Tricked (Alternative Story)
Much like Spa Gems, this is another story I've been wanting to do for a long time. However, this one has a bit of a more interesting history.
Way back in October, I remember watching the commercials for Tricked! Upon seeing the final shot of Luna at the organ, saying "You got tricked!" I thought to myself, "damn, she looks demon-possessed." And when I saw clips of the Louds acting like monsters in the maze, I was like, "Whoa, have they been turned into monsters?"
Of course, I'd already read the episode synopsis online, so I knew that none of this was likely going to happen. Still, the ideas lingered in my mind. So much so that I conjured up my own plot for Tricked in my head, one that involved Luna and the others getting possessed by demons and terrorizing Royal Woods. Don't get me wrong, Tricked was a very good episode (I love Luna's "You Got Tricked" song), but I still wanted to bring my alternative storyline to life. Thus, here we are.
Now before we begin, I need to clarify something. Even though this is an alternative storyline, it will still be centered around the basic plot of the episode (the family hosting Lucy's corn maze and Lincoln and Clyde's plot to sneak into Huntington Manor). The first act will largely be the same as the actual episode, albeit with a few small changes and new plot elements. The second act is where things will really start to change.
Okay, enough talk. Enjoy!
Four weeks ago…
It was a typical day in the Loud House. And as typical days went, the Loud children were in the living room, each wrapped up in their own hobby. Lincoln was reading comics, Lily was playing with her blocks, Lisa was experimenting with some test tubes, Lola was putting on make-up, Lana was having a tug-of-war with Charles the dog, Lynn was bouncing a soccer ball, Luan was practicing some jokes with her ventriloquist dummy Mr. Coconuts, Luna was rocking out on her guitar, Leni was reading a fashion magazine, and Lori was texting on her phone. The only sibling not accounted for was Lucy, who walked into the living room, parents Lynn Sr. and Rita at her side.
"Kids, please quiet down!" Rita yelled. Once everyone was silent, she spoke. "As you all know, tomorrow is the first day of October, which means Halloween will soon be here."
All the siblings nodded.
"Well," Rita said, "We have something special planned for this Halloween."
Lucy stepped forward. "Our parents have finally given me permission to put on a haunted corn maze and I was hoping you all could be a part of it."
"So, you want us to dress up and scare people?" Lynn asked excitedly, "Awesome, I'm in!"
"Me too," Luna said.
"Don't forget us," Luan spoke for her and her dummy.
"Sure, I've literally got nothing better to do," Lori said.
"Well, it sounds like fun," Leni said, "but what's so scary about corn?"
Lucy typically didn't show emotion, but seeing her siblings agree to help her almost made her want to smile. Almost.
"Excellent," she said, before looking down at the clipboard in her hands. "Now, our first order of business: your costumes. I'm going to be the Grim Reaper. I've gone ahead and already chosen all of yours."
Leni raised an eyebrow. "Wait, you're choosing our costumes? No offensive Lucy, but I've seen all the icky stuff you like. I totes don't want to be covered in blood."
"As cool as that would be Leni, that won't be happening," Lucy gave a small, but audible "sigh" before continuing. "I've chosen your costumes based on your personal traits. You should have no problem getting into them." She checked her clipboard and began reading off.
"Lori, you bend us to your will, inspire fear in others, and from what I've heard, are considered very attractive. You will be a vampire."
Lori shrugged, "Sure."
"Leni, you have a love of fashion. You will be Marie Antoinette."
"Who?" Leni asked.
"The Queen of 18th century France," Lucy explained. "She was famously decapitated."
Leni was still confused. "But I don't drink coffee."
"Sigh." The goth girl went on. "Luna, for your energetic personality and ability to create spontaneous musical numbers, you will be a skeleton and provide our music."
"Rock on, sis!" Luna shot her a pair of devil horns.
"Luan, in your pursuit of comedy, you have a talent for being unpredictable and manic," Rita nudged her. "No offense. Therefore, you will be a mad scientist."
"Can Mr. Coconuts be my monster?" the jester asked excitingly.
"Sure."
"Yes!" the dummy (via Luan) cheered.
"Lynn, for your atheism, you will be a chainsaw-wielding maniac."
"Yes!" the jock hollered.
"But the chainsaw has to be fake," Rita added.
"Aw, mom!" the jock moaned.
"Mom, you lumber and trudge through life, exhausting all your life energy in your efforts to keep this household together. You will be a zombie."
"Sounds great, honey," Rita said. "Wait, what did you say?"
"Uh Lucy," Lincoln cut in. "Your whole plan sounds great and I'd be more than happy to help, but-"
"We're going trick-or-treating," Lola and Lana interrupted in unison.
"I too will be partaking in the receiving of sugary confection," Lisa added. "And I will be needing Lily."
Yeah," Lincoln pushed past his younger siblings and said, "And Clyde and I were planning on going together, so-"
"Kids, no one's stopping you from trick-or-treating," Rita said. "The older girls and I will do the corn maze. Lynn will be taking the rest of you trick-or-treating. Right dear?"
Lynn Sr, who'd been silent up to this point, snapped to attention and said, "O-of course honey." His nervous demeanor and stammered speech was not lost on any of the Louds. Everyone who lived in the house knew that Lynn Sr was terrified of Halloween.
"Phew," the younger kids sighed in relief.
"But we will do whatever we can to help," Lincoln promised. The others nodded in agreement.
"Good," Lucy again sounded unfazed, but everyone knew she appreciated the help. "Oh, by the way, you'll all have to make your own costumes. I'll be too busy perfecting my fake blood for the maze."
With that, everyone cheered for the exciting Halloween that was to come.
One week ago…
Lucy was in the hallway, checking on her siblings' process with their costumes.
She peeked into Lori and Leni's room. Lori was skyping Bobby over her computer. "Oh Boo-Boo Bear," she pined. "Halloween won't be the same without you."
"I know. I really wish I could be there, babe," Bobby replied earnestly. "But Mom won't let me miss Dia de Muertos now that the family's back together."
"Oh well, just remember this," Lori said, her voice slowing to a seductive, but ominous tone. "If I hear about you hooking up with any chicas, living or dead," She opened her mouth, revealing vampire teeth, and lunged at the screen, "I WILL LITERALLY SUCK ALL YOUR BLOOD!"
Lucy heard Bobby yelp on the other line.
"O-oh," he tried to stay cool, despite being clearly shaken. "I-I'll do my best."
"I know you will," Lori purred, an wicked grin on her face. "Bye, Boo-Boo Bear." Blowing a kiss, she signed off.
"Ta-da!" Leni emerged from the closet and struck a pose in her handmade 18th century corset, chemise, and drawers. "What do you think?"
"Hmm," Lori pondered. "It's good, but where's the skirt?"
"Oh, I'm making that right now," Leni explained. "You would, like, not believe how big it is. Women in the old days must have had, like, huge bottoms." She quickly glanced at her own rear as if in comparison. "Luckily, I was able to find enough fabric."
"Kids, have you seen my green curtains?!" Rita called from downstairs.
Leni laughed nervously before stepping back into the closet. "I was totes never here." She shut the doors.
Lucy moved on to Luan and Luna's room. Luna was painting skeleton bones onto a black bodysuit, while Luan was sewing a costume for Mr. Coconuts.
"Yeah baby," Luna spoke in her British accent. "This Halloween is going to rock."
"Yeah," Luan chimed in, "No bones about it." Both siblings laughed at her joke.
Next, Lucy looked into hers and Lynn's room. Lynn in her closet, putting together several pieces of her sports gear into a costume. "Now all I need is a chainsaw," the jock said ominously, rubbing her hands in anticipation.
Since the twins and Lincoln were going trick-or-treating, Lucy didn't bother to check on them, but she did pay Lisa a quick glance. Even though she wasn't going to be performing, Lucy still owed her a great deal of thanks.
Flashback.
Lisa was giving a demonstration out in the farmlands where the Royal Woods Halloween festival would be taking place. "And with a single dose of my insta-growth fertilizer," she pressed down on a remote and several drones flew overhead, dumping fertilizer onto the fields. In seconds, ten-foot-tall corn stalks emerged from the ground, "you have fresh produce, ready for consuming. This will put you far ahead of any and all competition." The excited farmer rubbed his hands together. "Ooh, how much, Ms. Loud?!" he cried eagerly. "Well, you can start with this," she handed him a bill. "I would also like to rent a few acres for the upcoming festival."
Flash-forward
Needless to say, Lucy had been pleased. This was so much better than the cardboard maze they'd been planned on doing in the driveway.
With her performers and maze accounted for, there was only one thing left to do. Pulling the fold-up stairs down, Lucy made her way up to her favorite spot in the house: the attic. She pushed back several boxes to reveal her séance gear, as well as a picture of a partially close late relative.
"Oh Great Grandma Harriet," Lucy said to the picture. "Halloween is creeping up on us and if I could feel, I'd be overjoyed. For the first time in my meaningless eight years of life, I'm finally going to have my haunted corn maze. I will finally be able to show the mortal realm the true meaning of fear," Lucy's deadpan voice tingled with monotone excitement. If she was Lori or Leni, she'd probably be swooning at this point. However, the goth girl's tone quickly took a downward spiral as a new feeling overtook her. "And yet," she continued. "I can't help, but feel worried. What if…what if we fail?" Lucy rarely showed signs of fear, but the sudden thought made her gulp. "What if all our efforts go to waste? I want this to be the scariest Halloween ever, but how can I, a mere mortal, possibly guarantee that, especially with such an emotionally diverse family?"
She paused and considered what she just said. "No, you're right Harriet," she said. "I shouldn't push the blame onto my family, not after all they've done to help me achieve this dream." She put Harriet's picture down and looked around for guidance. Her eyes feel on her great grandma's ancient book of spells. "Of course," she marveled. "Maybe I need to stop looking in the mortal realm for help," she picked the book up and opened it to the table of contents, "and start looking in the spiritual realm." Flipping to the chapter on spirit communication, Lucy skimmed through it, looking over page over page of potential entities to contact. Upon reaching a certain page, her body froze and her eyes went wide under her bangs. Incredulous, she read:
"Dormus, the ancient Sumerian god of fear. Believed to have crawled out of the darkest realm in the netherworld, this fearsome entity brought chaos and fear to all those who dare fall within his path."
The words sent a chill down Lucy's spine. Not a chill of fear though, but of excitement. In a rare example of letting her emotions take hold, Lucy threw down the book, ignoring the rest of the text, and immediately set up her séance gear. After setting up a circle of lit candles, Lucy sat cross-legged and concentrated. Breathing deeply, the young girl focused on connecting to the spiritual realm and spoke.
"Dormus, god of fear, I beg you; let this be the scariest Halloween ever to fall within the mortal realm." She paused. "And please let it happen in Royal Woods, Michigan."
Lucy felt her connection fade and relaxed her body. She turned to look at the picture of Harriet. "Of course I know what I'm doing," she said to the picture. "Besides, it's not like any of the other spells in your book ever did any harm."
Suddenly, Lucy heard a crash and a high-pitched scream from the kitchen. "I have to go, Harriet," she said. "Dad must have found my blood storage in the fridge. I have to make sure he doesn't ruin it." Quickly blowing out the candles, Lucy got up and rushed out of the attic.
When the attic door slammed shut, the room plunged back into darkness. In the dying embers of the candles, Harriet's smiling picture mysteriously turned into a frown.
The dark silence was broken by a cold, evil laugh.
Well, there we have it for chapter 1.
- Yes, one of the bigger changes to the episode's plot is that the setting. Honestly, that tiny maze in the Loud's driveway wouldn't have worked in my story, so I gave them an actual corn maze. It makes you wonder why Lisa hasn't made the family rich by selling her formulas and inventions in the actual show.
- From here on out, the story will be focused on Lincoln. I only focused this chapter on Lucy to establish the plot.
- If you're wondering why I included the costume-assigning part, it's because there's a scene in the actual episode that confused me. In the episode, Lucy appears to be in charge of everything. Because of this, it's implied that she dressed her family for the maze. However, what I don't get is why she felt the need to judge them as they come out of the house (saying Rita needed to lose an arm, Lori needed Fangs etc) if she already knew what their costumes looked like? She was acting like this was the first time she was seeing them, even though she supposedly picked them out/made them. The sequence in my story fixes the issue by stating that while Lucy assigned the roles, her family made their own costumes. Again, this is probably just my OCD at work again.
Let me know what you think in the comments. See you soon!