1 Day Before The Disappearance

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"So why exactly did you bring me here?"
Pacifica asked as she was walking along the self-made path in the woods. Soft damp earth feathered her steps. The air was heavy and hot and it would have to rain soon. They figured that yesterday was by far not enough time to catch up. It's been years. One day wasn't enough. Dipper couldn't be bothered to tell Mabel about his walk with Pacifica. She'd make dumb jokes, or worse, want to go with them.

"Things have changed since we left, you know that. But don't you think this place doesn't feel like it used to?" Pacifica shrugged. She never felt the need to bring herself in danger after their last summer together. Less trouble, more peace. Yes, of course it was different, but was that a bad thing? She only missed the people that seemed to become less and less. "What's your point?"

He avoided her gaze, instead looking at the trees. How many times had he been chased passed them? It was one of their first days here and Mabel desperately wanted a boyfriend so she started dating this wanna-be zombie-vampire-whatever-thing. Then it was just a bunch of gnomes that wanted a new princess. The absurdity of it made him smile.

"All of it is gone. Even the people. You remember Wendy, right? She told Soos, she was gonna be gone for a while too, but I don't think she left because she wanted to. Or something happened to her."
She rolled her eyes at him. His words sounded far fetched. She had rarely been this deep into the woods. In a way she was glad to have Dipper by her side. Talking about all the cursed things that happened here gave her the creeps.

"If I were to guess, you also have a theory on what happened?" Right on the money. He did indeed have an idea.

"YES. I had to show you before the rain washes it away." They reached the point just in time. "Look back there! There's this one tree that splits up into two not far up from the ground. Can you see it?" She shook her head. Dipper put one hand on her shoulder to get her attention, with the other one he pointed at the tree. His touch surprised her, almost making her shriek. Not in a bad way, but it was rather pleasant. Only now did she see the tattoo. A cold shiver went down her spine as she recognized the shapes and symbols. This Dipper was different from the one she remembered. He was more confident and more straight forward. Yet, he was still Dipper.

Following the direction of his hand and frowning into the deepness of endless pine trees, she finally saw what he was talking about. A tree, no, two trees in one? It definitely looked strange but besides that, she didn't get what he was so interested about. "What about it?"

"This is where I think she dissappeared. Or rather, this is where she was taken." He stepped forwards and motioned her to follow him. As they carefully navigated around the other trees. "She was the last person to work on this path and for some reason when she reached that part of the woods, she left Soos the letter to announce her upcoming absense. Wendy doesn't do letters. Either, she would have called or told him him face to face. So I decided to inspect the area around the path. When I got to the tree, I found scratching. Here look."
With his index finger, he traced over some thin but deep lines in the bark. Pacifica didn't quite believe him yet. Some lines on a trees were anything but solid proof. Any wild animal could do that.
"I'm not done yet. My theory is that, whatever attacked her, chased her up the tree, but couldn't climb. At least not without struggle. Wendy is a great climber. She must have made her way higher up. So did I. On the right thick branch there, I found something. Words or letters carved into the wood."

Pacifica held her hand above her eyes, trying to see what he meant. She saw something in the bark, but didn't quite recognize the symbols or whatever that was. Meanwhile Dipper took out his journal, turning the pages. "There we go. I've scribbled it down."

'The cuts were done with a pocket knife' he had written on the side. Without a doubt, those were supposed to be letters. Not all of them could be made out. But it was something like: CNT C IT

"What does that mean?" This whole thing was beginning to sink into her brain, like a foreign langue she has never heard, but was willing to learn all about.

"I don't know yet, but this isn't even everything."

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