I know, it's bee a long-ass time since I posted. Please forgive me. Writer's block is a beast, am I right?


Weeks passed and soon it was late spring, almost officially summer. Dib and Zim were winding down the school year during the days, and home-schooling Alexi by night. The young blonde kept up with all the housework while her friends were away at school, and promptly started dinner at five every night. Gaz and Professor Membrane had grown quite fond of her as well, treating her as part of the family. As the days came and went, the hurt seemed to slowly fade away; only every so often would Dib wake up to the sound of Alexi's quiet sobs, and usually he'd stay up with her, dry her tears, and hold her tight until she fell back asleep. Even though the pain was going away, the news was not often watched in the house due to the slight increase in murders around the town. Admittedly, everybody was terrified to leave the child home during the day, but they trusted her enough to stay inside. There was, however, one incident that unnerved everyone, Dib and Zim especially.

They were heading back home from school as usual. The two were fighting again, nearly getting thrown out of class like before because of flying fists and loud expletives. The entire way back they'd been flipping each other the finger and all but jumping at each other's throats. By the time they walked down the street and made it to Dib's front porch, Zim's hand had already entangled itself in the taller boy's hair rather painfully and he was whispering threats in Dib's ear. Dib suddenly stopped, causing Zim to stumble and fall, and laughed as the Irken shot him a mean look and another middle-finger salute.

The bespectacled teen headed to the kitchen to greet the little blonde, but found no one there. Clean table, clean floor, clean dishes and counters and even the window, but no girl. Turning to the refrigerator, he found a little yellow sticky note. The writing looked incredibly neat, but quite small. Leaning close, he read:

Dib, I don't feel so good, so I'm going to sleep in your bed for a little while. Love, Alexi.

The tall boy frowned; he hoped she was okay. He told Zim to wait in the living room for a minute, then climbed the stairs to check up on the blonde. Noticing the door was open a crack, he carefully peeked inside and saw a huddled mass curled up under the blankets. She must have just recently gone to sleep, because she wasn't snoring yet. Smiling, Dib quietly closed the door and met back with Zim on the couch.

A Few Hours Later…

"Hey," Alexi groggily greeted from the kitchen entrance.

Dib and Zim turned their heads and smiled at the sleepy girl. "Hi," they said.

Alexi stretched her arms high above her head and yawned. She made her way over to the boys, climbed up onto the couch, and nestled herself comfortably between them with a little smile on her face. "How were you guys today?"

"Same as usual," Zim replied, smiling.

"Fighting, swearing, getting thrown out of class…the usual."

Zim laughed. "I'm really surprised we haven't gotten our butts handed to us by Ms. Bitters yet," he commented, grinning. "Think she would?"

Dib laughed and nodded. "Yeah, give it time."

Alexi watched the boys talk, giggling a little every few sentences, and turned her attention toward the television. It was set to the news, oddly enough. 'Maybe they didn't want me to see all the bad things again,' she thought to herself. She watched on as a story from Japan was reported: something about a giant fish in a bear suit terrorizing Tokyo. The girl raised an eyebrow and thought, 'Weird…'

"THIS JUST IN!" the news reporter shouted, clearly frightened. "ANOTHER VICTIM FOUND DEAD BY THE HANDS OF THE SERIAL KILLER!"

The two boys looked up from their conversation, both turning pale.

"Just earlier today, the body of seventeen-year-old Jake Sneegle was found face-down and dead on his bedroom floor. His parents heard loud noises coming from his room shortly after he returned home from school, so they went upstairs to check it out; what they found, however, was much more than they wanted to see." The screen flashed to a video taken earlier that afternoon. A man and woman (the victim's parents) were standing outside their house, the woman sobbing hysterically and the man hugging her close, while a team of paramedics were bringing out a body covered with a heavy white sheet. A large splotch of red had already soaked through it where the head was.

"At first, we thought maybe he was moving things around," the father said. "He did that sometimes. Always moving his furniture around. But when we heard loud cracks and crashing sounds, we knew something was wrong…"

The woman was trying to collect herself, taking deep breaths. "We ran up the stairs as fast as we could, but when we got to the door, it was locked. Our baby never used to lock his door!" She sobbed again loudly, clutching her husband's arm tight. "S-So we kicked it down only to find our baby boy lying face-down on the floor with a pool of blood forming around his head. When we looked up, we just barely caught a glimpse of who did it!"

Dib and Zim swallowed hard. They really wanted to change the channel, but they also wanted to know what the murderer looked like.

"Whoever it was, they were wearing all black," the husband said grimly. "That's all we could see was black."

"And my son's blood splattered all over it!" the wife sobbed, squeezing her eyes shut. "OH, MY BABY!"

The video cut off and the anchorman in the studio was back on-screen. He looked sad and frightened by what he just showed. "Please, citizens, if you know who might have done this, please report them to the police immediately. Hopefully, we will have new clues to lead us to the perpetrator."

The boys stared at the screen in horror. The murderer wore all black? They recalled getting the new dress for Alexi…that dress was black…the shoes were black…could that mean that –

"Alexi…?" Dib asked. He sounded distant. "Where were you earlier today?"

Zim shot him a confused look above the girl's head.

She looked up, confusion and hurt visible behind her bright green eyes. "I was asleep," she said. "Didn't you find my note?"

Dib nodded, still looking at the screen. He was quiet, thinking. "When did you finally fall asleep though?"

"A little bit before you guys got here. I think it was maybe…when was it…like around two." She gave Zim a confused look when Dib didn't respond. "I didn't feel so good after I got done cleaning, so I went to lay down, and fell asleep almost instantly. Why?"

"Just…just asking…I guess…" Dib came back to reality and gave an apologetic smile to the upset blonde. "Sorry, I guess my mind was somewhere else."

"You don't think I did it, do you?" Alexi asked, tears welling up in her eyes.

Zim frowned and hugged her. "No no, he doesn't think that at all," he reassured her. He played with her pigtails absentmindedly and glared at Dib menacingly. "Dib, can I see you in the kitchen?"

A Few Moments Later…

"Okay, you wanna explain what the HELL THAT WAS ABOUT?" Zim whispered furiously, grabbing Dib by his shirt collar.

Dib was nervous; he'd rarely seen the Irken this angry before. "What? I know you were thinking it too."

"Thinking what?"

"About the dress and shoes we got her. Black dress, black shoes…the killer was wearing ALL BLACK!"

Zim pulled Dib closer to him until they were barely an inch apart. "THAT DOESN'T MEAN IT WAS HER!" he hissed through gritted teeth. "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WOULD EVEN THINK FOR A MINUTE THAT IT WAS HER!"

"I admit it was horrible of me to think that," Dib replied, glaring, "but there is the possibility, no matter how slim it is."

"She's too sweet and naïve to do something like that! Can you honestly tell me right now, with a straight face, that you really believe she could have done it?"

Dib opened his mouth, but shut it again. He didn't really believe it; couldn't believe it, in fact. She really is too nice to do something like that. Besides, she would be acting strange anyway, right? Killers don't normally act the same after they kill. And if they did, they would slip up soon after, right? Sighing, Dib shook his head, quite relieved to be free of his dark thoughts.

"No," he admitted, "I don't believe she did it. I mean, there's a lot of people who dress in black. Besides that, we would have seen or heard her come back in. Plus, she'd be wearing the dress still I bet. And that thing looks heavy and hard to move around in, so it would take a while to get off."

The green teen nodded, smiling a little. "Yes, and also her shoes would have let us know if she was out. Those things aren't exactly quiet to walk in, and they lace up her legs." He let go of Dib and cast a glance to the living room: the child had changed the channel to cartoons again. He smiled. "It's not her."


"Hey Zim, pass the popcorn," Dib said.

The green teen handed the bowl to the taller teen, eyes glued to the television screen. Dib and Alexi were having a sleepover at the Irken's house that night, all glad to be out of the Membrane household for a while. After the incident on the news, they all agreed a movie night at Zim's place would take the edge off. Currently they were watching the South Park movie ("You would make the perfect parents someday," Alexi joked after the Terrance and Phillip bit was over) and laughing at all the potty-mouth and relatable situations. The boys agreed that they could see themselves ending up like the four main boys in the principal's office, getting their parents called in for some vulgar things said. Not to the teacher, of course; she'd most likely kill them herself before they could even make a run for the door.

The three watched on, laughing and eating their popcorn. Alexi reached for her soda and sipped carefully, being cautious of any sudden funny scenes that might make her choke. Dib was practically rolling in his seat while the alien next to him seemed to be dying from laughter. The trio could barely find a part that wasn't funny, except for near the end (sorry everyone, no spoilers!), and even Alexi seemed to grow a little sad during that part. When the movie ended, the three popped in another movie and watched until they slipped away into Dreamland.