Mabel didn't notice Dipper's change in mood.

Or that he wasn't eating.

Or the fact that he hadn't slept in two days.

All what he could think about was the rift. It wasn't an easy thing to forget when the balance of the universe itself was currently sitting in the basement.

Dipper slumped around the shack as he worked, yawning and leaning against the nearest object to rest before being woken up by Stan every now and then.

Mabel was in an especially hyper mood when Stan assigned her the task of advertising with a large arrow that pointed towards the shack along with Soos, who had the idea of dressing up as a giant question mark.

"why are you so hyped about this?" Dipper asked his sister followed by a large yawn.

"Why not? I get to spend all afternoon hanging out with Soos!" Mabel exclaimed as she picked up the giant arrow that said THIS WAY to MYSTERY

Soos walked into the gift shop already suited in his question mark costume.

"Check it out, dudes! Designed it myself!"

Mabel gasped, "Soos-it's amazing!"

"Thanks, Hambone!" Soos said proudly. He looked curious when he noticed Dipper.

"Wait a minute- you're new." He stated, almost sounding suspicious.

Dipper smiled awkwardly, "Yeah, I'm Mabel's cousin, Tyrone- but you can call me Ty."

Soos grinned wider, revealing a pair of large front teeth "Wow! You two could be twins!"

Mabel laughed and exchanged a knowing glance with her brother, "We get that a lot"

Dipper nodded in return.

"Nice to meet you, Ty" Soos said then looked at Mabel, "ready to go?"

"Yep!" Mabel exclaimed, then pointing her large arrow toward the exit she shouted, "ONWARD!" and ran out of the Gift Shop with Soos trailing behind her.

                   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

When Ford asked him to help him with something downstairs, Dipper thought he could actually die from excitement.
(Which would've been very ironic)

He managed to sneak away from the cash register and squeeze behind the vending machine unnoticed.

When Dipper arrived, Ford was struggling to latch a cage that contained a strange green monster that was much too big for it. It's long green tentacles were pouring out of the bars.

"Dipper! Lock this for me, quickly!"

Dipper did as Ford said and locked the cage while trying to avoid touching the slimy creature inside.

"That was a close one," Ford breathed and wiped away the sweat that had beaded on his forehead.

Well that was anticlimactic, Dipper thought.

"Anything else you needed help with?" he asked.

Ford thought to himself, "Well..."

Before he knew it Dipper had practically toured the entire lab. Ford showed him all of his inventions, his favorites included a mind-control neck tie, a memory erasing gun, and a lightbulb that could last a thousand years.

"This is all amazing!" Dipper exclaimed.

Ford smiled at Dipper's interest.

"I thought you'd like it down here" Ford replied. He stretched and glanced at the clock on his desk.

"It's late, you better get to bed."

Dipper's eyebrows knit in disappointment but he still turned to leave as his Uncle has said.

. . . . . . . .

Dipper opened the door to find a mess of sleeping bags, movies, makeup, and girls.

"Oh no" he grumbled at the sight of it all.

He absolutely loathed Mabel's sleepovers. She used to have one every weekend before the car accident. The girls would stay up all night singing karaoke, gossiping, and spilling whatever was on their minds- and Dipper had to endure all of it.

"Hey, bro bro!" Mabel greeted.

She was already wearing a face-full of tacky makeup and in the middle of braiding a girl's hair. The girl was small, had black hair and wore glasses.

"Is that your brother?" The girl spoke up, pointing up at Dipper.

"COUSIN" Dipper and Mabel shouted in unison.

"I'm her cousin...er- Tyrone."

"Oh. Hi! I'm Candy!" She said with a small wave.

"And that's Grenda." Candy pointed toward a girl who was putting on her own tacky makeup using a compact.

"Hi, Tyrone!" Grenda called in an abnormally deep voice.

"It's just Ty." Dipper added as he grabbed a pillow and a sheet from his bed,

"I'm sleeping in the living room." He announced. He left the room before Mabel could ask anything and slammed the door shut behind him.

Dipper settled in the yellow recliner in the living room. At the moment it felt like the most comfortable chair in the world- other than the fact that he could still hear the girls upstairs.

How could three girls be so loud?

But soon Dipper found himself drifting off into a deep sleep.

Soon he would wake up inside a nightmare.

                       .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

A/N: Haha sorry to leave you on yet another cliffhanger, but before anyone starts complaining- I'm about to update tonight right after this.

"Why not put it all in one chapter?" you may ask.

The answer is that this is how I've planned the layout and I want certain parts of the plot to be separated to add a little bit of a dramatic/climatic feel.

And also I decided to be nice today and give you guys a bonus chapter since I haven't updated in a while.

See you in the next chapter!

~Cath