ZADR: Just An Experiment

Oh, God, No! - 6

D
I woke up in an unfamiliar room. What? I sat up, looking around more, Where am I?

I got up to look around, then pushed the doors open into... Zim's lab?

GIR walked up to me and said in an obnoxiously high-pitched robotic voice, "HI HI HI DIB!!!!"

"Uhm... hi GIR..." I said, confused. "Is... Zim here?"

GIR's face grimaced, "Master is very wounded."

"What happened?"

"After he almost killed you, you went unconscious out of shock and he put you in a bed. But... then... he felt so bad he tried to kill you, that he.... he....." He stopped and covered his mouth, than scampered away.

What? Why would Zim feel bad for me? He never cared about me before... so, why now? What did he do? Is it so serious that GIR refused to finish talking?

I thought, even more confused than before. I smelled something.... Bacon? I walked over to one of the tubes and stood under it, as I had seen Zim do several times.

Once I was in the house part of Zim's house, I walked around quietly. I saw just the tiniest amount of Zim in the kitchen and backed up.

Okay, he is in the he kitchen... making breakfast? Do Irkens eat? Much less, do they eat... Earth food?

I looked carefully back at Zim and noticed burn marks all over his thin-yet-surprisingly-strong body.

Burn marks? Those weren't there before.....?

"Zim?" He tensed and froze.

Z
I slowly turned around to face Dib....

Oh god..

"D...Dib?" I said, my voice shaking.

"Zim... why are there burn marks all over your body? And why are you so tense?"

Pain flashed in my eyes as he mentioned burn marks.

"I... well, after I put you through so much... electrocuting you, putting you in elixers that made you scream, destroying tables and desks trying to find you... I couldn't deal with the guilt that I could've actually murdered someone I lo-...."

I paused. "Someone I could've lost..."

Dib just looked at me with an emotion that looked similar to a mix of worry and sympathy.

"Zim... you're avoiding the question..."

Tears started to burn at my eyes.

"What burned you Zim? I know it wasn't your tears, since the burns are all over you..." I looked at him with fear as I body shook.

"I...mixed the non-working.... chemicals.... into one and.... burned myself. On purpose..."

Memories of the incident flickered in my head, my hands balling into fists as the trauma replayed in my mind.

My breaths were shallow... getter shallower... becoming rapid... I was becoming lightheaded and hearing high frequencies....

My head hurt, oh my god, it hurt so much... I'm on the floor, how did I get on the floor?

No, I can't see. My eyes are open but I can't see a thing!

I'm all fuzzy...?

Oh. I... passes out...

D
Zim had started freaking out as what I'm guessing was PTSD kicked in. I watched in horror as he literally passed out from the trauma of it all.

I rushed over as his eyes stared at nothing, open but dull and empty.

He's not just unconscious-

"ZIM!" I screamed frantically as I shook Zim vigorously, trying to wake him up. He responded with a sentence that made my heart split in half.

"Goodbye Dib, I love you..." He went limp, dollops of tears formed in my eyes as I realized blood had stained my hands. I turned Zim over and noticed a stab wound...

He killed himself?

My tears dampened his shirt, but they no longer burned him.

...he was gone...

... yeah...

Published: June 29th, 2018
Revised: July 20th, 2020