Dib quietly pushed the doors open, took in a deep breath, and made his way through the church.
It was quiet and dark, light barely filtering in through the stained-glass windows that lined every wall, an altar on the far end with some candles, an enormous copy of the Bible, and a pair of containers for wafers. The air felt musty and thick, the statue of Jesus hanging on the cross far behind the altar on the back wall and with a quiet, almost contemplative expression on his face. Not tortured, wracked with pain, but...almost beyond agony. Dib stood there in the walkway between pews, silently staring up at it for a few minutes in the absolute silence of the church before he made his way over to the far right. There was a collection of candles, a cup full of matches, and a small little sandbox to exterminate said matches. A central candle which always blazed was at the top, and Dib deposited a dollar in the slot beneath the candle box, a small donation in exchange for his own personal ritual.
He took a match, light a candle, and quietly extinguished the match, silently bowing his head and heading for a nearby pew, clasping his hands together, letting the thoughts he had within his head and the hopes he had within his heart seep out freely.
"It's been a while since we talked." He muttered out. "Part of me's not sure what to say. "Sorry I haven't been around, I've been busy"?" The teenager remarked, amber/brown eyes behind his glasses looking ashamedly down at the carpeted floor. "...I know that's not really accurate." He finally sighed. Dib ruffled his own hair before re-clasping his hands together. "I've had to contend with Zim less and less. Ever since something happened to him last year, he's been absolutely terrified of everything, myself included. Was that you? I'd like to think you had something to do with it." He remarked with a small smile. "But really, Gaz has been the biggest handful. She's hit puberty and that means hitting me. A lot. For very minor infractions. I had to dive out the window when I realized I'd left the cap off the toothpaste."
He bit into his lip slightly, and then the black-haired teen continued. "Gaz has also started getting that "time of the month". And she broke one kid's nose when he pointed out she had stains on her. She's gotten a lot more violent, like I said. More so than usual. She actually hit me with a frying pan because I suggested that she should learn to cook because she can't just always eat pizza and frozen waffles all the time. She said she very much disagreed, then beaned me over the head and told me to make her eggs."
Dib groaned, and the familiar welling of pain rose up on the side of his head as he rubbed it. "Oooch. Now, I love brinner, believe me, but it's no fun watching the pan AND keeping your head tilted back so you don't bleed into the egg whites. I guess what I'm saying is...it's probably minor." He finally remarked. "I mean, other kids got it much worse than me. And it sort of beats Zim trying to have my organs put out on the outside. But...I just wish you could do something about Gaz."
"What is this place?"
Dib turned around, taking notice of GIR, blinking in surprise as the little disguised robot made his way through the center aisle and over to Dib as he plopped down next to him. "Whatcha dooooin'?"
"I'm praying to God." Dib finally said, GIR's green doggy costume very much out of place in the church as GIR scratched his head.
"Does he listen?"
"I'd like to think he does." Dib said as he looked up at the statue of Jesus on the cross, then over at the candle he'd lit. "I come here once in a while to light a candle for my Mom. To show her I'm still missing her."
"Did she go away?"
"She...passed away. She died in a lab accident. Dad kinda wasn't ever the same since. I think he threw himself into his work and just sort of lost sight on what it means to be a good parent." Dib admitted quietly as he shifted in his seat.
"How do you know they're listening?" GIR asked.
"Just because you can't see something, doesn't mean it isn't there. And honestly, I've seen aliens, ghosts, pig-demons, wish-granting moochers..." Dib leaned back and looked up at the ceiling, smiling a bit. "It's never been a stretch for me to just believe. I just do. Why wouldn't I, especially after all I've seen? I like to think he's always watching me and he tries to help whenever he thinks I really do need it. I like to think Mom is watching me and she's proud of what I do."
"Master says someone's always watching him. He calls them "Daddy" and keeps begging him not to touch him." GIR admitted, Dib quickly whipping his head in his direction. "He doesn't like Daddy much. And he doesn't like being called a 'Mommy'."
"...let's get you back." Dib offered. "How come you were following me anyhow?"
"Actually, I was followin' Gaz. She's out there." GIR said, pointing out a nearby window, Dib getting up from the pew and staring out through it, seeing Gaz standing in front of a gravestone he knew all too well. He bit into his lip again before he exited the church as the grey skies remained overcast and heavy, like an ugly grey quilt.
"Gaz?"
Gaz barely turned her head to stare at him. "...what do you want."
"It's Mom's grave, right?"
"What little is there of her." Gaz said in an acidic tone. "...good thing they went for open-casket."
"I miss her too."
"Yeah but you go to THAT place instead of just-" Gaz began to say, and for a brief moment a hint of real hurt crept into her voice, but then she just turned away from the grave and stared stonily at Dib, head bowed, purple hair covering her face. "I don't buy into that like you do. I think it's just an insult. An excuse. "It's okay if your life sucks, everything's gonna be better in the next one"!"
"You've been to other dimensional hells, why don't you believe in God?" Dib asked. "What's so farfetched about the idea of a greater power that cares for us?"
"Because NOBODY really cares for anyone else. Not really. Everyone does what they do for their own sake and their own interests and trying to act otherwise is stupid wish fulfillment. You really think you're into the paranormal just cuz you wanna protect people from the things that go bump in the night?!" Gaz asked, pointing an accusatory finger at Dib as a look of true hurt crept onto his features. "No, you do it because you want recognition. You want them to like you. That's why you do it. Not cuz you care about them. You care about what they think about you."
Dib glowered back. But he wasn't gonna say anything. He just stormed off, hands in his dark jacket pocket, gritting his teeth. He wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of an argument. And certainly not over their mother's grave.
But as he returned home after dropping GIR off to a shaky, slammed-the-door-immediately-after-GIR-came-in-Zim, and he plopped into his bed, he looked up at the ceiling, arms and legs sprayed out. "...I'm not a bad person. I'm not." He insisted quietly. But he wasn't sure if he believed it.
But unbeknownst to him, someone did believe it. Someone was listening. And someone was going to take action.
...
...
...
...Gaz awoke with a shock, eyes bugging out.
She was in a dark, endless abyss, her bed illuminated by a soft light far, far above, as a form sat in a chair across from her in the distance. It was shrouded utterly in the dark, it's form indistinguishable as she slid out of bed, approaching him, confused. "What the..." She muttered, continuing to approach as the being's shape became more and more defined, and more and more demonic in appearance. She halted in place as now a blue skinned, red-eyed imp stared at her. It had an orange set of gloves and neckerchief, dark tattoos stretching across it's arms and legs, a few sliding down it's cheeks like bloody red tears as it stared intensely at her and she realized he sat on a chair of bones.
"I sat with my love, I drank with my love, and my love she gave me light. I'll give anyone a pint of wine who'll read my riddle right."
Gaz blinked a bit, mouth slightly agape as she glanced around. "Where in the f-k am I?"
"Oh, now that kind of attitude's not very nice." He said. "I am the Emperor. Think of me as Hell's Saint Peter, Gazlene. And you should be much nicer to me. It'll make things easier on you."
"What're you talking about?!" Gaz snapped. "Where in the Hell am I?"
"...apropos." He intoned with a small smile. "Where the HELL indeed."
He clapped his hands together, and with that, the darkness slipped away, revealing the truth. Young children were shackled together in chains of bone and flesh, being escorted through a dark gate in the shape of a maw. Thick stalactites and stalagmites hung around her, screams of the damned echoing out through the air in a horrific symphony of pain, Gaz now standing on a plain of red dust as she frowned at all this. Blood dribbled down into pools around her and she turned on the imp, growling darkly.
"You don't scare me."
"Oh, I'm not here to "scare" you." He said, standing up, and shoving her into a pool. The bloody pool wrapped around her, too sticky like a kind of drink, dragging her down into dark red as she felt it burning her lungs, thousands of eyes appearing in the dark water around her, and a voice that she knew was not human spoke.
"Do you remember your first act of violence, Gaz? You stuck your brother over the head with a building block." It spoke. Gaz could feel something strike her over the head as she flailed about in the dark pool, struggling to get free as bony hands tried to pull her down into the darkest recesses below. She finally broke free, gasping, pulling herself onto dusty land before she was tossed through the air, trapped on a large wooden wheel as a form calmly sauntered over to her, twirling a knife between clawed, bony hands. It's skin was like fur, darker than the night sky and eyes even darker than that. It's wings were long and bony, it's smile foul and mocking with a voice like squashing bugs, a whispy pointed tail trailing off like an eternal fire, multiple hands holding up other knives.
"Do you remember that night at the restaurant? Your parents took you and your brother out to a fine and fancy place. And all you did was toss things and scream, demanding you go for pizza. Just...throwing things left and right." The Devil said, launching a knife through the air as it embedded an inch from her cheek, another going a few inches from her crotch as she gasped in shock. She clenched her hands, trying to wrench free of the stony clasps that held her to the wooden wheel, trying to call upon her powers...but the Devil just laughed.
"My dear, you can't use such powers in realms beyond the Mortal Coil!" He informed her before he launched another knife, the hilt whacking Gaz in the chest with a THUNKA-THUD, making her cringe as he held up a brick and tossed it up and down. "And you remember the "brick incident", right? You tossed things off a bridge into oncoming traffic for fun. You were leading up to a dummy to pretend that someone was committing suicide. But you decided to save that when a brick made a car crash on the freeway." He intoned darkly, the Devil launching the brick at her as it struck her hand and she howled in agony, screeching madly as she tried to break free, tears springing to her eyes as the Devil chuckled, another brick smacking into her knee as she howled again.
"The driver, Mr. Thompson, had one hand and one knee mangled. And then...of course...there were the burns." He intoned, advancing towards her, clawed hands digging into her flesh as he drew in deep, mouth like a blazing inferno as he leaned in and licked a serpentine tongue against her cheek, making her gasp in pain. She whimpered as a red-hot line slid over her cheek and he opened his jaws wide, the fire building in the back of his throat. "Some like it hot, Gaz." He whispered.
But before he could finish, he stopped, closing his mouth and turning as the imp from before handed him a letter and the Devil looked it over, frowning. The wheel plopped to the ground as Gaz shuddered, the wounds fading away as she looked up, Samael looking up. "It would appear...you've got an appointment." He intoned. "...with a little luck I'll be seeing you soon enough." He added, the clasps releasing Gaz as Samael lifted her up by her neck, bony claws slightly digging into her throat as he smiled. "Good night, my dear. Guess I'll have to eviscerate you some other time." The Devil calmly informed her, tossing her back onto her bed.
And with a THWUMPA-WOOMP, up, up, up she went, flying up into the singlular light far, far above, Gaz gripping the bed and cringing as she let out a scream.
"AAA!
AAAA!
AAAAAA-"
And then...Gaz was letting out a yawn, stretching her limbs as she scratched at her hair. Birds chirped around her, a soft wind blowing as she rubbed her eyes free of sleep. Had it all been a dream? Must have been. Phew. What a relief. It was a normal day, a beautiful morning and-
Wait. Soft...wind...blowing? It was October. And why was it so bright out in her room-
Then she realized what was really going on. She stared around her, blinking in surprise, finding herself on her bed, sure, but now her bed was in the middle of a beautiful, wide-open field. Soft, puffy clouds ambled overhead in a blue sky, and far off in the distance, the sky opened up into a beautiful abyss of a thousand stars, a rainbow leading the way to a pearly gate. Just beyond, there lay the faint vestiges of an enormous city of gold, as soft, classical music echoed through the air.
Gazlene Membrane scratched her head, stepping off onto the soft grass, walking with her bare feet across the enormous green field towards the gate. She tilted her head to the side, seeing a brown-haired being with a green shirt and golden undershirt was speaking with a man in a white robe. The being had, much like the man, silver and gold wristbands and a golden halo around his head...
But above all, they had wings. Real, fluffy, white, enormous wings. And Gaz stirred nervously as she noticed they were staring at her, hands clasped together as they stood behind the large, golden podium they were at. The man in the white robe stroked his greyish/black beard/moustache combo before turned to the brown-haired man. "That's her. What do you think?"
"...really? That's the one? Well, far be it from me to question Our Father's wisdom. I'll let Dad know...oh, wait. Silly me." The being said, his deep green and black eyes filled with humor as he slapped his own head. "He already knows she's up here, obviously! I'll just go tell the other archangels and we'll get things ready. The Heavenly Host hasn't had a hearing in ages."
"...I'm...in Heaven?" Gaz finally asked, mouth slightly agape before she punched the air. "WOOHOO! Suck it, Dib!" She cackled, doing some pelvic thrusts. "Uh huh! That's right! I did it! Oh yeah! I knew one day someone would have to recognize my maaaad skills. MAAAAAD ski-"
"You aren't up here to stay." The bearded man said, his tone faintly charming but with a kind of big-brother esque condescension that made her cringe. He waved a finger in the air as the apparent angel floated up through the air and into the city. "You are here for a hearing, Gazlene Membrane. You are to be judged before the Heavenly Host. And I have to say, this is a most unorthodox event. I don't think we've had anyone up here since..." He hesitated. "Well, since the Bulger case. We had two children murdering a two year old child and both were budding sociopaths. We had no choice then but to declare they deserved everything they got."
He shook his head. "I sincerely hope you'll put up a better defense for yourself than they did. They had nothing to say and in doing so, they damned themselves."
"...you're...putting ME on trial?" Gaz asked, mouth slightly agape, eyes bulging slightly, voice filled with indignation. "Do you have any idea who in the Hell I am?! I am Gazlene Membrane, you fu-"
"Language." The man said. "And I am Saint Peter. And I don't tolerate pottymouth behavior. Now do you want to go back home and resume living your life without any incident? Or do you wish to waste time arguing with me, when you could be standing up for yourself properly in a court of Heavenly Law?"
Gaz smirked a bit. "I always wanted to shout in God's face. Alright. Lead the way."
A few minutes later, she was escorted down a long, long stretch of golden road, people chatting amongst each other in robes and other types of white clothing, all looking quiet as they watched Saint Peter escorting her into an enormous, Capitol-esque building at the far end of the city. Gigantic pillars stretched across it as the green-and-gold-clothed angel Saint Peter had talked to bowed deeply before them. "Saint Peter, Gazlene Membrane, I, the Archangel Remiel, welcome you to the Hearing Hall of the Heavenly Host. From Seraphim to Cherubim, from every saint and recently-reformed sinner, from Jesus to Mary to Paul...all know of the hearing as Our Father intended. And all will be present for this."
And just like that, Gaz was now keenly aware that billions upon billions of eyes were staring at her, looking on as she sat in a big, comfy red chair in the middle of a large, circular hall. She was surrounded on all sides by people in throne-like, stony chairs, those directly facing her having the same majestic wings as Remiel, and with the same faintly toga-esque attire he had. One with flowing locks of blonde hair steepled his fingers, piercing blue eyes gazing down at her before turning to his left, where a man with fairly long brown hair, Middle Eastern skin and a well-built body sat. He calmly nodded as a warmth seemed to enter the room, a light emanating from all sides as the man spoke in a soft and contemplative tone.
"We are here because you have much to answer for, Gazlene Membrane." Jesus intoned softly. "You have behaved very terribly towards your fellow man. You have fought with your classmates and severely injured them. You sent a young gamer tumbling almost to his doom. You have attacked teachers and caused grievous injury in some cases, especially concerning a...Mr. Elliot, I believe? Would you explain why you felt the need to throw a stapler at his head?"
"I got my report card and it had all F's on it. I took it back to him and told him to throw some D's on that bi-"
Jesus wisely cut her off. "I see. And when he said he wouldn't, you tossed a stapler at his head."
Gaz waved a dismissive hand in the air. "He's fine."
"He didn't USE to need glasses."
"He looks better with them anyway."
The archangel sitting next to Jesus now spoke up, his voice deep and authoritative. "You have also done horrible things to your own brother."
"I trust you have the list, Michael?" Jesus asked, Michael pulling out a scroll of paper from the folds of his toga, and rolling it out. It rolled and rolled and rolled, stretching out and whacking Gaz's feet as it stretched across the floor, Michael beginning to read off the long list he had. "You have insulted and belittled him. You have made him clean up your messes at times, kicked and punched him, thrown things at his head, throttled him several times, were willing to let an alien invader turn his organs inside out and only saved him for your own benefit-"
"I get it. I get it. You think I've been an absolute...WITCH." She said, hating that she had to censor herself. Gaz folded her arms over her chest, snorting a bit. "So? It's a free country."
"Oh, really? I didn't know I was free to, say, chuck a brick through a Best Buy and make off with a new TV. I mean, I live in a free society, and I'd LOVE a new TV." Remiel wisecracked as he waved a finger in the air. "But you see...I'm not free to loot. Looting, much like assault, murder, conspiracy, stealing, none of that. None of that has anything to do with freedom. All of that is about breaking the law for your own selfish benefit. We don't let everyone just do everything they want, whenever they want, because there have to be basic, common sense limits, Gazlene."
"Oh? You think people are so lowly that they can't be trusted with themselves?"
"No. We believe SOME people are so lowly that they alone could almost spoil everything for everyone if there was absolutely nothing holding them back. Laws are a reminder, Gaz. A reminder of what people ought and should do. They can't make a bad man good. But they can remind a normal man to remain good." Jesus intoned softly. "You, however, believe the rules do not apply."
"People pick and choose what rules they follow all the time!"
"And if everyone jumped off a cliff, would you do that too? Arguing that it's what the majority does is a fallacy. There are higher standards to be upheld even if the majority don't believe in them. And you, Gazlene, are not free to do whatever you want to your brother any more than a man is free to beat up his wife, or a wife is free to attack her husband." Remiel spoke up as he shook his head. "Gaz, Families have a duty and a responsibility to treat each other with compassion and kindness and respect, even more strongly than the bond they have with their fellow man. After all, if you cannot rely on your family when things are at their roughest, who will you turn to?"
"I don't need to turn to anyone. I only need myself." Gaz snapped.
"You have no income, you have no job, and you are getting worse and worse grades in school. Tell me how you expect any of that equates to "needing no one"." The archangel remarked with a faint air of condescension.
"Stop looking down on me." She darkly growled, hands clenching into fists.
"Oh? But even now, you're looking down at us. You just want a chance to try and show us up. You don't think you've truly done anything wrong. You think you're entitled to things based solely on the fact that you're YOU. Not that you've done anything to deserve them. If you'd just come before us and admitted you were truly sorry for how you treated your brother-" Remiel went on, but before he could, Gaz snapped back, her voice furious and snarling.
"I didn't ASK Dib to be my brother!"
"Nobody "asks" their family to be their family. But they're family anyhow. That point is irrelevant. It means nothing. It's like saying you didn't ask to be born. You don't get to choose that. Some things are beyond your control and all you CAN choose to do about that is how you react to it. And you have chosen..." Jesus hesitated. "...poorly."
"And who are you to judge?" Gaz snapped. "You're not down on Earth. You're not actually living down there, doing anything. You haven't ever used the Internet, or a TV, or a Game Slave. When you were walking around, it was okay to put a spear to someone's throat and say "Wash my socks". You and your friends up here have no idea what it's like to be down on Earth, and what we have to go through. I'm surrounded by complete and utter IDIOTS!" She shrieked out, throwing her hands in the air. "Who think the height of excitement is a new flavor of Pringle!"
"We Love you." The archangel Michael said gently.
"If you really loved us, you'd be down there helping. But you're not. You're separate. Distinct from us. Your Good can't be Ours because you're not one of us."
"Based on what? Your narrow-minded, childish interpretation that simply because we're not human and not present, we don't care?" Michael said, his tone soft. Soft, but with an edge. "Your mother isn't on Earth anymore. Do you think she ever stopped caring?"
Gaz turned stone-faced as she glared in his direction. "Don't you bring my mother into this."
"She's here, Gaz." Jesus said softly, gesturing with a hand at a woman who was now standing up, Gaz turning, seeing that familiar long, purple hair, and the soft face, hands clasped together as they hung low, a sad expression on her features.
"We're your parents, Gaz. We want to do what's best for you. And that means knowing that at a certain point, a child has to take responsibility for their own actions." Peggy Membrane quietly murmured. "You keep refusing to do so."
"Humanity, much like you, has to learn to take responsibility for what it does. It is not our fault you choose to do wrong, Gaz. You know the difference. Yet you think the rules don't apply. That you're exempt. And you fault others for calling you out on this, instead of owning up to your wrongdoing. We did not put a gun to your head and make you torment your brother."
"It's as the saying goes." Peggy sighed sadly. "Nobody is sent to Hell. They choose to go there. They choose every day they do the wrong thing, and ignore doing what's right. They choose by ignoring the chance to make others happy, saying their own desires are more important. They choose by being cruel when they could be kind. It all adds up, Gaz. Yet you think you can just ignore the score."
"But nevertheless, unlike other cases, you've yet to technically kill anyone. Even Iggins has miraculously survived and is actually doing fantastic work for us in Africa." Jesus remarked, his tone now much more cheery as everyone around Gaz nodded in agreement, Remiel snapping his fingers as a large screen of Iggins was put on display of him flying through the air, an African child on his back, escorting him away from a stampede of wildebeests. "As such, instead of informing you that you'll be eternally damned for your many, many years of unabashed cruelty, we're going with a more...karmic punishment."
"Indeed, turns out God is a very big fan of Buddha." Peggy admitted as she held her hands up and clasped them, giving a small bow. "They adore talking long hours into the night about redemption and charity and ironic punishments that teach lessons. God LOOOOVES irony. So I offered the suggestion of a more...light punishment."
THWOOM.
Gaz's chair now had stone arms pinning her tightly to it, arms and legs bound, little hands pulling her eyelids open as she was forced to look at the screen Remiel was showing her as scene after scene of her cruelty flashed before her eyes.
After a brief flash of light, Dib's x-scope showed an x-ray view of Zim…and his organs were WEIRD. There was something like a heart, yes, and a brain, but beyond that everything was…squished together into one SUPERORGAN! As Zim continued to try and get the ball thrown to him, Dib took the glasses off.
" Incredible! See Gaz?" He asked his sister. "To defeat my enemy, I must study my enemy, then become my enemy, then move in with my enemy, then where my enemy's clothes, then-"
"You're in my light." Gaz muttered, whacking him across the face.
She quivered and quaked in her seat, struggling futilely to get free, growling in denial. "You call THIS light?!" Gaz screamed out.
Meanwhile, beans, beans, the magical fruit spewed forth from the proton oven as Gaz put more and more cans inside of it. Unfortunately when she put two MORE cans inside of the oven the bottom half of it blew up in a sad, lackluster purple explosion of dust. Gaz blinked in surprise. "That didn't wipe out all life as we know it!" She muttered.
Clenching her fist, Gaz immediately pulled all of the kitchen into a dark, fiery inferno down in the pits of hell as flames shot up into a blood red sky. "YOU LIED TO ME, DAD!" She howled.
"Well, in comparison to what Uriel was proposing..." Peggy nervously admitted, rubbing the back of her neck as a red-headed archangel smirked broadly.
"Impressive that you got inside my base, Dib." Zim complimented. "If you hadn't of made the stupid mistake of trying to transmit a message, I may never have caught you." Then Zim read his fists into the air and shook them happily. "But I DID catch yoooou! And by the Irken rules of war, you are my prisoner!" He grinned. "You'll do your species the honor of being one of the first to experimented on."
Gaz crawled atop a thick wire, looking down at Dib and blinking. She placed one finger on her lip and thought about what Zim was planning. "Hmmm... Just one experiment, then I go rescue him!"
"HA-HA-HA-HA!" Zim laughed. "Now Dib, let's see what you look like with all your organs... ON THE OUTSIDE!" He announced, pulling on a lever.
"OOOOH." Gaz said, eyes wide with interest, mouth forming a perfect "o".
"He wanted GIR to chase you around a mansion with a knife, screaming "Come play with me, Gazzy" before cuttng your eyes out, making you unable to ever play a video game again."
It was a seemingly ordinary day for most of Earth. The sky was blue, just as always. The clouds were white, just as always. The grass was green, just as always. Gaz whacked Dib over the head with a newspaper so hard his glasses popped off solely for taking the last "Poppy Chewy", just as always.
"Or we could have gone with Azazel's suggestion. He wanted you to spend a night in that mansion Zim entered and Zim hasn't been the same since the Spider took him into his web." Remiel added.
"Oh!" Dib gasped, seeing that there was a flashing light on one of the spelldrives. "Hey! This drive still has two unused power points!" He realized, looking it over. "How did I miss that? Me, the obsessive compulsive Dib!"
"UH." Gaz growled and took some Franken Chokie crumbs out of the box, then blew them right into Dib's face, making him begin to choke. He fell to the ground, gasping and coughing madly as Gaz, smirking, walked out of the room.
"I think he's checking in on Zim now. He feels a little guilty Zim now has to sleep in a corner, armed with a bat, chanting "better safe than sorry" every five seconds. So you're getting off easy."
"You're stupid, you're paranoid, your head is big, nobody cares about you and I think you're just a science experiment of Dad's!" Gaz laughed. "And you'll NEVER expose Zim because nobody cares about what you think because EVERYONE thinks you're crazy!" Gaz continued to go on, that smile of hers getting wider.
"OH YOU SONOFA-"
...
...
...
...Dib let out a yawn as he stretched, scratching his rear before making his way to the bathroom. But as he opened up the partially-open door, he found Gaz was sitting on the toilet lid, staring at the shower curtain across from her, mouth slightly agape, quivering a little. Her eyes seemed red, as if she'd been crying for many, many hours, and she slowly turned to look at Dib.
"...I don't feel so good." She muttered out.
"You look awful. Did you get any sleep last night?" Dib wanted to know, Gaz giving a hiccuping little giggle.
"Funny story. Had a chat with God. Didn't go well." She said, before plopping off the toilet lid, flopping to the floor and curling up in a ball as Dib cringed.
"I'll...go get you a hot chocolate." He offered.
"...thanks..." She managed to mutter out, arms wrapped around her legs as she quivered on the bathroom floor, Dib blinking in surprise at this sudden display of decency before he made his way down the stairs. Soon enough, Gaz was sitting in her bed, holding a cup of hot cocoa and sipping it slowly as she held it in both hands, Dib carefully bringing the blankets back up to her body.
"Try and just relax, take deep breaths, and maybe take a nap." He offered.
"I think I want beddy byes." Gaz said in a much more quiet voice than Dib was used to, twitching a bit. "...the beddy byes will make the visions go away. I keep seeing me dunking people's heads in a toilet. So much dunking. The dunking has to stop."
Dib just scratched his head. He wasn't sure why Gaz was suddenly so...calm. But he'd take it. He shrugged, exiting the room and heading downstairs, noticing the little Children's Illustrated Bible that he'd brought out of the bookcase was now open, and lying on the table. It had been opened up to the book of Matthew, to where the Lord's prayer came from.
And what a fitting passage, Dib mused to himself as he read aloud.
"For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."