Author's Note: It never ceases to amaze me how a brain will be on vacation one chapter, but the very next chapter you'll pump it out like the words are already there. Such was the case with this chap. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thoughts are in apostrophes. Author notes are in parenthesis.
'Where am I?' The air around her is cold and wet like a morning mist. Gaz shivers and rubs her arms in a futile act for warmth. The sudden presence of light appears a short distance behind her. Her surprise caused her to jump and turn around rather quickly. All that's there though is a street lamp, like the one you'd see on a street corner. The street signs at top read Central and Membrane Lane. Gaz recognized this corner; it's where Hot Topics was located. No sooner had this revelation come to light, that a Hot Topics neon sign appeared above her head, right where it would be and next to that a wooden sign for the old lady shop thing. The lamp vaguely illuminated the dark alley between the two buildings.
As she approached, curious of what she would find in the darkness, laughter could be heard. She stopped dead in her tracks and took a step backwards. The laughter was low and quiet at first but became higher pitched and louder, penetrating her mind, filling her thoughts, driving her mad. She fell to the ground, covering her ears, screaming. "Please stop, for the love of God, stop!" Immediately the laughing stopped; a harsh wind whipped across her face. She looked up to see a figure floating towards her out of the alley. The strange apparition was about four feet tall and was floating about two feet off the ground. Its thin, light, violet hair was vaguely shaped like Gaz's when she was younger. The eyes were a dull, ghostly white without pupils or color. The skin was equally as ghastly only worse. The pale skin resembled a corpse's but the skin was broken in various places with bleeding cracks on the cheeks, neck and forehead. The thing was clothed in rags, crudely sewn together to form a make-shift dress. Gaz jumped from her knees but fell backwards to a sitting position and wrapped her arms around her knees. It smiled wickedly at her cowering form on the ground, exposing a bleeding gap where the lower left canine used to be.
"Love of God? Don't be silly little girl; God does not love you. If he did, why would he allow you to be raped?" The voice from the ghost was her own! She hung her head, with no answer but gentle sobs. "Don't you see Gaz? No one loves you; you're worthless." She raised her head, staring directly at the hideous being. "Shut up" The laughing began to return. "Awwww, does that make you mad little girl? You gonna cry now?" "Fuck you; I said shut the hell up." The shrill, high pitched laugh echoed in the void around them. "Hey, don't get mad at me; I wasn't the one who was too weak to defend myself." She stood up, tears running down her cheeks and screamed at the thing. "FUCK YOU!" The street lamp above was suddenly extinguished abruptly plunging Gaz into darkness. She kicked and flailed to drive off the feeling of a thousand spiders swarming around her. The laughter continued to twist in her mind, mixing with the calling of her name. "Gaz…Gaz…Gaz."
She woke with a start, sitting straight up in her bed, cold sweat running down her forehead, breathing heavy and panicked, the laughter fading slowly away. "Geez Gaz, I don't think I even want to know what that nightmare was." "Dib! How did I get here?" He folded his arms across his chest. "Zim brought you over this morning while you were still asleep. He thought it'd be better if you were with family after what happened." "Did he tell you" "No, he said you'd tell me when you were ready." They remained there in an awkward silence until Dib glanced at his watch. "Well, I guess I'm going to go to Skool now but if you need anything, you have my cell phone number." Gaz jumped out of bed. "Give me five minutes." (I've yet to meet a girl who can get fully ready in 5 minutes, let alone 30.) "Are you sure?" "Yes, now get out of my room so I can get dressed before I kick you're paranormal ass into next week." Dib breathed a sarcastic sigh of relief. "Okay, there's the Gaz we all know and love." "NOW, DAMMIT" Dib backed out the door. "Okay, okay, I'm going." Gaz closed the door in his face and walked into her closet. She began filing through her different outfits when she caught sight of the mirror out of the corner of her eye. She turned and faced it. Her reflection stared back at her, covered with bruises, one eye swollen and purple. Through the rising tears, she saw her reflection begin to change into the ghostly thing in her nightmare. She wiped her eyes and looked again but all she saw was herself looking back.
"Okay Gir, I'm off to Skool now so try not to burn the neighborhood down again, ok. Gir frowned, he liked the big fires; with all the pretty bright colors and pretty dancing shapes. Gir turned out to be a bit of a pyromaniac. Gir gave his master a reassuring smile and nodded enthusiastically. Not the whole neighborhood anyway. "Good" With that he turned and walked out the door leaving Gir unsupervised.
Seth rushed out the door, applying deodorant as he walked. As he stuffed it back in his bag, his hand brushed something. He slowly pulled it out. It had the feeling of thick, course fabric. As he brought it to his eyes, the scene of last night came drifting back. It was his ski mask. He smiled as he remembered the look on Gaz's face, the feel of her frantic heart pumping, the euphoria he experienced as he tore her virginity from her. He chuckled to himself, clearly unremorseful for the deed, and stuffed the mask back in his bag. The only thing he disliked about the experience was the freaky intruder that chased him off. Seth was just about done before he showed up. Seth violently kicked a rock out of his way. Stupid vigilantes. A random thought asked him if he would do it again. 'If the opportunity presents itself, probably.' He smiled.
Gaz slowly walked up the steps to the front door of the school when she heard her name. "Gaz!" She looked around, stopping in the middle of the herd of students. Another girl emerged from the throng and walked towards her. It was one of her Goth friends, Trish. "Hey, Trish, how's it going?" "Okay I guess, same shit, different day" Gaz chuckled dryly "yeah that's life" "By the way, where were you last night, I tried to call but your brother said you were at work, and then I called back later and he said he didn't know where you were. I was worried sick." Gaz's mind raced furiously for a credible lie. "Oh, I was…uh…I mean had…to uh…work later than normal." "I already knew you had to work late, but the second time I called it was 1:30 in the morning." "Well, uh…we had a slight catastrophe during cleaning up." "Oh well I guess that would explain it. Wait a minute, what happened to your face?" "What do you mean?" "What do I mean? Both your eyes are purple and semi-swollen, and your face is spotted with bruises." She blurted out the first frantic thing that came to her mind. "I fell down the steps at home." It was only after the words left her mouth that she realized the error of her lie. "What are you talking about! I've been to your house Gaz; your dad tore down the stairs and replaced them with that teleporter he invented. What really happened? Did Dib hit you; I'll kill him." Gaz realized she had been caught in her own web. The school bell rang. "I'll tell you after school, come over to the house around 4:00" "Okay." As they both walked to their respective classes Trish slapped her forehead. "Oh, almost slipped my little mind, there's going to be a party at Felicia's. She told me to invite people, you in?" Sure I'm in; is it cool if I bring someone along?" "Definitely, you can bring your brother too as long as he leaves the paranormal garbage at home." "He will, I'll see you after school."
The day slowly progressed into lunch, where the main course almost always induced vomiting. Gaz tried asking random people if they've seen Zim. All she got was shrugs or "who cares?" But eventually she found him on her own. He was behind the school, in a back alley where the smokers hung out. Zim was somewhere in the middle of the alley leaning against a fence, with a cigarette in his fingers. She approached him "I thought you'd be smarter than that." Zim shook himself out of his space-out "Huh?" She rolled her eyes and pointed to the wisps of smoke. "Oh, this? Funny story actually. I tried smoking Camels or Marlboros but they were disgusting and had that off putting death side-effect, so I invented my own." He lifted the stick to his lips. "It smells good, like incense" Gaz observed. Zim exhaled "Yup, and their about as bad for you as candy." "Wow, imagine that: Non- cancerous cancer sticks." Zim laughed "You want one?" Gaz hesitated "They're completely harmless?" "Only if you're an Irken. As a human, the inhalant acts as a mild hallucinogenic. You would suffer some brain damage if you chain smoked them but other than that there's no tar, no smoker's cough, and they're non-addictive." As tempted as she was to try one, she declined. "Maybe later." Zim shrugged "Suit yourself, how're you holding up?" "Not bad, all things considered. How bout you." Zim took another puff. "Oh, you know how it goes; same shit, different day…Hooray." Gaz laughed. She had never heard the phrase with that particular rhyme before. "Anyhow, the reason I'm here is because there's a party at a friends house and I was wondering if you wanted to come." He sucked on his cigarette one last time before throwing it to the ground and grinding it into the dirt with his heel. It was almost a little hard for him to believe. An invitation to an actual party was being extended. The last party he went to was Keef's church youth group "get together." His opinion of that was that there are not, nor will there ever be enough words in the entire human language to describe the sucktitude of that party. "Does she have good music?" Zim asked, shuddering at Keef's Justin Timberlake and Clay Aiken. "She's got an ass kicking collection of music; strictly rock. Everything from Bad Company to Disturbed to Sisters of Mercy to KISS to Slipknot to Queen." (Queen kicks ass and to hell with anyone who thinks otherwise) "Sounds great, I'll be there." He pushed himself to his feet. "But remember this isn't a date, this is me going to a party that you invited me to. That's it." She raised an eyebrow and smirked "No one said anything about it being a date." He was cute when he did that. "Silence, I am Zim!" And that. Her laugh burst out despite her efforts to hold it in. It was probably the first time Zim had heard Gaz laugh. Not evil like or spitefully, but like this where she seemed happy. 'God, she's cuter when she laughs.' The school bell rang, ordering one and all back to their repulsive classrooms. "So, what time does it start?" "9:00, her house is a couple houses down from mine. Just follow the pounding music and stumbling line of drunken guys." "See ya then." They both walked back to their respective classes and went about their days as normal. That night would be far from normal for both of them.
Author's note: Well there was Chapter 9 and I hope you enjoyed it. Next chap will be the climax in Zimmy/Gazzyness. Don't miss it! (Hint: A dance scene is involved!)
