Ib (invader zim)

Ch.15

Chapter Fifteen

After hours of seemingly endless play, Dib and his small puppy finally fell asleep on the living room floor only to be awoken by the sun only a couple hours later. Dib groaned in annoyance as the rays shone in through the window, reaching for a blanket next to him to place over his face. Einstein stretched a bit with a yawn as he curled up under his neck where it was warmer. It seemed like nothing could disturb the two.

Dib lay silently now and enjoyed the peaceful moment, his mind almost completely clear of thought for the first time in quite a while. However, the thought of Zim still managed to creep its way into his mind, for he began to wonder where the alien was or what exactly he was doing since there hadn't been a trace of him in a couple days. The thought was short lived though as he managed to push the thought aside and focus again on his small friend. Even though the small dog was a lot of work, he had no regrets in bringing him home; he provided both affection and means of distracting his mind from the horrors he had experienced.

After a few more minutes of lying quietly on the floor, Dib finally uncovered his face only to see the room in shambles. His jaw hung a little as he sat up and scanned the room, staring down on the puppy, whom had rolled into his lap, and shot him a glare.

Einstein had apparently been up after a while, as the living room was trashed. The throw pillows had been chewed to shreds, the carpet had been torn and dirtied with pawprints, and he had even gone through the trouble of leaving his master a surprise in his boot.

"Einstein!" Dib barked in a stern tone, "If you needed something why didn't you just wake me up?!"

Einstein whimpered as he shouted at him, curling up in a frightened ball again. He wet the carpet once again, which only chalked up another mess he had to clean.

Dib's expression softened despite of the extra mess since the screaming probably didn't help matters. He sighed with the hint of a grunt and pulled Einstein away from the damp spot, rubbing his cheek softly before running to the kitchen and getting supplies to clean the mess. On his way to the kitchen though, he made his way to the end table where the open bottle of pills sat. He reached down for two of the small tablets laying on the surface with some hesitance and reluctance. He stared down at them intently, like he always did, before throwing them into his mouth and swallowing them down.

As he collected the cleaning supplies and made his way back to the living room where he began to scrub the recently dampened spot on the living room carpet. As he did this, he began once again to think about Zim, though it was through indirect thought.

He had started to question his own sanity now. Since taking the pills, there had been almost no sign of Zim. But even more so, there was no sign of Gaz either, whom he was sure was killed by Zim. Her disappearance, however, could easily be explained as a means to avoid her brother by remaining at a friends house for a while. What if Zim really was just a delusion of his own unsettled mind after all?

The scrubbing motions of the rag on the floor came almost to a stop now as he comprehended this conclusion, seeming to stare through the carpet as he began to bite his lip lightly. Perhaps that doctor wasn't quite as ignorant as he had seemed. Maybe he did really understand what was going on, and it was really Dib who had no control over this Zim.

If this were true, that could only mean one thing; Zim had never even existed in the first place. All these years he would have been chasing nothing and screaming at no one. Everyone would have seen that he was just talking to himself and grabbing at thin air when he would go to grab the alien by his collar... And even being the one to murder his own sister. These last few years would have been nothing but lies and deceptions; his own mind working against him.