A/N: The reason why I didn't post this up in the first place is because I've been seeking help for something personal. Plus, I've been self-publishing my books and, well, I'm planning to go back to my writing career, whether or not my books will make it big. I felt bad for not posting this in the first place, so here it is.
Lucy
"Where is she?!" Lori angrily calls out as she steps out of her and Leni's bedroom. "Where's Lucy! I'm going to give her a piece of my mind!"
"Yeah!" Leni steps out of her room as well with the same amount of anger as her elder sister. "I can't give her a piece of my mind, I don't know how. But I am darn right angry!"
The door to Luna's and Luan's room opens in vehemence.
"Dudes!" Luna and her roommate Luan both step out of their room; the two sisters have a mutual amount of anger as Lori and Leni. "Can you believe what Lucy wrote to me? I am one step closer to the edge and I'm about to break her!"
"Me too!" Luan growls. "Lucy is going to pay for what she wrote about me!"
All four of the older sisters come together in the hallway. There, they begin to scream out about what Lucy has written about them.
"Lucy said that I'm nothing but the biggest bitch in this household!" Lori shouts out, holding out Lucy's note in front of her younger sisters. "That is literally not true! She also said that it's disgusting of me to say literally all the time! It's freedom of speech!"
Luna does the same, "She said that I'm the loudest one here and she said my music sucks! And she's blaming me for his failing poetry! All I was doing is expressing myself! Dude, not cool!"
Luan has the urge to rip the note Lucy wrote to her, "I have never been this pissed off ever in my life! Lucy needs to understand that my jokes and pranks are just part of entertainment and fun!"
Leni shows her note—the wrong side of the note—to Lori, Luna and Luan. "I don't even know what she meant by being the dumbass of the entire family, but I'm taking that as an insult! How dare she!"
Lori, Leni, Luna and Luan all continue to make shouting complaints about their notes from the same sister. Their infuriating shouts come to a stop when Lana, Lola and Lisa came along from their respective room. The three of the youngest sisters also have the mutual amount of anger as their four of the eldest.
"You, too?!" Lori, Leni, Luna and Luan all scream in unison. "From Lucy?!"
"Yeah!" Lana and Lola vehemently answer in unison.
"Affirmative!" Lisa answers at the same time as the twins. With that, the three show their notes at them.
Lori steps closer to the younger sisters. "What did she say?!"
Taking turns each of the younger sisters tell one another about what Lucy has said about them.
Lana yells out, "She's blaming me for leaving dirt everywhere and that I need to keep my beautiful animals to myself! And she called me a pig!"
Lola screams, much to the sisters' pain in their ears, "She said she hates me the most for wearing pink all the time! And she told me that I'm going to fail in my future pageants!" She is near her tears at her last statement.
Lisa lisps as she shouts, "She said she abhor the way I speak and she abhors me for being a prodigy! It is not my fault that I am gifted—or that I have a speech impediment!"
"I can't believe this!" Lori steps in, facing towards the present siblings. "Lucy literally has the balls to write us all of these notes about how she felt about us! We're her sisters, God dammit! She needs to learn to get used to us!"
"YEAH!" Leni, Luna, Luan, Lana, Lola and Lisa answers in unison. Then, they resume their complaints about Lucy.
At that moment, Lincoln and Lynn both came out of their rooms, whereas Lily crawls out of hers and Lisa's. The three come together to see their sisters arguing about Lucy and the notes she has written to them. In ambivalence, Lincoln, Lynn and Lily look at one another prior to Lincoln carrying Lily in his arms. Together, they calmly walk to the fighting sisters.
Lincoln calls out, "Guys! Guys!" They were unable to get their attention.
Lynn takes out her whistle from her shorts pocket and she blows it. The loud whistle causes the sisters to stop. Finally, they got their attention.
Lincoln, feeling authoritative, begins, "What is this about? Is this about Lucy?"
"Um, who else?" Lana remarks.
"She wrote all these nasty things about us!" Lola replies.
"And we just want to come to her face to face and talk her out of it!" Leni says.
"She did?" Lincoln asks, in which he, Lynn and Lily are oblivious about Lucy's nastiness towards them. They all answered yes.
"Guys," Lynn begins, showing them her note, "She didn't say anything mean to me."
Lincoln did the same, "Me too."
Lily waves her note, "Boo boo."
"What/!" Lori demands, "How can she write something nice about you three! That is so not fair!"
Lincoln answers, "Maybe because I'm the only one who understands her the most."
Lynn says, "Maybe it's because I'm her roommate. Or—was." She's reluctant to refer to her in past tense.
Lily coos sadly, "Bee bee."
Lincoln translates Lily's baby talk, "And maybe it's because Lily's just a baby."
Everyone then starts talking about it in confusion. Again, Lincoln grabs their attention. "Guys, there's something that Lucy wrote in her note to me that she may have not written to you."
"Well, what is it?" Luna asks.
Lincoln pauses, not having that much audacity to reveal the truth about Lucy. "She told me that she's adopted."
"What?"
"And she felt that just because she's adopted, doesn't mean she belongs in this family."
"How can she think that, Lincoln?" Lynn asks. "We all love her, biological or not." She turns to the rest of the sisters, "Right guys?"
They reluctantly answer yes. They may be angry at Lucy for what she has written to them, but she's still part of the family, adopted or not. Plus, they remember the clue from when their mom mistook them for ten kids when there is eleven. Maybe it's true that at least one of them is adopted.
Lincoln informs, "Remember when we were walking all over her? She really feels left out. So, it's our fault that Lucy's feeling this way."
"It's true," Luan remarks.
"I'm starting to regret it." Luna says.
"What else did Lucy say, Lincoln." Lana asks the only brother.
Lincoln starts to feel a lot of tension after reading his note about Lucy going to commit suicide because she feels she doesn't belong in this family. There's no audacity within him.
He says, "I don't know if you guys want to know, though. It's—it's dark."
"It's not dark," Leni irrelevantly replies, "It's still some light out."
"Leni!" All siblings say her name in annoyance and for not being connected to the topic.
"He means that his note has a dark tone!" Luna corrects her. "Ugh, never mind, Lucy is right about you!"
Lisa informs with guilt, "Maybe she's right about all of us. We did have flaws within us that need to be corrected."
Lana and Lola regretfully say, "Yeah."
Lori asks Lincoln, "So Lincoln, what did Lucy say in your note?"
Just when Lincoln is about to answer, all ten siblings can hear crying coming from their mom downstairs in the living room. Then, their dad calls out.
"Kids! Can you all come downstairs? There's something important we need to tell you all."
The kids comply. Together, they walk down the stairs and towards the couch where their parents are sitting. Lynn, Sr. is comforting Rita, who is sobbing through the tissue in her hands. Her eyes are covered with running mascara.
"Mom, Dad, what's wrong?" Lincoln asks.
"Kids…" Rita sobs, unable to inform them the news. "Lucy… she's…" Then, she sobs loudly. Lynn, Sr. holds her tight to calm her down.
"Kids," he finishes for her, "Your sister Lucy is missing. She ran away."
The kids gasp. Some of them knew, whilst others are still unaware.
Lana asks, "Why would she run away? Where did she go?"
Lynn, Sr. answers. "That's just it. We don't know. And if Lucy doesn't return home by tomorrow, then we're just going to have to report her as missing."
"No!" The kids shout out in unison.
"What do you mean?"
"We can find Lucy, Dad! We swear! Just give us some time and if we can't find her, then you can report it to the police." Lincoln demands.
Rita and Lynn, Sr. both look at one another with teary eyes prior to the father returning her eyes to the kids. "Alright, but just one day."
With that, the kids spent their time in Lisa's and Lily's room to figure out some theories of where Lucy might be.
The cemetery?
Her friend, Haiku's house?
The bookstore full of her favorite poetry?
Perhaps with Rocky or Silas, two of her love interests she's torn in between?
Neither of these answers fit. Nor do they show where Lucy is.
It's been hours, and they were about to give up.
"Ugh, this is hopeless." Lynn says. She truly misses her sister.
"We can't seem to figure out where she could be!" Luan says.
Hoping to look for clues, all nine sisters look through their notes from Lucy. Just then, Lincoln notices something.
"Wait, guys!" He grabs their attention. "There is a clue!"
"Where?" Lola asks.
"Check the backs of your notes."
Everyone did. The backs of their notes meant nothing to them, but to Lincoln. It's all just straight and curvy lines.
"What does this have to do with Lucy? More importantly, how are these clues?" Luna asks.
After looking at each other's different lines and curves, it still meant nothing to them… unless…
They lay their notes on the floor with the lines facing up towards the ceiling. Then, they scramble it up for a minute, as if they're working on a puzzle set together. It finally hit them.
Behind their notes, is a map. A map that Lucy set up to let her siblings know where she's going—to kill herself. It leads to her final destination. They were pretty impressed with what Lucy has done as she wrote these notes to them.
"What is this place?" Leni asks astounded. The siblings have no idea.
Lisa looks it up on Maps on the internet.
"I got it, its…" she informs them the destination.
"Well, what are we waiting for! Let's go find her there!" Lana exclaims.
~~X~~
The drive is long and the Loud siblings have no idea how Lucy manage to get there by foot. However, they managed to make it to her final destination.
They got out of Vanzilla and split up in teams to search for Lucy.
Lori and Leni.
Luna and Luan.
Lana and Lola.
Lisa and Lily.
Lynn and Lincoln.
Within an hour, they were unable to find her, much to their disappointment and sadness.
They met back to the start. At first, they wondered if they have made a mistake or that something went wrong with their theory.
Suddenly, Lily, in Leni's arms, points at something in baby talk. They look up to where the infant is pointing at, a large tree. And there is something hiding in between the leaves.
Together, the Loud siblings make it there in seconds. They examine the tree… and they cannot believe their eyes.
Not something. Someone is hanging there. And it's not good. Not good at all.
It's overall tragic.
All ten siblings look to see someone hanging by the tree branch—all lifeless. They are disheartened… and already grieving.
Lincoln's phone rings. It's Dad. He answers it, feeling nothing but shock as he continues to stare.
"Kids, did you find Lucy?" Lynn, Sr.
Lincoln hesitates…
"Yes, Dad… We found her…"
In seconds… everyone is crying for Lucy Loud. They were too late to save her from suicide.
~~X~~
It's the funeral they will never forget.