HOME | DD

Description
Sunlight swam though the crack in the bedroom curtains. However, instead of actually illuminating the room, I only bathed it in a dull glow. The room itself was a mess; rubbish, clothes, and books littered the floor. The owner, who was currently lying face down on his bed, was still fully clothed and snoring ever so slightly.
His alarm clock suddenly changed to show the time as 7:00 and began beeping loudly. The body of Dib slowly came back to life as the beeping began to wake him from his slumber.
Slowly, he turned his face from the pillow to the alarm. His eyes were shut but he still tried to turn off the alarm by waving a hand randomly in its direction. As this began to prove useless, Dib finally creaked an eye open and reached forward to turn the alarm off, however as he did this, the alarm clock fell of its place on the shelf, crashing onto the floor.
He mumbled something like, "Thank God for that," and turned his body so he was now lying on his side.
He rubbed his eyes and massaged his temples as a headache came crashing in. He groaned in agony and sat up, holding his head tightly in his hands. He tried to remember why he had such a headache. Memories flashed past his inner eye, a fight with Gaz, a walk and then...nothing. Only a drunken fuzziness and a painful headache.
Dib grabbed his coat and slowly made his way downstairs hoping to find some aspirin in the kitchen. When he walked in he found Gaz reaching into the cupboard to get some cereal. She cast him a dirty look and walked over to the table as he reached into the fridge to get something to drink. It was odd, even though he felt slightly hungry, he felt much thirstier. As his tired eyes looked over the contents of the fridge he found that there was literally nothing he wanted to drink or eat. He shut his eyes tight in silent anger and closed the fridge.
He decided that the best thing would to at least have something to keep him going though the morning. He sat down at the table and poured himself a bowl of Franken Chokies even though he really didn't want to eat them.
"You look pale."
Dib looked up from where he was poking at his breakfast. "What?"
Gaz crunched another mouthful of her cereal and repeated her statement. "You look pale."
Dib went back to staring into his bowl, "I've got a headache."
Gaz finished eating her breakfast and went to put the bowl into the sink. "Meh."
Dib cast a glancing look of hate, "Trust you to not care." He immediately smacked a hand over his mouth as Gaz spun round on the spot.
Her hand clenched into a fist and her right eye twitched in anger. "What was that?"
"Nothing, nothing, I said nothing!" Dib quickly said as he darted to the doorway, he needed to make sure he had a quick exit if Gaz decided to kill him.
For a moment Gaz seemed to consider making any moves against Dib, eventually she decided, "That’s what I though," and her fist uncurled.
Dib sighed in relief and relaxed. He decided to take the advantage of not being beaten up to go get his coat and put on his boots for Hi-Skool.
"It must be because it’s Friday," he reasoned quietly as he did up the laces.
He sighed as Gaz walked through the door, leaving it open for Dib to close. However just as Dib stepped out into the sunlight he suddenly found it a bit much and put a hand over his eyes in a shield. He also felt his body ache slightly at just being outside.
Gaz didn't seem to notice as she was already playing away on her Gameslave. Dib forced himself outside, squinting his eyes at the soft morning and ignoring the feeling like he should be sleeping.
A few minutes later and the two siblings were walking down the familiar route to Hi-Skool. Gaz was playing on her latest game while Dib was being unusually quiet. While his headache had slowly vanished his strange thirst had not. It was an odd feeling, he knew what he needed, but he couldn’t say it. It was on the tip of his tongue yet he had no idea what his body seemed to be demanding so badly.
The two walked past a house, which had a small friendly looking Labrador chained up at the front porch. Dib smiled slightly as he saw it, this dog was always happy to see him; it was one of the few things that ever were. The dog seemed to be dozing in the sun but it opened an eye as it sensed Dib and Gaz walking past. The Labrador jumped up, its tail wagging furiously and tongue already hanging out its mouth as it prepared to run at the two and receive its morning stroke by the teenagers. However as it came towards Dib, who was kneeling down in preparation, it stopped suddenly, the happy tail wagging and tongue lolling vanishing. Instead it became angry, growling at him and backing away slightly.
Dib looked at the dog, confused at its behaviour. He reached forward but the dog barked and growled again, its hairs all standing on end.
Dib stood up, he almost felt hurt that the dog wasn’t covering him in licks like usual but most of him was confused. Even Gaz had paused her game playing to look at the dog’s weird reaction to the teenage boy. However she merely raised an eyebrow before shrugging and walking one. Dib looked to her and back to the dog before slowly doing the same.

--

The rest day so far had gone rather normally, well, as normal as it gets for Dib. The morning was its usual routine of insults and minor threats throughout class while Miss Bitters crocked on about how they were all adopted and their parents didn't really love them. He and Zim had cast some snide glances at each other from across the class but nothing more.
Dib had felt too sleepy and thirsty for his unknown substance to bother bothering Zim at lunchtime. The whole thing resulted in Zim demanding why Dib was ignoring him. Dib had just muttered something about feeling tired and walked past.
Dib had heard the Irken shout something about a sleepy victory before he had strode off. He couldn't care less; he'd get him back later.
It was just at last period when Dib was taking some books out of his locker. He smiled as he thought on the fact that this was the last lesson before he could go home and sleep.

--

He pulled out his astronomy book and closed his locker. A sneaker screeched behind him, followed by many footsteps, all ending around the teen. Footsteps and sneakers he knew too well. Dib turned around to stare Torque in the face, while the bully and his comrades all stared back, grinning with evil intent. “You’re pale Dib. Already afraid to see me?” Torque finished with a small laugh, which the other cronies chimed in a laugh too. Over the years, Torque had grown quite an impressive physique due to the time weightlifting for the sports he plays. Needless to say, he was more than strong enough to take out Dib, which he did almost everyday, save for Tuesdays. Tuesdays was the day he would be too busy with football practice.
Great, Dib thought, deeply annoyed. Torque cracked his knuckles and smiled evilly. Whispers flowed through the group circling Dib.
Even though the boy couldn’t see it, everyone who was previously in the halls had dissipated for a few reasons, this upcoming event being one of them.
“I went lenient on you yesterday with the spitballs n’ all,” Torque chuckled, “so I’m going to have to make it worse today.”
You can take him, came a familiar voice with an unfamiliar idea. Dib had never thought about fighting back before. He had always just taken the beatings without any resistance. But today…the idea sounded great.
The crowd took a few steps back as Torque reeled back his fist without warning and threw it towards Dib with all of his force. Time seemed to slow down for the boy. It’s almost as if the world around him was moving in slow motion. The kids who were snickering and laughing had slowed down to a crawl. Dib sidestepped out of the way and watched the fist move past him, hitting the locker. Dib glanced around, finding that he couldn’t move his head as fast as he used to. He saw that the kids surrounding him and Torque slowly stopped laughing and began to stare upon Dib. Time seemed to revert back to it’s usual self as Torque’s hand reeled back in pain upon hitting the locker. Everyone, including Dib, stared in amazement at what just happened.
“You’re in for it now, Dib,” Torque told the teen as he rubbed his fist.
Dib practically ignored the bully as he stared at the locker, then the kids around him. Did that just happen? he thought to himself. Did time just-
A fist smacked Dib in the gut. The boy fell against his locker with the wind knocked out of him.
Torque wasn’t about to stop there though. He brought up his knee as hard as he could and landed it right into Dib’s chin. This caused the teen to fall to the floor while the kids around laughed and snickered.
On most days, this would be the end. Torque had done what he enjoys, causing Dib horrific amounts of pain, in which the boy would just fall to the floor. Today was different however. Very different. Dib recovered more quickly from his injuries. He stood up quickly after, causing Torque to look at him dumbfounded.
The bullies look quickly changed back to his old self-confident one. “Haven’t had enough yet?” he asked with a laugh.
Something in Dib screamed, almost in a different language. He didn’t know what this something was, but he did have an idea what it was saying.
Torque reeled back his fist for another punch, in which Dib’s hand reached out, grabbed the bully by his head, and slammed it into the locker with such force, that the locker now had a dent in it. Torque fell to the ground, unconscious. Blood trickled down his forehead. Blood.

--

His eyes locked onto it, watching the red trail crawl across the bully’s head and drop onto the floor. The thirst he had been feeling all day exploded within him. He knew now what he had been wanting and even though a part of him was shocked, a bigger part of him was making him slowly lick his lips.
He couldn’t, nor really wanted to, stop himself as he knelt down next to the unconscious boy. He cautiously dipped his index finger into the small amount of blood that had collected at the base of Torques head and raised it to his lips.
“DIB!?”
He snapped out of whatever mode he had fell into and looked up. Gaz was standing a few feet away, her eyes wide. Dib looked around; all Torques cronies had fled without Dib even noticing.
He suddenly stood up as reality came crashing back in around him. He looked down at Torque, then to Gaz, then to his finger, which was covered with the boy’s blood.
Gaz took a step forward, “Just what the hell are you doing? What happened here?”
Dib staggered back, he suddenly felt weak but he could also still feel the blood-thirst within him. He wiped the blood on the lockers next to him, desperately trying not to think about it.
He looked to Gaz who was slowly walking towards him with a mixture of fury and surprise on her face. She obviously couldn’t believe that Dib would have ever fought back so violently.
She growled, “Answer the question. What the hell is going on?”
“I…I…” Dib stammered as he began walking backwards at the same speed Gaz was walking towards him. He couldn’t answer the question because he had no idea what was going on.
Gaz went to jump towards him, but Dib could almost see her do it before it even happened and he jumped back. She missed him and Dib turned and ran. He couldn’t understand what was going on, even with a mind as clever as his.
Dib ran out of the school pushing past some random students. He ran out the school and down the road. He didn’t look where he was running but he knew where he was going. He needed to get to his house, somewhere where he could think.
It only took him a few minutes to get there, far quicker then normal, even if he was running.
He darted through the door, up the stairs and directly into his room. Despite no one being in the house, he locked his bedroom door and finally slumped onto his bed. He quickly re-gained his breath and, when he went to hold his head in his hands, he found that despite running from Hi-skool to his home he hadn’t even broke a sweat.
This is not looking good, Dib thought as he ran his hands through his hair.
“Ok…so,” he said to himself, “I need to know just what the hell is going on. Maybe I’m just ill or something. Or maybe this is part of one of Zim’s new plans to take over the Earth. Well…if it is a new plan then it’s a pretty stupid one. Man…I gotta stop talking to myself like this.”
He sighed and sat up from his bed. “Maybe I should go out and take a-” He suddenly stopped mid-sentence as the memory of his trip outside last night came to mind. The memory was clearer now, not totally complete, but it was clearer. He remembered walking, being angry because of Gaz. Then…there was someone. A girl.
Something in his mind exploded. He jumped off his bed in shock. “That girl! She has something to do with this!”
Dib tried to search his mind for what she did. He remembered talking to her, then she went outside and he followed…then nothing.
“Crap,” he muttered as he started pacing up and down his room, “I know she has something to do with all this, whatever this is.”
He growled as he realised he was still talking to himself.
He slumped onto his computer chair and, using his feet, he pushed himself lazily from side to side as he tried to place the pieces together in his mind. He sighed and his head lolled back on the chair. He looked over to the other side of the room and caught site of himself in the mirror.
At first glace it seemed normal, but then he looked again. He stopped his pushing and concentrated on his reflection. Carefully, like a fox out of a hole, he got off his chair and creped towards the mirror, a mixture of confusion and horror on his face.
As he approached the mirror his eyes widened. It was his reflection. His reflection was see-though. Even though he was now standing right in front of the mirror he could see his computer desk and bed behind him. He could see them through his body.
The shock suddenly hit Dib like a truck and he shouted in fear, falling back away from the mirror. He stood, looking at his hazy reflection before an idea, a terrible idea, wandered into his mind.
He sat himself onto his bed and looked to his bookshelf, which hung above where he usually slept. He ran a finger along the titles until he got to the one he wanted and pulled it away from the others.
He looked at the old, leather-bound cover and read it out loud. “A to Z of mythical beings and supernatural entities.”
He opened it, causing the book to creak in protest, and began flicking through the pages, muttering to himself as he did so.
“Ok, Almas, Bigfoot, Cherufe, Dobhar-chu, Ebu Gogo, Gambo…come on, come on…Ahh!” And he placed his finger flatly onto the page.
“Vampire.”
He began reading allowed to himself, “Vampires are famous supernatural creatures that have been around for bla, bla, bla,” he skipped to the part he wanted to read, “People who are embraced by the vampire may show these signs. Cold skin, lack of heartbeat, enhanced abilities, a thirst for human blood and a hate of the daylight. Tell tale signs are that of having no reflection in mirrors or showing up in photographs. Also, the victim may have bite marks on their necks.”
He looked down as he realised he’d been showing all those signs. His fear was true; he was turning into a vampire. One of the creatures he’d spent most of his life trying to prove existed.
He sighed and sat back down, lying onto his back and spreading his arms out to his sides. “Well,” he said quietly and with a slight hint of laughter, “I’m screwed. But at least I’m turning into a cool evil creature of the night and not something stupid.” At this, he couldn’t help but laugh.
Just as a test he laid his hand upon his chest and tried to feel for a heartbeat. A first he couldn’t feel anything, but then, ever so faintly, he felt a beat.
Dib sat bolt up straight, his eyes widening. “I’m not dead!”
He placed his hands upon his head as his mind ran with the revelation. He began pacing his room again, his eyes looking about wildly, “If I can still see myself in the mirror and still feel a heartbeat then…” He stopped looking up, “I must not be a full vampire yet.”
He smiled as he saw a window of hope opening up, “I can get out of this I can become human again.” He rolled his eyes, “And I can stop talking to myself.”
He started pacing the room again, “How do they go back to normal in the movies? They kill the head vampire…so I need to find that girl and kill her.”
He felt a pang of sadness, in all his years of chasing and documenting the supernatural he had never had to kill anything, even though he had been tempted to kill Zim on many an occasion. And now it seemed he would be forced to kill this girl in order to save his life, he’d much rather capture her and get some fame to his name.
He sighed, he would just have to settle for taking some pictures or something, although he knew that was useless, as all his cameras seem to be cursed to be destroyed before he even taken any pictures. He stopped, thinking for a second before rolling his eyes and groaning as he remembered the whole 'reflection' thing.
He frowned, he couldn’t even remember her name but at least he had a mental image. A hazy mental image.
He looked again at the book as he read about the strengths and weaknesses of vampires. His eyes widened slightly in interest as he read about the increased physical powers, the ability to deify gravity, the ability to move through shadows, the increased sense’s and awareness of their surroundings. The one that got his attention the most was the immortality, he could keep on exploring the mysteries of the world forever that is of course if he wanted to stay a vampire.
Dib found it hard to stop himself from smiling; being a vampire wasn’t looking so bad. In fact, he had the guilty temptation to stay in this half-vampiric state and teach some people a few lessons before curing himself.
However the idea was a stupid one, he couldn’t do that to people…could he?
The book lowered as he slowly began to talk his thoughts once more. “Or could I? Immortality, nigh-invulnerability, super powers…it’s a damn tempting offer.”
Suddenly, from downstairs, the sound of the front door was heard and a shout echoed up the stairs.
“DIB! Get down here NOW.” It was Gaz, and she sounded pissed off.
Dib scowled; if he ever got the chance he would put her in her place.
His eyes widened, “Wait…I do have that chance.”
His rational side immediately went to dismiss it. After all, this was his sister, his little sister, the one he was meant to protect. But a much louder and more appealing side to him was saying different. Why not take advantage of this curse-turned-gift while he had the chance? He would show her not to boss him about again then turn back human; it was a win-win situation.
An evil smile grew on his face, “Coming Gaz.”

Description
Sunlight swam though the crack in the bedroom curtains. However, instead of actually illuminating the room, I only bathed it in a dull glow. The room itself was a mess; rubbish, clothes, and books littered the floor. The owner, who was currently lying face down on his bed, was still fully clothed and snoring ever so slightly.
His alarm clock suddenly changed to show the time as 7:00 and began beeping loudly. The body of Dib slowly came back to life as the beeping began to wake him from his slumber.
Slowly, he turned his face from the pillow to the alarm. His eyes were shut but he still tried to turn off the alarm by waving a hand randomly in its direction. As this began to prove useless, Dib finally creaked an eye open and reached forward to turn the alarm off, however as he did this, the alarm clock fell of its place on the shelf, crashing onto the floor.
He mumbled something like, "Thank God for that," and turned his body so he was now lying on his side.
He rubbed his eyes and massaged his temples as a headache came crashing in. He groaned in agony and sat up, holding his head tightly in his hands. He tried to remember why he had such a headache. Memories flashed past his inner eye, a fight with Gaz, a walk and then...nothing. Only a drunken fuzziness and a painful headache.
Dib grabbed his coat and slowly made his way downstairs hoping to find some aspirin in the kitchen. When he walked in he found Gaz reaching into the cupboard to get some cereal. She cast him a dirty look and walked over to the table as he reached into the fridge to get something to drink. It was odd, even though he felt slightly hungry, he felt much thirstier. As his tired eyes looked over the contents of the fridge he found that there was literally nothing he wanted to drink or eat. He shut his eyes tight in silent anger and closed the fridge.
He decided that the best thing would to at least have something to keep him going though the morning. He sat down at the table and poured himself a bowl of Franken Chokies even though he really didn't want to eat them.
"You look pale."
Dib looked up from where he was poking at his breakfast. "What?"
Gaz crunched another mouthful of her cereal and repeated her statement. "You look pale."
Dib went back to staring into his bowl, "I've got a headache."
Gaz finished eating her breakfast and went to put the bowl into the sink. "Meh."
Dib cast a glancing look of hate, "Trust you to not care." He immediately smacked a hand over his mouth as Gaz spun round on the spot.
Her hand clenched into a fist and her right eye twitched in anger. "What was that?"
"Nothing, nothing, I said nothing!" Dib quickly said as he darted to the doorway, he needed to make sure he had a quick exit if Gaz decided to kill him.
For a moment Gaz seemed to consider making any moves against Dib, eventually she decided, "That’s what I though," and her fist uncurled.
Dib sighed in relief and relaxed. He decided to take the advantage of not being beaten up to go get his coat and put on his boots for Hi-Skool.
"It must be because it’s Friday," he reasoned quietly as he did up the laces.
He sighed as Gaz walked through the door, leaving it open for Dib to close. However just as Dib stepped out into the sunlight he suddenly found it a bit much and put a hand over his eyes in a shield. He also felt his body ache slightly at just being outside.
Gaz didn't seem to notice as she was already playing away on her Gameslave. Dib forced himself outside, squinting his eyes at the soft morning and ignoring the feeling like he should be sleeping.
A few minutes later and the two siblings were walking down the familiar route to Hi-Skool. Gaz was playing on her latest game while Dib was being unusually quiet. While his headache had slowly vanished his strange thirst had not. It was an odd feeling, he knew what he needed, but he couldn’t say it. It was on the tip of his tongue yet he had no idea what his body seemed to be demanding so badly.
The two walked past a house, which had a small friendly looking Labrador chained up at the front porch. Dib smiled slightly as he saw it, this dog was always happy to see him; it was one of the few things that ever were. The dog seemed to be dozing in the sun but it opened an eye as it sensed Dib and Gaz walking past. The Labrador jumped up, its tail wagging furiously and tongue already hanging out its mouth as it prepared to run at the two and receive its morning stroke by the teenagers. However as it came towards Dib, who was kneeling down in preparation, it stopped suddenly, the happy tail wagging and tongue lolling vanishing. Instead it became angry, growling at him and backing away slightly.
Dib looked at the dog, confused at its behaviour. He reached forward but the dog barked and growled again, its hairs all standing on end.
Dib stood up, he almost felt hurt that the dog wasn’t covering him in licks like usual but most of him was confused. Even Gaz had paused her game playing to look at the dog’s weird reaction to the teenage boy. However she merely raised an eyebrow before shrugging and walking one. Dib looked to her and back to the dog before slowly doing the same.

--

The rest day so far had gone rather normally, well, as normal as it gets for Dib. The morning was its usual routine of insults and minor threats throughout class while Miss Bitters crocked on about how they were all adopted and their parents didn't really love them. He and Zim had cast some snide glances at each other from across the class but nothing more.
Dib had felt too sleepy and thirsty for his unknown substance to bother bothering Zim at lunchtime. The whole thing resulted in Zim demanding why Dib was ignoring him. Dib had just muttered something about feeling tired and walked past.
Dib had heard the Irken shout something about a sleepy victory before he had strode off. He couldn't care less; he'd get him back later.
It was just at last period when Dib was taking some books out of his locker. He smiled as he thought on the fact that this was the last lesson before he could go home and sleep.

--

He pulled out his astronomy book and closed his locker. A sneaker screeched behind him, followed by many footsteps, all ending around the teen. Footsteps and sneakers he knew too well. Dib turned around to stare Torque in the face, while the bully and his comrades all stared back, grinning with evil intent. “You’re pale Dib. Already afraid to see me?” Torque finished with a small laugh, which the other cronies chimed in a laugh too. Over the years, Torque had grown quite an impressive physique due to the time weightlifting for the sports he plays. Needless to say, he was more than strong enough to take out Dib, which he did almost everyday, save for Tuesdays. Tuesdays was the day he would be too busy with football practice.
Great, Dib thought, deeply annoyed. Torque cracked his knuckles and smiled evilly. Whispers flowed through the group circling Dib.
Even though the boy couldn’t see it, everyone who was previously in the halls had dissipated for a few reasons, this upcoming event being one of them.
“I went lenient on you yesterday with the spitballs n’ all,” Torque chuckled, “so I’m going to have to make it worse today.”
You can take him, came a familiar voice with an unfamiliar idea. Dib had never thought about fighting back before. He had always just taken the beatings without any resistance. But today…the idea sounded great.
The crowd took a few steps back as Torque reeled back his fist without warning and threw it towards Dib with all of his force. Time seemed to slow down for the boy. It’s almost as if the world around him was moving in slow motion. The kids who were snickering and laughing had slowed down to a crawl. Dib sidestepped out of the way and watched the fist move past him, hitting the locker. Dib glanced around, finding that he couldn’t move his head as fast as he used to. He saw that the kids surrounding him and Torque slowly stopped laughing and began to stare upon Dib. Time seemed to revert back to it’s usual self as Torque’s hand reeled back in pain upon hitting the locker. Everyone, including Dib, stared in amazement at what just happened.
“You’re in for it now, Dib,” Torque told the teen as he rubbed his fist.
Dib practically ignored the bully as he stared at the locker, then the kids around him. Did that just happen? he thought to himself. Did time just-
A fist smacked Dib in the gut. The boy fell against his locker with the wind knocked out of him.
Torque wasn’t about to stop there though. He brought up his knee as hard as he could and landed it right into Dib’s chin. This caused the teen to fall to the floor while the kids around laughed and snickered.
On most days, this would be the end. Torque had done what he enjoys, causing Dib horrific amounts of pain, in which the boy would just fall to the floor. Today was different however. Very different. Dib recovered more quickly from his injuries. He stood up quickly after, causing Torque to look at him dumbfounded.
The bullies look quickly changed back to his old self-confident one. “Haven’t had enough yet?” he asked with a laugh.
Something in Dib screamed, almost in a different language. He didn’t know what this something was, but he did have an idea what it was saying.
Torque reeled back his fist for another punch, in which Dib’s hand reached out, grabbed the bully by his head, and slammed it into the locker with such force, that the locker now had a dent in it. Torque fell to the ground, unconscious. Blood trickled down his forehead. Blood.

--

His eyes locked onto it, watching the red trail crawl across the bully’s head and drop onto the floor. The thirst he had been feeling all day exploded within him. He knew now what he had been wanting and even though a part of him was shocked, a bigger part of him was making him slowly lick his lips.
He couldn’t, nor really wanted to, stop himself as he knelt down next to the unconscious boy. He cautiously dipped his index finger into the small amount of blood that had collected at the base of Torques head and raised it to his lips.
“DIB!?”
He snapped out of whatever mode he had fell into and looked up. Gaz was standing a few feet away, her eyes wide. Dib looked around; all Torques cronies had fled without Dib even noticing.
He suddenly stood up as reality came crashing back in around him. He looked down at Torque, then to Gaz, then to his finger, which was covered with the boy’s blood.
Gaz took a step forward, “Just what the hell are you doing? What happened here?”
Dib staggered back, he suddenly felt weak but he could also still feel the blood-thirst within him. He wiped the blood on the lockers next to him, desperately trying not to think about it.
He looked to Gaz who was slowly walking towards him with a mixture of fury and surprise on her face. She obviously couldn’t believe that Dib would have ever fought back so violently.
She growled, “Answer the question. What the hell is going on?”
“I…I…” Dib stammered as he began walking backwards at the same speed Gaz was walking towards him. He couldn’t answer the question because he had no idea what was going on.
Gaz went to jump towards him, but Dib could almost see her do it before it even happened and he jumped back. She missed him and Dib turned and ran. He couldn’t understand what was going on, even with a mind as clever as his.
Dib ran out of the school pushing past some random students. He ran out the school and down the road. He didn’t look where he was running but he knew where he was going. He needed to get to his house, somewhere where he could think.
It only took him a few minutes to get there, far quicker then normal, even if he was running.
He darted through the door, up the stairs and directly into his room. Despite no one being in the house, he locked his bedroom door and finally slumped onto his bed. He quickly re-gained his breath and, when he went to hold his head in his hands, he found that despite running from Hi-skool to his home he hadn’t even broke a sweat.
This is not looking good, Dib thought as he ran his hands through his hair.
“Ok…so,” he said to himself, “I need to know just what the hell is going on. Maybe I’m just ill or something. Or maybe this is part of one of Zim’s new plans to take over the Earth. Well…if it is a new plan then it’s a pretty stupid one. Man…I gotta stop talking to myself like this.”
He sighed and sat up from his bed. “Maybe I should go out and take a-” He suddenly stopped mid-sentence as the memory of his trip outside last night came to mind. The memory was clearer now, not totally complete, but it was clearer. He remembered walking, being angry because of Gaz. Then…there was someone. A girl.
Something in his mind exploded. He jumped off his bed in shock. “That girl! She has something to do with this!”
Dib tried to search his mind for what she did. He remembered talking to her, then she went outside and he followed…then nothing.
“Crap,” he muttered as he started pacing up and down his room, “I know she has something to do with all this, whatever this is.”
He growled as he realised he was still talking to himself.
He slumped onto his computer chair and, using his feet, he pushed himself lazily from side to side as he tried to place the pieces together in his mind. He sighed and his head lolled back on the chair. He looked over to the other side of the room and caught site of himself in the mirror.
At first glace it seemed normal, but then he looked again. He stopped his pushing and concentrated on his reflection. Carefully, like a fox out of a hole, he got off his chair and creped towards the mirror, a mixture of confusion and horror on his face.
As he approached the mirror his eyes widened. It was his reflection. His reflection was see-though. Even though he was now standing right in front of the mirror he could see his computer desk and bed behind him. He could see them through his body.
The shock suddenly hit Dib like a truck and he shouted in fear, falling back away from the mirror. He stood, looking at his hazy reflection before an idea, a terrible idea, wandered into his mind.
He sat himself onto his bed and looked to his bookshelf, which hung above where he usually slept. He ran a finger along the titles until he got to the one he wanted and pulled it away from the others.
He looked at the old, leather-bound cover and read it out loud. “A to Z of mythical beings and supernatural entities.”
He opened it, causing the book to creak in protest, and began flicking through the pages, muttering to himself as he did so.
“Ok, Almas, Bigfoot, Cherufe, Dobhar-chu, Ebu Gogo, Gambo…come on, come on…Ahh!” And he placed his finger flatly onto the page.
“Vampire.”
He began reading allowed to himself, “Vampires are famous supernatural creatures that have been around for bla, bla, bla,” he skipped to the part he wanted to read, “People who are embraced by the vampire may show these signs. Cold skin, lack of heartbeat, enhanced abilities, a thirst for human blood and a hate of the daylight. Tell tale signs are that of having no reflection in mirrors or showing up in photographs. Also, the victim may have bite marks on their necks.”
He looked down as he realised he’d been showing all those signs. His fear was true; he was turning into a vampire. One of the creatures he’d spent most of his life trying to prove existed.
He sighed and sat back down, lying onto his back and spreading his arms out to his sides. “Well,” he said quietly and with a slight hint of laughter, “I’m screwed. But at least I’m turning into a cool evil creature of the night and not something stupid.” At this, he couldn’t help but laugh.
Just as a test he laid his hand upon his chest and tried to feel for a heartbeat. A first he couldn’t feel anything, but then, ever so faintly, he felt a beat.
Dib sat bolt up straight, his eyes widening. “I’m not dead!”
He placed his hands upon his head as his mind ran with the revelation. He began pacing his room again, his eyes looking about wildly, “If I can still see myself in the mirror and still feel a heartbeat then…” He stopped looking up, “I must not be a full vampire yet.”
He smiled as he saw a window of hope opening up, “I can get out of this I can become human again.” He rolled his eyes, “And I can stop talking to myself.”
He started pacing the room again, “How do they go back to normal in the movies? They kill the head vampire…so I need to find that girl and kill her.”
He felt a pang of sadness, in all his years of chasing and documenting the supernatural he had never had to kill anything, even though he had been tempted to kill Zim on many an occasion. And now it seemed he would be forced to kill this girl in order to save his life, he’d much rather capture her and get some fame to his name.
He sighed, he would just have to settle for taking some pictures or something, although he knew that was useless, as all his cameras seem to be cursed to be destroyed before he even taken any pictures. He stopped, thinking for a second before rolling his eyes and groaning as he remembered the whole 'reflection' thing.
He frowned, he couldn’t even remember her name but at least he had a mental image. A hazy mental image.
He looked again at the book as he read about the strengths and weaknesses of vampires. His eyes widened slightly in interest as he read about the increased physical powers, the ability to deify gravity, the ability to move through shadows, the increased sense’s and awareness of their surroundings. The one that got his attention the most was the immortality, he could keep on exploring the mysteries of the world forever that is of course if he wanted to stay a vampire.
Dib found it hard to stop himself from smiling; being a vampire wasn’t looking so bad. In fact, he had the guilty temptation to stay in this half-vampiric state and teach some people a few lessons before curing himself.
However the idea was a stupid one, he couldn’t do that to people…could he?
The book lowered as he slowly began to talk his thoughts once more. “Or could I? Immortality, nigh-invulnerability, super powers…it’s a damn tempting offer.”
Suddenly, from downstairs, the sound of the front door was heard and a shout echoed up the stairs.
“DIB! Get down here NOW.” It was Gaz, and she sounded pissed off.
Dib scowled; if he ever got the chance he would put her in her place.
His eyes widened, “Wait…I do have that chance.”
His rational side immediately went to dismiss it. After all, this was his sister, his little sister, the one he was meant to protect. But a much louder and more appealing side to him was saying different. Why not take advantage of this curse-turned-gift while he had the chance? He would show her not to boss him about again then turn back human; it was a win-win situation.
An evil smile grew on his face, “Coming Gaz.”