Tricked-or-Treated - Part II

Summary: An Invader Zim Halloween story. "Diiiiiiiiiib..." the voice moaned. He froze completely, feeling his blood turn to ice. "…Mom?"

"Diiiiiiiiiib..."

"Mom?!" He spun around now, searching wildly. "Mom, is that you?!"

"Diiiiiiiiiib..."

It sounded like it was coming from upstairs now. Dib paused, not breathing, mind running in place, struggling and yet unable to get anywhere--and then without thinking he brought one trembling foot to the next step, and began to slowly climb towards the voice.

"Diiiiiiiiiib..."

"I'm coming!" he called, his voice faltering a bit, breath shaky. His hand was slippery on the banister as he reached the top of the stairs, peering down the dark hallways for the source of the voice. "Where are you?!"

There was a moment of silence. Then, "Diiiiiiiiiib..."

"Come on, Mom, I could really use you to be a bit more expressive," Dib muttered, slowing make his way down the hallway, one hand on the wall to help him find his way. His hair had started to come undone again---his scythe was not quite sticking up, but it was half-risen into a slanted angle over his scalp. His vampire medallion thudded against his pounding heart with each step; he licked his dry lips again, nearly cutting his tongue on his fangs.

"Diiiiiiiiiib..."

The voice was coming from his room...the same room, he thought now with even more violent tremors, where she had used to tuck him in at night, read him bedtime stories, reassured him that no, there were no chupacabras hiding under the bed...

His door was slightly ajar...and, despite the power failure, he could see some kind of glowing whiteness inside it. Dib's knees knocked together...he could barely move, he was shaking so hard...

"Diiiiiiiiiib..." Louder, more entreating...

With a mixed feeling of desire and dread Dib wrapped his hand slowly around the doorknob...

"Diiiiiiiiiib..." Softer, almost a whisper...

...he slowly pushed it open with an unbearably loud crrreeeeeaaaaak...

...He took a small step forward, craning his head before him into the room, feeling as if a huge lead weight were pressing on his chest, making it difficult to breathe...

...And there she was.

The figure was standing--or floating--in front of Dib's open window, radiating a mysterious pearly glow. Dib drew a sharp gasp as he saw her--was that her? It had been so long, he barely had any pictures...but it was, wasn't it? His heart seemed to suddenly swell up to his throat while his stomach seemed to drop down into his feet. Even his trembling froze (mostly) as he stared at her, fanged mouth slightly agape, hardly able to believe what he could see right in front of his eyes.

"Mom," he said, his voice a tiny sigh of relief.

"Diiiiiiiiiib..."

Dib took a step towards her--he wanted to hug her, to touch her, not caring whether his hands simply passed through her or not, he just wanted to really be close to her for the first time in a decade--

When suddenly her head expanded to twice its normal size.

"Whuh?!"

Dib jumped back, the spell of his mother's presence suddenly broken--and watched as her head continued to expand, suddenly becoming massive, filling the room, her face stretched taut, her bright eyes and smiling mouth huge and grotesque for a moment--and then suddenly there was a loud BANG! like a gunshot, and as he stumbled backwards he felt pieces of her hit his face, felt the huge rush of air fill the room---

"What the--"

"Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!" came a voice screaming from outside his window--Dib looked up in shock. "Now that looks like your mother, doesn't it, Dib-beast! Mwee-hee-hee-hee."

Dib rushed to the open window and thrust his head out, mouth open in horror and amazement. Zim was sitting on a branch right outside his window, laughing uproariously, his stupid little robot thing rolling around with glee halfway between him and Dib's face. His weird floating moose thing hovered slightly behind him, letting out soft, indistinct squeaks as it surveyed the scene.

"Ha HA!" Zim cried triumphantly, wiping a tear from his eye and pointing dramatically at Dib. "I have tricked-or-treated you, Dib-stink! I--and you thought--mwa-ha-ha!" He laughed again, throwing back his head, as his robot gave a "HEE-HEE-HEE!" and rolled around even harder, not entirely sure what they were even laughing about but enjoying it all the same.

Dib gaped at the group for a moment, mouth open, trembling again, but this time with an utter, unimaginable, horrible rage. He felt burning tears of grief and humiliation form in the back of his eyes--his lip curled back into an enraged, fanged snarl, as his fingers tightened around the windowsill he was holding--

He spun around back into his room, looking for something, anything--and his eyes fell on the tank of water next to his terrarium, the remains of his goldfish Nessie still floating near the top. Without thinking he grabbed it and stormed back over to his window, throwing the water out onto the tree branch. Zim let out a scream and fell sizzling and smoking to the ground, hitting another branch on the way down to land with a crash two stories below them. GIR followed after him, landing with a painful CRACK onto Zim's alien spine.

"You can be a real asshole sometimes, you know that, Zim?!" Dib screamed, spittle flying from between his fangs. He hurled the empty goldfish tank out the window, completely missing Zim's fallen form. Then, with a loud roar of anger covering up a slight, almost silent sob, he slammed the window shut and stormed away, vampire cape fluttering behind him.

Minimoose, the only one of the three to have escaped the Dib-monster's wrath, floated down from the tree to where his fallen master and GIR lay face-down on the yard. Zim looked up, spitting out dirt, green skin raw and burnt, faux hyuman eyes loose as glared through them to the window above. "What is his problem?!" he cried in a shriek of anger and indignation.

Minimoose gave a squeak that sounded almost like a sigh as he floated down to help his master stand.