This is based off of a story by Edgar Allan Poe with the same name, Enjoy!
Remastered in 9/29/18
"Hello, My name is Lynn Loud Jr and I am very nervous, very nervous; But will you say that I am insane? The mental disease I've gained had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard many things in heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I insane?
My friends and even some of my family said that I had lost it. Listen! And observe how healthily, how calmly I can tell you the whole story."
It is impossible to say how the idea entered my brain; but once concieved, it stuck to me day and night. Objects there was none. Passion there was none. I loved my brother. He had never wronged me. He never gave me an insult and always agreed to play sports with me. For his belongings I had no desire. I think it was his eye... YES! it was this. He got caught in an accident by one of my younger sister, Lisa's experiments which damaged his left eye. He had the eye of a vulture. A pale blue eye, with film over it. When ever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees, very gradually, I made up my mind to take the life of my little brother, and then I'll be free of the eye forever.
Now this is the point where you say I'm mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should've seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded-with caution-with great foresight-with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder with Lincoln than during the whole week before I killed him. And every night, about midnight, I turned the knob on his door and opened it. I grabbed one of my younger sister, Lana's dark lantern. It was closed, closed, that no light shined out, and then I thrust my head. Oh, You would have laughed to see how cunningly I came in! I moved very slowly so Lincoln won't wake up. Thankfully, Our thin walls were redone to Ben thicker everyone can have their privacy now. It took me a whole hour to place my whole head through the opening so far that I could see Lincoln sleeping on his bed. Ha! would a madman have been so wise as this, And then, when my head was well in the room, I cautiously undid the lantern since the door hinges creaked. I undid it so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye. And this is did for 7 nights-every night at midnight. But I always found his eye closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it wasn't my brother who vexed me, but his Evil Eye. And every morning, when the day broke; I went boldly in the dining room, and spoke courageously to Lincoln, calling his name with a hearty tone, and asked how he slept the night before. So you see he would have been a profound boy, indeed, to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I watch him while he sleeps.
On the eighth night I was more cautious on opening the door than usual. A clock's minute hand moves more quickly than did mine. Never before that night I felt the extent of my own powers-of my sagacity. I could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph. To think that there I was, opening the door, little by little. and Lincoln doesn't even dream of my secret deeds or thoughts. I chuckled at the idea; and it seems that he has heard me; for he suddenly moved on his bed, as if startled. Now you may think that I drew back-but no. His room was pitch black with thick darkness,(considering he has a small window in his room) So I knew that he could not see the door opening, and I kept pushing it on steadily.
I had my head in, and was about to open the lantern when my thumb slipped upon the tin fastening and my brother sprang up in bed.
"Who's there?" called Lincoln
I kept still and said nothing. For a while hour I did not move a muscle, and in the meantime I did not hear him lie back down. Lincoln was still sitting up in bed listening like how I've been doing night after night, hearkening to the death watches in the wall(Death watches in the wall? Am I hanging out with Lucy too much?).
Presently I heard a slight groan, a groan of mortal terror. It was not a groan of pain or grief-oh, no!-it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe. I knew the sound well! Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it was welled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me. I say I knew it well. I knew what my little brother felt, and I pitied him, although I chuckled at heart. I knew that he had been awake ever since the first slight noise, when he had turned into the bed. His fears had been ever since growing upon him. He had been trying to fancy them causeless, but could not. He had been saying to himself...
"Maybe it's just a cricket which made a chirp. Or Charles is bumping into things downstairs. Probably the wind coming through the door." Lincoln whispered
Yes, he had been trying to comfort himself with these superstitions; but he had found them all in vain. All in vain; because Death, in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim(Yep...gotta stop hanging out with Lucy.). And it was the mournful influence of the unperceived shadow that caused him to feel- although he didn't hear nor saw- to feel the presence of my head in his room.
I have been waiting for a long time, very nervously, very patiently, without hearing him lie down, I resolved to open a little -a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it. You cannot imagine how stealthy I undid it. Until, a length, a simple dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot out from the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye.
It was opened wide, wide open, I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness -all full blue, with a hideous veil over it sent a chill down the very marrow of my bones; but I could see nothing else of my brother's face or person, for I had directed the ray as if by instinct, precisely upon the cursed spot.
And have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the sense? Now, I say, A low, dull, quick sound came to my ears. Such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sounded well, too. It was the beating of my brother's heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.
But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed. I held the lantern motionless. I tried as steadily as I could to maintain the ray upon the eye. Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every instant. My brother's terror must've been extreme! It grew louder, I say, Louder every moment! Did you mark my words that I am nervous? So I am. And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of our house, so strange that noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror. Yet, some minutes longer, I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, Louder! I thought the heart might burst. And now a new anxiety seized me -The sound would be heard by a neighbor! My brother's hour has come! With a Loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room.
"Lynn?!" said Lincoln with a shocked tone.
He shrieked once. Once only as I dragged him to the floor and pulled the heavy bed over him and later on top so he couldn't escape. I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done. But, for many minutes, the heart beated on with a muffled sound. My brother died of suffocation. I removed the bed and examined the corpse. Yes, he was stone, cold dead. I placed my hand upon the heart and held it there for many minutes. There was no pulsation. Lincoln was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no more!
If you still think that I'm crazy, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body. My family won't figure out my crime then, they'll think that Lincoln ran away. The night waned, and I worked hastily, but I'm silence, First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head, then the arms, then the legs.
I found some loose planks under a piece of rug in the the living room. Inside the hole, I found a blanket with the presidential seal(Why was that down there?). I placed Lincoln's dismembered parts into the gold and carefully placed the boards back in place. So cleverly, So cunningly l, that no human eye, Not even Lisa will notice anything wrong. There was nothing to wash out for I did the dismembering in the bathtub! Haha!
By the time I finished my labors, it was four O' clock, still dark as midnight. I was about to go to bed until I heard the sound of knocking at the front door. I went and got my Dad, Lynn Sr from his slumber and he answered the door. On the other side of the door were three police officers. They had a call about someone screaming so they came to investigate the neighborhood and we were the final house of their patrol.
My father supports the police force so he invited them in and offered them refreshments, They happily agreed. My Dad and the officers sat in the living room with hot cups of coffee and some cookies. I grabbed a chair from the dining room and placed my chair on top of the very planks my dead brother was under, I wore a face of triumph as they wouldn't figure out my incredible plan!
The officers and dad talked about their jobs and family. I started to feel weird and wish that the cops would leave. I started to hear a strange but familiar sound, It became more distinct as soon as I realized that the sound was not within my ears.
I grew pale, but I managed to keep a strait face as my father socialized with the city employees. The sound increased. What could I do? It was low, dull, quick sound. Like a sound a watch makes when enveloped in cotton...
I gasped for breath but nobody noticed.
The sound steadily increased, Why won't they leave already? I began to tap my fingers in my leg but the noise still increased. Oh God! What could I do? I foamed, I raved, I swore! I swung my chair upon where I had been sitting and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continued to grow. It grew Louder, Louder, Louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly, and smiled. Was it possible that they didn't hear the noise? no, NO! They heard! They suspected! They knew! They were mocking my horror, this I thought and I think! But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more better than this derision! I couldn't bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream to die! And now again! Listen! Louder! Louder! Louder! Louder!
"Villians!" Lynn jr shrieked
The cops and Lynn Sr faced her.
"Dissemble no more! I admit the crime!"
Lynn jr quickly ripped up the planks under the carpet, Lynn Sr started to wonder how she knew about that.
"Here, Here! It is the beating of my brother's hideous heart!" shouted Lynn Jr
The three officers along with Lynn Sr peered into the hole. The cops eyes widened with surprise as Lynn Sr gasped at the sight of his dead son.
Royal Woods Insane Asylum:
Lynn Jr was emitted to the asylum and now lives in a padded cell along with a straitjacket. Lynn Sr and Rita Loud prayed that their daughter would find help. The sisters now see Lynn as a monster, a criminal, a maniac, The one who killed their brother, They all hoped that Lynn would never be released.
The End
When Lynn saw a blanket with the Presidential Seal on it. It was a reference to the episode "Not a Loud".