Author's note: Yep, another chapter, warning it's very dramatic. Also it has a special appearance of Johnny The Homicidal Maniac so look for him, he's there. Enjoy!
It's A Wonderful Life, Yeah Right (or is it?)!
Chapter 25: Mary's Melody
It was a peaceful night at Tina's house as Zim was having the most, dare I say, wonderful dream…
Zim was in his room holding Mary around her arms. They were sitting on his bed snuggling together. Mary looked into his red eyes then closed hers awaiting Zim's lips. Zim closed his eyes as well, leaned over, and pressed his lips against hers. They kissed intensely yet gently that Zim slips his tongue into her mouth. He thought he felt his tongue touch the back her head but continued to passionately kiss her until he heard a sudden snapping sound. He opened his eyes and outside his body, he saw that his tongue broke through the back of Mary's skull.
"Ahhhhhh!" Zim screamed suddenly as he awoke. He looked around and saw that he wasn't in his room. He was in Tina's house. He saw Dib was sleeping on the couch across from his and sighed.
"It was just a dream. That's it, no more horror alien sci-fi movies for me no matter how interesting." Zim told himself.
"Zim…"
Zim heard his name. It was Dib murmuring lying on the couch with his eyes closed.
"What's going on?" Dib asked him half-asleep.
"It was just a scary dream; sorry if I woke you." Zim answered sitting up.
"Was it the same one?" Dib asked.
"No, it was different." Zim answered him.
"Okay…" Dib said getting ready to fall back to sleep.
"Hey, are Tina's parents back yet?" Zim asked Dib.
"Yeah, they came in a while ago."
"Perfect," Zim said thinking of a way to escape. "I'm going to go outside for a bit. Clear my head, ya know."
"You're not going to wander off are you?"
"No, I'm going to sit on the porch. That nightmare really spooked me."
"Alright, just don't be stupid enough to lock the door behind you…" Dib said falling back to sleep. Zim smirked on how clever his friend speaks while half conscience. He got up and put his shoes and jacket on. He sneaked around the couch carefully as he left the living room. Zim left the lights off so he wouldn't draw attention to himself and walked through the hallway to the front door. He opened the door and quietly closed it behind him. He turned around and to his surprise; he saw he wasn't alone for Mary was sitting outside on the concrete steps.
"Mary?" Zim said. Mary heard her name and became startled. She turned around to see Zim standing behind her.
"Oh, hey Zim." Mary said smiled weakly then turned her head to look up at the stars.
"What are you doing out here?" Zim asked her.
"I had trouble sleeping so I decided to get some fresh air. What are you doing out here?" Mary asked him.
"Same reason." Zim said. He looked at Mary and saw she still looked a little distracted. Zim thought of something to do that might help her. "You know what I do to help me fall back to sleep."
"What?" Mary asked.
"I go for a walk; would you like to go with me?"
"What about the weirdoes?"
"I'll kick their ass." Zim stated. Mary nodded knowing it was true.
"But where would we go?"
"To the park; it's close by." Zim suggested. Mary looked down at the concrete step then nodded.
"Okay."
Mary stood up and they walked down the steps. They walked through the neighborhood quietly without speaking. Zim stared at the girl and her troubling appearance. He didn't know what to do in this type of situation. Earlier he asked if she was feeling okay and she said she was fine. Zim questioned whether the girl was lying to him or not. They walked out of the neighborhood, a couple of blocks later, they were at the park. They walked through the deserted piece of land and onto a stone bridge. They stood on the bridge for a little while staring at the stream. Zim stared at her sad face reflecting the river and couldn't stand being silent any longer.
"Mary, what's going on?" Zim blankly asked. Mary turned her head and saw Zim looked very frustrated by her attitude. Mary looked back at the water.
"Nothing." Mary denied.
"Nothing my ass, you been acting very strangely and I don't believe it's 'nothing.'" Zim said then sighed. "I know you may think I being annoying but I'm concerned. If there anything that might be bothering you, I want you to know that I'm here for you and want to help. Please tell me."
"It's about my mother." Mary finally said.
"Don't tell me she stole another alien again!" Zim protested.
"No, she didn't, well I don't know. I haven't spoken to her since the convention and I want it that way, but my father wants me to speak to her."
"Why?"
"He says that my mom called him want to speak with me saying that she was sorry. He told me about it weeks ago but I never returned my mother's calls. He confronted me about it yesterday and I told him I never wanted to speak to that woman again."
"It sounds like you don't see her as your mother." Zim stated.
"You're right, I don't. That boat has sunk long ago but I was foolish enough to sail on it."
"Do you mind explaining?" Zim asked curious. Mary sighed then looked back at the water.
"When I was about ten years old, I was an independent kid. I always did everything by myself. I cooked; I cleaned and pretty much learned how to do anything and stayed out of trouble because my parents were busy people. They were both scientists. My father and she were a team at the lab. They worked together all the time. He was the brains and she was the idealist coming up with great ideas. They always seemed happy and we were. We were always very happy together. I thought that if I helped as much as possible and be a good kid, we would stay happy forever, but I was sadly wrong. I guess it was much more complicated than that." Mary said and paused for a moment.
"How?" Zim asked her.
"It all began when my father and she were ready to reveal their greatest project. It was a satellite that was able to reach transmissions from any planet they set their coordinates on. They thought it was a great way to see if there was intelligent life out in space but it became a complete mockery when they pointed it at certain planets and they came up with no signal. They tried about fifty planets until they finally gave up. Their colleagues and reporters just laughed at them. They were both devastated by their failure for a while. My father quickly recovered from the humiliation and continued his work in the lab with everyone else but my mother didn't. She on the other hand, wanted to take some time off. I thought it was great at the time because I would be able to spend some time with my mom but all she did was shut herself in her study from morning to night. My father said it would be better to not bother my mom for he thought she just needed her space. I thought so too and we left her a lone keeping busy in her study, but before long she would keep herself in that room all the time. One day, when I passed by her room, she wasn't there. I thought maybe she was finally out of her room for good and was going back to work, but when I told Dad about it, he said he didn't know where she went. We didn't know where she went. I went to skool as usual and after I came home, everything changed forever."
"What happen?"
"When I came home, I went upstairs and saw that the study across from my room was shut. I pressed my ear to the door and heard some typing and smiled. It was my mother. I opened the door without warning and called her name. When I looked into the room, I saw it was full of pictures of UFO sightings, and poorly drawn alien covering the walls and book shelves. I glanced all over the walls thinking this was what my mother been doing for three weeks? I went up to her as she typed upon her computer. I asked her where she has been putting my hand on her shoulder; she finally noticed my presence and stood up. She greeted me asking how skool was. I told her it was fine then I asked about the pictures on the wall. She smiled at me and said it was her research that she went to a UFO convention and told me she saw an alien that had an android and a pig-shaped space ship."
Zim backed away awkwardly when he heard this but Mary continued on.
"I thought she was crazy at the time which worried me. I thought my mother lost her mind. I asked her when she was planning to go back to work. She looked down at me, laughed, and said she was never going back. I asked her why and told her that Dad missed her, that what she was doing locked in this room was crazy and that it wasn't good. Then she…" Mary trailed off.
"She what?" Zim asked coming closer.
"She slapped me." Mary said placing her hand on her cheek. "Nobody ever slapped me. So when she struck me, I cried. It hurt. She kept on screaming at me saying that I didn't know what was good for her, that I was just a child that I was like everybody else mocking her. I didn't know what she was talking about. I wasn't mocking her but when I raised my head to try to tell her; she was holding a chair over her head. She stared at me with disgust in her eyes and at that moment the mother I once knew was gone and a monster has taken her place."
Zim felt a rush of anger consume him as he clenched his fists and then bitterly asked. "Did she hit you with that chair?"
"No, I ran away before she could. I ran away so far that I ended up getting lost in the city. It eventually got dark. I began to cry not knowing where I was and what to do until someone helped me. She was Sister Ana."
"Sister Ana?" Zim questioned simmering his anger. "Is that why you really volunteered there?"
"No, not at all. In fact I didn't know she ran the orphanage or her name at that matter at that time. I was just a lost little girl. She asked me what was wrong and I told her I was lost. She then asked me if I knew anyone to call. I remembered my father cell phone number and told her there was. She took me to the orphanage to call my father and Sister Ana explained how she found me. My father arrived at the orphanage quickly asking if I was alright, thanked Ana and took me home. In the car, I told him everything that happened. I never saw my father furious when he faced my mother. He kept on screaming, you threw a chair at our daughter, you threw a chair at our daughter. I watched as they argued at each other but I paid more attention to what my mother said. She told him that she hated me, she never wanted a child then she grabbed her papers, dropped her ring and left. I never saw my father so devastated. He got down on his knees. I came up to him and he kept on saying he was sorry over and over again. About a year later, my mother returned to finalize the divorce. She told my father and me she was sorry, that she had a mental breakdown and never meant all those things she said and want to start over. I told her I forgave her but now I wish I didn't."
"Why did you forgive her?" Zim asked sincerely.
"I thought that if I did, things would go back to the way they were. I would have my mom again and I would be happy, but she rarely visits and when she does, she has me set up those damn conventions. I thought that if I helped, we would bond but all she did was focus on her conventions. She barely talked to me. Then that night, when she captured that poor alien, I realized my mother never really changed that she was the same monster I encountered years ago. She never cared about me, never cared about anybody…"
"Your mother's a fool." Zim gravely said. Mary then grabbed the bridge's ledge and lowered her head.
"No, I'm a fool." She cried. "How stupid am I wasting all those years trying to find some kind of connection to her that was never really there?" Mary rests her arms on the ledge, cupped them and buried into them as she cried. "All I ever wanted was my Mom to cared about me…"
He heard her cry and felt horrible. He didn't know what to do or what to say at that matter so he did what he felt was best. Zim reached his arms towards her, scooped her onto his chest and held her. Mary felt his presence and tried to push away fearing her tears would hurt him but held her closer. Then he whispered to her.
"I care about you…"
Mary grasped onto Zim's shirt and cried into his chest. Zim felt her become weak sinking to the ground. Zim held her as they sat upon the bridge. He held her close trying to comfort her but she kept on crying. Zim wanted her to stop but knew better to wait.
"Hey," called a strange voice behind him. Zim turned around, looked up and saw a very peculiar skinny man staring at them. The man had black pointing hair that was shaped like horns on while the rest of his hair looked shaved off. The man wore a black cloak, neat looking tall boots and a piece of paper taped to his shirt saying "lucky me!" Zim then noticed that the man had specs of blood on his face and clothes. He was carrying a huge plastic sack. Zim stared at him horrified.
"Is she okay?" The man asked.
"Yes, yes, everything's fine!" Zim immediately answered.
"Good. You guys shouldn't be alone in the middle of the night. You don't know what kind of creepy crawly weirdo psycho killers like to hunt at this hour." The man advised them. Then the bag started to move on his back. The man felt this.
"Excuse me," He said putting the bag on the bridge and started kicking at it. "Shut up, Shut up! You deserve your fate by making that face at me! You know what I mean!" The man shrieked as he kicked the bag. Zim was utterly shocked by what he was witnessing. He stood up holding Mary.
"Keep your head down and don't say anything." Zim whispered to her. Mary understood and nodded as she kept herself hidden.
"You know what, you're right." Zim said. "We better get going."
"You're not going to tell the Chihuahua this, right?"
"What do you mean; we didn't see anything weird tonight. In fact, we are very tired so we are going to bed. They are expecting us home any minute now, yes, let's go." Zim said backing away with Mary. They both turned around, and on Zim's command they bolted.
"Hmmm…" The man hummed at their strange behavior picking up the bag placing it on his back. "It's like they never seen a homicidal maniac before. Oh, well, wheee! Back home we go!"
They ran a few blocks without resting. Zim looked over his shoulder and stopped running. He wasn't following them. Mary stopped noticing Zim's halt then walked back to him.
"Good, he didn't follow us." Zim said relieved.
"Who was that man?" Mary asked.
"I don't know but I do know I don't ever want to be on his bad side." Zim remarked. Mary nodded and they walked side by side to Tina's house. Zim looked at Mary and saw her wipe the tears from her face. She wasn't crying anymore.
"Do you feel better?" Zim asked.
"Yes," Mary said wiping her final tear. "I'm sorry; I don't know what came over me. It's strange; I never told anybody this before. I feel like an emotional wreck."
"Don't be, you probably had those feelings bottled in you for quite a while and trust me that was a lot of soda." Zim joked to her.
"I do trust you, that's probably why I told you." Mary told him but Zim looked away and mutter to himself.
"I'm not worthy of your trust…"
Mary heard a whisper but had a hard time understanding exactly what he said. Mary and Zim kept quiet on their way back to Tina's house. Zim opened the door and they both sneaked in. Mary walked up the stairs and half way up, she turned around to see Zim standing at the doorway.
"Well, good night." Mary said to him.
"Good night." Zim repeated back. Mary walked up the stairs as Zim walked into the living room and laid upon his couch. He glanced over at Dib who was sound asleep, then over at the clock on the wall and noticed it was 2:15. Zim rubbed his eye lids from exhaustion and contemplate over what Mary told him. He never thought that Mary had such a hard life. She was always so cheerful all the time, who could have imagine how much was weighing her down. Zim touched his chest and slightly felt it sting from her tears. Her pain became his pain and it was too much to handle. When he held her, felt no warmth but guilt.
That morning, Dib awoke from his sleep. He sat up from his couch and yawned. He scratched his head and looked over to see if Zim was asleep, but he wasn't. He was sitting on the couch waiting. He had his blanket folded on the edge of the couch. Thinking that he slept in, Dib looked at the wall clock but saw it was 9 A.M.
"Zim, did you have trouble sleeping?" Dib asked him. Zim looked over at Dib.
"Yeah…" Zim mumbled and looked back to the floor again.
"Good, you guys are up." Tina peeped peppy-like as she entered the living room. She was already dressed and ready for the day. "Would you like some breakfast?"
"Sure, I'm hungry." Dib said while Zim nodded.
"Okay, well we have bagels and…" Tina said looking through the cupboards.
"I'll have a bagel." Zim said.
"Me too." Dib said.
"Alright. I'm gonna put them in the toaster." Tina said splitting two bagels in putting them into her double toaster. "I didn't think you guys would be up this early."
"Yep, skool does that to you even if it was the weekends." Dib told her.
"I hear ya, I'm up early but I can't say the same for Mary, she still snoozing. Do you guys want to hang out after breakfast?" Tina asked.
"Nah, I gotta bail, I have a lot of homework to do." Dib said.
"Me too, I have to make sure Gir and Minimoose are okay." Zim agreed.
"Okay, hey maybe I should wake up Mary so we can all have breakfast together."
"No, let her sleep." Zim gravely advised then went into the kitchen to retrieve his bagel that popped out of the toaster. Tina and Dib nodded and joined Zim for breakfast at the dining table. After that, Dib and Zim grabbed their coats, said farewell to Tina and left to the bus stop. Dib watched Zim as he walked. Zim was pretty quiet. He thought that Zim had a rough night sleeping on the couch but he didn't act cranky. They both stood quietly at the bus stop until Dib started up a conversation.
"So, that was some party or what?" Dib asked him.
"I suppose." Zim muttered.
"That video of you singing Aurora Davis was a riot. You were all girly and such, you must feel embarrassed." Dib said hoping to strike a chord into Zim's anger but it didn't work. Zim saw the bus coming, waited for it to pull up and got on it. Dib got on it too and they yet again became quiet on the way back to their neighborhood. Zim pulled the bus' cord to get off. Dib quickly followed Zim as they left the bus. Zim walked fast that it was hard for Dib to keep up.
"Zim, slow down, what's the matter with you?" Dib yelled at him. Zim stopped walking and Dib caught up.
"I'm not telling her…" Zim whispered.
"What?" Dib said thinking he misheard him.
"I'm not telling her anything, not about me or my stupid alien culture existence. Nothing." Zim stated coldly.
"Why? What happened?" Dib asked confused.
"I don't want to talk about it." Zim said walking away but Dib quickly blocked him standing in front of him.
"You're going to have to talk because right now, you are speaking craziness and I want to know why."
"Do you really want to know, Dib, do you really want to know what's eating me inside?" Zim screamed to him.
"Yes! Tell me!" Dib screamed back.
"It's my fault!" Zim screamed.
"What are you talking about, what's your fault?" Dib asked confused.
"Her mother treated her badly because I was there at that Convention. If I wasn't there, she would still had her mother."
"What?" Dib said. "You're going to have to explain because I seem to be missing something here."
"Mary talked to me yesterday, she told me what was bothering her and it was her mom's stupid obsession with a creature like me. Because of me, her mother abandoned her and treats Mary like crap every time she sees her."
"How can that be your fault?" Dib questioned him. "It has nothing to do with you."
"Doesn't it Dib, think about it. Mary's life is so screwed up because her mother seen me. I'm the one that caused the girl l love pain! So to not further her suffering, I'm not telling her squat."
"So what are you going to do?" Dib said starting to get annoyed. "Not talk to her."
"If that's what it takes to keep her safe from the truth, then yes." Zim said sadly. Dib shook his head.
"That girl opened herself to you and you're going to run away." Dib stated angrily. "You know what, Zim? I don't think you cared for her safety because if you did, you would have told her a long ago, no, I think you don't want to tell her the truth because you're scared. You're scared that she will won't accept the real you and you're using her grief as excuse to escape something that might cause you pain. That's just low, man. I never thought you could be such a coward."
"What's wrong with running away from something that's going to be painful? All I ever do is ruin everybody's life with my stupid alien mistakes!" Zim screamed then stormed away. Dib stared at his friend sadden by his comment then spoke.
"Zim, you fool, because you and your stupid alien mistakes, you made my family become closer then they ever been before." Dib said watching Zim disappear in the distance.
"Are you ready to go?" Tina asked Mary as she went downstairs.
"Yes, sorry that slept so long." Mary said a bit embarrassed but Tina giggled at her.
"Don't worry about it. Sometimes I sleep until noon too." Tina said. "How about I take you home?"
"Are you sure you can use your parents' car?" Mary asked her.
"It's not a problem, I should have asked if Zim and Dib wanted a ride but I guess it slipped my mind."
"So they left pretty early, huh?" Mary asked her.
"Yep, they said they had things to do so I let them go." Tina told her.
"Oh," Mary said then nodded.
"Just let me tell my mom and we'll get ready to go." Tina said then ran up the stairs to her parents' room. Mary stood quiet thinking about last night. 'I care about you…' Zim's words remained through her mind and made her blush. Then Tina ran quickly back downstairs and stared awkwardly at her.
"You're mighty red." Tina pointed out. "What are you thinking about?"
"N-nothing." Mary stuttered then blush a deeper red.
"Oh, Mary, you're so funny." Tina stated as she opened the door. Mary and Tina entered her parents' 2029 brown Wanova and left the driveway. Mary watched the road from the passenger seat as Tina drove her home.
"Thanks for having me over." Mary said.
"No problem, thanks for the great gift. I'm gonna wear it every day!" Tina said proudly then turned on her right-hand blinker, stopped at the light and made a right turn on the main road to Mary's house. They passed along a few neighborhoods until they came upon hers. Tina turned on the car's left-hand blinker light and turned left into her neighborhood. Tina drove by a few houses until they reached hers. Tina parked in Mary's driveway.
"Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow." Mary said taking her seat belt off.
"Oh yeah, we have skool tomorrow, damn." Tina said gripping the wheel.
"Thanks for the ride, I'll see you later." Mary said waving to Tina.
"K' bye." Tina said backing out of Mary's driveway. Mary entered her house and saw her father sleeping on the couch. She knew that he must have had a long night working. Mary smiled at her father, took the blanket that lied on the floor, and placed it over her father. She quietly went upstairs to let her father slumber. She was about to enter her room until she saw the door across from her room. It was her mother's study. She walked over to the door and stood there for a few minutes thinking was it the day she would enter this old forsaken room. She decided it was. She turned the knob and opened the door. It was exactly how she remembered it. There were the same pictures taped on the book shelves and walls. There were a few books and papers scattered on the floor and desk. As she entered, she saw the old chair she was familiar with banged up on the floor with one of its legs snapped off. She quickly turned her head and continued to enter the room. She noticed how dark it was and wanted to turn on the switch but when she did, the light was burned out. So she opened the curtains. When she opened the them, the dust from the fabric made her cough. She saw how dusty the whole room was. She assumed she should have expected this after seven long years of neglect. She wheezed some of the dust and coughed a little.
"This is unbearable…" Mary coughed. "I better open a window."
She unlocked the window, opened it as a draft of wind entered the room. The draft lifted a photograph fly off the desk. Mary saw the picture fly and land on the ground exposing the image. Mary picked up the picture and became surprised to see it was a picture of an alien. This alien had lime-green skin, Magenta-red bugged eyes, two long black antennas on the top of its head and a small slender body. The alien was sitting on a chair and looked not too happy. Mary studied the picture and realized this wasn't the picture of the same alien she saw at the park but of a different one of the same species. Then she flipped the picture over. There was a date written of 06/2024.
"This must have been the alien my mother saw at that Convention." Mary said studying the photo and felt something very familiar about the alien in the photo.
'I can't put my finger on it but somehow, I think I know this alien, which is strange because I only met one alien…' Mary thought. 'Maybe it will come back to me. I should keep it just in case.'
Mary placed the picture in her pocket. Then closed the window and yawned.
"I should really get started on my homework." Mary said as she tied the curtains back in place leaving the study.