A/N Why guys! Not much to say other than THANK YOU ELENTORI FOR SIGNING YOUR ARTWORK!!! Yeah, the picture above was made by Elentori.

Episode 5: Late-O-Ween

Mabel trembled as she tasted bitter bile. The 'thing' slowly turned its head to look at Mabel. It laughed an inhumane laugh that made the hairs on the back of Mabel's neck rise.

"It seems as though you don't believe in the importance of Late-O-Ween," it stated, startling Mabel. "Well, I'll make you believe in it. I curse all who are gathered here today! Those that don't bring me as much candy as you possibly can by sunrise will all turn to stone upon contact with the sun!"

Mabel was petrified, barely able to breathe her shallow breaths. The eerie smile forever frozen on the Halloween mask wouldn't allow her to move.

"For I am the Late-O-Ween Trickster!" It exclaimed, "And I will hunt each and every last one of you down if it's the last thing I'll do!"

Mabel's gaze hardened. "Why are you doing this?" Even more eyes turned to her, causing Mabel to slightly shrink back into her brother.

The Trickster tilted it's head. "To show you not to mess with Late-O-Ween. Or would you like to make a deal for these people?"

Mabel closed her eyes. "Yes." She whispered. "I would like to take up the punishment. They're scared enough."

"Very well. You know what to do."

Another voice spoke up. "I think that's hardly fair. Mabel can't do it by herself!"

Mabel found the source of the voice to be Gideon Northwest. She sighed relief that someone was agreeing to help her.

Dipper clenched his fists next to her. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually agree with Northwest. Our team will handle this." He gesture to him, Candi, and Gray.

The Trickster barely regarded them. "Fine. Do whatever you want, as long as I get my Late-O-Ween candy." Mabel cowered into her brother's arms as the Trickster disappeared into the daunting woods.

Gideon came over and put a hand on Mabel's shoulder. "That was pretty brave of you. Let's get going."

🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲

Dubbing Gideon unfit to go trick-or-treating without a costume, Mabel dragged him back to the Mystery Shack to use the extra costume she got.

"You got an extra costume?" He had asked when she told him. Mabel nodded, a bit embarrassed.

"Yeah. I saw it and thought it would be nice to have an extra since Dipper is so... Dipper."

He laughed a bit. "You're right. It makes sense. From what I've seen you're the responsible one."

Mabel chuckled and pushed him into the bathroom. "Hurry up and get dressed so we don't turn into statues, alright?"

Gideon grinned and closed the door. Mabel sat down and played cards with her family, including Ford.

"So, what are you kids doing back so early? From what I can see you never went trick-or-treating!" Ford had asked when he first sat down.

Mabel looked up at him with a surprised look on her face. Ford never usually asks them anything unless it's a request. Something was up, but Mabel decided to look into after they weren't at risk of getting turned to stone.

"Well, some crazy 'Late-O-Ween Trickster'," she said his name with hand quotes, "decided we weren't grateful enough of Late-O-Ween so he decided to curse us and now we're just waiting for Gideon to get finished changing."

Ford's eyebrows flew up in surprise. But instead of asking about the Trickster he asked this: "Northwest is here? I didn't know you knew him enough to let him tag along."

The brunette raised an eyebrow in skepticism. "You asked about that?  Oh, whatever. Yeah, he's here, and how could you not know that we knew him since the Fair incident? And the snowball fight? Wow, you pay less attention to the world around you than I thought."

Ford shifted nervously. "I'm gonna go back to the lab." He scurried away before Mabel, or anyone else, could protest.

Mabel slumped in defeat. "I did it again."

Before anyone else could say anything to comfort her, though, Gideon came out of the bathroom in his outfit.

"How do I look?" He was wearing a brown suit and a large black top hat with a purple ribbon. In the ribbon was a piece of paper with 3/4 on it. His black dress shoes tied the look up madly.

"Great." Mabel answered with a smile, "Now let's go!"

She dashed out the door, pulling an oblivious Gideon behind her. The rest followed them out.

"So I've been thinking on how to get more candy faster. We'll split into groups. Dipper, you're with Candi and Gray. The only reason I'm doing this is because you wanted to go with your friends and you all don't get along with Gideon. Even though I've been trying to find a way for us to do our twin thing I've seemed to have failed miserably."

She pointed at Gideon. "Gideon, obviously you're with me. Any objections?" She was met with silence. "Good. Come on, Gideon. At least we still have matching costumes."

A/N Hey guys! Not even gonna apologize for being later than usual, so I'm just gonna comment on my spooky theme for my pictures. Alright, not much to say anymore except I'm so excited for the Rise And Fall Of Our Dreams! I have so many ideas for it. If you can't tell, it's Dreamscaperers and Gideon Rises all rolled into one. Get ready for a long one!

-Rouge Cur