Hey everyone, it's Sunblast X here, coming at you with a new story. Here's chapter one of Lincoln Loud: Resurrection.
It was a new summer night in the town of Royal Woods. Sunday, to be exact. In the Loud house, Lincoln was sitting at his desk, working on a little project of his that he had been spending the past few hours on.
"Mom's going to love this!" Lincoln said, a big smile plastered across his face.
A few minutes later and the white-haired boy had finished his little project. He had small chunks of clay under his nails and some paint on his face, but it was worth it. And just in time, too, because he just heard the front door open. With a grin, he hid his project under a small towel and ran out of his room.
"Hey Mom" Lincoln greeted his mother, who walked through the door.
"Hi Lincoln" Rita greeted back, albeit exhaustedly, plopping onto the couch.
The truth of the matter was that she had been working over time lately. Usually she worked as the morning assistant and someone would pick up the afternoon shift. However, the afternoon assistant had recently moved, leaving her to pick up the slack. They planned on getting a new one, but that wouldn't be for a while.
"I want to show you something" Lincoln said, walking up to her.
"Not now, sweetie. Mommy had a long day at work" Rita replied, massaging her temples as she kicked off her shoes.
"Oh… ok" Lincoln gazed down for a moment, a tinge of disappointment in his voice. "Tomorrow then?" he looked at his mother with hopeful eyes.
"We'll see" Rita replied, throwing her head back with her eyes closed.
Monday
The following day, Lincoln sat on the couch, playing video games. It was a new console, one that could shift from a home console to a mobile console and back again. He had got bored playing the fighting game that involved characters from different video games of the company that made the console and game. Now he was playing remake of game involving a boy dressed in green, slaying monsters to save the world and the princess of the kingdom. The funny thing was, the character in the game had a name that was the shortened version Lincoln's name.
He thought it'd be a good way to kill time until his mother got back. She was off today and after doing the stuff she needed to do, she took Leni and Lori to the mall. Knowing how much his two oldest sisters liked to shop, especially for clothes, it'd be awhile before they'd get home. As fate would have it though, he heard the front door open. Leni and Lori had soon walked in, several shopping bags within their hands.
"Hey twerp" Lori greeted, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Hey Lori" Lincoln greeted back as his eldest sister walked up the stairs.
"Hey Linky!" Leni walked up to him and, despite the numerous bags, hugged him, burying his face between her enormous breasts before kissing his forehead.
"Hey Leni" he replied to his second oldest, yet arguably most attractive sister. He then watched her go upstairs, following close behind Lori.
Once they were gone, the front door flew open again, this time revealing the matriarch of the family. Rita had several bags in her hands… as well as under her eyes. Lincoln smiled at her.
"Hey Mom!" Lincoln greeted her, hopping off the couch.
"Hi, sweetie" Rita greeted back, albeit with a slight worn out tone. She felt him wrap his arms around her waist in hug. Rita smiled and hugged him back with one arm.
"How was your trip to the mall with Leni and Lori?" he asked, breaking the hug.
"It was good. We got ourselves some clothes and… feminine things" Rita told him.
"Gross!" Lincoln cringed. "But, anyway, now that you're back, can I show you that thing I wanted to show you last night?"
"Oh, I would, but I'm exhausted. I going to go take a nap, and then I have to help your father with dinner. Maybe later, ok?" she offered as she walked past the boy.
"…Ok" Lincoln said, looking over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow.
Tuesday
Lincoln walked downstairs, stretching out his arms with a yawn. It was one of those rare days that he had woken up earlier than his sisters. Upon reaching the base of the stairs, he saw Rita exiting the master bedroom, dressed in her dentist outfit with her purse dangling from her shoulder. He noticed that a tired expression on her face. From what he could tell, she had probably just woken up.
"Uh, morning, Mom" Lincoln greeted her.
Rita didn't give much of a reply. She just gave the white-haired boy a peck on the forehead before leaving out the front door. Lincoln knew she had a double shift, meaning she'd get off at around eight o'clock or later. Hopefully she wouldn't be tired when she got back.
Several hours later…
Night had fallen upon the Lou House. Lincoln was sitting on the couch, watching a rerun of an anime about a boy sent to prison after falsely being accused for murdering his entire class. The thing about the prison though was that the inmates there entertained an audience by going through a deathtrap style obstacle course. But that was just on the surface. Beneath that, the more dangerous inmates fought in matches where they used their blood as a weapon, the loser losing a piece of their body.
Despite not being into horror, this was one dark thing he actually liked. He would've asked Lucy to come join him, but she was busy doing one of her seances. It wasn't that big of a deal though; the episode had just ended. Surprisingly, that's when the front door opened, Luna and Luan walking through the door.
"Hey, Linc" both girls greeted their brother as they headed upstairs.
A minute after that, his mother walked in, an exhausted look on her face. The family matriarch plopped on the couch with a long sigh, kicking off her shoes. After her first shift ended, she had taken Luna and Luan to their own things and when her second shifted, she had stopped by to take them home.
"Uh, Mom…" Lincoln started, only to be silenced by Rita placing a finger over his lips, shaking her head from side to side.
The white-haired boy gave a deadpanned expression.
Later that week…
It was Friday afternoon and stormy one at that. No rain, but there was thunder and lightning. Lincoln was in his room, lying on his bed as he stared at the ceiling. The white-haired boy released a sigh. He glanced at the untouched gift he made for his mother before gazing back at the ceiling. This whole week he had been trying to show his project to her, yet she kept blowing him off either to work, drive around his sisters or a combination of both. It had gotten to the point where he thought about giving up on showing it to her. It was certainly an option.
"Hey Lincoln" came the monotone voice of his gothic little sister, Lucy, who had appeared at the foot of his bed out of nowhere.
Normally when the spooky girl popped up like that, it scared people. Lincoln, however, had grown accustomed to it, to the point where a chill didn't even run up his spine anymore. It made sense though. Out of all her siblings, Lincoln was the one Lucy spent time with the most. Despite their differences, Lucy was the one sister he was closest to. At least when it came to his younger sisters.
"Oh, hey Luce" Lincoln greeted his spooky sister, though not making eye contact with her.
"You seem upset. What's wrong?" Lucy asked with some concern.
"Nothing. I've just been trying to show mom something I made for her, and she's been blowing me off this whole week" Lincoln informed her.
"Have you tried being more assertive?" Lucy spoke.
"Hm?" Lincoln turned his attention to her.
"Sometimes you have to assert yourself with your loved ones, even if it's your parents" the spooky girl told her older brother. The two siblings looked at each other, a small silence between them. That's when they heard the jingling of keys. "Now's your chance. I'd take it if I were you" Lucy advised.
Lincoln rolled his eyes with a shrug. He hopped out of bed, shooting his sister a quick glance before exiting his room. Making his way to the stairs, he slid down the banister, landing at the base of the steps. Looking up, he saw closing and locking the front door. Lincoln looked over his shoulder at Lucy, who stood at the top of the stairs and gave a silent nod.
"Uh, Mom?" Lincoln began. "Could you please look at the thing I made? Please?" he pleaded.
Rita gave Lincoln a quick glance, releasing a yawn before entering the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator in search of an energy drink, to no avail.
"Mom?" Lincoln called, entering the kitchen, his mother's back facing him.
Rita searched through the cabinets and found a tin of Folger's coffee. She poured some into a coffee filter before inserting it into the coffee maker and turning the machine on. She had always preferred homemade coffee as opposed to the one they served at work which tasted like crap. She waited as the machine dispensed coffee into the pitcher.
"Come on, it'll only take a minute" Lincoln walked up to her, taking her hand in his.
"Lincoln, I have a second shift today, I don't have much time. I barely have time to make coffee" Rita gently took back her hand. "Maybe when I get back"
"Somehow I doubt it" Lincoln muttered under his breath.
"What was that?" Rita looked over her shoulder at him.
"I said I doubt that" Lincoln spoke up. "You've been blowing me off all week" he told her.
"Well, I've been working a lot of overtime lately" Rita countered.
"You've been able to do things with the girls and take them to their things. That's how it's been lately, either you're exhausted from spending time with the girls and doing errands or from working double shifts!" Lincoln said, raising his voice.
"We don't have back up at the dentist's office and it's difficult juggling the activities of eleven kids!" Rita countered, raising her voice as well.
"Yeah, which is why you purposely committed crimes to get community service!" Lincoln crossed his arms while narrowing his eyes with a judgmental glare.
"I needed a break, some time to relax! You kids can be a handful, and you're one of the ones that makes it especially difficult, Lincoln!" Rita said, causing the boy's eyes to widen a bit. "You destroyed my novel that I worked seven years on—"
"To be fair, you said that one sucked anyway" Lincoln interrupted.
"That's not the point!" Rita shouted, pointing at him, causing the pace of his heart to quicken a bit. "I sign you up for football to get you some exercise and you have Lynn take your place. You pretend to be bad luck in order to get out of family activities. And to top it all off, you got me banned from the local grocery store for who knows how long!"
Lincoln glanced off to the side. It was true, he did do all of those things. He and his sisters weren't exactly angels, by any definition of the word. Especially Lola. Granted, they had all done something that none of them were proud of, but Lincoln would've been the one that fell into this category the most. He often came up with some weird scheme that usually backfired and ended up with someone being mad at him. In the end, he would always make up for those mistakes. Still, his mother kind of had a point.
"Why can't you act normal for once?!" Rita asked. Lincoln gave her a surprised look before glancing down with an upset expression. The blonde matriarch sighed, massaging her temple. "Just… go spend the night at Clyde's or something" she told him.
Lincoln looked up at his mother, narrowing his eyes at her once again. "Fine! In fact, I'll do one better. I'll spend the weekend there!" he said, looking over his shoulder as he walked off.
Rita released another sigh, taking spill-proof drinking container as she poured hot coffee into it.
Lincoln exited the house, shutting the door behind himself. The preteen boy sighed, looking up at the darkened, cloudy sky before starting his walk. He couldn't believe the week he had so far. He barely saw Rita this whole time, not being able to spend time with her due to her schedule. And that gift he made for her. He never got the chance to show it to her. All he wanted was to do something nice for her.
It was too bad she never got to see it because it was a really nice—
*BOOM* Lightning struck, filling the front lawn with a blinding flash.
The front door of the house opened. Everyone rushed outside. To their horror, they saw the sole boy of the family lying on the ground, smoke emanating from his body.
"Lincoln? Lincoln!" Lynn Sr. ran to his young son, the rest of the family following behind him.
The father knelt onto the sidewalk, scooping the boy into his arms. He saw his son's skin was dark and burnt, his eyes shut and his shirt partly burned away. It was obvious that he had been struck by lightning, his chest having the largest degree of burns to it. Lynn Sr. gave his son a gentle shake in the hopes of waking the boy up.
It was then that Lucy walked up to her father. The eight-year-old bent over, resting her head upon her brother's chest. She listened for the sound of his heartbeat. She removed herself from Lincoln's chest, looked at her father and gave him a slow shake of her head. No heartbeat.
Lynn Sr.'s lip quivered, tears welling up in his eyes. The middle-aged man hung his head, resting his chin in his son's white hair as the tears ran down his cheeks. The rest of the girls huddled together, holding each other, some covering their mouths to muffle their weeping. Some, like Lori and Luna, had mascara running down the cheeks.
In the back, there was one that probably the most distraught of them all. Lincoln's mother, Rita. Her mouth was slightly agape, her hand slowly rising to cover it as tears welled up in her eyes. The weight of it was too much to bear as she found herself falling to her knees, silently sobbing into her hand as the tears flowed out of her, the intensity of the scene piercing her heart.
In what was probably the most gut-wrenching moment in Loud family history, Rita couldn't help but feel responsible. Responsible for the event that had transpired before her. Responsible for the one thing no decent mother would ever want to be responsible for.
The death of her child…
And that's the end of this chapter. Considering the title and summary of this story, I'm sure we all know Lincoln isn't going to be dead for very long. Did his soul go to the blissful sanctuary of heaven or the repugnant, tormenting fires of hell? You'll know in the upcoming chapters.
I thank Omega Ultra and Geo Soul for helping me out with this.
Remember to Read, Review, and Favorite/Follow.