Chapter three - In My Fashion

"I'm telling you, I feel fine!" Lincoln protested.

"If you could see what you look like right now, you would have a hard time believing that too." Lori responded. "Now hurry up and take this cold medicine."

She handed him a small plastic measuring cup, a purplish colored liquid inside. Like most boys his age, Lincoln hated the idea of taking medicine. The very idea of that rancid, slimy syrup entering his mouth made his stomach turn. He understood that medicine had to be awful in order to stop children from thinking it was a candy, but that never made the act of taking it any easier. He tried arguing against it some more, but it became quickly apparent that there was no way Lori would let him off the hook. He closed his eyes, threw his head back, and drank it as fast as he could.

"Bleh!" He shouted in disgust. "It's even worse than I remember!"

"Lincoln, you say that every time you make medicine." Lori scoffed.

"Yeah, and every time it's the truth."

"HAHAHA, I'M SO STEALING THAT ONE!" Luan shouted from down the hall.

"Luan, why are you even awake?" Lincoln asked.

"That's easy, it's Saturday write. HAHA, get it?"

Luan's pun was met with an audible groan coming from every door. Showing that pretty much everyone in the household was still awake. Lincoln looked at his clock. It was almost midnight, not that unusual for them to be up that late on a Saturday.

"Enough chit chat Lincoln, get some rest." Lori scolded.

"I was just out for nine hours, how do you expect me to get more sleep tonight?"

"Oh that's easy, the medicine I gave you was the drowsy kind." Lori said was a smile. "We all know how weak you are when it comes to that."

She was right. If there was ever such a thing as being a medicinal lightweight, he was definitely a prime example of one. In a few minutes he would probably be out cold for the rest of the night.

"That's playing dirty!" He said.

"You have to get better somehow. Night little bro." Lori said and she walked out of the room and shut the door.

Lincoln laid back and let out a sigh. He hated taking medicine, especially because he wasn't sick. Slowly, a small grin came to his face. After everything he had been through in the past few hours, that whole exchange was oddly comforting. Maybe, things weren't going to be so bad after all. If things kept going normally, maybe he could forget about everything and go back to a normal life. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Unfortunately for Lincoln, that night would be anything but peaceful. He found himself in the worst nightmare he had ever experienced in his life. He was chained to a large pole. A large crowd was around him, made up entirely of people he knew. All of them shouting at him mockingly.

"WEAKLING!" Clyde shouted as he threw a drink at him, directly splashing in his face.

"COWARD" His father shouted.

All over, Lincoln was being assaulted with words that hurt almost as bad as rocks. Only almost though, because the crowd started throwing actual rocks at him. Blood started dripping from all over as he got pelted by stones of every size. Why? Why was this happening?

He looked up to see his friend Ronnie Anne in front of him. She had moved away some time ago, so it was odd seeing her in person.

"Getting raped by a girl? You're a bigger lame-o than I thought!" She said before throwing her fist directly into his face.

"AHH!" Lincoln shouted. He looked around and noticed he was on the ground. "I must have fallen out of bed…" He sad to himself as he stood up and sat back down on his bed. "Who am I kidding, I can't just forget this." He let out a sigh. There was no point in lying to himself any further. He had to come to grips with the reality of his situation.

He look at his window. It was early morning now, the sun was up and he could even hear the first few birds of the day. As he gazed out, he decided how to move forward. He may have ruined his first day of his new life as a victim, but he wouldn't ruin the second. Or any other for that matter.

"Whoever you are, I'll figure it out." With that, he stood up and got dressed.

Lincoln was alone in downstairs as he ate a bowl of cereal at the table. Thinking intently with each spoonful. He was devising a plan.

"There's nine potential suspects, each with full access to me at any given moment." He chewed on.

"All nine of them took turns in my room while I was passed out yesterday, any one of them could have left the second note."

After a while, Lincoln came to a conclusion that made sense to him.

"I'm clearly affected by this, maybe the culprit is too!"

"Hey"

"Perhaps they are affected even more than I am and I just don't know it yet."

"Hellooo"

"Maybe if I hang around them long enough-"
"Lincoln"
"They might slip up and I can figure out who it is!"
"Earth to Lincoln"

"That's it! Perfect plan. That's how I'll spend the day." Lincoln was getting pumped up. He had a plan now and he was going to stick to it. There was nothing that was going to prevent him from figuring out which one of his sisters did it. As for what he would do once he knew, he wasn't sure yet.

"I'll definitely have to give her my mind on all the agony she's caused!" He thought. "But what if it's eating her up inside to?" That was something he hadn't considered before. The mocking tone in the letters could have all been an act. Maybe it was a lapse in judgement and now she has nowhere to come clean to. If that was the case, what could he do.

"Maybe we could talk it out a-"

*THUNK*

Lincoln's train of thought was fastly interrupted by a smack to the back of his head.

"Whoa!" Lincoln shouted, nearly falling over in his chair. He turned to see his sister Luna standing behind him. "What was that for Luna?"

"To get your attention. I've been standing here calling you for like twelve minutes!" She replied.

Lincoln was taken aback by this. Was he that unaware of his surroundings? This might be far more difficult than he anticipated.

"Really?"

"Yeah, are you sure you should be out of bed?" Luna asked, concern in her voice.

"I'm fine, I was just lost in thought."

"Oh yeah? Anything you wanna talk about?"

Sweat began to form on Lincoln's forehead. The two were alone, so it would be a pretty decent time to figure out if Luna was the culprit. But with the lack in evidence and the already slim 1/9 chance, he couldn't afford the potential blowback if he was wrong.

"No, it was nothing import. School stuff." He said while wiping his brow.

Luna smiled a little. "That's good, because I need to talk to you for a sec."

Lincoln froze. His mind began racing to a million conclusion. Could this be the revelation he was looking for? He gulped nervously.

"Alright, what's up?" He replied.

Lincoln's action made Luna laugh.

"Chill out bro, it's nothing big" She said. "I just got somethings came up that I gotta take care of today, but I already promised Leni I would be her stand in model for the day."

Lincoln felt like he knew where this was heading. "So you want me to cover for you?" He said, almost with a sigh.

"That's the idea!" She said with a wink.

Under normal circumstances, Lincoln likely would have said no. He only agreed to be Leni's model in dire situations. However, that would give him access to her all day, which would be a good opportunity to check if her behavior around him would be different.

"Alright Luna, I can take care of that." He said before turning back to his cereal.

"Right on, thanks bro! Love ya~" She said before leaving the room.

Lincoln heard the front door open and shut not long after that, so he figured she was already on her way out and he just happened to be the one awake to be asked the for the favor. With Luna gone all day, that meant he would have to move her on hold for the time being, but she seemed normal enough from that exchange.

"That was too brief to get a good read, maybe I should have pretended something was up so i could have gotten her to stay for a bit." He thought as he finished his bowl. "Oh well, I should save my focus today for Leni."

Lincoln considered Leni to be one of the easier sisters to read. She always wore her emotions on the outside and couldn't keep a secret even if her life depended on it. However, he still didn't want to her lightly. If Leni was the culprit, there was more to her than meets the eye.

When he got back to his room, he checked the clock. It was still too early for anyone to really wake up, so he would have to wait a bit.

"I know, I'll send her a text so she doesn't try to find Luna when she wakes up." He said while reaching for his phone. He went to write the text message, but this proved much more challenging than he expected. His body froze before he could hit send.

He had spoken to her just last night, but that was because she caught him off guard. He hadn't actually been the first to speak to any of his sisters since the event happened. Even his conversation with Luna earlier was initiated by her. He was just there. It was easier when he didn't have to engage them. It was one thing to be spoken to by your attacker, but a completely different thing to speak to them directly and act like nothing was wrong.

"Come on Lincoln, you can do this…." He thought. Anxiety filled his mind and he began to tremble. It was just a simple text message. He had sent thousands of them in the past, many of them to Leni. This one wasn't any different. All it said was "Luna's busy and asked me to be your model today." Surely he could manage to say that, right? Wrong. He started to feel ashamed of himself. Had he really become so afraid of his sisters that he couldn't even hit send on a text message?

"Do it." He said to himself. "Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it…" He kept repeating over and over. A vain attempt to give himself the courage to pull forward.

"Don't be a coward! You're better than this" He was shaking more and more with each passing second. Finally, after twenty minutes, he was able to take a huge breath and press down with his thumb.

Once he heard the send sound, he let out a huge sigh. That was officially the most difficult thing he had ever done, and it was something as mundane as a text message to his older sister. He felt humiliated with how much hesitation it took him. Even more so because he got a reply almost instantly.

"Huh, I didn't think Leni would even be awake this early…" He said as he opened the message.

It read:"Glad yur felin better! cum Ovr n lIk 30 mins :)"

"Is this even English?" Lincoln said with a laugh. That was such a typical Leni text. She was just as fast as Lori, and it was always just barely legible to a regular human. As he got ready to go, he kept trying to remind himself that he had nothing to fear. It was just standing there while clothes where being sewn around him right? Nothing to worry about at all….If only he actually believed that.

When Lincoln got to the door, he hesitated for a bit before knocking. Lori opened the door and immediately put her hand on his forehead.

"Hm….you feel better, but your eyes are still kinda bloodshot." She said and she removed the hand.

"I told you last night, I feel fine." Lincoln replied.

"You just didn't want to take the medicine, you probably would have said anything to get out of that."

"That's just…" Lincoln paused for a moment. "That's actually a pretty fair assessment."

"I know it is, we've literally been in this situation before." Lori said, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"I'm fine now though." He insisted.

Lori rolled her eyes. "Whatever Lincoln, I don't have time for this right now. I'm late for a tee-off." She said as she pushed passed him, golf bag hanging off her shoulder. "Leni, on Lincoln duty. Make sure he doesn't collapse again."

"Don't worry Lori. He won't leave my sight." Leni said as she walked to the door. "Now hurry up Linky, We have so many things to do."

Leni grabbed Lincoln's hand and pulled him into the room, shutting the door behind him. Lincoln's eyes wandered around the room. There were fabrics of all sorts littered across the floor. A tiny podium was in the center, and a large variety of needs and pins could be seen in a tackle box to the side.

"Oh yeah…" He thought. "This is gonna be rough."

Leni directed Lincoln to stand on the podium as she went into the closet. "I was originally going to use Luna for her slim stature, but you should work out even better for the outfits I have planned!' She said with a large smile on her face.

"And just what kind of outfits are those?" Lincoln asked in a nervous voice.

"Well, I was originally going to try a lot of different batwing sleeve legging combos, but I think something a little more regal would be more fitting, something with a high neckline and lots of organzas!" She said merrily.

"What does that even mean?" Lincoln asked, feeling the same type of confusion he felt whenever Lisa started talking about a science topic.

"Oh, it basically means we're gonna work on some sheath silhouette styles" She replied, not realizing that all she had done was confuse the poor boy even further.

"Well, this is certainly gonna be an adventure." Lincoln said quietly to himself. Unaware that Leni had heard him.

"LINCOLN!" She shouted. "You're much too scrawny and not nearly rugged enough for an adventure style! You are getting way too ahead of yourself."

"Like I said, an adventure." He thought as he resolved to not talk to himself out loud when in Leni's earshot.

As time went by, Leni put Lincoln in all sorts of outfits. Some had hats, some hat sleeves, some were hemmed around his figure, some had a loose chest. Regardless of the style, nearly all of them were uncomfortable. Oddly enough though, Leni didn't talk for the majority of it. She just hummed to herself happily as she dressed him up like her own personal mannequin. Only speaking when she wanted him to pose in a specific way, or to tell him to hold still while she put a pin in. A piece of advice that proved to be futile as she pricked Lincoln more times than he could count.

After quite some time had passed, Leni had put Lincoln in an outfit that was weirder than the others. This one was white and had gold lace everywhere. Unlike the others, this one had pant instead of a dress or a had a long flowing jacket with lavender embroidery and something she called "Cowl Pockets" on each side, creating a wrinkle on the back. Under it was a satin shirt that had round golden pearl-looking buttons that went all the up to the high rise neck. Leni was adjusting the stitching as Lincoln examined the garment in the mirror.

"Why is this thing so flashy?" He thought, looking at the very flamboyant sash around his chest. His body felt hot and weighed down in the outfit, the collar almost choking him.

"There!" Leni said as she stepped back. "They had said it couldn't be done, but I proved them all wrong!" She said excitedly, pulling out her phone and snapping a million pictures.

"What couldn't be done?" He exclaimed while shielding his eyes from the blinding flash.

"A super cute ballroom suit for women" Leni cheered. "Everyone knows pant suits are a total fashion disaster, so I invented a suit that has all the glamour and elegance of a ball dress with all the slimming functionality of a suit."

Lincoln let out a soft sigh. There was no mistaking it, Leni was acting completely normal. Maybe all of his worries about her actually were for nothing.

"I think we've earned a break after this accomplishment." He said, grabbing a bottle of water from the ground. He looked at the clock, and was shocked to find that he had spent five hours with Leni.

"Ooh, that's not a bad idea Linky." Leni said as she grabbed a small chair from the corner so Lincoln could sit down. She had always been an overly courteous person. She may not have been the most intelligent person, but she had always been overly thoughtful. "How are you feeling? Need more medicine?"

"NO!" Lincoln gasped. "The last thing I need is more of that junk, I'm fine."

"That's a relief." Leni said with a smile. She reached out and touched Lincoln's had, which made him start to a little quiver. "I would feel so lost if something happened to you Linky."

Lincoln pulled his hand away. "Oh come on, you don't mean that. Besides, I'm not going anywhere." He said nervously.

"Great, just great. I was just starting to feel comfortable around her again!" Lincoln thought, disappointed in himself. His sister was probably just being nice, and he was still seeing her as a potential attacker.

"I do mean it though." She said seriously. "You're my little Linky. I care about you more than anything." She said as she latched onto him with a big hug. "You scared me so much yesterday that I almost cried for hours." She began to tear up. "You're the only one I get to have fun with like this"

Lincoln's heart began to race, and a cold sweat started forming on the back of his neck. He was petrified with fear. He felt like he was in a horror movie and the monster had just caught him. He thought back to the letters.

"Don't scare me like that! Get better soon so we can have more fun later ;D
I love you Lincoln!"

"Could Leni actually be the one who did it?!" He thought. SHe said almost exactly what the letter said. And she used an emote in the text she sent him earlier, and there was one in the letter too! Lincoln began to get light headed. Here he was, spending the entire day with someone who just might be the most dangerous person in the entire house, and he had let his guard down. He gulped and pushed away.

"Linky….?" Leni said with concern. "Are you alright?"

Lincoln glanced in the mirror and saw that he was cowering in fear, looking like a lunatic.

"I-I'm good. I just need to get some fresh air." He said, trying to calm himself.

"Oh. Alright." Leni replied, not exactly convinced. She walked passed him and opened the bedroom window. "How's that?"

Lincoln took a deep breath. "Better….." He uttered. His mind was racing, hoping to find a way out of this situation. Just then, almost by divine intervention, his stomach grumbled.

"Oh, silly me!" Leni said with a laugh. "You're probably just hungry. We've been at this for a long time after all." She turned around and started for the door. "I'll go make you something to eat, you just relax."

Once Leni left, Lincoln let out a massive sign and fell down on the floor, his back against the wall. Panting heavily like he had just stained himself.

"That was close…" He said as he caught his breath. "But how much longer can I keep this up?" As lincoln considered that, he started dreading the thought of Leni coming back up the stairs. Could he even look her in the eye again? No, he had to escape somehow. He stood up and started pacing. There had to somewhere he could go to avoid her. Something….something….something…...something

"Lincoln"

"AHHHH" He shouted. Lucy was directly in front of him. How does she just appear like that?

"Yeah Lucy?" He said once he caught his breath.

"You're services are needed." She said.

Before Lincoln had a chance to ask what it was about, she grabbed his arm and started dragging him away. She lead him down the hall to Lana and Lola's room. She pushed the door open before he could even comment on the destination. The entire room was decorated weirdly. A large piece of cardboard on the ground, covering almost the entire floor. Lana was nowhere to be seen, but Lola was standing with her face to the wall, hands behind her back.

"You sure found him quickly…." Said while taking a glance at Lincoln. "But did you really have to put him in that outfit?" She asked confused by his attire.

"He was already wearing it." Lucy replied.

Lola gave a puzzled look. "Whatever, it's oddly fitting for the occasion."

"What occasion is this? Lincoln asked, finally speaking up.

Lola let out a grunt. "My next pageant has a drama section added to it. I need to use you as a stand in while I figure out how I'm go about it."

"Ok...but why is Lucy here?" He asked.

"No one in our family knows theatrics quite like Lucy. Even if her tastes are a little ghastly."

"I can't argue with that." Lucy said in her usual monotone style.

"So what do I need to do?" Lincoln asked, still confused about the whole thing.

Lucy handed him an mp3 player and a piece of paper. "You need to quickly learn the words to this song and dance along with Lola while singing it." Lucy said.

"Hold it, why do I have to do that? Isn't this her pageant?"

"Yes, and nothing wins the heart of the audience more than the sweet and innocent princess being wooed by a mysterious prince's song during a dance." Lola said, her hands clasped together by her heart.

Lincoln agreed that they had a point, but he still wasn't a fan that he was being roped into it. "Still, I have like the worst voice here!" He argued. "You should have gotten someone else!"

"Relax Lincoln, we're just using you as a placeholder to save time. Now learn your lines!" Lola shouted.

"It's a short and easy one, you'll be fine." Lucy said in an attempt to be reassuring.

Lincoln put on the headphones and listened to the song while reading the lyrics. It's was around 5 minutes, which wasn't exactly short in his book, but it followed a fairly simple rhyme pattern. The lyrics confused him though. Lots of talk of a "dark new world" and "Darkness you cannot fight." Lucy must have definitely been the one to pick the song. After a few listens, Lincoln felt confident that he could at least kinda sing it well enough to get Lola through her practice.

"Ok, I think I got it." He said, unsure of himself.

"Good, now put this cape around you" Lucy said as she threw a black cape at him. "The outfit you have on is fitting, but it needs a little black for an added effect." She was going all out for this production, even if she was the only audience member.

Lincoln looked by Lucy's chair and noticed there was a camera propped up. "Hey! What is the camera for?" He urged.

"Lincoln, the camera is so we can show whomever I do it with for real what we plan on doing." Lola said blanky.

"Of course, that made so much sense.." he thought as he began to feel silly for being embarrassed about being filmed.

Lucy had Lincoln stand behind Lola. She had Lola fold her arms like she was being stubborn. Once they were in places, she said "action" and pressed the play button on a stereo next to her.

"Don't forget to get into character. You're trying to win her heart with this dance!" Lucy shouted over the music as the first part for Lincoln to sing came up.

Lincoln cleared his throat and began to sing, trying his best to imitate the voice he had heard in the recording. "Nighttime sharpens-" As he sang, he moved slowly towards Lola. A mixture of unsure and fear arose in his body, but the song helped him move along.

He approached her, delving entirely into the character of the mysterious prince and touched her shoulder gently, this made Lola jump a little, she hadn't expected such a direct movement from Lincoln.

"Slowly, gently, night unfurls its splendor. Grasp it, sense it, tremulous and tender. Hearing is believing, music is deceiving, hard as lightning soft as candlelight~" As he sang he spun her around and began to dance with her. Unaware that the trembling uncertainty in his voice added to the effect of the song. To him, he was just being nervous and singing out of key(which was still true).

The two moves slowly, but gracefully. Each one fully in sync with the music, and each other by proxy.

"Close your eyes for your eyes will only tell the truth and the truth isn't what you want to see."

Lola was staring into Lincoln's eyes the entire time, showing a look that he had never seen before. What was it? We wasn't sure.

"In the dark it is easy to pretend ~ That the truth is what it ought to be~"

The whole room was filled with a chilling aura. As the danced and Lincoln sang, all time just seemed to stop. No one, not even Lucy was able to fully comprehend what was going on. They just followed the scene through.

Lincoln spun Lola around and pulled her closer. "Floating, falling, sweet intoxication. Touch me, trust me, savor each sensation. Let the dream begin, let your darker side give in~" She dug her fingers into his arm as she continued to me. He then got fully caught up in the character and lifted her into the air and slowly spun around, her body cradled in his arms. "You alone can make my song take flight…..help me make the music of the night~"

"c….Cut." Lucy said as the hit off on the music player.

Lincoln let Lola down, who was still overwhelmed by the whole ordeal. Her face completely flustered. Lincoln was seemingly the only one not caught up in everything by this point.

"So, how was that?" He asked.

Lucy remained quiet for a bit before replying. "You were great, Lola, we need like 50% of that."

This broke Lola out of her trance. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT!" She yelled.

"You were too mushy, it made me wanna gag." Lucy replied. Cold toned as ever.

"You just don't know talent when you see it!" Lola explained. "I was perfect in that scene with Linky."

"Perfectly gross maybe."

As they argued, Lincoln finally noticed a small pain in his arm where Lola had dug her nails in his arm. As he rubbed it, a memory flashed before his eyes. It felt exactly his his shoulders did the other night.

"No…." he said to himself quietly. This whole time he had let his whole guard down because he was so sure it was Leni. But the mark left by Lola felt exactly like the other mark. Could it really have been Lola? The light headed feeling returned and he started to step away from the two of them. As he walked, he noticed he had stepped on a piece of paper. He picked it up and looked over it, it was the lyrics to the song….but there was something odd about them….The letters were written entirely with cut outs.

"Why...why is this written like this?!" He said.

Lucy looked up at him, stopping her bickering with Lola. "Because it adds dramatic effect. I write all sorts of things like that." She replied.

This made Lincoln tremble. Lucy? Could it be here writing the notes?!

"You ok?" Lola said as she walked towards him, concerned by the noticeable distress he was in.

"Just….just…." Lincoln tried to say but couldn't.

"Linky…." She said as she got closers.

Lincoln closed his eyes. "JUST GIVE ME SOME SPACE!" He shouted as he ran to his room and slammed the door shut. He sat on the bed, curled into a ball. Just what was going on? Who was the sister that caused him so much pain? There was enough evidence to condemn three of them already. What if all of them had something on them. Would he ever know? Would he ever have peace?!

Curled up on his bed, Lincoln cried until he fell asleep. Completely ignoring the knocks and calls from his sisters for the rest of the day.

And there we go, a chapter 3 is finally done. This was probably the most difficult chapter so far. The beginning was largely untouched, but it was supposed to focus primarily on Luna. The Lola/Lucy event was supposed to take place during the day, and then the night was supposed to be a big story about Luna performing at a night club. The problem was that I got carried away and the Luna stuff became a little too sweet for this particular story. So I axed all of that and rewrote the chapter with a larger significance on Leni.
If you wanted to read the Luna version of this chapter, I uploaded it as its own story called "Star of the Masquerade." I will find more to do with her in this story, but I figured it was best to move her elsewhere rather than attempt to completely rewrite it.(Perceptive readers might be able to mix the two together to see how it was originally intended because I completely deleted very little.)

The song Lincoln is singing is of course Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera. I love that show, and the sinister undertone of the song plays a lot into potentially incriminating Lucy for creating her perfect "dark prince" while also serving as an enchantingly romantic tune to show some of Lola's inner demons.

Hopefully it won't take as long to write the next chapter, but I still need to tweak the outline a little now that it is thrown off.