'IB' - Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Upon realizing there was no sign of the Irken even making an attempt to get into his house, Dib felt it were safer to be in there now than outside so he rushed towards it in quite a hurry. Once he had burst in the door, he slammed it furiously behind him and turned to lock the door for an extra sense of security. Hopefully Gaz had a key to the house so she wouldn't bother him with her obnoxious banging as she did quite often.

After locking the door, Dib turned his back to it and leaned against it, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself after all of the stress he had endured that day. Unfortunately, he could only think of Zim as he stood there, images of that haunting grin flashing in his memory.

The boy let out a groan of both agony and frustration as he headed towards the downstairs bathroom, pulling out a first aid kit to bandage his wounds before heading up to his bedroom hoping that some relaxation would help to clear his mind. Of course when he flicked the light switch on the wall next to his door, the light bulb in his ceiling fan had burnt out, leaving the room dark except for the cracks of light filtering in through the window. This only led to shadows playing against the wall and moving around on the paint as people walked down the sidewalk or when cars drove by.

Dib just paused where he stood now, almost as he did when he was faced with the Irken, watching the shadows dance along the wall. Finally he was able to move towards his bed and sit quietly on it, though his eyes only returned to the shadows along the wall. He stared at them intently as he adjusted himself towards the headboard of the bed and brought his knees to his chest, wrapping his arms around his legs. For a split second, one shadow seemed to take the form of Zim. He blinked and shook his head as if trying to shake off the image. The boy began to chuckle very softly to himself now, though the tone of it was rather eerie and almost deranged.

"It's not real.." Dib whispered out loud to himself.

It was eerily quiet now compared to the loud screeches of Zim at both school and when near Dib. There was no telling when the demented little Irken would make another attempt on him when he was in a state of vulnerability equal to his own mental vulnerability.

Dib was growing more anxious and paranoid by the minute though as he continued to watch the shadows with such intensity. Eventually he had gotten himself out of the bed and began to pace along the floor, reaching up the rub his temples rather roughly as he continued to glance at the shadows almost every five seconds. "You're being ridiculous, Dib." He thought to himself.

That was until one particular shadow on the wall took Zim's head shape pretty straight on. It stayed that way for a while too, even when he blinked. Only when he looked to the window could he see those vacant eyes staring in on him now as he paced, as if he were a starved zombie helplessly watching his prey and unable to break the glass.

The boy closed his eyes in distress for a few seconds, hoping the shadow would be gone by now. Once he had opened his eyes, he found the shadow still lingered, and it seemed to grow more lifelike and horrifying by the second. This sent Dib sliding down to his knees on the floor, almost as if this really were Zim in his bedroom and he was accepting the fact that the other would be tearing him to shreads, letting out a low and drawn out whine as he did so.

Of course then there was the howling of the wind as it picked up in a breeze. It sounded very similar to the rush of air Zim had to let out each time he was recovering from a blank trance, and the harsh force of air out with each word. The sounds resulted in Dib's head snapping around to glare wildly at the window, pulling himself up to get a better look as if expecting Zim to be on the other side of the glass. Of course, there was nothing.

After another intense moment of staring, Dib turned his attention back towards the wall where the shadow had been, and there was no sign of anything that looked even remotely like the deranged Irken. It had all been a hallucination.

Then there came the scraping on the window from the tree. At any other time, it was barely audible, but with the acute fear, it had amplified itself. Like the sounds of those claws grating against the table to get him to his feet, and the same claws that had wounded him that same day.

The terrible sound made the boy practically jump out of his skin and grab a hold of his wounded arm as if he were protecting the gash from any further attacks. As the branches continued to scrape against the glass, it seemed to grow louder and louder to the point where it was just unbearable. Dib's eyes slammed shut and his palms returned to his ears as he attempted to block out the agonizing sounds, which were still slightly audible though they were muffled. Soon, it had just fell dead silent again. No howling wind, no terrible scraping. Just silence. At this, Dib's eyes opened and his hands lowered as his gaze returned to the window once more.

And then, the crazed Irken really appeared to him. Zim was suddenly thrown against his glass, hissing and banging his fists against the barrier between them. The glass that was keeping the human safe was beginning to crack threateningly.

Just as before, Dib was frozen where he stood, watching the crazed Irken in complete horror as he attempted to break through the glass which he knew would shatter soon enough if Zim continued to bang on it with such intensity. The boy's heart rate increased to the point where it felt it would explode from his chest at any moment.

Zim gave loud screeching sounds as he continued to hit the glass. One hand finally smashed through the glass, arm shoving through the jagged hole and slicing up his arm. He clawed and scraped at the air as a zombie might trying to snatch at their victims, translucent pink blood running down his arm and trickling onto his carpet as he seemed immune to the pain.

Dib backed up very stiffly towards the wall behind him, hitting it within only a few seconds. He continued to stare in horror as his breathing grew to the point where he was hyperventilating and shaking violently where he stood. He murmured lowly to himself, almost like he was trying to comfort himself as the insane Irken scraped mercilessly against the glass.

Zim's other arm thrust through another shattered hold as he tried to reach him. The glass finally gave out and shattered all around him, leaving him hissing and spitting as he crawled through the window like a person needing an exorcism might do. He looked up at Dib, his lips curling up and mouth parting as he gave that smile. He seemed only different in the fact that he had lost his contacts during the struggle, leaving very hollow and blank magenta eyes, completely solid in color.

Dib winced as the other stared at him as if looking at them actually caused him physical pain. His murmurs grew a bit louder and more intense now as he slowly brought his arms over his chest as if preparing himself for an attack. "Z-Zim... Stop.." He spat out in between murmurs in a rather childish tone.

Zim was still wobbly on all fours when he was just standing, causing him to sway. He hissed and threw himself off balance, knocking Dib's nightstand over. "KILLS!!" He screeched at him, having trouble deciding which limb moved first as he half crawled, half dragged himself toward the other like a dying rabid animal.

Then, it was like the boy's instincts finally took over. He needed to either run or fight, and right now he decided to fight. Dib stood tall now, lowering his arms stiffly as he made his way rather angrily towards the Irken. Before either of them had even a moment to draw a breath, Dib had pulled his left leg all the way back behind him and threw it right into Zim's midsection as hard as he could.

The Irken went sprawling out on his floor, hissing with a screech as he twitched and convulsed as if it had thrown him into some kind of seizure. He soon just went completely limp, eyes still wide and mouth parted as if he had just died that way. His chest was almost unseen moving to take breathes, giving the illusion of death.

After seeing that Zim didn't even seem to be breathing now, Dib naturally bent down very slowly to examine the other. That one kick couldn't have been enough to kill him, even though it was very harsh. But Zim seemed to be so unnaturally still now that the boy had come to the conclusion that he just had to be dead. A rather uneasy smile creased his face, and it appeared almost as strained as Zim's had, at the thought of all of this being over so soon.

"It's... Over..." He muttered to himself, his body relaxing quite a bit.

Of course, Zim's death was just an illusion. The second Dib had convinced himself of this, Zim screeched and shot up suddenly. He sank his teeth right into the side of his neck, claws latching onto the sink of his shoulders and feet buried firmly into his stomach in a strange hold.

Dib let out a scream in torment at the sudden attack, losing his balance and falling harshly on his back while the other dug so deeply into his skin. Tears actually began to form in the corners of his eyes at the intense pain that struck his body with such force as each tearing motion just intensified the throbbing discomfort. His hands weakly came up to grab a tight hold of Zim's waist as he tried to pry the alien off of him desperately but only succeeding in pulling the feet off of his stomach.

Zim continued to bite and suckle like a diseased vampire trying to tear out his jugular. His claws sunk down further, as if determined to get right down to touch the bone of his shoulders.

Dib continued to let out screams of agony, even calling for his father and Gaz to come and help him though no one was even home. His breathing grew stiff and shallow as the pain had gotten so intense now he was almost growing numb to it. Again, his instincts finally took over as he pulled both of his hands up to knock off the other's wig and grab firmly to the antennae, ripping at them and digging his fingernails into them very harshly.

Zim's jaws seemed to snap open at that, screech loudly so close to the human's ear. He jerked and convulsed against him, claws swiping at both air and flesh as he was in pain as well. He kicked his legs out in a thrash to try and pry himself away.

In Dib's mind, he felt no mercy now but just even now between them. Zim had caused him pain so now was his time to make the alien suffer as badly as he had. He continued to yank and dig at the antennae with more intensity, not seeming to care about the fact that his skin was being slashed with each swipe of Zim's claws.

Zim finally just stopped all together except for those gurgling messes of screams. Blood ran down from both his arms and antennae, some his own, some of it Dib's.

Dib took this chance to throw the other off of him with a significant amount of force as he pulled himself up from the ground and retreated back against the wall he had come from before. He let out shallow breaths mixed with small whines as he examined the blood seeping from his torn flesh. The pain was becoming more apparent now that he was paying attention to it and he cursed angrily under his breath. The shrill screams coming from Zim seemed to snap him back to the reality of the situation though as he looked back to the other, shivering violently and starting to murmur to himself once more.

Zim weakly dragged himself across his room a moment, screaming in distraught as he left a streak of that foreign blood across his floor. It took him quite a bit of time to claw his way to the window again, pawing at the wall and leaving gouged claw marks down it trying to grab for the windowsill.

The boy was rather frustrated and distressed now and seeing his insane enemy only increased the instinct to attack. Before he had a moment to think a second time about this, Dib was on his feet and rushing towards the other, standing over him a moment before reaching down and picking him up by his collar and slamming him against the wall.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" He screamed at the Irken, mostly in a tone of distress and agony rather than anger. Without realizing it, he pulled Zim off of the wall and slammed him into it again, grabbing his wrists in each hand and pinning them against it. "SPEAK, YOU STUPID SHIT!!!" He shouted, again in a tone of distress.

"AWAY!! AWAY!!" Zim screeched as he convulsed more against the wall as if trying to stroke out again from being slammed so violently. He continued to scream like someone melting slowly from being burned alive, thrashing and even snapping at the others face.

Once more, Dib slammed him against the wall with just as much forced as the last two times. "JUST STOP!!" He wailed in response.

Zim continued to scream as he thrashed and what seemed like tears leaked from his eyes. He never blinked though despite the liquid, and it looked as if it burnt his cheeks where they leaked. "IB...ZIM.." He forced, the rest again melting into choked gargles.

At sight of the tears, Dib's expression and body softened as he stared to him with a look almost of mourning. He stared into Zim's dull eyes, almost longing to see the light pink flecks that used to occupy them before losing his sanity. The thought that the Irken was just so far gone now almost made him sick to his stomach. But why? This was his worst enemy... He would've given anything to see him fall apart before. And somehow he seemed to care for him now. Perhaps Zim was more than he had thought him to be before. Perhaps, Zim had given him a reason to go on. A reason to live.

Dib's eyes closed at this thought as a few tears worked up in his eyes, despite the Irken struggling in his grasp. After a minute, he finally stepped back and released his grip from Zim's wrists, allowing him to fall to the floor. He opened his eyes and watching in agony as he screamed and thrashed on the floor.

Zim seemed too far gone to ever return though, only left in this empty shell of a nightmare body that his PAK was projecting. It was almost cruel to let the Irken just live like this, but there was no getting him down long enough without him screaming or grinning and unnerving anyone out of proper thought.

Dib decided to do nothing now as his mind had wandered too far to even move now. He could only stand as he watched the other in horror, the reality of the situation becoming so clear to him now.

Zim would never be the same, and neither would he.