A/N: New story everyone. I kind of like where this is going so I have decided to continue it. Warning! This story might contain ZADR in later chapters. Right now I'm still not quite sure where I want to take this story.

"Escape: Subject to Madness"

by Hanely Acosta

"A box in a box in a box,"

And I within the smallest.

I hear the closing of the locks.

As my mind, inside it's shell, mocks

The screaming in my soul is earnest:

"A box in a box in a box."

Or perhaps I am held in the stocks.

I don't know which is saddest.

I hear the closing of the locks.

They are free to fly over road blocks.

I wish for my voice to be the loudest:

"A box in a box in a box."

My vessel awaits at the docks.

To reach it I must be the strongest.

I hear the closing of the locks.

Racing, against the chiming clocks.

Voice and mind louder, though my hope is brightest:

"A box in a box in a box,"

I hear the closing of the locks.

Summary so far: Zim is gone. Why? How? We don't know. Dib is left behind to wade in his sorrow. But how much despair can the mind handle? After a while he begins to crack. What is real? What isn't real? How do you know when to draw the line?

Fade Away

By Bleeding Cherry

Chapter 1:

A Manifestation

It's hard to believe that all we've been through has amounted to nothing. The memories will always bind me to those days we spent, for what seemed like forever, chasing each other. Playing nothing but a simple game. I had never thought that the day would come for it all to end. Everything we had is what defined me as myself. And without you, that special part of me, I feel lost within myself.

The days seem to go by so slowly now. Days ago feel like weeks ago, weeks ago feel like months ago and so on. And yet years ago seem like yesterday. All those times… And you. It feels like you're right here with me. …But you're not.

It isn't fair. I didn't even have time to say goodbye.

Everyday I go to school, watching everyone walk by my bus stop. Seeing all those faces make me wonder… how can the world just simply carry on without you in it? You were the world to me. Everything I had ever believed in… It was all you.

All those times I had chased you… and all those times you had run away screaming about some new plan to conquer my world… Those were the days I had truly been happy. I was just too selfish to realize. I look back and I can still feel their icy stares. But I would put up with their ignorance for all eternity if I could just have you back.

…But that's just it. How could we possibly go back to the way it used to be? Even if by some miracle you happened to come back. I feel too different now, wounded too deeply. There's only so much time can erase…

Dib leaned back in his chair and sighed deeply. He eyes scanned over the journal entry he had just typed on his laptop. It had now been 3 years since Zim had left, three long years. And over those three long years Dib had changed. He no longer spoke. Not at home and not at school, only on occasion to ask to use the rest room. Otherwise dib kept eerily silent. Few emotions could be read on his face. Despair… regret… and heavy loss. No one recognized him now. His silence allowed him to remain invisible through most of the day. Even the other children who had usually picked on him for the mere pleasure of hearing him scream or cry ignored him. Dib without Zim… just wasn't Dib. That spark in his honey brown eyes no longer flashed. His determined gaze was no longer held. His smile was nothing but a distant memory. And his sanity…

Hello Di-BUH.

…Fading.

He could still hear his voice. It was so clear. He rolled his eyes. "What do YOU want…?" he asked aloud.

You're talking to yourself you know…

"No I'm not. Its sounds like…"

Denial Dib. Denial.

"But it sounds like yo- him…"

You gave me this voice. Remember? I just used to be a silent unrecognizable voice manifested in your subconscious. It was your decision to make me sound like him. Not a wise choice if I may say so Dib.

"Why would that be considered unwise?"

The voice was hesitant with its reply. You DO realize that that you ARE talking to yourself.

"You just said that before. And fine. So what if I am?"

That's unhealthy Dib human. It could be quite possible now that you ARE… Insane.

"WHAT! NO!" he was having flash backs of seventh grade. He could hear their evil voices pounding on his ears.

"You're CRAZY."

"Hey look! The CRAZY U.F.O. kid!"

"Yeeeaaah… He's pretty CRAZY."

"We've decided that you're…INSANE."

"My poor INSANE son…"

But he was never insane… not back then. Not now. …Right?

Ooooh. The voice seemed to be enjoying Dib's current suffering. Why so quick to defend? It asked, pushing on Dib's mental capacity like some kind of twisted psychiatrist.

Dib said nothing but cradled his head in his arms, his fingers digging into his skull. He pulled his legs to his chest in a fetal position in his chair. The voice pressed on.

Poor little Dib… Always so weak… I always knew it would be I who would end up victorious. For a moment Dib could almost see Zim's evil zipper tooth grin.

"Stop trying to be him." Dib said coldly. "You could never be him."

Ah, yes. True, very true. But that wasn't my decision. …Now was it? There was so much malice in the voice, so purely evil, too evil in fact.

"I didn't GIVE you his voice…" Dib started. "One day you just kind of sounded like him… But I know you aren't him. You could never be." Dib added defensively.

Then you admit that there just might be that small possibility that you're loneliness grew so strong you created a voice inside your head that resembles the one thing you knew mattered in your pathetic life.

"NO. I said I didn't give you any voice. You just… showed up."

Ha! It laughed. That's just like you, Dib, defiant to the very end. However I do admit that was your most stunning characteristic.

"Shut up Zim." Dib quickly slammed his hands over his mouth once the realization of what he had just said hit him.

The voice (or… Zim?) was silent for a moment before it spoke. Oooh… Bad move Dib.

Dib understood why what he had just said could be considered a bad move. Talking to this… thing as if it were Zim could only lead to denial, denial of Zim's death, and from denial to insanity. Dib was smart enough to know this thing was toying with him. The worst thing he could do was give it power. To respond when it spoke.

"I'm not talking to you. I'm ignoring you."

Ha. I'd love to see that.

"You don't think I can do it?"

Well you certainly aren't progressing much.

Dib scowled and turned to glare at himself in the mirror. "What ARE you?"

Don't be s- What? The question seemed to catch the voice off guard.

His reflection glared back and without Dib's permission his lips curled into an evil malicious smile resembling that of a little green alien's. His voice spoke on it's own.

"I'm you."

END CHAP 1

Well now, that wasn't TOO bad. R&R people! Btw if youre wondering how this will be connected to JTHM IFS and SQUEE! Just be patient I'm getting to that. Oh yeah btw just so you know Dib lives in the same neighborhood as Todd and Johnny. Oooooh I gave hints! (cackles)

-Cherry