The Writing on the Wall

Warning: This is T rated, but I will say it's on the higher side of the T rating. So… no profanity! Never.

The day started out so normally. Dib went to school, chased Zim, and came back home. His dad, of course, was not home yet. He received a call from his dad.

"Hello, Son," said Professor Membrane.

"Hey dad."

"I have bad news. The lab wants me to stay overnight working on some kind of levitation machine." Despite his attempt to remain full of enthusiasm, Dib could sense the distraught tone in his father's voice.

"I'm so sorry, Son. I'll make it up."

The professor had been trying his best to become more fatherly, and things like this killed him.

"It's cool, Dad. Since it's a Friday, there's lots of ways to stay entertained. Maybe do something with Gaz, you know, curl up on the couch. Find a good movie." Dib hated to see his father upset. Or, in this case, hear him upset.

"Okay, Son. I'll try my best to be back home tomorrow."

"Okay, Dad. Dad… please don't try to overwork yourself. Get some sleep this time." The professor smiled.

"Okay, son." Dib smiled and hung up the phone. He walked in the kitchen to see Gaz, sitting in one of the chairs, playing her GameSlave 2.

"Hey, Gaz. Dad's not coming home tonight." Gaz rolled her eyes.

"Typical. No surprise."

"Hey, he sounded really ticked off about it. And besides, he's trying to please us!"

"I'll be pleased when he takes us out to dinner more than once a year," she said.

"Whatever. Hey, wanna watch a movie?"

"Nah. I'm busy." She walked up the stairs. Dib sighed. He had gotten up early that morning anyway, so why not just go to bed? Dib decided that would be the best thing to do.

Once he got up the stairs, he was a little surprised to see Gaz walk out of his room. What was she snooping around in there for?

"Hey Gaz," he said. "Why were you in my room?"

"Dad accidentally put one of my games in there. Been gone so long from this house I guess he forgot who's room was who's."

Gaz said this with so much apathy that Dib decided to believe her. He went in his room. He groaned.

"Really?" He asked himself. There was writing on his wall! Gaz had come into his room and written on the wall. She had written "Help me" and "Broken" and other dark, creepy things on his wall.

Dib looked closer. Was that… blood? Had she written in blood?

"She probably opened up a scab and used her own blood as ink," he concluded. He scrubbed the writing away and settled in his bed. He fell asleep instantly.

He woke up at around three AM in the morning. He heard strange humming noises and mumbling coming from Gaz's room. The door was open a little more than a crack.

He pushed it open all the way.

"Gaz?" He asked. Purple light filled the room, although the source of it was no where to be found. It was as if her walls were glowing.

Gaz turned around sharply. She had dark rings around her eyes, as if she was in major lack of sleep. Her face was sunken in.

"Dib, get out of my room." She wasn't yelling, but her voice was enough to give him chills.

"Uh… uh… o-okay, Gaz." He ran out.

The next morning was miserable. Dib had hardly gotten any sleep, and he was scared stiff of his little sister. Well, he already was before that previous night, but not that scared stiff.

"Gaz," he asked. "So… how come you were in my room last night?"

"What do you mean?" She said, annoyed. "I played some video games, took a shower, and went to bed. I didn't set foot in your room."

"But— you wrote on my wall with blood—"

"What are you talking about, stupid?" She asked.

Suddenly, the phone rang.

"Hey, Son." It was the professor. Dib could already tell by the tone of his voice that he wasn't coming home that night.

"They need me for one more night. ONE MORE. That's what I told them, that I'm coming home tomorrow, and not even an atomic bomb can stop me."

"Oh, okay, Dad! Hey, gotta go!" Dib hung up. He started panting. What was going on?

The dreaded time "night" had arrived. Dib was pacing back and forth, trying to figure out what was wrong with Gaz.

"Hey Dib," she said. Dib spun around, surprised.

"Yes, Gaz?"

"I'm gonna go take a bath. Be in bed in a minute."

"Okay," Dib was shaking. He didn't know what he was so paranoid about. She was just going to take a bath, for Pete's sake!

But he couldn't help but tiptoe to his room. He nearly choked on his own heart from what he saw.

The writing was back. And this time, it was thicker. Blood ran down from the letters on the wall, and this time, there were handprints. Handprints.

Dib ran to the bathroom. He grabbed a paper clip and used it to pick the lock. He opened the door. He froze in his tracks.

His sister.

Floating on her back.

In a bathtub full of coagulating blood.

Dib lost it. He turned his head and vomited.

Gaz's eyes were not eyes, but rather sockets. She tilted her head sideways and smiled. She put her fingers to her lips. She was still smiling.

"Shhh," she hissed. When she hissed, blood spewed out of her mouth. Some of it got on Dib.

Dib's heart pounded so hard. So, so hard. All he could hear was his heartbeat. The most horrifying thing was that Gaz wouldn't take her eyes off of him, she just continued staring at him with her eyeless sockets, blood running out of her mouth and down her bare chest, and then joining the pool in the tub. Dib lost it. He completely lost it. He grabbed a pillow and a blanket and ran to Zim's house. He pounded on the door.

"What is it, stink-beast?" Zim asked.

"My sister," Dib started, but had to stop to puke on the grass.

"Do not soil Zim's precious yard with your stomachy fluids, Dib!"

"My sister! Is! A demon!" Dib yelled.

"She was bathing in human blood, Zim, human! That's like an Irken bathing in Irken blood! And she didn't have eyes, Zim! No eyes at all!" Dib had to stop to catch his breath.

"Where is your Dib-father?" Zim asked.

"He's away! He's at his work! Zim, what do I do? What do I do?"

Dib started to cry. Zim awkwardly hugged him.

"Eh, I guess you should, eh, take her to an exorcist, Dib-smelly." Dib wiped his eyes.

"Oh-okay. I will, Zim. Can I spend the night at your house?"

Zim nodded. If his sister were taking on demonic features, he'd be freaked out, too.

The next day, Dib took Gaz to an exorcist. Gaz kept on struggling and questioning, but Dib didn't care. Well, at least Gaz had her eyes back.

"Ah," said the exorcist. "She has a very rare spirit in her. You got her here in time.

"The demon is only active during the night. If you tell the person that the demon is controlling that they were acting strange, they would look at you as of you'd lost it. That's because the demon replaced the memory of itself with something normal. Like, for example, the host would get suspicious if they just remember blacking out."

Dib nodded. He got it. The exorcism was actually fairly easy, just chants. Dib saw something black escape his sister. He sighed with relief. It was gone. The demon was gone.

Then, everything was normal. Membrane returned home, and Gaz was not taking anymore blood baths.

She still wrote on Dib's things.

Just not on his wall, and not with blood.