At Zoom Comics, Dipper, Mabel, Misao, Drew, Jo, and Heather were gathered around the comic book. It was back in its protective case, the plastic seal closed. Dipper in particular was focused on the $0.79 sticker from a place he knew well.

“So why is this comic so expensive?” He asked whom he reasoned had to be the experts on it.

Drew looked up from the comic at Dipper. “So, you don’t know much about Beetleborgs, right?”

“I think my Great Uncle has a few…” Dipper held off from elaborating further.

“Well,” Drew explained, “Back in 1990 when Beetleborgs first went on sale the author, Art Fortunes, sold a bunch of copies out of a convenience store in his hometown.”

Mabel shared a look with Dipper. “Was it Gravity Falls?”

Drew perked up. “Yeah, how’d you know?”

“When we were kids, we totally broke into the Dusk 2 Dawn!”

As if Mabel had casually mentioned defacing the Mosque at Mecca, Drew recoiled. “What?!”

Dipper calmed him down. “The place was closed for years when we went in. It was more of an abandoned building exploration.”

“Wow, that sucks,” Jo said. “The birthplace of the Beetleborgs, just… gone.”

Drew agreed, as he continued. “Anyway, yeah, he sold them out of the shop, but because it’s a small town not connected to any major highway, he only sold two copies and a third got stolen. The person who bought one of the copies, though, read the book, and liked it so much that they paid his way to drive down to San Diego Comic Con and sell it there.”

Jo nodded. “Art goes to Comic Con, sells every copy he has, and by the end of the weekend he’s signing a deal with Marvel. The rest is history.”

“Wow, to think that someone so famous comes from Gravity Falls of all places…” Mabel said.

“Yeah…” Dipper said as he reached for he sealed book.

Before he could pick it up and examine it, Roland called. “I finally found this fool’s number.”

Everyone turned to Roland, as he drummed his fingers on the countertop in front of Heather, holding the store’s cordless phone to his ear. After three rings, Trip picked up.

“Trip Vanderhoff.” He sounded far off from the loudly sobbing wreck he left the store.

“First of all, Nano says you’re banned from the shop for a month.”

Trip snorted. “My father owns that building, so she’s wrong. If I ever want to walk into your lame comic store again–which I don’t–I will.”

Roland knew he was talking out of his ass. “Nah, you ain’t walking into shit. The second thing, you left your Beetleborgs comic at the counter.”

On his end of the line, Trip shot his brother a dirty look again for leaving the comic, but he was in the mood to make lemonade. “I figured. Look, I’m over at Hillhurst Mansion. Why don’t you bring the comic over to me and that’ll be that?”

Van’s eyes shot wide. “What?”

Trip raised his hand, silencing him.

It gave Roland pause as well. “Hillhurst?”

Drew and Jo looked at one another. Dipper raised an eyebrow at their stunned reaction.

On the other end of the line, Van whispered to his brother. “Dude, we are not going to Hillhurst!”

Trip shushed his brother with a sharp gesture of his hand and gave him a reassuring wink. “Not that you’d care, but my Dad’s thinking about buying it and breaking into the wine game; and he wanted someone to have a look at the condition of the vineyards. Since I am a young connoisseur myself, with a vested interest in oenology-”

Roland cut him off. “… Nah, you’re right, I don’t care. Do you want your book back, or not?”

“I’ll be here all day, so feel free to come on down and hand it over. Oh, and tell Andrew I said good job hitting above his weight. Not that there’s much left above th–”

“Bye Trip.” Roland ended the call.

Jo folded her arms. “He’s up to something.”

Drew didn’t like it one bit. “Why does he want you to come to Hillhurst?”

Roland nodded. “Man, I don’t know; there’s something going on in that messed up head of his.”

Dipper spoke up. “What’s Hillhurst? Is it someplace bad?”

Heather answered. “It’s this old, abandoned mansion at the foot of the mountains.”

Dipper’s interest was piqued. “Is it haunted, or something?”

Heather nodded. “It is so haunted. It’s got a threatening aura and everything.”

Now he wanted to see it for himself. “Huh… well color me curious.”

Mabel let out a chuckle. “Sidetracked already, Brochimedes?”

Dipper turned to her. “I’m not getting sidetracked. It’s an abandoned, possibly haunted mansion, I can’t say no to exploring that!”

Rising from her table, Nano walked over while waving a finger at the kids. “All that’s up there are rumors, graffiti, and asbestos. And I’d rather none of y’all be messin’ around up there unless you want some kind of cancer or mold growin’ in your lungs.”

Heather shrugged her shoulders. “Hey, I’ve never been up there. I only heard people talk about it. Like, I heard that the guy who used to own it–Doctor Hillhurst–snatched people off the street by the hundreds during the 1930s, did weird experiments on them, and buried them under the vineyard.”

“That does sound mad spooky,” Mabel whispered to her brother.

Dipper nodded, his excitement building. “Right?”

Seeing Dipper’s interest, Jo smiled. “Fires burn through there every couple of years, and it never gets touched. It’s like even the fire is afraid of it.”

“That’s hogwash,” Nano argued. “The vineyard is a natural fire break. Of course that place won’t burn.”

Behind Nano, Shermie looked up from his comic stack with a mischievous smirk. “Some people swear up and down that the Black Dahlia was murdered there.”

Nano whirled on him. “Sherman, not you too.”

Shermie’s smirk turned into a grin. “They say her ghost still haunts the place, dressed to the nines in a blood-stained dress.” He held his hands up like a forlorn spirit, wriggling his fingers and making a spooky noise.

Another customer, a light-tan girl with dark blue hair under a green hat, reading a manga about spirals, spoke up. “I’ve seen actual monsters in the windows.”

A short, round bespectacled boy who was having a bit of a breathing problem near Misao and Mabel while staring at them, spoke. “The… the Manson family tried to squat there… and they ran screaming from the place…”

The customer who bought the volumes of Crossed looked up from his books. “New Coke was created in the basement.”

Mabel recoiled from the revelation then snickered. “Truly a place of evil.”

Nano shook her head. “See? The only reason people are scared is because of silliness like that!”

Though if there was a place to make New Coke, she couldn’t think of anywhere worse.

Misao giggled. “My, it sounds like it’d be exciting to visit and explore.”

“And scary~” Mabel added with a nudge to her brother.

Dipper was sold. “Well, if Trip wants you to bring the comic to him, we can come along and make sure he doesn’t try to pull any funny business.”

Roland looked up at Dipper. “You sure?”

Jo lit up. “Really?”

Dipper nodded. “Honestly, if they weren’t going to get back at me, they’d try to get back at Drew here for ruining his plans for Heather. So, when they try something, I’ll let ‘em have it.”

“We’ll both let ‘em have it,” Mabel added.

Righteous fire burned in Misao’s eyes. “And I will make it a trio of gifting. Three against two, we will win!”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Jo’s smile at Dipper became an infectious grin. “You are awesome.”

Dipper looked at her. “Huh?”

“I mean, uh, thanks for the hand, bro.” Jo looked away from Dipper and smirked. She was too smooth.

Dipper looked warily from the corner of his eye at Jo. In the back of his mind, he could hear the soft, schadenfreudian chuckling of a redhead in flannel.

Drew lightly elbowed Roland’s arm. “Well if they’re going, I’m coming too.”

Roland smirked back at him. “Like I’d ride without my homie, cuh.”

“Your homies, cuh,” Jo corrected. “I’m coming too.”

Mabel called to Shermie. “Sherpa, can you give us a ride over there?”

“If I do that, no one’s going to be at the house to meet your stuff,” Shermie replied. “You kids go out and handle your business, then be home before it gets too dark, all right?”

Nano folded her arms and glowered at her old friend. “Shermie.”

Shermie gestured over to Dipper and Mabel. “Nan, I trust my grandkids to be able to get out of any trouble they get into. Chips off the ol' block and all of that.”

Dipper smiled at Shermie’s explicit approval for them to head off on an adventure. “Thanks, Grandpa Shermie!”

“And remember, if you can punch it in the schnozz? It ain’t a ghost!”

Rather than hold her grandson and his friends back any longer with her worries, she relented and faced them. “Ya’ll go up there? You best stay out of that house and conduct yourselves accordingly.”

Roland nodded. “We’ll be good, Nano. I’ll be sure to finish my shift when I get back”

“G’on and don’t worry about it. I’ll clock you out and tell your Mom and Dad I had you run an errand for me.” She gave him a knowing smile.

With her blessings he headed for the door. “Well, you heard the boss lady, I’m on the clock!”

Heather got up. “I’m going to man the café. If Trip so much as mentions my name, please punch him again.”

“With gusto!” Dipper promised, following Roland.

That reminded Drew. “Uh, Heather?”

She turned her attention to him. “Yeah, Drew?”

He wanted to ask, “Were you going to ask me to the dance?” but the words jammed up in his throat. Asking her that now would be in such poor taste, he realized. “… Uh… have a good rest of your shift, okay? Sorry about all of this.”

Heather found his contrition bemusing. “You didn’t do anything wrong Drew, but thanks.”

The two shared a smile, before he turned and hurried to the door. Jo was waiting just outside with a small scowl. “Really?”

“What?”

“You should’ve asked her to the dance.”

He shook his head. “No way, it wasn’t the right time.”

She blew out a sigh of exasperation. “You are such a wuss.”

Drew wasn’t in a mood to argue about it further, but she soldiered ahead before he could get a word in edgewise.

Frowning at her back, he passed along the part of the shop’s exterior with posters advertising various products–action figures, new issues of comics, and things like that. Out the corner of his eye, he saw the movie poster for the upcoming, but delayed Big Bad Beetleborgs film. In that brief instant, he saw his reflection over the armored form of Blue Beet, the Blue Stingerborg.

If I could be even a hundredth as heroic as you, being able to stand up to the Vanderhoffs, talking to Heather, and even asking her out would be the least of my problems. He thought as he let out a sigh.

“Hey!” Jo shouted. “Keep up, the bus is almost here!”

With a final look at the poster, Drew ran to catch up.

@@@@@

Regardless of what people heard about it, the facts about Hillhurst Mansion were indisputable. Built in the late 1890s by Dr. Aloyisius Hillhurst, a doctor with notoriously checkered past; he called the Victorian-style mansion his home and office until the dawn of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Following his death, with no wife, children, or distant family to claim it, and the eerie rumors that surrounded him, the mansion was left to time. The land around the house became part of a Vineyard that struggled through the decades, only going out of business at the turn of the century.

The overgrown vines and grasses around the building covered in cracked, peeling paint with dirty and broken windows, added to its dilapidated, menacing presence. It was a foreboding place just to look at from the outside, who knew what laid inside?

Van Vanderhoff was nervous because thanks to his brother there was a high chance he would be finding out.

“This place is too damn spooky, bro,” he murmured. “Do we really gotta do this, here?”

“It’s perfect,” Trip replied as Roland, Drew, and Jo came into view, walking down the path. “Now follow my lead and don’t be a wuss.”

Van looked back at the weathered home, and shook his head in worry. Trip was practically ecstatic in comparison, as the three walked up.

“Roland Williams, I knew you couldn’t be man enough to come without the squad.”

Roland’s expression shifted to dismissive contempt. “Unlike your antisocial asses, I don’t gotta pay people to pull up.”

Swinging his backpack off his shoulder, Roland unzipped it to pull out the Big Bad Beetleborgs #1 in a clear plastic protective binder. “Here’s your damn book back, now call it good so we can go home.”

Trip took the generously offered book and examined it through the plastic case. “Everything’s in order. Thank you Roland, this is all I wanted.”

Drew sighed longingly at the sight of the book, before averting his eyes–in case Trip tried to destroy it.

In no hurry to look weak in front of the nerds, Van shored up his bravado and puffed out his chest. “So what are you going to do with it?”

Trip held up the comic and examined it. “Since I’d bought it for nothing, and definitely don’t need it anymore…”

He lowered it and smiled at Drew. “I want you to have it, Andrew.”

Drew needed a triple-take with Trip. “What…?”

“Yeah right!” Jo snapped at him.

Roland shook his head. “Stop the cap.”

Trip weighed the plastic-sealed comic in his hands, as he crunched numbers in his head. “It’s just two weeks’ allowance. Brokies like you will never understand having disposable income like this, so why not give you a taste of a real fortune?”

He offered it out towards Drew.

“What’s the catch? What do you want for it?” Jo demanded.

“Did I just not call you brokies? What could I possibly want from you?” Disgust dripped from Trip’s words, the very idea that they could give him anything he wanted offending him.

“My suffering?” Drew asked.

“His anguish?” Roland asked.

“His misery?” Jo asked.

Those were things he’d want–and would get all in due time. “Ah, you three can be so amusing. No, I’m giving it to you and it’s completely yours… if you can get it.”

Drew tensed. “If we can get it?”

Turning around, Trip cocked back and let the comic fly like a frisbee. It careened through the air in a climbing arc and flew with ease through a window on the second floor. An impressive throw by itself, made more shocking that it was a two-million-dollar frisbee.

Jo looked from the window to Trip. “What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

Trip shrugged his shoulders. “What? I don’t read your stupid Beetleborgs comics. It’s all yours if you want to risk mesothelioma to get it.”

With that, the two began to walk away. Their SUV pulled up, and the doors opened automatically for them. Van climbed in, but Trip stopped halfway after him and looked back at Drew, Jo, and Roland.

“Or you know, you can stand around looking like a bunch of pissants and leave it to rot with the rest of this dump, I don’t care.”

Agape, Drew stared at the window the flung comic had gone into, then at Trip. Drew stared at Trip, up at the house, back to Trip, back to the house, back to Trip again, and finally back at the window.

“You’re seriously going to let me have that two million dollar comic,” he asked the millionaire baby, looking at him again.

Trip nodded.

“One of the rarest in the world. To keep. With no other strings attached.”

“That’s right.

“And all I have to do is go into the vacant mansion with who knows what inside to get it.”

Trip gestured past him. “You should ask what Josephine and Roland think.”

Drew turned back to Jo and Roland, seeking guidance, but they already were waiting on the porch by the slightly ajar front door.

“Hey, he said you can have it if you can get it,” Jo said.

“So let’s get it,” Roland said as he pulled the door open.

That’s all he needed to hear. He nodded to Trip. “Thanks for the comic, Trip!”

He bolted after them and up the steps to the front door. Coming to a stop, he, Jo, and Roland looked into the dusty, dimly lit interior beyond the threshold.

“Dark in there,” Jo murmured.

Roland waved his hand in front of his nose. “Musty, too.”

“Just try not to breathe anything in.” Drew said as he pulled out his smartphone, turned on its camera light, and crossed the threshold. “In and out, then we’re gone..”

As he stepped through the door, Roland behind him, Jo looked back at Trip–still watching from halfway inside his SUV. “You’d better not try anything Vanderhoff, or you’ll pay!”

She pointed at her eyes and then at Trip before disappearing inside, the door slamming shut behind her.

Trip turned his brother. “Phase one is complete.”

With no one around to see, Van melted back into the puddle of worry he was before the trio arrived. “Do we really have to go in there?!”

“We absolutely have to!” Trip snapped at him. “First Andrew, then Pine Tree, and I’ll be able to enjoy the rest of my weekend.”

He looked up to the front of the SUV. “Douglas? Take us around to the back.”

“It’s Dudley, sir,” the chauffeur reminded him, but nevertheless started up the car.

In the vineyard, as the SUV turned around and headed towards the back, Dipper peeked up over one of the unruly rows of overgrown trellises. Misao came up next, perched upon Mabel’s shoulders, holding her smartphone with the camera pointed towards the house.

“They went inside!” Misao said.

“For a two-million-dollar comic, I would,” Dipper admitted.

“Mood,” Mabel said and fist-bumped Dipper.

Misao watched the SUV disappear out of sight. “They’re going around to the back. What is their plan?”

“Probably gonna jump them,” Mabel said.

Dipper turned to his sister, “Mabel. let them know.”

“You got it, broseidon.” Unfortunately, the call dropped as soon as she made it. “Huh?”

She tried again, and the call again dropped. “Dipper, there’s no reception here.”

Just to their right, a girl with a low, detached voice spoke. “Well duh, why would there be any reception near a house full of monsters?”

The three looked over at the girl, crouched down and peering through a hole she cleared in the grapevines with her hands. All of them recognized her: the girl who claimed she’d seen monsters in the windows of the mansion.

“Uhh…?” Dipper began.

Mabel did as Mabel does. “Hi, I’m Mabel, this is my brother Dipper and the girl up top is Misao.”

“Hallo,” Misao greeted.

She looked up at Mabel, then at Misao perched comfortably on her shoulders. “I’m Janna, and you’ve got a strong back.”

Mabel chuckled. “I’m a cheerleader, so I’m used to picking up girls.”

Janna waggled her eyebrows. “I bet you are.”

“Oho!” Mabel liked her already.

“Why’d you follow us?” Dipper asked.

“Because nobody listened when I said there were monsters in the house.”

Janna pulled out a pair of binoculars from her seafoam green jacket and looked through them at the house. “Normally I’d leave it at that, but you punched Trip and made him cry like a horse. So, you’re cool.”

“You’re batting a thousand,” Mabel teased Dipper.

Dipper ignored Mabel’s jibe. “Hold on; there are really monsters in the house?”

“Yeah? Me and some fellow weirdos tried to do a B&E last week, but this disfigured monster guy broke the window trying to get at us.”

She handed Dipper her binoculars and pointed. “Look on the front porch, see where the window’s broken?”

Dipper raised the binoculars and looked. Sure enough, there was a shattered part of the window like someone had punched through it.

“Whatever it was had spotted us while we were trying to get in through the front and it flipped out on us just as we got the lock popped. We bolted until we were halfway back to town.”

She shook her head. “We couldn’t even get our foot in the door, it was such a drag.”

“Luckily,” Misao said, “No one’s screaming, so maybe they haven’t-”

Drew, Jo, and Roland’s screaming could be heard all the way out where they were in the vineyard.

“Verdammt!” Misao swore in alarm.

“Well, they’re being murdered,” Janna said casually before Dipper dropped her binoculars and bolted.

“Mabel, let’s go! Leave your phone with Misao.” Dipper ordered.

Janna called after him. “Try not to get eaten; I think we have some chemistry going, here!”

Mabel let Misao down off her shoulders and handed her the phone; the smaller girl looked at Janna, then back to the twins. “Will you be okay?”

“Don’t worry,” she assured her new friends, “We’ve dealt with worse than a monster in an old house.”

“We’re only getting them all out of there. Stay here and if anything looks too weird, try to call Shermie!” Dipper yelled.

“He’ll either save us or clean up!” Mabel, on her brother’s heels, called back

“I understand! Be careful!” Misao called after them.

With the twins bolting away, Janna turned to Misao. “So–you’re the FaithfulPony371, aren’t you?”

Pleasantly surprised, Misao nodded to Janna. “You’re the first person to recognize me.”