Disclaimer: The Loud House and associated characters belong to Nickelodeon and Chris Savino
Even Louder than Hell
By Lola Presents
Chapter 8
The children who remained behind became increasingly anxious about what might be happening. Everyone had been gone far too long, and they felt helpless. If they were with them, they'd know what was transpiring. They hatched a plan to overpower Luna and Luan, joining their family and friends inside the house.
Their plan rested on simple math. There were four doors and only two guards. Splitting their forces, they bolted for various exits, confusing and dividing the two older children, and successfully made their way out of the van. While Luna and Luan did their best to secure them, they proved too wily to maintain a proper grip.
Giving up, the teens took charge of the disobedient youngsters and agreed to escort them inside under the condition that they listened to anything they said. Of course, the children agreed, though neither Luna nor Luan fully believed them. Regardless, they cautiously entered the home and followed a path nearly identical to those prior.
Like their family, they checked the ground floor first, the second floor, and finally the basement. They forged their way through the winding tunnels with only one option left. And though nobody came to the same conclusion Lincoln had, they followed the most well-lit tunnel out of practicality.
Eventually, they emerged in the halls of their middle school. Seeing the footprints in the bloody trails, they found themselves standing outside the gym in short order. Peering in, all they could see was their family standing in defensive positions while Tiffany engaged the Nephilim, seemingly floating in the air.
Quietly, they cracked the door and slipped through, sneaking up behind the group, watching and listening to what was happening. For the moment, things seemed calm, despite the carnage surrounding them. Fortunately, none of the newcomers thought to do a head count. Otherwise, they'd have realized their number had gotten reduced by two.
"Who. Are. You?" said Despair in his resonant voice, staring intently at the little girl hovering before him.
"Come now," Tiffany's voice sang out. "Has it truly been so long that you do not recognize us?" she said, echoing Despair's own words from not too long ago. "We must admit, it has been a while. Perhaps the time has addled your memory?"
Despair and Sorrow studied the being before them, slowly realizing what was happening. "So..." growled Sorrow. "The gods have finally decided to show their faces. Tell me, have you come to correct your mistake?"
"Oh, no..." sang Tiffany. "It is not we who made a mistake. We created you in our image, perfect in every way. We gave you advanced intelligence, the wisdom to apply it, and the strength to see it through. We encouraged you to explore your boundaries and seek further knowledge that you might learn and grow. Then, we gave you humility so that you would understand and accept your place in our grand design."
"Bah..." guffawed Despair. "Your grand design is flawed! We shall make our own!"
"No," sighed Tiffany exuding melancholy. "You chose to ignore your humility in the search for power never intended for you. When you did that, your humility turned to hubris, and you believed yourselves above us," Tiffany explained the things the Nephilim missed.
"You cast us out!" barked Sorrow, growing irritated at the history lesson. "You abandoned us!"
"You are mistaken," said the floating girl, her bright blonde hair flowing like blown by a gentle breeze. "We took pity on your kind. We gave them the gifts of love, empathy, and compassion, then tempered their power. For centuries, they lived in peace and harmony. But you would not know this, for you ran and hid, along with those that followed you."
"Look then at what has become of your grand design," demanded Despair, pointing behind Tiffany. "They are weak, brittle, and rife with false beliefs! It is time for the gods of old to stand down! You have failed!"
"Not at all, dear child," Tiffany responded. "While your mistakes began with your ignorance of humility, you compounded them by choosing to see what you wanted in defense of your erroneous assumptions. What I see behind me far exceeds anything you ever were or could hope to be. See for yourself..." Tiffany said, moving to the side and looking at the assemblage of family and friends.
"Nephilim, awakened, human, standing together under a common banner, having discarded their differences," she continued. "All in refute of you. They have a strength you will never understand. Despite your efforts across the eons to inject fear, jealousy, hatred, and greed into their hearts, to destroy that which we created, they still stand, bound together. And as much as it pains us to do so, as we made you, we shall now unmake you."
"Nooo!" cried Despair and Sorrow together, shaking the building they stood within.
Facing her children once more, Tiffany shed two single tears before her eyes burst forth intense golden flame, engulfing the two wayward Nephilim. As they screamed out in pain and regret, their bodies burned, turning to ash, and quickly vanished into nothingness. Then, Tiffany raised her arms high, summoning the tree of life.
As before, it burst through the gym's wooden floor, rending the fleshy substance that covered the building and filling the vast room with its radiant splendor. Bright green leaves adorned its many branches, it bore flowers of every shape, size, and color, and an intricate variety of fruit hung from its branches.
Then, as its roots absorbed the blood that had gotten spilled, small offshoots began forming, each bearing a single, slowly growing pod, one for each of the fallen. After a few moments, a longer shoot extended itself, depositing two unique pods in Tiffany's waiting hands, and then retreated into the trunk.
Slowly, Tiffany turned and floated toward Lucy, who had remained where she was, struck with awe and wonder, and handed the two pods containing her father and sister over to her. As soon as the little succubus accepted them, the light surrounding Tiffany faded, and the drained girl fell unconscious to the floor.
Though the battle was through, their ordeal was far from over. The entire school began to shake and tremble under their feet as the restoration process began. Vine, tendril, and flesh alike began to burn into ash, disappearing in the wind, and the dislodged pieces of the cinderblock walls began repairing themselves.
"Kids, quick!" called Rita as she scooped up Tiffany, heading for the gym door. "Back to the tunnels! We have to get out of here, now!"
Lucy gently cradled the two pods in one of her pockets and followed the other out of the gym. Retracing their steps, they made their way back through the halls, into the tunnels, and back home, as everyone got restored in reverse order.
And as Lucy ran back into her basement, she slid to a stop, short of running into one of her sisters, and turned to see that their cellar wall was once more whole and solid. Spent and exhausted, they collapsed onto the cold, concrete floor and fell asleep.
The authorities did not know what had happened at the school. The investigation began when the entire student body and faculty awoke confused and nude, assembled in the gym, but led nowhere. Naturally, many drew comparisons to what had occurred at the Loud residence eight months earlier. However, the forensics teams got left empty-handed, and the event got recorded as unexplained and filed away.
Life returned to normal for the Loud family. At least as normal as possible. They remained a mix of Nephilim, awakened, and human. Why Nyx hadn't restored them was beyond their comprehension. Perhaps it was all part of the god's grand design.
Regardless, Lucy and the others were happy with who they were now and couldn't fathom losing all the memories they now harbored. To have gotten restored would've seemed like getting torn in half, and maybe that was the point.
Nyx had left them as they were for a reason, and Lucy believed she knew what that reason was; to bring people together, despite their differences. But that was a daunting task. None knew of their existence, and those that did fear their kind. They had their work laid out but had the rest of eternity to see it through.
"Hey, guys," chirped Lincoln in complete Incubus form as he peered into the twins' room. After facing off with Despair and Sorrow, Lincoln and Rita found their balance and finally united with the Nephilim they hosted. "I'm a little horny, any takers?" he asked, teasing his human sisters.
"Lincoln..." sighed Lola as she glared at him as he stood in her doorway, his massive cock dripping precum as always. "We've been over this. We're staying human. And please, step back a little. You're getting your goop everywhere, and you know the rules."
"Yeah, yeah," sighed the young demon. "I know. Ask before entering, and shift into human form before doing so. Anyway, have you seen Lucy? I can't seem to find her."
"She's out back, just standing there like a doofus," Lana replied, pointing at their window.
Curious, Lincoln assumed his human form and, still failing to ask, strolled across the room and peered out the glass. Sure enough, Lucy was standing in the middle of the backyard, idle and unmoving.
"I better go see what's up," Lincoln announced before heading to his room, getting dressed, and preparing to leave the house.
"Oh, hey, Lincoln," chirped his mother as he passed through the kitchen. "Where are you headed?"
"I don't know," replied the boy. "Lucy's just standing outside, doing nothing. I thought something might be wrong, so I'm going to check on her."
"Oh..." sighed Rita, finishing the dishes and sitting down to read a magazine.
Lincoln bounded from the house, walked up to his sister, and stood beside her, looking into the distance. "What are you looking at?" he inquired.
"Nothing," sighed Lucy. "Just thinking."
"About what?" her brother asked quietly, sensing her melancholy.
"The future," Lucy whispered back. "We aren't the same as we used to be, and I'm not sure what we're going to do now. The humans hate our kind, and if we ever got discovered, they'd stop at nothing to destroy us."
"Yeah, I know," Lincoln empathetically responded, wrapping his arm around his sister. "But, there's still time. Humanity is young compared to us, and if there's a way to unite us, you'll find a way."
"Hi, daddy!" chirped Tiffany as she bound alongside her father, as chipper as ever. "Thanks for last night. I needed that. At least I'm not a virgin anymore," she exclaimed, dancing in little circles.
"Is it true that you don't age?" asked Lola as she and Lana joined them, grabbing Lucy's hand.
"Yup," Lucy groaned. "I'm stuck with thimble-sized tits for eternity."
"Boris doesn't seem to mind," reminded Lola. "Besides, being young and beautiful forever doesn't seem all that bad. Who wants to be a grown-up anyway?"
"Well, I sure do," argued Lana emphatically. "I can't work on a pit crew if I'm a child."
"Thinking about joining us, are you?" asked Rita, walking up behind Lola and resting her palm on her daughter's shoulder.
Lola shrugged. "I'm considering it," she admitted. "Though I'm still not sure. It seems like a lot of hassle with all the dripping and goop. Doesn't that ever bother you?"
"Only when someone isn't around to slurp it up," her mother teased, making Lola grimace. Chuckling, Rita squeezed the girl from behind. "It's okay. You might think it's gross now, but a day will come when you see things differently."
"And when that day comes, I'll be more than happy to awaken you," interjected Lincoln, hoping that day would come sooner than later.
Lola furrowed her brows and stared at her brother, folding her arms defiantly.
"Well, I don't know about you," added Lisa, overhearing the conversation as she joined them. "But, when I'm ready, I want dad to do it."
"Well, don't tell him that, honey," Rita suggested. "He's already been talking about pounding away at your little holes. If he knew, he'd never leave you alone."
"Did someone call my name," asked the girl's father as he and the rest of the family joined them as they stared at the setting sun.
Gently sliding behind the horizon and filling the sky with a brilliant shade of orange, the sun was unaware of the changes on the Earth's surface. Nor did it care. Its job was to warm the creatures that walked upon its surface, regardless of who or what they were.
Having completed its daily task, the sun disappeared as the curtain of night fell upon the family, obscuring them from casual view. And as those that were Nephilim or awakened shifted into their nocturnal forms, Tiffany bounded across the yard like a frog as she stalked a grasshopper, her little tail wagging excitedly.
The gift that Nyx had given her, through Haiku, had vanished. Never again did the little succubus exhibit such power. But she was happy regardless. And finally catching up to the tiny bug, she devoured it with her long, pointy tongue.
"I got it, mom!" she cried, standing and hopping around frenetically.
"That's nice, Tiff," cheered Leni. "But don't spoil your dinner, okay?"
And as the little girl joined her family, they turned and headed for the house. Tomorrow was another day. And come what may, they'd face it together.
The End
Something stirred somewhere, nestled deep within the nooks and crannies between realities. A beacon of light had gotten lit, shining its brilliance across the cosmos, if only for a moment. Yet, it had made its presence known, drawing the denizens of the dark toward it...
Note: I hope you enjoyed this story, despite the gore and sexual promiscuity. One of the things I enjoy about horror movies and stories is that they give us a way to explore the dark side of humanity. It's not enough to accept the good and blindly live with it. Only by understanding our more base instincts and behaviors can we truly understand ourselves and become whole. ~LP