Author Notes - We've got, like, three sisters we're focusing on this chapter, so let's get on with it.

CHAPTER SEVEN - A VISION OF WHAT COULD COME

Though walking through a spooky castle with nothing but candles to light the way would never be a good experience - to anyone except the room's original owner, of course - the bats made the adventure significantly less painful. Not only did their friendly squeaks fill an otherwise-unbearable silence, but they led Lincoln and Lana through the dank hallways up towards the tallest part of the castle - the bedroom.

Up creaky stairs, through cobweb-infested doorways, under flicking candle lights… Lincoln's nerves calmed down just slightly with every room they passed through. The castle hadn't gotten any less spooky, and he was still certain something or someone was watching him from the shadows, but he wasn't shaking at the knees anymore.

'This is awesome!' Lana yelled, as they passed through another doorway.

Lincoln shook his head. 'I still don't get why walking through a haunted castle like this is 'awesome' to you.'

'Oh, it is awesome, but that wasn't what I was talking about. I mean... it's so cool that my gift has a real use now!'

Lincoln's attention was focused on the unsettling paintings on the wall, but now it was directed strictly at Lana.

'Now? What do you mean, now?' He asked. 'Your gift has been working great since the day you got it.'

To his horror, Lana's smile dropped at the corners. 'That... that isn't what I mean. I love my gift, cos it's awesome! But...' Her hand clamped around her elbow. 'I dunno, it just... doesn't seem so useful.'

The boy only took his attention away from her to make sure he didn't walk directly into a cabinet.

'Why do you think that?' He asked.

Lana shrugged. 'Well, everyone else's gifts are useful. Lori can carry churches. Leni can grow fruits and stuff. Lynn's good at delivering things. Dad... you get the idea. Everyone's gifts are really good for helping other people - even Lola's when she's in the right mood - but mine is... it seems like it's just for me, you know? It doesn't really help other people.'

'Is that really a problem though? It's a cool gift! For an animal girl like you, it's perfect.'

'I love it! I really do. But sometimes I wish I could be... useful, like my sisters.'

As the duo stepped onto a particularly long series of steps, Lincoln could feel Lana's mood dropping. Apparently, he wasn't the only one dealing with feelings of uselessness, but he hadn't expected such a conflict from Lana, of all sisters. She seemed so... Lana-ish most of the time.

'Hey,' He said with a smile. 'It doesn't matter how 'useful' your gift may be for other people. It's a gift that makes you happy, and that's all that matters.'

She gave him her own smile, albeit a half-hearted one. 'Yeah, I guess so...'

Well, there was another operation he had to add to the list - right under 'Help Out Lori' was 'Help Out Lana'. At the top of the stairs was another door with Lucy's name above it, carved into the old wooden panels. Echo perched right next to the door, pointing at it with one of her wings and squeaking out another message.

'She says that's her room.' Lana said. 'And that we'll find the vision thing in there.'

Lincoln took a deep breath. 'Okay, you stay here while I-'

'I'm not staying here! I mean, it's just a bedroom. How bad could it be?'

'Please, don't ever ask that. Ever.'

He pushed the door open, faster than the doors before it. Part of him expected the most horrible room yet, while another part expected a simple bedroom with nothing else going on. It was… a mix of both, to tell the truth. It seemed much like a regular bedroom, simply with that gothic look found everywhere else in the house. There were cobwebs and flickering candles, but Lincoln was so used to it by now that it didn't frighten him much at all. Much.

The only thing that made him tremble was the 'bed'. Apparently, the-nameless-sister did not like sleeping in a regular bed, and instead preferred sleeping in a coffin. It was already open, so Lincoln needed not fear that something would jump out of it. With Lana following close behind him, he approached the coffin and peered inside it. It was surprisingly clean, all things considered, and the inside of it was trimmed with soft red velvet.

And, inside of it, he saw the fragments of what appeared to be a small, thin tombstone that had shattered much like glass.

He gasped. 'I think I found it!'

To make sure this was really what he was looking for, he picked up a piece and peered at it closer. Judging by the curve, it must've been one of the top corner bits. There wasn't much to read, but it wasn't needed either.

'Lincoln Loud will…' The rest of the first line had broken off, but the start of the second line was readable. 'Though what, I …'

His eyes widened. No doubt about it now; it had to be Miss-Nameless's final vision. He picked up another piece… '... bring about des…'

'Okay, scratch that.' He said. 'I definitely found it. Except it's all in pieces. Lucy really didn't want anyone to find this.'

'Well, she up and disappeared.' Lana said, peering into the coffin. 'She's not around to stop us anymore. So, grab it and go!'

'Uh, I didn't think to bring a bag or anything.'

'Wait, I've got it!'

Lana took her hat off, revealing her unkempt blonde hair underneath it. She almost handed it to Lincoln as is, before she turned it upside-down and shook it about for a bit. All sorts of bits of leftover food and 'ABC' gum fell out of it and onto the floor, much to Lincoln's disgust. Lana peeked into the hat again, and handed it to him once she was sure it was clean enough. Lincoln shook it around a little bit more, before he started placing the 'vision' pieces into it.

'Thanks, Lana.' He said, holding the cap like it was a pan. 'Now we better get outta here before…'

He shuddered. In the corner of his eye, he saw something moving. For a moment, he thought he was going crazy. That was until Lana grabbed onto his leg, shivering just a little.

'B-Before whatever that was gets us.' He finished with a gulp, slowly turning around. 'Let's just get outta here.'

Lana simply nodded, and soon both Loud siblings were quietly walking back to the door. The moving blur in the corner of their eyes flashed behind them, back and forth, as though it was intentionally trying to spook them. Someone else made Lincoln shudder - was the door always closed? He couldn't remember either him or Lana closing it after stepping into the room.

The quietness of the room seemed so much worse now, with the bats remaining quiet and even Lana not making a single sound. The floorboards were a lot less creaky in this room, meaning even that sound couldn't help fill the silence.

'We'll just get your bat friends to guide us back out of this place,' Lincoln said, putting up a fake smile. 'And then we can-'

'BOO!'

'AHHH!'

Lincoln and Lana screamed at once as a mysterious being leapt out of the shadows, blocked their only way out, and shouted right in their faces. Glowing green eyes, a gangly frame, fingers longer than eagle talons… Lana dove behind Lincoln, and all the only boy could do was cover his eyes and brace for impact.

That was until he heard the being in front of him giggling. And it was a very familiar laugh too. His fear went away in seconds, and now he was just annoyed.

'Luan!' He yelled with a groan.

Just as he suspected, the humanoid monster before him suddenly shifted into the form of Luan. The laughing teenager's hair was still black, however, but she didn't seem to notice.

'I really got you good!' She said, wiping a tear from her eye. 'Didn't I?'

Lana crossed her arms. 'What did ya do that for? And how did you even know we were in here?'

'Luna told me you were doing something in Creepy-Girl's room, so I had to come in here and give you the scare of a lifetime!'

Lincoln rolled his eyes. 'That doesn't tell us why you did it in the first place.'

'Because it was funny! Duh!'

Lincoln and Lana groaned simultaneously, giving Luan that same annoyed look. They weren't angry, just irritated. Very irritated. But, of course, this is Luan we're talking about. It was only then that Lincoln realised that Luan's hair was still off; it had long bangs inside of a ponytail and was jet black.

'Uh, Luan,' He said. 'Your hair is still black.'

Luan emitted a tiny gasp. 'Oh, thanks for telling me!'

Her hair changed colour in an instant… to something blonde and flowing, looking more like Leni's hair than Luan's.

'Still wrong.' Lana remarked. 'Try something brown.'

'Ah, gotcha!'

And she did try something brown: Lynn's hair, which was certainly close in colour and hairstyle, but not quite.

'Still not right.' Lincoln said.

He had assumed that Luan was intentionally joking around, but then he noticed the blush appearing on her cheeks. While it was something she could do on command, it seemed like an odd time to do such a joke.

'Uh, whoops!' She said, slowly backing away. 'I-It seems like I was so focused on making a scary shape, I completely forgot what my own hair looks like! Heh heh… silly me? Looks like I'll have to take a peak at those photos in my room so I remember!'

And, with that, she disappeared down the stairs and into the darkness. It left both Lincoln and Lana highly confused as to what that entire bit was about.

'Uh…' Lana said. 'She wasn't being serious when she said she forgot what she looks like, right? I mean, it's Luan. It was probably another one of her dumb jokes.'

'I'll… worry about that later.' Lincoln said, looking down at the tombstone shards in the cap. 'I need to worry about this first.'

A spooky castle loaded with dust and cobwebs was the last place he wanted to piece this tombstone puzzle together. So, with Lana's bat friends leading the way, they made their way back out of this spooky heckhole.

They had just made it out the old door when Lana suddenly ran off back to her room. Charles had barked out something from the other end of the plaza, and it must've translated to something like 'Lola called you fat and ugly', because next thing Lincoln knew Lana charged off to her room while yelling about how much Lola was going 'to get crocodile fangs up where the sun don't shine'. It left Lincoln by himself to wander down the steps, with her cap still in hand, hopefully to make it back to his room before he was spotted.

'Lana, where are you-! … Lincoln?'

He had already failed. Rita was just in the middle of chasing the animal lover down when she almost bumped into Lincoln. Her eyes immediately looked to the cap in his hand, and the pieces within it, and all he could do was flash her a nervous smile.

'Uh, hi Mom!' He greeted, sounding like he was laughing so he wouldn't cry.

'What are you doing with Lana's hat?' Rita asked. 'And… what are those? Pieces of a tombstone?'

'W-Well, you see-'

The conversation was interrupted, something Lincoln thanked his lucky stars for. Or at least he would've, if it wasn't for what the interruption was.

'MY GIIIIIIIIIFT!'

He recognised the voice - it was Lori's - though not quite the tone. Lori only ever had that tone when watching a particularly sad episode of one of her teen dramas. Both Lincoln and Rita snapped their heads over to the nearby staircase, where they could see Lori dragging herself up. The cool and collected (if easily-annoyed) sister had been reduced to tears, causing her make-up to run horribly.

'I'M LITERALLY LOSING MY GIIII-IIII-IIIFT!'

Lincoln's heart skipped a beat.

Rita's jaw dropped. 'You… you're what?'

Lori sniffed and wiped her watery eyes in an attempt to gather herself, but it clearly didn't work. A feeling of dread swelled within Lincoln; it wasn't his fault, was it?

'I-I was trying to do all my work…' Lori said, barely comprehensible at this point. 'And I had so many chores. A-And then L-Lincoln told me to take a break, and I-I really wanted to, but I was already late to deliver the truck, a-and that river still needed to be re-routed, a-and I didn't want to let anyone down, b-but I felt like crying, and I know I shouldn't, and… and when I went to push t–that golf cart out the lake, I, I…' She stopped to catch her breath. 'I COULDN'T LIFT IT!'

That was all she could say before she ran off crying even harder, dashing to her room and slamming the door behind her. You didn't need to be Luna to hear her wails on the other side, as her door continued to flicker more and more.

After a while, Rita aimed her shock expression at Lincoln. 'What… what did you tell her?!'

'Nothing!' Lincoln cried. 'Well, I did tell her to take a break, but that's it. I didn't-'

Rita held her hand up for him to stop, an order he followed swiftly.

'I don't know what's going on with Lori.' She said. 'If she's losing her gift, then… Until either I figure out what's going on or Lori stops freaking out, I don't want you talking to her again.'

'But-'

'Lincoln, the magic is important. We cannot afford to lose it.'

That was the note she left the conversation on, turning around and heading for Lori's room. Part of Lincoln wanted to rush to Lori's room, to attempt to comfort her through a difficult thing he could hardly comprehend. But what could he say? It wasn't like Rita was going to let him get near her, and considering that her breakdown had started seemingly because of him…

He shoved that thought away. There was no way that could be the case, seeing as he had nothing to do with the desk being heavy the night before. Still, that thought lingered in his mind and refused to go away. He held onto the cap with both his hands, and began to make his way back to his room.

But, as he did so, he stopped by Luan's door. It depicted the teenager with her arms and legs out, as though she had jumped out of a present, and surrounded by all sorts of pranking equipment. He wouldn't have paid it any mind if it was not flickering slightly. Deciding that one little detour couldn't hurt, he knocked on the door.

No response. For a moment, he debated simply leaving. Yet, something compelled himself to walk inside, quietly and gently.

'Luan?'

The jokester's room matched her perfectly - it was like a big top, with cannons and tightropes and even a big (toy) lion sitting on a little platform. The bed was inside the 'employees only' area, so Luan could perform in her personal circus without worrying about moving her stuff. As Lincoln walked through the entrance and into the arena, the one oddity about this room became clear - it had a lot of mirrors lying around, meant to help Luan perfect her shapeshifting gift. Luan herself was nowhere to be found, so Lincoln passed through a door labelled 'EMPLOYEES ONLY'.

'Come on, come on! This situation has gotten quite hairy. Heh heh… WHERE ARE THOSE PHOTOS?!'

Lincoln found her digging through one of the drawers next to her bed, doing so in quite the panic. Her hair now looked like Lori's, but with Lincoln's white colour. Still, definitely not Luan's.

'Hey, Luan.' Lincoln said. 'What are you-?'

'No time, Lincoln!' Luan replied. 'I gotta find those photos!'

The teenager threw aside a bunch of prank-related items onto the floor, until she finally found what she was looking for. She sighed in relief when she found a framed photo of herself, lying underneath a bunch of other stuff.

'Oh!' She said, smiling. 'So that's what my hair looks like!'

She looked up into the mirror by her bed and cringed.

'Oof…' She muttered. 'Wasn't even close.'

With a proper reference in front of her, she was able to return her hair to its normal light-brown ponytailed self. Just to make sure, she glanced back at the photo, and sighed in relief once she was certain she finally got the details down.

'What was that about?' Lincoln asked. 'You weren't joking when you said that you forgot what your own hair looks like?'

Luan immediately put up a nervous smile and tossed the framed photo aside. Somehow, no one in his family could pull off a convincing fake smile; must've run in the family.

'W-What do you mean, Lincoln?' She asked, laughing nervously. 'Of course that was just a joke! W-Why would I forget what my own hair looked like? T-That's absurd! That would be… I think you're… oh, what a…' Just like Lori, her eye twitched. 'HOO BOY! I don't think I've ever struggled to come up with a joke like this before! … Does that count as a joke?'

Lincoln stared at her, in nothing more than stunned surprise. To say he struggled to put his words together was an understatement. Seeing Luan not only failing to come up with a joke but admitting it was like seeing Lana willingly take a bath. It was enough to stop his brain for a moment, much like one little glitch can completely crash a computer.

'Luan, you…' He stammered. 'You… you were just looking at a framed photo of yourself. Either this is a really elaborate joke, or-'

Luan's smile dropped. 'Okay, fine! I spent so long perfecting that scary monster thing that I completely forgot what my hair was supposed to look like! That's why I have this photo here in my room, so I can come back to it whenever I forget.'

Silence again. Lincoln was no less worried. If anything, he was just more so.

'Does… that mean you forget your own appearance regularly?' He asked.

Luan went completely silent, her eyes darting back and forth as if she was looking for a convenient distraction. Unfortunately, all of the truly distracting stuff was outside of the employee area, so there was hardly anything interesting in that little room.

Lincoln sighed. 'Okay, maybe you should…'

His voice trailed off. The advice he was about to give came up short when he remembered the advice he had given Lori. It seemed so right at the time, but after seeing what it did to her…

'I should do what?' Luan asked.

Lincoln took a deep breath. 'Maybe you should… I dunno, stop with the shapeshifting thing for a little while? Or at least do it a little l-'

'STOP SHAPESHIFTING?!' She yelled, making him flinch. 'Lincoln, I can't do that! Shapeshifting is what I'm supposed to do, ever since I got that gift. And it's really fun, and I love doing it! Who can complain about easy pranking potential?' She stopped to laugh. 'But seriously, even through these walls I could hear Lori wailing her lungs out! She takes a quick break, and suddenly she can't even lift a golf cart. If I took a break from shapeshifting for even a few minutes, who knows what could happen?!'

She shifted forms into one resembling Lincoln, though she swapped right back to 'Luan'. Her hair remained white until she peaked at that photo again, whereupon it reverted to its correct colour.

'Well, I don't have a gift.' Lincoln said, shrugging a little. 'And it isn't so bad for me. If you lost your gift, you-'

'Yeah, but you never had a gift to begin with!' She said. 'No offence, Lincoln. But I have one right now. If I lose it, it'd be like… like losing my whole identity!'

'Luan, I think your gift is already making you lose your identity, seeing as you keep forgetting your own-'

She clenched her fists. 'UGH, Lincoln! I'm stressing out enough already! I don't need you rubbing it in or giving me advice that could make me lose my gift. I'm not losing my identity, alright? I think you need to identify the real problem here!' She laughed again. 'No, seriously, just leave me alone. I can handle this on my own, okay?'

To say the least, Lincoln was not convinced. But Lori's cries and wails echoed in his mind, and he certainly didn't want it to happen twice. After a while, he turned around and headed out the door.

'Well, if you insist you'll be okay…' He said.

'I'll be fine!' Luan said, waving him off. 'How about you…? Uh… some sort of joke involving the word 'leave'! … Get it?'

Her nervous laughter did not at all convince Lincoln that she was fine, but the last thing he wanted was to repeat his mistake with Lori. So, he left Luan to look at herself in the mirror, forcing himself to ignore what she muttered next.

'So this is what Luan looks like, huh?'

Once Lincoln returned to his room, he emptied the contents of Lana's cap all over his desk. That would normally be such a gross action, but the eight-or-so shards of tombstone were the only things that fell out. He tossed that cap aside – it still didn't smell good - and looked closer at the pieces in front of him.

He picked up what he assumed was the first piece, which must've been the top-left corner judging by the beginning of a curve. Since only two other pieces had a curve like that, he picked up the one with the softest curve, seeing as that may have been the top-middle piece.

'Lincoln Loud will bring so-'

He was just looking for the third piece, when-

*SLAM*

'GAH!'

His door suddenly slammed open so quickly that it bashed into the wall. Ruidosa's floorboards cringed and rattled around in rage at the Loud who had just abused its walls. Lincoln jumped around in a panic, but he didn't need to see which sister it was who intruded; the quiet thunder from the cloud above her gave her identity away.

'Lola?!' He cried.

Author Notes - According to the people behind Encanto, Camilo suffers from identity issues. Unfortunately, this fascinating bit of character development isn't seen at all during the movie due to that blasted running time. Heck, there was even meant to be a plot point where his real appearance was something completely different to what we saw throughout the movie! So, to make up for that, I'm emotionally-torturing Luan. HOORAY!