Symbols ~A Gravity Falls Fanfic~

Bottom Floor Please

Eliza's POV

        “Those symbols look oddly familiar… The journal had all kinds of strange symbols in it. They kind of looked like this, but none of them were as complicated as these. What do you think they mean?” Dipper pondered aloud.

        “Stan probably knows... Hey, do think this is a code or something? Maybe Stan has something to hide…”

        “It wouldn’t surprise me. Stan’s pretty secretive.” We both stared at the symbol-covered paper and thought about our next move. Suddenly, Dipper snapped his fingers, signaling he had thought of something. “Grunkle Stan told me not to go near that vending machine in the gift shop once. He said it didn’t work and it was just waiting to fall apart. Why would he keep it if it was a potential health hazard someone could sue over?”

        “Well, there’s always people putting their money in it, right? It is free cash, the soul purpose of your Grunkle’s whole shack. Why wouldn’t he keep it?”

        “The thing is, the tourists have caught on. I haven’t seen anyone put a dime in that thing all summer. Come on!” Dipper exclaimed, leading me to the gift shop.

 ~

        He looked from the paper to the buttons on the machine. It wasn’t matching up; the machine buttons had numbers while the paper had those weird symbols. Dipper put his hand under the brown hair that sat on his forehead, confused. “I don’t get it! That made perfect sense!”

        I looked closely at the buttons, examining them. Several of them looked as if they were in the process of fading away. Someone had been continuously pressing these buttons over a long period of time. I pressed the buttons in an order that seemed logical, pressing them in terms of location.

        1-3-2-5-6

        The vending machine made a sound as if it had detached from something. Upon looking at the back of the machine, I saw that there was now a space between it and the wall. I looked at Dipper, who was now staring at me in shock. “Hey, you still got that flashlight?” I asked. He was still speechless, so he simply nodded.

        Together, we made our way behind the vending machine and cautiously walked down a set of stairs illuminated by a dull glow from a single light bulb. We reached a small room containing what seemed to be an elevator. Dipper shined the light beam onto the elevator doors, unable to gather his thoughts. “I can’t believe this… When Soos found the break room and the wax museum, I thought that was where the mysteries would end in the Shack,” he mumbled mindlessly. “This is insane.”

        “Hey, Buster, flashlight,” I demanded. Upon hearing my voice, Dipper snapped out of his weird brain malfunction.

        “What’d ya’ find?” Dipper asked as he walked over to me, the light beam pointed towards me.

        I stood in front of a panel of buttons mounted on the wall. The buttons were blank, with no signs of fading, not even a smudge, like the vending machine. Whatever Stan has under the Shack must be important, severely important.

        “Do you think those symbols are to the elevator?” Dipper pondered, sounding as if he didn’t believe his own idea.

        “It’s possible, but I don’t see how. There isn’t any anything on these things.” I continued staring at the panel, hoping that if I looked at it long enough I’d see something. “Stan must have the buttons memorized,” I suggested. Dipper nodded in agreement, unable to fathom any other explanation.

        Cocking his head and squinting his eyes, Dipper began to notice something. He shined the light sideways against the buttons. At first, there was nothing, but as he adjusted the beam at a 45 degree angle, symbols that matched the ones on the paper faintly glowed on the panel.

        “Dipper, you’re a genius!” I exclaimed, almost squealing.

        “Well, I wouldn’t say ‘genius’, but yeah. I mean, it was just a-”

        “I complimented you, accept it. Now hold that light still…” I examined the paper, carefully deciding which of the two codes I should input. “Third floor?” I asked Dipper.

        “Uh, sure,” he replied, uneasy. I then began to push the four symbols that matched the second code on the paper. Each symbol appeared as I pressed the buttons, shining a lime green on an upper screen.

        As I reached for the final button Dipper grabbed my wrist, seeming to be in a panic. “What if we use the wrong code? I-If we get it wrong, what happens?” he questioned quickly and shakily, his voice cracking slightly.

        “Well then oops.”

        “’Oops’?! How are you not worried about this?!” Dipper yelled, now waving the flashlight as he spoke.

        “You think I’m not worried? Do have any idea how freaked out I am? The only reason I haven’t bailed is because my curiosity is way beyond peaked. I need to know what your Grunkle is hiding down here. Stan’s one of your relatives; don’t you want to what your own family is hiding from you? Either you’re in or you’re not,” I said firmly. Dipper stared at the ground for a moment before returning my gaze. He smiled and nodded once in (what I assumed was) pure confidence.

        After pressing the final button, a green line shot across the screen above, followed by a red one that jumped, and ended with a second green flat line. I pushed the round button labeled with a "down" arrow below the buttons I had just pressed. The elevator doors swung open a mere second later.

        “Do you have any idea what we’re getting into here?” Dipper asked me in a serious tone as we entered the elevator.

        “Some crazy stuff, Dipwad, some crazy stuff,” I replied in an equally serious tone. The elevator closed and began descending to the lowest floor. I felt like I was going to barf the whole time: the elevator creaked as it moved, and Dipper and I kept silent, awaiting the doors to slid open again.

        What are we getting into?

Hey, was this chapter too predictable?

~SF >'-'<