While worrying about her brother, Lynn will have to deal with Taylor and sooner or latter she will have enough of him and give the bully a piece of her mind. Meanwhile Lana is still lost in the forest and her family will soon find out about it, and something else...
The surrounding serenity helped Lynn to remain calm, besides some chirping birds, her surroundings remained peaceful and placid, allowing her to keep an eye on her brother without any pesky distractions. But that wouldn't last for long.
As she watched Lincoln`s chest slowly rise up and down, she picked up the sound of footsteps walking over the grass, getting closer to her. Instinctively a frown crept into her face.
"Go away." she bitterly barked without turning her head. Unfazed by her order, Taylor stood behind her with a scrutinizing look while holding his chin.
"If I could make a bold suggestion, perhaps a quick splash of water to the face would bring the sleeping princess out of dream land?" he said nonchalantly, causing Lynn to grow increasingly more irritated. She finally looked at him with a less than friendly expression.
"Is this some damn joke to you?" Lynn snapped, "In case you've forgotten, my little brother is laying here with a possible concussion! And it's all your freaking fault!"
Taylor was briefly hesitant to talk before he slowly narrowed his eyes "I`m trying to help you here tutz, believe me I take no pleasure about you staying here just because of him..."
"Me! This isn't about me! It's about him! Do you even feel a tinge of guilt over what you have done?" Lynn growled accusingly.
"I told you, it was just an accident, I didn't want this to happen..." Taylor replied calmly, as much as he hated to admit it, he did feel responsible for this and this time he didn't have the luxury of letting Lyle take the blame (even if it was justified), but he was too stubborn and prideful to admit it.
Lynn spat in disgust " Yeah right, let's say I believed ya for a second, and how do you justify the things you've done to him the last few times you met? Those clearly weren't "accidents" and you were pretty damn gleeful about it.", Taylor grew agitated and sat down next to her.
"Would you quit bringing that up? That's ancient history and I was under Lyle`s bad influence at the time..." Lynn`s groan cut him of.
"You honestly expect me to buy that?" she asked exasperatedly, "Can you just stop trying? It's getting pathetic.", she paused and starred at him with a hateful glare, "I know the real you and I know how you have no scruples, you're an ass, you're a miserable bully and you take joy in picking on others. And here's a big shocker, even if you had never bullied Lincoln, I still wouldn't have wanted anything to do with you because you're a miserable ass and bully.", to her surprise Taylor made a small chuckle.
"Why you're pretending like that makes me worse than everyone else, well news flash! It doesn't.", Lynn let a look of puzzlement crack under her glare.
"What are you talking about?" she asked, Taylor grew a small smirk.
" Don't play ignorant sweetheart, those things you said, those things that supposedly make me a bad person..." his face dropped to one of apathy "...it`s the exact same crap that every other kid in the world does on a regular basis. We don't live in a squeaky clean utopia, the world is a jungle where might makes right and every kid only looks out for their own self interest, most of the time your so called friends only values you as long as you're convenient to them, if you're not they'll abandon you without a second thought and as long as someone`s in a position of power, be it wealth or popularity or simply the brawn to push others around they'll gladly be the bully and the cold harsh truth is that no one is even remotely above that.
You see I`m not the bad guy, I`m just someone who plays by the rules.", Lynn tried to make a retort, but couldn't, what Taylor said quickly reminded her about what her siblings regularly went trough among their peers, Lincoln and even more so Lucy and Luan, they aren't popular and the treatment they get reflects that, she would have said how her peers treated her with respect trough most of her life, but she then remembered how as an athlete and all around tough girl she had both popularity and pure brawn on her side from basically the start, and then there was the fact that she couldn't, on good conscience, tell Taylor that she was above bullying, because knew she wasn't.
Lynn screamed inwardly "Why is this idiot making sense, I can't lose an argument to that asshole of all people, he probably just made that bullshit up on the spot to defend himself, nothing more...", before Taylor got a chance to comment on her prolonged silence, she said the best response she could muster.
"Well I can`t speak about other kids..." her tone was rather reserved and somber, if not sounding defeated "...but my siblings aren't like that, they have standards." her voice grew more confident, but Taylor could detect uncertainty bellow it, he thought about doing the obvious and tell her that she's wrong, but he noted something else about her response.
"Really?..." he started in an obviously unconvinced tone, before cocking his eyebrow "...and what about you?" he intrigued, aware that this might strike a nerve with her, but he had no idea how much he was right. That question, he had her trapped, Lynn started to panic and sweet nervously, she couldn't tell him how she had treated her siblings in the past, he would never let her live it down. She wanted to lie, to say that she never dropped to the same low he did, but she couldn't bring herself to do it, it would be a lie. With the stress and anxiety boiling up inside of her, Lynn`s impulsive nature kicked in.
"Well?" Taylor smugly asked before suddenly and violently being pushed down.
"You`re unbearable!" Lynn snapped at him, the boy rose up with a surprised expression before smiling.
"What? It was a simple question?" he asked with faux innocence, Lynn`s reaction was immediate. Growling and gritting her teeth, the girl rose up to her feet, Taylor instantly got her body language and stood up himself, "Oh the doll wants to play fight...again." he thought with a growing feeling of excitement.
Lynn lunged at him, but Taylor dodged and let her fall into the muddy bank of the lake, as she tried to get up she heard the black haired boy`s mocking voice "What's the matter? Did I ask something you didn't want me to know?". That did it.
With lighting speed Lynn lunged at Taylor, got a choke hold on him and used her weight to pull him down. She grabbed hold of the back of his head and started pushing it into the mud. Taylor managed to plant his hands into the muddy ground and pushed himself up, throwing her of him, but the moment he tried to get up, he slipped down. He saw Lynn going at him and quickly dug his hand into the mud and pelted Lynn in the face.
"I got a nice aim, wouldn't you agree?" he quipped.
Wiping of the dirt, Lynn quickly formed a huge mud ball with her hands and hit Taylor right in the face, including his eyes. As he yelped, she lunged at him again and before they knew it, they both plunged into the water.
As Lynn surfaced, she was instantly splashed in the face, "Let me cool you off!" Taylor laughed as he swam back to shore. As soon as he stood up in the ankle deep water, he was tackled by Lynn and hit the soft sand-mud floor, Lynn was ontop of him trying to pinn him dow.
Taylor quickly turned the table and rolled to the side and quickly had Lynn pinned, "You know Lynn? I think you got some anger issues..." he quipped smarmilly as his face loomed above hers.
"Shut up!" Lynn yelled as she swiftly pinned him underneath her again. They kept rolling as they wrestled until they were back on the grass and Taylor had Lynn pinned again "...not that I don't find that charming." he finished. A sudden moan put an end to their fight, Taylor looked up.
"The pipsqueak is waking up." he observed in surprise and got of Lynn, who grew concerned and rushed towards her brother. As she reached him and kneeled down, she saw that he was opening his eyes and she let out a huge sigh of relief. As Lincoln`s vision got clearer, he made out his sister, who quickly hugged him, before he could even make out his surroundings.
"Lynn? What happened? Where...ughh...am I?" he asked groggily, before suddenly feeling a pain in the back of his head. Lynn let him go.
" Stay down Linc, you had a nasty accident and you need to rest." she calmly told him with sisterly concern. As Lincoln became fully awake, his most recent memory started playing back in his mind "Taylor?", Lincoln went wide eyed and tried to get up.
"Lynn I..ah..." he exlaimed, but he felt his head spinning and collapsed.
"Do you feel dizzy?" Lynn asked, to which her brother simply nodded, making her sigh.
"I figured as much..." she replied dejectevly "...you hit your head hard and now you have a big bump because of it, just try not to strain yourself and relax, we`ll get back to camp as soon as you`re well enough to get up, but don't worry I`m in no hurry."
"Okay..." he mumbled meekly as he tried to heed his sisters advice "...but...before I passed away, I remember seeing Tayl..."
"Yes you saw Taylor, he`s here." Lynn told him up front, figuring there was no point in beating around the bush with it. That conformation gave Lincoln a small jolt and he finally started scanning his surroundings and saw the bully standing just behind his sister.
"Well rise and shine pipsqueak..." Taylor quipped, but as soon as Lynn glared at him, he let out a nervous laugh "...eh...anyways...eh... sorry about causing your little accident, it probably wasn`t my most ingenious idea for a joke to scare you with a knife, but it was all in good fun, so no hard feelings, kay? he said with a sleazy grin.
"I must have hit my head real hard or did I actually hear Taylor say "sorry"." that was the first thought that went trough Lincoln`s head, but on the outside he was at a loss for words, partially from his dizziness and confusion, but also, as Lynn quickly noted, from feeling intimidated.
Lynn decided to act, she got up and started pushing Taylor away "Alright that's enough out of you, leave him be..." she grumbled, but Lincoln finally spoke up.
"What are you doing here?" the white haired boy asked weakly, Lynn stopped pushing Taylor who in turn rolled his eyes.
"Take a wild guess, I`m here for the same reasons as you Louds and it seems it's a small world after all...not that I mind." he finished with smile directed at Lynn who crossed her arms and glared away from him.
"And why are you alone? Where's your..."
"I`ll explain it to you Lincoln..." Lynn told him, before shifting her gaze at Taylor "...and isn't your fishing rod wiggling?", Taylor looked around and saw the rod bending, he smirked.
"Excuse me, but I have to catch my dinner." as he rushed off, Lynn sat back down next to Lincoln, who had managed to rise up, despite his dizziness. Lynn gave a small smile and wrapped her arm around him.
"Was he bothering you?" he asked her immediately.
"He did.." she replied casually "...but don't worry I know how to take care of myself." she stated proudly. Lincoln didn't doubt that, but knowing his sister he was more concerned if things turned as violent as the first time Lynn and Taylor met, when she was "taking care of herself".
"And did you fight again?"
"Yeah, but don't worry, it wasn't anything brutal. I went easy on him." she bragged, Lincoln had his doubts about how truthful that was, but he didn't press it any further.
He was frankly more concerned about Lynn`s well being than his own, knowing her temper and impulsiveness the last thing he wanted was her being around Taylor, not that he liked being around that brute any more. Taylor`s arrival had certainly soured their weekend, but Lincoln hoped that he and Lynn could leave as soon as possible. It was just a matter of him getting back on his feet.
He tried to remain optimistic in spite of the bad luck that has been following his family the entire summer, once they could get away from Taylor things could go back to plan, "No way would that jerk follow after us, especially with dad around, the worst of this bump in the road is probably over. I mean what else could possibly go wrong now?"
...
"Dad! Lincoln! Lynn! Anybody!" Lana`s cries for her family pierced trough the usual ambience of the forest, but her desperate calls were always met with silence. The little blonde sniffed as tears once again threatened to leave her eyes. An ever growing feeling of dread consumed her, as the little tomboy slowly, but surely started to realize the gravity of her situation.
She had gotten herself lost, with no sense of direction, try as she might, she couldn't figure out how to retrace her steps, as everything in the forest, every tree, every bush, log or boulder, they all looked the same and blended together into a seemingly vast and endless maze.
Lana whimpered as the harsh reality started gnawing at her mind, she was lost, away from her family or any other human, tears escaped her eyes as the idea of never seeing her family started registering in her mind, she began to sob and hugged herself for warmth as she kept wandering aimlessly trough the forest floor.
"I can't loose them, I can't, I already lost Lola, I can't lose them too! No, please no, I can't ..." she kept sobbing as she pushed her way trough some bushes, then a thought suddenly hit her "...Wait? What was it that dad said I should do if I got lost?...Yes! Find things that I find familiar to find my way back."
Frantically Lana kept looking around, but saw nothing. "No there has to be something!" she pressed on stubbornly while hot tears started dripping from her eyes, as she pushed her way trough some more bushes, she finally saw something familiar. That log that was eaning against the moss covered boulders which she had used as a slide before. The little blonde felt a glimmer of hope and desperately tried to think of any other landmark that could help her. But then nature threw her a curveball.
A deep, powerful bellow echoed trough the forest, causing Lana to yelp in fright, the noise was so loud and ominous that it frightened her immensely. A chill ran down her spine as she heard the monstrous bellow a second time. Her previous goal completely skipped her mind, as her instinct told her to run. She hid in the first patch of bushes she saw and lied down on the ground, doing whatever she could think of to hide herself.
The noise stopped for a while and Lana started to feel a bit more secure, she rose up and peaked her head from the bushes when a third bellow pierced trough the previous silence. Lana crouched down and looked trough the leaves and to her horror she saw a large, dark figure moving trough the trees and making loud crashes as it walked over the dry leaves and dead wood. Lana`s heart started pounding fast and she felt frozen with fear.
The large creature moved past the trees and entered the small clearing. It was a moose, Lana remained quiet, the immense size of the animal was both astounding, but also really scary to her. The giant deer started moving towards her, it's long antlers scrapping trough the low hanging branches, it stopped around 15 feet in front of Lana`s bush and started browsing on a spruce tree.
Lana watched him, feeling terrified. Her mind started urging her to get out of there while the moose was distracted, but her feet felt perpetually frozen. Bracing herself, Lana tried to run, but her rustling quickly alerted the moose, Lana stopped herself as she saw the moose turning his head, sniffing the air and subsequently shaking his head in an agitated manner while producing a guttural, rumbling sound.
Lana tried to hide, but she was already too far out of the cover of the bush, she once again froze with fear as she realized that the moose was starring at her. He didn't have any immediate reaction, he only turned his body to face her. Lana felt intimidated, but her nerves started to ease a bit from the animals calm demeanor. Maybe this moose was friendly? She was wrong.
The large ungulate stomped the ground with one leg and lowered his head, Lana screamed as the massive antlers charged at her, she jumped out of the bush, ran, but quickly tripped and fell. As she picked herself up, she turned her head and saw the moose crushing the bush with his head and antlers, he immediately looked up at her and stomped the ground with both of his front legs and charged at her. Lana screamed with terror and ran foward, as fast as she could and not daring to look back as the sound of grunting and stomping were right behind her.
She ran between two birch trees and instantly heard the sound of antlers crashing against them, followed by the sound of falling leaves. Lana ran and ran, to terrified to look back, while the moose backed away from the trees and stomped the ground and shook his antlers agressively, but didn't follow her. Lana kept zigzagging trough the cluster of trees, until she realized that she wasn't being pursued anymore. That was a close shave, but she wasn't out of the woods...
...
Lincoln kneeled down to cup up some water in his palms, he noticed how Lynn was by his side, which she hadn't left ever since he woke up.
"Lynn, you don't have keep watch over him all the time..." he told her, getting slightly annoyed "...I`m fine now, I swear." He had a point, as he was able to walk all the way to the water in order to take a drink without any loss of balance.
"I`m not taking any chanes Linc, you gave me quite a fright before and in case you suddenly fall down or get sick, I`ll have to be there to help you.", Lincoln was starting to feel miffed with her overprotectiveness and he looked down at his reflection, he wasn't a baby and he wasn't hurt that much.
"Oh who are you kidding, you were..." he realized as he remembered the big bump on his head "...that thing will probably be a constant pain to me for days before it swells down, might as well be appreciative to Lynn for being helpful.", he looked to see Lynn, who was giving him a reassuring smile.
He gave her one back "Thanks Lynn, but I really do feel better..." he emphasized that point by standing up without any problem "...I even think that I can head back to the raft.", Lynn stood up as well, her face showing signs of concern.
"I dunno? Are you sure you won't get sea sick? You know it's going to take a while to paddle back to camp..."
"In that case stay a while longer!", both siblings frowned as they heard Taylor butting into their conversation. They turned to see him still standing on a small small cliffedge, holding his rod and pulling on the handle, neither of the siblings thought highly of the invitation, not that Taylor cared to think about it.
"You`re family won't go anywhere and if you stay Lynn, you can join me when I cook my catch... oh yeah and Lincoln can stay too."
"Gee you're offer is very kind, but we don't hang out with people who beat us up." Lincoln replied sarcastically. Both Lynn and frankly he himself were surprised that he had the courage to even say that, Taylor however just shrugged.
"Those are old news now and what better way to make up and let bygones be bygones than while roasting food on a quiet and relaxing camping trip." he said while looking at Lynn.
"Oh don't you worry, I will be doing that... she replied and then grew a small smirk "...but with my family and I would advice you against thinking about following me, unless you want my dad to kill you."
Much to her annoyance, Taylor chuckled "Oh yeah, I figured he would be pissed of at me, but do tell me? Does he want me dead cuz I hit you or cuz I flirted with you?"
Lincoln could feel his sister trembling with anger, he put his hand on her shoulder to calm her down. Lynn was about to snap back, but Taylor raised his hand up to silence her while his attention was diverted to the handle of his rod.
"Hold that thought. I have a a bite." he pulled and pulled until he finally pulled a fish on his line. But Taylor pouted when he realized that the fish was tiny, barely 3 inches long. Lynn started laughing.
"Nice catch..." she mocked him "...if you're thinking to feed yourself that way then you might have a chance to make it up to me by starving to death!", as she kept laughing Taylor gave her a brief glare of irrigation, before relaxing and taking the fish of the hook. With a smile he released it back into the water.
"You`re right, better leave this puny guppy to the otters. When you fish, you must be prepared to suffer disappointment and press on, but the trick is to stay calm and level headed..." he replied in a chill tone before throwing his hook back into the water "...not that you're familiar with that." he added teasingly.
"What`s that supposed to mean!" Lynn snapped, much to Taylor`s amusement.
"Well I`m just saying that you're in need of some anger management training." Taylor replied teasingly.
Gritting her teeth, Lynn tried to attack him, but Lincoln pulled her back by her arm "Calm down Lynn! Don't let him get to you..." Lincoln suddenly looked away and quietly mumbled "...he does have a point though...", but Lynn heard him.
"What?" she forcefully pulled her arm free, causing Lincoln to tumble back, nearly loosing his balance. Lynn glared at him with clenched fists, "On who's side are you on?" she asked him angrily.
Lincoln held his hands up defensively, "On yours of course Lynn, it's just that...well you are a bit temperamental.", Lynn looked at him with narrowed eyes, clearly upset.
"Come on Lynn don't look at me like that, we all talked about how we need to be honest with each other and confront our faults." Lincoln tried to reason, his sister knew he was right, but still it was no piece of cake to face her faults, especially in front of their current company. Lynn relaxed and placed her hand on Lincoln`s shoulder.
"You`re right bro..." she said in a surprisingly calm tone, but Lincoln noticed a devious glint in her eyes "...and I`ll still try to get you to stop reading comics in your underwear.", unfortunately Lynn spoke out louder than she intended.
"He reads comics in his underwear?" they both heard Taylor exclaim from behind them, they saw his dumbfounded face and Lynn froze, knowing she had just screwed up. In no time Taylor bursted out with uncontrollable laughter.
"That...(laughter)...is...(laughter)..." Taylor could barely utter a word from his nonstop laughing, Lynn grew a guilty expression as she turned around to see her brother blushing with embarrassment.
"It not true!" he angrily cried at Taylor "I just...she...it`s..." Lincoln struggled to construct a sentence as Taylor`s mocking laughter kept crushing him. He let out a whimper and covered his face in shame, Lincoln then peaked trough his fingers and saw Lynn, her face filled with regret.
"Thanks a lot Lynn..." Lincoln said bitterly, before turning his back on his sister and sitting down.
"Thank you Lindsey...you just made my day." Taylor told her while holding his chest with his free hand, his laughter having decreased to a giggle fit. Lynn was trying to reach out and apologize to her brother, but the moment she heard Taylor talking, she became enraged.
"I hate you!" she cried at him, though she sounded less angry and more desperate at this point. She quickly turned back to her brother while Taylor suddenly felt a strong tug on his line.
"Uhhh I caught me a big one!" he got exited and started pulling on the handle.
"Lincoln...I`m sorry...I didn't mean to...it just..." Lynn tried to apology to her brother who was now slouching dejectedly.
"It doesn't matter now Lynn, he knows." the boy replied somberly, he didn't sound all that angry at his sister, but simply depressed because his secret was out.
"What the?" they both suddenly heard Taylor shout and turned to see him with his arms outstretched, holding the rod. Taylor pulled them back and started pulling on the handle with much greater difficulty. What ever he had on the line, it was putting up one hell of a fight.
Lynn and Lincoln saw him struggle to hold on to the rod, when a huge tail fin suddenly broke the surface some 40 yards away from them, both siblings gasped in awe. Taylor was starting to feel overpowered and his line got another powerful tug, this time forcing him to step foward. The boy realized that he took on more than he could handle, when suddenly a 7 foot sturgeon leaped out of the water and dragged him right of the ledge and into the lake with, he hit the water with a big splash.
Unable to believe their own eyes, Lynn and Lincoln looked at each other before rushing over to the ledge. They saw Taylor surfacing and shaking his head, he opened his eyes to see that the fish was gone... and so was his fishing rod, as he pulled out and examined his empty hands.
"No!" he cried out desperately, before hearing laughter above him. He shot a vicious glare at the siblings. Lynn was kneeling down at the ledge with her hands grasping its edges, she pointed a finger at the soaked boy.
"Nice wipe out Taylor..." she giggled "...what a shame that I didn't have a camera!"
Taylor let out a low growl as he glared at her, "Well that was quite something. Tell you something Taylor, you keep my secret and we won't tell anyone about what we just saw." Lincoln made the offer while trying not to giggle, but quickly flinched and gulped when Taylor shot him a death glare and smiled ominously.
"How about you keep quite and I'll think about not rearranging your face." Taylor replied threateningly and smirked when saw Lincoln`s reaction, but Lynn wasn't so easily scared.
"Oh don't be so mean to him Lincoln..." Lynn said jokingly before giving Taylor a look of mock empathy and started talking in a doting voice "...the poor, little boy lost his only means of finding food, now he`ll have to run back home or go hungry."
Taylor`s subsequent look of tranquil fury made Lynn crack up with laughter, but as she was doing that Taylor made a devious grin, and in no time he grabbed Lynn`s arm. Her laughter was abruptly cut as she was pulled into the water, Lincoln quickly rushed where his sister used to be and saw her surface in front of Taylor.
She spat out water and glared at him, Taylor laughed, "First rule of nature, always be on your guard.", as he kept laughing Lynn quickly dove down, grabbed his leg and pulled him under.
She surfaced and laughed as he swam back up to her and gave her a pissed of look, "I know that, I am an athlete." she said smugly. Without a word Taylor splashed her in the face.
"And you are all wet?" Taylor quipped before being splashed himself. Lincoln watched the two splash each other until Taylor dove down and before she knew it Lynn was pulled under. As she resurfaced the boy teased her, "Catch me if ya can!" and with that he swam off, Lynn got a determined look. "Oh it's on!" she thought as she swam after him.
Lincoln looked on as they swam towards the small island of rock and shook his head "I hate to admit, but it's kind of impressive how skilled Taylor is at pissing Lynn off...", he watched Taylor climb on the rocky island, followed by Lynn, he saw her argue with Taylor before both of them plunged into the water and started swimming circles around the island "...or that he can actually keep up with her, huh if I didn't know any better I`d say she was almost enjoying it.
A while later, Taylor and Lynn both climbed back onto the rock at the same time, they sat down and started panting from exhaustion.
"Now wasn't this fun Lynn?" Taylor panted, albeit with a smile.
"No!" she panted angrily. Taylor finally caught his breath and smirked.
"Oh really? Then why did you agree to race me around this boulder? You like a good challenge, don't you?"
"I do, but not with you, you suck the fun out everything!" she crossed her arms stubbornly.
"Denial will get you nowhere..." Taylor replied in a sing song voice, "Well I did have fun and I was reminded how much I like your feisty nature, look how well we go together when we're having fun..."
Lynn grumbled and plunged back into the water. "Hey where are you going?" Taylor shouted before swimming after her to shore.
Lincoln met up with his sister, who was now pretty tired and let out a heavy sigh, "Lynn it's not that I want to cut your race with...him short, but I think it's about time we headed home." Lincoln said as he helped his sister climb onto the ledge, she simply gave an affirmative nodd.
"Where are you of to now, the fun has just begun?" Taylor called after her, but as soon as he started climbing up, Lynn placed her foot against his chest and pushed him back into the water.
"No it isn't." Lynn hissed at him before turning towards Lincoln "Come on Linc, let's go home..." she said more calmly.
"What?" Taylor said flatly as he floated in the water and saw them leaving.
...
Lynn pulled her rubber raft to shore and carefully led her brother onto it, but Taylor had followed after them and he was reluctant to let Lynn go.
"Come on now Lynn! You can't seriously be thinking about leaving? It's not even noon."
Lincoln had seated himself and noted how the bully was starting to sound desperate while Lynn didn't even care to give him a glance. To Lincoln it was actually starting to be amusing, but he kept quiet.
"Which is a whole noon more then I would like to spend with you." she replied while trying to climb back up into the raft, but Taylor grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
"Alright, what the hell do you want from me ?" he asked her in annoyance.
"Let me go!" Lynn yelled and slapped him away.
"What I want from you is for you to disappear!" she told him bluntly, Taylor glared at her and suddenly pointed at Lincoln, who flinched at the sudden gesture.
"Is it about him?" Taylor asked and made an annoyed sigh " Fine, I`m sorry, alright? I`m sorry that I picked on him and I'm sorry that I hit you too, can we now just start over?" he was sounding increasingly desperate, but he tried to mask it with annoyance.
"You say it, but I know you don't mean it..." Lynn replied in apathy and resumed trying to climb into the raft.
"Oh so spending time with your freak family 24/7 is what you want?" Taylor accused her, causing Lynn to stop before she could get into the raft. She felt her anger building up and balled her fist while Taylor threw his hands up in annoyance.
"What's your obsession with family? You see them every day and they won't go anywhere, I came here to get away from mine, but you keep using that excuse just to get get away from me over some petty grudge, I try to be nice to you, but you keep ..."
And then it happened, Lincoln barely had the time to register the next moment, but with immense speed Lynn swung her fist and punched Taylor in the nose, the boy fell back and hit the sandy ground. Lynn stood over his collapsed form, sweating and breathing heavily, Taylor quickly got up in sitting position and grabbed his bleeding nose and grunted in pain.
"They are not freaks! They are way better people thn you could ever hope to be! They care about me and I care about them, unlike you, you disgusting, self-absorbed, out of touch prick!" Lynn started ranting and walked closer to him. Once Taylor opened his eyes she cut him of from uttering a single word.
"You`re the most insufferable jackass I ever met! I despise the day I ever ran into you! I don't know what it would take to get something trough your thick skull so I'll tell you this as clearly as possible! I hate you! I don't want to be around you! Piss off! Take a hike! Go jump in a hole! I like to be around people who I love and can relay on, like my family! They may be annoying sometimes, but they`re still my family and I value them. Not that you would understand that with your "dog eat dog" mentality! You're a pathetic piece of shit and that's why everyone hates you! Hell I bet even your parents don't want you and let you wander of into the woods hoping you would be eaten by bears or something! Your an asshole and you'll always be an asshole and if you just died now, no one but the maggots would care about it!"
Lynn stopped as she ran out of breath and started panting, Lincoln was still dumbstruck, but then saw Taylor getting up while still holding his nose. Lincoln`s heart started pounding with fear, "Oh no,no,no, this is not going to end well..." he started panicking as the bully glared at his sister, while remaining eerily quiet.
Lynn stood her ground and the two had a tense standoff, punctuated by silence. Taylor then let go of his nose, revealing the blood that was dripping down from it.
"I can take a hint.." he said coldly.
"I doubt it, I dropped a million of them!" Lynn spat out. Ignoring his nose bleed Taylor dropped his glare and huffed.
"I can't believe that I thought you were cool, but your just a hysterical, ill tempered bitch, no better than your freak show of a family."
"Pff, I`d choose being one of them over being with you anyday." she replied with a smirk.
"Whatever, I wasted enough of time with you..." Taylor told her haughtily as he started leaving before shifting his towards Lincoln "...and as for you pipsqueak..." Taylor`s tone grew more threatening "...you won't always have your big sis to protect you and when that day comes you better watch your head, cuz I`ll be playing soccer with it.", Taylor let out an sinister chuckle and walked off into the forest. Lynn glared at him and balled her fists.
"Just you try! I`ll make you regret it!" she threatened back before turning towards her cowering brother.
"Why...me...I didn't do anything...to him.." he stuttered in panic.
"Don`t you worry about a thing Linc, he`s just bluffing to keep some of his dignity, it's so obvious..." Lynn reassured him as she got onto the raft and started paddling. As soon as they were on the move Lynn grew a very pleased smile.
"Man that feelt good, I never felt so relieved in my life. I have a feeling he finally got the memo." she said cheerfully. Lincoln didn't quite share the same sentiment, as Taylor`s threat still lingered in his mind, but once he recalled how his sister punched out the bully, he too couldn't help but chuckle.
"Yeah, that was pretty awesome what you did."
"Oh you're not gonna tell me how I was "tempermental" and went too far?" Lynn asked jokingly.
"No...well you didn't need to say that thing about him dying, but otherwise I think he got what was coming to him... and I enjoyed every moment of it." Lincoln replied, getting into a much more chipper spirit.
"He sure did. And now our vacation can finally continue..." Lynn agreed as she kept paddling...
...
The moose attack had only driven Lana further into the unknown, with the number of trees becoming denser Lana could barely make out anything a few feet away from her. The light was also getting fainter as the canopy got denser, making the place come of as even more spooky and foreboding than before.
Once her legs were too tired to go on any further, she sat down and curled up in a ball. Closing her eyes she started sobbing with a feeling of utter hopelessness consuming her. She was lost, completely lost, alone and she might never get out of here or see her family again.
She dug her head into her knees and her sobbing intensified, she didn't know what else to do at a moment like this but cry her eyes out, there was no one to comfort her or tell her that things would be alright, she was all alone. The area around her was completely dark, with little to no light breaking trough the canopy, which only added to the despair and hopelessness that the little tomboy felt.
She didn't know how long she had been sitting there crying, she never even lifted her head out of her knees to look around, but a sudden rustle woke her up and made she turned her head to the right, where she saw some kind of small animal scurrying trough the undergrowth where it exited trough a small crack in the bushes, which was emanating light. With her face dripping with hot tears Lana looked at that direction, with a glimmer of curiosity she followed after the animal and pushed trough the bushes, when she suddenly noted the sounds of splashing.
Once she exited on the other side, she was bombarded with light. She shielded her eyes before they adjusted to the light and what she saw left her in awe. She was in front of a river, but it wasn't flowing, as the water was blocked by a beaver dam, with one side being deeper than the other. Lana saw a bunch of the aquatic rodents ontop of the construction, adding more mud and wood to it, others were in the water carrying additional wood, while others did the same on land, walking trough the muddy bank and onto the dam.
Lana felt herself perking up, the sight of the fuzzy, little constructors filled her with curiosity and wonder, especially given what they were doing.
"I can play in the mud again and do a good deed by helping these guys build their home." Lana smiled with giddiness at the thought of rolling herself in and building things out of mud entered her mind. She quickly approached the nearest beaver she came across, who stopped and looked at her curiously.
"Excuse my, but would you mind if I joined you guys." she asked sheepishly, she remembered that the animals couldn't talk, but hoped that the beavers would give her some kind of signal. The rodent stopped looking at her and moved on.
"I think they're fine with it." was Lana`s interpretation, feeling exited she took of her shoes and cap and scooped up some mud with her good hand from the bank, enjoyingthe cold, mushy feeling of it once again, she stepped into the shallow, knee deep water in front of the damn and joined in with the beavers...
...
"Okay Lucy, catch!" Luan exclaimed as she and Lucy played back and worth with the beach ball in the waist deep water, the teen was happy to see her little sister in a better mood, finally having some fun certainly helped get her mind of that "monster" she saw in her nightmare. As they continued playing Luan ended up throwing the ball too high and it bounced of Lucy`s head before landing on the surface of the water where the light wind made it float away.
"Ups, sorry Lucy.." the comedian flinched.
"Don`t worry I`m fine, I`ll get it." the goth told her calmly and waddled trough the shallow water. The wind sent the ball all the way towards their camp, when Lucy finally caught it she saw Lisa exiting the tent, she akwardly lumbered around as if she couldn't see where she was going, it's then that Lucy noticed how the toddler wasn`t wearing her glasses, which she was carrying in her hand instead .
"What`s going on?" Lucy was puzzled.
...
"What are you doing Lisa?", the genius quickly recognized Lucy`s voice, but she had trouble spotting her, squinting her eyes Lisa scanned her surroundings until she saw a dark blurr.
"Ah Lucy, it gives me a feeling of great solace that I located one of you, I was preparing to perform my studies on the local geology, but I was unexpectedly faced with a considerable complication." Lisa replied in her lispy voice.
"Eh I`m behind you, you`re talking to a stump." the goth told her, making Lisa feel embarrassed.
"Blasted!" the genius cursed underneath her breath and turned around to see a blurr of black,gray and white, which she deduced must be her pale faced sister in her striped swimsuit.
Lisa then scowled and raised her glasses for Lucy to see, "Some cretin fractured my spectacles, you know that my optical capacity is severely impaired without the aid of my corrective lenses." she complained with extreme annoyance.
"Let me see..." Lucy took the glasses and examined them, the glass was gone save for a few fragments and the frame was bent out of shape "...yeah, your glasses have joined the realm of the deceased, do you have any spares."
Lisa`s scowl dropped and she looked down, feeling even more embarrassed "...well...eh not exactly, while I was assembling and securing my equipment...I...eh neglected to take this scenario into consideration..." her voice turned meek as she lamented herself inwardly for letting something so obvious slip her mind.
"What's going on guys?" Luan suddenly joined in.
"Lisa broke her glasses." Lucy informed her while showing her the broken spectacles, causing the genius to snap at them.
"That accusations is incorrect! I was sleeping when some imbecile vandalized them!"
As Luan observed her glasses she recalled a faint memory from last night, when she, tired and groggy, slipped Lincoln`s hand into a bole of watter and returned to find Lucy asleep, she quickly did the same only to recall a cracking sound before she dozed of.
"Oh crap..." the comedian realized and gave her annoyed sister a nervous chuckle.
"Well eh...your poor glasses sure are a sight for sore eyes..." she said sheepishly..."but I`m sure dad stacked some spares somewhere..."
...
But they had no such luck, there were no spare glasses to be found anywhere in the van, and they double checked their tent, Luan was getting worried, this was not looking good, they could only ask their father now, but he was seemingly still sleeping, "But why would he still be asleep, I know he was tired, but it's almost noon..." Luan realized that as she contemplated waking their father up, then another realization hit here "...and where's Lana? No way would she still be sleeping?", Luan was starting to grow a feeling of unease as she was looking trough their tent. She got out and meet Lucy who was holding Lisa`s hand.
"Well?..." Lisa asked with low spirit, already figuring her weekend was ruined.
"I didn't find anything, sorry..." the teen told her, but her mind was drifting of as she thought about Lana and their father.
"Well this is simply superb, I suppose I can utilize the rest of my time here entertaining everyone else as the visually impaired jester." the genius replied with dry sarcasm.
"Eh yeah sure, good idea..." Luan said absentmindedly, earning a glare from Lisa, but Luan didn't notice "...say Lucy, how about you and Lisa go check on Lana, to see why she isn't up yet.", Luan already felt some dread asking for that. Lucy nodded and took Lisa while Luan headed towards the tent her dad was residing in.
"Calm down Luan, there's no need to be paranoid, why dad is prob..." her attempt at optimism was crushed when she opened the flaps and found the tent empty. She found a note from Lincoln, telling them where he and Lynn were, but there was nothing about their fathers whereabouts. Luan felt her sense of unease increasing.
"Okay don't panic, he`s probably gone fishing..." Luan tried not to lose her cool and ventured outside of their campsite and she quickly came across her fathers fishing rod placed on the bank of the lake next to a box filled with bait and other fishing tools, along with a chair which had already been opened and set in place, but her father was nowhere to be seen. Luan looked over the vast expanse of the lake and then into the forest.
"Something`s wrong.", she knew it now, she called for her father several times, but got no answer.
"Luan!" she heard Lucy calling for her, the goth arrived while leading the blind Lisa with her.
"Lana isn't in her tent, we can't find her anywhere." her voice was filled with fear and concern, which only confirmed Luan`s worries. The teen was left stunned and speechless, Lana and their dad had gone missing...
So Mr Loud has vanished, and entirely independently from Lana, certainly that can't be connected to the glowy eyes from last night, right? And Lisa has been left practically blind for the time being, which will surely be of no benefit to her or the others later on. And Lynn certainly gave Taylor a piece of her mind, I think he's finally getting the fact that bullying a girl and her family won't get her to like you, but then again he probably isn't done with her...
And I finally this chapter, it didn't take as long as I thought it would, but given how busy I`ve been this week, it certainly felt like forever. As usual constructive criticism is greatly appreciated, as it helps an author not to loose perspective, as long as it is constructive and not dumb hate comments. Till next time...