2 1/2 Weeks Earlier
Lucy was relieved when it was made clear Lynn hadn't seen her hide the bew journal in the vents. Not that Lynn would get curious, or care at all, but it was just a precautionary thing that served in the goth's favor. "Yes? What's on your mind?"
Lucy knew this talk was coming, but hadn't any idea of when to expect it. She looked past Lynn, seeing and hearing no other sister in the hallway.
In truth, she was developing a slow and steady fear from the new, darkened Lynn that had already replaced the Lynn she knew and loved. This was a sister who cared about winning, when in the normal. Adding that to the rising display of her shifting activity, and what have you?
Lynn approached the goth with tiny paces, which only repelled the goth to move backwards. "Luce..." She drooped her eyes down and raised a leg, moving it behind the other. "I just wanted to know if you saw everything. I got scared-"
You're not the only one... Lucy thought.
"And I didn't want you to get the wrong idea. I'm sorry I hurt you."
Lucy wasn't sure if this was an act. Lynn's voice was broken enough to make it seem so real, if it turned out not to be. And her nice green eyes were shining with guilt and regret. She rubbed the back of one of her elbows, and then extended both arms out only to drop them.
"Luce, you're my sister, I care about you. I didn't mean to hurt you. I'm really sorry..." And Lynn made her way to her bed and sat down, breaking her eye contact from the younger sibling.
Lucy kept her heartbeat steady, as much as it wanted to simply rise at the sight of Lynn.
If anything, things were just being confusing at the moment. Lynn was a complete hostile not too long ago, so was this person in her skin right now? Was it the regular Lynn? She believed it to be a mind charade, where Lynn was only trying to play with her head. These types of things were common in her novels, so of course Lucy would in the least suspect mind games at play.
"You tried to murder me..." Lucy hissed.
"When you put it like that... I don't know, I guess I wasn't in my right mind."
That wasn't even the half of it. Lynn had gone beyond the borders of insanity, even more than Lucy had recognized Luan to truly be at her peak on April Fool's. Oh, how Lynn slayed her with underestimating her own psychosis, whatever it was.
"You don't say," Lucy retorted, still standing right by the window. She felt the heat of the sun begin to warm her dark, lifeless attire, as was her hair also exposed to the bright sunlight. It felt weird and completely strange and uncomfortable. She wanted to to away from it, but it would mean getting closer to the twisted sister. She raised a hand and brushed it through her hair to reset the temperature. "Groan..."
"Will you accept my apology?" Lynn formed puppy dog eyes, something that she would only rarely do, the laat time being used to persuade Lincoln to let her bunk with him on a previous altercation not long ago.
"Hmmm..." Lucy made a step forward, having enough of the burning sensation behind her. "What if I do?"
"Then we can forget about everything!" Lynn stood up and gave a weak, goofy smile. "We never speak of this again!"
That's what Lucy figured Lynn would suggest. Nothing would get out, otherwise she'd be in heaps of trouble. Possibly even more than they could both imagine, combined. Lucy understood that, and that was why she was secretly monitoring Lynn's every abnormal activity from here on out. She was only worried for the athlete, of course she was going to help.
But, was her life really on the line the night before? Lucy had never been scared for as long as she could remember. The intensity was completely negative, and she was able to grasp that exact sensation right now. Right as she began to finally head closer to Lynn to make amends. Or rather, play into this act.
Lucy was know close enough to smell the chili from Lynn's breath. "Okay, Lynn. I'll take it."
Lynn widened her smile and then seemingly tackled Lucy. The goth tried to move back, but Lynn's strength kept her locked onto Lynn. The hug was a tight one, strong enough to possibly break Lucy's bones if Lynn really tried. "Oh, thank you!"
"Could you try not to hurt me? You're squeezing!" Lucy was then released without hesitation from the physically superior sibling. "I- I'd like to be alone to write my poems alright. And also, yeah, we never mention this again."
Lynn held a thumbs up, then bolted out of the room. Lucy was left with the garbage, remained completely still, believing Lynn would return and pull another one on her. Lucy listened for soft padding sounds, or slow drawn breaths. When they never came, she jumped into her bed and locked the whole world out with her sheets.
It didn't take her too long to submit into slow, silent tears. The sheets became stained with her rare tears, as she wiped her blurry eyes. And the darkness that she was wrapped around allowed her to have her moment.
2 Weeks Earlier
The next few days have proven to be peaceful within the house walls. No insane antics from Lynn, but it all died down to the regular chaos Lucy had always seen around the house. Most of it came from the twins, fighting here and there about clean versus messy, and whatever she could remember they'd have often.
And that chaos was upon them. She headed down the hallway, hearing Lola's screaming about Hops jumping on her dress. Lucy hadn't a care in the world for those types of issues. It was only the twins giving the house grief. Not even Luna was heard rocking out in her room. Maybe she wasn't even there.
As she reached down the stairs, she spotted Lincoln and Luan in the front porch through the window. The faint laughing from them both suggested Lincoln was probably telling the comedienne jokes to her, rather than the other way. Her heart smiled for them both, and she broke away to get herself a snack. She grabbed the items she needed for a peanut butter sandwich, and before she grabbed a utensil, she heard the slamming of the front entrance ring so damn loud.
Footsteps came in the form of a jogger, and Lucy recognized it as none other than Lynn Loud.
"Hey, sis!" The athlete had just returned from her evening run, composed of a seven block radius to, and back. She made some leg stretches as she looked over Lucy. "Ah, that was a great burn!" She slapped her hands onto her stomach.
"I'll bet," Lucy replied curtly. She dipped the spoon into the peanut butter jar, ignoring Lynn. As soon as she stuck the two slices of bread and turned, she saw the vile Lynn she saw days ago. Only...
...The athlete was not looking to the goth, bur rather staring outside. To Lincoln and Luan's direction. The jock had her stone-angry face installed, the very same one Lucy had not seen fully since that scary night.
"L-Lynn?" Lucy forgot that she was starving, and was lacking attention to herself that she didn't notice her hands shaking with the sandwich in hand. "Lynn!"
Lynn returned to life, distracted back by Lucy. "Huh? Yeah?"
"What were you looking at?"
Night
She didn't answer, and rolled up for a shower afterwards. Lucy satisfied her belly and left to continue reading one of her novels, until 9 O'clock arrived to tell her it was time to die again.
Lynn was already asleep and seemingly in a quiter mood than usual. Hell, there wasn't even snoring, which made the room feel off. Lucy turned her back to Lynn, but remained awake for a long amount of minutes.
There was that child-like tendency she had that screamed to tell an adult, namely Lori, about what Lynn had been recently doing. Lucy had never once feared the roommate in any sense, other than worried she could suffocate in the latter's flatulence in the middle of the night.
Something about all of this made Lucy actually push past it so that she could understand Lynn's illness, if that was even the right word. She liked it because it was dark, but she hated it because it was close and deadly enough to hurt.
The journal had only barely been written in it, remained updated unless the sicko would go on and do something lewdicrous again.
After everything, Lynn was still the sister who had made up with her, and Lucy was not one to blackmail. The notebook, the idea to document, it wasn't totally pointless to take upon. She didn't know if it was over. She didn't know what was really going on. The enigma of the conflict was actually beginning to irritate and bother her.
But something was wrong, and this was why it wasn't pointless. What more was down the line for ltte Lucy? She gulped and actually hoped nothing else would escalate.
Lynn's feet hit the floor's carpet and the thirteen year old brunette twisted the doorknob and exited. Lucy was still awake at the time. She crept up, in a more stealthier approach, peeking her head out the door.
Lynn was probably on her way to the bathroom, the only logical sense. Lucy wanted that to be the case. Lynn didn't head into Lincoln's room, so that was a relief.
And that soon went away as quickly as Lucy engulfed in it. Lynn entered Luna and Luan's room. And then she, too, poked her head out of their room, gazing darkly onto Lucy. "Go back..."
Lucy let out a blood-curdling gasp.
Now
Lucy hid the cut from the household, but she covered it up completely. She undressed into another copy attire, and manually took the blood-stained clothes to the basement.
What a mess it all turned out to be. She felt like a shame, a failure to them. She had to go and hurt herself because she was no longer able to take it anymore. The secret of Lynn Loud was all in the damn journal, but no one had really read its contents, apart from Lori and their parents as of yet. Her, and whoever this loose end was. The loose end Lucy couldn't have the luxury of.
She slammed her clothes into the washer with anger, growling intensely. Her hands moved on top of the washer, and then her head plummeted down as if the dangerous game had already ended. As if she was defeated. And with everything it all looked, it was becoming likely.
Lucy sighed, closed her eyes, and took in the silence and tranquility the basement presented. There was not a peep from above, a saddening perk that followed the two gone kids.
And then she remembered again that it was her fault. Not Lynn's. Not Lincoln's. Hers. Luna had a point; Lucy could have prevented everything, but why didn't she?
Leni appeared at the top of the creaking stairs and followed the sound of faint sobbing. Lucy was on her knees, covering her face, with her back to Leni. She kept crying, even after Leni joined her and wrapped herself around the broken goth. She caressed her gently, like an expert mother to the eight year old, and planted a comforting kiss on the top of Lucy's head.
They stayed and kept each other company as Lucy kept letting her troubles out. The basement's light still maintained its tiny sun, grinning away at the scene.
Later
Luan and Luna were quiet in their room, too depressed from the current events to get to their own hobbies.
Mr. Coconuts had yet to be played with, already having been dusty long enough to make it a legitimately serious thing that wasn't to be taken alight. Just like it was for everyone else in general. The atmosphere was dead.
Lucy came in unannounced, looking for Luan. "Hey, sis."
Luna took one look at the gloomy sister and rolled to her side, facing away from Lucy out of spite.
"Hey, Lucy. Can I help you?" Luan was sat on her bed, and on her lap was a joke book, but couldn't get it up to open it and laugh away her pain. She grabbed it and moved it to the floor like it was nothing.
"I want to borrow your video camera," Lucy requested. "School project."
Luan leaned down and pulled one out from underneath the double decker bed. "Here..."
Seeing the lifeless Luan was only adding even more treading guilt that Lucy could no longer bear to see. Everyone was feeling so dead, so drained from color, so... So much like her, yet at the same time, it wasn't like that.
The whole household had fallen, all because of Lucy keeping quiet. Quiet. Quiet as always. Silent little mortal. The one who usually remainsd quiet. Where, oh where was the justice in the irony of it all?
She swiped the video camera from Luan's hands and booked it out of the zombified room, not even bothering to close the door.
"Hey at least...-" Luan began, then sighed without emotion. She forced herself off of her bed and closed the door, shutting both of them away from the world.
Lucy had climbed into the vent again, crawling away from the light shining from the room through the grate. The stack of video tapes had been untouched for almost these last three weeks, and there was well over ten of them altogether. She didn't bother to count them, and Luan had not even suspected they had been missing.
These tapes were all stock footage, recorded in Lincoln's room, from the camera Luan had set up to catch any shenanigans or embarrassing moments she could catch Lincoln doing. The one, of many, that had been taken down on the morning he and Lynn had gone missing. No... On the morning they were discovered to be missing.
Lucy had gone out to replace them with blanks, and Luan had clearly not seen any of the replacement empty tapes as Lucy had also found the others and had placed them in more open places to be found by other sisters.
That bought her sometime, but she didn't know how long it would've gone on.
It no longer mattered, as she inserted one of the feal tapes onto the video camera, and began to play the footage.
Lynn was undressing in front of Lincoln. The angle was one pointed from the corner of the room, and the video was recorded in night vision; the entire feed was plasma green, almost an irritation to spectate. Lincoln was heavily sleeping, oblivious to something so easily detected.
Lynn was not at all being cautious or sneaky, now that Lucy was seeing it again. She touched her body, starting from her chest. She pinched and twisted her nipples softly and then tilted her head up. Moaning. She was definitely moaning. Then, her hands slid down and she then began to touch herself.
Lucy paused and then took out the tape. She grew rather nauseous, almost gagging. The tape flew deeper into the vents once she tossed it behind her. It made a horrible thud that caused a metallic echo. She didn't know why she was able to stomach the first time she saw Lynn masturbate in front of the sleeping Lincoln, and how she could no longer face it now.
She decided she had enough of watching anything else. God knows what kind of shit she missed if anything else. She crawled back out into the empty room, and was met with an incalculable surprise.
Lola Loud, the mischievous diva of the family, stood firmly planted in front of Lucy with both arms placed at her sides. "What were you doing up there?"
Lucy had no reply for her, for she wasn't expecting the pink dressed sibling to come pay her a visit. Her silence was what passed off for an answer.
"Fine, then. Don't answer that. I don't care." But she formed a malicious smile, to which Lucy sighed.
"Did you want something?" Lucy had no intention to speak to Your Bitchiness, after their many altercations in the past, even after Lola was possibly cutting it back.
"The journal. Could- Could I see it?" Lola looked around, seeking out the gray journal.
"And why would I do that? You're just a little girl. You wouldn't understand anything. Please leave." Lucy began escorting Lola out by her shoulders forcibly.
"Hey!" Lola ducked and moved under Lucy's grasping arms, and then jumped on her. "You'll show me the darn book. I have to know what Lynn did, or..." She pressed her lips to Lucy's left ear, and whispered.
Lucy fidgeted at the pair of lips, until the whispering sentences were spoken into her eardrums. Once Lola finished delivering her cruel blackmail, she let go and stepped back behind the goth.
Lucy felt her face turn pale cold, completely immobile from the diva's horrendous relationship. "You... You're the one. You left that note."
The search hadn't ever started, and it was now over. She turned, with the sudden urge to attack the devilish princess.
"You're quite right, of course," she laughed. "Do you know what I want?"
Lucy lost it, and jumped the little bitch. Lola was laughing in a diabolical manner, squealing as if she was playing tea party. "How do you know?! What do you want?!"
"You're so dishonest. You're keeping the truth from everyone, me included. But I followed you, Lynn and Lincoln. I saw what she did and what happened after that. Now... Since I know, I can so easily tell them what you're hiding."
"But you'll also be-"
"I also know about the tapes. I can use that to my advantage if I have to. And they'll believe me, because I know the tapes were tampered with. Now, what I want to know is everything Lynn did."
Lucy was squinting,, figuring out what do to do Lola. She raised a hand to slap her. "It's not your place to know of any of this!"
Lola yelled back, "And it's not your place to hide it!"
This killed Lucy, driving her to slap the diva a few times. Lola kicked at Lucy's legs and rolled from underneath the goth. "Keep to yourself! What Lynn did to Lincoln and herself-"
"-Ha! You're as bad as we see you, freak! Why do you hide it? What are you trying to protect?! Lynnwas bad!"
Lucy tried to grab the fast diva around the room. "You don't understand-"
"I understand all too well! Lynn was a crazed lunatic, preying on our brother! You didn't do anything! You didn't do anything to save him! YOU DIDN'T DO ANYTHING TO HELP HIM! I'LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS! I'LL MAKE YOU PAY IF YOU DO NOT CONFESS YOUR OWN SINS IN TIME! I PROMISE!"
Lucy gulped, getting tense. Lori and Leni kicked the door in, and right away was the oldest Loud sister trying to pull Lola away. "What are you doing?!"
"LET ME AT HER! SHE'S GOING TO SUFFER DEARLY FOR KEEPING ALL HER SECRETS!" Lola pointed at Lucy as Lori carried her away. "YOU'RE PAYING FOR THAT! YOUR FAULT! ALL YOUR FAULT! YOU DIDN'T STOP HER!" Lola kept her uncontrollable rant up, even as Lucy was sure Lori took the diva to her own room. And the short-fused fight was over.
Leni opened her arms for a hug for Lucy, but the goth pushed past her and went into Lori's room.
"I have to see her," Lucy barked. Mainly it was to ensure Lola would keep quiet. The one-on-one would need more time.
"Don't worry, Luce. Lori can handle her," Leni unknowingly denied her, keeping her away from their room.
Lucy groaned, and tried to get inside when the sound of the front entrance's doorknob twisted, followed by the swinging sound of the door, creaking hinges and a few pairs of foosteps.
"Come in, come in, detective," Lynn Sr. said from below.
Lucy was frozen, and Leni looked onto her confused. "Lucy?"
The goth locked her ears onto the living room, and moved closer to the staircase.
Detective Antonucci was back, led by Lynn Sr. into the kitchen. His hands were in his pockets of the long trench coat he sported. His face was stone cold, serious as the first dance he had with the three members he interrogated lightly.
"What is this all about, if I may ask?" Lynn Sr. asked.
Lucy made careful steps down, oblivious to notice Leni still looking on. "Lucy?"
"We've found something that might be of interest to you." The detective pulled out a marked zipper bag, which contained a pocket knife. "Do you recognize this?"
Lynn Sr. stared at the object, trying to figure it out. "It's one of those switchblades, right? What about it?"
"Look, uh, this was found in a corpse of an eleven year old girl living in the Chicago area, murdered the night before your children have been reported missing. The department over there ran forensics, and it traces back to Lynn Loud's fingerprints." He stopped the report, allowing the father of one too many children to allow some reaction.
Lynn Sr. began stuttering gibberish, horrified by this unexpected update. "N-no, this can't possibly be correct! My L-Lynn is no such person, detective!"
"Mr. Loud, I understand how hard this can be, and I implore you to see reason-"
"Like hell I will! How dare you come in here and say my missing baby girl has killed-" He stopped to recollect something the professional detective had laid out. "Wait, an eleven year old girl?" It hit him that this particular victim was no random one. "I-is there a name?"
Antonucci cleared his throat before continuing. "The victim's name is Ronnie Anne Santiago. From our understanding, she and your son were really close. This happened near her home, in some rundown alley. Anyways, I'm here to tell you that both of them, not just Lynn, both of the kids are murder suspects in that area. This is no longer a missing persons case."
Lynn Sr. lost his shit. He wailed, heightening his manly voice into that of a shrieking girl. His head slammed down to the table, and the tears were recognized before they fell. Antonucci gave him the luxury of accepting the tougher news. "I am very sorry to have informed you of this."
Leni had gone away, returning to her room. Lucy was still eavesdropping, mouth now wide open. She gasped a few times while hearing what she had found out. She'd have hoped that these two pieces would be intertwined like this. Not this fast, at least.
Her forehead began to heat up in a great deal of nervousness and worry. Antonucci had gone far this fast. And... Maybe within the next few days, or even tomorrow, it would be solved. And Lucy feared the worst. But, maybe not as much, now that her father had learned something awful Lynn partook in.
"If it's all the same to you, I'd very much like to talk to Lucy again," Antonucci requested pleasantly.
The teary-eyes father lifted his head up. "Uh?" He weakly cried out. "O-okay, y-yeah..." He got up from his seat, heading away from the kitchen to fetch his dark daughter.
Lucy tiptoed quickly away from the stairs, moving into her room. She shut herself in as she pondered what do to. Her cold state had gone away, reverting to a humane one. Her heartbeat rose, almost ready to burst out of her chest. Was this how Lynn always felt in every run?
She didn't know what to do anymore. Her quest to keep everyone away from the sad, twisted truth of what Lynn had done was unraveled. Lucy had lost there, and Lynn's name was now attached to a cruel, non-redeemable event. I'm- I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry...
Lynn Sr. came in.
...Lincoln.
AN: We're about halfway there, but it's not a firm estimate. I'm not sure how many more chapter left, so...
An unholy act has been revealed! Ronnie Anne is officially dead in this fic, and we'll get more to that, and also the subplot where Lola is revealed as the one who knows everything Lucy hides! But what is her plan? What is she really trying to do? Find out all this and more, on the next chapter of this fic!
