Trust No One

Legends Squared

I sat there in silence tapping my pointer finger on the table lightly, the window had shone small rays of light as the sun rose into the sky. I glared at the leathery book and its pages; they had appeared a light shade of brown with burnt marks lining their edges. It had no cover, no title and this made it appear as though it held secrets, maybe more than it was letting on. Its contents appeared similar, if not more intense, than the journals created by 'the author' almost like Standford Pines had a teacher himself, or maybe it was an overmastered student. 

I carefully flipped through the pages a second and third time, who wrote this? there wasn't any signature or letter that claimed the book, but it said on the cover page 'Property Of' and then a blank space underneath, nothing, not even a smudge was on it, maybe there was no intention of it getting found almost like whoever wrote it didn't want it to be returned or didn't want to lose it in the first place. 

It felt like just seconds ago, I was running through the forest to the town's library, like seconds ago I was skimming through the very same library's books in attempts to find anything about Gravity Falls and asking around did nothing for me as the librarian's claim they had never seen this particular book in their lives, saying they knew this library and its books like the back of their hands. Who wrote this? who owned this? due to the circumstances, it was mine to keep. If it didn't belong to the library, then where did it come from? Did someone actually handwrite this? or maybe it was bought? it might be fictional! Once I read it, I automatically wanted to believe it was fake, I still had my doubts about if it was real or not, but in this instance, although it wasn't real it felt so...familiar. Was it fake? it had to be fake.

I had soon found myself sitting there for a while asking many more questions, I still don't have answers such as 'Who wrote this?' and 'where did the fox get it? if not the library'. The contents of this journal were like the three journals I read before, it was based upon Gravity Falls and its mysteries, it was mainly about the legends and the tales not one seems to stand out yet, it looked all too fictional, even if it felt so true, captivating me heart and mind, the feeling of interest and of peace came back to me again, what was going on? was it only that man making this feeling subside? or was there more? 

I kept on going back to its realness factor, how real it felt and how fake it sounded, how fake it looked. I wanted to believe its contents but yet I didn't because than it was another mystery that, if leaked, would either be left unsolved or forced upon me by the rest of my family and their friends to solve.

Yesterday's events kept coming back to me, that man from the funeral, he was still running my mind like most thoughts surrounding this recent visit to Gravity Falls, like them it was similar to an infinitely running ferries wheel, it wasn't leaving nor was it stopping, it was just going to keep on running. The way he made me feel so into the moment, so at home, at peace it horrified me every time I recalled the words we had exchanged, why did I let him control me like that? captivate me like that? why did I stick around that long! He was a stranger I had never met or ever seen in my life, it wasn't anything but magic, it had to be! maybe he looked like someone I saw as an important person? I had so many questions.  

Then there was that mysterious fox, he had popped in my head a few times, I didn't know what he was doing with such a thing but that didn't seem to matter as my mind was crossing from one side to the other. What's more important? what's the most curious? the most mysterious? I sat there wondering about the fox and the man, what do I do? what the fox and its journal important? or the man? was he important? or was the fox more so? where either of them worth looking into? it would be falling for the mystery, I didn't like mysteries. 

I found myself sitting at that same small, oak coffee table for hours just sitting there thinking. I had missed breakfast; it wasn't that important anyway and if nobody cared to come and look for me, why try anyway? Why should I humor them? I didn't feel like eating though my stomach begged for something to sustain itself. Almost like there was this giant frog in my throat preventing me from wanting to eat despite my subconscious telling me otherwise through stomach growls and fuzzy vision. 

Before I could go deeper into my thoughts, deeper into the depths of this book's world and the questions it asked as well as what it couldn't answer something stopped me. Something stopped me from going into that black hole with no signs of an end to the unanswered things in my life. My sister. She saved me. Her arrival was strange and her intent on speaking with me was more so. Was she here for me? or was it just a coincidence that she had arrived here?

"Hay, Mason?" My sister had tapped me on the shoulder and spoke with a hoarse voice that broke my already hollow heart. "You've been in here for a long while..." It gave me hope in a future friendship with someone other than books to hear Mable care, even a little. "What are you doing? can I help?"  I wasn't sure how to feel about my sister's sudden need to talk to me, sudden need to formulate a conversation but I figured it had something to do with yesterday.  

 Closing the book, I found myself at a loss for words, what was I going to say? we don't speak much if at all! which event yesterday made her want to speak to me and act this way? "Uh- just thinking is all...," what was I supposed to say? like I said before, I didn't want the possibility of drama to leak, the possibility of something new, something that maybe not even Standford Pines himself would know about, to even be considered as a thing.

"Are you sure?" She had this tone; one I couldn't pinpoint as the guilt filled my stomach, that lump from before had worsened. Speaking lowly to near a whisper, "Okay, just..." she shook her head, "Be safe, brother, please." She walked away, the light tapping of her shoe soles followed by the silence of the library made me wonder, where had it all gone wrong? what going on to make me so distant from her, what happened to make it this way? It seemed that as the days went on the questions grew, the answers lessened and my grip on anything 'normal' was starting to loosen. 

Is Gravity Falls the reason I'm so in deep into all these questions? are all the new mysteries that I know so far from this book just waiting to be solved and through all this, one thing makes me most curious, a series of questions lingered in my mind for some time after I found this book, and my main problem and the one I should figure out soon is...do I start solving these new mysteries? do I begin this cycle of hard-to-understand puzzles and harder to find solutions for them. Was I already to deep in my sorrows to even adventure into the unknown again?