Happy Birthday! Wait, it's not your birthday?
It's actually my birthday (when I'm posting this, if you're reading it later), but I don't like to hog it to myself. On a joyful day, the best thing to do with said joy is spread it, right? And since you guys like stories, I figured that's the way to do it.
I've been working this idea around in my head for a while, so I decided to get to it, and give it to you guys as a birthday gift! Hope you like it, I'd hate to see you at the store trying to return it.
Today was a peaceful day in the Loud House... Well, that isn't entirely truthful. It was still fairly chaotic. But by comparison to the usual, it was peaceful.
Lori and Leni Loud, the two oldest of the eleven Loud siblings. Sat quietly in their shared bedroom. Lori was busy with her phone, sending text messages out to friends and, most importantly, her beloved "Bobby Boo-Boo Bear".
Leni, meanwhile, also had all of her attention focused on a screen. But hers was a mirror, reflecting the face that held power over most of the boys attending Royal Woods High (and even some of the girls). She scanned her own reflection intently, making sure she didn't find any flaw or blemish.
Lori looked up from her phone for a minute, noticing her sister.
"I already told you an hour ago, there's literally no zits on your face." she said. Leni turned around to face her, showing some concern.
"I know! But I have to be, like, extra sure! I can't let Chad see me if I'm not perfect!"
Lori rolled her eyes. "His name is Chaz, Leni."
"Oh, right..."
Both girls went to resume what they were doing. However, when Leni looked back at the mirror, she saw something behind her. A large shadow, slowly reaching out with eight long, crooked legs.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Lori jumped so suddenly at the loud, high-pitched scream that she fell off the bed. Looking up in a daze, she saw Leni cowering against the wall, covering her face with her hands.
"LENI!" she yelled, "Why did you do that!?"
"S-S-Sp..." the other girl tried to respond. "SPIDER!"
Hearing that word simply made Lori groan in frustration. She was far too used to this by now.
"Alright, fine. Where is it?" she asked, reaching down and taking off one of her shoes. As she did, Leni cautiously lifted her face out of her hands.
"I-it was behind me! It was, like, huge! Almost as big as a person! Pl-please kill it..."
She must be exaggerating, Lori thought. Still, to make this all end sooner, she got up and began looking around the back wall of the room. She checked the walls, the ceiling, even under the bed.
"There's no spider here, Leni. You're literally just seeing things."
"Nuh-uh!" Leni retorted. "I saw it! It's gonna get me, and wrap me up, and eat my brain!"
"Poor thing'll starve, then..." Lori said under her breath. "Ok. If you see it again, I promise I'll kill it. But for now, just go back to your mirror."
Lori went back to her bed, and to her phone, which had already gotten eight missed texts in the two minutes she was away from it. Reluctantly, Leni eventually got up and went back to her mirror, still shaking.
"Lori's right. There's no spider. I was just, like, seeing things." Leni thought to herself. Thankfully, her fears fully vanished when she got back to her mirror.
"Omigosh! That girl is, like, so pretty! I'm totes jelly!" Leni waved to the mirror. After a second, she stopped, and began moving her hand around a bit more. "Oh yeah, that's my reflection! I'm glad Lori taught me that trick to remember."
Admiring her reflection a little more, Leni took notice of something that wasn't there before: a small red dot, right between her eyes.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" she thought to herself. She frantically shot her arms forward, grabbing a jar of some sort. She opened it, stuck her finger inside, and rubbed some of the substance within onto the blemish.
After a second, she looked back up to the mirror. The unsightly pimple seemingly vanished, hidden underneath the make-up. Leni allowed herself to smile again before...
"Eek!"
Two more zits on her left cheek. Leni grabbed more make-up and covered those, too. Only to discovered more. Eventually, it got to the point where zits were appearing faster than Leni could cover them!
"LORIIIIIIIII!" she squealed.
"Ugh! What is it n-" Lori groaned as she looked up. At this point, Leni was using her entire hand to scoop make-up onto her face, desperate to cover it up.
"Leni! What on earth are you doing!?" the oldest girl yelled as she got up and took the jar away. Grabbing a tissue from the desk, Lori began wiping globs of make-up off of her sister's face.
"No, don't wipe it off! They're everywhere! I'm hideous!" Leni yelled as she tried to push her sister's hands away.
"There is literally nothing on you! Look!"
Lori forced the other girl to look into the mirror. Leni's face was flawless again, aside from all of the wasted make-up splotched on.
However, as Leni allowed herself to feel relief again, the first red dot reappeared.
"Aaaahhh!" Leni screamed again. This time, she stood up and ran out of the room, waving her arms in panic.
Lori just watched, half confused and half frightened.
"Ok, something is going on here..." she thought. She wondered what could be the explanation... A spider that wasn't there, and then the mirror tricking her into seeing zits...
Trick...
"Luan!" Lori yelled, heading to the door.
However, when she got to the door, it slammed shut in her face. A beeping noise could be heard, signifying that the electronic lock was triggered.
"Oh, when I get my hands on that buck-toothed little..." Lori mumbled to herself, barely containing her anger. She entered the key onto the pad beside the door, which should've unlocked it, but it didn't do anything.
She tried again, and still nothing happened, even though it said "password accepted" on the pad.
Lori's thought about which bad words she was gonna use against her sister when she finally got out, but her thoughts were interrupted by a loud electronic sound, followed by the lights going out.
"Wh-what!?" Lori said. Looking around, she could see nothing. She turned to where her window would be, but couldn't make it out. There SHOULD be sunlight coming in, but it was pitch-black.
A soft laughter could be heard, but Lori couldn't make out where it was coming from.
"L-Luan, this isn't f-funny anymore!" Lori yelled out, getting no response but more laughter.
"L-Luan? Lucy? L-Lincoln!?" the laughter continued.
"Somebody? H-help me!" Lori allowed her fear of the dark to take over, and began banging on her door.
Meanwhile, down the hall, two more girls sat in their room. The twins were in the middle of an argument, in which Lola was debating with Lana that soda-burping contests were NOT appropriate at a tea party. But their debate was cut short by a power outage, and the distant sound of banging.
"Wh-what's going on!?" Lola asked, her anger melting away and being replaced with fear.
"I dunno. Must've blown a fuse or something. I'll go check it out." Lana replied calmly, heading for the door. Lola felt a little twinge of jealousy that her sister was handling this much better than her.
Lola, however, heard the sound of a locked door, and a frustrated younger girl trying to open it.
"Lola, did you lock the door?" Lana asked.
"Lana..." Lola replied. "Our... our door doesn't lock..."
"Well, if it doesn't lock, then why is it-"
Lana was cut off by what sounded like the beat of a drum, coming from all directions in the room.
"Wh-what is that!?" Lana said, now allowing herself to be scared.
"I-it must just be Luna!" Lola tried to say, but the drums were getting louder and drowned her voice out.
Now knowing that something is terribly wrong, Lana turned back to the door, intent on busting it down. However, when she turned, she saw something off.
There was some sort of mask on the door, that wasn't there before. It looked like something some kind of witch doctor would wear. The thing had a faint green glow, which let Lana make it out.
Lana was about to speak up and ask her sister about it, when suddenly it... leapt off the door. It's eyes began to glow that same shade of green, and it's mouth turned into a grin.
"AHHHH!"
Lana fell back in surprise. The mask continued to float towards her, causing her to crawl backwards away from it.
"L-L-Lola!" she said, as she ended up in the center of the room with her. "It's some freaky evil m-mask!"
"I-I know!"
Lana turned to look back on her sister, but saw even more masks. They all had different details, but they all had glowing eyes and grins, and they floated towards the girls, surrounding them in a circle.
"Bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum" the masks began to chant, matching perfectly with the tune of the drums in the background.
"What's going on!?" The twins yelled out in unison. They were now hugging each other, shaking in the center of the circle.
"ARE YA REEEEADY!?" the masks yelled out, in a sinister voice. It almost sounded like it was singing the words.
"Wait... Isn't this f-from some movie?" Lola asked.
Lana thought for a second. Now that she mentioned it...
"Y-yeah! This is from that movie with the frogs and that voodoo guy!" she responded.
The twins stopped shaking, now convinced that this was some sort of prank.
"ARE YA REEEEADY!?" the masks shouted out again.
"We're ready alright... Luan!" Lola yelled back at them.
The twins now stood up to the masks, which resumed their musical chant. However, now a bunch of different colored lights were now floating around in the room.
"Seriously, Luan, cut it out! You got us!" Lana shouted. "I wonder how she's doing this, though..."
"L-L-L... LANA!"
Lana turned to her sister's voice. She saw that those weird lights were now surrounding Lola, making her almost seem to glow like the masks. But something else was happening to her.
Lola's arms were changing. Her pink gloves were vanishing, turning into smooth green skin, and her hands became webbed and sticky, kinda like a...
"Lola! You... you're turning into a frog!" Lana yelled out.
"N-No! I don't wanna be a frog! HELP M-RIBBIT!" Lola was interrupted as a long tongue shot out of her mouth.
Lana couldn't react. She just stood, watching the transformation of her sister.
"Th-this... is..."
"AWESOME!" she finally said. "Change me, too! Change me, too!"
The musical chanting and drums became even louder, as now the magical lights began swirling around Lana.
"Yeah!" Lana shouted out, watching her arms begin to glow.
But her arms didn't take on any frog-like features. Instead, she felt some sort of fabric on them. Slowly, she saw purple, glittery gloves appear.
"Wha-" she tried to say, but stopped when she felt her hat fly off her her head. Her hair became undone from her usual knotted pigtails, instead straightening into a long braid.
"Lana..." Lola said in a deeper voice than usual. "You're turning into a princess!"
"No... NOOOOOO!"
Both twins only watched in horror as the other transformed into their worst nightmares, the chanting now becoming almost deafening.
Suddenly, it was interrupted by the sound of their door being broken in.
"WHAT'S GOING ON!?" they heard their brother Lincoln yell. The boy held a flashlight, which he directed at the twins.
Being hit with the light, the masks stopped their music, and turned to the boy with a snarl, before vanishing almost instantly.
With the wooden abominations out of the way, the girls could clearly see the group of Lincoln, Lisa, Luan, and Lynn standing at the door.
"LINKY!" both girls yelled. The twins both ran up to their brother, each clinging to one of his legs.
"It's ok, it's ok, we're here now..." Lincoln said, dropping the flashlight so he could hug them both.
After comforting his sisters, Lincoln turned to the one on his right. "Ok, what happened in there, Lola?"
The girl looked at him in confusion.
"Uhh... I'm Lana, dude..." she said. It was unlike Lincoln to mix them up. Even if they were dressed exactly the same, most of the family could tell them apart.
"Huh? But... why are you dressed like that?"
Lana looked down at her body, and nearly screamed again. She was still wearing those sparkly gloves, and was now also in a matching purple dress, large and poofy like something a queen would wear. It was even fancier than the clothes Lola owned! On her head, she found a small silver crown with a gem on the front.
"It... it didn't wear off! I'm still a princess!" she cried out. Next to her, Lola had a horrified look on her face.
"If she's still a princess... OH NO!" Lola darted back into the room, grabbing a mirror from her bedside.
Thankfully, she was NOT a frog, or even part frog. Her tongue was normal length, and her skin was perfectly human. However, she was now wearing what appeared to be one-piece froggy pajamas, complete with a hood.
"Ok, ok, somebody please explain what's going on here!?" Lynn yelled out.
After a brief moment, the twins explained their paranormal experience, and how it seemed to be attempting to transform them. Everyone looked toward Luan when they brought up how they believed it to be a prank by her.
"Don't look at me! Even MY pranks aren't this sophisticated!" she said. "The only thing I can think is that this is the work of some kinda ghost! But don't let me get our spirits down or anything!" she allowed herself to chuckle at her pun.
"Pish posh." Lisa replied. "There is no such thing as ghosts, apparitions, poltergeists, or anything else of that sort. What the twins have experienced can surely be explained by science."
"Umm, Lisa?" Lincoln asked. "How exactly are you going to explain evil, singing voodoo masks turning little girls into frogs? That doesn't sound very sciency."
"Everything can be explained by science, brother. Regardless of how ridiculous it may seem." Lisa adjusted her glasses as she spoke. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I shall go back into my room to try and see what we can do about this predicament."
As the youngest girl left to go back into her room, the others gathered around. The twins briefly looked at each other.
"Switch outfits when this is all done?" Lola asked, unable to keep from admiring how beautiful Lana's ghostly dress is.
"Deal!" Lana replied happily, unable to keep from admiring how beautiful Lola's amphibian pajamas are.
"Ok." Lincoln began speaking to the group. "Since I have the most ghost-hunting experience, I should take the lead. But first, we should check on everybody, and make sure nothing else is happening like what happened to Lola and Lana!"
"Right!" Lynn answered. "Although I'LL be taking the lead, since I'm the toughest!"
"No, I'm the leader, because I'm the only one in this house with an official ARGGH! membership!" Lincoln retorted.
"Well, how about I give you an official Black Eye Club membership, too!?" Lynn replied, shaking her fist.
The arguing stopped when they heard a thump downstairs, followed by a groaning noise.
"Ok! Lincoln's in charge!" Lynn yelled, nudging her brother towards the stairs. "Let us know if you find anything!"
Lincoln just sighed, turning on his flashlight and carefully descending.
"H-hello? Anyone there?" he asked, examining everything he could see.
"Uuuuugh" he heard nearby, followed by another thud.
"Sh-sh-show yourself, spirit!" he yelled back, reaching the bottom of the stairs.
"Uuugh!"
Suddenly, a brown face appeared in the light, inches from Lincoln's own. It had no visible nose or mouth, just deep black eyes.
"AAARGGH!" Lincoln yelled, trying to move back but hitting the stairs behind him. "G-go away, ghost!"
The creature didn't move, though, instead, it turned and looked to it's side.
"Landon? Is that you? I can't see!" it yelled out in a muffled voice.
"Wait..." Lincoln said. He shone the light down, and found himself looking at a light blue dress.
"Leni?"
The head nodded, although it still wasn't looking his way. Now being able to take a better look, Lincoln saw that the girl was wearing a brown paper bag over her head, with her sunglasses covering where her eyes would be.
He reached up and took the glasses, revealing eyeholes cut into the mask and allowing her to see.
"Oh! Thanks, Linky!" she said happily.
"Why are you wearing that?"
"Because of the zits, duh!" she replied, as if the question was silly.
Lincoln rolled his eyes. He figured that she had maybe one easily-hidden zit. "Well, you can ditch the sunglasses while you wear it, then."
"Uhh, no way!" she yelled out, grabbing the glasses from her brother and resting them atop the bag. "I still need to be fashionable. What do you think?"
Leni proceeded to do some model poses.
"It really works on you, Leni..." he replied sarcastically. "Now, let's head upstairs."
The two went upstairs, with Lincoln having to take her hand and guide her halfway up to avoid another bump happening. Eventually, they rejoined the group.
"Ok, guys. That sound was just Leni." he told the group. Leni happily waved high to everyone as he did. "Now, let's check on everybody else."
"OMIGOSH, LORI!" Leni shouted out. "She's in there with the spider! We have to save her!"
Following her lead, the group went to the oldest girls' room first. Leni tried to open the door, but it didn't budge.
"Oh, shoot! She must've locked it! What's that password again?"
Leni hummed a little tune to herself, which Lincoln figured was to help her remember the numbers. Eventually, she entered four of them, and the words "password accepted" show up.
However, Leni tried to open the door again, and it failed.
"But, I, like, got it right!" Leni yelled out, shaking the door.
"Lori! Are you in there!?" Lincoln yelled out.
Faintly, they could hear a voice in the room call back.
"Th-th-the door's st-stuck!" it sounded like Lori, but her voice was meek.
Everybody took turns trying to open the door, except for Lynn, who walked back towards Luna and Luan's door.
"Alright, guys, stand back!" she yelled out.
Recognizing what that warning meant, everybody leapt to the sides. Lincoln turned his flashlight to see Lynn begin to running at the door.
CRASH!
Charging the door shoulder-first, Lynn managed to break it down.
The group quickly entered the room. It was dark inside, but far darker than it should be, especially in the middle of the afternoon.
"Where are you, Lori!?" Lincoln shouted out as he shown his flashlight around. The light barely seemed to reach into the room.
"Ov-over here!" he heard, from the far right corner.
Lincoln shot the light over there. He could faintly make out the image of Lori laying on her bed. As soon as he did, a sound like a small girl's giggle could be heard, and the room lit up. The power was still out, but sunlight was coming in again, and they could see Lori clearly.
"Lori!" Leni yelled out as she ran and nearly tackled Lori in a hug. "Are you, like, alright? Did the spider try to get you!?"
Lori allowed herself to chuckle a little at her sister. "I'm fine... I-it was just so dark... I had my phone on, but it only lit up about a foot in front of it..."
As Lori allowed herself to adjust to the light again, she could make out Luan standing in the crowd.
"YOU!" she yelled out, pushing Leni off of her so she could make her way over. "This isn't funny, Luan! This was literally one of your meanest pranks, and it isn't even April Fools!"
"No, Lori!" Lincoln yelled out, moving between her and a scared-looking Luan. "This wasn't her. We think it's a ghost... Lola and Lana were haunted in their room, too!"
The oldest looked over to the twins. "Well, I was wondering what was up with their Opposite Day fashion choices... But what makes you so sure it was a ghost?"
"Think about it, Lori... Leni saw spiders and zits, something tried to make Lola and Lana think they were turning into a frog and a princess, you were trapped in the dark... Something is taking advantage of our fears!"
"What do we do, Lincoln?" Lynn asked.
"Yeah, you watch that crappy ARGGH! show." Lori said. "You tell us what do to about it."
As Lincoln was about to answer, loud music suddenly began blaring behind them. Everybody turned to see the door to Luna and Luan's room, shaking off it's hinges from the sound.
"O-ok..." Lincoln started. "I think we should split up..."
"SPLIT UP!?" Luan asked. "Why on Earth would we split up!?"
"Whatever kind of ghost this is, it's trying to prey on our individual fears. I know splitting up sounds bad right now, but the sooner we get all 11 of us together, the stronger we'll be."
"Ok. Luan and Lori, you two go across the hall and fetch Luna. Since she's playing music full-blast, I imagine she's alright."
"I'll be silent as the grave!" Luan replied with a chuckle, causing Lori to groan.
"Lynn and Leni, you two go to Lisa and Lily's room. They're the furthest away, so be careful. And don't let the ghost torment them!"
"Yes, sir!" Lynn replied with a salute. Leni tried to salute, but.. "Ow!" hit herself in the head.
"Me and the twins will go get Lucy. She's the most qualified besides me to deal with hauntings, so her help is really important. And we can protect the girls until we all meet up again." the twins clung to Lincoln's legs again as he said that.
"We'll meet back up outside of my room when we're done. Be as fast as you can! And if you see anything ghostly, try to get away or find help!"
After that, the group all headed out and dispersed. Luan and Lori went right across the hall, Lynn and Leni went down to the end of the hall, and Lincoln went with Lola and Lana to the central room.
A few minutes ago...
"Hmm, power's out?"
Luna looked up from her phone, seeing a dark and empty room. Due to the rock music playing at high volume in her earbuds, she hadn't really heard anything that's been going on.
"Luan ain't here... I should probably see wha-"
Before Luna could finish her thought, the next song on her playlist began. It just so happened to be her favorite Mick Swagger tune.
"Well, maybe after this song."
Luna spent the next couple minutes head-banging, playing air drums, and just generally rockin' out. But suddenly, just when it got to her favorite part of the song, it went to static.
As she went down to lok at her phone, suddenly music began playing at a higher volume, but it wasn't Mick Swagger anymore.
"DON'T TELL MY HEART, MY ACHY-"
Country! Luna began pretty much assaulting her phone's screen, trying desperately to turn off that noise.
Eventually, she managed to make it stop. The next song in the playlist loaded up, and the soothing intro to a Pink Fjord song began.
"Ah, that's better..."
"Hello? Is there any-RHINESTONE COWBOY!"
The sudden shift and almost doubled volume made Luna jump right out of her bed. What the heck is going on!?
Again, Luna tried to get the song to change. But nothing was happening. In fact, the volume kept going up! After a moment, she gave up entirely, yanking the buds out of her ears and gently tossing her phone onto the bed.
"Finally, the sound of silence..." Luna said to herself.
However, as she turned around to leave the room, she suddenly found herself looking into the eyes of another person.
"GAH!" she yelled as she jumped back. A strange woman was standing right in front of the door, staring at her.
"Who the bloody heck are you!? How did you get in here!? Where's... my..." Luna's rant died down as she took a closer look at the intruder. "W-Wait. Are you... Tayla Shift?"
Slowly, Tayla, or whoever this is, opened her mouth. However, mere words didn't come out. Instead, very loud music began blaring. To Luna's horror, it wasn't even just country, but...
"C-c-country pop!" her mind screamed as she covered her ears. She backed away, trying to reach for her guitar or SOMETHING to hold in self-defense, but she couldn't bring herself to lower her hands from her ears.
'Tayla' walked forward, keeping her mouth unnaturally wide open and playing the music. Besides that, though, she showed no other emotion, and her eyes stared blankly ahead.
"G-Get me off this crazy train!" Luna yelled out, kneeling down against the wall. She could only watch as 'Tayla' kept moving, almost having her cornered. And then...
"Hey! Get away from her!"
Luna looked back, seeing Luan and Lori standing at the doorway. The former was plugging her ears too, but the latter was entering the room with balled fists.
'Tayla' looked back at them, "screaming" a loud guitar cord, and then vanished. Afterwards, Lori ran up to Luna, helping the younger girl up.
"Are you ok, Luna?" she said, showing genuine concern.
"Y-yeah, I'm good... Just a little freaked out..."
"Me too, I actually LIKE that song... But anyway, we'll explain everything on the way to Lincoln's room. It's a long story..."
Grabbing hold of Luna's hand, half to help her feel safer and half to feel safer herself, Lori lead her out of the room. Luan didn't follow, however.
"Hey, Luan, come on." Lori said, turning back to the comedian.
"You guys go ahead. Now that this room's clear, I wanna grab Mr. Coconuts. I don't want no ghost messing with him!" she said. Rolling her eyes, Lori continued forward with Luna.
"Now, where is that blockhead?" Luan said to herself as she scanned the room. Meanwhile, unknown to her, something watched her.
As Luan opened her closet and began looking through, a ghostly image appeared behind her, where 'Tayla' was previously standing. Slowly, it manifested itself into the form of a man in black, baggy clothes and a balaclava. A traditional imagining of a burglar.
The burglar spirit crept up behind the girl, not yet making any sounds. It raised it's arms up, prepared to do something terrifying...
"Oh! There you are, Mr. Coconuts!"
Luan lifted her ventriloquist dummy, hugging it as if it were real. The dummy faced back behind her, it's unliving eyes staring blankly at the burglar... who froze and began to shake.
"Time to go join the others! I know you aren't a phan-tom them ghosts!" Luan chuckled as she turned around. While doing so, she momentarily moved Mr. Coconuts closer to the burglar. The spirit leapt back in fear, vanishing into a puff of smoke before landing.
Meanwhile...
After the group finished discussing their split-up plan, Lynn had already grabbed Leni's arm and bolted with her to the end of the hallway. The older girl was nearly dragged along the ground, but managed to keep up.
"Ok, we just need to grab Lisa and Lily, and then chill out while we wait for the others." Lynn explained. "Got it?"
Leni cocked her head. "But I'm already, like, cold! I don't wanna chill out!"
Lynn smacked her palm against her face. "Never mind. We just need to wait in here."
Taking the lead again, Lynn opened the door. Thankfully, nothing supernatural was going on. Lily was playing with toys in her crib, while Lisa was performing math on a whiteboard in the center of the room.
"Hey, Lis!" Lynn called out. "Everything alright in here?"
Leni smiled, happy to see that nothing was wrong. However, it flipped around into a frown when Lisa turned around.
She was still Lisa, but she looked as though she were going mad.
"N-no, it is not alright. I must c-complete this formula, or I will get an F! However, it's... it's illogical!"
Lisa turned back to the whiteboard, writing down more numbers. Her writing with the marker was very small, but she was still running short on room. She kept mumbling.
"No matter what I do, what calculations I perform, the formula keeps repeating in an endless loop! Giving an answer is impossible, and yet... I must! I cannot accept a failing mark!"
Lynn walked over, trying to grab Lisa's arm. "Can't you do this another time, Lis? We got this ghost crap to worry about!"
"UNHAND ME!" Lisa yelled out, pulling her arm back. "I haven't the time for these silly superstitions! I must find some way to complete the formula!"
The two girls just watched as Lisa frantically marked down numbers, mumbling to herself about how the answer seems to get farther rather than closer. Lynn thought about trying to stop her by force, but didn't want to risk that with Lily in view.
Ultimately, though, it was Leni who made a move. So quickly that Lisa could not react, she snatched the marker from her hands.
"WHAT ARE YOU-"
In one wide movement, Leni drew a large letter C onto the whiteboard, at the end of the formula.
"There! I answered it!" Leni said happily.
"C? C!?" Lisa snapped. "Even I could not complete the complex, looping formulas present, and you just instantly decide on the letter C!?"
Leni nodded her head. Before Lisa could respond again, though, the whiteboard and marker both faded away.
"It... It accepted the answer..." Lisa said, stunned. "H-How..."
"Well, like, I learned that if I don't know the answer for tests in school, I should always guess C!" Leni responded. "It usually doesn't work in math, though..."
"Wait a minute..." Lynn spoke up. "Lisa, if you knew the whiteboard and the math were all from a ghost, why did you still say you didn't believe in it?"
"Because I still do not." Lisa said with a shrug, "However, regardless of where it came from, it seemed I was unable to resist the threat of a flawed mark regarding my intellect. I'm still only human."
Lynn and Leni both looked at each other, confused.
"Oh well... Either way, we're supposed to wait her for Linc and the girls, so we can talk about this."
Lynn walked over to Lily's crib, smiling at the happy baby.
"Hey, Lily-bug! Wanna play while we wait?"
Lily, however, was too occupied playing with a teddy bear to respond. It had black fur with a white face and paws. But the parts Lynn found off were the skull-like design on it's belly, and it's red left eye.
"Uhh, Lis?" she asked. "When did Lily get this freaky looking thing? I don't remember seeing it..."
"What are you referring to?" Lisa replied as she and Leni walked over. Looking up into the crib, she examined the bear. It was hard to tell through her glasses, but her eyes seemed to go wide.
"Lynn, I'd advise we confiscate that at once. It was not present when I first entered the room..."
In the middle of the hall...
"I don't know if I'd wanna go in there, Lincoln..."
Lola stubbornly stood by the stairs. Lincoln and Lana were right in front of Lucy and Lynn's door, watching her expectantly.
"Why are you so SCARED, Lola?" Lana said in a teasing tone. "Lucy knows all about ghosts, she can help us!"
"Yeah! B-but she might be FRIENDS with the ghosts, too! That room could be the scariest one right now!"
Lana tried to think of a reply, but couldn't.
"Sh-she's got a point..." she said as she slowly walked from Lincoln's side to Lola's.
Lincoln really wanted to say something that would make this better, but honestly nothing came to mind. Heck, even though he watched ARGGH! and believed in ghosts, he never really expected to be put in this situation in his life.
"Are you guys sure? I mean, I'll be with you in there, and even if Lucy is with the ghosts, she wouldn't hurt you!"
The twins looked at each other, thinking for a moment, and then turned back to their brother.
"Sorry, Lincoln..." Lana said, feeling a little ashamed of her own fear.
"No, no, it's ok. I'll be fine on my own..." Lincoln lied a little, trying not to make the girls feel worse with his own fear. "You guys go on ahead to Lisa's room with the others. I'll talk to Lucy and then come back."
Nodding in understanding, the two girls went down to the end of the hall. Lincoln, forcing his fear back a little, opened the door in front of him and walked in.
"Lucy? You in here?" he said as he looked around. He half-expected the room to be completely blacked out like Lori's was, but there was a flickering light coming from Lucy's bed.
Lincoln walked forward. He could hear the door down the hall creaking, signifying that Luna was collected and the other girls would walk by. That gave Lincoln some small comf-
SLAM!
Lincoln snapped back, seeing the door now shut behind him.
"Uhh, L-Lucy? Did you do that? Where are y-you?"
Lincoln looked around the room. Even though he was SURE he saw Lucy around earlier, she wasn't in here. As he tried to think about it, though, he couldn't help but keep turning his attention back to that light on her side of the room.
"What is that?" he thought, slowly approaching Lucy's bed. As he got close, he could see what the source of the light was. A small CRT television was on the bed, playing static.
"Oh! She still has this?" Lincoln thought back to when he first got this TV for her. Plugging it in caused a blackout, and they all thought there was a ghost...
"Huh, that's kind of ironic... Wait..." the boy trailed off. "If the power's out, how is this thing-"
Lincoln reached behind the TV, grabbing for the power cord. After finding it, he yanked it hard, trying to unplug it. However, the end of the cord simply whipped forward and landed on top of the TV. It wasn't plugged in in the first place.
Lincoln started to think again. However, he was cut off quickly.
An arm suddenly shot forward from the TV screen.
"GAAAAAAAH!"
Lincoln jumped back to the end of the bed, hitting his head against the wall. But he ignored the pain, watching the arm. It slowly reached down, gripping the sheets underneath it. It began to pull, as if trying to drag itself out of the screen. But it wasn't alone.
Slowly, a mass of black appeared on the screen, and began to come out too. After a second, Lincoln could identify the mass as a head covered in black hair. Judging by the arm and what little he could see between strings of hair, whatever this was had pure white skin.
It kind of reminded him of Lucy, actually...
"St-st-stay back!" Lincoln yelled out, "I'm a gh-ghost hunter!"
The creature's head snapped upwards, as if just now noticing the boy's presence. Lincoln tucked his head under his arms, prepared for the worst.
...But nothing happened.
After a moment, curiosity got the better of Lincoln, and he cautiously moved his arms apart, allowing him to get a peek. The ghost, or whatever it is, was unmoving now. Although Lincoln couldn't see eyes, years of living with Lucy somehow gave him the ability to tell that, through the hair, it was staring at him.
The weird thing, though, was that through the hair, Lincoln could see the cheeks of the creature tinted slightly red.
"Is it... blushing?"
"Umm... H-h-hello?" Lincoln asked. The ghost didn't move.
Lincoln watched the ghost, thinking of what to do. Stay put? Make a run for it? However, one of Lincoln's fatal flaws, curiosity, got the better of him.
"Uh, hi! I'm Lincoln!" he said, moving just a little closer. The girl (at least, Lincoln guessed it was a girl) still didn't move at first. But it slowly cocked it's head a little.
"So, uh... Do... do you have a name?" he asked. No response. "Are you the one scaring us?"
The ghost, girl, creature, whatever, lifted it's head a little. Lincoln was hopeful that it would begin to speak...
However, he heard the doorknob rattling. He and the ghost both snapped their heads to the sound, seeing a herd of Lincoln's sisters open the door and walk in.
"Lincoln! What on Earth is taking you so long!?" Lori asked. "Where's Lucy?"
"L-Lucy isn't here!" Lincoln said. "I was talking to the-"
The boy looked back at the TV, only to see that it was shut off. There was no longer anything coming out of the screen.
"Wait, it was just..." Lincoln began fiddling with the knobs of the old TV, but nothing worked. His sisters just watched, confused.
"You literally need electricity to turn that on, Lincoln! Now quit messing with it and come on, Lisa has something."
The sisters began to leave. Lincoln took a moment, confused by what was just happening, and left with them. He made his way to Lisa's room, where the crowd was big enough that they had to take up both the room and the hall outside.
"What is it Lisa has?" Lincoln said, trying to see through his sisters. Eventually, he saw Lisa, holding the black teddy bear. Lily, now being held by Leni, was futilely trying to reach for it.
"A teddy bear? What about it?"
"I dunno, with the big skull and the patches, it's more like a deady bear!" Everyone groaned as Luan relished in yet another pun.
"Ahem... Yes, the bear. It manifested itself within Lily's crib earlier. I ran some quick, preliminary tests while you all fetched Lincoln, and it had astounding results!" Lisa set the bear down as she pulled up some large papers.
"The composition of the toy is fabric and cotton-like stuffing, as you'd expect. However, I have failed to pinpoint exactly WHAT it is. They match no other known material on Earth!"
"IT'S A GHOST TEDDY!" Lynn yelled out. Everybody cautiously backed away, much to Lily's disappointment when Leni took her with them.
"I never said that! There are still other, more scientific possibilities..." Lisa said. "However, for the time being, I suppose it is the best assumption to make until I can run further tests..."
"BAWE! BAWE!" Lily cried out. Lisa looked back to her papers.
"The object itself is not hazardous, so it should be safe to return it to Lily."
Leni nervously leaned down and pick the bear up for Lily, but the baby grabbed it from her right away, pulling it straight into, well, a bear hug.
"Hahaha!" Luan suddenly laughed out.
"What's so funny?" Luna asked.
"I dunno... Just felt like laughing, I guess."
"...Anyway," Lori started. "We need to do something before the ghost tries to get us!"
Everybody turned to Lincoln, expecting something from him.
"W-Well, I guess all of us grouping together bought us a moment from it..." he said. "First off, does anyone know if Lucy is here? If she is, we gotta find her!"
Leni began jumping up and down, waving her free hand in the air. The bag shifted as she did, and her glasses fell back over her eyes.
"This isn't school, Leni, you can just answer." Lori said as she picked the glasses back up for her.
"I, like, saw Lucy earlier!" she said. "She was downstairs when I was putting on my bag, before the lights went out!"
Lynn chuckled. "Knowing her, she didn't even notice anything. She's probably writing poems about the 'empty blackness in the neverending void of despair' or something."
"Ok... I guess we'll have to go down and find her, then." Lincoln said. "We should all stick together, so the ghost doesn't get to us one by one!"
Everybody gave their agreement, followed by huddling closely together.
"Time to put Operation-Save-Lucy-From-The-Ghost-And-Find-Out-Why-We're-Being-Haunted-In-The-First-Place-And-Also-Think-Of-A-Shorter-Name-For-This-Operation into action! Now, follow me!"
Turning his flashlight back on, Lincoln led the crowd of girls down the hall. As they were making their way down the stairs, Lola yelled out.
"AAH! A DEMON BAT!" she pointed up to the ceiling. Everyone else, but Lana, immediately leapt down to the ground, to avoid the flying, bloodsucking creature.
Lana took the flashlight from Lincoln, and shined it upwards. There really WAS a bat hanging up there, but...
"It's just Fangs, guys! He must've gotten out while Lincoln was in Lucy and Lynn's room."
Carefully, everybody got back up, watching the bat.
"How are you able to tell that it's Fangs? Lucy has a few bats, doesn't she?" Lincoln asked.
"I consider animals to be like kids. And that makes Fangs my nephew. A good aunt knows her nephews." Lana replied with a smile.
Lincoln reached to take the flashlight from Lana, still shining it at the bat, however...
"Lana, the glitter from your gloves got on the flashlight!" he said, trying to wipe it and his hands onto his shirt.
"Heh, sorry..." the little girl replied as she pulled the gloves off. They were immediately taken by Lola, who tried her best to get them on underneath the sleeves of the frog suit.
Meanwhile, the constant movement of the flashlight caused Fangs to wake up. Stretching his wings, he took off, flying downstairs.
"Well, there he goes! Bye, Fangs!" Lana shouted, waving to the bat.
"Wait a minute... He might be heading to Lucy, dudes!" Luna said. "Don't lose him!"
Frantically, the group all followed Fangs. He didn't seem to be flying to fast, so they didn't lose sight of him. Eventually, they saw him turn to the living room.
After reaching the bottom of the stares, the group all watched fangs fly in circles above the couch.
"She must be sitting there..." Lynn whispered.
Slowly, the group approached the couch. Lincoln kept the light upward, so as to not shine it directly on Lucy and blind the poor girl.
"Lucy? You there?"
They all got right up behind the couch and looked over it, the younger girls jumping up to see. What they saw scared them a little.
An empty couch.
"Looking for me?"
"GAAAH!" everybody jumped and nearly fell. Lincoln dropped the flashlight, causing it to roll and reveal Lucy standing behind them, arms held behind her back.
"L-L-L-Lucy!" Lincoln cried out. "Thank goodness you're alright!"
"Why wouldn't I be alright?" Lucy stated flatly as she walked around the group to the front of the couch. "I enjoy the darkness. It reminds me of my soul."
"Y-You didn't hear any of the commotion!?" Lori said. "We were literally attacked by a ghost, or a demon or something!"
"Oh... You were playing with my friend?"
Everybody felt a chill down their spine as Lucy said that. Lincoln picked up his flashlight, shining it at the girl, who was standing in front of the TV.
"I knew it! I knew she was with the ghosts!" Lola yelled.
"I'm the one who brought her here. I asked her to help me teach you all a lesson." Lucy said.
"What lesson!?" Lincoln yelled out.
"Siiiiiiigh... Of course you don't remember. When you all caught me watching that Princess Pony spin-off. You laughed at me for days..."
"Oh yeah... The ponies..." Lynn said. Unfortunately, she said it with a chuckle, which made the whole group besides Lincoln begin to struggle with held-back giggles.
Although Lucy's face didn't show it, most of the girls could tell that they just ticked her off.
"I guess you still didn't learn..." Lucy now moved her arms forward. One of them was holding the TV remote. "Oh well. I'll just let you play with my friend again..."
"Wait! I-I didn't laugh!" Lincoln yelled out.
"Sorry, Lincoln. Collateral damage..."
Before anyone could react, Lucy pointed the remote at the television and pressed a button. The TV came on, playing a bunch of static. It played the audio, at first, but slowly it died down, and music began playing. A drum beat that sent Lola and Lana into each other's arms.
The voodoo masks came onto the screen, humming along with the beat as they did in the twin's room. Suddenly, they leapt forward, coming through the screen and into the real world.
"Don't change us!" the twins yelled out in unison.
More horrors began leaping through the screen. Tayla Shift crawled out, playing one of her country-pop hits. The burglar that Luan unknowingly scared back reappeared, this time scaring Luan properly. Eight long legs grabbed the edges of the screen, allowing a large spider to jump through.
"SPIDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!" Leni cried out as she turned around and tried to run... However, she hit her head on the wall. Lori managed to grab Lily away before anything else went wrong.
Eventually, there also came the teacher who gave Lisa her first and only F, and a litter of 13 black cats, which made Lynn cower behind the couch.
"Please don't cross my path, please don't cross my path..." Lynn mumbled to herself.
"Ok, I surrender! I believe in these apparitions now! Just make that superstitious madman go away!" Lisa yelled out as the teacher held up another F... and for some reason yelled out "FAIRIES!"
Lori held Lily in her arms, who was too distracted by the bear to realize the terror around her. Behind her, Leni's sunglasses began to levitate, leaving her head and flying forward, landing on Lori's face.
"What the- I c-can't see!" Lori gently set Lily down as she tried to take the glasses off, but they remained in place. They were darker than they should be, dimming Lori's vision in a way that made it seem near total darkness, aside from glimpses of the ghostly creatures.
Lincoln's eyes were focused on the other things, so he didn't notice the final movement on the TV screen at first. Slowly, the ghost from before, pale white even compared to Lucy and with stringy black hair, began to crawl from the screen.
Lincoln nearly jumped as the ghost fully emerged. It floated in mid-air, it's head moving about to observe the captive audience before it. It began to float forward, the other things behind it moving forward as well.
"Stay b-back!" Lincoln yelled out, trying to stand before his sisters as they backed away. The ghost and her army didn't listen, continuing to move forward.
"C-call them off, Lucy! I-I'm sorry!" he said. "It was wrong of them to l-laugh at you, but th-they're sorry! They don't d-deserve this!"
The creatures were now going over or around the couch. The girls were huddled against the wall.
"Y-yeah! We're literally s-sorry, Lucy!" Lori said. All of the girls began shouting out their apologies. Lucy remained silent at first, but then allowed herself to slightly smile.
"That's all I wanted... Ok, we can give them a break now."
Suddenly, the sounds of appliances and lights coming on could be heard. The power returned to the Loud House, and as the lights came on in the living room, most of the ghostly images vanished. Leni's sunglasses no longer blinded Lori, and came unstuck from the girl's face as she moved them up to her forehead.
The ghostly woman, however, did not vanish. Instead, she floated backwards, landing next to Lucy. Upon landing, however, Lincoln noticed that she wasn't a woman at all.
She was a young girl. No longer trying to scare the daylights out of them, she looked to be about Lucy's size.
"Wait... What exactly is going on!?" Luna asked.
"I told you, this is my friend. Her name is Erma."
As Lucy introduced her, the ghost girl lifted a hand and brushed back some of her hair. She exposed half of her pale white face, revealing a black eye with a white pupil, and a mouth curved into a smile.
"Wait... Erma!?" Lori yelled out. "My friend Felicia babysits a girl named Erma... She always told me these whacky stories, but I thought they were made up!"
"Nope... she actually is a ghost. Well, half ghost." Lucy explained. "Our dad met her dad at his new job, and they thought we'd get along. So before they went to see a movie today, they brought her over and introduced us."
Erma nodded happily.
"She likes a lot of the stuff I like... Including the Princess Pony shows. And when I told her you guys teased me for it, she agreed to help me scare you as payback."
Lisa seemed to bolt over to Erma, examining her carefully.
"Fascinating... I simply must study you one day!" she said excitedly. Erma looked at her with confusion.
"W-Well... I suppose, if this doesn't happen again, we can get along." Lori smiled. "Nice to meet you, Erma!"
All the girls went and crowed around her, asking her several different question about her family, her powers, her fashion choices, if she has any pets, so on and so forth. Erma didn't respond to any of them, but she seemed happy for the attention.
Lincoln walked to the end of the couch, but stayed back, still a little weirded out. After a moment, he heard the front door begin to open.
"Kids, I'm home!" he heard Lynn Sr.'s voice shout out as he came in. Behind him, a slightly younger man came in, with brown hair, a goatee, and glasses.
The two men looked over at the crowd, and both smiled.
"I see you all met Erma! Did you guys get along ok?" Lynnard asked. The crowd all answered positively, not really wanting to go into further detail. The man behind him walked up.
"I'm glad to hear that. I figured our two families were crazy enough to be friends..." he said with a smile. "But for right now, say goodbye, Erma. We gotta head home! You know how your mom gets if we're late to dinner..."
As the men went back to talking, Erma floated over to Lucy and gave her a hug. Almost uncharacteristically, Lucy smiled and returned the hug.
"Next time, how about we hang out at your place?" Lucy asked. Erma nodded to her.
The ghost girl waved goodbye to the group. Going over to Lori, she smiled at Lily, patting the baby on the head. Lily squealed happily.
"Oh, you gave her your teddy?" Erma's father said, taking notice of it in Lily's grasp. "That was very sweet of you."
As she floated towards the door, she stopped when she reached Lincoln. Watching her, the boy could see her cheeks turn a little red (although more of a grey-red).
"I guess she really was blushing earlier... Maybe she's nervous around boys?" he thought.
As Erma floated there nervously, Lincoln walked up and smiled at her.
"It was nice meeting you! I'd love to play with you again one day, if you want to." he said.
Erma began to blush even more, but her smile grew. She turned to go to her father, and although Lincoln didn't notice, she gave a little cheer as she did.
"Ooooh..." his sisters all said at once, grinning in his direction.
"What?" Lincoln replied.
As Erma got to her father, he reached down pat her head gently.
"I'm glad your kids and my Erma got along, Lynn." he said. "I insist you come over for dinner next weekend! We'll get enough for all of you!"
"Well, that sounds great, Sam! We can make plans later!" Lynnard replied. "See you!"
Erma and her dad left, the girl waving one last time to her new friends. Lynn Sr. closed the door behind them, and turned to his family.
"Now, I hope you kids weren't too crazy with-"
He stopped as he got a good look at his children. They all had messed up hair and bloodshot eyes. Lori had Leni's glasses on her head, Leni was wearing a paper bag over her own head, Lincoln had purple glitter all over his shirt, Lola was wearing a frog suit with purple gloves, Lana was in a large dress and wearing a crown, and Lily was chewing on what looked like a patched-up monster teddy bear.
"You know what? I don't think I wanna know."
Now, if you don't know who Erma is, I'd highly recommend looking her up. I've been a fan of her comic for a while. Also a freaky coincidence: As I was working on the halfway point of this story, somebody uploaded some fan art of Erma and Lucy hanging out. That's pretty cool.
Also, in addition to Loud House and it's characters, I should note, to be on the safe side, that Erma (as well as her dad), and the "Deady" bear, aren't creations of mine, nor am I trying to pass them off as such. They belong to Brandon Santiago and Voltaire, respectively. Full respect to those two, they both rock.