Phantom Falls

Chapter 7

Dipper woke with a start. He had heard it again- that strange sound like a laser gun being fired.

"Mabel! Mabel, wake up!"

"Dipper, seriously? Again?"

"No, really. I swear-" And then they both saw it. A streak of light heading from the Shack into the woods.

"Woah!" Mabel jumped out of bed and rushed to the window. Dipper was right behind her.

"What was that?" Dipper snatched his journal from the table at once.

"Let's go find out!" Mabel said, grabbing her grappling hook. ¨Mystery Twins!¨

They pulled on their shoes and ran out of the Shack.

"It went this way!" Mabel said, running ahead. "I see a glow!"

"Mabel!" Dipper huffed. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, and if you don't hurry up we'll lose it!" She rushed ahead. They swerved through the trees as the light got dimmer and dimmer.

"Stop!" Dipper called. "That's gnome territory!"

"But Dipper-!"

"Mabel, we are not walking in on the gnomes in the middle of the night!"

"But the light is fading!" Mabel pointed at the dim glow that was indeed almost gone.

They continued to bicker for a few minutes before Dipper sighed and said "We'll just have to- look!" The streak of light was flying away from the gnomes in a diagonal. "There it goes!"

"After it!" Mabel shouted.

They continued to weave through the forest in pursuit of the light. It stopped moving suddenly. Mabel flung her arm into Dipper's chest as she slid to a stop. "Shhh!"

"Ow! Mabel!"

"Shh, Dipper, don't scare it!"

"Scare it? We don't even know what it is."

"Then let's find out!" Mabel started creeping toward where the light had stopped. Dipper hurried along behind her, looking through his journal for clues to the mysterious glow. Then both of them looked up at the same time as they heard an all-too-familiar laugh.

"It's Bill!" Dipper said, pulling Mabel to the ground.

"Bill doesn't glow like that," Mabel said, staying low. Then another familiar voice sounded out.

"Who is that?" Dipper said, "I think I've heard him before."

"Kinda sounds like Danny." Mabel said.

"I don't think Danny would be dumb enough to go out here at night after what happened earlier." Dipper said. "Besides, that voice doesn't quite match him. It's not exactly... human."

Mabel too heard the echo in the unknown voice. It sounded like Bill and the mystery guy were arguing, but they couldn't hear enough to distinguish words. "I'm getting closer," Mabel said.

"Mabel, no! Don't let them see you!" Dipper whispered furiously, crawling after her.

"Don't worry, Dipper. I'll be careful."

"Mabel!" Dipper groaned and continued to pick his way through the underbrush toward the conversation.

Suddenly Bill started yelling one of his weird tangles of words that he always did as he vanished. Dipper was far behind Mabel at this point, because she had not been taking much care to keep herself undetected. He saw her stop at the edge of the same clearing where they had met Bill earlier.