Pines Academy

[1] p h a s e o n e

182 Days After

Monday, October 13th, 2013

Mabel desperately wished that time travel was possible. She never imagined that she wouldn't see her brother again after that day, after she stood in the doorframe to watch as he disappeared. She would've said something. She would've hugged her brother and insisted that she travel to Oregon with them.

Now she was traveling to Oregon alone.

It had been approximately 153 days since the scary government agents showed up at their doorstep. Mabel's parents were confused at first, but plenty of tears were shed after the agents explained their arrival.

One month ago, Mason and Stanford Pines had gone missing. All of the explanations that the agents could all lead to terrible news.

As a wealthy and intelligent man, Stanford Pines had plenty of enemies. Mabel had seen the list of suspects herself. They all had their own page with a Polaroid of a headshot. Each page was kept in a heavy folder that the agents had given to her parents before they proposed an investigation.

Mabel and her parents were astounded at their idea. It was insane. There was no way it could be done. It was like something that would happen in a movie.

Mabel never would've imagined herself where she was now.

She subconsciously glanced at her reflection in the window, reaching a hand to her hair and combing the curls away from her forehead. She had been told to wear her bangs down in case someone happened to notice that she lacked her brother's birthmark. The hairstyle was awful. It was a version of her own brother's haircut that was longer, so her bangs almost completely covered her eyes.

"You okay?" Stan asked from the seat across from hers. He looked slightly uncomfortable in a turtleneck sweater. His hair was neatly combed and his face was clean-shaven. Mabel still wasn't used to seeing him in something besides his police uniform.

"Yeah." Her answer was a lie, of course. Mabel couldn't ignore the churning in her stomach. The fear that gripped her insides made her want to crawl deep into her suitcase and hide for the rest of her life.

"We've come this far," her uncle said. "We're going to be okay."

Stan was staring down at his hands. He wiggled his fingers and stared at them with sadness in his eyes before slipping on a pair of gloves that had been designed to make it appear that he had six fingers.

His twin brother, Stanford Pines was a recluse. Some had even assumed he died a long time ago. Little did the public know, whenever he wasn't in his office at the academy, he was continuing his studies in the old log cabin that he shared with his brother.

The two men were identical. The only difference that stood out was Stanford's birth defect. He had an extra finger on both hands. Mabel knew all about the story of how the defect pushed him to learn all there was to know about anomalies. Stanford and Stanley used to spend their summers together in Gravity Falls as kids. Stanford always said he felt at home in the town because of the strange things he had witnessed.

Neither Mabel or Mason ever understood what he meant by "strange things". Stan always dismissed his brother's tall tales as mere stories they made up as kids to keep themselves entertained while staying in town with their grandparents for the summer.