A/N:

Hello! Before I begin with the chapter, I wanted to say - I had no idea what to name the chapter XD

I was gonna name it Wax Mystery but then... I wasn't gonna include the mystery in here. So I just named it Wax Statues. Enjoy. :)

*Dipper's POV*

Me and Mabel didn't talk to each other at all. We avoided each other at all times.

Grunkle Stan tried asking me and Mabel multiple times why we kept avoiding each other - we both just answered that we got in a heated argument and we needed to cool down.

Although Grunkle Stan's words showed he believed us, I saw the suspicion in his eyes.

While Mabel was doing some art crafting stuff, I was wandering around old parts of the Mystery Shack, tapping my chin and thinking about questions - the usual.

"Okay, I shouldn't bother stressing over the big questions - lets start small. Do the two monsters that popped out of the journal have any connection...?" I muttered to myself.

Well, the obvious connections are that they were both monsters, and they popped out from the book.

Another connection could be that they both had glowing blue eyes... and the journal glowed blue whenever it spit out a monster...

But that didn't seem to mean anything! I feel like I'm missing too many pieces of the puzzle!

I rubbed my temples, trying to think of anything that might point out to an answer, but I couldn't recall anything.

Frustrated, I opened the journal and searched frantically for any location or item that could get me more information on the topic.

For some reason I found a page with a random drawing of a tree.

I was confused - was that tree some hidden monster or something? I couldn't figure it out. Not wanting to get agitated over anything else, I skipping the page and continued searching.

But nothing really pointed out to any location or item that could help. Gritting my teeth, I threw the journal at the wall.

It flopping the floor, the pages glowing blue. I went pale.

"No no no no-" I said, running over to the journal-

A bunch of wax figures that could move popped out of the journal. Their pupils were gone and they looked very angry.

Assuming they were gonna attack me like the other monsters that appeared from the book, I dashed for the journal and dodged all of them, heading outside.

I was careful to pick a route that avoided people, especially Grunkle Stan and Mabel.

The wax figures chased me down, snarling at me to 'come back there'.

All I did was chase them out into the sun and let them melt.

They fell for it and melted into the dirt and grass. Was wax good for plants? I couldn't remember and I didn't really care right now. Then I noticed an opening in the ground - the same place I found this journal.

A Mabel-like voice in my head started speaking.

"Put the book back where you found it. Mabel's summer dreams will be saved."

But another voice started talking in my head-

"Don't! You need to solve this mystery before you put it away! Mabel's summer dreams can wait, this mystery is much more important than romance."

I listened to the second voice. But I did play around with the controls still inside the tree. The opening where the journal used to be closed, and a different opening appeared.

It was... a black light?

I took it and turned it on - and noticed invisible ink stains on the cover!

There was also... a fingerprint! If I scanned the fingerprint, I could finally find out who the author is!

I squealed in delight but then quickly cleared my throat and ran to the Mystery Shack as fast as I could.

*After he scans the fingerprint*

What? This doesn't make any sense. Grunkle Stan doesn't believe in this stuff. So why would he write a journal on all of this?

And why would he be the author of a journal that spits out monsters?!

It must have been a mistake. Maybe the finger-printer scanner is broken. It has to be.

I was staring down at the name 'Stanford Pines' in disbelief. It couldn't possibly be Grunkle Stan, could it?

I shook my head and put the finger-print scanner away. It had to be wrong. Maybe it's not accurate, or it's broken. It's the only explanation.

I used the black light on the pages and I was introduced to so much more information - like weaknesses for monsters, and-

I set the black light on that tree page, and I exploded withe excitement - a secret bunker!

I was so happy I jumped up and down. I heard footsteps and I quickly put away the black light and the journal, making sure to turn the black light off.

I quickly took an encyclopedia in my hands and pretended to read just as the door swung open and Mabel walked through.

The air suddenly went very tense the second she acknowledged me. I put the encyclopedia away to see Mabel staring daggers at me.

"Mabel."

"Dipper."

She sidestepped to her bed, not taking her eyes off me. She took her Princess Lovacorn plushie and squeezed it.

"Princess Lovacorn says 'Buy my 42 accessories!'"

"Dipper. I saw the melted wax outside." Mabel said, finally saying more than one word since yesterday. "The book spit a monster out again, didn't it?"

"Yes, it did." I said. I didn't like her tone.

"That means more danger. More risk." Mabel said, and then squinted at me. "More risk that my summer dreams might never come true."

"Mabel, your summer dreams can come true next summer if they don't work out in this one." I said. "You've got plenty of time this summer anyway-"

"No! This is my first summer in Gravity Falls, and first summers in an awesome place are meant to have dreams come true!" Mabel yelled. "And you're ruining that by being selfish and dragging that evil book around!"

"Mabel! You're the one who's being selfish! If I don't solve this mystery it might drive me crazy!" I argued. "All you want to do is have an epic time, even if I'm not!"

Mabel balled her hands into fists, and so did I.

"Where's that book?! I'm going to rip it apart!" She screamed, lunging towards me.

I jumped to the side just in time for Mabel to smack against the wall.

"Ow! My nose!" She said. A wave of guilt crept over me.

"Mabel, I'm sorry-"

She punched me in the face.

"That's what you get!"

We continued brawling each other until we were both too exhausted to take another hit. I got up and laid down on my bed, and Mabel did the same after a while.

Once I caught my breath, I took the black light and the journal and ran outside before Mabel could react. I locked the door too so she wouldn't be able to follow me.

Once outside, I sighed in relief. But that feeling of being watched was intensified, but I didn't get why. The pine tree woods looked far more spooky than these regular birch trees.

I arrived back in the pine woods to my relief, and I found the tree from the journal's page. I looked up at it.

"That branch... it looks a lever!" I said to myself. But then there was a problem - how was I going to get up to it?

Ugh! I should've prepared for something like this!

Miraculously, a bird flew into the lever and pushed it, but fell to the ground.

The ground surrounding the tree turned into stairs, and I began to climb down, using the black light as a flashlight.

I walked in through a metal door and saw dusty supplies on the shelves.

"What would happen to the world that would need supplies for over 60 years...?" I said, noticing the supply boxes were all labeled after future years.

This couldn't be all there was though, could there? I searched around for anything else taht I might find, but there seemed to be nothing there.

"Is this all there is?" I muttered. I leaned against a poster on the wall but I noticed a tunnel behind me. At least, It felt like it.

I ripped the poster off and discovering my suspicions were correct.

"Bingo." I mumbled happily, and I started climbing through.

After a while I found a room of symbols. I think I pressed on a booby trap, because an alarm went off and the room glowed a bright red. Pillar started closing in from all sides. Symbols were on the top of each pillar.

I frantically searched through the journal. I shined the black light on a symbols page and it showed me which symbols to press to open the escape door.

I quickly went around the room, trying to find the symbols and press them.

I just barely got the last one and I quickly sprinted for the door when it opened. It was so close-

A pillar pushed me out of the way. I scrambled to my feet and jumped for the door, just barely getting through before it was completely blocked.

I panted, trying to catch my breath. Once I did, I had a look around.

I was in a lab of some sorts. I looked to my left and saw some controls, and a window into another room, with a bunch of... container things. I can't really remember what they're called at the moment.

I pressed  blue button and the container things froze on the inside. I pressed it again and it unfroze.

I noticed a piece of paper stuck there and it said something about... a shapeshifter?

I tensed. Hopefully the 'shapeshifter' didn't go after me while I was in here. I noticed a decontamination chamber in the very back of the room. I headed over there, and I noticed a rope hanging from the ceiling, so I pulled it.

The doors shut behind me, water spewed out, making me soaking wet, and then hot air surrounded me on all sides.

The doors in front of me opened, to reveal a dug out area with a bunch of tunnels. I noticed one of the containers' glass was broken, and then I heard screeching. I instantly went pale. I banged on the decontamination doors, trying to get it to open, but it was no use.

"Someone help! There's a shapeshifter in here!" I yelled, but I didn't think anyone was going to answer.

The screeching got louder as the shapeshifter got closer - I knew I had to move.

I ran into one of the tunnels, praying I wasn't running directly to it-

I fell down a hole, screaming. Why didn't I watch where I was going?!

I splashed into some water, and it was freezing. I thrashed around, trying to find somewhere that I could get to land.

I heard more screeching echoing, but it wasn't as loud as it was before. I swam to land and I panted. I heard another splash and scream... but it was Mabel's voice.

How would Mabel know where I was? She couldn't determine that. How would she even get past the security room with all of the  pillars in the way?

It couldn't be her. It had to be the shapeshifter. But as I flipped through the pages of the journal, it said that the shapeshifter could only turn into someone or something unless they see it.

So that must mean that Mabel was obviously here. Whether she was seen and the shapeshifter transformed into her, or this was the real Mabel. I had no idea which one.

So I wouldn't get killed because of the shapeshifter (and if it was Mabel so I could get the journal away from her) I ran away, farther into the tunnel.

Unfortunately, I reached a dead end.

"No no no no! There has to be some way out of here!" I said desperately. When i saw a shadow loom over me from behind, I whipped around and was backed into the wall.

Mabel was staring down at me.

"Dipper, why are you acting so panicky?" Mabel asked. "Are you so desperate to keep the journal away from me that you're scared of me?"

"No! You're not Mabel! You're the shapeshifter!" I yelled.

She just crossed her arms.

"Bro bro, why you ackin' so cray cray?" Mabel asked. "Just tell me what's going on."

I was pretty sure the shapeshifter didn't know about that show, so I calmed down a little and explained.

"So basically I went over here to get some answers on why the journal was spitting out monsters... then I read about a shapeshifter back in the lab. I went to explore a little more but then I saw that one of the containers that was supposed to have the shapeshifter in was broken, and I heard screeching." I explained. "Because of that I got really scared and started banging on the door and calling for help but no one came."

"That explains why I heard faint banging when I was pushing the pillar thingies away!" Mabel said.

"And I heard the screeching get closer, so I ran into one of the tunnels, fell into this hole, and got here." I finished.

"No wonder you were so scared! That sounds just like horror movies that our parents didn't want us to watch but I watched anyway!" Mabel said.

"Wait wha-"

"I'll explain later, Dip-dop. We gotta get out of here first." Mabel said. I nodded.

"First we have to find a way out of this hole. Maybe there's an extra tunnel?" I asked. Mabel was already searching before I finished my sentence.

"Found one!" She called. I ran up to her and saw the tunnel she was pointing at.

"Alright, let's go. Hopefully we won't be stuck here." I said. I took a deep breath, and walked through with Mabel, using the black light as a flashlight.

"This place is spooky!" Mabel said. "Good thing we got light!"

She clicked the lightbulb on her sweater and it lit up. I gave her a look.

"Isn't that a fire hazard?" I asked.

"No. It's a fun hazard."

"Okay... then why didn't you do the 'fun hazard' sooner? This black light doesn't really help us see much." I said. Mabel just shrugged and we continued walking.

"So... I'm sorry about before Dipper. While trying to search for you in the woods, I realized that I was being selfish. I'm so sorry." Mabel apologized.

"Well, I guess I was being so obsessed over the journal as well. I'm sorry, too." I said.

"Awkward sibling hug?" Mabel said with her arms outstretched.

"Awkward sibling hug." I said, and we hugged.

"Pat pat." We both said in unison, patting each other's backs.

We continued walking, Mabel lighting the way with her sweater, and soon, we made it back to the decontamination room.

We were gonna get back inside but some gooey monster thing got in our way.

"You two." It said in a deep, booming voice. I shivered.

"What do you want with us, shapeshifter?!" Mabel yelled.

"Well, I want to feast upon your bones and be out in the real world, taking your place." It said. I went tense. I could tell Mabel was tense too, but she did a good job of hiding it.

"Yeah, well you're not gonna! Because you're a big dumb poopy-face!" Mabel yelled. She let out a war cry and shot her grappling hook at its eye.

It cried in pain and fell to the floor. We ran past it and into the decontamination room.

However, the shapeshifter got up pretty quickly and I noticed that there were two Mabels fighting each other.

Oh no, not this.

"C'mon Dipper! Let's defeat the shapeshifter together!"

"No, she's the shapeshifter! Not me! Get her instead!"

"I-I-I don't know who's who! Give me a sign!" I said.

One of the Mabels winked at me with a smile, but the other said, "Awkward sibling hug?"

"Awkward sibling hug!" I yelled, punching the other Mabel in the face. It screeched and turned back into the shapeshifter. Once I was sure me and Mabel were together in the decontamination room, I pulled the rope on the ceiling.

We got soaking wet, then dry, and then the doors behind us opened. We headed inside the lab again and sighed in relief.

"Next you go on an adventure, let us come with you." Mabel said. "I promise I won't burn the journal, or damage it, or destroy it in any way."

"Okay." I said. "Thanks Mabel."

"Anytime!" Mabel said happily, a wide grin on her face.

"Are you sure you're okay with not having your epic summer romance?" I asked her. I noticed her smile grow less cheery but it quickly went back.

"Well, I may not have an epic summer romance, but I will have an epic summer adventure." Mabel said. "We can unravel the mysteries together! I could have the epic summer romance along the way, if I'm lucky."

"We're going to have the greatest summer ever!" I said. Mabel pumped her fist into the air.

"Yeah!"

"Pines! Pines! Pines!"