LoudRisque: Thank you for being my first review, as for Lynn being at the same school/grade as Lucy and Lincoln, I genuinely thought they were, sorry.
Guest: Four of those are correct. :3
A/N: This and Chapter 1 were written back to back, Chapter 3 will be fresh
The night moved at a crawl and the yet the morning still came abruptly. The kids stirred from their fitful slumbers and made their way downstairs, no one had enough energy to wait in a line for twenty minutes.
"Morning kids." their parents greeted
The children let out a simultaneous groan and adjusted themselves on the couch. They looked at each other and then back to their parents.
"Me and your mother are going on an important business trip, we'll let you know when we're coming back, Lori you're in charge." Lynn Sr said
Lori nodded and with that their parents were gone. You wouldn't be able to tell by looking at them but they were still nervous, nervous about the "mutations" that Lisa talked about. Speaking of which where was Lisa, she didn't come downstairs with the rest of the group.
"Good morning siblings." Lisa said
Well that answers that. They turned around to see her and they jumped. Her skin tone had become paler than Lucy's, her eye's were pure white and strained. Her body was now transparent. Her feet didn't touch the ground. A scream came from the couch, from who Lisa wasn't sure.
"L-Lisa, you're a ghost? Didn't you say we wouldn't die?!" Lynn asked concerned
"I am fully aware of what I said, It may look as though I'm deceased but I'm still fully conscious, ergo I'm fine." she said
Even though she said that it was still hard to wrap their heads around it. She stood in the stairway and they were unable to look at her directly, she was terrifying.
"Expect the unexpected." she said as she returned to her room
"Ya know just cause you're a ghost it doesn't mean you can be all cryptic like that." Lynn called
They turned back to one another. The air was heavy and dense. Nobody spoke for a while, Lona did her best to alleviate this... mildly successfully.
"So, I wonder who's next." Lona said
"I don't know, but I'm scared." Lynn said as she looked back to the twins(?)
"So, how are you two doing, like, sharing a body." Leni asked
They shrugged, at first it seemed like the worst thing ever, being attached to the person who irritates you the most. But it's not as bad as she thought it was. She didn't want to be this way forever but for the time being it was... okay.
"It's fine, it's like there's someone always looking out for you." she said
"So Lola.. uh, Lana? What should we call you?" Luan asked to keep the conversation going
"Lona's fine." she said "Just a mix of our names."
Lucy turned on the TV ,a blank expression on her face, and flicked through the channels. She stopped when she saw a show she liked: Twiblood Moonlight, it was one of those garbage carbon copy vampire/werewolf shows with highly unlikable or too likable characters, overly dramatic actors, predictable plot lines, horrible romance, but Lucy just ate this stuff up. Everyone groaned, they weren't really thinking about the remote right now.
"Vampires are so cool." Lucy said in her usual monotone
"Yeah okay, maybe you'll become one if you're lucky." Lynn said
Lucy grinned ever so slightly and looked back at the TV where some dude fell to the ground after having about 2 minutes of dialogue. Yeah that's so cool... not.
Growl
A low hum ran across the couch. It was their stomachs, they had completely forgotten about eating. Their minds preoccupied they made their way to the kitchen to get whatever they could manage.
Some settled on cereal, others on some breakfast sandwiches that their dad had left, the usual. Except for Lincoln and Lucy, Lincoln reached into the fridge and removed two raw steaks. He licked his lips and opened one violently. He saw Lucy eyeing the other one and handed it to her, something about it enticed her. The one Lincoln opened was fresh, bloody, he assumed... tasty. He plunged his teeth in and his eyes widened. He ripped off a chunk and continued to enjoy it.
Lucy had done likewise into it and reveled in it's flavor, not the steak itself, but the blood that had been smeared across and inside it. It was thick and raw, she liked her lips as she bit in, the steak juice splattering the floor.
"Lincy, Lucy, what are you doing?" Leni asked
"Eating raw meat is, like, dangerous." she said
They looked at everyone and then shrugged. As they ate more however their teeth grew sharper, Lucy's two front teeth and all of Lincoln's.
Before they were even finished, it had started, Lincoln grew twice his size. White fur spread all across his body. His eyes grew wider changing their color to a bright yellow, his mouth and nose grew larger. A tail growing in from behind him. His nails sharpening themselves into claws.
He shed out of his clothes, tearing them to pieces. He howled at the ceiling and let out a low growl. His sisters looked back at him and trembled. He towered over them, his cold gaze piercing their hearts. They backed away slowly, continuing to look at him.
"Come on Linc, it's us, your family." Lori said her voice trembling with fear
Lincoln saw the terror in their eyes and whimpered, his face falling. He fell down, his knees making contact against the cold floor. His eyes shifted back to normal along with the rest of him. Well almost normal, his nails trimmed down a bit, he still had white fur across his body, and his tail was still there but other than that he was back.
"Lincy are you okay?" Leni asked concerned still scared to approach him
"Y-yeah I'm, I'm fine I just-" he slumped over and collapsed
The fear more or less evaporated and they ran to him. Half of his sisters went to tend to him while the other half came over to Lucy... who was gone. Luna looked down were the steak was, all of it's liquid was taken out of it. She searched frantically until she heard a screech coming from the kitchen door frame. There was a bat hanging upside down, it partially cloaked itself in it's wings and hissed at them through the gap in their wings. Now she was a lot less scary than Lincoln, they could handle this.
Lynn went over and held out her arm. Lucy had reluctantly unsheathed herself and her fangs grew sharp. She plunged them into Lynn's wrist. Lynn winced in pain but didn't falter, as she pulled her away from door frame. She held a tight grip but she soon migrated to Lynn.
"Ouch, that hurt ya know." she said jokingly although the pain was there
She laid her down on one of the couches. Her wings opened and she shifted back to being Lucy. The other couch was occupied with Lincoln. The remaining children rested as they looked at the two.
"Will that happen to us too?" Luna asked mainly herself, nobody responded
They sat there in silence worrying about their brother and sister until Lisa had called for them to come upstairs. In the past few hours they hadn't gotten used to their situation at all and seeing Lisa's room didn't help lab supplies passed them by and the room seemed to spin. She looked towards them a veil over her face now, probably to hide her terrifying features. Her body language suggested that this news wasn't good news.
"I have reason to believe that these mutations will end up being permanent." she said somberly
"I've analyzed and tested on the blood that you all provided and found out-." she paused thinking about how to word this
"The toxins have completely inhabited us, our blood, or muscle tissue, nervous system... everything. and if we try to forcefully remove them the results could be disastrous." she said
They understood that much but they still had lives to live. They couldn't stay in hiding forever could they? If the problem was just temporary it wouldn't be that hard but something permanent would be virtually impossible. What about their friends, family, mom and dad. If they all of a sudden never showed their faces again that would be suspicious, there were way too many factors in this.
"Now I have taken our personal lives in to account and I'm currently working on a something to subdue the effects temporarily in order to hide our presence from humans." she said
Luna blinked at what Lisa said
"Humans? You talk as though we're a different species." she said
"As far as I'm concerned we are, I'm not even alive, Lincoln is a were-beast, Lucy's a vampire, I don't believe you can classify any of that as human." Lisa said sternly
She pushed up her glasses, which she didn't even need anymore.
"Now as I was saying I am in the creation phase of something to subdue these changes for up to ten hours a day, I will administer them properly when all of you are ready." she said
They all waited for her to continue but she waved them off.
Lisa analyzed the floating clipboard in front of her when she heard a thump behind her and went over, she saw Lily walking around in her crib, her arms in front of her. Her entire body was stitched up, from her legs and arms to even her face.
"Bwains~" she said adorably
"You'll have to settle for a sheep's. Human brains are harder to acquire." she said as she brought one over
She passed it to her and Lily suckled on it, even though mutated she was still the little lovable Lily. The brain went down in one audible gulp and she burped. Lily giggled contently as Lisa went back to work. These mixtures needed to be finished by tomorrow, it'll be trouble if they get caught.
Downstairs Lincoln and Lucy stirred awake as their siblings crowded around them with worried expressions on their faces. Lincoln sat up and looked at himself, white fur enveloped his body, he felt the top of his head and noticed his ears were now located there. He felt his teeth and they were sharp, really sharp.
"Well I guess that's that." Lori said
"How you feeling, bro?" Luna asked as she tapped his shoulder
"Better now, just a little hot if anything." he said as he fanned himself
The A/C was on full blast but when you're covered in fur in this kind of heat you'll probably still be hot so he was out of luck. Lynn went over to where Lucy was sitting and she looked down. Lynn chuckled as she sat next to her.
"You feeling alright Luce?" she asked
"Yeah, and I'm really sorry for biting you, I didn't mean to... well I meant to but I regret it." she said
"Don't worry, let's just blame the toxins." she said playfully punching Lucy's arm
Lynn smiled wanly and small rivulets of sweat traced down her face all of a sudden. She swiped them away, then she felt a sharp pain in her right eye, the same as yesterday. She winced as she slouched over her hands over her eye. Lucy took her shoulders in her hands and looked at Lynn.
"My eye hurts like hell, it's like-." she trailed off when she screamed in pain and collapsed
Everyone stood to attention crowding around Lynn. She still covered her face, the screams stopped as the pain died down slowly. She removed her hands from her face and looked around. Her siblings stared at her their eyes wide.
"Jeez that hurt but I think I'm- ." Lori cut her off
"Lynn, you literally need to look in a mirror." she said
Leni removed a hand held mirror from the pocket of her dress and handed it to Lynn. Her eye had stopped hurting but that was because she only had one left, it was large and took it's spot in the middle of face. She traced around the rim of it with her finger.
She was speechless as she continued to poke and prod at her eye. Would she grow antenna and turn green? "Karen, where'd you put my death ray?"
"Haven't we had enough surpr-eye-ses today?" Luan said trying to lighten the mood
Nobody laughed, not even a smile.
It wasn't even two o' clock yet and so far four of their siblings had changed entirely, if you count Lola and Lana separately (They didn't know about Lily.) By the end of the day all of them would turn. It was getting easier to get used to but they couldn't get over that fact that they could no possibly no longer go back to their lives as humans, but they foolishly held onto hope anyway.
"Well, what do you guys wanna do? We have a whole day to kill." Lincoln asked wagging his tail
"Our options are very limited seeing as how Lucy can't be out in the sun, Lynn has a very noticeable eye, and you... yeah." Luna pointed out
It was true but they had to do something. Maybe they could just watch TV, it was boring but only four sisters could leave the house, maybe five counting Lona. Lincoln thought for a second.
"What about the backyard? I doubt anyone will see us there. We need fresh air." he said bouncing to his feet
"I don't know, maybe we should stay hidden, it may be dangerous outside." Lucy said
Lincoln pouted
"We'll be fine, nobody's gonna look in our backyard."
Lucy sighed and threw up her arms in a "Do whatever, I guess" fashion. She kinda wanted to go outside as well, it may be her last chance in the sun... oh wait.
"Um, sun and vampire's don't mix well." she said
"Don't worry Luce, heads up." Lynn called as she threw an umbrella
It hit the wall behind her and left a small indent. Lynn rubbed the back of her neck in embarrassment.
"Ha sorry, no depth perception anymore." she said
Lucy picked up the umbrella and sighed. She walked to the back door followed by her siblings. Opening the umbrella she walked around the fairly large grassy plain. Leni stood in the direct sunlight her arms spread wide as though she were hugging it. ("Praise the Sun.") Lincoln dashed out the door and rolled in the mud and dirt. Grass matted to his fur and tickling his nose.
"Don't go too crazy dude." Luan called
Lona followed suit and did exactly what her brother was doing. Lori, Luna, Luan, and Lucy sat comfortably in the shade enjoying the slight breeze.
A rustle noise came from the bushes and Lincoln heightened to attention. A bunny emerged, much like the one he saw at school, he snarled and grew larger. He gave chase kicking up dust along the way, the hare ran as much as it could but ultimately was caught.
He took it in his teeth and returned to the front porch. He dropped the corpse in front of his sisters proudly. Luna gave a faux smile and kicked aside the rabbit towards Lori.
"Hmm, good job bro." she said and scratched behind his ear
He wagged his tail and returned to his dirt patch.
"He's gotta learn to control that." Lori said kicking aside the carcass farther
An hour had passed and Lynn was now kicking around a soccer ball pretending she was in front of a crowd. She juggled it skillfully despite losing balance every now and again.
"Lynn Loud steals the ball, she shoots-." she kicked the ball and it flew straight into Luan's face
"she scores?" she asked
Lori glared at Lynn and ran over to help Luan. Would this be a trend for the rest of the day? She was worried about her family, especially now, but rushing to everyone's side got really tiring.
"You alright?" she asked feeling like a broken record
"Yeah just a few head screws loose." she said as she rattled her head
She did indeed have some loose screws because soon her head fell off it's hinges and into her arms. A blue flame emerging from the base of her neck. Remember when they said they were getting used to it? No, yeah that's cause they weren't and they definitely weren't expecting this.
Lori let out a shriek and Luna puked her guts out. Luan didn't move for a while, her body fell limp to the ground. When Lori looked at Luan her eyes followed her's and Lori jumped a foot.
"Whoa, careful there, just cause I lost my head doesn't mean you should lose yours." she joked seemingly unscathed
"Don't scare me like that." Lori grumbled trying to regain her balance
Well make that five for now. Luan stood up, her head still in her arms. The flame on the base of her neck flickered like a candle, everyone looked in awe besides Luna who was still recovering holding stomach.
"Not what I was expecting, then again I wasn't expecting this entire situation." Luan said
"Maybe we should go inside, a headless girl is sure to attract attention." Luna said wiping the remains of her stomach off her mouth
"Aww, we weren't even out for that long." Lincoln complained
She shrugged in a "Too Bad!" kind of way. He whimpered and, reluctantly, made his way to the door. Everyone followed except for Leni who stood in the same spot she did when they came out.
"Leni, come on we're going back in." Lori called
She didn't budge. Something told her that number was now six. She went over to Leni and looked at her legs, she was rooted into the ground, literally, roots stemmed from her ankles and were embedded deep in the dirt. Various other plant life ejected from her body such as mushrooms, clovers, flowers.
Sighing she lifted up Leni's legs pulling them out of the ground. It was a struggled and eventually they came undone.
"Lori, like what are you doing?" she asked in a dopey voice
"Don't worry about it, just remind me to keep you away from vegans." she said
They walked towards the door completely unaware of the prying eyes hidden in the trees.
They returned inside and sat in front of the TV, not really watching anything, they mainly just sat alone with their thoughts until dinner.
Leni had taken out one of the many precooked meals their parents left for them and since today was Saturday the menu was: Succotash... ugh
Leni grimaced, non-natural plants didn't sound very tasty. She wanted to eat them directly from Mother Nature. She decided to swap Sunday's meal with Saturday's to avoid eating processed vegetables, she'd settle for processed meat. Smart Leni.
She put the tray into the oven and turned it on and hummed a song ,it's name she couldn't remember.
Ten minutes had passed and she served the meal to everyone. They normally ate in silence but today was an exception, mainly because what they were looking at was so strange.
Lincoln had wolfed down his food in what seemed like two seconds, Luan's headless body fed her head which rested on the table, Leni had sprouted mushrooms from her head and ate them along side the Salisbury Steak, Lisa hadn't eaten anything since it would just go through her, Lynn struggled to locate her food and Lily and Lucy were eating animal brains and hearts respectively. If this didn't start conversation nothing would.
"So I hope you are all adjusting well." Lisa said as she flipped the page of a book she was reading.
"Well I guess you could say that." Luan said "It was a little strange at first... and still is but-." she stopped not knowing what to say
"Have any of you experienced any frequent large amounts of pain post-transformation?" Lisa asked
No, nobody had experienced pain after it was over but the in-between was excruciating. They all recovered fairly well though. The one's who had changed had told her of the pain, except for Leni who was fine before, during, and after.
"That's good to know, I'm in the final phase of the creating the pills to subdue these changes and I must know of all things that occur."
"If anything happens while you are out, report to me immediately." "Now with that out of the way who here hasn't changed?"
"Just me and Luna." Lori said as she finished her meal
"Hey, about those pills, will they split me and Lana apart?" Lona asked
"Possibly, you're a strange case, we'll just have to see." she said unknowingly
Everyone had finished their meals and left their dishes in the sink. It was just past 6:30 and the kids were in the bathroom washing up. Luan laid her head on the counter and brushed her teeth. Lincoln sat in the tub wet fur covering his eyes. Lori, Lona, and Leni were brushing their hair. Lynn was washing her face careful not to get soap in her eye. Lucy, Luna, and Lisa had went into their rooms.
When they all were done at 7:00 they migrated to their rooms. Lori and Leni were doing each others nails.
"So, like, what's your superpower?" Leni asked
"Leni, they're not superpowers, they're mutations... and no I haven't." Lori said
"Well that's too bad because-" her eyes wandered and she trailed off
"Eek, a spider." Leni said pointing to the vanity in the corner of the room
Lori turned and saw a black spider make it's way across the vanity. Leni got up and grabbed one of her magazines, she rolled it up and pulled back but was stopped by Lori. She pushed by Leni and went over to the spider. She stretched out her arm and it crawled on her.
"See nothing to worry about." she said bringing it to the window
She opened the window to let it out but before she could it bit down on her, not very hard but to the point where she could feel it. It bowed it's head apologetically and crawled out the window down the side of the house.
"Never trust a spider." Leni started "Lori... Hey Lori." Leni said
Lori turned around and saw... eight Leni's? Leni looked at Lori horrified. She let out a silent shriek and fell back as Lori stood still. Pain sparked in her back. Four lengths began to emerge and with every one the pain got worse.
One, Two, Three, Four. Four long, Vantablack, tendrils of spider legs etched from her back. She stumbled to the ground and planted one of the legs into the floor. She stood up still aching and looked at Leni. Her face was pale and plants withering atop her head.
"Leni I'm fine, just calm down, I'm still Lori." she said with a smile flashing her two fangs.
Leni ran to her bed and hid under the sheets. She covered her ears and closed her eyes.
"Scary, Scary, Scary!" she repeated
Lori sighed and looked in the vanity mirror. Her blonde hair was now threaded with silk, her two normal eyes were replaced by eight beady red ones, her teeth had been turned into fangs and she winced as she pricked one.
"Those pills better work." she said flicking off the light and going to bed
In Lola and Lana's old room Lona laid on her back staring at the ceiling. She closed her eyes and thought about herself, or more accurate the two halves of her whole. She went into the recesses of her mind, inside was Lola and Lana. They stared at each other and giggled.
"Ya know, even though we're closer than ever before, I've never felt more distant." Lola said
"Yeah, now who am I gonna bother 24/7?" she asked
They came together for a hug and when they pulled away Lola was crying out of her right eye, Lana cried out of her left.
"Will we be like this forever?" Lola asked
"I don't know, but even if we are, we'll never forget each other. We'll live on together in Lona's memories." Lana said
"Didn't know philosophy was your thing." Lola said
They giggled and hugged again. Lona opened her eyes, they were stained with tears. She wiped them away with her palm and laid on her side. She flicked off the lights and fell asleep.
In Luna and Luan's room Luna laid on her side and looked at Luan who had slept with her head nuzzled into her arms cradling it. The fire from her neck was now dim and low but still bright. Luna looked up towards the ceiling and outstretched her arms. She was thirsty, she got up opened their door and made her way to the kitchen. She took a glass from the rack and turned on the faucet. She took a big gulp and poured one more, soon one became two and two became four.
"What the!?" she said looking down
She saw her shirt had been soaked through along with the rest of her clothes. She put down the glass and stared at her hands. It was like she was made of... water? Her hands along with her body were for the most part transparent and you could see through her... literally. She looked around her and moved, with every step she took a quiet splash clothes fell through her and hit the ground with a wet slap sound. She looked at her reflection in the sink and saw that her eyes became a clear crystalline blue, she was made of purely fluid.
She took a step and accidentally stepped into the mop bucket. She fell forward and landed in the bucket somehow. She actually fit in there, her body shaped into a small blob of water. She held on to the rim of the bucket. She tried to push out but couldn't.
"Oh well, guess I'll sleep here for the night." she said closing her eyes
The bucket was surprisingly comfortable.
The house was still, nobody made any noise, but one person, Lucy. Lucy was normally a morning person, but had now been made nocturnal. She sat by her beside lamp and took out a book, Twiblood Moonlight: Devils Die Twice, it was just as bad as the show. Apparently the original author had a stroke and died during the books creation leaving his son to pick up the slack.
She flipped to page 134 where she left off. She read the page and cringed.
"Edgar had taken Belle in his arms, he stared at Jason and darted off into the night."
She couldn't remember the plot, she'd been kinda preoccupied with real life at the moment and didn't feel like re-reading. She dropped the book onto the bedside stand and flicked off her light. She looked outside and saw the moon, it was nice and full, she stood up and opened the windows. She took a breath and whispered to herself.
"What a peaceful night." she said
Her eyes grew wide she looked towards the sky, the moon was full. It was so beautiful, her fangs got sharper and her arms shaped into bat wings. She tipped out of the window face first and fell... then darted upwards through air.
"Full moon, looks so bright." she said her words resounding in her ears
Full Moon? Lincoln! She hurried to Lincoln's window. She tapped on the glass but didn't get a response, she tapped again and peered inside. He was gone, scratch marks tore over the worn down paint of his room, his sheets a rumple of fur.
HOWL!
She heard in the distance. She looked down the street and saw a white blur. He stood at his full height, in his werewolf form. She chased after him and floated above him, she dropped down to meet up with him. She held out her hand palm first. He panted and pounced on her. He licked her face and she drew back.
"Come on we've gotta get back home before someone sees us." she said as she held his hand/paw
He looked back at the moon and let out a soft yelp. Lucy looked at him, he looked sad, and it made her non-beating heart ache. She looked around, it was really late and nobody was around. She sighed
"Look it's dangerous to be out here, I promise when Lisa gives us the pills we can go on as many night walks as you want." she said
He looked dejected but compromised. He headed back in the direction of the house followed by Lucy. Lucy looked at her arms and saw her wings. She took a mental note
"Full moons give intense power to me and Lincoln allowing us to shape shift at will."
They hurried back when Lincoln's sniffed the air, his ears perked up. Lucy had no time to react when Lincoln took her into his teeth. He held on tight, not enough to hurt, and ran on all fours back home. When they reached their house the door was unlocked. They really needed to stop doing that, especially now.
"What was that about?" she asked
He didn't speak but he growled in the direction they came from. Strange, she turned around closed and locked the door. She shrugged and headed upstairs and off to bed, Lincoln did the same looking behind him as he did.
Two pairs of night vision goggles sat on the ground. Two people hidden by the dark conversed nearby, one spoke into their watch.
"Our position has been compromised." a male voice said
"Fall back for now." a husky voice said through the watch
"Why?" a female voice asked
"That thing was able to tell you were there, it's too early to get caught, we need more information." he said
She sighed and nodded. The two moved silently through the night, not a trace of their existence remained.
