I made Dib stay home from school the next day. Infact, I made him stay home for the next week. Of course, he didn't question my motives.
No one seemed to notice at skool when he didn't show up. I thought they might have at least complained about how they had no one to pick on that day. After all, Zim was gone too.
They were all stupid. Every last one of them.
We got a call from Dad on the third day. Apparently, it was a going to be a very busy few weeks at the labs and he would need to stay there. Told us all of the unimportant things, like where the money was and to make sure we got at least some groceries (usually me and Dib spend all of the money on pizza and cereal. Neither of us can cook very well). Of course, he hung up before he could say anything really important.
Yeah…he's pretty stupid too.
I tried to get home as fast as possible from skool during that week, just to make sure Dib didn't go through some horrible breakdown. I didn't feel like having to deal with trying to put him in a straight jacket.
On Friday I found Dib doing the first semi-productive thing he had done since he started acting like this. He was sprawled out on the couch, doing something that I didn't recognize until I stepped closer.
He was coloring.
…He was coloring with MY crayons.
I stormed closer, demanding to know why he went into my room and stole my crayons. My feet wouldn't step any further once I saw his creations.
The pictures…they looked like a first grader had drawn them. Dib could draw fairly better than that, as I had seen from his blueprints. These looked more like scribbles.
He had completed several already. The first was a picture of a star…with metal bars on it. And there was a little green thing inside that I assumed was Zim. It was sitting in a scribbled black space.
The next one had a bunch of green people, maybe more of Zim's race. One was glaring angrily and there were two taller ones looking on curiously. The angry one looked sort of like Zim, but I didn't recognize the others. There was a border around the edge, like it was some kind of photograph.
The last finished product really yanked at me for several minutes. My eyes wouldn't tear away.
It was distorted and disproportionate, just as all of the other pictures had been. There was a woman standing in the middle of the feeble paper, arms stretching out longer and wider than humanly possible. Her hands were outstretched and she was smiling at the world. The eyes were shadowed away and the hair hung at odd angles. Purple with streaks of black framed her soft face and she was surrounded by colors, almost a child's dream world.
I knew this woman. I knew her well. Her photo was on the fridge with that same hair and smile. She was sitting with me in a chair and Dib stood next to us in mock salute. Even I looked kinda happy.
" Dib…" I said softly, picking up the picture, " This…this is Mom isn't it?"
Dib didn't answer me, but I wasn't sure whether he just didn't hear me or he refused to answer. He seemed busy on his most recent 'masterpiece' as he scribbled, wearing my crayons thin.
My curiosity got the better of me I suppose, and I peered around my brother's abnormally large head and watched him. His motions were very jerked and child-like, which probably explained the lack of skill.
It was a very crude and primitive UFO. The kind that sort of resembled a sombrero on stilts. I thought so anyway. It was flying through space where even though it was dark, there were bright colors swirling in certain areas. It held a certain indescribable beauty. I had a feeling Dib's toddler-like hands couldn't do it justice.
I'm sure he's told me about space before. He's had to fly up there more than once to fight off Zim. I had never really listened though. I guess that old saying is right. The one that says you never really miss something until it's gone? Yeah…it's right all right.
I wondered to myself if he'd been there before. So I asked him.
He seemed very startled once he fully realized I was standing there watching him color. His hands scrambled, trying to hide his precious creations.
I wondered why. Did he know they weren't nearly as good as usual? Was he just embarrassed? Would he rather I wasn't there?
Glancing his way, I noticed he truly had been getting better. His eyes were wide in panic as he scrambled for the crayons, breaking some of them in the process. That seemed to upset him even more.
Ah. That was it. He'd been caught with my crayons.
I chuckled as he tried to climb over the top of the couch to get way and pulled him back down by his jacket. Crayons soared everywhere and Dib held a confused expression.
Of course he did. I wasn't exactly behaving the way I normally would.
" You can play with my crayons." I said harshly, trying to cover up my previous kindness, " Just don't break anymore of them all right?"
Dib still seemed confused for a moment or so, as he processed the thought. Then he smiled, looking happy for the first time in what seemed like ages.
For some reason, that made me intensely happy.
So Dib went back to his coloring and I sat next to him on the couch, looking on. When he had finished his drawing, he held it up for me to see.
It was just as I had seen before, except now there was more black space and the spaceship was grey and blue. It wasn't exactly Picasso, but then again I always hated Picasso.
I waved it off with a smile, knowing he would be happy with that rarity, and picked up one of his other drawings. It was the one with Zim sitting inside the star-prison.
" Is this Zim?" I asked Dib, trying to make him talk to me.
Dib peered over my shoulder to see what picture I was looking at, so I think he understood me. He nodded, shocking me. It was the closet he had ever come to talking in the past few days.
I would have hugged him…that is, if I didn't hate hugs so much.
" So…how come he's in the star?" I prodded, even though he wouldn't be able to answer me.
He opened his mouth, like he wanted to speak. Nothing seemed to come out though, and for the first time, he seemed annoyed at his lack of speech. His arms flailed about, as they usually did when he was talking, but the words wouldn't follow. He slumped down on the couch in defeat.
So I decided to push it just a little further.
" It looks like a prison." I stated.
Dib nodded again. I was on the right track anyway.
I had a feeling that it wasn't actually a star, but a planet. After all, stars are supposed to be giant fireballs, right? Nothing could survive on one.
I remembered the gaping hole in Zim's ceiling and something clicked.
" …Is that where Zim is now?" I asked, " Did he get taken there?"
Dib nodded vigorously, happy that I understood.
I paused and thought about that for a minute or so. So Zim was being held on another planet…why would Dib care? He was gone now. No more taking over Earth.
There had to be more to it than that. If there wasn't, Dib was going to die like this.
I picked up the next picture, the one with Zim and the other two aliens. This one was more confusing. Dib had made it look like some kind of photograph, with the border and all. So I asked him about it.
Dib shook his head no and did something I was going to kill him for.
He grabbed my GameSlave 2 off the table.
" HEY! Who said you could touch that?" I shouted at him, wanting him to put it down immediately.
Dib ignored me and turned it on, after a moment or so of trying to remember how. The game music started and the colors glowed off the screen. I wanted to wring his neck. My GameSlave 2 was a sacred thing and no one else could touch it.
Instead of playing it though, as I thought he would, he shoved it under my nose. I pulled it back so I could see in the screen and I wondered what he meant by that. Vampire piggies danced around the start menu as my reflection loomed over them.
Wait…reflection?
That was right…Zim had really large computer screens in his house. I think Dib said they were for transmissions back to his home planet, but again I never really cared before now. Zim must have made contact with others while Dib was there.
I shut off my GameSlave 2 and turned to Dib. His picture was still clenched in my hand.
" That's a screen, right?" I said, trying to make it as simple as possible, " And those are other aliens in the back there?"
He nodded again, unable to do much more than that. I put that drawing aside and tore the newest out his hands. I didn't have to look at that one for more that two seconds to figure out what it meant.
" You…want to look for him." I realized, turning to Dib.
At first he began to nod…and then this look flashed in his eyes, like he remembered something he tried really hard to forget. He hugged his knees and tried to sink back into the couch, shaking his head the whole time.
" Dib, what's wrong with you?" I asked harsher than I really should have.
In my moment of weakness, he snatched the picture back and leaped off the couch. In hasty movements, he grabbed the rest of his pictures and ran away up the stairs and out of sight.
I was left alone with my GameSlave 2 and my crayons.
…Now where had I seen this picture before?
(A/N: Thanks for all of the excellent reviews! This one took a little longer to get up than I had originally planned…hopefully the next chapter will be up soon, so please R&R. : ) )