I must clarify that English is not my native language, but nevertheless I translated this story from Spanish as best as I could... I'm open to criticism and complaints as long as they help me to improve my written English.

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Jim Darney The Weird Fictionis: Just like the drunkard of my town (my grandfather) used to say "ask, and it will be given to you".

I hope you guys enjoy the reading.


02-. Awkward Situation

An unprecedented situation in which a family van, a vehicle that had belonged to three generations, was left in pieces on the side of the road, just like the family to which it belonged.

Many questions full of guilt began to harass the Louds and unconsciously they began to look for culprits; maybe it was the fault of the truck driver who, because he wanted to work double shifts, was not in his five senses, maybe if the family van was in good condition or if the driver had been alert... maybe none of this would have happened, but what did those recriminations matter? There is no such thing as 'would have', and in the end, the worst part of it all was taken by the one who was a dedicated and loving sister.

Visits to Leni in the hospital were always terrible for the girls, as seeing their beautiful sister in that state was heartbreaking.

The albino boy refused to receive major medical intervention since he only had some 'cuts' on his face and hands, the doctors insisted trying to explain to him that he would be scarred for life but he was adamant; he would not burden his parents' limited wallet with plastic surgery.

Lisa did not do so badly as her siblings, after a few weeks her scars, which were not as deep as her brother's, had faded, and the glass eye given to her as a gift by her closest contributors went almost completely unnoticed; it was necessary to pay close attention to notice that one of her eyes was barely more opaque than the other.

However, even though she had no physical sequels, Lisa was perhaps the one who suffered the most because she took responsibility for the whole tragedy; her sullen and apathetic attitude worsened to such a degree that she rarely left her room or spoke to anyone. She went back to work day and night looking for a way to help his sister and after months of tireless work with no favorable results... she gave up. It soon became obvious that she was no longer doing anything all day as after a few weeks her devices began to gather dust.

Her latest achievement was that perfect system of completely loss-free wireless power production and transmission.

The hermetic attitude and the eventual lack of hygiene of the girl forced the parents to change Lily's room, as they expected, it was Lincoln who volunteered to take care of his little sister and due to the lack of space in his room, he ended up moving to the room that once belonged to the older sisters.

The parents had to extend their working hours to cover the extra expense at the hospital. Their daughters hardly saw them at home anymore, and when they did, they were both very tired and stressed. They had no time or money left for their family. Lori was on the verge of dropping out of college to try to help, but Bobby and her parents convinced her to finish her degree, after all, she only had three semesters left.

Luna, never applied to any college since she started giving small gigs and presentations in bars and restaurants where she received good pay and Luan, after excellent presentations in the same restaurants and bars, but in family hours, ended up forging a solid reputation as an amateur comedian.

In the absence of a mother figure for the younger daughters of the marriage, Lynn proclaimed herself as the new authority figure but soon her lack of tact became the biggest problem in the house. The athlete was barely functioning in her role as a leader, but what the children really needed was a role model and emotional support, not someone who would yell at them about what to do, so Lincoln was once again the solution. He set an example for the younger girls and reinforced the decisions of the older. He fixed the problems and arguments between her remaining sisters; he even managed, under his persevering care and attention, to get her genius sister to open up to her family again, strangely she now sought Lucy more than the rest, and to resume a moderate routine of work and research.

Lily spent as much free time as she could with her brother. Over time she had become so attached to the young white-haired boy that she ended up seeing him as a father figure and even a mother figure on certain occasions.

A full year passed and things improved significantly for the family, but despite the considerable extra income from the two new older daughters, there were still many things to pay for, such as electricity, water, gas, and the most important and expensive thing, food.

Lincoln again felt compelled to help, after weeks of talks and preparations he managed to instruct Lynn as best he could to take his place as head of the household, the jock happily agreed and surprisingly managed to come pretty close to what was needed at home. And when Lincoln started bringing some bills home no one was really surprised, after all, he was a crafty kid with plenty of friends in high and middle school, no one inquired, but how could Lincoln help pay the bills? Well, desperate times call for desperate actions.

The boy led a second life outside of school, hidden from his family and friends; the boy was dedicated to buying second-hand goods or fakes that he sold as authentic collector's items, he organized bets in the few events that his sisters still held, and as expected all of them were arranged in his favor. Some days he would even simply steal, of course, he was not the type to snatch and run, if he had chosen that tactic he would have been spotted from the start as he was easily recognizable by his white hair and those four horrible scars running down his face.

No, he had a foolproof plan. It was openly acknowledged by all who knew him that Lincoln Loud's cunning and facility with words were legendary attributes, the boy was able to sell junk like gold, so it was not difficult for him to distract a tired and unsuspecting adult. On any given day he managed to get twenty dollars, accompanied by the occasional not-so-worn wallet to resell, and on the few rare days where he managed to get more, he would simply secretly keep the extra and give his older sisters the rest. He would not repeat the mistake that cost him the trust and affection of his best friend.

Maybe he would have kept Clyde by his side if he had never told him where all the money he suddenly had was coming from, or if he hadn't told him how he was hiding a small part of it from his family, or if he had controlled himself a little when his friend complained to him. Of course, he didn't want to fight Clyde, but when he threatened to tell on him he simply didn't want to measure up. In his defense, Lincoln gave him the first punch when Clyde didn't have his glasses on. No, all in all, things wouldn't have ended so badly for Clincoln Mcloud if Lincoln had let Clyde win the fight, sure he would end up beaten and they wouldn't talk to each other for a few days but they would end up forgiving each other, they had done it every time before. Yes, now that he saw things from a different perspective he should have let Clyde win, instead of breaking his nose and chipping a tooth. On the bright side, Clyde still kept his promise to keep the secret.

To make the long story short, Lincoln became a delinquent, although he preferred to call himself a pickpocket. After all, he was only doing this to help his family, and he still had a reputation to save with the few friends he had left at school.

He could have continued like this indefinitely, swindling and lying for a pittance for personal gain, but an awkward coincidence changed it all...

It was the fourth and last Friday of November, Lincoln prepared to go out on the streets, at that time of year there were plenty of distracted adults loaded with money. He chose a cap to cover his head from the cold and to hide his white hair and placed it on the bed, while he searched the large closet for a coat that would disguise his complexion. He heard a chuckle behind him.

He turned as quickly as he could to surprise the intruder, but all he saw was a room that appeared to be empty. Lucy was certainly managing to scare him more and with less effort with each attempt, nervously, he grabbed the first sweater he could find "Life is sweeter with a gran gran", he still kept the garish pink sweater Myrtle had given him, he had outgrown it since he had gone long enough without seeing her and pop pop. He shook his head to clear his mind, he had to get out of the room before his goth sister gave him a heart attack, he turned to grab his cap from the sheets on his bed but his hand couldn't find it. The little voice laughed again and this time Lincoln recognized it.

His heart rate suddenly calmed down as a smile formed on his mouth.

"Little one, I warn you, I'm an expert at finding naughty girls" a giggle could be heard under the bed closest to the window.

Very slowly, Lincoln walked towards the source of the noise and when he was close enough, with a quick movement, he dropped to the ground. To his surprise there was no Lily, there was only an old purple walkie-talkie. All right, the game would get a little longer.

"Where is Lily? She disappeared! Did she become invisible?"

He expected the girl to laugh again and give him another clue, but what he heard instead was his baby sister crying in another room. His big brother instincts suddenly awoke. He jumped to his feet. And screamed as he saw a small skeleton standing over Lori's old bed, reflexively hit it and the little body flew out the open window.

Lincoln remained static in that place, his fist hurt quite a bit and he had gotten up very quickly so it took him a few moments to digest what he had just done; he had punched his baby sister, disguised as a skeleton, out of the window. If he hadn't broken her something with the blow, it was very certain that he had seriously injured her by making her fall from the second floor. With tears in his eyes, he ran to the window.

He saw the little body resting stiffly on the snow in the front yard, by the blow the mask had moved out of place revealing the face of one of Lola's dolls, with a mixture of relief and fury Lincoln left the room, crossed the hallway and kicked open Lucy's room, there stood the three girls in fits of giggles, from the intense blush on her face it looked like Lynn was going to have a heart attack herself, Lily was writhing on the floor just like her sporty sister and Lucy was just letting out a few "ha ha's" with all the excitement of a dead woman.

With obvious disgust, Lincoln entered the room to complain to them but was intercepted by Lily who was struggling to regain her normal breathing.

"I'm sorry Daddy Lincoln," the girl hugged him, wrapping her arms around his waist and making it difficult for him to move forward, "but it was very funny! Lucy always has the best ideas."

The raven-haired's discreet smile disappeared along with her faint laughter as she met her brother's serious gaze.

"Oh come on Lincoln, you know it was a good prank," Lynn had finally regained her natural color, "besides who knows, maybe we'll finally have a new prank champion... besides you know we better hope it's Lily the new prankster, stinkcoln," she had moved close enough to his brother to whisper in his ear, "no one gets hurt with the little girl's pranks."

The sportswoman had a point, so he decided to leave them alone this time.

Playfully ruffling the blonde hair of the youngest of his sisters, the girl smiled at the caress and lifted her face.

"I'm really sorry, Linky, I didn't mean to upset you," she embarrassedly handed him back the cap she had taken to lure him in.

"I would never be mad at you, baby girl and I know this was all your crazy sisters' idea," Lincoln coughed to silence the complaints of Lynn and Lucy and put on a serious expression, there was nothing to do with the two sisters of the room but he wouldn't let Lily just walk away, "but what you did is not right, you know you could have scared me to death."

He took her by the hand and carefully led her back to the room they shared, without removing his stern expression he faced the girl again.

"Lily, do you know where my brown coat is?"

"The one Lola says you look like a "ladies' molester"?

"... Yes, that one" later he would also scold Lola for saying such things around her baby.

Lily crawled under her bed, the one that used to be Leni's, and a moment later came out holding her brother's coat.

"Thank you beautiful, I will try to get you the set of brushes you asked me for last time, for your birthday."

"And what will you give me for Christmas?" the girl made puppy dog eyes, a skill she had undoubtedly learned from her sporty sister.

"Lily, there's only five days between your birthday and Christmas," he had to admit that the puppy dog eyes were an effective tactic against him, "but maybe by Christmas you'll get some acrylic colors so you can paint with your new brushes."

-o-

Lincoln walked surrounded by the shop windows of the mall, looking around for someone who was distracted enough to be able to pick him up without him noticing immediately.

He walked the entire building from end to end at least three times without finding any easy victims, he was about to give up and go home when he saw a fat, black man stuffed with bags of gifts, some of which covered his face so he couldn't see clearly where he was walking, talking on his cell phone. He couldn't wish for an easier target.

Lincoln followed the man into the parking lot and overtook him and hid in a corner. He had already mastered the technique, he just had to "accidentally" bump into the guy, look him in the eye and while distracting him with some meaningless apology, he would empty his pockets, finally, when he was a few meters away he would have to run and hide to check the loot.

Lincoln closed his eyes from his hiding place and counted the man's footsteps approaching, he had to bump into him at the right time. He took a couple of deep breaths and practiced his "sorry old man" face. The fat man was already very close although now he was no longer still talking on the phone.

One.

Two

THREE!

Lincoln leaped out to meet the man and the two collided, bags went flying and Lincoln with a quick hand movement snatched the wallet from his pants pocket, as he prepared to make his generic excuse and hurry away he froze.

"... Hello... Mr. McBride."

The black man's face went through a strange mix of emotions: first, he looked attentive and alert, no doubt already knowing what was happening to him, then he looked angry and ready to act violently, and finally, he had completely relaxed as he recognized his son's best friend.

"Oh! How have you been, kiddo? Enjoying the sales?"

"Something like that," Lincoln embarrassedly helped him pick up his things from the floor, "I'm sorry by the way, I was in a hurry."

When they were almost finished putting everything away, Harold noticed that Lincoln had his wallet in one of his hands, he hadn't noticed that he didn't have it on him. His face tightened as a disturbing thought occurred to him, perhaps his beloved son's best friend tried to... no, Lincoln was not that kind of person, his son would never go out to play with a criminal, although on the other hand, those two were not as close as they used to be. What's more, he didn't remember the two of them going out together to do anything for the past few months.

"Mr. McB, I think you dropped this," said the albino, offering the wallet to the black man, "you have to be careful with these things, you know, there's a thief on the loose lately."

Harold's face lit up again as he discovered that after all his suspicions, the Loud boy was still a model boy.

"Thank you very much, son!" Harold McBride thanked him, hugging Lincoln and taking the wallet. "You know, today was payday so all my money is in here, I don't know what I would have done if I had lost it... what's more, I know you're going to refuse, but let me give you five dollars for saving my life."

Her phone rang again, distracted for a minute he looked at the screen, it was a message from her husband, without taking his eyes off the screen while writing a reply he spoke to his son's friend.

"Hey Lincoln, I have an idea, now I'm going to meet with my boys, how about joining us for a bite to eat? And then you can tell us how the school has been going, Howard and I haven't talked to you in a long time. What do you say, Lincoln? …Lincoln?"

When he looked up from the screen he discovered that he was talking to himself.

It was as if the universe was mocking Lincoln Loud.

Every kind word the man had said to him bounced around in his head giving him a migraine. The chattering in his mind continued until he could barely think. Anger, frustration, anguish... sadness, all mixed together in a murky swirl of emotions. He had simply lost his moral compass a long time ago and now felt only guilt, so he ran away to the nearest bus stop.

"DANG IT! Lincoln exploded, hitting the bus's metal routing board. From the sound his hand made, it was certain that something had broken there.

The boy was paralyzed, barely feeling the pain in his hand. Both his mind and body were overwhelmed. Slowly Lincoln put his thoughts back in order and then he was able to feel the pain in the knuckles of his right hand.

He stood still at the bus station, waiting for a plan to occur to him that would solve all his problems. The day, as if responding to Lincoln's emotions; grew more unpleasant as lightning and raindrops fell from the sky. Then just when nothing could be worse, he happened to step in a puddle of water on the verge of freezing that froze even his briefs. Surely now he looked as miserable as he felt.

Taking a breath of air he got on the first bus that passed by the station, he didn't know where he was going and he didn't much care, he didn't want to be alone now that it was clear to him that he had failed his family and himself by acting the way he acted, he wasn't really doing anything to help his sisters, he was just asking for trouble.

"I... I didn't want it to come to this, I'm a failure."

Lincoln felt the weight of his actions on his head, another kind of water droplets began to wet his face. After paying his fare and walking between the two rows of empty seats on the bus he sat alone in the back and let the storm bury him in a grave of pain and shame as his mind kept repeating to himself «I was not fair, I am not worthy of my loved ones.»

Then amidst his wailing the bus lights went out, the rain and thunder stopped almost simultaneously. When lightning struck again, Lincoln noticed that he was no longer on the same bus.

Now Lincoln was all alone, sitting in the seats all the way to the back in a replica of the bus. The place appeared to be carved in old-fashioned stone and marble. A voice reflecting authority echoed throughout the room.

"I SUMMON YOU, LINCOLN LOUD; CHAMPION CANDIDATE".


You've gotta review this one for me guys, McSylar...