Into the Darkness ‖ GF X UT

Chapter 1 - 《Fallen Down》

(Dipper's POV)

"Mabel! Please be serious!" I yelled annoyingly as I slowly climbed up the steep path that was surrounded by pine trees.

"Well, it's not my fault that these adorable squirrels are attracted to me," Mabel replied cheerfully while stretching out her arm, showing a tiny squirrel sitting on it.

"You were the one who decided to feed them gummy koalas in the first place!" I pointed out angrily as I pulled the journal out of my vest.

"Okay okay," Mabel said before shooing the squirrel off her arm,"What are we doing here anyways? Are we trying to find the cursed statue that the evil dorito left behind?"

"Not even close," I answered as I showed her a page of Journal 1, which had been recovered from the fire after that horrible experience titled Weirdmageddon,"It says here that at the very top of this mountain, there is this giant hole in the ground that supposedly leads to a secret underground area filled with monsters."

Mabel then leaned in to take a closer look before reading a line from the page,"Legends say that those who climb the mountain never return? Dipper, are you sure about this?"

"Well, I'm just going there to do a quick investigation, maybe throw a few rocks into the pit, and then we can go home and watch TV," I said before closing the book shut.

"Ugh, we've been climbing for ages! Are we even halfway there yet?" Mabel complained. Right after Mabel's complaint, I noticed a sign stuck to the ground a few feet away from us. We both quickly ran up to it, trying to get a better view of the bold words written on it. On the old wooden sign, it read,"MOUNT EBOTT".

"Haha, Mount E-butt," Mabel snickered at the name of one of the mountains that surrounded Gravity Falls.

"Seriously?" I answered back sarcastically while folding my arms. Even though that pun was really lame, I somehow felt a smile creeping up onto my face

"C'mon, you're smiling," Mabel said cheekily.

"I am and I hate it," I replied, my smile slowly disappearing.

"Anyways, we should be close to the peak," I finally said as I continued our journey to the top of the mountain.

"Finally! My legs feel like Jello," Mabel said happily before using all of her remaining energy to rush up the mountain path. Just after a few seconds, I suddenly heard Mabel's voice yelling out loudly towards my direction,"Dipper! The mountain peak is already up here!"

"Well that was fast," I mumbled to myself before making my way towards the peak of Mount Ebott.

Once I reached the end of the dirt path, all I could see was a few trees, a random medium-sized cave in the middle of the surface and an excited Mabel standing right in front of me.

"What is a cave doing here on top of a mountain?" I asked in a surprised tone before walking into the dark cave.

"What's new? That's just normal Gravity Falls stuff bro," Mabel replied casually as she followed me in. There were a number of stalactite hanging from the rock ceiling, ready to fall at any time. I then noticed a short figure standing a few feet away from us with its back facing. In front of the figure, there was a huge pit that looked like it led to nowhere. Thick vines were growing at the edges of the pit.

As the lone figure leaned forward to take a closer look at the darkness, the surface below its feet began to crumble, causing a few rocks to fall into the abyss. Knowing that the clueless person might lose control of their balance, Mabel rushed forward and pulled them away from the pit while saying nervously, "Woah there. Be careful, you may get into really deep trouble just by standing there."

"Mabel, this is not the time for a pun," I answered annoyingly before walking over to her.

"That wasn't intentional!" Mabel protested. I then decided to take a quick look at the child who almost fell to their death. For some odd reason, I couldn't really tell what gender they were from their appearance. They had short brown hair, extremely weird light yellow skin, a striped sweater with dark blue shorts, and had eyes that looked like straight lines for whatever reason.

"Are you alright......kid?" Mabel asked the child. Looks like Mabel also had some trouble figuring out this person's gender. We both waited for their response, hoping that their voice would help us determine their gender.

......

Silence.

"So......you're the silent type,huh?" Mabel asked again, already knowing that the child would not respond.

"I think you should go back to your home kid. Being here is kinda of dangerous. You won't want your parents to worry about you," I finally suggested to the child. The child then nodded slightly before heading out of the cave. Mabel and I both followed them, making sure that they go back to their home safely.

Instead of walking towards the town of Gravity Falls, the child decided to walk the opposite direction.

"Wah, where are you going? Gravity Falls' that way," Mabel exclaimed confusingly while pointing towards the direction of the sleepy town. The child immediately shook their head in response before also pointing towards the direction they were heading to.

Once I went over to the child to see what they met, I managed to see a small lonely village near Mount Ebott. I remembered reading in one of the journals that there was another civilisation located somewhere near Gravity Falls. I guess it was this peaceful village on the other side of the mountain.

"Oh, sorry. Our mistake," I apologized sincerely, allowing the child to continue their trip back home.

"I like that suspicious genderless child," Mabel commented as we walked back towards the mysterious cave.

"They don't even speak a single word Mabel," I answered back.

"Well, neither does your journal which you love so much," Mabel joked while poking the journal which I was holding onto. We had already arrived back at the huge abyss.

"Are you sure this isn't another bottomless pit Dipstick?" Mabel asked curiously as she fiddled with her shooting star sweater,"I mean, it's shaped exactly like the one near the Mystery Shack, except for the weird vines."

"I'm one hundred percent sure that this isn't one of those useless bottomless pi-" I started to explain but stopped mid-sentence when I felt something wrapping around my right foot. I then looked down to see several dark green vines tightening around my ankle. My eyes followed the trail of vines to realize that it was coming from the pit connecting to the underground.

Without warning, the vines suddenly yanked at my ankle, causing my whole body to get pulled into the huge hole in the ground. Due to the strong pulling force, my slippery hand released the precious journal, leaving it behind on the dirty ground.

"The Journal!" I yelled out helplessly before getting consumed by the darkness.

Screaming was all I could hear.

Screaming was all I could do.

There was an endless sensation of falling.

Before my body hit the ground.
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