There was a luminescent glow surrounding Lincoln's laptop: not the glow from the monitor itself, but the glow from the ten beaming young faces crowded around it. Lincoln and his sisters were gathered on the couch, engaging in a video call with their beloved eldest sibling, Lori.
"You excited for this weekend, sis?" asked Luna.
"Am I ever!" cried Lori. "I'm always down to spend Halloween with you guys. What do you have planned?"
"Oh, you know, typical stuff," said Lincoln. "I'm going trick-or-treating with Clyde and the gang. Luan's going to her first high school Halloween party, and she's letting Lynn tag along."
"'Tag along'?" parroted Lynn. "Please. You know I'll end up being the life of the party. I'm gonna drink like a skunk."
Her remark prompted a bit of a giggle from Lori, but she decided to humor Lynn and let the remark pass without further comment.
"The twins, Lisa and Lily are going to the pumpkin patch," Lincoln continued.
"To pick out a jack-o-lantern?" asked Lori.
"Good guess, but no," said Lisa. "We wish to see empirical evidence of a sentient botanical monster that Lana insists is real. What did you say its name was?"
"The Great Pumpkin!" exclaimed Lana. "Every year he rises out of the pumpkin patch to-"
"Yes, yes, you've repeated the story ad nauseum. Once again, I'll believe it when I see it."
"Oh, you will. Just you wait."
Lincoln smiled, ruffled Lana's hair and proceeded to give Lori the run-down.
"Luna and the Moon Goats are doing a concert to raise money for UNICEF. Leni's going to the mall to take advantage of all the Halloween sales they have going on. Oh, and Lucy's setting up another one of her haunted houses."
"Awww, how cute!" kvelled Lori. "Sounds like you all have a fun night ahead of you. Gosh, I can't wait to get home and see all your faces in person!"
But as soon as she was done with her sentence, she noticed that of the ten smiles on her monitor disappeared - Lucy's.
"'Cute'?" she asked. "That's not the reaction I was expecting. Or hoping for."
"Oh, Lucy, don't take it personally," said Lori. "Your haunted houses are a lot of fun. You put so much work and creativity into them."
"They're supposed to be scary," said Lucy, a hint of tension entering her normally monotonous voice.
"And I'm sure they are scary to some kids. But I'm eighteen, I'm in college, and vampires, witches and bats don't really scare me like they used to. That's all."
The video chat went on for a couple of more minutes. For that duration, Lucy never spoke another word, and her gloomy frown didn't budge. As soon as Lori logged off, the small goth stood up and began to walk away in silence.
"Luce, are you okay?" asked Lincoln, knitting his brow. "Look, I'm sure Lori didn't mean any offense."
"It doesn't matter what she meant," said Lucy. "What matters is that I need to up my game."
As she approached the stairwell, Lincoln and the other sisters exchanged worried looks.
"Well, if you need any help, just let us know, okay?"
She looked over her shoulder and gave them a curt nod before proceeding to the second floor.
As promised, Lori arrived at the house the following Saturday evening - just one day before Halloween. As she stepped out of the car, she was a bit surprised by the absence of spooky decor. Granted, it wasn't quite Halloween yet, but the Louds tended to prefer to get a jump start on their decorating a few days in advance. On top of that, it was oddly quiet, lacking the cacophony that usually characterized it.
She opened the front door expecting to see at least three or four faces ready to greet her. Instead, the only one in her line of sight was Lucy, who was lying on the living room couch, watching TV. Upon hearing her arrival, she sat up and gave her a wave.
"Oh, hi, Lucy. Where's everyone else?"
"Most of them are already in bed."
Lori raised an eyebrow at her. "Already? But it's only 8:30."
"We want to make sure we're well-rested for tomorrow," said Lucy.
"Well, okay, I guess that makes sense. But where are all the decorations? I thought you were doing a haunted house this year."
Lucy stared at her in silence before responding with a terse, "I changed my mind." The austere nature of her tone inspired a twinge of guilt in Lori's heart.
"So what are you doing instead?" she asked.
"I don't know. Maybe I'll go trick-or-treating with Lincoln. Speaking of which, he's in the kitchen practicing his magic. Go say hi to him."
Lori nodded and walked into the kitchen, hoping that an interaction with her cheery little brother would help lift her spirits. She found him clad in his magician's suit, fiddling with a deck of cards.
"Oh, hi, Lori!" he said, flashing her a smile. "Glad to see you home. Don't mind me, I'm just rehearsing for tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Lori asked. "I thought you said you and Clyde were going trick-or-treating."
"Oh, we are. I'm going as a magician this year, and my tricks are gonna earn me a wheelbarrow full of candy!"
Beaming, he picked up the deck, shuffled it and fanned it out in front of her. "Pick a card, any card!"
She decided that there was no harm in humoring him, and plucked a card from the deck. To her confusion, it wasn't a typical playing card; instead, it just had a picture of her face on it, with an "L" where the value and suit shout be.
What the heck? Is this some joke I wasn't let in on?
"Lincoln, what kind of deck is thi-"
Before she could finish that last word, she looked up from the card to find that Lincoln had vanished from the premises. Her eyes darted all around the kitchen, but there was no sign of him anywhere.
"Aren't you going to finish the trick?" she called out, to no answer.
Weird. Maybe his disappearance was the trick.
Lori, quite bemused, stuffed the card into her pocket and walked back into the living room, only to find that Lucy had disappeared as well. Eh, she disappears all the time, so that's not as surprising.
That said, the house was still far more tranquil than she was used to; even in the hour leading up to bedtime, she would expect to hear at least a bit of ambient noise. As she walked up the stairs to the second floor, she could hear the weary creak of every step, clear and unobstructed.
Upon reaching the top, she ran into Luan, who was just dawdling in the hallway.
"Oh, hi, Lori, welcome home!"
"Hi, Luan," she responded, giving her a light wave. "Say, do you know where Lincoln and Lucy went? I saw them when I first got here, but they sort of disappeared on me."
Luan narrowed her eyes. "Hmmmmm..." she hummed, rubbing her chin and pursing her lips before glancing to the left.
"Well, they're not to my left."
She turned her head to the right. "They're not to my right, either."
Okay, Luan, where are you going with this?
She then turned her head forward, shrugged and said, "And they're not in front of me. Let's check the back!"
CRACK.
Luan grabbed herself by the head, and with one sickeningly sharp motion, she twisted it 180 degrees, producing a piercing snap that made Lori flinch. A split second later, her arms fell to her sides and she toppled to the floor like a Jenga tower.
On the floor she lied, with her body face-down and her face - eyes bugged out, jaw dangling open - pointed towards the ceiling. Lori, shuddering, clamped a hand over her mouth, as she felt a wave of nausea incoming.
"Lu... Luan?" she uttered. She knelt down and hovered a hand over her while her other hand reached for her phone, ready to dial 911 at a moment's notice. "Luan, are... are you okay?"
As soon as she got close, however, Luan's formerly lifeless face burst forth with a round of shrieking laughter, an octave higher and more maniacal than her usual laugh. Lori recoiled, screamed and made a mad dash towards the first open door she found, which happened to be Luna and Luan's room. To her mild relief, she found Luna inside, resting on the beanbag.
"Oh, thank god you're here," Lori said, catching her breath from her previous scream. "Would you mind telling me what's gotten into your roommate?!"
Luna slowly turned her head to face her eldest sister, staring at her with listless, half-lidded eyes.
"The real question you should be asking is... what's gotten into me?"
Before Lori could even ask what she meant by that, she saw something trying to squeeze its way through Luna's lips. At first she thought it was her tongue, until it managed to pop out of her mouth, fall to the floor and start skittering across the carpet. It was a roach. Lori felt her nausea building back up again, which only intensified when a second insect wriggled out of Luna's mouth.
"Huh, guess that was it," said Luna. "Makes sense. I always was a beetles fan."
She opened her mouth wider, and a crowd of centipedes, ants, ladybugs and other creepy crawlies started pouring out and filling the bedroom.
Ew, ew, ew, ew, EW! Lori thought as she ran out and slammed the bedroom door shut, in the hopes that she could at least keep the swarm contained. Afterwards, she charged into her own bedroom, hoping she could at least find some solace in her own familiar space.
She got inside, shut the door behind her and collapsed onto her bed, giving herself a moment to take a breather and try to process everything that had happened since she get home. Just as she was getting comfortable, however, she heard a faint, high-pitched noise coming from the far end of the room. She picked her head up to see Leni facing the opposite wall and... giggling? Squeaking? She wasn't quite sure what to call the noise she was making.
Oh, great. She's acting freaky, too?
She got up off the bed and took cautious, measured steps towards her ditzy little sister. As she did, she tried to convince herself that there was a mundane explanation for what she was doing; maybe she was looking at something funny on her phone, or reading a humorous book.
Nope. As soon as Lori got within six feet of her, she swerved around, revealing a leathery face covered in bloody welts, pupil-less eyes and an ominous grin. Lori stared at her, frozen in her tracks, paralyzed by fear and shock.
"We're gonna get you, we're gonna get you, not another peep, time to go to sleep," she sang in an otherworldly, un-Leni-like voice.
In a panic, Lori grabbed her shoulders and shoved her to the floor. As soon as she hit bottom, she let loose a round of bloodcurdling cackles, high enough to cut glass, while Lori, once again, bolted out of the room and shut the door behind her. She scarcely had time to catch her breath when, all of a sudden, the lights in the hallway went out. In fact, all the lights in the house seemed to be out, as her entire surroundings were shrouded in darkness, with no signs of light coming from the bathroom or from downstairs. Trembling, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and switched on the flashlight.
"G...guys?" she croaked, taking tentative steps as she shone the light in every direction. "W-what's going on? T-this isn't funny..."
As she crept through the hallway with her heart in her throat, she heard a light thumping noise coming from Lisa and Lily's room. She dreaded the possibilities of what the source of the noise could be, but still felt obligated to investigate, in case one of her youngest sisters might need her help. After taking a deep breath, she placed her shaking hand on the doorknob, twisted it and pushed the door open.
The thumping grew louder, and she could now tell that it was coming from above her head. She shined her flashlight on the ceiling, and nearly fainted from what she saw; it was Lily, clinging to the ceiling and banging her head against it.
"Lily, get down from there this instant!" she cried, reaching for the toddler. "How are you even doing that?!"
"Gravity is a social construct, Lori," said Lisa - whose voice, curiously, was also coming from overhead. She shined her flashlight to the left, and was met with an even more disturbing sight. Lisa, too, was on the ceiling, but unlike Lily, she was fused to it. Her skin melded to the surface, to the point where it was impossible to tell where her face ended and the ceiling began.
"Or at least it seems that way once you've melded yourself to the ceiling," she added. "Speaking of which, I'd like to get down. Could you be a dear and go get a butcher knife?"
Lori shrieked in fear at the very thought and fled the bedroom, this time not even bothering to shut the door behind her. She briefly entertained the idea of calling the police, before asking herself how they would even be able to help. On top of that, her ears picked up another sound that she felt merited her attention: the muffled sound of raspy sobbing coming from the twins' room.
Oh, gosh, poor Lana. She must be just as terrified as I am.
She opened the door and started shining her flashlight around the room, in search of Lana. Before she could find her, though, Lola's voice piped up.
"Hiii, Lori," she sang. "I'm so glad to see you again. Check out my new dolly!"
She shined her flashlight in the direction of Lola's voice, and found her seated at her miniature table, opposite a boy her age with neatly combed blond hair who seemed to be slumping in his chair. Upon further inspection, she found that - to her horror - the boy's skin was drained of color, and his eyes and mouth were hanging open lifelessly.
"He's the best dolly ever," said Lola. "So quiet and respectful and he never talks back. Want to hold him?"
Lori gripped her phone and punched in its password, ready to call the police, before her ears once again picked up the heart-wrenching noise of Lana's sobbing.
Okay, first I'll get Lana out of here. Then call the cops.
She turned to the other side of the room; just as she suspected, Lana was kneeling on the floor, trembling. As she drew closer, she noticed that there seemed to be some sort of mushy, gloppy mess on the floor surrounding her little sister. She also noticed that Lana was carrying a particularly pungent stench - even worse than her usual musk. So she peered even closer... and nearly vomited.
Lana's lips and cheeks were covered in blood, fur, splintered bone and feathers. At her feet were Charles, Cliff, Geo and Walt, each of them mutilated almost beyond recognition, with bite-sized chunks missing from their torsos and limbs.
"I'm sorry..." Lana whimpered. "I was... I was just so hungry..."
Lori took a step back, her breathing growing heavy, labored and erratic. She had to avert her eyes from the grisly sight before her, lest she reach her limit and barf all over the already rancid-smelling floor. It was at this point that she regretted ever heading out to college, knowing that this is what became of her precious family while she was gone. But as she was trying to imagine where they could have all gone wrong, two strong hands grabbed her from behind and pulled her out into the hallway. She screamed, only to have her scream cut short when one of those hands clamped itself over her mouth.
"Shhh! She'll hear you!" came a harshly whispered voice from behind. Lori turned herself around to find a frazzled, sweaty-looking Lynn standing before her.
"Oh, thank god, someone in this house is still sane," Lori whispered back. "Who's 'she', though?"
"Lucy," Lynn said gravely. "I don't know what kind of curse she put on this house, but trust me, I'm just as freaked out as you are."
She placed a hand on Lori's shoulder, giving her a brave smile. "But we'll get through this. Trust me, I know we can. We just have to get out of here before Lucy-"
RRRRRRRRRIP.
Suddenly, the front of Lynn's jersey was torn open. A ghostly white hand burst forth from the resulting hole, its fingers coiled around a still-beating heart.
"T... too late..." she choked out, collapsing to the floor, as the heart slipped out of the hand's grasp and started sloughing down the stairs, leaving a trail of blood behind. Lori wanted to scream again, but this time her terror completely paralyzed her larynx. She couldn't cry. She couldn't call for help. She could scarcely even breathe.
"Check your pockets," called a familiar monotone voice that seemed to be coming from every direction. Trembling, Lori slipped her hand into the pockets of her cargo shorts. Her left hand brushed up against the playing card the she had drawn from Lincoln's deck earlier, and she pulled it out to look at it. The card still had her face on it...
...but now, it was etched into a tombstone.
It was then that Lori's fear finally overloaded her brain, forcing it to shut down. She dropped to the floor, shut her eyes and fell into unconsciousness.
Lori awoke several hours later in a daze, and found herself in her old bedroom, neatly tucked into her bed. She sat up with a yawn and a stretch, only faintly recalling the events from the previous night. A minute later, Luna and Luan walked in.
"Well, look who's finally up!" said Luna.
"You went out like a light after you got home," said Luan. "Must have been one heck of a drive."
A moment later, Lucy walked in to join them - and just like that, all of Lori's memories came flooding back.
"GAH! Leave me alone, you little monster!" she yelped, throwing up her hands.
"Whoa, dude, chill out!" cried Luna, rushing to her side.
"Shut up! I saw what she did to Lynn!"
Luna sighed, wrapped her arms around her big sister and started rubbing her back. "Shhhh..." she whispered. "It's all right, dude. Lynn's fine. Everyone's fine."
As if on cue, Lynn barged in, jumped over Luan's head and stuck a perfect landing. "Heck yeah, I am!" she said, puffing out her chest.
The tension in Lori's body relaxed a bit once she saw Lynn alive and well, but the gruesome imagery from the previous night was still fresh in her mind.
"Anyway, we gotta go get ready for today," said Luan. "There are pancakes in the kitchen whenever you're ready for breakfast."
With that, the sisters all filed out of the room... except for Lucy, who stayed behind. Once the two of them were alone, they stared at each other for a long, uncomfortable spell, with Lucy bearing an enigmatic smile. Lori's breaths started to grow shallow, as she silently pleaded with Lucy to break the silence and end the suspense. Eventually, she did.
"Pretty scary, huh?" she asked.
"'Pretty scary'?!" cried Lori. "Lucy, that was traumatizing! What were you and the others thinking?! God, we'd probably get sued if you tried that on anyone in the neighborhood!"
Lucy's smile flipped into a frown as soon as Lori started yelling at her, and it only grew more pronounced as she ranted on. "But it wasn't meant for the neighborhood," she said. "It was meant for you. I wanted to show you that I could still be scary when I really tried."
She bowed her head, clasping her hands behind her back. "But I think I may have gone too far."
"A little bit, yeah!" said Lori. "Lucy, there's a difference between... um..."
Her ire began to diminish the longer she looked at her little sister's guilt ridden face.
"...Lucy, come here," she said with a sigh.
Lucy took slow, heavy steps in her direction. As soon as she was within arm's length, Lori reached over and gently grasped her shoulders.
"I love you. I think the world of you. Please don't ever think that you have to prove your worth to me, because you don't. Understand?"
She nodded, before leaning in and wrapping her arms around the eldest sister. The two held the warm embrace for about a minute before Lucy spoke up again.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
"You're forgiven," said Lori. "And I'm sorry for what I said last week. I didn't mean to belittle you."
"It's okay, Lori. I know you didn't. But there's just something I'd like you to keep in mind."
"What's that?"
Suddenly, Lucy's embrace tightened into an iron grip.
"Don't. Ever. Call me. Cute. AGAIN."