Warnings n' stuff: shoulda put this chapter before last, huh? Um, character death (one of mine, not one of JV's), and (in my opinion) cute little stairway scene.
Notes, Notes… uhh, well, it took me a while to write this, but um, I finally finished it. Oh yeah, just to tell y'all, I'm going to try and finish this story by Halloween. Yes, I know I sound crazy. But, anyways. Expect many an update tomorrow. Rushing down to the line, ain't I? heheh. Now, I'm going to go do something mushy, I'm too up-tight… gah, zombies scawe me…
Disclaimer: Not mine. We all know that. What, you didn't know I didn't own it? …sheesh, how many brain cells did you kill?
---
After going up the stairs with Zim in tow (there had been an argument on who was going to get up first, and Dib lost), Dib had found an unlocked door, opposite the one on the first story, and had gone inside it, practically dragging Zim along. Now he and Zim were in a dark hall that turned a sharp corner, beyond that they couldn't tell much.
Dib waved the flashlight around, light bouncing from wall to wall. No portraits in this room. There was a window on the left wall, and a large tear in the wallpaper on the right. Wood paneling lined the walls halfway up, the rest was a quality wallpaper that had obviously been damaged over the year or two the house had been vacated.
"Well, not much here." Dib muttered.
"Pitiful human with your flashy light, What about a light switch? Huh?" Zim asked, arms crossed. The Irken was obviously annoyed with the darkness of the room.
Dib blinked in the darkness. "Uh, Zim, nobody lives here. There's no electricity. It was cut a long time ago."
"What? No power?" Zim raised an eyebrow, or would, if he had an eyebrow, and went silent, thinking. Dib, thankful for the quiet reaction, walked forwards, down the short hall and to the corner. Flashing the light around some more, Dib found that there was a room down the hall. There was a thin rail separating the second story floor and a drop to the first floor, and a stairway split off from a continuation of the hall, the right side of the stairway fused with the wall of the room joining the second and first stories together.
Dib sighed slightly. At least the rest of the group wasn't attempting to get him running out of the mansion screaming…yet. "Wanna stay on the second story, or go to the first?" Dib asked Zim, tired of the silence.
Zim blinked, snapping out of his thought process. The little Irken practically ran after Dib and the light source. "Errh, why are you asking me, Dib-stink?" he asked when he reached Dib, a slight bit confused.
"Because I don't feel like turning on my brain." Dib said, albeit a bit sarcastically, before purposely flashing the flashlight's beam straight into Zim's eyes, trying to make it look like an accident.
"Gah!" Zim yelped, covering his eyes as the painful light flashed into them. "You did that on purpose, human!"
Dib smirked and shrugged slightly. "Maybe I did."
Zim blinked for a couple of seconds, trying to get rid of the light spots that clouded his vision. Zim rubbed one of his eyes, painful after the startling beam of light had been flashed straight into them. "Stupid humans…why do I bother, why do I bother…" Zim grumbled under his breath before pulling his hand away from his eye.
Glaring at Dib with as much venom as he could gather, Zim demanded, "You wanted to know where to go? Downstairs."
"Stay on this floor it is!" Dib said, almost merrily as he continued down the second story hall, ignoring the stairway as he passed by it.
Zim's antennae went flat back on his head and his eye twitched. He should have known that Dib was going to take the exact opposite of his directions.
The little Irken ran after Dib, catching up with the taller human before saying and hoping It would work, "Uh, wait, Dib-beast! I've changed my mind! Second story is better! Much better!"
Dib stopped walking to raise an eyebrow at the irken by his side. Disbelievingly, "You really think I'm going to believe that, Zim?"
The two beings stared at each other for a second. Then, Zim had an idea. Smirking with fake wickedness, Zim waved a hand in the air carelessly. "No, no, of course not. Disbelieve Zim, you human stink."
Dib stared at Zim, trying for all he was worth to decide if the alien was trying to trick him into going downstairs or was being true to himself and had set up some sort of death ray in the second story.
Zim was a tiny bit worried on the inside, what if his plan failed? For some reason upstairs didn't really seem inviting at the moment. The Irken would much rather go back down the stairs, to the first story.
There was silence as the two beings looked at each other, trying to figure out the other's game. Silence, concentration, and then, down the hall in front of them, a soft moan.
Neither Zim nor Dib jumped, but they both slowly turned and looked down the hall. Dib held up his flashlight, skimming across the darkness down the hall to see if there was anything there. There wasn't, except for a door on the wall, the door old and frail-looking, probably antique.
There was more silence, it almost turned into a noise as the two beings listened for any other noises. Nothing. Dib relaxed, satisfied that it was probably just his imagination, and Zim's antennae flicked in annoyance. Just as Dib opened his mouth to reply to Zim, another groan, almost louder now, echoed from down the hall.
"Downstairs is good, downstairs is good." Dib said quickly, spinning around fast enough that the edge of his trench coat hit Zim's head and walking back towards the stairway. Zim followed Dib quickly, not wanting to be left behind; he was glad that he only arrived before Dib by about two minutes. This Manor was just creepy.
Sadly, Dib had the flashlight and was ahead of Zim. So, while the two beings were heading down the stairs, Zim 'strategically' tripped, fell and flopped/rolled down the rest of the stairs, knocking over Dib in the process, until the two were stopped by the wall where the landing before three more steps to the first story was stationed.
Both Dib and Zim yelped in pain when they hit the wall, coming to a complete and painful stop. Neither the Alien nor the Human stood up or uttered a word, instead, both vouched for grumbling and making little pained noises as their now bruised bodies stopped aching a little bit.
Cursing under his breath, Zim pushed himself up, gloved hand resting on Dib's chest as his other hand moved to rub one of his antenna, which was bent in a painful shape. When Zim pushed himself up, Dib noticed what position he was in with the alien and froze, hand tightening around the flashlight he somehow managed to keep a hold of.
"Zim… get off." Dib commanded quietly. Zim didn't seem to notice Dib, gently handling his twisted antenna instead of doing what Dib ordered.
"Zim, seriously. Get off." Dib's voice was a bit higher now, warning yet somehow panicky. This time, Zim took notice of Dib's order and tone of voice. And it only took a second to realize why.
Zim and Dib were tangled on the floor, Zim on top of Dib with the edge of the human's trench coat wrapped around his leg, and Dib was stuck below the irken, nervous at how close the two were.
In the darkened room, Dib didn't even notice as Zim's face flushed to a darker shade of green than before. Zim quickly pushed himself off of Dib, moving backwards so quickly that he banged into the stair behind him.
Dib stood up quickly, straightening out his clothes and making sure he wasn't tangled up in anything. He didn't look directly at Zim, and Zim didn't look directly at Dib as he stood up. As soon as everything was back to some semblance of normal, Dib hopped down the last three stairs, flashlight beam bouncing around the first story room they were now in.
Zim followed quickly, careful not to trip over any steps this time and still a darker green than usual.
Of course, just as Zim and Dib were calming down from the fall, something had to happen. There was a scream and the slam of a door, sounding too close to comfort from room they were both in. Both beings shivered, but neither moved as the thumping of footsteps drew closer. Dib focused the flashlight beam on the door the running footsteps were coming from, and Zim tensed up, looking ready to either run or pounce if it was needed.
The door flew open, and, not bothering to close the door, a dark and familiar figure practically flew out of the shadowy doorway in a panic, not looking ahead or behind herself before she ran into Dib. The shadowy female screamed and jumped back, turning to run a different way, and Dib yelped as well, before actually getting a good look at the person who ran into him.
"Holy shit, Lydia?" Dib's voice was a bit squeaky, adrenaline obviously coursing through the teenage human's body. Lydia stopped and whirled around to face Dib, face whiter than usual even with makeup, and breathing harshly, like she'd been running a long time.
Lydia's eyes widened slightly, and she gasped between breaths, "Dib…?" Then the goth girl's eyes secured a look at the small figure standing next to Dib. Her eyes widened more and she yelped, "Shit, another monster!"
Zim blinked, raising a would-be eyebrow in confusion, then remembering he didn't have his disguise on. "Augh!" Zim yelped, covering his antennae with his hands and trying to hide behind Dib futilely. "Another stinkbeast has found out! No! The mission is in jeopardy!"
Dib raised an eyebrow as well. "Monster? No, that's just Zim." Immediately, Dib turned concerned; and interested. "What do you mean, monster?"
Lydia had backed up against a wall. Now her knees were getting weak, and she let herself slide down the wall, to the floor. She shuddered, fastening her disturbingly blank eyes on Dib. "This place is really fucked up."
"Whoa, wait, what happened?" Dib was now a little worried. It must be really fucked up if Lydia was afraid, Lydia was one of the more nasty Goths, fascinated with horror and death.
Zim sighed lightly as he watched the two humans converse; he was at the moment more worried about his mission. The Lydia-human had seen him without his disguise on, not good.
But after Dib asked Lydia what happened, there was silence. Lydia was now staring blankly just above Dib's shoulder, head tilting to the side slightly. It took a second, but then Lydia licked her lips and inhaled; then she explained in two or three word sentences, best she could. "Rex and Cyrus. Dead. Something ate them. Dag's missing. Sydney ran. I did too. Got separated. Ran into you."
There was silence for a moment more, a look of mild skepticism pasted across Dib's face. "Let me guess." Dib started. "Everybody's trying to get me spooked, right? I knew there was a reason you took Drama last year, Lydia."
Dib sighed slightly and turned, still a bit disbelieving. "After all, Zim and I haven't seen anything that could eat someone here."
Immediately, Lydia's eyes widened in panic, a fearful look, genuine, crossing her face as she moved to get up. Stumbling, Lydia lunged forwards when she got to her knees, grabbing the end of Dib's trench coat and making the paranormal investigator jolt to a stop. "No, Dib! I'm not joking! Something killed them! Please, you've got to believe me!"
Zim crossed his arms, now in a slightly bad mood for a reason that only he knew, and it wasn't one he wanted to share. Dib paused, turning back to face Lydia, skeptical look slowly dissipating. "You're really not joking, are you, Lydia?"
The gothic girl shook her head no so fervently that her carefully gelled and tied up hair came loose in chunks, falling around her face.
An uncertain look crossed Dib's face, and the human glanced at the irken by his side. "Zim, I really hate asking, but, any input…?"
The irken sighed, uncrossing his arms and looking at the ceiling as if begging to know why all humans were so stupid. "This Lydia-human speaks truth, Dib-beast. The human emotion you call panic is what she's operating off of now, stinkbeast."
Dib looked from between Zim to Lydia, then sighed. He reached out a hand to help Lydia up, and the goth girl took it. Lydia stood and opened her mouth to thank Dib, when a gunshot rang out, loud and breaking the quiet. The two humans and one alien turned towards where the gunshot came from, and Zim spoke; "What was that?"
---15 or so minutes before---
Sydney rushed through the halls, breathing hard, everything just a blur, running, running. She had lost Lydia along the way somewhere, she knew, but the animal panic that consumed her prevented her from caring. After all, you only had to run faster than your friends, right?
Oh shit, another door. Running towards it, Sydney pulled the hairpin out of her hair, ready to pick the lock when she got to the door. Sliding to a stop in front of the door, Sydney shoved the hairpin in the lock, twisting and turning, scratching about the insides of the lock to get the mechanism to switch back to unlocked. Why the hell were all the doors locked in the house?
The lock clicked. Sydney tugged the hairpin from the door, and twisted the doorknob, rushing into the next room. And, that was the thing, it was a room. Leaning against the closed door, Sydney let her heart beat slow. The room was covered in a fine layer of dust, the room just a simple bedroom, with a neatly made bed and a desk in the corner. On the desk, Sydney noticed, was a handgun.
Sydney was confused. Why was there a handgun, on a desk that would never be used again? She shrugged mentally, pushing herself from the door and walking towards the desk, skirting the bed and ignoring the closet door on the left wall.
Reaching out, Sydney took the handgun. Checking, she found one bullet missing. That wasn't very comforting. Sydney glanced at the desk again, brushing away a paper to reach a cubbyhole. Reaching into said compartment, Sydney's fingers traced something, and she smirked. More ammo. She was about to pull the spare ammo from the desk when there was a thump from behind her. Spinning, handgun cocked, Sydney surveyed the room at eye level. Nothing behind her, was there? Nope.
Sydney cautiously started to turn back to the desk, but a scraping sound, like something dragging, started up. Panic suddenly flew up, raising its frightening head; what if the chained thing was coming? Sydney cocked the gun again, finger caressing the trigger.
And something grabbed her foot, dragging her down to the floor. Sydney shrieked as she fell, hard, and the gun went off in her hand, hitting the bed and leaving a smoking hole.
Sydney dropped the gun, foolishly, and crossed her arms in front of her face, closing her eyes tight. Whatever dragged her to the floor suddenly loomed above her, dragging itself over her body before a disgusting rotting hand pushed her arms in front of her eyes, and a sharp, agonizing pain exploded in her neck. Sydney couldn't breath, panic and something else preventing her from it. Warm liquid dripped across her neck, making her skin slick and wet.
Darkness crept in from the edges of Sydney's vision, agony beating a painful rhythm from her throat, when she realized, she was bleeding. Aw, fuck.
---