Abnormal Gravity: A Parapines Fanfic

Ghost Potatoes

Norman was bored. Extremely so. 

He had spent most of his morning in the motel he and his sister were staying in, eating snacks, watching TV and forgetting to respond to texts. Courtney slept like the dead the whole time, without so much as a snore. Norman considered waking her up just to have some form of entertainment. Before following through, however, he concluded that the risk probably wasn't worth the reward.

When he caught himself trying to figuring how long the space between the beeps on the smoke detector were, he decided to take a walk.  

He got dressed and headed for the door. "I'm going for a walk," he said to his still unconscious sister. He couldn't bring himself to just leave her there, so he left a note. She probably wouldn't read it anyways. 

Gravity Falls. Besides having a cool name, he and his sister had no idea what to expect from the small town. In hindsight, a little more research would've been helpful. So, without giving it much thought, Norman began walking towards town. 

Just like anywhere he went, Norman met the ghosts first - and there was an unusually high number of them around. Not only that, but some were sporting the most bizarre of injuries. They were nice enough, as ghosts often are, but Norman felt it a breach of privacy to ask after the nature of their death. So, he just took it in stride. 

Despite the fact that he had spent most of his day getting to know the ghost community, he felt all ghosted out for one day. Walking along the edge of the forest was his current activity, and it wasn't too bad. It was almost therapeutic, in some strange way. It allowed him to think about stuff. Nothing in particular. Just abstract thought.

Norman was so lost in thought almost didn't see the ghost running past him, which was weird. Ghost didn't run from things. They didn't need to. One of the perks of being dead. The ghost looked quite scared, as well.

Well, Norman thought, That was strange. What could a ghost be possibly be running from? Norman looked back the way the ghost came and saw his answer.

"Watch out!" some random guy yelled. Norman watched and saw a brown-haired boy with a cap, vest, and shorts run past holding what looked like a speedometer. A brown-haired girl in a brightly colored sweater toting what seemed to be a - rocket launcher? - soon followed.

"Sorry!" the random girl yelled at him without stopping, "Ghost-huntin'!"

Yes. Very strange.

The two random kids darted into the forest and soon disappeared.
Ghost huntin', huh, Norman thought. He decided to follow them. Walking was getting kinda boring.

He followed the random duo, though at a much slower pace.

...

It didn't take long to find the pair, they hadn't really gone that far. They were in a small forest clearing with a single tree in the middle. Norman decided to watch a while before making himself known. He didnt want to seem like he was following them, and also, he wanted to assess the situation. Like a spy.

There was a ghost of a large, bearded man wearing a trucker hat, a sports jacket, jeans and boots whose foot seemed to be stuck on a small rock. He was also sputtering obscenities towards his foot, the rock, and the random kids sitting close by, though, of course, they couldn't hear. As for the kids, Random Boy was sitting cross-legged, fiddling with his speedometer thing. Random Girl was lying on her back clutching what looked like a heavy duty potato launcher and kind of spacing out. She also seemed to be singing a song, though Norman had never if heard it.

After a few minutes of inactivity and unending curses, Norman decided to make himself known. Partly because he wanted to know what this ghost's deal was and partly because he was getting bored.