Chapter 2:
The Last day of October.
Wherein Dib decides to enjoy himself for once, Zim is scared, Gaz isannoyed and the Nightmares stir.
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AN: when I was writing the last chapter it seemed longer, eh, this one will be.
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When Dib awoke he followed his usual routine of shower, teeth, clothes etc, turn on computer, until he looked at his calendar (a free gift from crop circles monthly) and realized what day it was.
October 31st. He thought back to two years ago. He remembered every horrible detail. The darkness, those hideous figures, their sick plan to march an entire dark horde through his head. That weird creature, that… thing that was supposed to be a version of himself. He shuddered. He thought about what it said, what that psychotic nightmarish copy had said, it was all in his head. They wanted to get out from this place they had destroyed, and now they all wanted to get into this world. All in his head. In his head. Dib reached up and felt his scalp,
"it's not big" he said in a quiet, thoughtful voice. He didn't think it was that big, but everyone else said so, and there was a whole other universe in there. 'Surely though it must be a paranormal anomaly, a portal or something that uses the space my head uses as gateway point…. Or something.' He had thought all that time ago when he had tried to make sense of it. He couldn't talk to someone about it, and eventually he had gotten on with his life. But every now and then, when it was stormy and at night when he was trying to go to sleep, the shadows would dance and he would swear that out of the corners of his eyes nightmarish silhouettes would dare to get closer, but he would then look, and see it was nothing but a shadow.
He thought back to last year, he had spent the whole night hiding under his covers, hoping nothing would happen, hoping they would leave his head be, hoping that a beam of light would not all of a sudden pop out of his head and an army would not walk out of his skull. When he woke up the day after, he was fine, the world was not destroyed and everything was normal. He still felt scared, but he vowed that next year, the present year, he would forget about it, and for once, enjoy a holiday where he was allowed to steal candy legally.
One problem. He didn't have a costume. Well, it was Saturday, so he had all day to work on it, and he would go trick or treating even if he had to go alone. Tonight he would enjoy himself, no matter what.
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Zim sat patiently in front of a large monitor, with nothing on it but an Irken insignia and a message reading 'please wait one moment, your call means a lot to us and we would appreciate it if you held the line.' He'd been waiting for hours now. He'd called the Tallest to report to them about this Halloween phenomena, (after the last two years, it seemed less disturbing and decided the Tallest should know about it.) This year however, he had reached them and they had jumped off-screen, then there was mumbling and before Zim said anything they put him on hold. Another hour later and Zim got angry.
"Where are they!?" He shouted abruptly while standing on the console. He started pacing back and forth, still on top of the keyboard of his large computer.
"I saw them, they were there, and then they jumped out of view…." He said matter of factly. He stopped. Realisation dawned.
"Maybe they…. Don't like my reports… maybe they…. Don't want to know about Earth and the humans' disgusting rituals….. NEVER!" he screamed as he jumped down onto the floor.
"They love my reports. Huh… they must be…. being attacked by an inferior species, that's why they put me on hold, everybody loves Zim's reports!" He said triumphantly, dismissing all doubts of his Tallest's trust in him. He thought for a bit, and decided he'd call again later. He switched off the monitor and walked over to an tube lift. He stopped before he got there.
The world turned black, then purple, then blue, then black again and he felt so cold. He saw something green and largely dog-like run around the room, then disappear. He closed his eyes shut, squeezed them shut until he saw flying spots and colour, and all at once he was warm again, and when the offending visual display of his eyes faded, he was back in his magenta and metal colour schemed room. Mouth open, he spun around, then again, and again, making sure that whatever the large creature he thought he saw was not here. The sound he had heard in that two second long…place, stayed with him. Clicking, then a dirty low guttural laughing.
Zim then felt very small, smaller than ever, and wanted to get out of this one room, at least until he regained his confidence. He ran to the lift and when he was back in his kitchen, he said,
"Maybe I will….. call tomorrow."
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"Stupid Halloween…. stupid skool….. stupid dad…. stupid Dib" every time she said something she kicked the wall next to her bed, which she was laying on. She was angry. Her father had promised, since last year, that he would go trick or treating with her. (He had also meant Dib, but she figured he wouldn't come) and now he broke that promise, saying that the testing creature was going nova, or some such excuse, and he couldn't possibly go with her. She didn't mind missing the candy, but her father was so rarely actually near her, whenever they did meet was something to be happy about. But now, she was very angry. Added with her father breaking his word, she had a ton of homework to catch up on, her Game Slave AK was confiscated by a teacher and she now had Dib asking her to help with a costume.
So now, she had nothing to do, Dib was going trick or treating and her father was a no show. This day was ruined. And so she was, at the moment, taking it out on the wall, which had a very large hole in it. She decided she should take it out on Dib too, everything was his fault.
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In the dark, Nightmare Bitters, in her original form, was covered in chains, metal, and organs and was stuck to a wall in the weirdest of houses in this world. A tall robed figure walked in through a rusted door, followed by a big green wolf.
She lifted her head, the only movable part, and looked into the blood red eyes of her captor. It clicked at her. Then laughed a dry little chuckle at her. It lifted an arm, revealing a black-gloved, long, thin clawed hand, and caressed her dry rocky cheek.
"You failed Bitters."
"You didn't see their world. We assumed it was-" She was cut off by a sharp and blood drawing slap, which left gashes along her face. She snarled and tried to bite the thing, not an inch from her face. The figure stayed at such a close range, but grabbed her head, thrust it up and said, in a whisper,
"No excuse." It looked away, erratically, almost like it disliked paining her, "we starve here. And you failed. There's nothing here, and you failed. If there is nothing for me to destroy, then I fail. I cannot fail. My mission demands perfection. You failed. On my planet, failure is to be punished by death." He slowly raised his other limb and, caressingthe splintered skin on her thin neck, snapped it.
Her head fell limp, and the figure clicked, then left. The green wolf followed, growling mechanically.
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Chapter end.
Better?