or whatever. Yesterday and today we spent trying to find the cure to get rid of it because whatever it was, it kept haunting me. I wanted to ask you...but...I thought you might stop me from going...or get mad that I tampered with something that I didn't mean to...I didn't...want to let you down. I'm so, so sorry, Grunkle Ford." Dipper hung his head and stared at the floor, twiddling his fingers.

He blinked and bent down to his height. "Dipper...i'm sorry you felt you weren't able to come and talk to me...but you always can. I will always listen and do my best to help you, because as a guardian, it's my responsibility to make sure you two are safe." He pulled the two into a hug, and he quickly pulled back, after feeling Dipper was soaked. "What happened to you?"

"Well...the cause of the nightmare problem was because of some spirits?? They were unhappy that I trespassed and we ran into them at the lake-"

"Angiks." Ford interrupted.

"What?"

"Angiks. You ran into Angiks and Utburds. They're fairies who are ghosts of kids that have died harshly. During a time of the year, usually the date of their death, they'll come out and if you're trespassing their property where they died, then they'll haunt your dreams."

"Ohh...that makes...a lot more sense...I should've definitely came to you yesterday...this could've all been sorted out and gone..."

He gave a small chuckle. "It's alright, my boy. Did you get them to leave?"

He nodded and gave a small smile with victory. 

"Good, because you both need some sleep...right after you eat dinner." He stood up and headed to the kitchen. "Dipper, get a spare change of clothes on so you don't catch a cold. Last thing we need is someone sick around the house."

The boy nodded and headed up the stairs, getting into a pair of dry clothes then heading back down, padding into the kitchen as he plopped down in a seat. Ford walked over and put two bowls of warm, steaming spaghetti in front of the twins. It actually looked appetizing.

"Thanks, Grunkle Ford." The boy smiled.

"THANK YOU VERY MUCHHHH!!" Mabel got up and hugged her great-uncle with a grin.

Dipper laughed and got up again as he joined in on the hug. Ford smiled and bent down as he hugged his great-niece and nephew. 

Nothing was better than a family hug.

CREDITS

"Passing up your deal, Bill. I solved this one all on my own." Dipper replied, arms folded as he had a smirk on his face. 

He glared. "You all are going to need me, one day, watch."

"Your deals are useless, it's like you're out of business. Everyone knows what you did to this town and nobody's going to take another deal from you"

"That's what you're saying now, but just wait. In a few weeks, maybe even days, you all will be crawling back to me for help."

"Yeah, right-"

Bill just laughed. "You think i'm talking nonsense!!"

"You usually are. Plus you're insane!!!"

"Your point??"

"I can't trust you."

"Whatever, kid. Enjoy the calm before the storm."

Dipper blinked and before he could ask any more questions, Bill disappeared with a poof. He looked around and from the corner of his eye he swore he could feel someone watching him from the shadows. 

Dreams were weird.

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