Chapter 9
I landed hard on my back. It didn't hurt as much as it should have but it still stung a little bit. I didn't open my eyes. I didn't really want to. I knew that I was dead and this was just the calm before the storm. Soon I would open my eyes and see my broken, bloodied body next to me. I'd scream and then back up on my bum. Soon, once my hand passed through a rock, I'd realize that I was dead and I'd be all happy. I wanted the happy part to come. But, if I was a ghost, didn't that mean I couldn't dream? I'd never be able to have that Invader Zim dream again.
Yes, I thought that it was a dream again. What else could I do? I was dead. What else was I supposed to think? I found that I had been stupid to think that it was real. I'd probably done something bad and my mind was filling it up. Maybe that girl that had gone missing wasn't me. Maybe I had killed her and then my mind, in so much trauma, had ordered me to forget about it. Then what was left blank was filled with a dream about Invader Zim that felt so real that I walked to and acted out the actions of the dream.
But that didn't explain why no one had realized that I was walking in my sleep if I was on the road. And how would I have been able to avoid the cliff? None of it made sense.
I felt the pain that I should have when I first landed. This was it, I was dead and my ghost was feeling the pain that came after you died. It was never meant to be pain from when you died but it was supposed to me the mental pain that came after you realized that you were dead.
I sat up and groaned, my eyes still shut.
"EB?"
My eyes jerked open so quickly that I had to shut them again. I looked to my right and saw Zim. He was standing at the door with Dib on the other side. The Irken was pointing at the human like they had just been arguing before I came. Dib's arms fell to the side as he looked at me. His right eye twitched with confusion. "How did you do that?"
"What did I do?"
"You fell through the ceiling! How?"
Zim turned back to Dib. "Enough of this! Stay away Dib human!"
"But you didn't tell me what you did to Br…"
I watched Zim close the door in his face before he could finish. I laughed out loud as I heard him yell out an 'Ow!' in response to this. Standing back on my feet I noticed that glare that I received from Zim. He didn't look happy at all. The Irken stormed over to me, taking off his disguise in the process and then stood directly in front of me. I could see that he had his fists clenched and he had anger filling up his face.
"Where have you been?"
"Huh?"
"You've been gone for two days! Where were you?"
"Uh…" I was stumped. But my mind stayed at work with the new question at hand. How did he know that I was away from the dream for that long? Unless it's not a dream and something is taking me from one world to the next. That must be it! Something must have happened that made it so I can travel into Zim's world and converse with him! Damn! That means I'm up to my head in trouble when I get back!
"I asked you where you were, EB! Answer Zim!"
"I was… uh…" I decided to tell the truth. But I left out the part of me being a human. "I was in another dimension."
"Eh?"
"I… uh… stumbled on it a while ago… actually I sort of lived there for 14 years… Anyways, I developed a 'family' there with parents, siblings and a dog named Gizmo. I had 'friends' and a social life. I go to school and I have a room in a big, green and white house. I even created relatives and I have a 'great grandmother' living in a portion of the house. It all makes it very convincing. Don't you think?"
Zim looked lost for words. His arms fell to his side. His eyes were wide with… I don't know what…
Damn… Yeah, sure… it was a great thing… telling the truth… I hate the truth! Why couldn't I have just made up another lie? Zim will never accept the existence of another dimension relative to the one he lives in. If only Zim was stupid enough to believe that…
"Amazing!"
I stepped back a second, unable to comprehend what had just escaped Zim's mouth. Or whatever that thing he had plastered on his face was. The look that he had was unlike any that I had ever seen in the TV show. It was totally foreign to me.
"I never would have suspected that there could be another dimension prior to this one!"
"Yeah…" I said, tuning in with the mood. "The weird thing about this one is that Irkens don't exist. They're the created factor of a… uh… primitive human mind." I really disliked calling Johnnen Vasquez primitive but I had no choice if I was going to blend in at being an Irken. "In the dimension I was in there's actually a TV series staring you. That's how I knew about Tak and everything. I've watched the series. And, in this dimension, cards are still handed out for Valentine's Day instead of meat. There is a place here called NASA place but in this dimension it's just NASA. And there are a lot of dogs in this dimension."
Zim flinched at the dog thing. "What about the humans there?"
I shrugged. "They're much smarter than the ones here but… If an alien were to attack…" I thought about this for a second. I really had no idea. My friends and I had thought up a few things that could happen. I mean, over the years people have been abducted and stuff like that. People would want to know why rather than to dissect an alien. Right? Yeah. So if Zim went there, to my world, even if he was found out people would just ask him a lot of questions. It wouldn't be too bad, I decided. "I guess if they discovered an alien they'd have a lot of questions for them. In the dimension I come from people are abducted an awful lot… or so they claim to be. If we were discovered I guess it wouldn't really matter. Since that dimension isn't really related to this one, if you made it back here no one would be able to follow you anyhow."
"Fascinating." Zim rubbed his chin a few times. I watched with interest. "You'll have to show me this dimension of yours. I demand that you do."
"But… I don't know how to get back… Sometimes I'll just fall through something and end up either here or there. I'm not too sure of how it works… It just… happens…"
"I see… In that case we'll have to wait for the next one. Follow me… I have an idea."
I followed Zim deep into his lab.
"Put this on."
Zim tossed something to me. I caught it and held it up in front of my face. It was a strange accessory. I assumed that it was meant to go around the neck like a necklace. It matched the triangular collar that I had on when I was in my Irken guise but it as purple instead of that pinkish color that I had already. I slipped it around my neck and then looked down at it. The accessory sagged more than my color would have, normally, but it looked a little bit better. Plus it didn't choke me whenever I turn my head. "What is it for?" I asked holding the device up a little bit.
"It will connect you to me at all times." I watched as Zim slipped one around his neck as well. He put it into place and then looked back to me. "This way, if you are transferred back to the other dimension, I will go with you. Very simple Irken technology really. You just have to make sure that you don't go back for more than a day so that the connection between our collars can be established."
"But I don't know when I'll go back. For all I know I'll go back in a few hours."
Zim rubbed his chin. "Yes… I guess that could be a problem…"
I slapped my head.
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Kim: Now, if Brooke goes back, Zim will go with her. WHEEEE!!
Brooke: That's only if I don't go back within one day of being in his dimension though.
Kim: Party pooper….
Brooke: Happy person…
Kim: Goth! (Smiles at Brooke)
Brooke: I'll kill you… (Glares at Kim)
Kim: (Scuttles off, scared) Don't forget to review…
