The doctor sat up and the more she moved forward, the more Dib leaned backwards. Suddenly, her face was contorted into something familiar, something ugly; desperation, insanity…and a thirst for recognition. To destroy and fix the chaos that was suddenly everywhere.
-
Three days. It took Dib three days to do many things; to force himself out of his room, to realize he should stop mooning like a moron and that he had a voice mail on his rarely used cell phone.
Once he had a sandwich and a ton of chips in him, Dib punched in his four digit password and pressed the phone to his ear while sipping on his soda, staring out the window at the pinkish skyline. Only when the voice made any sense, did the fizzy substance start to go up his nose and down the wrong pipe.
Dib coughed, his soda spilling everywhere. When he'd finally cleaned it all up, he pushed '1' to replay the message. "Hello. This is Dib's therapist, Dr. Evette Burnstein. I was just calling to apologize about not being in these last couple days. Anyway, I wanted to make sure we were still on for this Wednesday, the 9th...Because, you know, you are still required to come; I haven't cleared you yet…But I think you are close. I can tell; I've seen it in our last session." That was about the part when Dib began to panic, and was wondering where his inhaler had gone.
"So, I look forward to seeing you there, then!" Then the robotic voice told him his options. But, Dib wasn't listening. He was only thinking that she had all the power, the power to destroy him…to lock him up forever. A hand went to his mouth, forcing the terror down. And the sad fact was that only one face, one name came into his mind; Zim. He had to tell Zim, talk to him, warn him and figure this whole thing out…
But, Zim didn't want to see him. Did he? Or he would've been here? Zim always took things into his own hands…or maybe these three days had given them both time to think…Dib knew what he wanted. It was the same now, as it was then. Maybe it had changed for Zim…but they needed to talk about that.
He bit his lip and shoved his bare feet into his old tennis shoes, forcing a hand through his hair to try and make it look 'decent' before busting out his front door and sprinting down the street. She had called three days ago…Sunday. Tomorrow was couldn't go. Not when she could potentially ruin everything.
The house looked the same, though he hadn't known what to expect…And he slowed considerably when he got to the edge of the lawn. Panting, the Dib-Human trudged up the pathway, robot gnomes following his every move, and with a moment of hesitation…he rung the doorbell.
Dib took a step back, straightened himself and tried not to look eager for a glance of green skin and cherry eyes. The seconds felt like minutes, and his heart was doing double time…and still the door stayed shut. Finally, Dib conceded that the minutes…were really just minutes and Zim was not answering.
He scowled, feeling bereft and suddenly realizing it was chilly outside. Goosebumps had broken out on his uncovered skin…the sun was falling behind the sky. And Zim, well Zim had done what Dib had feared would happen all along; he'd come to his senses.
Yet, another lurch of pain cut him deep. Dib was no moron. This had been inevitable…still, he loved the dick. And the ache of heart break was hard to just shove away. The strong hero needed a break. He needed to come to terms with being no one's nothing again. He backed away from the door and ran, ran.
Well…he had nothing to lose. No lover, no friend. Maybe not even an enemy. Just a bunch of broken memories and the 'what-if's that had floated in his mind for three days. Maybe, Dib should see her…spill his secrets. What did he really have that she could use against him?
Dib had always been crazy in the eyes of society…maybe now that someone knew the truth…they'd listen. Maybe talking to someone, would actually help.
He tried to ignore the heat of the first tear as it burned his eyes and fell down his cheeks, tried to cover it up by running, and never looking back.
-
It had been a long three days for her, but Evette managed to drag herself around her dark apartment long enough for Wednesday to roll around. With a fresh coat of make-up, and her dark, wild hair tamed enough to be pulled back; she was ready to face the day. And all it entailed.
She paced around, restless in her office as the minutes ticked past. She moved some things around, trying her best to disguise the room from the one that haunted her sleepless nights. She all but collapsed in the doorway when she laid eyes on that couch. She could still picture what had happened…
She switched the couch from one side of the room to the other, the couch not being as heavy as it looked. It was better, although still not quite as different as she would have liked. But she didn't have time to muck around; her guest was going to be arriving any second now.
Evette pulled her seat from her desk and sat in front of the couch. She crossed her legs, her cheap pantyhose nearly ripping from under her skirt. The pen she held never rested as she twirled it in her fingers, mapping out the conversation that would unfold in just a few moments.
When she heard the knock at her door, a garish light lit up her face from somewhere in her damaged mind.
"Come in, please!" She answered in a sing-song voice.
Dib's hands shook, embarrassingly as he knocked though as soon as he opened the door they were shoved into his pockets. The first thing that hit him was that the room was different; she'd rearranged everything. Down to the couch. Confusion rippled but he didn't let it surface. Instead, he turned to the woman who sat in the chair, legs crossed and face bright.
Only…that smile was wrong. He couldn't put his finger on it. But, everything about the doctor seemed…off. But, Dib pushed that to the side, lifting his chin. "You called me." After everything, he'd figured she would've crawled off of the face of the world.
Not everyone could handle alien encounters. Maybe she was one of the ones who could…maybe.
Thinking of aliens made him think of Zim and thinking of Zim brought up a whole slew of unwelcome emotions so, he strode across the room and flopped into the sofa, eyes suspiciously flickering everywhere.
Evette tried to laugh, but it was dry and humorless. "Oh yes, yes I did. It's important for you to keep up with sessions, and it's my responsibility to see that you do." She twirled the pen in her long, bony fingers, smiling at Dib as he sat on the couch.
It was then that she realized that it didn't matter where the couch was; as long as he was on it, she could see that green thing on top of him, mauling him. She stared hard at him, trying to see the flicker of recognition on his face. She needed him to acknowledge that it happened, that it tied her up and tried to fuck him on her couch. Right in front of her unconscious body.
Her smile stayed present as she tilted her head. "So let's talk, then. How have you been?" It was scary how natural it felt. It had been so long since she had left her apartment; she was afraid that maybe she would have forgotten how to interact with people. Although it seemed to her that things were going fairly smooth.
She could tell by the way he held himself that something wasn't right; something was upsetting him. Good. She hoped his life was in ruins; it made things so much easier for her.
Dib tilted his head to the side, frowning. "I'm…fine." Lies. Just saying it brought a whole swarm of denial to the forefront. He tore his hand from the denim encasing of his pocket to bite at his nails only to force himself to stop. Then he brushed the leather of the couch…
Oh god. He knew what had happened last time he was here. But, Dib had been trying so hard not to think, not to remember when they had fallen backwards onto this…and it had been their first kiss, hadn't it? When the years of tension and hate, passion and tamped down desire had exploded, when they'd given in without knowing what they were giving up.
Dib yanked his hand away from the sofa and shoved it back into his pocket. "Perfectly fine. Why do I have to be here…I'm sane. You KNOW I'm sane." She had seen the object of his 'delusions'. He wasn't crazy.
And there it was, the recognition she had been waiting for. She could see his eyes glaze over as he went back to that day, the day he and his alien had ruined her life. Her lower jaw jerked back and forth thoughtfully as he returned—the light from her facade fading.
"Sane? Well…I don't know about THAT." She uncrossed her legs, sitting up in her seat, clutching her pen tight enough to turn her knuckles a creamy white. "I don't know what's so sane about tying someone up and eating an alien's face right in front of them." Her lips curled into a snarl as she talked, her pale features twisting as she attempted to keep her voice down.
"The 'sane' thing to do would be to turn that monster in. You know that, right Dib? That's what you had wanted to do, but now you have proof." She nodded slowly as she talked, her eyes widening as a grin stretched across her face. "A witness."
The doctor sat up and the more she moved forward, the more Dib leaned backwards. Suddenly, her face was contorted into something familiar, something ugly; desperation, insanity…and a thirst for recognition. To destroy and fix the chaos that was suddenly everywhere.
Dib had seen that look in the mirror, tons of times after a particularly horrible fight.
But, it had been absent for so long that he'd nearly forgotten what it looked like. Gold eyes searched the woman's pale face for any sign of that detached, cool professional that had convinced him two times that Zim wasn't real.
"I…I've changed my mind since then. Zim is…an ally now. And I was wrong. He's just a moron with a skin condition." Dib responded, carefully.
Evette's eyes nearly shot out of her skull, the tiny blood vessels nearly popping at the strain. The pen in her grip bent before the plastic gave way, sending ink to spray out between her fingers.
"Allies! Yes, I do believe I saw a bit of that action, myself!" She cackled, her first real laugh in what seemed like decades, and it was shrill and bitter. Her whole body shook as it left her, leaving her breathless in her seat. Finally, she wiped her eyes, smudging her mascara a bit.
And suddenly, her face was dark as she turned her attention back to Dib. Ink dripped down her arm and onto the seat.
"Don't lie to me, you little shit."
His pupils dilated from fear, though he repressed it, hands pressed to the couch as he pulled himself away from her. The ink explosion had a drop falling and hitting his cheek. He tried to scrub it away, eyes flying to the door before falling back on his doctor. Dib sucked in a big breath of air. "I-I'm not lying to you. Look, what you saw…that was a uh onetime thing."
His nails curled into the leather. "Zim uh, Zim and I aren't—" His breath caught in his throat. "Anything. We're nothing. And that's—he's not an alien. You must've been tired. He is a dick. And I'm sorry he tied you up. He wasn't supposed to do that. I never told him to. And he's kind of a moron so he doesn't understand social situations. He was only trying to help."
Dib scooted off the couch, back to the wall as he'd learned to do so many times when confronted with Zim, sliding along the wall.
Evette sprang to her feet, her jerky movements almost causing her to stumble a bit as she did so. Slamming her ink stained hand against the wall, the black smearing an ugly stain onto the beige wall.
"I AM tired, Dib. Tired of that monster haunting my every waking moment, tired of YOU jerking me around!" Her voice slowly grew in volume and intensity as her face neared Dib's in her rant.
"Tired of always being on edge because I never know when that demon is going to be coming back for me! Tired of not being able to trust anybody, because I don't know whose FUCKING aliens!" A strand of wavy, dark hair fell loose from its confined pony-tail and across Evette's face.
"Now," She breathed. "I want you to tell me the truth this time. About WHAT Zim is."
The breath caught in his throat and stayed there. Dib had been afraid of little during his short life. On occasions (or at least at the beginning) Zim had made him uneasy. And there had been a few times when the Earth was about to be destroyed that he'd panicked. But, seeing the crazed look in Ms. Burnstein's eyes brought a wave of terror. It was what he'd always imagined terror felt like.
There was someone who actually wanted to do him harm. And not only that but, someone who wanted to hurt Zim. And might have the power and rage to do so. "I-he's…nothing! A normal human. A human with a skin condition and…and he's just kind of stupid."
The door wasn't that far away. He could make it. Run for his life and try to get to Zim. He had to warn him. The teen swallowed his fear and made a break for it, hand reaching out for the door knob.
Evette couldn't even muster a coherent reply before Dib was making a break for it.
No. She wasn't letting him go, not after what he put her through. She had managed to step back into the horrid room after what happened, and she wasn't going to let that be in vain. She was too close, now.
With a feral screech, she was lunging at the teen, clutching his shoulders with her long, acrylic nails. She forced herself up onto his back, putting all of her weight into him. With the combined force and all one-hundred and twenty pounds of herself, she was able to bring the boy down.
"You will NOT GET AWAY WITH THIS!" She screamed as she straddled his back, taking a handful of his black hair into her stained hand. She let out all of her breath in another scream as she lifted up his head and brought it back down to the carpeted floor with as much strength as she could muster.
Dib knew what was going to happen just before his face was slamming into the floor. He felt his brain rattle around in his skull and red, white, black dots swarmed before his eyes. A snap sounded. He felt disconnected from it though, warm stickiness began rolling down his lips and chin. "Gah! Stop!" He cried, trying to struggle, to break away. She was strong. Stronger than he expected. Than she should be.
Dib's arms flailed, as he reached up and tried to pry her hands from the grip her sharp nails had on his hair. When he screamed, he tasted blood and the more he tried to shove her off, to make her stop the more her nails seemed to dig in. So...pitiful..
And his head went down again, to the floor and this time the dots stayed longer. And the blood flowed thicker. "P-Please! Stop!" Violently, the teen thrashed against this mad woman who had him in her grip. Can't...break...free.
The third time his head hit the floor instead of red dots…it was green. Green and magenta and they formed Him. Zim rose up before his very eyes, warping between the irken who had held him in his arms and that cold mask of the monster he'd used to know.
"I—" His lips wanted to form the words that haunted him. I love you, Zim. I love you. Then and now and if you hate me, I love you and if you want me dead, I'll fight you and I love you. And if I die right now…I love you.
His struggles grew weaker and when Doctor Burnstein slammed his head down on the carpet again…he lost the hold on the colors. Zim laughed and the blackness swarmed up, echoing her screaming.
A.N.: Lil-Banshee plays Evette and I play Dib.
Seriously, she scares the crap out of me. The reason Dib couldn't over power her is because, a. the woman has a buttload of adrenaline running through her and adrenaline allows people to do these crazy acts of strength and b. the pain of having his nose broken and his head slammed into the floor over and over again kind of made Dib a bit dizzy.
We don't own IZ.
