Hello everyone, I just wanted to give a quick thanks to anyone who took the time to read through this story, and I want to say that any criticism of any aspect that people think I can improve in would be greatly appreciated. To any of you who go out of your way to give me pointers on how to craft a better story or even a small grammatical or spelling error and everything in between, Thank you so much!
Chapter 1: The Missing Piece
It was mid December in the small town of royal woods. Two officers in a black and white police cruiser were parked in a small hidden corner near the highway, ready to catch any unsuspecting speeders going down the road so they could fill their monthly quota of tickets issued, along with leaving the radio on to accept any calls that may come in, as there were not a lot of people out and about this late at night to give tickets to, as people did not usually like driving late at night in the snow no less. As the snow continues to fall down and cascade the streets and houses of the small town, boredom slowly crept into the two of the officers that were staking out nothing but the steady gently pelting of the snow to the area around.
After moments of enduring the great mental battle of patience, they finally succumbed to their own mediums of entertainment to occupy their minds from their mundane task. The first officer cracking her window slightly, as to not let all the hot air circulating the car from the heater to escape in mass, followed up with lighting her cigarette whilst taking out her phone to scroll through her multiple social medias, trying to get her fix of entertainment as most people do when they have nothing better to do.
As the first of the two partners proceeded to enjoy herself, the second finally caved into boredom and cracked out her own phone along with a pair of earbuds she kept in her pocket, after doing so, she proceeded to plug into her phone and tune out her surroundings to enjoy some of her favorite artists. After a few minutes of this, the first officer being on her third cigarette, and the second officer being on her fifth song in an album she was trying to get through broke from her trance after getting a nice whiff of smoke from the firsts cigarette.
Agitated that her partner was not even attempting to blow the window anymore decided to give her a small glare of annoyance, which immediately melted off as she noticed she had no longer been scrolling through social media, and instead had an old photo out, the picture depicted an infant with a full head of brown hair swaddled in a blanket being cradled by a very young blond girl staring lovingly into the eyes of the baby, as it smiled back while grabbing a finger the girl offered for the infant, the picture seemed warn over the years, with watermarks that seem to have been made very recently.
As the second partner took her gaze off of the photo she razed her head slightly to see her pinching the bridge of her nose with her left hand, cigarette still in hand, with the embers burning down all the way to the light brown bud letting of a dying glow from the embers.
"Well find him Lori...we will" said the second officer with a sincere and caring tone
"*Sigh* I know Luna, I just miss the little guy." Replied the first officer, after which, there was silence between the two.
After a few moments, Lori sighed and put the photo and wallet away in her pocket. After few more moments of silence, the two were broken from their trance while staring out the front window, and shifted their gaze toward the small receiver.
"Any available units, we have a report of a noise complaint in the north west area of royal woods" Lori took the opportunity to get out of the awkward silence to be able to drive around.
"Hello, this is officer Loud." Lori said into the microphone end of the receiver "we are in the area and free to take this one. Just give us the address and well be on our way." In response to Loris answer to the call, the operator gve the two the address, and with that, they went of to the location.
Ten minutes after answering the request to go check up on a house due to a noise complaint, they had arrived to the place they were looking for. They noticed a single vehicle parked in the driveway facing outward, it was a red SUV that seemed to have been purchased recently, due to the temporary license sticker on the front slot where a permanent plate would go. The car sat on an extra large driveway that lead up to a two door garage on its right side, with a paved sidewalk that broke from the driveway half way through that curved into the porch of the cozy abode.
The house itself was a painted a light shade of red that spanned all around the exterior, as to keep a similar color scheme with the neighborhood that were all painted light colors as well. The house itself also continued the trend of the entire neighborhood with a unified look of typical town house, with the roofs that arched up from both sides of the house that connected on the small porch. There was also many windows throughout the walls of the house.
There was nothing particularly abnormal about the house in question, nothing from the garbage can left outside awaiting to be whisked away by the garbage men early in the morning, from the freshly blanketed snow that covered the lawn, to the very house that seemed to have no one stirring inside. The lights were off, there was no noise, and there was only a single thing off about the whole ordeal, and it was that Lori and Luna were called to deal with a noise complaint, and noise complaints are usually due to noise neighbors that call due to either loud music blaring to such a degree that the neighbors could hear it, or even the roaring between two having a heated argument, with yelling, cursing, an sometimes even breaking things included, as the two Louds could attest to.
"Is this the right place?" Lori said with a hint of confusion while staring at the house, taking in every detail she could of the beautiful house .
"I don't know dude, I mean its where the chick on the radio told us to go." Replied Luna with just as much confusion and amazement in her eyes as she also surveyed the house.
"Well I guess lets give them a warning since they seem like they already seemed to stop, too bad, I was hoping to have an interesting night." Lori said, this time with a hind of disappointment.
" *Sigh* Lets get on it then." Stated Luna with a monotone voice lacking amusement.
The two then proceeded to step out of the police cruiser and approach the front door, paying no mind to the fact that they were stepping over the lawn instead of the designated path paved for foot traffic, leaving behind a trail of snowy boot prints on the grass in their wake. Once they did reach the front door, Lori took the initiative and knocked on the door firmly, announcing their presence in the front door.
Knock Knock Knock
No answer, after a few moments of waiting exposed to the elements, the two louds decided to knock again, this time louder than before to make sure that the residents couldn't pretend they didn't hear.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
Again, no answer after waiting a few moments. Now the pair were getting agitated that this was becoming more complicated than before. Now breaking away from the front porch, they both looked at one another in silent agreement to snoop around the house to find out why there wasn't any response to the door. Luna took off silently around the right side of the house past the garage, while lore snuck herself around the left side, careful to not let the crunching of the snow beneath her feet sound off loud enough to let anyone know of her presence.
As she proceeded to slink around, she passed an outdoor AC unit, it didn't do much to mask the sound of Loris boots planting onto the snowy ground beneath her. As she continued, she passed by multiple windows, some very low to the ground seemingly covered up for privacy, along with windows too high to see without a stepping stool, until she made her way past one, which she curiously peeked into, stopping her in her tracks as she took in the sight in the darkness of the dimly lit house. In what seemed to be the living room, a body laying on her side facing the opposite direction of the window, while also laying in a pool of crimson that surrounded it.
Lori took a moment to take in what shed seen, and snapped herself out of her little trance, proceeding by unholstering it and aiming slightly lower than straight ahead as she continued around the rest of the house. As Lori turned the corner, spotting Luna waiting for her next to a door that served most likely as a backdoor entrance to the house, Luna Looked at Lori and confusion and concern as she noticed the unholstered weapon in her hands. Luna immediately drew her own gun as her partner approached with a serous look on her face. Lori then spoke.
"Luna, we need to call for backup, I think I saw a dead body!" Lori hissed out as silently as she could considering what was at stake.
Luna nodded and leaned into her walkie-talkie while grasping it with her left hand.
"Officer Loud, reporting in to base, requesting immediate backup and ambulance, we have a possible homicide, no culprit yet." After a moment of radio silence, there was a muffled voice that responded through the static.
"Backup heading your way in 5 minutes"
After hearing the operator respond with the news that help was on the way, Lori and Luna proceeded to the back door to test if it was open, it was.
"Huh...these small town folk never do learn to lock up at night do they." Lori said with a huff of disapproval "They aught to know better then to trust strangers." She said whispering to herself with a somber tone, all while proceeding in with her gun at the ready to deal with any threat as they went through the halls that the back door lead into.
" *Blegh* What's that smell?" Luna questioned as they came closer and closer t what was emitting the overwhelmingly intoxicating smell of iron in the air. She found her answer as the two stumbled upon what made the smell wafting through the air, it was the body Lori spotted through the window from the outside. It was the body laying down on its chest, now so close for them to appreciate that they could literally smell it. It was a woman in a previously all white dress that draped her figure from her shoulders down to her knees, with a brilliantly stitched floral pattern that ran all throughout the dress that was now tainted a deep black, most likely red though, just a dark color due to the lack of proper lighting.
Even with it being as dark as it was, the woman's beauty was still clearly noticeable, with smooth milky porcelain flesh, that seemed pale in the moonlight, and cute little facial features such as her small nose, and rosy lips left slightly open, and pale blue eyes frozen in fear staring up at the two officers. Lori and Luna were feeling sick at the sight, because the worst part about it was the body seemed to be that of a little girl, only about the age of one of their own siblings. Luna threw up in a nearby corner whilst Lori stood gagging into her arm fighting the urge to release the contents from her stomach due the mix of the stench of Lunas vomiting and from the sickening sight laying bare before them.
After a getting it out of their system and re composing themselves, Lori went ahead and checked to see any pulse on the corpse laying in front of her, though she knew there wouldn't be one all the while hearing a distant siren that got louder and louder until they were on the house, flashing blinding lights of blue and red through the windows in the front of the house that disturbed the natural darkness throughout the house. Taking the excuse to exit the room, the two made their way as quickly and cautiously as possible to the front door to greet the backup. As they exited through the front door, they were met with two officers scurrying up to the porch to group up with the two Louds as a two paramedics stood on stand by next to their truck parked next to both cop cars.
"Officer Louds! My name is officer Pegg and this is my partner officer Frost. We came here on a report of a possible homicide." Said officer peg with a serous face. His partner only standing beside him reflecting his serous demeanor only with a little more concern
"Y-Yes, that's right. There is one body, minor indications of a struggle, but nothing aside from that, we haven't finished clearing the house just yet. So lets do so." Lori stated, still not completely composed from the sight from before.
"Of course officer Loud." Responded officer Pegg with a determined voice.
After the conversation finished, the four officers went room by room with the Louds turning on the lights, to each room, fining nothing abnormal about each one. They went on, finding two bedrooms, one clearly a boys, with walls painted blue, filled with posters of horror movies, comics, a game console hooked up to a rather large TV that stood on a dresser facing a bed, along with another room next to it, that only seemed to contrast is, completely painted pink, with posters of boybands, and a tv jut as big as the one before sitting on a dresser that seemed exactly the same as the one before, one master bedroom with a grand king sized bed that layed on what seemed to be a hand carved wooden frame, with two regular nightstands on either side of the bed with one lamp on each side, again, with another dresser on the opposite wall in the room. with a door that lead to a master bathroom, complete with a huge jacuzzi bath, sink, bathroom, and bidet.
They continued their search all way to the kitchen, not sharing a word once they found the body again. The two unsuspecting officers only jolted at the sight and felt shivers go down their spine, while the two Louds only flinched at the sight, as now it could be seen clearly with the lights on, blood pooled at a greater volume then before, yet nothing else changed, but now with the lights on, there was something that wasn't seen before, blood splattered on a wall with a small black hole in the wall, with a trail of blood that went off down the hall with the back door that they haven't gotten to checked yet.
The four officers, guns in hand, started trailing the steady trail of blood drops that lead to a single metal door that was left slightly ajar, to which the first two officers peeked into, immediately pulling away gagging and tearing up at whatever they saw. peaking curiosity, or horror, the louds took their turn to peek, only for a moment, and that was all they needed. The smell was horrendous, but it paled in comparison to what they saw.
The first noticeable thing was the low hanging florescent light that served as the only light source in the room, as the basement windows were boarded up with wood planks and wrapped with cloth, and not to far from it was a bucket, which wouldn't have been that bad if it didn't seem like it was overflowing with what could only be made out to be sludge as a byproduct of urine and feces that threatened to topple over any second, on the opposite side of the room, a pair of decrepit bunk beds, that seemed to be far past metal and just rust at this time, with the most unsightly thing being two body's, one of which was a woman, wearing a plain yellow sundress with black heals, her face was indescribable as it seemed to be smashed in with a blunt object, all the way down to her chin, leaving an ocean of blood and chunks of tissue in it, being brain tissue or other, the other body having a similar affliction, having his skill caved in but not obliterated like the other, to the point that you could at least tell weather he had a beard and was bald or not, which he had a full head f black hair, along with a scruffy looking beard, with his own ocean of crimson to mix with the others as it stained his plain white button down shirt, but not making it all the way to his khaki pants or black dress shoes, and finally tying it all together, was an old rusty chair that sat under the hanging florescent light with different bindings attached to it, such as handcuffs, rope, and even a bit of barbed wire that seemed rusted or maybe tainted with blood, with a small stand filled with different tools such as plyers, wire cutters, scissors, drills, whips, and possibly worst of all a cigar cutter, of course all nice and bloody, as if they've seen much use in their lifetimes, but not for their intended use. Lori then proceeded to pull away and lose the lunch she fought so hard to keep earlier, while Luna proceeded to do the same with whatever little she had left in her stomach.
The four officers sat in silence and disbelieve of the morbid sight, until Lori finally built up the courage to persist and pried the door open, catching the attention of the three others with her, they decided to follow the example and follow Lori down into the basement shadowing her footsteps to give her support should they need into the room was worse than just peering into it, as the stench of blood and human waist beat at everyone's noses while the cold of an uninsulated room in December chilled them to the bone almost as bad as the conditions outside, as they stepped down to the bottom step of the flight of creaky wooden steps Lori stopped dead in her tracks as she noticed fidgeting of a figure in a dark end of the room, noticing this Lori immediately aimed her gun toward the figure and barked orders at it.
"HEY, YOU! GET UP AND SLOWLY TURN AROUND WITH YOURE ARMS UP!" Lori yelled at the figure that continue to fidget with something in its arms. The other officers taking notice and readying their own weapons at the possible hostile target.
"I SAID GET THE FUCK UP!" Lori reiterated, this time the figure obliged, seemingly placed what seemed to be a small body down and standing with his arms half up.
"good...Now turn around and walk!" Lori called out with less hostility yet keeping the firmness in her voice. The figure obliged and stepped forward with its arms up, slapping its bare feet on the cold concrete floor whilst shambling closer and closer to the light, until it was standing in the light, while having their toes dipped into the pools of read accumulating on the floor, the officers practically stumbled over themselves at the sight. It was a boy, so young looking that it was clear that he wasn't even an adult yet, but still almost the same height as Luna, yet still looking small, he was in a disgustingly emaciated state with scars plastered all over his body, seemingly head to toe.
His own flesh was hugging his bones so tightly as if to show there was no fat nor muscle underneath, just bone, and his bones practically prodding through his pale skin in every single square inch they could see, each individual joint could be seen on his feet, the exact length of his legs being able to be mentally measured through the lack of any tissue, all the way to his sunken belly that seemed to hide itself under the his ribcage that you didn't even have to look so closely to be able to count each individual rib, his arms practically skeletal, almost looking as if he was a rotting corpse already persisting past his neck which had a freshly bleeding wound oozing blood ever so lightly, up to his face with his salt and pepper looking hair that clearly was once a full head of brunette hair that draped over a majority of his face, but not over his sunken in cheeks that clearly showed his jawline to his half opened mouth that clearly displayed his prominent buckteeth with a chipped piece.
Lori and Luna looked on in horror of the state of this boy, so much so that they couldn't even notice they were shaking profusely through their watery eyes as they lowered their weapons, noticing this, one of the other two decided to take the lead on the conversation side in the stead of Lori.
"Boy, can you tell us you're name?" Officer Pegg asked in a much more compassionate tone then that of Loris a few seconds ago.
"M-My name... is Lincoln Loud" The boy barely choked out through a raspy whisper.
Lori and Luna dropped their pistols and practically stumbled themselves over to the boy ignoring the fact that they stepped and sloshed through the pool of blood that would be evidence later on while ignoring the warning of the other two officers who stayed back to be careful.
"L...Lincoln? I-Is that r-really you?" Lori said practically bending over to try to look into his eyes. Lincoln only bringing his gaze up from the floor slightly to asses the two approaching him by looking at their faces, going wide eyed in the process.
"Lory?...Luna?..." Lincoln choked out but this time with what sounded like hope
"Lil bro...I-Its us...Its your big sisters..." Lori choked out herself through her cracking voice. "We f-finally found y-you..." Lune continued with more cracks in her voice while bringing her right hand up to Lincoln's scarred cheek to caress it.
"Is...Is this a dream?" Lincoln whispered while bringing his hands to feel Lori and Luna to feel if they were really there.
"No Linc, its really us...Were here...we found you." Lori responded to Lincoln bringing him close for a hug which he immediately buried his head into their shoulders as they stood side by side. Lori and Luna wrapping their long lost little brother into a hug as he silently wheezed and choked half cries into their collective shoulders, not caring about the fact that they were practically grabbing a skeleton, not caring about the things they saw, things they smelt, things they felt, of even what they were standing on, all they cared about was the fact that after what felt like a lifetime, they finally have the most important thing in their lives back, Lincoln.
Hello again, I just wanted to thank you all again for reading through the story, and I would love to know if you loved or hated it, and if possible why you loved or hated it so I can learn what I'm doing right and wrong, because I truly want to be able to improve my skills as a writer, and I can only do so if people tell me my strengths and weaknesses, and even to tell me that maybe I messed up somewhere with spelling or something that I can edit and fix real quick. Also I hope that the fact that this was so short doesn't bother too many people, I do intend on making future chapters longer, I just wanted to play with an idea that's been bouncing in my head for some time. Again, thank you all again for you're time and dedication to reading my fic!