Chapter 2: The Doppelganger
Three days had passed since Zim's first encounter with the hauntings. Nothing has happened since then, and the Irken was starting to calm down a little. Maybe it really was just his imagination.
Zim was in the living room, unpacking some movies into the shelf. It was the midnight hour. Dib had left for work two hours ago, and the robots were once again in bed, once again, leaving the Irken alone. He was just putting away the last dvd, when he suddenly heard stomping right next to him.
He quickly turned to his right, and noticed that the sounds were coming from the stairs. He approached the stairs cautiously as the stomping continued, sounding like someone was coming down the stairs. Suddenly, the sound stopped at the last step, and after a few seconds, the sounds ran back up the stairs.
Frightened, Zim grabbed the camera and started recording.
"Okay guys." He breathed nervously. "I had to grab the camera because, I was just sitting here, putting some movies away, and something came running down the stairs, stopped at the foot… and then ran right back upstairs, and there was nothing there. I'm here by myself again. This is really weird. Hopefully I can get it on camera. It's been three days since something like this happened."
The Irken cautiously approached the stairs, scared out of his mind, the camera shaking in his hands. Suddenly, the footsteps were heard again, running down the stairs, and then stopping right at the last step.
"You see, there's no one there, there's no one there." Zim shivered.
Zim looked up the stairs to see if someone may be playing a joke on him, but there was nobody there.
"Hello?" He called. "Is there somebody up there?"
There was no answer.
"Gir? Minimoose? Are you guys trying to scare me?"
Suddenly, a voice sounding like a demonic child spoke to him. He couldn't understand what it was saying, but it scared him so badly that he stumbled backwards away from the stairs, the camera shaking in his hands.
In his fall, the camera swayed from the stairs to the kitchen. It caught a glimpse of the ghost girl on the stairs and then in the doorframe, but when the camera swayed again, the ghosts were gone.
Zim stood up and looked around the room, desperately trying to find any threat in his house. He gave a small whimper, finding nothing in the room.
"Why does this always happen to me?" He whimpered before turning off the camera. "Now what do I do? It's obvious this place is haunted now, but why? And why am I the victim?"
Zim didn't understand. How could they have moved into a haunted house and Dib didn't know anything about it? He's a paranormal investigator for crying out loud!
Zim sat on the couch in the living room, wondering what he should do next. Of course he was going to keep recording the events, but he didn't want to be alone anymore, now that he knew for sure there was some entity in the house.
"I can't tell Dib." He sighed. "He put so much into this house… but… maybe I can tell Gir and Minimoose, and they can stay up with me from now on."
So it was decided. When Dib got back home at 2 in the morning, he wouldn't be told a thing, but from now on, Zim would refuse to be the last one awake.