Did anyone notice I forgot to put up a disclaimer? Oops! X.x
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Invader Zim or anything that belongs to someone else!
Er…yeah. I tried to make this one a little longer to make up for my lack of fast updates –sigh-
Dib jumped, waking up from his nightmare once more.
He still had them, the dreams.
He was breathing rapidly, hugging his blue covers protectively over his head. He was shaking.
This one had been worse then ever.
"Gaz, watch out!"
"What are you-WHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
He had never seen that much terror in his scary sister's eyes in real life. In fact, he had never seen her scared since...
"NO! DAD!"
"What? This is impossible. Wait…there is only ONE explanation. This MUST be a simulator, for aliens DO NOT exist. It's simp-"
Dib shivered. First his sister, then his father…many others had followed them, all while he was helpless. Soon, he was the only one left. Zim had saved him for last.
Zim stood in front of him. His ruby red orbs held all the anger and hate he had seen only the day before. It frightened him worse by far. He wanted to cry out, to scream, but he couldn't.
"You see? It was hopeless all along, Dib."
Dib looked away. He wouldn't give Zim the satisfaction of seeing his tears.
"And now it is time for me to kill you." Zim sneered.
Dib waited. But death didn't come, as it usually did in his nightmares.
"But I have changed my mind, filthy human."
Dib looked up, shocked.
Zim's eyes were still just as demonic. But now a maniac gleam was in them.
"Instead, I will force you to live. Force you to live the rest of your life on this horrible dirt ball. You will not be able to kill yourself. You will not be able to DIE, Dib-stink. Nothing will kill you. For I have found a way to make you immortal."
Dib stared, horrified.
"And I shall make you live eternally, making you live every day with the knowledge that you failed."
It was the worst dream he had ever had. Some things are worse than death.
Dib shakily got out of bed, glanced at his clock, and donned on his normal attire along with a blue scarf. It was only 10:26 a.m.
He didn't even answer Gaz when she asked where he was going. Like she really cared, anyway.
He needed to get away from it all, to get away from everything. He walked out into the snow, the cold air refreshing on his sweaty face.
His glasses steamed, but he didn't even notice.
He had walked to the park so many times; he could get there blindfolded.
He didn't really like the squirrel-infested place, but it was the perfect scenery to 'think' in the daytime. He preferred to look at the stars, but that's impossible when the sun is blaring down on you.
The snow had begun to melt. The slush played with his feet, and he slipped more than once. But he paid no attention.
Eyes open or closed, all he could see was the hateful crimson eyes.
He shuddered. He had hoped he wouldn't ever see them again, but the eyes had etched themselves into his skull. And deep down, he knew, that no matter how hard he tried, those eyes would forever be engraved in his memories.
It's funny that way. No matter how hard you try to forget it, you know it's always there, just waiting to be seen again.
Dib blinked as a squirrel darted past him. He had arrived at the park. It was not one of his favorite places, but just walking though it helped to clear his mind.
He could see every snow covered leaf that had not yet fallen from the trees. They rustled helplessly in the small chilling breeze, a few of them snapping off to fly with it. The small winter's sun shined down, gently thawing the oh-so-cold earth.
Dib sighed as another squirrel jumped out and ran away from him. The place was still squirrel infested, just as he remembered it, just like always, even when he was little.
He mentally slapped himself.
Whenever he came here, why did he have to think about her? How she loved to chase the little fur-balls, laughing with her small-
'Bad Dib, stop it!' Dib chided himself. He stopped, pulling at his trench coat bitterly.
He still carried the cursed photo, the last photo ever taken of her that survived. He reached into his inside pocket, taking it out once again, as he so often did while he was at the park.
There they were, by their Oak tree. They had called it 'their's', though it was just like the rest of them in the park. Dib was leaning on the tree looking up at the camera smiling.
And she was smiling up at him without even realizing the picture had been taken, holding out a small wooden box that had the words 'time capsule' written across it in blue marker. Her messy purple-ish hair was kept out of her face with a black ribbon, which was tied in a bow. She was wearing a small royal blue dress that her mother had gotten for her.
But the must stunning thing in this particular photo was her face. She was actually smiling; a broad grin of triumph for have finding the perfect place to bury their capsule.
And her eyes. Her eyes were so stunning. A light of hope, trust, and happiness filled her golden honey orbs.
But that had been years of years ago. So long ago that no one remembered this happy little girl except for him. Only he could remember the painful memories.
Sure, she had always been a little grumpy at first. She hated it when he would talk about the paranormal. She refused to believe that kind of 'junk'. But that didn't mean they didn't get along. They had loved each other, even at that young age of 5 and 4. They could never imagine a world were they didn't stick together, side by side.
But then that unimaginable world became reality.
Dib sighed. Maybe he shouldn't have come to the park after all. This trip only put more stress on him. But you really couldn't blame him for remembering the happy little girl.
It was the only image of her that he liked. The only photo left that showed her being truly happy. The only one she hadn't been able to destroy, for she didn't know it existed.
What had happened to make this poor girl turn on everything she had once known and loved, you ask? (Well, even if you didn't ask, I'm telling you.)
It was her mother's death. Dib remembered it clearly. It was in the summer, not long after this photo was taken. Her mom had taken them to the toy store. She had bought her a Raggedy Anne doll, and Dib a small plush blue dragon with beady black eyes.
It was on their way home that it happened. He couldn't remember much, just waking up in the hospital five weeks later.
The doctors had told him he was lucky just to have lived through that car accident. Details that were given to him later told him that a drunk driver had crash into them and sped out of there, pronto. It was a hit in run, and it killed her. It had killed her mom and left Dib in a five-week coma. Luckily, or unlucky on how you see it, the little girl had come out unscathed…on the outside.
But on the inside, it killed her, too.
She hadn't left Dib's side all while he was in the coma. There were dried tears on her cheeks, but a small smile of relief when the doctors told her he would be ok.
But it soon faded when she saw his reaction to her mother's death.
"Dib, she's dead! And you don't even care!"
"It's not that I don't care!"
"Then what is it!?""There's nothing we can do for her."
"You. You know everything about the paranormal. Can't you resurrected her, or, or SOMETHING!?"
"You know I can't."
"Or you just don't want to."
"Hey, I-"
"I don't want to hear it, Dib!"
"I'm sorry, ok!? There's just nothing I can do to help your mom!"
"OUR mom, Dib. She birthed you too!"
Footsteps, a door creaking open. A whisper. "I hate you."
"Gaz-"
"I HATE YOU!"
A door slammed.
She didn't understand. He didn't understand. No one did. Not even their dad.
Life changed.
Professor Membrane got more and more into his studies, leaving no time to get severely close to anyone long enough to get hurt like that again.
Gaz had tried tagging along with her father, trying to get the attention she was used to from him because her mom had passed and she was angry with her brother. But she was neglected that attention. She withdrew herself from the world. She became scary. She became…something else.
And Dib, with no one to hold him back in the sane world, went farther with his paranormal studies. He became isolated, more so than Gaz, even. He spent hours in his room, never leaving except to eat and use the restroom. He became less sane than he had been, though he would never admit it. He even began to talk to himself without knowing it.
And when school started, neither of them fit in. So they still shared the same lunch table. Dib would ramble on and on about Para-science, forgetting how much she hated it. And Gaz wrapped her entire existence around videogames, for she no longer had a mom, her dad wasn't being fatherly, and her brother failed her.
Dib sighed, putting the photo back into his pocket. He didn't know why he couldn't claim Gaz's mom as his own. It was just too painful. He didn't want to accept the fact that his mom died, though Gaz clearly accepted that her's did. This difference built an invisible brick wall in between them, and unless one of them gave in, it would stay there forever.
Dib found a stone bench and sat down, ignoring the fact that it was cold and wet.
A similar barrier had erected itself between him and Zim. At first, he thought that it had been a fight of good and evil, the alien scum and the valiant hero. But now that Zim had been, in a vain attempt to find a human word for it, fired, Dib saw a new side of the Irken.
Zim was almost…human.
And then, the barrier collapsed, and only rubble lay between them.
Zim had never been evil. He was just doing his job.
'That must mean' Dib thought ' we were both the good guys, but on different sides…'
Dib suddenly realized two things.
One, that his bottem was soaked.
Two, that it was getting to be noon. Gaz would want something by now. She always needed something, whether it is chips or cereal. And Dib never said no to her, for he felt guilty if he did. He never wanted anything bad to happen to his sister. He'd sacrifice himself just to save her, even.
Dib sighed once more, standing up and heading home. He paused as he passed a particular large black Oak tree. It was almost time. He vaguely wondered if Gaz had remembered it after all these years. He shrugged it off as a squirrel scampered across his path. He'd find out soon enough.
-scratches head- Er, yeah. I've got no comment on this chapter. Hopefully, the next one will come faster.
Pilo