This was a quick update XD Good thing I have plenty of spare time at my disposal (for the moment). And there's only so long that the "it's just a dream" excuse can hold water before your common sense tells you that something freaky has truly happened, as Lincoln will realize.
Two days had passed, and at the crack of dawn, a new face appeared in the Louds` neighborhood.
Getting up early, as dawn was one of the few times of day where he could get things done without worrying about getting distracted or interrupted by his obnoxious neighbors, was busy watering his flower garden.
"Excuse me, sir. But is the house next door where the Loud family lives?" he heard a young boy`s voice from over his fence. His tone was laced with casual smarminess, but the old man didn't care much about it.
"Yes it is...unfortunately." he replied in a cranky manner. "Why do you want to go there anyway-AHH!" the mustached senior jolted and dropped his hose after finally facing the speaker, who flashed him a crooked smile with matching teeth.
"Thank you, kind sir." he replied sarcastically and moved on.
A shocked Mr. Grouse tried polishing his glasses to make sure he was seeing right. That kid looked like a dying cancer patient.
Entering the premise, he was noticed by the family dog, Charles, a black and white bull terrier with a patch of black around one eye. He stood up from his resting position under a tree and growled uneasily, with his ears folded back.
The visitor was not fazed. It was easy to tell this was no vicious guard dog. He walked closer, making the canine more nervous.
He kneeled down and stretched out his hand. "Easy there, Fido." he spoke in a placatory tone.
Charles seemed nervous and withdrew, but then sniffed the boy's hand, who ceased the chance to pet the dog`s head. Though remaining wary, Charles relaxed.
"Good boy."
"And I thought Mr.L didn't like pets." the boy mused, before taking a look at the big house.
Life had continued as normal for the Louds. All except for Lincoln and Lynn. With no school to attend, both siblings remained withdrawn and quiet, spending their time uneventfully. They hadn't interacted much with the rest of the siblings, but none of them paid much mind to it as the sister generally kept to themselves anyway.
A few of them, however, got a little shock when Lincoln bluntly refused to lend them assistance and walked off on them. Dream or not, Lincoln would never miss a chance to give his sisters the memo that he wasn't their doormat butler anymore. But regarding the dream thing, both siblings were seriously starting to have doubts about that theory given how over 48 hours had passed and neither "woke up".
They had briefly considered if the life they had lived for the past few months was the dream instead but dismissed it almost immediately. No way could they have had the same dream, the exact same memories, remember them very vividly and clearly, and no way could a dream, even the longest one on record, feel like three full months.
Lynn was the first one who had started viewing their situation as reality, but Lincoln remained stubborn.
As usual, Lynn got up early for her morning exercise. For once she could actually perform it in her own yard, inhaling the fresh morning air. But that was of little comfort.
She had nothing but questions on her mind, which only grew as the days went on. She returned to the kitchen, feeling tired and on edge, mainly due to her recent lack of peaceful sleep. She grabbed a package of milk and gulp down as much as she could, not caring if anyone else would find it gross that she had put her lips on it. It was refreshing and it helped calm her nerves.
For once not having sport on her mind every waking moment, she tried to analyze her current situation. Almost everything seemed exactly like how it used to be. But there was one person missing, one who hadn't been part of her past life. She thought about him regularly, having no idea where he was or how he was right now. But her answer was quick to come, being literally on her doorstep.
"Good morning."
The sudden voice gave her a fright. Lynn jumped, slamming the fridge`s door shut before facing the speaker.
There he stood in front of her, pale face, dark eye bags, messy, black hair, backward-facing red cap.
"Ryan?!" she blurted out involuntarily.
"The one and only." he smirked before looking around the place. "Sorry for busting in uninvited, but I was beginning to think that I was forgotten." he snarked.
"Forgotten?" Lynn blurted. Wait? He remembered her.
Lynn immediately felt a certain degree of comfort, relief, and joy seeing him. He remembered her and their past. But how? And he seemed oblivious to the change that had transpired.
But wait? He too was acting like everything was normal. But if this was the past, how did he remember her?
A million different thoughts, and emotions, rushed through her.
"You know, I would have expected you to tell me that you guys had found a fancy new place? Or that you found a pooch? Not too shabby." he kept on talking while taking a view of the kitchen.
Noticing her silence he faced her. "Lynn?"
Without warning, she moved closer and embraced him. The boy blushed and his heart started pounding rapidly.
"Eh...what's with the hugging?" he asked awkwardly, barely able to think coherently.
Lynn didn't answer, but he did hear her sniff softly. "You`re here."
"Ar...are you okay?" he asked again.
Lynn let go and looked at him sullenly.
"It`s...it`s been a rough few days..." she mumbled hesitantly, not knowing what to tell him. His presence only made a bizarre situation even more puzzling.
"You had a few rough days?" the boy huffed. "That's not how I would describe moving out of a cardboard apartment and into a giant house."
"And do you have any idea what I`ve been through? I was bedridden for a whole day due to a random splitting headache! The next day I tried to find you but your apartment was locked and nobody was there. Then I tried to find some of your friends but they were all even more scared of me than usual and acted like they`ve never seen me before. So I had to go around grabbing random kids until I finally found one who knew where you were and the dipshit acted like you guys have been living here forever."
"Ryan, we have been living here forever." Lynn replied, only to realize that she only added more confusion to the conversation.
"What now?"
With a somber face, Lynn gently touched his left cheek.
"What are you doing?" he asked, feeling a mix of anxiety and giddiness.
Lynn looked at his cheek. No scars. She then slowly took hold of his left hand.
"Ryan? Have you noticed anything weird going on?" she asked him in a hushed voice.
"You mean besides everyone forgetting who I am and you guys finding a new home overnight despite being broke?" he replied semi-sarcastically.
"I`m afraid that's just the tip of the iceberg." Lynn told him in an uncharacteristically serious tone.
"Oookay. I`m not following."
Instead of answering, Lynn just showed him his hand. He looked at it puzzled until it hit him. How did he not notice this before? His left hand was undamaged and had all five fingers intact.
All of a sudden his eyes widened and he felt a chill run through his body.
Lynn braced herself before finding her voice. "Ryan, I know this will sound crazy, but I think we...sort of...went back in time."
A subdued "Oh" was his only response.
This was another big twist, two in a row. And in just over two days.
Lynn had been gone for half the day, and when she returned no one seemed to have noticed her absence in the ever busy household. When she looked for Lincoln he was nowhere to be found.
She came to ask her mother, who was busy doing the entire family`s laundry and was told that her brother had taken a long stroll. Rita also offhandedly mentioned that the boy seemed unusually moody and quiet, like something was troubling him. But she was too caught up with her chores to talk to him.
Lynn didn't need more info. She spent a few hours preoccupying herself with practicing soccer. When she finally heard of her brother`s return she also learned that he had volunteered to help their father prepare dinner. Lynn had to wait even longer before she could talk to him, which greatly frustrated her. Patience was never her strong suit, and preparing dinner for everyone in this house would take a long time.
At dinner, Lynn made sure to sit right next to Lincoln. They were both sitting at the "adult table", a place Lincoln had only very recently earned his spot at. Granted, proving that he was mature enough for it was a lot easier for him than it was for his impulsive and more hyper sports junkie of a sister, but he still originally took great pride for this accomplishment.
Now he barely seemed to care about it, as he was hanging his head and poking his dinner. He didn't seem very hungry, but Lynn, on the other hand, had worked up an appetite and gladly ate her dinner.
Both had noticed that their mother was absent, and Lynn was the one to speak up. "Say, dad? Why hasn't mom joined us?"
Lynn Sr. grew a look of unease, and oddly so did Lori, though she seemed more annoyed than worried.
"Oh, nothing to worry about, Lynn. She was just tired and went to bed early." he explained, looking rather skittish.
Lynn noted how he, much like their mother, looked and often times acted like a barely concealed stressed-out wreck and there was a strong sense of false reassurance in his voice that both she and Lincoln picked up.
"She had a lot of work today, she was so tired that I had to help her get to bed." Lori added, also not being entirely truthful.
Lynn and Lincoln knew better, Lynn remembered seeing her passed out before and having to be guided to her room, and Lincoln remembered the exact same kind of behavior from their father while he and Lynn were in his custody.
Lincoln didn't want to hear about this, it was only another signal of what was to come. He wanted to leave.
"Lincoln, are you feeling okay, buddy? Your dinner is getting cold." their father asked.
The boy looked up miserably and let out a long exhale. "Dad, I don't think I`m hungry." he murmured.
"Are you sure? From what I`ve heard you barely ate anything all day?" his father asked, raising an eyebrow.
Lincoln looked away. "Yes. I`m not feeling well...kind of nauseous. I think...I think I should just go to bed."
Before anyone could reply, Lincoln got up and left the table at a quick pace. He passed by the kiddie table in the next room, where the younger sisters were noisily chatting, teasing each other and throwing food. Or rather, only the twins were doing it, Lucy and Lisa were trying to tune them out and eat.
Lucy, however, noticed her brother fleeing upstairs.
"Something`s not right." Lynn Sr. noted. "Maybe I should call a doctor."
"Hmmm...he has been rather reclusive lately, now that I think about it." Luna likewise noted.
Lynn tensed. "He`s fine guys. I`ve talked to him. He`s...just been trying to find a secluded spot to...eh finish reading an ultra-rare Ace Savvy comic Clyde gave him. That's all." the jock lied, trying to get them of Lincoln`s case. Luckily, they bought it.
"Oh? But still, that's no excuse for him to skip meals." her father pointed out. Lynn suddenly realized that this was an opening to go talk to her brother, alone.
"You're right, dad, but let's not spoil his fun. Comics are his passion and he`s been trying to find that rare one for seven months. I finished mine, I`ll bring his plate to his room." she volunteered hastily in order to excuse herself.
She took a few steps before her father`s voice cut in. "Lynn wait!" The jock stopped, growing nervous.
"You can bring it to him, there's just a question I`ve been meaning to ask you." he said calmly.
Lynn sighed with relief. "Sure, what is it?"
"I was told that someone came here this morning to meet you? Who was it?"
Lynn`s eyes widened. No. Not now. "Eh...who told you that?" she tried to fake ignorance.
"Oh, it was Lucy." Leni said helpfully. "She always wakes up to talk to ghosts in the living room at dawn on Sundays. She said you talked to a boy."
"Boy?" the other three sisters said in unison.
"Lucy..." Lynn muttered bitterly and shot a glare at the kiddie table. The goth wasn`t there.
Lynn turned back to the others. There was no walking away from this. She knew and dreaded what was coming.
She tried to be casual. "Oh, that. That's just a new friend I made. He just moved into the neighborhood and turns out we`ll be attending the same junior high, so I showed him around town." she shrugged.
"And is that why you disappeared today until mid noon?" her father questioned.
Lynn just nodded, wanting to go. She wasn't lying, it's just that she didn't go with Ryan for the reason she claimed.
"Oh, now it makes sense." Lori said suggestively.
"What makes sense?" Lynn lowered her voice irritably. Here it was.
Luan giggled. "We`ve noticed how you've been all quiet and inactive lately." she said teasingly
"And that`s like totes unlike you." Leni pointed out, feeling smart for making that connection.
Lynn was blushing furiously and gritting her teeth. "It's not like that!"
Their father tried to cut the tension. "Girls, please, this isn't-"
"Wow. Take a chill pill, dude..." Luna spoke up defensively "...it's just you`ve been acting weird and-"
"And since when were you the helpful type?" Lori smirked. "Playing tour guide to strangers you just met? Unless..."
"YOU`RE IMPOSSIBLE!" Lynn snapped and furiously stormed off upstairs.
"Denial`s the clincher!" Luan shouted teasingly.
Lynn Sr. hung his head exasperatedly. "Really now girls, don't you see you were embarrassing her? And aren`t you jumping to conclusions?"
"With all due respect, dad." Lori replied smugly. "You were never a girl on the verge of making the transition from kid to adolescent. The four of us were. And we know the signs."
Fuming like an angry volcano, Lynn tried to ignore them as she reached the top floor and looked for Lincoln.
But, much to her annoyance, she saw Lucy standing in front of Lincoln`s bedroom, looking like she was hesitant to knock.
"Lincoln?" the young girl asked softly. So softly that Lynn couldn't fathom how she even expected to get Lincoln`s attention. Rolling her eyes, the jock approached her.
"What are you doing here?" she asked the goth sternly. Lucy turned to see her least favorite family member standing behind her, holding a dinner plate.
"Sigh. Not now, Lynn, I wanna see Lincoln. I sense that he has been battling inner demons for the last few days." she explained emotionlessly.
"I don't have time for this crap." Lynn was losing her patience. "He`s not fighting stinking demons-"
"That was a metaphor." Lucy corrected her.
"I don't care what you meant. Lincoln`s not feeling well and he needs to talk to me. You'll just be in the way. So beat it."
"You?" Lucy`s monotonous tone carried a hint of amusement. "How do you intend to help him? By beating him up and telling him to just suck it up?"
Lynn gripped the plate. "You don't know what's bothering him. I do! You wouldn't understand!"
She grabbed Lucy`s arm and pulled the goth away from the door.
"Now get lost!" she told her sternly and opened the door. Lucy didn't want to leave but felt scared to speak up. Lynn quickly shut the door and Lucy heard it being locked.
Once inside, Lynn found her brother lying on his side in his bed, hugging himself. She couldn't make out much more in the dim light.
"Hey, Linc. Mind some company?" she asked softly, lowering her voice. Lincoln only budged slightly.
"I brought you your dinner in case you get hungry?" Trying to navigate through the room, with only the moonlight illuminating the place through the small circular window, she placed the plate on the dresser.
"Thanks..." she heard him rasp in a small voice.
"No problem, bro..." she replied, keeping her voice down. For all she knew they were being spied upon.
"Is it okay if I rest next to you?"
Lincoln didn't answer. Lynn took his silence as a "yes". She walked around the bed before lying down on her back opposite of her brother, who had his back turned.
After nothing but silence for several minutes, Lynn spoke. "So...this...eh...dream business has been going on for...like what...three days now?" she rambled, simply trying to goad her brother into talking.
After a moment of silence, she heard him talk faintly. "I`m sorry..."
"Sorry for what, Linc?" she replied, still keeping her voice down.
"You know..." he murmured, his back still turned.
"What? Not wanting to believe me-"
"Yes..." he grunted.
Lynn paused for a moment. "So? You're over the "it`s just a dream" faze?" she inquired.
Lincoln turned on his back, facing the ceiling just like Lynn. "Dreams aren't this vivid." he muttered in a bleak voice.
"I know, and usually they are more creative than just showing me our everyday brand of chaos." Lynn replied, unsure of where Lincoln was heading.
"And yet everything is so clear, every inch of the house is exactly how I remember it, everyone acts like how I remember them. And everything that has happened these past few days happened before." Lincoln continued in a blank tone, with an undertone of despair.
"You mean how yesterday we were supposed to go to that resort outside of town, we packed and prepared for everything only for Vanzilla to break down, again? And everyone was crying and moaning and mom and dad were arguing? Yeah, it was like someone replayed hidden camera footage to me."
"Exactly. And other things. Like your gender war soccer match? Or today, when Luan expressed her "creativity" by placing whoopie cushions in every corner of the house? And Cliff vomiting a batch of hairballs on Lola`s favorite pageant dress and her freaking out? It was all a repeat."
"Indeed, though that last one was funny." Lynn snickered.
"But that's the point, Lynn. It's all repeating. You were right. We are back in time." he admitted, some emotion finally creeping into his voice. Despair.
"Well...actually...not everything`s changed. I have learned something today." Lynn said uneasily. This news would not make Lincoln feel any better, but he deserved to know. He would learn it eventually anyway.
"What do you mean?" Lincoln turned towards her.
Lynn sighed. Better to be quick, blunt and to the point with it. She looked him in the eye. "Ryan came here this morning. He...eh remembers everything like us, and like us, he has no clue how we got here."
Even in the low light, she could see Lincoln`s face dropping.
"Yeah, whatever force made the two of us remember made him go along for the ride." Lynn said with a nervous snicker.
But as for a big overreaction, that didn't happen.
Lincoln looked back up at the ceiling. "Why am I not surprised." he droned dryly. "Out of anyone else that could have kept their memory intact, it had to be Taylor."
"You`re taking this better than I thought you would." Lynn said, trying to hide her surprise.
"Meh, right now I have just accepted that some greater force out there is trying to screw with me." Lincoln droned, sounding like he was completely drained of life. "And where's Taylor now?" he asked, mildly curious.
"Back home. He took it about as well as you would expect. Nearly fainted after not realizing for two days what had happened." Lynn replied.
Lincoln snickered involuntarily. So much for Taylor`s bragging about being tough and cunning. "And what did he last say to you?"
"He said he needed a looooong nap, in order to wrap his mind around it. Probably won't be easy for him. But he did say that he would keep quiet." Lynn explained.
Lincoln exhaled dejectedly. There was a moment of silence. Lynn figured that her brother was contemplating, but then she heard him sniff. Squinting her eyes she made out something that was dripping down his face, reflecting the moonlight. A tear.
"Bro, what's wrong?" she asked worriedly.
The boy sniveled. "It doesn't matter if he keeps quiet, we`re screwed anyway."
"What do you mean?"
"Don`t you remember?" Lincoln croaked. After having tried to ignore it for days, he was finally accepting that this was reality, and with that came the dreaded thoughts he had tried so hard to suppress. "Mom and dad broke up near the end of June, that's when "the incident" happened."
Lynn cringed inwardly. She knew exactly what he was referring to. How could any of them forget it? They all remembered its date. And it dawned on her why her brother was crying. If Lincoln`s calendar was accurate?
"Then..." her voice trailed off "...that means they...it means our family will be torn apart in less than two weeks?" the realization hit her like a giant boulder.
"Yes..." her brother sniffed "...and we`ll have to relieve it again...all the pain...all the..." his voice became increasingly more garbled until he could do little more than sob. All the pent-up emotion he was trying to suppress for days broke out full force.
Unable to bear it any longer, Lynn pulled her weeping brother into a hug. The two siblings held on to each other as the younger one cried into his sister's chest.
They lost track of time as the white-haired boy trembled and sobbed in his sisters embrace.
"Lincoln...please...it`s not gonna be like that...I...eh...maybe things will turn out different... " she spoke feebly, desperately trying to comfort him.
Lincoln turned deathly silent as he was staring into darkness with half his face buried in her chest. She was lying to him. Telling him empty words of comfort. Things won't turn out different. How could they?
Then, everything stopped for him. He froze with realization. His anger, his despair, his dread, the presence of his room or his sister became nonexistent as his mind focused in on a single thought.
He had seen this on television, he self admittedly read it in comics. Everyone`s fate was a chain reaction, a line of dominos sent falling after the first one tipped. The only way to change fate is to sabotage that chain reaction, to manipulate it and send it on an alternate path.
But that would require going back in time and sending saboteurs to do the job. The first two steps, by all accounts impossible, had nonetheless been completed.
A lightbulb appeared over the boy`s head. This wasn't a cruel twist of fate. They had been given a second chance!
He looked at his sister. She looked back.
"Lincoln?" she was confused by his sudden change in demeanor.
"You`re right, Lynn."
"I am?"
Lincoln got a determined look. "Yes. Things will turn out differently this time. We`ll make sure of that!"
And so the plot has been set in motion. Lincoln and Lynn are on a time crunch and must fix a bad situation from reaching its disastrous climax, which is just on the horizon. The rest of the family, blissfully ignorant of what's coming, obviously won't be of much help and the clock is ticking. What can they do?
