My name is Ria Pines. I am 15 years old. My dad, Dipper Pines, had decided to take me to this old random town for the summer known as Gravity Falls. It is where he and my mom, Pacifica, had met for the first time. She comes from a very wealthy family, and so she and my dad have worked together to install a research facility in this town. Why this area? I don’t know. My dad has gone there every year to continue his research, but he hasn’t decided to bring me until this summer. 

I inherited a rare trait from my great-great uncle. I never knew him, nor his name. But I do know that he was born with an abnormally high intelligence, and a sixth finger on each hand. I used this gift to my advantage, pursuing electrical engineering in my high school career path. On the road I am on now, I am set to graduate before my 18th birthday!

Nearby my dad’s research facility is a tourist trap known as the Mystery Shack, owned by a man in his early 50’s named Soos Ramirez. He’s a sweet guy, but if I ever asked him questions about the origin of the Mystery Shack, he hesitated and got all sweaty.

Anyway, me and my little brother Theo wandered into the shack. That was where we would be staying. Theo was only 9, but like me, he had a huge sense of curiosity.

Mr. Ramirez led us up to the attic. “This is where your dad and his sister stayed over the summer!” He put his finger to his chin in thought. “Woah. That’s a crazy thing to say. Your dad…”

I frowned. “Mr. Ramirez-”

He smiled and waved my words away. “Please, call me Soos!”

“Soos…Why do we have to stay here? What’s wrong with the research facility?”

“Oh..uhm..” There it was. The sweating again. “It’s just probably too dangerous and stuff. With all those crazy experiments and bizz..”

“Crazy experiments?”

He went red. “Oh! Did I say crazy experiments? I meant- uh-” He looked around for a distraction. “Oh look! Board games!”

“Board games!” Theo exclaimed, quickly running over to investigate. His gray trapper hat flung off from his running. I picked it up and set it on the bed he would be staying in. 

“Make yourselves at home, dudes,” Soos said nervously. If it wasn’t for the black suit he was wearing, I bet I would’ve been able to spot the deep sweat stains running down his sides. Soos quickly exited the room, wiping his forehead with a silk handkerchief. 

I went ahead and started unpacking. Crazy experiments… I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. That settled it; tonight I would sneak into my dad’s facility. 

I glanced at Theo as he set out his dinosaur stuffed animals. The dude loved dinosaurs. He even brought his own stegosaurus blanket to set atop his bed. His dream was to be an archeologist. He could even spell archeologist!

I set up my books and tinkering kit. The kit was just a briefcase, custom painted with a UFO, designed and painted by me. Inside were tools and random scraps and wiring materials. I had been tinkering ever since middle school, and I didn’t plan on quitting any time soon. 

“Hey Theo?” I said, as I recorded the day so far in my diary. 

“Yes Ria?” Theo responded, setting up CandyLand, that I’m sure he will ask me to play with him soon. 

“Do you know what time Dad goes to bed?”

“Why?”

“Just curious. He’s a very paranoid guy, and I wanna make sure he’s getting enough sleep.”

“Well I hear him walk to his room at like…11ish? Then he goes downstairs to make coffee at 4.”

I didn’t ask how he knew this. The kid had amazing observatory skills. But that was good to know. I could sneak in at 12, and be out by 2 or 3, depending on what I find. Hopefully it was something amazing.

That night was just pizza for dinner. Honestly, I don’t even know if Soos knows how to cook. The stove top looked like it had never been used. There were spider webs growing on it.

After dinner, I got changed and headed to bed like normal. Theo was already there, curled up in his dinosaur blanket and holding his T-Rex stuffie. 

I stared at the ceiling. I don’t remember the last time I’ve slept in a place that wasn’t my own room. This would take some getting used to. Luckily, we had the whole summer to adapt and explore.

My phone buzzed with the alarm. Midnight. Time to get going. I rolled out of bed and grabbed my diary and a flashlight. I slipped on my yellow shoes and my faded green hoodie and did my best to sneak silently down the creaky stairs. I froze up as the last step creaked extremely loud. I glanced around. No one was downstairs. Except for…

I glanced into the kitchen. I could’ve sworn I saw an old man, maybe mid 60’s, with short graying hair and wearing my dad’s lab coat. He looked to be fixing the dishwasher. He glanced at me, and we made a very quick eye contact, then he quickly vanished.

Strange. What was he doing there? Who was he? Was he even real?

Trying to ignore the pounding of my heart, I quickly rushed out the front door and started scurrying through the path in the woods towards the giant dome that was my dad’s research facility. My shoes left footprints in the beige mud. I pulled the lever to the dome, opening the door. Strangely, there was no alarm. The sensors must have been confusing me for my dad.

I began to investigate, looking around with my flashlight. There didn’t seem to be anything other than machines, which I examined carefully. I would totally love to build some of them. A memory wipe gun? A plasma ray? How did a 44 year old man get his hands on these!?

My expression transformed into that of a bewildered and astonished child. I wanted to grab anything and everything and test it out. I wanted to build. This place seemed to give me an urge to explore. Maybe it was designed that way.

But then I encountered something that really caught my attention. It wasn’t a machine. It wasn’t anything extraordinary, or unusual, or rare. It was a collection of journals. 3 of them had red covers, with a golden imprint of a 6 fingered hand on the front of each of them. Six fingers probably meant that they belonged to my great-great uncle. However there were two more blue-covered journals with golden pine-tree covers, titled journals “4” and “5”. Were they my dad’s? Because our last name was “Pines”? That seemed like the only logical reason. I picked up the 5th Journal and looked through it. Only about half of the pages were filled with strange discoveries. Two headed worms, four legged owls the size of horses, weird kangaroo-lion fire monsters called “Torch Puppies,” and other monsters described on each page. The drawings were amazing, almost leading me to believe that these weird creatures were actually real. That couldn’t have been the case though…

While flipping a page, I bonked a jar with my elbow. It fell to the floor and shattered, spilling glowing purple slime everywhere. I jumped and looked around. The alarm immediately started going off.

“FREEZE!” I heard my dad yell, pointing a loaded plasma blaster at me. I shrieked and raised my hands in the air.

My dad lowered his blaster. “Ria?”

“Dad- I’m sorry-” I glanced down at the journal. He followed my gaze.

“Hey- my journal!” He tried to grab it with his free hand.

I quickly widened my eyes and started running, outside and into the woods. He quickly bolted after me. And he could run pretty fast for a middle aged man.

I just kept running, faster and faster. He couldn’t keep up forever, right?

Apparently neither could I. I stepped into a pothole and tripped, rolling forward until I fell into a deep cave. I screamed as I fell, then I eventually hit the bottom and wheezed. I sat up and held my head. I tried turning my flashlight on. It flickered, so I whacked it with the book until it stayed on. I looked around. 

A deep growl came within the cave. I started to heave, until I spotted two glowing red eyes in the darkness. I could faintly see the 9-foot tall creature and its huge teeth, and its gopher-like claws, each over a foot long. Long strands of white fur hung off of its body, which made sense considering that it was freezing down in the cave, even though it was June.

I quickly opened my dad’s journal and tried to see if there was anything about this weird thing. My dad liked weird fantasies. Maybe he came up with solutions to get away from them!

There it is. The Yopher. ‘Yeti-Gopher, usually found in caves or underground areas. DO NOT COME WITHIN RANGE. The Yopher will not hesitate to skew you with its 14’’ claws.’

Thanks dad. I feel safe now.

There! ‘Weaknesses: Fire, Giant Owls, Giant Snakes, and Giant Coyotes.’

I had none of those with me. I looked around for flint or something. 

I found a dark black rock that looked like it would work just fine. I flicked it against the steel key used to unlock my diary. Sparks flew.

The Yopher charged. I tried to keep my eyes focused on starting the fire. “Come on..Come on…” I muttered.

The sparks flew onto the beast and it lit up in flames and roared. I screamed once more.

“Ria!” A young boy’s voice called from above me.

I looked up. There was Theo, with a rope. How did he get here? I decided not to ask. I quickly grabbed onto the rope, holding the flashlight in my mouth, and the journal and my diary in my arm. I grabbed the rope with my free arm and climbed up.

When I reached the top, I rolled onto the grass and heaved. Theo hugged me. “Are you okay!?”

I held the books to my chest. “Yeah- I think I’ll be okay.” I sat up and hugged him back. “Thank you for saving me.”

He smiled. “I think we should head back to bed.”

I smiled a bit as well. “Yeah. Me too.”

In the morning I began to walk downstairs, then froze up when I saw my dad talking to Soos.

“Have you seen my journal?” He asked. “The 5th one…Ria ran off with it and if she loses it then-..”

“It's okay,” Soos said. “We’ll find it eventually.”

I had hid the book in my tinkering kit, tucked under my bed. I slowly sneaked back upstairs to the attic.

Theo watched me. “What’s wrong?”

“...I think Dad is hiding something in this book, Theo. If he wants it back so bad.”

“Are you going to give it back?” He sat up and put his hat on.

I shook my head. “No. Not anytime soon. But if I’m going to hide it from him, then I need to take his mind off of finding it. If I don’t, then he will drive himself insane trying to find it.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“...” I smiled a bit. That facility really was something else. If I was his apprentice..imagine how much more I could discover from his journal if I actually understood him.

I looked at Theo. “I think I’m going to get into the mind of the author.”