A/N: I hope you guys enjoy this one. I tried to put some more humor in this chapter. Please review. I'll give you candy if you do!
Chapter 4
HOME
It was a considerable amount of time of time before we reached the halfway mark to the thirty seventh floor. It was a long and arduous journey wrought with peril and several breaks for Vova to catch her breath. We'd made pretty good time so far. And then I felt it. Another headache was coming on fast. This was the third one today. I pushed the concern out of my mind and attributed the migraines to the stress and drinking today had held. That's all it was.
Things started to get a little blurry and I was getting light headed. I opened the little packet to get one of my med strips and reached a finger inside only to find it empty. This wouldn't be fun. I'd have to buy some more from my dealer friend in the morning. I thought about the monies I got from the dead junkie in the lobby. I could afford a few extra packets.
Vova placed a claw on my shoulder and said, "You okay? I thought you said you had that under control." Her voice was laced with genuine concern. I looked into her wide, purple eyes and she looked into mine. She was starting to get worried and I knew it.
"I'm fine. You got enough to worry about. It's nothing," I said while rubbing my temples. It took me a few minutes to get it back under control. My head was pounding, but I could make it. I'd just need to ignore the hallucinations; otherwise I'd scare Vova half to death. Just because I kept stepping over invisible corpses and trying not to run up the stairs screaming, didn't mean she should be worried with it. This would pass.
Not to long after that happened, we reached the landing to Vova's floor. We walked down a lengthy hallway. It was in about the same state as the lobby; filthy and run down. We walked for a few minutes before we heard a loud "DING" emanate from behind us. Both of us looked back just in time to see a very short service technician step out of a set of metal double doors and say, "Elevators fixed."
I looked at him with my legs still aching and my head still pounding and said, "Fuck you and the elevator you rode up in!" His greasy little smile quickly evaporated from his face as he stepped back in the elevator.
"Stiv, what's "fuck" mean?" Vova asked me. I almost laughed. She was still so very child-like when it came to some things.
"It's an Earth-stink word. It's the same as "linst". You shouldn't say it."
Her eyes widened, "Oh."
Soon we were standing outside of a large, red metal door with the numbers 37-129 painted over it. "Here it is," she said and opened the door.
Finally! "You keep the door unlocked?"
No, the mechanism's broken. I haven't been able to lock the door in six months," she laughed and led me in. That was very disconcerting. I'll have to fix that.
The inside of the apartment was surprisingly nice. Compared to the hallways and lobby that lay at the bottom of the ENDLESS stairs, this place was like the Tallests' summer palace; which I went to while attending ZIM'S royal appointment as magistrate of Earth.
The living quarters were clean and relatively well decorated. Almost everything was either a shade of purple or red except for the black tubes in the ceiling. This color scheme reminded me, not so fondly, of our beloved leaders. In the middle of the room were a couch and a large entertainment screen. It was pretty large; especially for a salary off waitressing and odd jobs. In fact, the whole place seemed a little too nice, but it was too late at night for that deep of thought. Ziggy probably just did pretty well with his work.
The place was empty except for me and Vova. I half expected to see this mystery Irken lying on the couch watching the screen. "Where's Ziggy?" I asked and sat down on the couch. Damn, it was a comfortable couch! T must be Vortian. "I leaned over and started looking for the remote control for the TV.
"He usually works all night." Vova reached behind my head and then handed me the remote. "Sometime he comes in for a visit and has lunch with me at work." She walked into the kitchenette and poured herself a STRONG drink. "You want one?" She asked.
"Sure." I needed a drink. Maybe it would numb the searing pain in my head. The whole time I was surfing the channels looking for anything good on. Just as luck would have it, one of my favorite movies was on. Since the conquest, Earth cinema had become rather popular on Irk. Now we had entire channels devoted just to their movies.
She handed me the drink and took a sip of hers. I knocked it down in one swallow and lightly coughed. "How do you do that? I can only sip at it a little at a time or I choke," she asked. I decided not to tell her that it came from a living a hard military life and years of heavy drinking. She sat down next to me and asked, "What're you watching?"
"It's called 'John Carpenter's The Thing'. It's pretty good."
We both looked at the hideous creature that lumbered across the screen. Vova looked at it with abject horror and yelled, "Eww! Is that the Thing?"
I laughed. "No, that's a human named Mac Ready. He's the hero of the picture." Suddenly, another human's head exploded and started trying to eat another human. "That's the Thing."
"Oh," she giggled. We sat there for the next hour or so watching the Thing and drinking. When it was over, Vova looked at me and said with a slur in her voice, "Me and Ziggy share a sleep room, so you can stay in the other one because we don't share THAT room. But if we slept in THAT room, then you could sleep in the other one, but we don't. So don't get your hopes up. I think."
"Okaaay," I said, slightly caught off-guard by my sister divulging her personal life to me. Now, I'm not delusional about this type of thing. I know Vova has a personal life and she does certain "things". But I don't want to think about her sleeping with anybody, anywhere, with anyone, at anytime.
But on the bright side, I had a place to stay.
I climbed up off of the couch and followed her down the hall. She pointed to one door and said, "This is the lav," then she pointed to another door, "and this is your room." She kissed me on the cheek and ran off to her room yelling, "G'night!" and then slammed the door behind her.
I walked into my room and had a quick look around. It was very small. There was a closet and a bed. That was it. The bed was pretty small. Actually, I think it was too small. I laid down on it and confirmed my suspicions. Me legs hung uncomfortably over the edge and the odd poster of Tallest Purple that was stuck to the ceiling wouldn't quit staring at me. Also, a large neon sign that said, "ZARDOS SAVES" kept filling the room with an annoying green light. So, I got my pillow and a blanket and set up a make shirt bed on the couch.
I wasn't really that sleepy yet. I was tired, but not sleepy. My head was starting to feel a little better and I felt like doing something constructive. So, I slipped out of the front door and wandered down the hall to where the elevator was. Just as my luck would have it, the stupid technician had left his tools sitting in the hall. I quickly snatched them up and ran back around the corner to the apartment. For the next twenty minutes I tinkered with the front door repairing the lock mechanism. Finally I heard a loud click sound that told me not only had I fixed it, but I had also locked myself outside. I then spent the next fifteen minutes picking the lock I had just fixed.
Finally, got back inside and locked the door. I walked down the hall and used the lav. I flushed the receptacle and turned on the showering tube. I took off my clothes and stepped in. The hot liquid felt so good on my sore body. I really didn't get cleaned up. I didn't feel like it. I just stood there for a while and relaxed before I stepped out and dried off.
I walked into the kitchenette and got a quick snacking burrito and then laid down on the couch. I turned theTV back on and turned down the volume. It didn't take me long to fall asleep. This time, I didn't have any nightmares.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A/N: Obviously I don't own The Thing. And this is as good a time as any to say I don't own Invader Zim. Anyway, please leave a review. Tell me what you think or something you'd like to see happen. I'm open to ALL suggestions. I'll even take flames! Thanks.