A/N: So, here we are once again, another Halloween, and another anti-Gaz story. Sorry this one's up so late, but at least it's up – like the one I tried to put together last year, I had trouble getting it to all flow properly. But unlike that one, I actually got something out this time.
Not sure this is my best work, but I'll leave that up to you.
That said, read on!
Disclaimer: Invader Zim and all related characters belong to Jhonen Vasquez.
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Gaz's Haunted Night of Doom
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Gaz Membrane was starting off her morning as she had most of them in her fifteen years of life – absently shoveling cereal into her mouth with one hand while she played the newest Vampire Piggy Hunter game on her latest model Game Slave with the other. All while actively ignoring her brother's own morning ritual of rambling through a mix of paranoid theories about Zim and his thoughts on the latest supposed paranormal happenings around the city. Yep, she was a great multitasker.
Oh, wait. He seemed to be directly addressing her now, rather than merely thinking out loud. Great, now she'd have to actually respond and hope he quickly got over the need for her interaction, or he wouldn't stop pestering her for her opinion.
"…And with a string of repeat occurrences like this, it can't just be a coincidence, don't you think, Gaz?" Dib finished, looking at her expectantly.
Heaving an annoyed sigh, Gaz paused her game and cracked one eye to glare across the table at Dib.
"What stupid thing are you talking about, again?" she asked, not even pretending to have been paying attention. Dib frowned at that, as though he was actually worth listening to, but shook it off and answered.
"I'm talking about Krueger Manor!" He exclaimed, as if that answered everything.
Gaz arched an eyebrow at his enthusiasm on the subject.
"Isn't that that house on the edge of town that's supposed to be haunted?" she asked.
"Either haunted or cursed, no one's certain which," Dib admitted, "All anyone knows for sure is that anyone who's ever spent a night in that house has been driven completely insane, and now it's happened again!"
Dib finished his statement by holding up the newspaper he'd been examining. Gaz eyed the article he was pointing to, which was titled "Local Homeless Man Claws Eyes Out". Skimming the article itself, she read how the man had stumbled out of the abandoned house the previous morning, having apparently sheltered there for the night, and began laughing and crying hysterically before doing as the title said and clawing his own eyes out with his bare hands.
"Some hobo goes crazy, and you think a house made him do it?"
"It's not just this guy, Gaz," Dib persisted, "There are reports going back more than a hundred and fifty years of people entering that house for a night and coming out the next morning completely out of their minds, or being found inside catatonic. And like I said before, when you were ignoring me, that many reports with that much similarity between them cannot be a coincidence."
Gaz merely snorted in response.
"I can't believe I'm wasting valuable game time discussing an urban legend with you," she muttered, as she returned her attention to her game. Dib frowned at that, but any response he had was preempted as a hover screen showing their father floated into the room.
"Ah, children! There you are," Professor Membrane greeted cheerfully, "I have something very important to discuss with you both."
Gaz arched an eyebrow at that; their father rarely bothered to communicate with them personally, unless it was for a publicity stunt or to show them off to his important business partners. Which meant that whatever he had to say was either going to be very good, or very bad.
"Now then, it has recently come to my attention that you are both entering young adulthood," the Professor began.
"Wait, you're just now noticing how old we are?" Dib asked, incredulous. While Gaz agreed in principle, she wasn't exactly surprised herself – half the time, she was fairly certain their father didn't remember their names. Their ages didn't strike her as being too important to him.
"Come now, son, I'm an important man. I can't be expected to remember every minor detail of my personal life," Membrane replied, waving off Dib's indignant shock, "Anyway, as I was saying, as you two are approaching adulthood, I have decided it is time for you both to learn properly about the responsibilities that come with it. As such, under the advisement of my lawyers, I have decided to hereby cut you both off financially."
"What?!" Gaz shouted, while Dib merely blinked dumbly in surprise.
"One day, one of you shall inherit my business empire," the Professor continued, "However, as you both approach adulthood, I have come to realize that neither of you is sufficient for the job – son, even after all these years, you still insist on pursuing that paranormal nonsense instead of Real Science. And daughter, I've noticed lately that you seem apathetic, and lacking any interest in any form of science, even your brother's fake kind.
"Since my legacy is far too important to leave in the hands of those who will not handle it properly, I have decided to motivate you towards self-improvement. If either of you want to continue to finance your little wastes of time, you will have to get jobs in order to pay for them yourselves. And the responsibilities of having jobs shall, in turn, teach you to take life more seriously, and to put away such childish things in favor of the pursuit of Real Science!
"Well, that's all I had to say. Have fun at skool!" Membrane finished, as if everything was perfectly normal, the screen floating away with both teens staring after it. After a moment, Dib spoke up.
"I can't decide if this is radically good parenting, or just really bad parenting," he said.
Gaz responded by tossing the cereal box at his head hard enough to knock him over.
XXXXX
Several hours later, and Gaz's usual bad mood was still in even worse shape than usual thanks to her father's announcement. It simply could not have come at a worse time. The new Game Slave X-50 was coming out that weekend, and she had been planning on sweet-talking her father into paying for it for her. Now she was actually going to have to get a job if she wanted it. And even then, with how low starter jobs paid, by the time she earned enough, they'd probably be halfway towards making the next model, making getting this one pointless.
Speaking of pointless, that's exactly what this whole situation was. First of all, being the child of someone rich and famous meant that she was just going to surf through life once he died and she inherited everything anyway. Which brought up her second point, the fact that she was going to get everything; their father hated Dib's love of the paranormal too much to ever give him control of his "real" science-based business. So, there was really no point to this little exercise, if she was just going to get everything in the end regardless.
So, with all that in mind, her natural aura of barely suppressed rage was in overdrive today, something just about everyone was smart enough to notice, thus avoiding her, for fear of setting her off. Which, admittedly, she had mixed feelings about – while she of course was glad the idiots were all leaving her alone, she almost wished someone would give her an excuse to doom them. It would be a great way to let off some steam.
As it was, it was her lunch period, which she was spending off in a corner of the Hi Skool courtyard, sitting on an old bench perched against the side of the building. Having finished the lunch she'd brought with her (seeing as the food in this school was no better than at the old one), she'd pulled out her Game Slave 3 and started playing. But even then, her enjoyment of her favorite pastime was tainted, by the knowledge that she'd be stuck playing this outdated model, while everyone else in the gaming community ran around with the new one. Especially Iggins.
Gaz's eye twitched as she thought of her only real gaming rival. While he'd never been stupid enough to try and steal a Game Slave or game from her again after the elevator incident, that hadn't stopped him from pestering her over the years by rubbing his every gaming achievement in her face. And even though nine times out of ten, she'd have already surpassed everything he was bragging about, that didn't stop his smug attempts at superiority from grating on her nerves.
If she didn't get the new Game Slave first, he was never going to let her live it down. She had to buy one first. But how was she supposed to get a job and earn that kind of money in just a few days?
Her internal musings were cut off as voices drifted towards her. Half turning away from her game, she looked up as a group of girls came walking around the side of the building, apparently not noticing her in her corner. Not that she was complaining, especially when she recognized the girls as Zita and her little posse of suck ups. If she could get by without having to talk to miss "I'm only popular because I'm rich and pretty", then she could at least have one positive thing happen to her today.
"…And I'm not one to believe in that paranormal crap, like that Dib weirdo," Zita was saying, "But my grandmother always warned me about Krueger Manor. She said that when she was a kid, her sister's friend's cousin went in there on a dare, and when they found him the next morning, he was in a coma."
"I dunno, Zita," one of her drones commented, "It still sounds totally like an urban legend that everyone's blowing out of proportion."
"Yeah, leave that stuff to Dib," the other one added, "In fact, who wants to bet he goes and investigates that place now?"
Zita snorted. "Here's hoping. Though honestly, if the house really is haunted and drives people insane, here's hoping he takes his creepy sister with him. Two for one shot."
"Yeah. Let that bitch get what's coming to her. Now that is something I'd pay money to see."
Gaz's teeth grit together hard enough that she was sure she felt them crack. How dare these pathetic, spoiled brats insult her like this? She was going to doom them so hard, that their grandchildren were going to be feeling it until…
"Wait a minute," she thought, stopping short as a light went off in her head, "Did she just say that she'd pay to see me go into that house?"
Mental gears whirled for a moment, before a smirk crossed Gaz's face. Pausing her game and slipping it into a pocket, she got to her feet and quickly and quietly marched over to the trio. Clearing her throat loudly, her smirk widened as the girls jumped in surprise, faces paling as they realized who had just been listening in on them. But as entertaining as that was, she had more important things to deal with.
"Let's have a little talk," she said, smirking wide enough now to show teeth.
XXXXX
As the sun set that evening, Gaz was finishing packing a backpack she'd need for the night's excursion. Looking over the bags of snacks, bottles of soda, her Game Slave, a blanket and pillow she'd stuffed in for when she eventually got tired, and her bat just in case, she nodded to herself and zipped it closed. Throwing the bag on, she walked out of room and downstairs, making her way towards the front door. As she did, she passed where Dib was sitting at the kitchen table, a newspaper open to the want ads spread out before him.
Gaz couldn't help but snort derisively – here she was, about to clean up big time, and he was still trying to make money the old fashioned way like a loser. Unfortunately for her, he heard her and looked up. Noticing the bag she was carrying, he blinked in confusion.
"Where are you going?"
For a minute, she considered lying to him, but he frankly wasn't worth the effort. And besides, his reaction to the truth should be worth a laugh.
"Oh, I'm just going to go spend the night at Krueger Manor," she said as casually as possible, smirking at the sight of his eyes bugging out behind his glasses.
"What?!" he shouted, "Are you crazy? Why would you do that?!"
"Because I've got half the skool in a betting pool on if I would and how long I'd stay in there if I did. I stay the whole night, and I rake in enough cash to buy the new Game Slave, and then some."
"You're risking your life and sanity over a game?!" Dib demanded, as he shot to his feet.
Gaz rolled her eyes as she responded, "Nothing is going to happen, idiot. That house is not haunted, or cursed, or anything like that. And even if it is, I'll just doom whatever it throws at me. So calm the hell down."
"No way," Dib replied firmly, crossing his arms in defiance. As Gaz raised an eyebrow in surprise, he continued, "I've put up with a lot of stuff from you over the years, Gaz, but you're still my sister. So I am not letting you risk yourself like this for no good reason. You are not leaving this house tonight."
In response, Gaz kicked him in the leg hard enough that he nearly fell over, and just as he caught his balance, she grabbed him by the back of the head and slammed him face first into the table, before tossing his limp body to the ground.
"You do not tell me what to do. Ever. Remember that, or I'll plunge you into a nightmare world with no return," she snarled at his groaning form, before turning on her heel and marching out the door, slamming it shut behind her.
XXXXX
Shortly afterwards, Gaz was standing across the street from the much talked about Krueger Manor. She supposedly, technically speaking it was a fairly impressive looking building, being some sort of Victorian Gothic styled two-story complex, but she was no architect, and besides, she was pretty certain that all the boarded up windows and the overgrown lawn detracted heavily from the effect.
Shaking her head, she turned her attention away from the house and to Zita, who was standing nearby, next to the vehicle that she and her kiss-asses had arrived in.
"A van?" Gaz asked, eyebrow raised, "What is this, Scooby-Doo?"
Zita shrugged. "We needed something comfortable to camp out in if we're going to make sure you stay in there all night like you agreed to."
"Whatever," Gaz scoffed, "I'll handle my end of the bet, so you better keep yours. Speaking of which, the money?"
Zita reached into her purse and pulled out a large envelope, which she opened to reveal a large stack of money.
"I was honestly surprised at how much I was able to gather so fast," Zita said, before smirking, "I guess I underestimated how much people hate your guts."
Gaz's only response to that was a death glare. Zita flinched back, but quickly re-gathered her courage and glared back, slipping the envelope back into her purse.
"This stays with me until you stay the whole night. If you stay the whole night. Otherwise, you don't get a dime. Got it?"
Gaz merely rolled her eyes, then hefted her backpack and strolled towards the house. Ignoring the impressively creepy gargoyles flanking the yard walkway leading up to the house proper, she walked right up to the door, which was hanging loosely in its frame, and shoved it open.
The inside of the house was in roughly the same state as the exterior. The paint on the walls and ceiling was peeling off in large patches, there was mold growing in equally large patches all over, and every inch not covered in that was caked in dust. Gaz's nose wrinkled in disgust, but she shook it off. Looking around the entrance hall she was standing in, she noticed an open doorway off to the side. Walking over, she saw what looked like a den, though the furniture had all mostly fallen apart. Picking a couch that was still in mostly one piece, she kicked it a few times, as much to make sure it wouldn't collapse under her as to loosen some of the dust on it.
Once she was certain the couch was in reasonably good shape, Gaz placed her backpack on the floor and opened it, pulling out the blanket and pillow and placing them on the couch. She'd probably have to burn them both after this, but at least she wouldn't have to touch the disgusting couch herself.
Settling down, she pulled out her Game Slave and a bag of chips. She then looked up, not looking at any specific point, but focusing her attention on the house as a whole.
"Well, I'm here," she announced to the air, "If you really are haunted, go ahead. Hit me with your best shot."
With that, she turned her attention to her game. And if the subsequent cold wind that blew through the house sounded anything like an evil laugh, she ignored it.
XXXXX
A few hours later, Gaz was still sitting on the couch, playing her game, with only the empty snack bags around her signifying the time that had passed. Well, that and the weariness that was starting to work its way into her eyes. But she'd pulled long nights of gaming before, and she was willing to pull one now.
As it was, she was approaching the final boss, the Supreme Vampire Pig Emperor. Her Hunter character was at full strength, and had every upgrade she knew she'd need to win. She'd played this game a dozen times and won with even more ease each time.
As it was, she was shocked when the fight began, and she suddenly found herself drawing a blank. She knew she could beat this game in her sleep, and yet as the Pig Emperor loomed over her Hunter, she could not for the life of her remember how to fight it.
Panicking, she mashed the Game Slave's buttons, but that only made the Hunter twitch in place spastically, before the Pig Emperor backhanded it aside. As the Hunter automatically got back to its feet, Gaz desperately pressed another button. However, that just made the Hunter pick up a bomb and drop it at its own feet. The resulting explosion took out nearly all the Hunter's health, and it was promptly cut in half by the Pig Emperor's giant sword.
GAME OVER
"What the hell?" she muttered to herself, "What just happened?"
"Loser," a voice hissed out. Blinking, Gaz looked around to see where it was coming from, when a sudden motion at the corner of her vision drew her attention back to her Game Slave. To her surprise, rather than showing the restart screen, it was displaying the Pig Emperor, who appeared to be glaring right at her.
"You dedicate yourself to these games, and you are not even good at them," the demonic hog spat, "You are pathetic. Worthless. You make me sick!"
With a snarl, the Pig Emperor actually lunged forward, and his arm shot forward, actually shooting out of the screen, the cloven claws of one hand wrapping around her throat. Gagging, and suffering a rare moment of panic, Gaz tossed the Game Slave away, the claws slipping away from her throat, while the device bounced across the floor, screen cracking and batteries flying free, before it skidded to a stop.
Breathing heavily, Gaz grabbed at her throat, rubbing the circulation back into it. Getting to her feet and rushing over to a nearby mirror, she quickly rubbed enough dust off of it to see her reflection, and examined her neck. But surprisingly, not only was the skin not broken, it wasn't even bruised. Confused, she hesitantly walked over to the fallen Game Slave and poked it with her foot. When nothing happened, she picked it up, and stared at its broken screen, and saw nothing but her own reflection.
"I'm just tired," she muttered, "And I'm just letting those stupid rumors get to me. That's all. I'll get some sleep, and when I wake up, it'll be morning and I can get out of this place and get my money."
With that, she walked back over to the couch, tossing the now useless Game Slave aside as she did so. She then dropped onto the couch, cocooned herself in the blanket, and let her head sink into the pillow. Her eyes shut, and she quickly drifted off to sleep.
What felt like a minute later – but could have been an hour for all she knew – Gaz suddenly jerked awake. For a moment, she didn't remember where she was. When she did, she quickly sat up, dropping the blanket, as she tried to pinpoint what had woken her up.
Ah, there it was. The sound of creaking floorboards was coming from the entrance hallway; someone else was in the house.
Curious but not wanting to take any chances, Gaz slipped the baseball bat out of her backpack and hefted it, before slowly making her way to the room's door, which had creaked partway closed at some point. Carefully edging it open a bit more, she peeked around the corner to glimpse the hallway, and blinked in surprise at the sight that greeted her.
"Dib?"
Her brother, who was standing in the hallway looking around, turned to look at her, a neutral expression on his face. Gaz, meanwhile, felt her own face warp with annoyance and barely suppressed anger, which she let rise to the surface as she shoved the door open and stomped towards Dib.
"What do you think you're doing here? If any of those bimbos outside see you here, they'll use that as an excuse to forfeit the bet, and I am not losing out on all that money because of yo-"
SMACK
Gaz was cut off as Dib hit her – actually hit her – right in the face. Yelping in pain and surprise, Gaz dropped the bat and brought both hands up to cup her bloody nose, which definitely felt like it had been broken. Utterly shocked, she looked at her brother, who looked back at her with the most hateful expression she'd ever seen on anyone other than herself.
"You don't talk to me like that anymore, you bitch," he snarled, eyes blazing, "I have tried, and tried, to be a decent brother. But you don't care at all do you, you cunt? No, you're just a selfish, disgusting brat of a bully, who takes whatever she wants and breaks everything and everyone that gets in her way. Well, now it's time for a taste of your own medicine."
Before she could blink, Dib lashed out again, his fist slamming into her stomach. As she doubled over in pain, Dib grabbed her by the hair and brought her head down on his knee. She fell to the floor, vision swimming. As she struggled to stay conscious, she saw her fallen bat lying nearby. She weakly reached out for it, only to cry out in more pain as Dib's foot came down hard on her wrist, pinning her hand to the floor.
"You'd love to bash my head in with this, wouldn't you?" he sneered, as he reached down and picked up the bat, "I bet you've even fantasized about it, haven't you, you little sociopath? Filled your head up with sick dreams of hurting people. Well, let's see if we can't knock them loose. Batter up!"
With that, he swung the bat down towards her head. Gaz flinched, eyes shutting as she anticipated the blow… which never came. And for that matter, why had the pressure on her hand and pain in her face and stomach suddenly disappeared?
Hesitantly opening her eyes, she was surprised to see the bat back where it had first fallen, and looking up, saw absolutely no sign of Dib anywhere. She reached up and gingerly felt her face, and realized that her nose was unbroken, and she overall didn't feel as if she'd just been brutally beaten. As her mind whirled in confusion, an epiphany hit her, and she let out a slightly hysterical laugh.
"So, you really are haunted, huh?" she asked the air, as she got back to her feet, "And this is what you do, give people hallucinations until they go crazy? Well, you're going to have to mess with my head a lot harder than that if you want to make me crack!"
Leaving the bat where it was (what good would it do against illusions, anyway?) she walked back into the den. She'd try to get some more sleep, and if nothing else, would simply ignore everything else the house threw at her. After all, there was no way that some stupid building was going to win out over her.
That train of thought was cut off, however, as she stepped through the doorway and froze. Rather than the den of Krueger Manor, she was now standing in what was clearly a hallway of the Hi Skool. Turning around, she was greeted with the sight of a solid wall instead of the door she'd just walked through. Giving an unimpressed snort, Gaz looked around the hallway.
"So what is showing me skool supposed to do? What, is it that clichéd nightmare where I'm here naked, or something?" She asked the air, as she looked down at herself, half expecting to see herself in the buff. And then her eyes nearly popped out at what she saw.
No, she wasn't naked, but she almost wished that she were. And that was because instead of her usual outfit, she was wearing the pinkest, frilliest, most outright girliest dress she'd ever seen in her life. She could do nothing but stare at the abomination, until her ears were filled with the sound of laughter.
Looking up, she saw that the empty hallway was now filled to the brim with people. In fact, it looked like pretty much the entire student body, or at least all the ones she knew existed, where standing there, laughing at her.
"Hey, love the new look, Gaz," one girl said through her chuckles.
"Yeah, you're actually pretty hot!" a guy added, wolf whistling.
The other students followed the example set by those two, mixing their laughs with backhanded compliments and jeers. And despite knowing it wasn't real, Gaz felt her face flame with humiliation, clenched hands shaking as her rage mounted. And finally, she couldn't take it anymore.
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" She screamed, running forward to start flinging punches. Unfortunately, her feet got tangled up in the stupid dress's ridiculously poofy skirt, and she fell flat on her face, which only increased the amount of laughter around her. She attempted to push herself to her feet, only to feel a pair of arms suddenly circle her waist, lifting her as if she weighed nothing, and spun her around. And when she saw who was holding her, Gaz realized that this illusion had gotten even worse.
"Hello, beautiful," Iggins greeted, smiling lecherously, "Miss me?"
"Let me go, you freak!" Gaz demanded, trying to force him back and break out of his hold. But try as she might, her arms seemed to be completely powerless, her blows having no noticeable effect.
"Hey, is that any way to treat your boyfriend?" someone in the crowd asked, laughing even harder than before, "Why don't you give him some sugar?"
"Boyfriend?" Gaz asked, staring incredulously at the speaker. There was no way the stupid haunted house was this cruel…
"Yeah, you remember," Iggins said, smirking, "We've been dating ever since you finally admitted I'm a better gamer than you. Now, why don't we take that guy's advice? Pucker up."
Gaz's eyes widened in alarm, and she increased her attempts to break free. But even as she uselessly struggled and squirmed, Iggins' disgusting puckered lips edged closer and closer to hers. At the moment they made contact, she gave primal scream of disgust and shoved against him as hard as she could…
…And found herself falling to the floor in the Krueger Manor den. Frantically rubbing at her mouth and spitting, she stumbled over to her backpack and pulled out a bottle of soda. Practically ripping the bottle cap off, she chugged the liquid inside, not even tasting it as she used it as impromptu mouthwash, gargling and spitting it out. Panting, she wiped her mouth off with her sleeve and glared up at the ceiling.
"Is that all you've got?!" she demanded, "That was horrible, but I plunge people into nightmare worlds all the time! You'll still have to do better if you want to break me!"
She merely sat there for a few moments, while her breathing slowly returned to normal and she fought down the hysteria. Finally, taking a final calming breath, she placed the bottle cap back on and returned the bottle to her bag, before settling herself back on the couch.
And before she knew it, sunlight was beginning to creep through the windows. Smirking, and ignoring how relieved she felt, she quickly snatched up her backpack and walked towards the front door as quickly as she could without running.
"That's what I thought," she muttered, as she all but ripped the door open and swept out through the opening.
XXXXX
A few days later, Gaz entered her house, a box containing her new Game Slave tucked under one arm. After that awful night in Krueger Manor, she had marched out to a very surprised Zita and her posse, and collected her money. And now, after only having to spend a few days of game withdrawal, she'd finally gotten the new Game Slave she'd worked so hard for. Dropping the box on the kitchen table, she ripped it open and pulled the Game Slave out. Smiling ecstatically, she reached for the on button, only to be suddenly interrupted.
"Daughter, could you come down here for a moment?" her father's voice called up from the basement lab. Growling in annoyance, Gaz carefully placed the Game Slave down on the table and stomped over to the stairs and down to the basement.
To her surprise, Dib was standing next to their father, a strange smirk on his face. For a moment, Gaz had a horrible flashback to that one vision the house had shown her, but shook it off. That was just a trick; Dib didn't have the guts to ever really stand up to her like that.
"This better be important," she muttered, crossing her arms.
"Oh, it is," the professor replied, gesturing to a chair, "Please sit down."
Gaz huffed, but dropped into the chair, arms still crossed.
"Now then, daughter, earlier this week, I tasked you and your brother with finding jobs in order to gain an understanding of fiscal responsibility. But only your brother has accomplished anything."
Gaz's eyebrows jumped up in surprise.
"You got a job?" she asked Dib, who merely shot a smug look back at her.
"Yes," Membrane replied for him, "In fact, he jumped on an entry level position at my lab. So not only does he now have the means to earn honest money, but he's been given a perfect opportunity to prove he's capable of one day inheriting my mantle of Real Science!"
"Now wait a minute!" Gaz snapped, gripping the arms of the chair hard enough that her knuckles turned white, "What about all his stupid paranormal research crap? You're really going to just give him your company when he still believes in stuff you hate?!"
"I'll admit, we do still need to wean him off his insanity," Membrane said casually, "But he's proven that he's at least mature enough to one day take on the responsibility, which I can more than say for you. You haven't even tried to look for a job, even after I made myself perfectly clear on this matter. As such, I see that I have no choice in this matter."
Before Gaz could ask what that meant, Membrane snapped his fingers, and metal straps suddenly shot out from the chair, wrapping around Gaz's arms, legs, chest, neck and forehead, locking her in place.
"What the hell is th-MMPH?!" her cry was cut off another strap shot across her mouth, gagging her.
"Since Dib has proven himself to be a better potential heir, that makes you redundant, daughter," Membrane explained, "But, don't worry, you can still serve a purpose – after all, I always needs test subjects."
"Hey, Dad, want to try that new brain surgery technique you were telling me about?" Dib asked, slipping out of his trench coat and into a lab coat matching his father's, "If it works right, we might just make her halfway worth something."
"Excellent idea, son! Care to do the honors?" Membrane asked, holding out a massive laser drill.
"With pleasure," Dib said, his face contorting into a mad grin as he took hold of the device and turned to the squirming Gaz, placing it against her head. "Now hold still, sister dearest. This shouldn't hurt for too long."
The laser drill spun to life, and Gaz screamed.
XXXXX
"Another Krueger case, huh?" the doctor asked the two orderlies, looking down at the purple-haired teen struggling weakly against the straps holding her to the gurney, eyes glazed but still shooting around madly.
"Yep," one of the orderlies, "Kid's friends apparently dared her to spend the night, and a few hours later heard her screaming bloody murder."
"Cops got called in, and found her thrashing around on the floor of one room like she was having a seizure," the other continued, "They restrained her and called us in. Kid was still screaming when we showed up and sedated her; she hasn't shown any kind of response since."
"Someone really should bulldoze that place," the doctor muttered, "I don't believe in curses, but something about that place definitely messes people up."
Shaking his head clear, he gestured down the hall.
"Well, you know the routine – take her to the mental ward, and tell them to keep her restrained and sedated until we can get her family in here and they can sign off on transferring her to the Crazy House."
The orderlies nodded and started rolling Gaz down the hallway, while she continued to moan screams, trapped in a nightmare world with no waking. And far away, across town, the door of Krueger Manor, left open by the authorities when they left, slowly closed on its own, as a cold wind blew, a harsh laugh echoing through the air.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
The End
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
A/N: Yeah, like I said, not my best work. There were supposed to be more nightmare visions, but I couldn't get them to work. Hope you enjoyed what there was.
Also, fun fact, this was loosely inspired by "1408", for anyone who cares.
Happy Halloween!