Ethereal

02

The warm day quickly gave way to the cool summer night, and Dipper and Mabel stopped by the Mystery Shack to grab some water bottles and a flashlight. They wanted to keep searching; Candy said she had heard something big stomping through the trees. If anything, the Mystery Twins were getting so bored they were becoming desperate.

Dipper headed into the shack, talking loudly to Mabel about their plan of action. Someone grabbed his arm and he stumbled through the doorway with a yelp, looking up to see Wendy ecstatically pointing out the window.

"Look at that tent. Do you see that tent?"

"Uh, yeah," Dipper's answer was more like a question, for the structure outside didn't look like a tent at all. Rather, it resembled a miniature version of a brick house, a lit up sign reading "Fenton Works" attached to its exterior. Dipper glanced at Wendy, a querying  look on his face.

"We're going to go wake up one of the kids inside it."

Dipper was flabbergasted. Why would they wake up some random kid at, what, 11:30 pm? The tent itself was odd; the last thing he wanted to do was see who was sleeping inside of it.

Wendy, seeing Dipper's expression, smiled brightly. "Come on, it'll be fun." She jogged past him and out the door, forcing Dipper to inevitably follow. Before he headed out, he saw Mabel yawn widely, blink slowly, and go to follow.

"Uh, Mabel," Dipper stopped her quickly, "you should go to bed."

There was a nod from the young girl before she fell on the ground, her pig, Waddles, coming to rest beside her. Dipper shook his head and jogged after Wendy.

Running up next to the tent, he saw that the teenager had already walked inside. It seemed less real the closer you got, the material more obvious than before. Dipper lifted the corner of the tent and peeped inside, greeted by the loud snoring of one very large man. He sidestepped past him and stared over at the figure Wendy couldn't seem to take her eyes off of.

Dipper's own eyes widened.

Oh no.

Could she, Wendy Corduroy, the crush of his life, actually like this kid?

Dipper shuddered at the thought.

The boy in question was tall, his messy black hair splayed across his pillow. A pair of green metallic earbuds rested by his side and his blanket was half pulled off his body, revealing his tee and boxers. The sight made Dipper want to force the teen into the ugliest pants he could find.

It was only moments later that he realized Wendy wasn't staring at the boy, oh no, she was staring at the sliver of stomach where his tee was pulled up, revealing abs and four thin, jagged white lines. That scar itself was terrifying, but the fact that Dipper could see another sticking out from under his tee made his stomach flip.

What had this kid gotten in to?

Wendy shook her head and kicked the boy's leg with her foot. His eyes shot open—cold blue, almost creepy—and he sat up tremendously fast, glancing at the two with a guarded expression. A few seconds later his shoulders relaxed slightly and the skin between his eyebrows creased.

"What are you doing here?" He asked Wendy, rubbing his eyes. Dipper was surprised that he didn't even attempt at whispering, but he supposed that the sound emanating from the man was enough to block out anything.

"Come on, City Boy. We're going on a little tour."

"Now?"

"Do you have a better time in mind?"

Dipper watched the exchange, but his mind was elsewhere. The way that the boy had shot up—it was strange. Almost like he was preparing to run away.

Or like he was preparing to fight.

While Dipper's thoughts wandered, Danny pulled on a pair of jeans and sneakers, looking up at his new friend with curious eyes. She was pretty, all right—red hair, brown eyes--but he had Sam at home, and though they weren't technically together, he wasn't about to blow his possible relationship with a girl that lived far away from Amity Park.

And why the hell did she have to bother him at this time? Couldn't she see that he was trying to sleep? He was tired, and he expected tomorrow's activities to be far from relaxing and catching up on lost hours of unconsciousness.

Once outside the tent, Danny glanced at the kid, who was staring at him with a strange look in his eyes.

"You okay there, kid?"

"What? I-I'm fine," he said, looking at Wendy. She grinned and clapped her hands together.

"All right, where should we start?"