* * * *
"Speechless for once?" ZIM mocked. "You could always come up with something to say when I challenged you. How is this different?"
"Well, back then I was perfectly sane and not having conversations with dead people in my head!" Dib irritably retorted.
"You were never perfectly sane, Dib," Zita said. "No one is."
"O-kay..." He said, not exactly understanding what she meant. He looked down and mumbled, "Whatever that means…"
"You're surprisingly complicated," said Gaz. "You weren't so- well, like this before. Sure, you were always stubborn, but never so ill-mannered! What the heck has happened to you?"
"Nothing," was the response. "Nothing."
"It ISN'T nothing! Nothing can't change anything!" Keef raised his voice. "Something happened, and if we figure out that, it'll solve a piece of the puzzle we're looking for."
"Why do I have to tell you? Why are you here?" Dib asked, forgetting that he already knew the answer.
"Gosh, Dib! You're more inattentive than ZIM!" Zita shouted. The expression on her face showed that she was very perturbed. She put her hands on her slender hips.
Gaz slapped her hand against her forehead due to stress. "If you could cooperate for just one second… Just one, then maybe we wouldn't have to terrorize you as much. You're making it harder with each sarcastic and ignorant remark! You never were one that listened, if I remember correctly. Listen, now, when it matters the most!" Now Gaz's words sounded more of a plea than a command.
"Okay," Dib responded more sincere. "I'll try. Talk."
"We are here to find out why you killed us. Why did you take our lives away? Why have you been acting so strange before you murdered us? Can't you understand what you stole from us? Can't you see what MESS you've created?" Gaz explained.
Never had Dib seen her put so much emotion in what she spoke. "What did I steal from you, then? What 'mess' did I create?"
"That is for you to find out. If we told you, well, you wouldn't understand," said Zita.
"I can understand! Wait! Let me guess. You looked into my mind and found that I can't understand on my own?" Dib asked sarcastically.
"In your language, yes," said ZIM. "Isn't that creepy?"
Dib took ZIM's last inquiry as a rhetorical question. "So, you're going to torture me until I know what I did?"
The deceased nodded.
Dib sighed and sat on his bed. This was going to be a long night.
* * * *
Gaz never mentioned that day when Dib was supposedly talking to himself in a way she had never heard of before. Dib was glad because it meant not having to tell anyone about his little conversations with voices that did not exist.
He eventually found out he was suspended for the 'attacking of an innocent bystander' ordeal. He didn't mind much; he hated skool and Kya wasn't on his back as often anymore. He figured this was because she never seemed to have any affect on him attitude and decision-wise.
Kya secretly set up a meeting with a psychiatrist for Dib, which was what he wanted least of all. When the psychiatrist came, Dib decided to be mostly honest. It couldn't hurt, right?
"So, why did you attack an innocent child?" the psychiatrist asked after he and Dib were settled in another room.
"He wasn't innocent, for the last time! He was laughing at me. He mocks me all the time." Dib explained, raising his voice with each word he spoke.
"Ah… Why does he make fun of you?"
"Because…well…It's a difficult and long story. You wouldn't want to hear it."
"Oh, I'm interested."
"No, you don't want to know…"
"Fine, then. Have you had any type of physical or mental encouragement?"
"It depends on what you mean by that," Dib said, though he completely comprehended what was being spoken to him. He decided he would humor the man.
"In simpler words, do people encourage you to act uncivilized?''
Uncivilized?! "One wrong move makes me uncivilized?!" Dib shouted while waving his hands in the air.
"Typically, yes. If you kill one person, that still makes you a murderer, right?" responded the psychiatrist.
"I guess."
"Now that we have that cleared up, let's rewind. Are these actions encouraged by peers?"
Dib snorted. "I don't have any 'peers,'" he said. He crossed his arms.
"No wonder you're such a corrupted youth!" the man stated enthusiastically.
"Corrupted? What the-"
"Why don't you have friends?" the psychiatrist interrupted.
"People don't believe in the same things I do. Everyone thinks I'm nuts," Dib explained, trying to be cautious of what he said.
"What do you believe?"
Here we go again, thought Dib as he tried to come up with an answer that would let the psychiatrist understand that he was indeed sane. "Well," he began. "I believe that there are extra terrestrials out there. I believe that there are people or things more advanced than us out there." Dib held his breath.
"Oh, so they think you're a 'lunatic!' Get it? Luna is like lunar, and lunar has to do with space?" The psychiatrist chuckled. He ceased and cleared his throat when he realized that Dib did not find this amusing. "I'm going to just say it straight-forward. Have you ever heard any kind of voice from within your head?"
Great. The shrink has already come to a conclusion that I'm crazy, just like the others, Dib thought and silently cursed. "Sometimes." he said quietly while looking at the floor.
"Is it like you're hearing someone, or is it thoughts?" the psychiatrist inquired.
"I hear people- Kids my age, mostly." Dib said cautiously.
"What do they say?"
"Stuff."
"What stuff?"
Silence.
Dib refused to reveal what, which made the psychiatrist very frustrated. The psychiatrist left afterwards after giving advice that Dib didn't plan on taking any time soon.
* * * *
It was practically impossible for Dib to find peace, and this bothered him. He was growing even more tired than before. The dead around him were all wide awake. I guess you don't sleep when you're dead-that is, when you're coming back to haunt the person who killed you.
He wanted to sleep terribly, yet he felt uneasy about allowing the others to watch him as he slept. God knows what they could do to him in his sleep. He had to admit it; he was afraid.
An idea lit in Dib's mind. If he fell asleep, maybe somehow they would go away. It'll all be better tomorrow, he thought. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep even though it was exceptionally difficult in the conditions of his cell and of the people that were contained in it.
Dib saw darkness. He felt himself running through it somehow. Echoes of screams swept throughout the frigid air surrounding him. Voices of threats and commands filled the dark space. Chills ran up Dib's spine. He felt something throw him down and hold him. Dib felt aches and pains all over his body and he screamed.
He opened his eyes to find that he was only dreaming. He rubbed his eyes.
"There's no way of escaping us," Zita cackled. "Wherever you are, you'll see us."
"You'll never escape…"
"Ever."
"You'll be stuck."
"I thought you said that you'll leave if I tell you!" he reminded them.
"Well," Gaz said. "At the pace you're going, it doesn't look like you'll come to your senses anytime soon."
"That means we'll be staying even longer," ZIM laughed.
Dib did not feel ready to confess why. One of the reasons was that he did not know how he would explain the answers they were looking for. The other reason had to do with the fact that he himself did not know why either.
* * * *
ZIM was overjoyed at the thought that he caused Dib much trouble. Dib learned to contain his anger towards the alien-that is, in front of any form of authority. ZIM rubbed his victory in Dib's face as much as he could during the next few weeks. ZIM made up pitiful cheers and comments that brought attention to the two boys from their skoolmates. ZIM did not care, for winning over Dib was too great for him. Yes, he had won many times before; he loved seeing Dib livid.
Dib did not enjoy this, of course. He repetitively said he would get ZIM back someday. He vowed that it would be a great victory: one that would steer ZIM off-course from his mission.
"HAH! Pitiful stink-monkey! I beat you! You're in deep dooky now! I am ZIM!" ZIM proudly announced to Dib for the hundredth time in the cafeteria at skool.
"Would you SHUT UP?!" Dib asked, quite infuriated. "You know I'll get you back; I always do. You never hold your 'victories' for long, 'cause I always steal them from you! No use trying to rub it in my face now. I'll be the one rubbing it in YOUR face soon!"
"Well, Dib," ZIM began. "Sorry to spoil your fun, but I ordered new security equipment that I'm going to program to blow you up whenever you get NEAR my base!"
"You're going to need my DNA sample to do that. Guess what? You don't have it!" Dib announced.
"How do you know I DON'T have it?" ZIM asked, trying to scare Dib to some effect but to no avail.
"Anyways, what if you end up blasting Gaz instead?"
"That would be even-"
Gaz, who was right next to Dib, growled as she played her Game Slave. Remembering what Gaz could do to him, ZIM finished his sentence in a kinder way, "-worse than you!"
Dib rolled his eyes. "You're such a moron, ZIM," he said as he walked away.
"Well, you're…a…corn-eater!" ZIM pathetically shot out, drawing the attention of those around him. After proclaiming he was still normal to the rest of the skool, ZIM also walked away.
* * * *