It's cold...
The thought finally laid itself inside the young boy's head. All he was wearing was his orange hoodie, which was broken and cut all around.
Lincoln Loud, the sole boy of a large family of thirteen, was walking down a snow-covered path. His eyes were looking down and ragged breaths came from his mouth. His arm, leg, and lip were bleeding, but he didn't feel it. The cold air had numbed it out, making it bearable. The boy didn't care where he went. All he wanted to do was just walk straight, not looking back. Apart from the sharp wind noises, Lincoln heard nothing else - no people, no cars, just nothing. As he walked along the path, crushing the snow beneath his feet, he thought back to a simpler time - a time when everything was better than it was now. Soon, he began passing the park and noticed a bench coated in snow. Not having anything else to do, he went towards it and scraped off the snow with his hand feeling the cold mix with the warmth of his hand. He sat down and found himself easily relaxed on the bench. He looked forward and saw the beauty of the snowfall.
The tension was high at the Loud residence. There was no noise in the halls and with every passing second, the silence was cutting deeper into every sibling. After Lori moved out and started college, Leni was left alone with a large room and naturally, the other siblings wanted to be roommates with the sweetheart sister. It started out as a complication of sorts - who would Leni choose as her new roommate? Smug glares, blackmail, and angry rants were thrown at each other. Everybody was on edge and one spark could light the entire house! And this spark would start today and change the Loud house forever...
Everyone was currently eating dinner and not saying anything. They all hurried with eating because they finally made Leni choose, as she had said that there should be no hard feelings towards whomever she picked and everyone agreed. But everyone knew it was all a lie. With the smug and death glares, it was obvious the competition was still on, and almost every sibling was silent during that dinner. There were of course siblings who weren't targeted - Lincoln, Lily, and obviously Leni. Lincoln did not want to be involved in another family clash or even another Sister Fight Protocol, Lily was still considered too little to be a suitable roomie, and Leni owned the room since Lori had left. Otherwise, it was every sibling against every sibling. And the most shocking part was that the Loud parents for some reason didn't seem to care about the high tension or what this could lead to. But Lincoln did and tried his best to quell his sisters before things went too far and ended violently. They of course didn't listen to him, being too confident that Leni would pick any of them as her next roommate.
Lincoln said next to nothing at dinner along with his sisters. He had planned that during the next sibling meeting, in which Leni would surely announce her answer, to stay in his room far away from upcoming free-for-all. Soon enough, dinner was finished and still no one had said a word. Even Leni looked pressured from the looks of hope she received from her siblings. Lincoln truly felt bad for her, knowing that everyone else who expected to be picked would be mad at her for a long time. It must not have mattered to them that Leni could only pick one.
Good luck, Leni, Lincoln thought to himself. He walked to his room and entered before lying down on his bed and hoping that in some way, everything would go back to normal. He started hearing the squeak of the stairs, signaling to him that his sisters were about to have the fateful meeting. He opened his door enough to see with his eyes his sisters entering Leni's room, all with smug and confident faces. Slowly, he counted them until they all went in, the door closed, and the meeting had begun. Even though he wasn't a part of the meeting, he was still getting knots in his stomach. Deciding to calm himself down, he closed his door and picked up an Ace Savvy comic book from his desk. Reading for what felt like hours with a slight unease of how much time it was taking, he gulped and his heart started beating a little faster with each passing second. He could hear high voices coming from Leni's room and were then suddenly silenced, which put him on edge. Then, there was a sound of a door slamming open with pure anger and Lincoln hoped for the best and also feared for the worst. He thought that his other seven sisters would all retreat to their rooms soon enough, but more and more footsteps came closer and closer... to his room. And then, the sounds suspiciously stopped. It felt like they were right outside his door, waiting for him to take a small breath to let them know he was there. Lincoln was quiet and scared at this point, not knowing what was happening until his door was kicked open out of anger. And there they stood, seven angry sisters.
"SHE CHOSE YOU!" That was all Lincoln could understand as shadows of his sisters loomed over him. The next moments of his life were easily his most painful ones.
Lincoln thought back to that memory, feeling the wounds he received. In addition to his three bleeding spots, his face had a black eye. Also, his legs barely wanted to move and his arms were quaking. And here he was, sitting outside on a cold night that most children would be happy to have. The cold consumed Lincoln more and more for every second he sat there, so he decided that sitting on the bench forever wasn't an option. He got up and walked towards the popular side of the city. With his face covered by his hood, he could only walk forward not knowing where to go. He was never a person to do something unplanned. It was a gift he had to always be prepared to make a plan and that is what he needed - a simple plan...
He stopped in his tracks and made sure he had something on him. He felt the pockets of his hoodie and knew what he found when he felt a small lump coming from it. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his wallet. Opening it up revealed nothing, but Lincoln knew of a secret compartment. He pulled back a small piece of black cloth, revealing money he had saved up for a while. Showing no emotion while counting the money, he came up with a plan that there was no turning back from. He thought long and hard about it before cracking a small smile that not even his sister Lucy would see. Lincoln began walking faster and faster, not wanting to let any doubts settle in, and he soon found himself outside a train station. Checking for security cameras, he made his way towards a ticket booth that for some reason was not overlooked by a security camera. Making sure his hood covered his hair and face, he went up to the booth and purchased a ticket that would take him as far away from home as he could. Looking at the time, seeing that he had some before the next train arrived, he went to a clothes store and bought a jacket and a new hoodie. While leaving the store, he took off his orange hoodie and discarded it in a trash can before slipping on his new clothes and heading back to the station. Soon enough, the train arrived in front of him and opened its doors. Lincoln felt his adrenaline wear off, but that didn't matter as he took his first steps on board. Watching the train doors close behind him, he felt no regrets for what he was doing because he knew that it didn't matter what he wanted now.
He was free now and gone like the wind.