Something seems off...

Chapter 11

The heavy-duty torch weighed a ton in the bag that his sister had given him, and Dipper frowned as it dug into his ribs and basically slowed him down much more than he would have preferred. She had been right to pack it though, even if she had done so badly and against good boy-scout rules. [1] Dipper had once made that mistake in his early mystery-hunting days, setting out without the useful piece of equipment and only packing a lighter aluminium version, which didn't survive the dunking in the lake that the kappas had given it.[2] From then on, he had taken to lugging the one with a heavier, waterproof casing, even though he did so unwillingly. Every single time he would return from an expedition, he would try to remember to get a better one once he had the opportunity, yet it seemed that there was always something to distract him from that one, simple task. The last time that that had happened had been yesterday, when they were charged with an unexpected pair of guests to bring home along with them.

Summer was a season where evenings were light, yet the number of rays escaping over the horizon were rapidly decreasing and the dusk shadows lengthening. For now though, he just had to focus on scanning the tombstones one by one, try to find something, anything that might have been out of place. He was alone in the eerie place, apart for the occasional call of some far-off bird from the closest trees. The fading light bode for both good and bad news. Good news was that spirits tended to be more visible in the dark than in daylight. Bad news was that they were stronger and more aggressive too. Add to that the fact that he needed to stop to pull the dreaded torch out as well, and you have the perfect prospects for a relaxing evening.

Dipper hesitated before pushing the gate to the graveyard, and only winced as when he finally did decide to push the rusting metal out of his path, it let out a screech akin to a badly-oiled haunted house door in any horror movie that knew their business. Despite the number of similar expeditions he had been on, this sort of thing still freaked him out, particularly when he had nobody to put up a fearless façade for like his sister or if someone else was accompanying him. Normal ghosts weren't so bad, but this had sounded too much like a demon, and the only one he had ever faced had tried, and nearly succeeded, to make this dimension his plaything.

With another shudder for good measure, he pushed a rock over with his foot to keep the gate open, in case he needed to make a quick escape (even though against a demon, particularly if it was only a fraction as strong as Cipher had been, he knew that he wouldn't stand much of a chance), before a realisation struck him. His Great-Uncle Ford had come along with them, even though it was as evident to him as it was to them that the thing they were going up against was dangerous. He had done so, even despite his reticent words earlier on today about him dabbling with other dimensions and demons. All the times he had lost his temper at the man now came back to him in a brief shower of doubt, before he shook them off. He had decided some time ago not to let such things take his concentration away from the task at hand, and instead made the quick and steel-strong decision to beg forgiveness from the man when all this was sorted. He had gotten cold and detached, but he still cared. That's what counted the most.

Darkness was threatening to take over things completely now, so he swung the backpack down and pulled the torch out where it had been stuck between various unnecessary items that had obviously been thrown in the bag regardless to their utility (a mini-golf club, a few balls of yarn, a huggy-wuvvy tummy bundle... Mabel!). The thing glared it's artificial light over the cemetery in a near clinical way, not helping his anxiousness one bit.

What had Wirt said again? He tried to scrape his mind for the information he needed (Ford was the one who had kept the pad), and finally managed to fit them together: A large, frightening monster which had possessed a young girl, and who in turn transformed into a flesh-eating monster when the thing in her was not kept distracted by it's host's activity. There was more though...