Ladies and gentlemen, here I write a personal letter to the reason why I take so long to write.
Dear math, I am not a therapist.
Solve your own problems!
[signed] - Sakiko of soleana
Man I really hate college sometimes, ugh and the heat down here in sunny Florida isn't helping either.
Okay, enough of that.
ENJOY!
I do not Own Invader Zim or Coraline
Chapter Three
Your other mother.
Zim, who was now in his room lying on his bed, stared at the ceiling bored out of mind.
He was still in his horrible black skinny jeans and in his purple raincoat, which was rather useless, mainly because Zim was in the house, and his brothers won't let him go outside.
What good is having a raincoat if you can't go outside and use it?
Oh, that's right, rain makes mud, and mud makes a mess.
So what else can he do?
Just stay inside this boring old house and lie on his bed, look for pictures or figures that would form on the ceiling, imagine and play with his new toy, the little doll the Membrane children had sent him this morning.
Currently, Zim was imagining what would happen if the little door he found this morning in the living room, lead to the empty flat on the other side rather than the brick wall.
At least Zim would have an entire flat to himself, if that would be the case, which it's not, Zim would have had a new space to explore, to hide or to play in.
Then again, what if the door opened to a magical wonderland?
That would be crazy wouldn't it?
A door that led to a mad, crazy, wonderful world and it would all belong to the person that found it first. It would all belong to Zim and Zim alone.
How much fun would that be?
Zim, the boy who opened the door to the world of wonderland, where everyone was mad, where a cat could smile and disappear and where door mice and rabbits would wear waistcoats and trousers!
An entire world full of wonder and-
"ZIM! Come down stairs already! It's time for dinner!" called Red from the kitchen, interrupting Zim's train of thought.
Annoyed, Zim grunted and got off his bed, flinching as his bare feet touched the cold wooden floor.
"come on little me, time to eat some grossgusting food," said Zim, picking up his little doll, which oddly looked like a miniature version of himself, only with magneta buttons for eyes, left his room and trotted down the stairs.
Zim was really hungry and was hoping that his purple obsessed brother was making something edible rather than making some new weird recipe.
Zim hated his brother's recipes and had made a vow never to touch one.
"Zim!" called Red.
"I'm here," said Zim walking into the kitchen.
In the kitchen Zim could see his brothers working, Purple was working on dinner, stirring some unknown green substance in a pot in his 'Pete the Panda' pajamas and Red typing away on his laptop in his wrinkled up red tank top and black shorts.
"There you are, sit down, it's time to eat," said Red, typing away.
Zim was surprised; shouldn't his brothers eyes be out of focus now?
"If we are going to eat then you should put that thing away," said Zim, placing his little doll on the table and grabbing a few phone books and an extra foldable chair that was in a corner.
Rolling his eyes, Red placed the laptop on his lap and continued writing, as Zim stacked up the phone books on the now unfolded chair, and sat his little doll down on them, adjusting it so it won't topple over.
Once Zim was finished with his little doll, satisfied, he grabbed a new foldable chair for himself.
"Can you please set the table Red?" asked Purple, who was still stirring the unknown green substance in the pot.
Red, not paying attention, only continued to type on the laptop, his fingers quickly flying over the keys.
"I'll do it Pur, I don't think Merah is listening," said Zim opening a cabinet, and with a sigh grabbed the disposable paper plates, napkins, plastic forks, cups and plastic knives.
"That's nice Zim," said Purple, ignoring his little brother.
"Not like you're listening either, but oh well!" said Zim, setting the plates, cups and "silver ware" down on the table.
Sitting down, Zim looked over at the microwave that displayed the time.
It was eight-thirty pm.
His brothers had been working all day.
"Oh, come on Zim, mom called this morning. She says she misses her little smeet," said Purple.
Zim's answer was a scoff, "Zim is no smeet."
"Oh, come on Zim, smile! It's annoying to see you frown all the time," said Purple, who still hadn't heard Zim.
Zim, who was now irritated, growled and crossed his arms, "at least you listen, don't you little me?" he said looking over at his little doll.
"I know what will make you feel better," said Purple, a goofy grin spreading on his lips.
"Viola no," groaned Red, looking up finally from the laptop's screen.
"Nu," said Zim, grinning at his purple obsessed brother.
"Oh, my twitchy-witchy boy I think you are so nice-"sang Purple in an out of tune voice, as he grabbed some tongs and the pot, placing the icky green stuff on the white paper plates that were already set up on the table.
Zim gagged as Purple placed some of the unknown green substance on his plate; Zim grabbed his fork and started picking at it, just to see if it was alive.
"Viola!" growled Red, interrupting Purple's little song, "Viola I told you to get a lap top," he said, finally saving his work and logging off his laptop.
Purple in response slouched and glared at Red.
"They're giving them away now?" asked Purple with a sense of sarcastic surprise in his voice.
*DING*
"Casseroles ready!" chirped Purple, putting down the pot and tongs on the stove, he then put on some old blue oven mitts and opened the oven, revealing a bubbling casserole, ready to serve.
"Anyways," said Purple "my computer's fine, just a dang power outage from the storm."
Zim, who was still poking at the green substance on his plate gulped as he heard his brother's statement, and looked over at his doll placing his fingers on his lips, almost as if telling the doll to stay quiet about the heater incident that occurred that morning.
"I can't believe you didn't back up your files! Actually I can!" growled Red, closing his laptop and placing it gently underneath his seat.
Purple sighed and placed the casserole down on the table, turning to take off his oven mitts as he reached for a spatula.
"The spellchecker's gone screwy, too. Maybe I have a virus," said Purple.
"I think dinner might have a virus," said Zim looking at the casserole.
It looked like a mixture of jalapenos, olives, cheese, crackers and powdered donuts.
Ignoring the comment, Purple started serving the casserole and started to sing his little nonsense song to Zim.
Zim smiled at the out of tune song his brother Purple sang. Zim's father, Spork used to sing it to him when he was still a smeet.
"Oh, my twitchy-witchy boy, I think you are so nice, I give you bowls of porridge and I give you bowls of ice-cream~" sang Purple.
As soon as the casserole hit Zim's plate, he groaned in disgust and pushed his plate away.
"Why don't you ever cook, Merah?" asked Zim, placing his chin on the table, his antennae drooping a little.
Red pushed the plate back to Zim, "Zim, we've been through this before, your brother cooks, I clean and you stay out of the way!" Red sighed and placed his right hand up with his left hand over his chest, "I swear I will go food shopping once we finish the catalog. Try some of the chard, you need a vegetable."
Zim looked at the green stuff on his plate and picked at it with his fork once again.
"Looks like slime to me," said Zim dropping his fork.
"Well its slime or bed time fusspot. Now what's it going to be?" asked Purple sitting down to eat.
"Think they're trying to poison me?" Zim asked his doll, reaching over and nodding the dolls head.
With a sigh Zim lay back in his chair, hugging the doll to his chest. Only Zim, not really being careful, lost his balance and fell.
"OW!"
"Darn it! Zim, its late why don't you go to bed?" hissed Red.
"You're not even going to look down here to see if I'm okay?" asked Zim, who was now on his knees, rubbing a now newly formed bump on his head.
"You're young, now go to bed! You're so annoying!" shouted Red, glaring at Zim.
"Merah," scolded Purple, "Zim are you alright?"
"No I'm not alright! You're the one who's annoying! You never pay attention to me and all you do all day is write about plants you never even seen in your life! You don't even like them!" said Zim, getting up and glaring at his Red obsessed brother.
"SHUT UP!" shouted Red, raising his hand and smacking Zim across the face, causing the smaller sibling to fall hard on his knees.
"MERAH!" shouted Purple, getting up.
Red stared at his hand in shock, "Zim I- Zim I'm so-"
"YOU GUYS ARE THE WORST BROTHERS EVER! I WISH MOM WERE HERE INSTEAD OF YOU!" shouted Zim, getting up and running out of the kitchen.
"Zim WAIT!" called Red, his reply was a door slamming shut, and the sound of water running.
He was taking a shower.
Red sighed in frustration and put his face in his hands.
"Merah, why would you do that to him? It was an accident!" said Purple, "and here I was thinking you were the patient one! Why would you do that?"
"Just leave me alone and fetch me a bottle of Excedrin, please," said Red in a tired voice, "you always were the kinder one," he mumbled.
"You're fixing this," said Purple, placing a small green bottle on the table and walking towards the stairs.
Red sighed and shook his head, ashamed by his actions.
Zim, who was already upstairs, took a quick thirty second shower and quickly locked himself in his room, ignoring Purple who just came up.
"Zim!" called Purple, flinching as Zim's door slammed shut.
"Zim, come out, he didn't mean it!" said Purple knocking on Zim's door.
"YOU LIE! YOU LIIIIIIIE!" sobbed Zim on the other side, punching the door.
"Zim," Purple was at a loss, he was starting to lose his patience, and not wanting to hurt his brother any further, gave up and just listened to his brother sob on the other side of the door.
Eventually the series of sobs died down and silenced.
'Great, my brothers hate me even more, I am now a cry baby, I have a rash, bruises and a bump on my head,' thought Zim as he changed into his pajamas.
He liked his pajamas, they were a two set, a shirt and some pants that were green with yellow, red, purple and blue spots scattered here and there and the whole thing was made out of Egyptian cotton.
Zim liked his pajamas not only because of the color, but also because his father, Spork, got them for him.
Slowly he crawled into bed, his squeedly spooch growling, begging for food, 'FEED ME!' it cried.
Ignoring his hunger Zim looked around the room.
It was so plain.
Grey walls, dull brown wooden floors, empty shelves, boxes scattered around the place, an open suitcase with Zim's clothes and an empty closet with some old wire hangers.
A bed with a small blue blanket and a white pillow, Gir, Zim's stuffed robot toy, which he always slept with, a boring old nightstand, with the picture of Zim's friends sitting comfortably on a plastic praying mantis, five leaky windows, a toy tank, a toy giraffe, a chest, a chair, some books that were on the chair.
Mr. Squid, a blue stuffed squid toy that had a big pink button for an eye, a plastic replica of a dinosaur's head, possible a T-rex, an empty turtle shell, and clothes pins that Zim made look like dragonflies, which simply hung from a string above Zim's bed.
The room also had a small lamp, which would make pictures of planets and stars on the walls when turned on and a radiator, which was fixed into the spot where the fireplace used to be.
Boring.
The room needed more color, organization and life.
Zim, already getting tired, placed his little doll on the chair with books and went underneath the covers of his bed, looking at the picture which lay on the plastic praying mantis.
Zim's antennae drooped as he looked at the picture.
It was a picture that Zim took when he was in Michigan, his friends, Skoodge, Ten and Tak were smiling and making funny faces while standing before a banner that read, 'Zim, goodbye! We'll miss you!'
"Don't forget about me guys… Okay?" said Zim scratching his little poison oak rash, which was caused by an unfortunate dowsing rod incident yesterday, it was getting worse.
Snuggling into the covers, Zim hugged his stuffed robot, little Gir and turned off the lights, leaving only the lamplight on.
"Goodnight, little me," said Zim with a small sigh, smiling at the little doll that sat still on the books that rested carelessly on a chair.
Finally he drifted off to sleep.
That night, Zim dreamed up something strange, out of the ordinary and yet incredible.
The door which lay dormant in the living room was opened, revealing the wall of bricks.
…
...
Out from a crack that lay in the middle of the wall of bricks, Zim could see a peach colored ribbon come out, and transform into shapes of mice, adorable little mice with black buttons for eyes, dancing around the air and singing.
Their voices, high and whispering and slightly whiney.
We are small but we are many
We are many we are small
We were here before you rose
We will be here when you fall
It made Zim feel uncomfortable.
What a strange little dream.
*squeak*
"Huh?" Zim's eyes shot open as soon as he heard the noise, his antennae twitching, trying to pick up the sound again.
*squeak squeak*
There it was again, that high pitched squeak!
Zim sat up on his bed looking around the room, eyes darting from place to place, trying to locate the source of the squeaking noise.
*squeak!*
Zim growled and looked underneath his bed, feeling a little dizzy now that he was upside down.
There!
*squeak squeak*
Underneath his bed was the strangest of things, a mouse that stood on proudly on its hind legs.
The mouse, finally noticing Zim, quickly ran, well, more like jumped, out the door to the hallway
Curious, Zim jumped off his bed and followed the small creature into the hall, ignoring the snoring coming out of the twin's room.
Then Zim noticed something unusual about the mouse.
"This is impossible, a mouse can't have buttons for eyes," panted Zim running after the mouse.
The little creature squeaked as Zim ran down the stairs, quickly jumping into the living room, its long tail twitching as it went.
"Oh no you don't!" chuckled Zim as he ran into the living room, looking around.
Zim then frowned, "where'd you go?" he asked.
The mouse then squeaked, almost as if it were calling Zim to see something, waited for Zim to spot him and then bolted behind the little door that was hidden behind the wall paper.
"I got you now!" said Zim as he dashed for the door, quickly opening it, expecting the brick wall to trap the mouse, only…
"Huh? WOW!" gasped Zim as he looked behind the little door.
He found his wonderland.
The mouse ran down a hall way and scurried through a door that opened up at the end.
The hall way was the most surprising thing.
The hallway composed of brilliant colors, blue, purple, gold, pink and green, seeming inviting, but something caught Zim's attention.
There was a strange smell.
It was a cold, musty smell coming through the hall and through the open doorway: It smelled like something very old, very dusty and very... slow.
Old.
Zim, finally calling on to his bravery, got to his knees and crawled in through the door and onto the majestic hall way, but there was something strange about it, it seemed very familiar and very hostile.
As Zim pushed open the door to the end of the hall way, he looked around in awe.
To his own confusion he found himself back in the house.
"What?"Growled Zim with a confused look on his face.
Looking around, Zim noticed something off, something different about the house.
The boring blue boy painting that sat above the fireplace was different.
Instead of having dropped his ice-cream, the boring blue boy was enjoying it, licking the content off its cone.
The boring blue boy was happy.
Zim's entire being froze as he stared at the picture.
After a second or two, Zim's antennae twitched, catching a faint sound and a new delicious smell, which caused his squeedlyspooch to growl hungrily.
"Mmmm. Something smells good!" said Zim, sniffing the air, his antennae twitching with anticipation as he followed the smell.
While following the smell, Zim heard the sound a little more clearly; it was a soft noise parading the air. The sound of a woman humming.
The strange part was, the sound was rather familiar, Zim couldn't place it, but it was familiar.
Looking around Zim saw something else that was rather out of the ordinary, the dining room that was next to the kitchen, it was set up with a nice table set, wooden chairs, candles and a white cloth.
Zim's antennas flattened now as he stared at something, in the corner of the dining room, there was a shelf displaying different types of spiders and beetles.
"This is creepy," he mumbled as the humming sound became louder.
As Zim entered the kitchen, he saw something that surprised and frightened him.
In the kitchen was a woman that, at the moment, was supposed to be in Paris for a business trip.
"Mom? What are you doing here? And why are you cooking in the middle of the night?" asked Zim, his voice cracking slightly due to the fact that his mother was in the house.
Zim's mother, Miyuki turned around and smiled a warm smile.
"You're just in time for supper dear," said Miyuki in a cheerful voice.
Zim then jumped back, his antennae flattening against his head.
Miyuki or what is supposed to be Miyuki, instead of having the lovely blue orbs Zim knew and loved, this Miyuki had perfect gleaming blue buttons for eyes.
"You're not my mother. My mother doesn't have bu- bu- bu-" Zim stammered at the last word.
The female who was posing as Miyuki, Zim's beloved mother, smiled and mimicked Zim's stammering.
"Bu-bu-bu-buttons? Hehe, Do you like them?" asked the female tapping one of the buttons with her finger.
"I'm your other mother silly, now go tell your other brothers that supper's ready," said the imposter, now known as the Other Mother.
The Other Mother smiled as she opened the oven, revealing a nice golden chicken as she put on some oven mitts.
Zim didn't move.
"Well go on, they're in Viola's study," said the Other Mother, gently urging Zim to go.
Zim then narrowed his eyes at the Other Mother and left, going to his brother's study.
As Zim opened the door, he saw two figures sitting on some kind of bench.
This room wasn't a study at all! It was a studio equipped with bright red and purple walls, violins, bases and other types of instruments, but the most noticeable instrument was the grand piano.
"Hello?" asked Zim cautiously.
"Hello, Zim!" said one of the figures as both of them turned around.
Zim jumped a little as he saw who the figures were.
They were his brothers, Red and Purple, Both of them having buttons for eyes, Red with red buttons, Purple with purple buttons.
Both of them were dressed in silky robes, Red in red of course and Purple in purple robes, both of them wearing matching monkey slippers, Red in orange, Purple in blue slippers.
The other brothers. The Other Red and the Other Purple.
"Hey Zimmy, you want to hear my new song?" asked the Other Purple, pointing towards the piano.
"My brother can't play piano," said Zim.
"Don't need to," said the Other Purple cheerfully.
"This piano plays him!" said the Other Red as two mechanical gloves came out of the piano, gracefully putting themselves on the Other Purples hands and making him play a tune.
"making up a song about Zimmy-roo,
He's a peach he's a doll he's a pal of mine,
He's as cute as a button filled with awesomeness in the eyes of anyone who ever laid their eyes on Zimmy-rah~" sang the Other Purple, as the Other Red joined in the song.
"When he comes around exploring us and mom will never ever make it boring our eyes will be on Zim-rah~"sang the Other Red.
With that the song ended.
"I'm sorry, but she said to tell you that the food's ready," said Zim, feeling a little sad that the song ended.
"Mmm! Who's starving? Raise your hand," said the Other Purple, the mechanical hands immediately rose up, hitting the Other Purple's chin, causing the Other Red to chuckle, and causing Zim to laugh.
"Not funny piano," laughed the Other Purple.
Zim then stopped laughing and placed a hand on his lips. Eyes full of worry.
This was a really strange dream.
Whooo~ finally.
well tell me what you think you guys, i really hope this chapter comes out good.
REVIEW PLEASE!