Chapter 12

Sweaty skin, soaked sheets, desperate gasps for air, a sudden burst into consciousness.

'Urgh…'

This was not the first night he had awoken in this sorry state. Releasing the balled up clumps of bedding from his clenched fists, Dib sighed into his clammy hands.

'Eww, my face is wet now.'

This was getting ridiculous.

Seven nights in a row and he still had no clue of the cause. He'd put up the cameras, locked and electrified all entry points to his room, and even put Zim in an old dog crate for the night to make sure it wasn't him (It wasn't as simple a task as it sounds) and still he had nothing.
Zim couldn't (or wouldn't) offer any possible explanation, his main concern being his servant/pillow was now even more filthy than before.
Sighing once more, Dib swung his legs round, peeling himself from his sticky mess of bed sheets, pulling a face from the feel of his soggy pyjamas clinging to his frame.

'Might as well get up before Zim starts bitchin.'

Stumbling off to the bathroom, the air seeping through to run over his skin and adding an unpleasant chill, Dib noticed another problem of sorts.
The tightness in him pyjama bottoms was kinda hard to ignore standing up.
While pitching a tent might have been a lesser concern of someone else having strange episodes in the middle of the night, it unnerved Dib.

Zim had been here a week and strange things were already happening. And not to Zim either, who did have moments of immense strangeness but at least it was expected, it was happening to him and he was no closer to discovering the cause that he was on day one.
And that was what scared the shit out of Dib (not that he'd admit it of course).

Gently splashing cold water onto his face, he washed the thoughts away. Fear stopped thinking, and he was gonna need a clear head if he was to work this out.
Deciding the basin of ice cold water wasn't going to cut it, he turned on the shower. He never got back to sleep that quickly anyway, might as well shower for the day while he was up.

"Mmmhrmm…"

"Mmmrrmm, grrrmm…"

Vibrations rattled the long stalks at the top of his head, pulling him unwillingly from the depths of his slumber.
No, not yet…
He wasn't ready to face the day just yet…
Pulling the covers over his head as if trying creating a cocoon, he half heartedly fought to keep warm, the energy for the coming day not quite kicking in.

Damn his condition, damn it to Blorch. One minute he was on fire, the next he was standing next to weird flightless birds! This is why he'd installed a temperature regulator in his hideaway; it limited the desire to seek warmth elsewhere.
But he knew it was futile, as was everything natural he attempted to do in this pod. They had cooling systems but no heating systems, not that they'd need it. Humans produced a scary amount of heat on their own (As did he, but that was part of the cycle).
How much energy it wasted, no wonder humans ate all the time. Didn't they ever boil in their own skin? Probably not.
Anyway, it did mean they came in handy, especially in situations like this.

Dully throwing his arm over to the other side of the mattress, what met him was not the warm, comforting and most of all dry heat that he originally sought but the chilling damp of exposed wet linen.

If anything could jump start a sleepy Irken, that was sure to do the trick.

Leaping from the sheets like a cat from water, Zim hit the wall on the opposite side of the room with a loud thud and enough force to throw Dib's laptop right off the shelf. The ear-piercing shriek that followed even shocked Zim. He wouldn't be surprised if it came up on the Massive's sonar scanner, Tallest forbid.

Falling to the floor with a further thud, Zim gasped for air. Wide ruby eyes flicked to his forearm for damage analysis. It would be nothing too severe for concern, he knew, but who knew what chemicals the Dib-beast applied when in the washroom. Feeling his muscles groaning beneath him and sighing in a mixture of relief and disgust, he let himself sink further to the floor before trying to pick himself up again…

Only to find he couldn't.

Just as the little alien was cursing himself for disabling his pak legs, the weak wooden door was smashed open as a naked human burst through.

"Shit, shit, shit!"

Any thoughts Dib had in his head instantly vaporised as the crash and cry upstairs rang through the house. Hopping out of the bathtub, the seemingly deranged human bolted out of the bathroom, along the hallway and up the stairs faster than he'd ran in years.

'What had happened?
Was Zim involved?
Of course Zim was involved, it was fucking Zim…
But was he okay?
Is there someone else in my room?
Was Zim having a fit-thing again?
Was it bad?
Must be pretty fuckin bad to make that noise.
Fucking shitty… Urgh!
What if it was bad?
What the hell can I do?'

New thoughts filled his head in the seconds it took to reach that old blue door. Jumping the last three steps and slamming the door open with such force it was surprising it didn't crumble into dust; he skidded through to the centre of the room.
Head spinning around, his eyes snapped on a little green blurry blob sitting against the wall. Carefully toddling over to avoid spooking Zim (Also to avoid tripping, his vision was pretty shit without his glasses after all.), his hands patted along his dresser, soon picking up his glasses and slid them on without breaking his watch on the lime coloured lump still slumped against the wall in front of him.
With his vision now restored, Dib's eyes instantly began searching the small frame for signs of damage. Deciding to crouch down for a better look, he noticed what looked like some minor scalding on the inside of the right arm, hardly anything bad and it was already healing.

'How the hell did he manage that though? There's no water here…'

Brows furrowed, Dib looked up to question just how the heck he'd managed to get water damage without a drop of the stuff around, only to be faced with an expression of absolute horror.

And only then did he notice the draft…