A/N: So I forgot to do this for chapter one, this is seriously my first fanfiction. I've written short stories before, but never actually put anything out there. My DREAM IN LIFE is to be a novelist. I'm working on my own book, but I really need some feedback on my writing so that's what this is. (And I have a serious weakness for a good fanfic…). So if you read this, please… PLEASE review. I mean, just put one word, good or bad, I don't care. Just something. Pretty please? I would like to thank Raha for giving me an excellent review. That's the kind of stuff that I like to hear, thank you very, very much. I'm going to try to update this at least once a week, if I'm going to be a novelist then I need to be able to work with a deadline, which I've never done before. So I'm testing myself. We'll see how that goes. –Also, when I first thought this up, I was listening to A Perfect Circle non stop. They inspired this, through and through. If you listen to The Noose when you read chapter one, that's as close to being in my head as you can get.
Disclaimer: (Something else I forgot to do for chapter one.) I do not own Invader Zim, or any of its characters.
Chapter Two
I stood in the lunchline, frowning. I was seriously doubting that what the cafeteria was trying to serve us qualified as 'food', but what the heck? I picked up some… noodly… stuff, and made my way to our regular table. He was already there of course, with his usual tray full of food that he never touched. He had his elbow on the table and was resting his chin in his thin green hand, staring out at the other kids menacingly. He did his typical 'one eye wide and the other squinty' look when I sat down. He opened his mouth in a sudden silent scream, his weird tongue going all kinds of crazy. No one else noticed his tongue, just like no one else noticed his green skin and lack of anything remotely like ears, but I did. When his fit was over, he settled back down calmly like nothing had happened and asked;
"Why do you EAT that Dib-thing? It's so DISGUSTING." He said, waving one hand around in the air. The noise around us made us both have to raise our voices in order for us to hear each other. Middle school cafeterias were always raucous.
"Because I have to eat something. I can't just go hungry, and this is all I have to eat." I said, grumpily digging through the mush with my spork.
"Why do you not bring food from home?" His tone changed for a moment, almost as though he was genuinely curious.
"Because dad only leaves Gaz and I so much money, we have to use it for breakfast and dinner. We don't have enough for lunch too. Plus, it's not so bad once you get used to it." I said, trying to be convincing. He seemed satisfied because he stopped questioning me at that point. We sat throughout the rest of lunch in silence, and finished our day as we normally did.
The next day, I sat through the same lunchline and got the same slop to eat and then went and sat at the same table. Though this time when I sat down, there was something different. A brown paper bag sat on the table next to Zim. It was slightly smushed, and stained near the bottom. I raised my eyebrow at it in curiosity as I sat down, silently questioning. He glanced at it and sighed, a greatly over exaggerated sigh.
"Gir made this STUPID sandwich for my lunch today. I don't know WHY, he knows that I DESPISE human food. You should eat it so that I do not have to." He said, not looking at me but staring at his own fingers as though they were very interesting. I sat for a moment, too stunned to speak, trying to think of the right thing to say without setting him off. I finally decided on silent gratitude. I smiled and nodded, grabbing the bag. The sandwich had mayonnaise on it. I hated mayonnaise. But I ate it anyway.
I knew he must not have gave me too much of whatever sedative that he had used, because I woke up periodically throughout our trip. I have no idea how long we were flying, you don't feel time pass when you're sleeping. Every time I woke up I glanced over at him, he was always doing the same thing, looking straight ahead, not moving. Completely silent. I wasn't ready to talk to him just yet, so I went back to sleep. I wasn't really fully awake anyway.
The last time I woke up, I was moving, rocking back and forth. I was being carried, I opened my eyes groggily to see him above me. I have no idea how he could carry me, I outweighed him by quite a bit, even though we were the same height. I was thin, but I was muscled. He was just thin. I was only half awake as he carried me through hallways, bringing me to some unknown destination. I didn't stay awake long enough to find out.
When I finally woke up for good, I was lying in a bed in a dark room, with an IV hooked into my arm. There was an Irken monitor next to the bed that I was lying on, beeping slowly but continuously. I looked around, trying to push the sleep from my mind. I could hear a faint humming noise coming from somewhere nearby. There were no lights in the room, but when I turned my head I could see that there was a slightly opened door to my right with light sneaking through. I could see someone moving in the room, through the door. As my mind cleared, I realized that the humming noise was Zim, speaking fluidly in Irken. He was speaking to the screen mounted on the wall, and I could make out the Tallest on the screen, listening to him silently with narrowed eyes. He was walking back and forth, pacing as he spoke. His voice was low, but I could make out a few words, such as "living arrangements", "orders", and "compromise". His language was always kind of hard to translate into English.
I tried to sit up, but the monitor beeped loudly, betraying my movement to Zim. He spoke one quick sentence in Irken, then the screen went black, cutting out all of the light. I stopped moving and listened. I didn't hear him come into the room, but when he turned on a lamp near the door, I quickly shielded my eyes from the unwelcome brightness. I felt the bed dip at the edge near my feet when he sat down. I squinted up at him. He stared at my face, his expression serious. When I said nothing, he spoke.
"You refused to wake Dib-human, I was forced to resort to other alternatives." He said, his eyes flickering to the IV and the monitor before coming back to rest on my face. I stared at him, and felt… empty. Almost as if I was missing something. As if I was forgetting something. That bothered me a bit.
"Do you feel unwell?" He asked, his eyes still boring into mine. I checked over myself mentally, trying to figure out what was wrong. I couldn't find anything but there was still that nagging feeling in the back of my head. I shook my head, and spoke, my voice cracking as though I hadn't used it in days.
"I feel alright." And then it hit me. Zim had destroyed my home, my family, my life. That pain came to me suddenly, and my chest ached, a dull pounding ache. I gasped, trying to breathe. My mind must have tried to block it, to block the memory so that this would not have happened. I tried to push it back down, to not think of it as the monitor beeped faster and faster. Zim stood quickly and reach for his aluminum case on the floor, pulling out his sedatives again. He filled the needle as fast as he could while I gasped for air, seeing the fires and hearing the screams. I barley felt when the needle went into my arm. But I felt the calm come over me again. And I was grateful. It was easier then, to push those memories away.
"You will be okay Dib. You'll see. We will be moving soon, we will be moving to Conventia, where the tallest live. We are going to live in there estate with them, as their counsel. We will be the first counsel the tallest have had in over three hundred years." He said, I wasn't sure if he was trying to distract himself or me.
"We must talk Dib, we must speak of what will come. But not now, now you have to sleep, I must have my Zakri in good condition when we go, I do not want others to think you are unworthy. They must see you at your best. So sleep Dib-human. I will wake you when its time." He said, putting his case back on the floor. He stood up again, walking back across the room. He looked back at me, just before he turned off the lamp, cutting off my vision. I waited a few seconds then heard nothing. I felt heavy and warm, I knew it was the drugs. But I felt at peace, so I wasn't complaining. All those dark thoughts, those bad things were gone for now. So I was okay. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. The monitor had slowed back down and was normal again. I began to feel the sleep come over me, but before I drifted out of consciousness, I heard it. The soft sound of music, familiar music. Something from home. A song that I used to listen too at night, when I had trouble sleeping. I felt the first tear slide down my face as I listened. But I was too tired to cry. Just before I slipped away completely, I heard his voice whisper, as though I was already dreaming.
"It will be okay Dib, you will see. Nothing will hurt us now."