"ODD MURDER OF GRAVITY FALLS VISITOR"

Dipper glanced at the newspaper his great uncle held in his hand, reading an entirely separate article than the one that ignited the boy's interest. He couldn't read the details from where he stood. He cleared his throat in attempts to get the attention of the near-elderly man. Nothing. He sighed, excepting that exact response. It's hard for people to get the attention of Stanford Pines unless your name is Mabel Pines or 'money'.

"Gruncle Stan." He muttered. His guardian grunted in half-assed acknowledgement. "Can I see that newspaper." Stan looked up over the edges of the pages with a questioning look.

"For what? If it's to kill a bug, use your hand, kid." He just went back to reading. Dipper shrugged and huffed out to himself. Whatever, he'll read it later. They sat in the thick silence, the only noises were the pipes running, and the occasional page being turned by Stan. Dipper's curiosity was enflamed with the idea of that murder. It was either a supernatural beast, or a killer. Either way, it was terrifying, it meant everyone and anyone was in danger.

He kept glancing at the paper, it's simple ripples calling for a read. The boy had to rip his eyes off of it and think of something else. Mabel. Yes, Mabel was a distracting enough person, maybe she could tone down his paranoia. He pushed off the wooden chair in which he sat, situating the hat on his head as he crossed the living room and onto the stairs. Each step creaked under the weight of his sneakers. Damn these old stairs. He decided to skip over a few steps to lessen the noise and time it took to get upstairs. He jumped over one step, and another, and another. He got ahead of himself, entertained by the quest it was to climb the mountain of stairs. Sometimes he forgot what it was like to be young and have fun, despite the fact he wasn't even through puberty yet. He felt so mature, so old and used. It felt like as the summer drawled on, the less innocent immature childhood he had. But it didn't bother him. It served as a way to spend time. By the time he reached the top of staircase, he placed his hand on the doorknob to their shared attic, and knocked with his opposing hand.

"Mabel? You in there?" There was a thud from the inside and a lighthearted 'one second' from the inside. The door swung open in front his eyes and the bright girl stood in front of him. Her braced smile outstretched across her soft cheeks and her brown eyes squinted shut mid smile. She bounced up and her teal sweater bounced along with her.

"What's up, bro-bro!" She shouted and cupped his face in her hands. He brushed her off his face with his hands and pushed his way into the room. He paced the wooden floor and his mind exploded in thought.

"Oh, I know that look!" Mabel leaned a shoulder on Dipper, despite the fact he was still pacing, and eventually fell to the floor due to his movement. She managed to tangle herself in her blanket beneath her. "You've got a mystery to solve, don't you?" She peeked her head out from the fabric, her headband being half pulled off of her head.

"This one's serious, Mabel. Lives are at stake." She chuckled.

"Yeah, lives were at stake every other mystery too." She spun onto her back trying to escape the trap of a blanket she was rolled into.

He stopped his movement and looked down at her. "This time, someone's already dead." She froze and jumped out of the sheet.

"Wait what? Who?" She sprung to her feet and plopped onto her bed, holding Waddles close to her.

"I'm not sure yet, Gruncle Stan wouldn't let me see the newspaper yet." He put his fingers to his temples and she could see the stress in his face.

"Dipper! I thought I told you how to deal with these types of things, especially Gruncle." She pounced back up and grabbed onto her twin's wrist and bolted down the stairs. She ran past the door. They darted into the living room, and as Mabel passed Stan, she tore the newspaper out of his hands. "Thanks for the paper, Gruncle Stan," she shouted while running out of the room. "We'll be leaving before you can process this sentence, bye!!" And they were gone.

"Hey! Kids!" Stan grumbled. "I'd come after you but I refuse to get up.." He sighed and searched for the remote.

Mabel stopped running and let go of Dipper's arm. He fell to the ground, a mess of brown, orange, and sweat. He held his side with a cramp and tried to slow his rapid breath.

"Here, Dip." She waved the paper above his head and pulled a seat up behind her, laying the newspaper out in front of her.

Dipper eventually pulled himself up the the chair next to her, still panting. He scanned the paper.

"Mabel, get a highlighter." He pulled out the journal and tried to find coincidences.

His sister pulled out a yellow highlighter and ran over the name of the victim.

"Mel Ove, a 23 year old Gravity Falls visitor staying in a temporary room in the Inn was killed last night. His chest was messily ripped open, his heart and right eye ripped out -literally- and a triangle was engraved around his left eye." Dipper slowed his reading, taking everything in. Mabel shuddered and highlighted that as well. "On the wall above his bed, a pine tree was carved out of the wood then line over with Ove's blood. "I've never seen anything like it" Sheriff Blubs commented." The two stared at each other for a moment, then scrambled for the book.

Mabel leaned over her older brother's shoulder. She read along with him as he frantically flipped through the pages.

"I don't get it. I've read this book cover to cover countless times, but I don't recognize anything even remotely similar to this." He almost tore the pages out with each panicked turn.

"Maybe.." Mabel hesitated. "It isn't in the book." Dipper turned to her, questioning.

"Are you implying there's a murderer in Gravity Falls." She nodded.

"Anything's possible. Or maybe the Author didn't live to document it." Mabel mumbled the last part out. Dipper didn't hear it, to both of their fortune.

"We need to look into this..." The boy took off his hat for a second to run a stressed hand through his hair before placing it back on his head.

"Dipper, this might be dangerous. Like, more dangerous than usual. This thing could be human, which I think might be scarier than a monster.."