Somewhere in the Woods: A Gravity Falls Mystery

Chapter 12

Mabel's Personal Diary

June 19, 2022

I'm having trouble remembering what happened yesterday. It all feels like a bad dream. All I remember is being comforted by everyone I know and love, which frankly, after everything I've been through the last few days, I feel like that was earned.

Dipper and Ford caught me up on everything that happened. Long story short, I was almost a pawn in an attempt by Pacifica's parents to create a copy of Bill to regain their fortune. Seemed like an awfully long way to go to get rich again. I guess you shouldn't underestimate the greediness of some people.

I was a little surprised to find out that Pacifica was semi involved in it. I really thought she had moved past the influence of her parents. But turns out, she very quickly turned on them during the ritual and helped Dipper and Ford. So, in the end, she really did move past her previous ways. I always knew it. She spent hours afterwards apologizing, even after I accepted it many times. I could tell that she really felt bad about it.

After all that, I had an amazing night sleep for the first time in days. I didn't have the nightmare, and when I woke up, I felt so rested. I guess Mr. Aster was right. I just needed to confront the trauma of the past in order to make it stop.

In all honesty, this is what I needed. I had held onto the idea that I caused Weirdmaggedon for the last ten years. It kept eating away at me every time it crossed my mind again and again and again. But thanks to this, I know that it wasn't my fault. What I did in the past is in the past. The only thing that matters is that I'm not that person anymore. Now the time has come to go back to my old life. The adventure is over, for now.

We said a goodbye to everyone in Gravity Falls. I wished Soos and Wendy good luck in their lives. I'm just so happy that they're happy with their lives. Now it's time to find what will make me happy in my life.

And it looks like I'll be going back alone. Pacifica has decided to join Dipper and his friends on their adventure. She wants to make a new identity for the Northwest name by making big discoveries and traveling the world. I also think there's something between her and Dipper. That really makes me excited. I can't wait to see where this is going.

So what am I going to do? I don't really know. But now I don't have the past holding me back anymore. I'm free to finally push forward to the future.

Dipper's Journal #3

June 19, 2022

We finally did it. We stopped Bill once and for all. Well, I guess we thought we did that ten years ago, so anything is possible. Though I hope he doesn't come back from this.

The most important thing right now is that Mabel is safe. We saved her from being possessed by a copy of Bill. I do wonder what kind of power that thing was capable of, but it's best that we never saw that. I didn't want my sister controlled by a demonic trickster.

I don't think I had ever seen Mabel so emotional after that, even though she says she doesn't remember much from what happened. Maybe that's for the best. But what she does remember was forgiving herself for breaking the rift. She finally accepted that it wasn't her fault, and that it was bad for her to hold onto something that happened in the past.

Then there's Pacifica. Yes, I was mad that she would even consider helping her parents with something so terrible. But after she apologized to both of us for hours afterwards, I could tell that she was genuinely remorseful. She really has changed from her old, selfish ways.

Speaking of her parents, it looks like they won't be doing any summoning from now on. In the time since that summer, Ford had invented a new version of the memory gun that Mabel had smashed. That's what he and Stan had been using in case their adventures led to anything too outlandish.

Now he's used it on them. He erased any memory of the summoning ritual and of Bill from their minds. Though they were still bitter about losing their fortune, at least that's all they were. Hopefully they won't try anything too insane like that again.

In all this chaos, I almost forgot about our movie. Charlie and Katie had been documenting it throughout and got some good footage. But we've decided not to use any of it. It just seemed too personal a mystery to use in a movie that we plan to show in public. We were left with nothing in the end.

That's when Ford gave us an offer. He and Stan were heading down south to investigate supernatural phenomenons in the Amazon and asked if the three of us wanted to come along. He said it was an adventure that would work better with a larger group. Of course we said yes. We didn't have the money to film anything outside the country, so this was a great opportunity.

Surprisingly, Pacifica is coming with us. We didn't think that this was something she would want to do. But she told us that she wanted to make something new of the Northwest name, and thought that adventuring around the world, making new discoveries and rewriting history, would be the way to do it.

I'm actually really happy she'll be joining us. I'm curious to see how she fairs in an adventure bigger than this one. Compared to where we're going, this was nothing. It'll also be nice to get to know her more. Maybe even...

I mean.... um...

Look, I'm just going to let whatever happens happens, alright.

We all said goodbye to everyone in Gravity Falls, though this probably won't be the last time we see them. We even made a deal with Soos to send him images of creatures and phenomenons that we find so he can add them to the Mystery Shack. He figured some international creatures would bring in more business.

As for Mabel, she's heading back to Los Angeles by herself. Only this time, she's not scared about it. She's actually quiet confident. She doesn't know where her life will go, but she's happy she won't be hanging onto the past anymore. She's free to finally make her way into the future.

As for me, I also don't know where things are headed. I'm excited about the new adventures we're going on with Stan and Ford. I'm excited to be going on this with my friends. I'm excited to show Pacifica places beyond what she's probably seen.

But as for where this will all lead in the end, who knows. And you know what, there's nothing wrong with that. I'm ready for a bit of surprise.