Chapter 2: Day 1
It was a rough night. The experiment was a complete utter failure and trying to rekindle from square one, Zim almost forgotten his social responsiblies of going to skool. He arrived in time before the bell rang. Classmates engage in exciting conversations while others sat quietly. Those who spoke loudly did not bother Zim. He entered the scariest part of his mind, the images on the DVD. He tried to escape it but when the idle brain is bored, one will wander into imagination. Zim's mind was jarred by the images of the white circle, the fingers, the woman staring back at him and the girl disapearing in the mirror.
Dib, sitting at the desk on the other side of the classroom, noticed the unusual change in Zim's personality. The egotistic stance of pretending he was better than everyone was missing today. He seems cowardly but it didn't change Dib's perspective of the alien invader especially what he saw last night. Dib glared at his enemy and Zim menaced a returning sentiment. Ms. Bitters entered the classroom huntching over her students and gnarled her voice.
"Today, it is class pictures, to frame the innocence you're about to lose. Early bloomers," She then glanced at Dib, "You'll be in the picture anyways. We will be called to the gym when we are needed, for now, it's time for history."
Ms. Bitters rambled on a disturbing lesson probably not suitable for children.
"It was easy to obtain an life insurance policy for your family so adults killed their elderly parents. Women, suitably the silent killers, poisoned them with arsenic and raked in on the policy but bloodlust never stops there. Mothers would even poison their own children because they couldn't overcome their obession to-"
The intercom bleeped loudly interrrupting the lesson announcing its picture time.
"This concludes why you don't want to be a poor in the 1800s."
Students stood out of their seats passing over the lecture like a transparant paper towel. The towel was wet but the information was too much for them to absorb. They concluded Ms. Bitters was ranting an unimportant topic. Though they were right, somehow it struck a interest in Zim and Dib for a unknown reason or why but both left the classroom with peaked curiosity. Having the same mind can be troubling for these adversaries.
Ms. Bitters led her class to the gymnasium where they met the photographer. The young man smiled, waved to the students and pointed them to the bleachers where he set up two tall standing lamps for lighting. Ms. Bitters assigned seats for the children in first name alphabetical order. Children sat in rows of three. First letter from the top to the bottom bleachers where Zita was the last seater next to Zim. Dib was on the third step in the middle row. Ms. Bitters stood at floor level left of the children. While waiting for the man to take the picture, Zim noticed at the other side of the gym across from him was a ladder. It stood upward upon the recoiled bleachers sunk into the wall. No one was around it so to Zim's understanding it was neglected. The photographer finished preparing his hovering camera and pressed the hand clicker releasing a bright white flash.
A loud crack followed the speed of the flash frightening the children. After Zim gained his sight, he saw the ladder hit the floor flat down in Zim's direction. It completely startled him. The children wondered questioning what was that sound. Dib saw it with his very own eyes the ladder dropping by itself.
"Haunted ladder?" Dib questioned. The explanation sounded stupid Dib made a note to investigate it later.
"Silence!" Ms. Bitters shouted to the class stopping their peeping voices. The photographer stared at the recent picture oddly then lifted his head up addressing the students.
"I need to take a picture one more time."
Some students shrugged their shoulders and all obeyed him. He took the picture once again without a distracting noise. The photographer scatched his head and peered at the digital screen on the camera.
"One more time." He announced. He poked at the camera adjusting a new setting seeing if it fixes the problem. He took the picture again and no resolution.
"I don't get it." He said aloud. The students looked at each other wondering what was the matter. He pressed print on the camera transmitting the request to his wireless printer. He stared at the picture astonished. Ms. Bitters appeared behind the man.
"What's taking so long?" She snarled. The photographer showed her the picture. She looked up at her class eyeballing both students responsible. "Dib and Zim are you making funny faces?"
Dib and Zim were both speechless from the accusation.
"Hog wash!" Zim shouted in defense.
"What?" Dib said, "Why would I make funny faces?"
"Then explain the meaning of this!" Ms. Bitters shape shifted into a shadow and ran up the bleachers before Dib. Ms. Bitters showed Dib the picture of the whole class and saw his face was a morphed being with no eyes and a gaping mouth. Perplexed, Dib stared at the photo and saw he wasn't the only one. Zim had a ghostly morphed face too. Ms. Bitters split in a second, showed it to Zim and he was just as surprised as Dib.
"Ma'am, it could be a digital error." He said putting away the camera into a large velvet lined suitcase. "I'll have to postpone taking pictures until I fix this or get a new camera. The day I forgot to pack a spare." He muttered. "I need to talk to the principal." He put printer into a different suitcase, turn off the lamps, collapse the stands and carried all his equipment out of the gym.
"This is no digital error." Ms. Bitters said having another look at the photo. "These children are condemned." Zim overheard the disturbing comment and cringed. Students, uncaring for the delay, got up and cluster around their teacher ready to leave. Dib was relunctant to join still curious of what was happening. Zim didn't budge staring at that ladder like a forgotten memory trying to resurface its meaning.
The second bell rang and everyone knew what it meant. First recess. Students stared at Ms. Bitters awaiting approval.
"Alright." Ms. Bitters said floating away but not before she crumbled the photo and threw it towards the nearest trash can missing it. Dib saw her missing the shot. He picked up the photo and unraveled it staring at the spooky version of himself but why is Zim involved? Dib pondered it walking into the gymnasium and saw Zim standing next to the ladder. Zim looked up aware of Dib's presence and glared at him. Dib wasn't happy to see him neither but his inquisitiveness didn't prevent him from investigating.
"Dib!" Zim screeched, "What are you doing here?"
"I can ask you the same thing." Dib stated. Zim didn't reply immediately opening his mouth then closing it. He chose to make a statment.
"It's none of your beeswax like human children say so you can back off before I unleash a massive exploding..." Zim stumbled with the threat. "Bumble bomb out of my Pak." Dib stared not afraid knowing he was fibbing.
"You don't have a bomb do you?" Dib said plainly.
"Be quiet!" Zim retorted. "Just wait until I complete my latest weapon soon you and the human race will bow to my feet!"
"I'll never bow to a creepy alien who watches freaky movies!"
"Huh? What?" Zim said dumb-founded.
"Nevermind," Dib said then shoved Zim away from the ladder. "Go away. I have serious paranormal investigating to do." Ruffled up and offended, Zim snarled at Dib getting ready to strike. Dib, quick witted, swerved and grabbed the wig straight off of Zim's head. Zim slid his belly on the smooth floor then was barraged with flashing lights from Dib's digital camera. Defeated he given his enemy more discriminating evidence, Zim snatched the wig out of Dib's hand and fled.
"Curse you, Dib!" Zim screamed running away. "Curse you!"
Dib didn't take him seriously since all he does is curse. He looked into his camera and seen Zim's ghoulish face reappear.
"That's strange." He stated. "I wonder..."
Dib, without a second thought, pointed the camera towards him and snapped a picture of himself. He had the same result.
"Why is this happening?" Dib asked himself. "Is anyone else effected?"
Dib, beamed in gaining knowledge, ran out of the gym camera in hand ready to take pictures of his unsuspecting peers. If only it was as simple as that...