Salvation

Part 1: Another World

Three days passed by quickly since Lynn turned away from her family and friends. On the third day, she attempted suicide so that she could rid herself of her anguish, only it wasn't the end for Lynn Loud.

The storm moved in quickly, lightning striking frequently, the wind howling loudly as it wrapped the torrential rain in the savage force left most of the city without power. The hospital's backup generators powered on automatically, allowing essential areas to resume functions, one such area being the fifth floor Intensive Care Unit, room 519, occupied by one Lynn Loud.

Heavily sedated, allowing a medical detox treatment to run it's course. Her family and friends alternating on who gets to stay in the room with her, the rest occupying the waiting room. Half the group went home while the rest remained at the hospital, only to alternate accordingly. Lincoln and Lisa were the only two in the room with their comatose older sister, watching carefully for anything to change. The nurse swapped out her IV fluids and medication bags, then checked her vital signs, right down to checking her NG tube and catheter.

"This is one of the most worst things to deal with." Lincoln said quietly to himself.

"None of the events that took place could have been avoided. Lynn's mental health status declined even before her daughter–" Lisa said in an unintentionally harsh, lispy tone.

"For once can you stop with your logical BS? That's our sister laying there! And that was our niece we lost that night!"

"I'm merely stating facts. She caved to peer pressure, and thus... Engaged in sexual intercourse, was impregnated. The hormones associated with pregnancy can also lead to chemical imbalances in the brain. And with external stimuli added to the equation... I.E. rumors, confrontation, mounting stress, then ultimately with the premature birth of the infant and finally–" she was interrupted by a throat being cleared.

"Are you even hearing yourself!?" Luna said with a quiet yell. "If anything! You should learn to ease up with the logic!"

"I'm a woman of science, I don't have time for such rhetoric."

"You don't have a degree yet! But you think you know it all. What five year old acts like you? You have, like what... one friend?" Lincoln added.

"Better to have few than to have peers that wear a facade of friendship." Both Luna and Lincoln, frustrated with their second youngest sister, stormed out of the room to join the others in the waiting room, leaving Lisa with the sounds of the storm and machines monitoring Lynn's vital signs, of which were distributing medications and fluids through out her body.

"Fate is so unkind, isn't it sporty?" Lisa said quietly to her older sister. Seeing no expression on Lynn's face only gave her a feeling of unease. "Seeing you like this, absolutely catatonic... no movement whatsoever... is emotionally distressing and mentally jarring. The more I see you this way... The more it pains me." Luna and Lincoln stood in the doorway, listening to Lisa finally open up her emotions and her thoughts as a sister and not as a scientist. "I may not be open with my family, but this is one time I will make an exception... Lynn, please leave this hospital alive and well. We all want this, so please, please pull through..." Lisa then took off her glasses and rubbed away tears from her eyes. Luna and Lincoln, stunned by what they just witnessed, sat by Lisa and comforted their genius sister.

Some time later, the storm passed and power was restored. The Louds slept in the waiting room and the nurses made their nightly rounds, checking the vital signs of the patients. In 519, a nurse left after starting a new IV bag and emptying her urinal. Soon Lynn's eyebrows began to quiver as if experiencing a dream, or a nightmare.


"You must be a masochist!" a woman's cold gravelly voice echoed from the blackness. "Hit her again!" she growled. [I was unsure of whom the woman is speaking to but I would assume the victim, thus the change in words]

"This is far too easy, m'lady!" another woman spoke opposite of her. Soon a whip of white hot flames ignited, illuminating a small area and revealing a woman crouched over, her face hidden by her brown hair, her nude body trembling while riddled with lacerations, welts, and even burns, obviously subjected to unspeakable tortures. The wielder burned as brightly as her savage instrument of punishment. She swiftly brought the whip behind her and, with all her might, swung it forward, generating a loud crack, one that would lead anyone to believe that thunder was roaring around them.

The victim yelped in agony as the spined tail left cuts and spark burns in her flesh. The woman dug her nails into the earth beneath her.

"Are you so daft that you would allow us to pummel you like this!?" The first woman screamed from the shadows. The victim looked up to see red eyes glowing in the seemingly endless dark. The figure then stepped forward, her bangs covered most of her face, the only parts visible being her lips. At first glance, they appeared normal but soon with, a twisted, menacing grin, what was revealed was the contrary for she had mouth full of pointed, razor sharp, shark-like teeth. "Well well, Silent are we?" she snarled as she grasped the face of the young woman, talons taking the place of normal digits.

"Hit her again! This time... Make the little bitch scream for mercy!" Within seconds, the flame-enveloped mistress of torture resumed her onslaught with her whip, each lashing drawing whines and trickles of blood from her victim's body. Before long, the tortured woman screamed in anguish, writhing in searing pain louder and louder with each brutal attack.

Lying broken, bloody and battered in a fetal position, the woman buckled to the lashings. She whined in agony as her tormentors loomed over her. Possessing a bucket of cold water, the razor toothed woman leered over their victim and splashed her with the icy fluid. The victim screamed and flopped about on the ground gasping desperately for air as she crawled away from them.

"Dress her and put her in chains. She's finished," the woman leading the torment said as she tossed the receptacle.

The flames from the whipping woman died down and she discarded her tool on a flat boulder, right next to a pile of linen strewn sloppily on the slab of rock. She tossed the clothing to the cowering woman.

"You have five minutes..." She said with a stern tone. Nightfall came and the woman was held prisoner in a stone tower, her wrists shackled and suspended from the ceiling, likewise with her neck. She had little freedom of movement but with the torture she endured, she didn't have the energy to try and escape. She looked up and peered up at the hole in the roof, a makeshift skylight to remind any prisoner there that freedom sat just out of their reach.


At the Royal Woods high school football field, Lincoln sat on the bleachers, trying to distract himself from the incident at the middle school but his surroundings only served as a reminder of a much more dire pain, forcing him to think back to Lynn's first major win with her football team. He wiped the tears from his eyes, thinking he heard something in the stadium.

"Hey Lincoln." A deadpan voice called out beside him. He looked to his right to see a girl holding a parasol. It was Haiku, Lucy's best friend and Clyde's girlfriend.

"Oh. hey, Haiku. What're you doing here?"

"Checking on you. You cut out early," she said with concern. She walked up and sat next to the troubled boy and adjusted her parasol to block the sunlight, then turned back to Lincoln and made eye contact with him.

"So, did Clyde send you?" he asked defiantly.

"No, Lucy texted me from the hospital. She asked me to check on you." He peered into her deep blue eyes and saw sincerity, allowing him to lower his defenses. "So, I think I may have an answer to this but... that rumor that was going around..." She approached the topic as delicately as she possibly could.

"Of course it's not true... And Clyde kept bugging me about it too."

"So that's why you shoved him. I'll talk to him. You two are best friends after all. Shouldn't let it end over a falsehood." She shot Lincoln a half smile to give him assurance.

"It wasn't fair," Lincoln said with sorrow building in his throat. Haiku looked at her troubled friend with increasing concern. "What happened to Lynn wasn't fair. The moment Francisco heard that Lynn was pregnant, he dumped her. Then the rumors, they were nonstop. Next came that fateful night... her screams... for five hours straight, she screamed in pain. Then a baby cried and suddenly stopped," Lincoln recounted the night in horrible detail. "And Lynn... It took all of us to calm her down. But when we left the hospital, she was never the same."

"Lucy told me the same thing. To lose an elder relative is one thing, but to lose a child before they had a chance to fully live... It's far more tragic," said the gothic girl as she lowered her head. She heard sniffing coming from the white haired boy and looked to see that he had started to cry again.

"Lincoln..."

"Are you going to tell me the same shit I've been hearing from our classmates? How guys shouldn't cry!? I'm fucking sick of it!" he exclaimed in frustration.

"Of course not…" Lincoln looked up, surprised by Haiku's response.

"Crying because you're concerned for your sister shows you have a kind and warm heart... those tears you shed for her and her late daughter are cleansing... they're of healing." Noticing the clouds covering the sun, Haiku lowered her parasol and opened her arms to Lincoln, welcoming him in his fragile state. "Let me help you," she said in a voice that was soothing to him. He buried his head in her shoulder, sobbing as she stroked his hair in a calming and chaste manner. His sobbing grew louder as she held him. For a long while she comforted him.


The captive woman looked up to see the fast approaching dawn. She tugged on her chains to check for any links weakened by weathering, only to meet with disappointment. As she plotted escape, she felt drops of rain falling through the opening.


In ICU room 519, a nurse wiped Lynn's forehead with a cleansing wipe, cleaning away dried sweat from her skin.

"Okay, miss Loud, I'll be back in an hour," she said kindly to Lynn despite her unconscious state. She then looked over to Lucy with a warm smile. "Is there anything I can get you sweetheart?" Lucy looked up, with one icy blue eye uncovered.

"No thanks," she said monotonously. It was then that Amy and Kate walked in to check on the Louds. Kate looked at her student and friend with a look of deep sadness.

"Damn girl. Why this?" she said to herself. Amy rested her hand on her sister's shoulder. She leaned over and held her left hand, in hopes to show Lynn that she wasn't alone. Lucy, watching on, saw that even Lynn's mentor had more to show than her ex boyfriend, who had yet to see her, if not only to give his sympathies.

"Hang in there Lynn-tensity, we've got your back." Kate said with a smile.

"Lucy, your parents wanted to see you," Amy said as she looked at her with her half lidded eyes. Lucy, saying nothing walked out, followed by Kate leaving Amy behind with Lynn. Amy looked at the comatose girl and shared the deep agony with her family. As an older sister, a daughter, and an aunt, she could only empathize further with them. She reached over her shoulders and pulled a hemp cord over her head from around her neck. Attached was another crystal, an amethyst.

"Lynn Loud, it is to you that I pass this crystal. One that will help you through this trying time. May its energy fill you and heal your shattered soul and may it guide you to your family and friends." Amy then placed the crystal in the palm of Lynn's casted hand and placed her own hands on it, then pause for a moment of silence. She then kissed Lynn's forehead and leaned up. "Blessed be, young Lynn." She then walked off, allowing Lynn's family to have their time with her.


Lightning and thunder clashed above the stone tower. Standing upon it's minaret, a hooded figure wielding a large hook shaped sword gazed down at the captive woman.

"It's time your majesty," she said with a low tone, her voice identical to Kate.

"Who? Who's there?" the captive spoke softly, weakened by the repetitive beatings.

"There's no time. She's been held hostage by the Malfested," the sword wielder continued.

"Who has? I don't know what–"

"The Malfested one. She tortured you and left you without memories. She has captured the little princess, your daughter!" Suddenly, images flashed in the woman's mind. Lynn's memories began to fill her empty thoughts. "She's in danger, m'lady. Now is your chance to find your way back home and save your princess!" Her will returned, the captive shuddered her way to her feet. In her right hand a crystal appeared glowing softly and her wounds healed rapidly with strength returning to her muscles. Her determination exploded within her core, her eyes filled with ambition.

She let out a war cry then, starting with her right arm, she pulled the first chain from the rocky walls and quickly pulled the next from its own anchoring. Then, with all her might, she snapped the chain wrapped around her neck. The broken woman, now renewed, gazed at an afterimage of a girl executing parkour moves. Taking this as a guide, the woman followed it. With continuous momentum, she made her way to a foothold, the opening now just within her reach. She twirled the chains in unison with them clinging to two bunches of wrought iron.

She quickly lunged upward, each foot of slack in the chain she used to build more speed until she found herself hurled out of the opening and the tower altogether. She soared through the air, all but one half of her chains left draped on the tower's peak. She landed firmly on the ground, panting from the rush she experienced, taking in the freedom she had not felt for what seemed like ages.

Landing beside her, a sword styled like a Japanese Katana, a sleevless robe tied to it. The woman looked up to see the swordswoman taking her leave from the tower top. The former captive looked around for a moment and happened upon a small body of water. She ran over to it and swallowed handful after handful of the life giving liquid. She looked to her left to see a small sheet of paper revealed to be a photograph.

She examined the picture of a brown haired girl wearing red shorts and a tank top, along with a group of other girls. She then looked at the water once more. The ripples steadied and revealed the woman's identity to be that of Lynn.

"Is that me?" She said with much confusion. She looked up to see on the horizon a world of chaos and decay. She had no recollection of who she was or where. Stricken with amnesia and alone in this strange land, she only dwelt on the thought of a child that needed saving. Feeling something solid in her hand, she looked down to see an amethyst crystal, a dot of light within the gem pointing to her right. She looked the way the light pointed and, with the same ambition returning to her eyes, she grabbed the robe and the sword and quickly followed the light. Where it was to take her, she would soon find the answer.