Since the death of Keef, there had been another known murder; two within the span of four days. Of course, once another one in a similar fashion to the first happened, people were now genuinely starting to get nervous. Sure, two wasn't a big number, but it just means since there was no grudge on just one person, the criminal clearly had plans. People were trying desperately to remain calm, but just couldn't with all their questions: who could actually be doing this, and could anyone be next? What should they do to survive? To keep safe? To stop asking so many questions? Ghost wanted to know the answer, and he was determined to figure it out.

On a date.

Dib knocked on the door to Carrie's house; it had paint chipping off it, and his knocks didn't seem to be pretty loud... so, he rang the doorbell. The door almost immediately swung open, the handle being gripped by a taller (though, not as tall as Professor Membrane) brown-haired man with a slight look of disgust on his face. "I heard you the first time."

Dib winced. "Oh, uh.. hi, Mr. Carrie... is Car— ehh, your daughter here?"

"Yes, what for?"

"Work-related things." Too vague. "We're going out to look for... stuff!" That's not much better, y'know.

Carrie's dad sighed and called her down; she confusedly (but happily) took the door handle and his place, and looked to Dib. "Hey!"

"...does your dad actually hate me?"

"Don't take it personally... he's one of the people who think you're insane."

"...oh." Dib sighed, feeling a bit pained. "Anyway. Carrie! Hi!" He waved for a bit too long. "Uh, hi, so..." he cleared his throat. "You! Ma'am! Would you like to... go... find monsters with me right now? Uh, like who could be killing people? Just us? And possible cryptids? Just us.. alone.. in possible darkness? With flashlights, of course, but... yeah?"

She smiled. "Wanna go on a date?"

"Yes." Dib sighed with relief. "Yes, that is what I'm asking."

"Dib, you asked me the other day; it's not like I'm gonna change my mind about you. Lemme go get my shit..." Carrie dashed off, leaving Dib rocking on his heels for a few more minutes. He was smiling uncontrollably, punching the air while laughing. He quickly composed himself when Carrie came back. "Alright! Got the flashlights... garlic... stakes..."

"Anything not for vampires?"

"Stakes are pretty useful."

"Fair point," Dib laughed, mimicking a stake stab. "...point. Haha. I'm not funny."

"God, I'm glad I like you. Now, let's go!" Carrie grabbed Dib's hand and closed the door, starting to run off (and dragging Dib behind her).

Dib picked up speed, running after his girlfriend; he got out of her grip and ran around her. She laughed and jabbed at his chest. Once they eventually slowed down, they discussed where they would first look. Their decision ultimately ended up being an empty field on some edge of down; it lead into a small forest, and there was bound to be some kind of creature there.

"A bit weird how it seems like only the forested area has a block of dark clouds around it, huh?" Dib would look back and forth from the field and forest.

"Huh. Never noticed that. 's like it's an evil place, eh?" Carrie rocked on her heels, twisting her ring.

"Then it's perfect!" Dib grinned, holding his hand back out for her. "Ah, but first, we should check this clear area..."

Carrie just scanned across the horizon. "Oh, well, looks like no one out of the ordinary is here. Guess it's time to go to the dark place!" Carrie took Dib's outstretched hand (finally). Dib's face heated up, just a little. "Flashlights out?"

"Uh, you have mine."

"Right, here.." Carrie handed Dib the flashlight and they both flickered on; the second they stepped in the trees seemed to eat the light however, as not a lot ended up showing or staying. Despite it being long before dark outside, it felt as if it were midnight in this area. Of course, immediately, the nerds found that noteworthy.

"Oh.. man!" Dib squinted, trying to see any break of light from the trees above.

"How've I never been in here before?" Carrie did the same, eyes wide instead.

"Same here.." Dib trailed off—he was getting weird images in his head.. this place, he had been there before... but when? Actually, it's obvious, and Dib's an idiot. "Mh... feels sorta familiar, though? Do you get that too?"

"Uh... not really... more than anything, I'm a bit spooked— 'never been in a place like this, where there's barely any light? It's like somethin' outta nightmares..."

"...yeah. Yeah, outta nightmares—that's probably why this feels familiar!" He, along with she, started walking deeper in.

Carrie laughed a little, swaying around. "Well... being in a place from your nightmares is a bit, eh, how do I say it... absolutely terrifying, if you think about it. Unless you're lucid, everything could go wrong and scare ya!"

Dib grinned. "Been there. Done that. Halloween. Corn."

"ZiM?"

"Ohh yeah."

Carrie sighed and stepped a bit closer to Dib. " 'can't believe there's been an alien 'round here this whole time... I never noticed, somehow; am I just an idiot? Am I just stupid?"

Dib looked at her. "Hey—no..! Not at all... you okay, though? You're repeating things from a small part of a conversation and you're being minimally self deprecating."

"Huh? Oh, sorry, I get like that when I'm a bit, uh, nervous. And frightened. Keeps me talkin'. Talking. Talking. Enunciate the g, Care.. I don't know why I do that; I don't believe I've ever lived in a place where I could've picked the way I talk up. Maybe I was born somewhere, I—" ... "..rambling. Is also something I do."

Dib smiled, putting an arm around her. "Hey... you've no reason to be nervous here! Or frightened! All we're doing is walking in the woods with no one around, trying to find an awful, savage killer..."

"A normal Saturday..."

"It's not Saturday?"

"I know."

"Well, you're with me! I'm your backup, as you're mine! So what if we run into some awful, deadly, otherworldly murderer..." Dib stopped the descriptions—and the walking—once he felt her shake. "...I'm sorry, I guess I jumped into this a bit too quick, huh.."

Carrie shook her head. "N-no.. it's fine—! I should'a prepared more. And, I should'a waited until we got much deeper in to worry."

"You prepared just fine! You brought lotsa useful tools, and you said you wanted to come here! Getting nervous—especially from my over-exaggerations—is a perfectly normal feeling! But, hey!" He began to walk around her again. "A bit scarier when you're alone.. and you're not! You have me! I have you! Now, uh, to get your mind off that... wanna talk about something as we look?"

"Uh, sure! Topics..?" Carrie only stopped shaking a little, but smiled at Dib.

"Hmm.. well, from the mention of ZiM from earlier—"

"Yeah, hey, about him.. you don't really think he did it, do you..? I mean, that stuff you said the other day 'bout everythin' and.."

"No.. I don't. My conclusion-jumpiness got the best of me. You're right, though—he can't do anything right now. Oh, which, reminds me: I gotta see him after this to bring him something. Wanna come?"

"Ah, can't, my parents will want me home."

"Yeah, my dad won't care. So just me.." he huffed.

"Hey, be glad I'm here now! They don't like the paranormal stuff, 'think Imma be insane. Like you!"

"Hey! I'm only a little insane!"

"Yeah, a little."

Dib laughed. "Heh, Lookat that! You've stopped shaking!"

Carrie thought for a second, then grinned. "I guess I got distracted." She poked him. "Your fault."

He blushed, poking back at the tall girl. "Think we can search for monsters now..?"

She giggled. "Of course."

"...Y'know, I don't mind hangin' around in total darkness here.."

" 's that so?"

"Because we're both here! Which I've already made clear. And it is clear because we're both kinda here... this isn't working out."

"Silly.." Carrie looked around, pointing her flashlight towards the ground. "Oh shit! There's a trail here!"

"A trail? Of what?" Dib looked at her stream of light. "Footprints and drag lines!" And yes, there were footprints and drag lines. "Do we follow them?"

"Of course!" She gripped his hand tight, following the paths. "So... ideas? We can look at the size of the footprints to see if they could be anything other than human.."

Dib did his best to avoid stepping directly into the footprints. "Well, much too big to be ZiM, so he's out of the idea entirely. However, they do look like bootprints. We should take pictures in case we can pair them up with anyone's..." Dib fumbles around his pockets, trying to get his phone out.

"Yeah, like people are gonna let us just look at the bottoms of their shoes," Carrie laughed.

"Hey, you never know!" With flash on, Dib snapped the picture. "Got it. How long do you think these go for?"

Carrie continued walking, aiming her light straight ahead. "Only one way to find out!"

After a good while of walking and occasionally distracted conversation, they were still following the tracks. They'd often stop for a second to just talk, but they mostly got way too invested in what they are saying. They didn't even realize when they were coming to the end of the line.

"...the only bad boy introduced type person I could ever be interested in."

"I'm sorry, but I stand by Angel being superior, no matter how dramatic he is."

"But enemies to lovers is the superior trope!"

"You get how difficult it is to fall in love with your enemy?"

"Exactly! Proving my point about Spike." Carrie tugs on Dib's collar. "And.. long black coat is always a plus."

Dib blushed a tiny bit. "Well! Uh! Y'know, I—...hey, how long have we been walking for?"

Carrie looked around. "Oh. Shit. We haven't really been paying attention, huh... well, to get back, we can just follow the footsteps backwards, right?"

"I guess, but how much further do they go..?" Dib squinted, trying to see in the further dark better.

"Not far enough yet, I guess," Carrie sighed, spinning her ring.

Dib chewed his cheek. "...it's not all bad. I've been having a lot of fun with you here!"

Carrie's eyes lit up. "Yeah.. me too! With you, I mean." She kicks some of the dirt. "You're my first boyfriend, y'know."

"I am?" Dib raised his eyebrows, not really expecting that. Though, he did end up blushing some more.

"Not even a girlfriend before you, either. I mean, I've tried with other people, but I'm either called crazy, avoided by some dumbass neurodivergent stereotypes, or just get stared at." She kicked the dirt a bit more.

"Oh, what the hell?" He walked closer, looking up at her. "Well, I'm, uh, happy to be your first, then. You're actually mine, too."

She smiled small. "Then same to you. It's nice that I've found someone who's willing to disprove the existence of birds with me."

Dib grinned. "Any day."

In that moment, they were actually staring at each other. Soft smiles were on both of their red faces, and they were all alone. Nothing was heard around them except for the sounds in their inner thoughts; even their thoughts were a bit out of whack, though, because in that second...

They backed up from each other, their eyes going wide.

"Holy shit," Dib whispered.

"You just— I just—" Carrie hid the bottom half of her face, not breaking eye contact.

"It was—"

"—nice?"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"...wanna do it again?"

"Yes please."

And just like that, they kissed once more. Just standing there, pressed together, eyes closed, barely moving, barely thinking. Feeling amazing.

"...I love you," Carrie said the second they moved away.

Dib blushed even brighter (somehow), and pulled her into a hug. "I love you, too."

I could just stop telling the story right there. I could let you and them be happy and say "ohhh and then they lived happily and then they went home early and got lots of candies because they found out the footprints were actually BIGFEETS???", but that would be lying, and I'm not ready to lie to you just yet.
As things work, their time of emotional paradise would be short lived for the next several seconds. They walked a bit further, hand in hand, until they finally saw what was at the end of the path.

The third corpse.

Or, what was left of it.

"Oh my god—" Carrie's hand went to her mouth, and Dib's stomach dropped. It didn't make him feel any better once he felt Carrie start to shake again. He gripped her hand tight.

Sure, they had seen monsters and aliens and general creepy things before, but never something like this; only in horror movies and games, but never up close. They finally decided to come to terms with their feelings—they were scared. They really were. This isn't some fun murder mystery that's probably caused by a monster that can be easily expelled; this was real. This thing knew what it was doing.

"Holy shit... I know that kid..." Dib resisted stepping closer. "She's in one of my classes.."

"One of mine, too..." Carrie didn't seem to be moving any time soon either. "I don't know much about her, she never really did anything... I mean, except for spread some shit about both you and ZiM to the class once. Nothing of importance, don't worry."

"Wait, she what? ... Uh, actually, I'm not surprised by this point..." Dib sighed shakily. "Ssso... what do we do..?"

"Cry."

"Hey, n-no..." Dib wrapped his arms around his shaking girlfriend, shaking himself. "I-I'm so sorry you had to see this... I r-really didn't expect anything like this going in. I'm so, so sorry for getting you i-involved with this..."

Carrie held back tight. "Dib... it's okay. I-I-I guess when you do something like this, it's bout t-to happen eventually..!" She nervously laughs. "...w-we should tell someone. I-If the path is still here, we c-can tell the police or s-somethin' that there's someone at th-the end... I'm sorry, I-I just can't take them back on my own..."

Dib rubbed her shoulder, still tense himself. "...you don't have to, at all." Dib looked down at the ground, trying to focus his attention away from the body. While trying to pay attention to nothing, he couldn't help but notice something about the footprints. Very carefully, he moved his shoe into the print. That's when he knew—the murderer had the same shoe size as him. That... that's good to know! Maybe that could help figure out who it was! "...h-hey, Carrie?"

"Y-yeah?"

Dib sighed, taking her hand again. "Let's go."

————

Dib arrived to ZiM's house a lot later than expected. He wasn't planning on telling ZiM why, and he was definitely not telling ZiM what was going on. Nothing about the killer, nothing about the forest, nothing about having to call the police. He just had to deliver what he was supposed to.

"Dib-thing! What are you doing here at this time looking like that?" ZiM was a bit surprised to see him—especially as Ghost.

"Oh, uh, I brought you something. I know it's been a shitty time recently, so I thought I should just, do somethin' nice, y'know?" He stood a bit awkwardly, but only because he had somehow gotten a rock in his boot on the way over.

"ZiM is waiting for the offering."

"Wow, sure, okay," Dib held out a medium-sized back, filled almost entirely with candies.

Upon taking it an examining the contents, ZiM's eyes widened and sparkled. "Yes, yes, come in, Dib."

Dib walked in and got a look at the current state of ZiM's base; still a bit dirty, but most things had been straightened out. It was nice to see that things were getting better. "Sorry I couldn't come earlier, I was out with Carrie..."

ZiM's eyes stopped sparkling a bit. "Yes... your human mate. Eh, strange Earth feelings, I must say..." he sighed, something in him hurting a small bit.

Dib smiled. "Yeah, yeah, Irkens don't feel love, yadda yadda. How've you been recently?"

"Oh, well, you know."

"Not really."

"But, you do! Why would—" ZiM paused, remembering how Pilot told him to act around his "other look". "...ehh, I've been alright. Still no purpose in life anymore, but it seems to be working out. I have been wanting to go back to demolishing your filthy kind, but that still has no purpose to me." ... "...you don't want anything from me right now after coming here, do you..?"

Dib walked over, sitting on ZiM's couch. "What? No! I don't want anything from you at all! If we're going to be, well, friends, I can't just bribe you with gifts 'n' shit to do stuff. Unless that was completely unrelated and I mistook your question."

"...you don't? You just came here to give ZiM gifts? No yelling or demanding or anything?"

"Uh... yeah?"

ZiM smiled. "That is... nice, human." ZiM sat down as well.

"A thank you would be nice," Dib grinned.

"Don't push your luck, I'm not that nice yet," ZiM nicely smirked. There was then a short silence, and they kinda just looked at each other for a while. "...I like you better this way."

"Huh?" Dib blinked.

"When you're like this... nice. I like the nice from you."

Dib nudged him a little. "Well...I like you like this, too."

ZiM tried his best to keep himself from turning slightly purple; he couldn't let these primitive feelings contaminate his Irken mind! Besides, he doesn't have a good chance with someone who already has a mate.
Honestly? ZiM was jealous of Carrie. She got to hang out with this Dib all the time... why couldn't Dib always be like this with him? No screaming, no weird demands, no shaking when things don't go right... but, hey! Maybe it didn't matter! Maybe his Dib will drop the scary act soon..!

"God, I'm sorry, but can I take my shoe off for a second? There's a rock or something in the bottom..."

ZiM snapped out of his silence. "Eh? Oh, sure..." he turned away a bit, trying to grab a pillow from behind him.

Dib got his boot off, turning it upside down. He hit against the heel, focusing on getting the small deathtrap out... until his focus shifted to something else: the boot pattern. Something in Dib's head went off, and he was paralyzed. It couldn't be. It couldn't!..
Dib quickly got his phone out and went to photos; sure enough, the shoe prints in the trail, the shoe print that was the same size as Dib's, had the same pattern as his boots.