(Name of story is subject to change)

(Also I am SUPER sorry for any grammar mistakes, I am just so super lazy)

Lincoln Loud was absolutely mesmerized by the creek passing by him, you see his family was going on a trip to the beach yet again and right now they were going through the worst part of any trip, the road trip. The whole ride has been one disaster after the next, Lori decided to carpool with the family so she was constantly letting "sneaky" farts go and blaming her seat, Lynn was starting fights, Lily was constantly crying, Lola and Lana would bump into him while fighting over who gets to sit where, his dad constantly got lost, it was a mess.

But right now was a rare moment of peace, kinda like when all the soldiers in world war one came to a ceasefire on Christmas, everyone was keeping to themselves, no one was being unnecessarily obnoxious, it was nice, the only annoying thing was the loud cars driving around them. Currently they were on a bridge of sorts, it wasn't exactly a bridge but it was raised above the ground level, Lincoln assumed it was because this ground wasn't sturdy enough to build a normal road on, but he didn't actually know, maybe he'd ask Lisa later.

But the road wasn't what interested him, no it was the creek below them, it followed the road all the way across, and it glimmered so clear. It was probably a 10, maybe 15 foot drop from the bridge with occasional ramps to get up and down from the creek (maybe for when people crash?), then a small patch of mud (and sometimes trees) to get to it. Lincoln couldn't look away from it, it had him entranced, he couldn't understand why. Of course he liked nature, but it wasn't something he would usually enjoy for more than a few minutes before going to his phone or something, but something about this creek just… called to him, he was tempted to ask his family to pull over so they could go down to it.

Then the silence was broken as he heard a truck horn blare from his left, it was so loud that everything went silent to him and for a second he thought he went deaf. He instinctively turned to look in it's direction, but he didn't see anything that could cause such a noise, in fact he didn't see anything out the left door window, just the sky and he didn't remember the window being so close to him and wasn't there siblings between him and the window before?

He started to realize the glass shards flying into his body, cutting him up all over, he tried to look around but he was getting thrown all over the place. Panic started to set in as he realized he was in danger, but he was in too much shock to actually realize what had happened. Something flew into his lap and he instinctively held on to it tight, he tried to see what he was holding and he swore it looked like Lynn's head, but before he could freak out about that the front half of the car suddenly separated from the half he was in, he also felt a cool breeze coming from behind him so he assumed the half behind also came off. Finally the noise came back to him, and all he heard was metal bending, glass shattering and people he loved screaming, and then… nothing.

Lincoln woke up, he was surrounded by metal shards, glass, fire… and blood. He started panicking as he tried to kick and push his way out of the burning heap of Vanzilla, and, to his surprise, it was actually really easy. He slipped out of the heap of car no problem at all, heck he'd say it was kinda easy, it didn't even feel like he was moving the metal, in fact he couldn't feel anything, but he was in shock no doubt.

When he crawled out of the rubble he started to check his arms, but to his surprise, he was fine, not even a single cut along his body or even his clothes. He sighed in relief "oh thank God", he was fine… and then it hit him, his entire family was in that car. He started to panic, he looked around but didn't immediately see anyone there was smoke everywhere, then he saw two people a few yards away from him, one was trying to comfort the other, but Lincoln couldn't tell who it was. He carefully made his way over to them, and saw that it was Luna trying to comfort Lola, and maybe the most disturbing thing was what was at their feet. It was the mangled body of Lana Loud.

Both of her legs were missing and her mouth organs were entangled around her, her eyes were melting in her skull, and small parts of her head were pulverized, showing pieces of her brain. Lola was melting down as she looked on at her dead twin's body, and Luna was doing everything in her power to console her while she herself was barely keeping it together.

She finally realized Lincoln was standing there, "Lincoln!" She shouted as she stood up and rushed into a hug with him, Lola quickly joined in, but continued to sob, "L-Lincoln, *sob* Lana, she's… she's!" Lincoln hushed her, "it's ok Lola, it's ok I'm here, you're ok" this did little to console the little princess, "no Lincoln! It's not ok! Lana's dead! She's dead and I'll never see her again!" she began balling again, as Lincoln began to also realize his little sister was dead, her horribly destroyed body lay right there in front of him. He started tearing up, Luna noticed this and started to try and make him feel better, "h-hey dude, don't worry about it, we'll find mom and dad and everything will… will be…" Luna couldn't contain it anymore, she started to cry too, "I can't! Nothin is gonna be ok! Lana's gone! Everyone else is probably dead too!" Seeing her older sister like this made Lola start to have a full breakdown.

Lincoln couldn't stop staring at his little sister's body, he couldn't even try to help his sisters, he just stared at the lifeless hunk of flesh that was Lana. Luna was probably right, everyone else probably was dead, these two were all he had. He looked at them and they were in… really good condition? Again they were completely free of cuts and bruises, though he was still crying he asked, "how'd you guys not get any cuts?" Luna looked at her brother confused, before looking down at herself and Lola, and sure enough they were completely free of injuries. Luna shrugged, "I guess we just got lucky, besides you don't have any either, maybe we were just sitting in the best spots to survive" this made Lola tear up more, she should've just let Lana have that stupid middle seat, then maybe she'd be alive. They were all defeated, then they heard it, the undeniable sound of a baby crying.

Lori's eyes shot open, something was laying on top of her, she started to struggle to get up from underneath it, but to her surprise it was really easy to stand up, like whatever was on top of her was weightless. She stepped forward but stopped dead in her tracks, only about a few feet in front of her was the mangled corpse she used to call a mom. Lori gagged at the sight, but for some reason it didn't feel like she could throw up, she approached her mom, but turned away when she saw her face. It looked as if someone had peeled her face back, her skin and muscle were gone and all that was left was her skull, her eyes were still (barely) in her head, and her tongue was splintered and hanging out of her mouth.

Lori, just started to run away, she couldn't be there anymore, this wasn't real, it couldn't be. She eventually stopped, it because she was out of breath, but because she felt she had gotten far enough away. She couldn't do this, so she put her hands to her ears, got down on the ground and started to rock back and forth. She knew her siblings would need her right now, they needed someone to help whoever remained, but she just couldn't. She wanted to wake up from this nightmare, it couldn't be real, it wasn't real.

Then she felt someone wrap themselves around her, she opened her eyes to see Luan wrapped around her and Lisa standing over her. "LORI! OH THANK GOD WE FOUND YOU!" the usually chipper comedian, looked distraught as she held on to her older sister like her life depended on it, Lisa spoke up, "it's good to see you're still circulating blood eldest sibling unit, although I do find quite perplexing that you have suffered no abrasion or trauma from the accident" despite her usual cold manner, Lori could tell Lisa was scared, just an older sibling thing, seeing these two made Lori realize she needed to be strong, her siblings needed her, no matter how scary this was. Lori stood up with Luan holding onto her the whole time, she went to get Luan off of her when she realized Lisa was right, she was completely fine, no injuries, no cuts, not even tears in her clothes (which is nice cause she just bought that top), she looked at her two siblings and realized they were completely fine too. "Huh, I guess we got lucky" Lisa interjected, "I find it statistically impossible that we all remained uninjured during the car crash, though I have yet to come up with any good theories as to why we are at peak health" Lori looked at her little sister, she was right, how did they all manage to get away with out so much as a cut?

She shook her head, now wasn't the time for that, they had to go find their other siblings. "Alright guys, we'll figure this out later. Right now we literally have to go find everyone else" Luan agreed, "yeah! If we find mom and dad then they'll make everything better, that's what they do" Lori visibly winced when Luan mentioned mom, causing the comedian to turn pale. Lori put her hand on Luan's shoulder, "let's just… see who we can find, ok?" Luan slowly nodded and the three headed off towards the wreckage, led by Lori.

Lynn couldn't see anything, she thought she'd gone blind, but realized her face was just pressed into the ground. She used all her might to push whatever was holding her down off of her, and flew upwards almost falling back down. "Woah!" She said as she stumbled back, guess she underestimated her own strength, after stepping away from the pile of junk she was under she assessed herself, sure enough she was perfectly fine, of course she was, I mean she was Lynn Loud, come on.

She walked a few feet and saw someone looking up into a tree crying, the smoke was heavy so it was hard to tell who it was, but she called out, "hey! Who's there?" She heard a voice, "Lynn? It's me, it's Lana! Lola's… she's up in the tree!"Lynn got to her little sister and hugged her before looking up to see her other little sister. She froze when she saw Lola, it looked as if she had gotten sacrificed to a tree god, her organs were entangled from the top of the tree all the way down to were Lola was closer to the bottom, the branches were decorated with her vital bits, like some sort of fucked up Christmas, but worst of all, her face was frozen in one of pure terror, like something straight out of a horror movie. Lynn quickly covered Lana's eyes and started to pull her away, Lana started to kick and scream, "NO! WE HAVE TO HELP HER!" Lynn couldn't even hear Lana, all she could focus on was her dead sister.

As she was backing up she tripped over something, she fell back and Lana landed on top of her, but it surprisingly didn't hurt… at all. Lynn started to push Lana off of her, but as soon as she saw what she had tripped over, she quickly bear hugged Lana to her chest so she wouldn't see. It was half of Lincoln, it was most of his head, and a chunk of his torso, there should've been an arm too, but that was missing. Lynn looked on in horror as her little brother stared back lifelessly with one eye. She got up and started to run, with Lana still pressed against her, she couldn't let her sister see any of this.

As she continued to run she heard someone calling for help, so she started to run in that direction, sure enough it was Leni and she was standing over someone's body. Lynn ran up to her, "Lynn! We need to help this girl, she's, like, totally hurt!" Lynn was so glad Leni was ok, but no doubt was in her mind that the girl she was talking about was no longer alive. Lynn looked down at the girl Leni was talking about and turned snow white when she saw her. It was "Leni… Leni that's… you" Leni looked confused, "no it's not, I'm me" Lynn ignored what Leni said as she put down Lana. Lana embraced with Leni before looking down at the corpse only to get the same shock as Lynn did, "oh my God, Leni look, that's you!" Leni again said, "why do you guys keep saying that? I'm me!" Lynn ignored her, "we need to find mom and dad, they'll know what to do" Lana got a scared look, "but what if… they're dead too?" Lynn didn't know what to say to that, what if they were dead, what if everyone else was dead? She looked at Leni's body, "what if we're dead?" Lana and Leni looked at Lynn confused, "guys look Leni right there clear as day, dead. So why is she also standing right there?" Leni just shrugged her shoulders, but Lana started to understand what Lynn was saying. Lynn looked off into the distance, "we need to find Lucy, she knows about this stuff better than anyone", Lana agreed, and Leni just shrugged her shoulders and went along with them, before shouting back at the body, "we'll come back for you!" And waving goodbye to it.

The crying was getting closer and closer, Lincoln could tell they were almost there, along the way they found Luan and Lynn's body and at this point the three of them were defeated, but Lincoln knew that Lily needed them right now, so they pushed forward. Eventually they saw Lily in the distance, Lincoln's face lit up when he saw her, "guys, i see her!" he shouted as he started to run towards her, Luna and Lola were close behind. Lincoln could see Lily wasn't as lucky as them, she had a burn mark on her stomach and cuts all over her, but she was alive that's what mattered. "I'm here Lily! Lincoln's here!" He ran up to her and tried to grab her but his hands went right through her. He took a second to slow down but he looked at his hands and saw no little sister, he turned around to see Luna and Lola stopped dead in their tracks, "dude… your hands just went through her", Lincoln looked down at his hands, why did that happen? Luna walked up cooing to Lily while she did, but Lily acted like they weren't even there, Luna reached out to touch her and sure enough, her hand went right through the baby, "what the fuck?!" She said as she crawled backwards, Lola also tried to touch Lily, but got the same results as everyone else, she looked down at her hand in horror, "oh my God, we're dead, we're dead!" Lincoln looked on in horror as the girl broke down, unable to come up with any rebuttal to what she was saying. "WE DIED, EVERYONE IS DEAD!" Luna curled up into a ball and started singing to herself.

Just then they heard the voice of their oldest sibling calling towards them, "Lincoln?! Lola?! We're coming!" Lori, Luan and Lisa came running towards them and wrapped them in a hug, Luan went to instinctively hug Luna but froze in her tracks, her eyes turned to saucers as she looked at her roommate, "Luna? But we found your body, how are you here?" Luna was giving her sister the same look, "I was… about to say the same thing to you…" Luna started to hold her head and panic, "oh my God, LOLA WAS RIGHT, WE ARE DEAD! OH OH GOD NO!" Luna panicking started to freak Lori Luan and Lisa out, "stop it Luna you're going to upset Lily mo-" Lori cut herself off when her hands went right through Lily when she tried to pick her up, everyone stared at Lori as she sat there with empty hands. "Oh… OH GOD, WE ARE DEAD!" Now that Lori was panicking, everyone was panicking, they were dead, they had all died in the crash except for, "oh my God Lily!" Lincoln shouted, Lori turned to him confused, she was obviously the only one that survived, why would he… "she has no one to take care of her! Oh no poor baby!" Lori distraughtly said as she tried in vain to pick up her little sister. Lisa started to pace around, "this is not real, this is not real I'm just having a nightmare during my rem cycle, this is not real", no could keep a hold of themselves.

Eventually everyone just went silent, the only noise that could be heard was the sound of fire's crackling and Lily crying. They heard footsteps and all turned to see Lynn, Leni, and Lana. Lola immediately ran into Lana's arms, and the two embraced, Lynn started to hug everyone else, and she could tell they already knew the truth, she saw Lily crying and went to pick her up when Lincoln stopped her, "you can't we tried" Lynn slumped down, but as she thought about it she perked back up, "so that means she's still alive?" Lincoln nodded, Lynn got a smile on her face, "that's great! Thank God she's at least ok" Lori spoke up, "yeah, but who's gonna take care of her? In case you forgot everyone she loves is dead" Lynn wasn't having it, "that's not true! No one's found mom and dad yet, they might still be alive, they can take care of her!" Everyone started to get a look of hope on their face, Lynn was right, no had seen mom or dad yet. But Lori's frown only grew larger as both Luan and Lisa started to sob again, "I found mom" was all Lori had to say to get everyone to understand what she meant, "b-but dad?" Lori shrugged, "maybe but… I doubt" Lynn collapsed, she had been defeated, yes Lynn Loud Jr had been defeated. She started to cry, it was all too much, her other spectral siblings looked on in sadness, knowing they couldn't comfort her.

Lynn Sr had woken up right below the road, he looked up to see the front end of Vanzilla suspended above him. He panicked and tried to scurry away, but to his surprise his sudden movements didn't disturb the front end of the car at all. In fact he didn't even seem to disturb the very dirt beneath him. He assessed himself and found everything where it should be, so that's good, in fact it's too good, he should have scratches and he remembers the feeling of his arm being torn off, but sure enough it was still there. He walked out onto the road a bit and called out to his family, but no one responded. He feared the worst, but through the smoke he could see a figure stumbling around in the distance. He approached and quickly realized who it was, "Rita!" She turned towards him, "Lynn?!" He ran up and hugged her, "oh my goodness, thank God you're ok".

They held each other for a few seconds before Rita broke away with tears in her eyes, "Lynn, the kids…" Lynn hushed his wife, "it's ok honey I'm sure they're fine" Rita shook her head, "no, I found… I found Lincoln, he was… torn apart!" Lynn's whole world started to spin, his son, his only son was dead. He collapsed face first onto the ground, Rita rushing to his side, "Lynn, what are we going to do?! Our babies are dead!" Just then they heard the distant crying of a baby, they both stopped to listen, before Rita stood up, "THAT'S LILY, SHE'S OK!" She shouted before darting in the direction of the sound.

Lynn quickly got up and followed her, there was a lot of smoke, too much smoke for a car crash, it was odd more so even though Rita was closer to him than Lily he had begun to spot Lily clearly in the distance, while Rita was becoming more of a blur in the smoke. When he got closer he noticed 9 more blurs pop up near Lily, as he approached his wife became less blurry as he approached her. "Why'd you stop?" he said to his wife who had a look of utter shock on her face, he turned to see what she was looking at and sure enough there where his other kids, they all made it. The man grew a big smile and so did his wife, "kids! You're alive, oh thank God!" Rita said before approaching Lily, Lynn started to hug his other kids, but none of them looked excited to see him, in fact they looked even sadder, "what's wrong kids? We're here, we made it! We're all ok", ''dad" Lincoln said as he pointed at Lily. When Lynn turned around all he saw was his wife frantically trying to pick up Lily to no avail, "no no no NO, WHY CAN'T I HOLD HER?! LILY BABY I'M HERE, IT'S MOMMY!" the siblings all started to cry again, Lynn Sr looked around, confused, dazed, panicked, he tried himself to pick Lily up but his hands too went right through her. Lori looked at her dad, "she's the only one that survived" Lynn took a second to realize what his daughter meant before his pupils dilated to almost nothing, he looked around, his kids hadn't made it, his wife hadn't made it, he hadn't made it, the only person to survive was Lily. Rita started to panic, "NO, NO LILY! WHO'S GONNA TAKE CARE OF MY BABY?! PLEASE GOD NO, I NEED TO TAKE CARE OF MY BABY!" Everyone just broke down, some cried, some gave a thousand yard stare, others clung onto each other for dear life (or lack of life).

Rita continued to cry while trying desperately to hold her baby, she looked up at the sky, "please… please, I need her to be safe, please let me know she'll be ok…", everyone could only look on at her pleas with despair, but almost as if it were divine intervention, a door on top of a pile of debris near them started to move, Lincoln was the first to notice, "guys?" but no one heard him. The door continued to shimmy until he saw a very familiar arm start to claw its way through the hole it was making, "guys…GUYS!" everyone turned their attention to Lincoln, "what?", he pointed at the moving rubble, "look!" they all looked at what he was pointing at, and their eyes grew, as for the first time since they got here they felt hope.

Like a Phoenix from the ashes, Lucy Loud slowly climbed her way out of the destroyed remains of Vanzilla. She looked… awful, her hair was mostly gone and one of her eyes looked melted, she was bleeding from her mouth, and a large chunk of shrapnel stuck in her stomach, she had cuts and bruises all over and her left leg was facing the wrong direction, but despite all of this she was alive. She looked hurt, in pain, and confused. She looked around for a second before trying to step down from the rubble only to fall right onto the chunk of metal sticking out of her. She felt like a piece of wood getting a nail hammered into it, as she screamed out in pain, but this got the attention of Lily. She looked over to her older sister and screamed out her name the best she could, "WUCY!" this was enough to finally get Lucy's attention onto her little sister, she was still having trouble focusing but she knew her baby sister needed help, "li…Lily, Lily I'm… Lily I'm… I'm coming" she tried to stand up but only fell again, this time not on the metal, but it still hurt like a bitch. She was on the verge of passing out, but Lily needed her, she crawled the best she could towards Lily, Lily also tried to crawl to her, but her leg was obviously hurt from the way she crawled. Lucy was so close to her, she was right there, and little did she know that in the world beyond ours her whole family was practically cheering her on as she inched closer and closer. Eventually she got her hand on Lily and managed to scoop her into her arms, she laid flat looking towards the sky, as she laid Lily on her chest as she looked towards the sky.

Lily continued to cry as she embraced her older sister. Lucy knew she was probably going to die, but at least she was able to hold Lily one last time, she looked down at her baby sister, she had always taken her family for granted, she knew that now, maybe if she got another chance she'd make sure to appreciate them more, Lucy started to cry as she started to slip into unconsciousness.

The entire Loud family were practically screaming at Lucy to stay awake, they knew it wouldn't work, but they had to try something! "Lucy come on, keep your eyes open!" "Please Lucy, don't die!" "Lily needs you!".

Lucy couldn't figure it out but something was telling her, just open your eyes, you need to be there for Lily. It was hard, but she managed to slightly open her eyes and murmured out ,"I'm aw… I'm awake, I'm awake". She was struggling to keep her eyes open, she could feel herself slipping away again, but she heard the sound of distant sirens, "you're going to be ok… you're going to be ok Lily, I promise".

Beep

Beep

Beep

Beep

These were the sounds that caused a collective sigh of relief from the Loud family. Lucy had to undergo intense surgery, while some stayed with her the whole time, some of the weaker stomach Louds had to step out (though they were at no risk of actually throwing up). But through, as the doctor called it, a miracle she survived and is going to recover, though from what Lisa was able to read, not a full recovery. Her leg will never set properly so she'll most likely have a limp, her right eye, the one that melted was recoverable, but her vision in it was not, the shrapnel wound had to be stitched up and would no doubt leave a scar, as well as her having to be on a specific diet for the first year. Lily was also fine, though the burn mark on her left side was going to be permanent, and the doctors were concerned about her leg.

The Louds were all sitting around in Lucy's room, they'd been waiting for a few hours in there now, and they realized they were probably going to be waiting a couple days before she even woke up, maybe even weeks. No one really spoke, it was kind of setting in that they were going to be dead… forever. Lynn chuckled a little bit, Lincoln turned to her, "what's so funny?" She waved her hand, "nothing, nothing, it's just…" she looked at Lucy, "she always did warn us about the 'dark forever that is the afterlife', I guess we should've listened, this is boring" Lincoln chuckled at her comment, but quickly corrected her, "actually she it was the living that she called nothingness, she was actually excited for this" Lynn sighed, "yeah well, I don't think she knows what she would be getting into, this sucks", Lincoln nodded in agreement.

Lola was sitting down next to her twin, she had a hard time looking at her though, everytime she did all she saw was her mangled corpse. She winced at the thought of it, Lana caught her doing this and spoke up, "what's wrong?" Lola looked towards, but couldn't keep eye contact, "it's… nothing don't worry about it" Lana raised an eyebrow, "so why are you avoiding looking at me?" Lola giggled nervously, "wh-what?? I'm not avoiding looking at you" she said while actively looking anywhere but her twin. Lana realized what was bothering her, "you found my body didn't you?" Lola was immediately brought back to the worst moment of her life.

She had just stumbled out of the wreckage, it was actually surprisingly easy to get off all the stuff that was on top of her, and, thank God, her dress was perfectly fine. She stumbled onto the dirt path that followed along the creek, she looked out and saw a figure in the distance, as she got closer the purple figure turned and asked, "who is that?"Lola immediately recognized Luna's voice, "it's Lola, I'm over here!" Luna quickly made her way over to Lola and hugged her, "Lola, thank goodness you're ok, where's Lana?" Huh, Lola hadn't thought about Lana, "I uh… I don't know" Lola started to look concerned about the whereabouts of her twin, so Luna acted quickly and threw on a nervous smile, "h-hey don't worry, I'm sure she's ok, she's probably just… somewhere else." Lola nodded, "y-yeah probably", Luna grabbed Lola's hand and started to lead her, "come on let's go find her" Lola nodded and they went off. In the end they found her, Luna tried to pull Lola in the opposite direction but Lola had a surprising amount of strength, she broke free from Luna's grasp and ran up to Lana's body, what she saw will haunt her forever.

Lola nodded, "yeah, I thought I…" she started to tear up, "i-i thought you…" Lana put her hand on her sister's shoulder, "I thought I lost you too".

Lana woke up on a dirt path, she couldn't remember what had happened, just a truck horn and then waking up. She looked around but all she saw was smoke and fire, it was impossible to spot anything, maybe if she climbed up a tree she could get a better view. She stood up and went to dust herself off, but noticed she didn't have any dirt on her, in fact her clothes were in pretty good condition, strange. She wasn't worried about that right now though, she needed to find the others. She finally spotted a tree in the distance, she ran up to it, it was the exact kinda tree to climb, plenty of branches. She reached up to grab the first one but jumped back onto the ground when she saw the petrified face of her twin's corpse looking back at her about three branches up. She scurried away, this wasn't happening, it wasn't real she tried her best to wake up from this nightmare but it wasn't working. Then she heard someone shout at her, "hey, who's there?" she recognized that voice, it was Lynn, she was strong she could fix this, Lana knew she could.

"I honestly thought the last time I was gonna see you was in a tree" Lana said as she thought back on the horrific image of her twin. Lola looked at her sister, she saw that corpse on the ground, but she also saw her other half, "you know… this afterlife thing may be boring, but… I'm glad I get to spend it with you" she said with a smile. Lana smiled back and pulled her into a hug.

"You know dude, for a little bit there all I wanted was to hear just one more shitty joke from you" Luan put her hands up in defense, "hey! My jokes are not shitty!" both the girls looked at each other and began to laugh. Once it died down Luan spoke up, "yeah I never thought I'd get to have my eardrums shattered by your amp ever again" Luna took a rocker stance, "are you kiddin lov? I woulda haunted your dreams with my rockin tunes!" she emphasized her tunes being rockin by putting up her signature horns. Luan laughed at her display, but quickly quieted down, Luna noticed this and asked, "what's wrong dude? You know besides the whole being dead thing" Luan smiled at her comment, Luna was always good at lighting the mood, she sighed, "it's just… it was kinda hard when I saw your body, we didn't realize we were dead so when I saw you, I thought I lost you, and I didn't think I could live with that" Luna put her hand on her shoulder, "I thought the same thing, I just wanted you to get up and say 'april fools!' anything, I wouldn't have cared if it was a sick joke, but you just didn't" Luan looked at her sister, it hurt to know she had to see that, "well you want to know something Luna? There was actually one good thing I thought of when I saw you" Luna turned and raised an eyebrow, "really? What?" Luan got a mischievous smirk on her face, "well I was just glad between the two of us I would die in a less embarrassing position" Luna could not believe what she had just heard, "oh you wish! Your braces were caught in the tire, you looked like a shitty transformer" Luan laughed "ha, that's the worst of it? You died with your head in your ass literally, your head was right in between your spread open legs" Luna chuckled and cringed at the thought, "aww what? There's no way I actually died like that" Luan smiled and nodded, "yep, you can ask Lori and Lisa, they saw it! Talk about a shitty way to go" the girls continued to laugh and make jokes, it was the best medicine after all.

Lisa was getting tired of explaining this, "Leni we are deceased, everyone in our family besides Lucy and Lily have stopped pumping blood and ceased all brain activity" Leni tapped her finger against her chin, "so how are we talking then?" Lisa pinched the bridge of her nose, "if you want to believe the rest of our unit, then we are spirit's in the afterlife, I however believe that to be false. Perhaps one of my experiments caused this? I don't know for sure, further examination is required" Leni scratched her head, "so does that mean the doctor's can fix us?" Lisa sighed and walked away, but Leni continued to follow her, "ooh do you think they'll give us one of those hospital dress thingys? I could totes make that into an outfit".

Lori had instinctively reached into her pocket to grab her phone maybe 200 times since they got here, but everytime, of course, it wasn't there. God she just wanted to go back in time and stop her family from taking that stupid trip, or maybe make get lost an extra time so they wouldn't be in that accident, anything to make it go back to how it was before, when she could look at her siblings and feel anything but sadness, she didn't appreciate them enough, she wished she could of saw the error of her way and spent more time with them, but instead she spent all her time with… boo boo bear.

She hadn't even thought of Bobby, oh no he was going to be so heartbroken when he got the news. To most people they looked like just a teen couple that wouldn't last more than a couple years, but their relationship was more than that, they really loved each other and they got through the good times and the bad times without ever having their love falter. Lori collapsed on the floor, and now she'd never see him again, what they had would fade away, what was Bobby supposed to do? Wait until he dies so they can be together again? She knew that was too much to ask of him even if she wished he would. She quietly started to sob to herself in the corner as reality set in.

Rita stared at her injured daughter, she hadn't taken her eyes off of her since she saw her struggle out of the rubble. It was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen, her strong little girl, despite all the odds, rose out of the fire and survived, she should of been dead, she knew her daughter should have been there with them, and yet for some unknown reason, she made it, and Rita truly thanks God that she did. Their family isn't the most religious family out there, but someone was listening to her prayer, and Lucy was their response.

Lynn came back into the room after checking on Lily again, it was strange walking right through doors and it was hard to do, sometimes you could just walk right through other times you'd just hit it like a wall, Lynn didn't understand and the only kid he had that would was currently recovering from the accident. He walked up and put his hand on his wife's shoulder, and joined her in watching Lucy. There was something so comforting watching her breath even if she was being assisted by a machine, it let them know she was alright. "She's going to make it honey", Rita nodded, "I know she will" Lynn pulled his wife into a hug finally getting her eyes off Lucy, "why don't you go check on Lily? I'm sure she'd also want her mom to watch over her" Rita nodded but looked back to Lucy, Lynn brought her attention back to him, "don't worry I'll keep my eye on her while you're gone" Rita smiled at him and wiped her eye of the tears building up. She sighed, "alright, so where's Lily at?" Lynn kinda got a nervous look on his face as he scratched the back of his head, "I uh, I don't really know. But you'll find her don't worry when you're near either Lucy or Lily everything is clear, but when you go away from them it gets all smokey" Rita looked puzzled by what her husband was saying, but he continued, "when you're out in the smoke it's hard to tell which way you're going, but you just kind of get this feeling of where Lily is and you also get this feeling of Lucy too, it's like we just know where they are, or at least I do, I don't really understand this stuff" he ended it with a nervous chuckle.

Rita acknowledged what he said with a nod and stepped towards the door, she took a deep breath and stepped through it. Sure enough outside of it there was nothing but smoke, it was impossible to see, but she could feel what her husband was talking about, she knew what direction to head in to find Lily. So she started heading in the direction, it wasn't long before things started to be clear again and she saw laying in one of the infant care rooms was her sweet little Lily. She wanted so badly to reach out and hold her baby, but she knew she couldn't. She started to cry, she would never be able to hold her sweet little baby ever again, she wouldn't be able to kiss her boo boos, or change her diaper for her, she didn't have a mother anymore. Rita started balling to herself, she wishes she could change this somehow, but she couldn't, she knew that. But she trusted Lucy, she wasn't the most affectionate of the family, but seeing her crawl towards Lily, Rita knew she could be her mother, she may never call herself that, but Lucy would take care of Lily, and Lily would become the best of them, she just knew it.

Two weeks had passed since Lucy and Lily were brought to the hospital. At this point most people the Loud family knew had heard the news and came to visit Lucy and Lily, though Lucy still hadn't recovered from her comatose state. The Santiago family came to visit once, causing Lori to break down as he talked about how much he missed her, she wished she could've said anything to her, but everyone knew she couldn't. Lincoln would be lying if he said seeing Ronnie Ann in the state she was in didn't hurt him. Pop Pop had visited many times, breaking down crying most of the time he did, even old Grouse had visited once, he didn't say anything except he was sorry for their loss. It really was just sad all around.

Clyde had been working up the courage all week to go visit Lucy and Lily in the hospital. Actually he'd been trying to find the courage to just leave his room. Losing Lincoln… it wasn't just like losing a friend or even a brother, it was like losing his other half, without Lincoln there was no Clincoln Mcloud, now he was just Clyde McBride. It hurt to even think about it, but he couldn't let that get in his way, he knows how important Lincoln's sisters were to him, so he feels like he owes it to Lincoln to go visit them in the hospital, or at least the ones that survived. It was a tragedy throughout the town, sure the Louds could be annoying, but most people in town were friends with at least one of them, and losing a huge friend like them, you notice it, it's not someone you can just forget about. Clyde wiped the tears forming in his eyes, he's already cried enough, he was going to see Lucy and Lily today, no matter what.

Clyde arrived at the hospital with his dad's who told the receptionist who he was here to see, after he got all checked in he was told to take a seat and he'll be called back shortly. He sat down but noticed a rather sad, and interesting, looking girl sitting next to him, he noticed the symbol on her shirt, "hey isn't that Luna's band?", this got her attention as she turned to him, "huh? Oh you mean my shirt? Yeah me and Luna were in a band together, but… I guess that's over with" Clyde felt bad for her, he reached his hand out towards her, "Clyde McBride" the girl met his hand, "Clyde? Oh yeah, you were Lincoln's bro weren't you? I'm Sam, Sam Sharp" Clyde's parents spoke up "oh hey, you're that girl that helped the Loud girl watch our cats" Sam smiled a bit, "guilty as charged". Just then a nurse came up and addressed Sam, "Miss Sharp? You can see Lucy Loud now, but Lily Loud is currently taking a nap", Sam nodded and started to follow her, before turning back to Clyde, "you wanna come with me? If it's ok with your parents, I know I'd feel better not going back by myself", Clyde turned to his dad's, "go get em buddy, we'll wait out here" Clyde smiled and nodded before getting out of his seat and joining Sam.

The nurse brought them to a lonely looking door at the end of the hallway, "Ms. Loud is in here, you're more than welcome to stay as long as you'd like, but be warned Ms. Loud has yet to wake up" both of the kids nodded and the nurse went on her way.

So, there they were, both of these kids had worked up the courage to face the still living Louds, all they had to do was open this door. "No time like the present" Clyde said with a nervous chuckle, Sam gave him a nervous smile before returning her sights to the door handle, she slowly started to reach out towards, Clyde could swear it was all happening in slow motion. Sam inched her way closer, and closer, until finally her hand made contact with the handle. She took one last deep breath, pushed the handle down, and opened the door.

The Louds have seen that door open plenty of times before, some hoped it was someone they wanted to see and so sat by eagerly waiting, but most assumed it was just another visit from a nurse. Luna was currently trying to distract herself by playing an invisible guitar, she knew if there were actually a guitar in her hands she'd be killing it. Lincoln was just reliving good memories in a corner, remembering all the good times they used to have. Lynn was the one to get their attention, "Luna, Lincoln, I think you guys have visitors" they both stopped what they were doing, to turn and see who it could be. Lincoln's eyes lit up when he saw Clyde, he honestly didn't know how Clyde was going to be after he learned what happened, but he looked great, although there was a clear nervousness on his face. Luna on the other hand, froze, she honestly never expected to see Sam again, she thought Sam would just move on, not that Sam was cold hearted like that, but she never thought… she couldn't believe she was seeing her. Lincoln obviously tried to interact with Clyde but got no response, while Luna didn't even move she just continued to stare.

Clyde wasn't sure he could do this anymore, she was maybe 3 feet in front of him, but he wanted to be 1000 miles away from here. Just looking at Lucy scared him, and not for the usual reason Lucy would scare him, no her being there, her very existence came with accepting that Lincoln was gone. He didn't know how to approach her, he didn't know if he could, but he had to try. Just as he was about to take his first step, Sam walked towards the hospital bed, when she got there the little spooky girl Sam knew wasn't what she found, what she found was the last broken fragment of a beautiful family, she looked so sad, she looked like her whole world was taken from her. Sam laid her hand on Lucy's, "hey Luce change… that's what Luna used to call you when she talked about you" Sam started to slink down as she thought about her dead girlfriend, "...I miss her… I'm so sorry… you didn't deserve this, your family didn't deserve this… I wish there was something I could do, some way I could help… but, well look if you ever need someone to come to, somewhere to stay… you can come to me, I'll be there for you" Sam laughed a little bit through the tears, "I guess it's kind of silly for me to tell you this now, huh? You can't even hear me. Well here" she pulled out a piece of paper and put it next to Lucy, "that has my phone number and everything, I promise I'll take care of you… for Luna".

Luna listened to what her girlfriend said and it brought her to tears, her family came around to comfort her. "You know how to pick the good ones Luna" her dad said to her, she tried to laugh, "yeah… you know if I ever got married it would've been to her, I have no doubt about… but I hope she finds someone worthy of her" Luna broke down crying after that, it was hard for a lot of the siblings to watch, she was usually the one that lightened the mood. Luan knelt down by her and pulled her into an embrace.

Sam kissed her fingers and put them on Lucy's forehead before stepping away. When she got back to the door she acknowledged Clyde, "I'll let you have your time with her yourself, I gotta step out for a minute", Clyde nervously nodded and she left.

Clyde turned to face Lucy once again, this was it. He took one small step after another, he had to accept it now. Once he reached the edge of the bed he slowly turned to look at Lucy, he was gone, he knew that. He touched Lucy's arm very carefully and shakily spoke, "h-hey L-L-Luce change-ge… heh heh, g-g-get it? C-cause that's what Sam said" no reaction from Lucy, tough crowd. Clyde took a deep breath to try and calm his nerves, but everytime he looked at Lucy he saw one thing, "ahhh Lincoln! Lincoln, why did you leave me!? I'm nothing without you, you're my everything, it's supposed to be Clincoln Mcloud to the end, remember!?" Lincoln started crying on the side of Lucy's bed.

Lincoln looked on at his friend in anguish, he wanted to tell him he was here with him, and he would be till the end but he just couldn't. Watching his friend break down made his heart break, he knew Clyde would take it hard, but he didn't know it would be this bad.

Clyde tried to recompose himself, "I'm sorry… I'm sorry, I know he's your brother and I mean… you lost everyone! And here I am just crying for myself like a jerk" Clyde hung his head in shame as tears rolled of his face, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come, but I felt like I needed to, for Lincoln" Clyde took his hand off of Lucy and began to walk away, "I'm sorry, but I'm just not Lincoln". He felt something trying to wrap itself around his arm instinctively he pulled away, "mmm… Lincoln? Lincoln come back", Clyde couldn't believe it, "she's awake! She's awake!" Clyde ran out of the room to get the nurse.

Lucy had finally begun to stir from her slumber, her eyelids fluttered open, "oohhhh god" she said as she went to hold her stomach, that's when she realized all the things plugged into her, she was at a hospital. She looked around her room, but no one was there, where was her family? Suddenly the memories of the accident came flooding back to her.

Lucy was sitting in the very last row of the van, she liked it that way, the only person back there was Lisa and she kept to herself mostly. Right now they were heading towards the sweet beaches of the great lakes, it had been a while since they had been there, so mom and dad had gotten the money together. Lucy was currently writing in her poetry book, but was having trouble finding inspiration for her poem, so she decided to use what went by to help her. Let's see, a creek, ok what rhymes with creek? Streak, beak, sneak, freak. Lucy mentally sighed at the last word, freak, sometimes she felt like a freak, sure sometimes she enjoyed the title I mean she liked nothing less than conformity, but at the same time she did just want to feel… normal sometimes. She shook her head, she needed to think of something else. Alright, back to words that rhyme with creek, let's see, cheek, tweak, what else? How about… truck. The van was hit on the opposite side that Lucy was on, she remembers seeing her genius sister get torn in half by the initial impact, blood and guts flew all over her, she remembers one moment Lincoln's head was in front of her and then it was just… gone, along with the rest of the car. She was spinning and getting flung all around, the only thing keeping her in place was her seat belt, then she hit the ground and passed out, when she woke up it felt as if she had been shoved in a defective meat grinder that didn't do the job of fully tearing her apart the first time around. Though dazed and confused, she looked above her and saw a door on top of her, it looked like she could easily push it off if she could just reach it.

After that all she remembered was crawling towards Lily and passing out. Her thoughts were interrupted by Clyde and Sam bursting through the door with a nurse right behind them, Sam lit up when she saw Lucy awake, "Luce! Oh thank goodness, we've been worried sick!" Lucy was very confused, she knew this was Luna's girlfriend but why would she be worried sick about her? "Please ma'am, I need you and the boy to leave the room for a few minutes while I check her vitals and make sure she's stable" Sam and Clyde reluctantly agreed and left.

After a painstakingly long wait Sam and Clyde were allowed back into Lucy's room. Sam went up to her and gave her a gentle hug, "I was so scared you weren't ever going to wake up" Lucy was very confused by this, "thanks? But why? Shouldn't you be more worried about Luna? I mean she was in the car too, she was probably hurt pretty bad" both Sam and Clyde froze, she didn't know, how could she have? She's been in a coma for two weeks. Sam turned to Clyde then back to Lucy, "uh… yeah right, as matter of fact me and Clyde are going to go check on her real quick, we'll be right back" and before Lucy could say anything Sam pulled Clyde out of the room and closed the door.

"I can't do it! I can't Clyde, how are we supposed to tell her that everyone she's ever loved is dead?!" Clyde was panicking, "uh, umm maybe we don't have to! We could just let one of the nurses tell her" Sam turned to him, "so what, we just split and leave her to mourn by herself?" Clyde started to cry, "I don't know! I don't, I wish I was smart like Lincoln but I'm not. I don't know what to do!" Sam felt bad, "I'm sorry Clyde I shouldn't have yelled, it's just… we can't just abandon her. She's gonna need as much help as she can get and we might just be the only people she has left" Clyde hated that she was right, "you're right, we'll be there for her, for Lincoln", "for Luna".

Sam and Clyde reentered Lucy's room, just looking at her sent shivers down their spines. Lucy spoke up, "so how was Luna?" Sam visibly cringed, and Lucy got a worried look (as worried as she could look) on her face, "that bad?". Sam came up to Lucy and sat down at the end of her bed, Clyde did the same, Sam reached out a comforting hand while couldn't bring himself to look at her. "Lucy?" Sam said ever so gently, Lucy looked at her with genuine concern on her face, "if you ever need anyone to talk to, I'll always be here for you" Lucy looked at Sam, she knew those words, she's been at enough funerals to know what that usually meant. She tried her best to fight back tears, "Sam… where's Luna?" Sam was trying not to cry, but was ultimately losing the battle, she sucked it up and faced Lucy, "she's… in a better place now" Lucy could feel the seams of her world start to fall apart, she turned towards Clyde, she fought threw tears just to speak, "Clyde?" He slowly turned to face her, "why aren't you with Lincoln?" All Clyde could do was start to cry as he turned away, he just couldn't tell her, but his tears was all she needed.

It was getting hard for her to breath, but she needed to know, she turned to Sam who was now also avoiding her eyes, but still holding her hand, "S-Sam? *Sob* how… how many?" Sam tried her best to act like Lucy didn't just ask anything, as if she'd just randomly gone deaf. The goth got unnaturally Loud compared to her usual self, "Sam… HOW MANY!?" Sam shakily turned her head to face Lucy, she tried her best to tell her but the words just died in her throat, the only thing she could manage to say was, "Lily's…ok". "She's the only one!? Oh my… everyone else is dead!?" Sam nodded her head slowly, and Clyde stepped out of the room, he couldn't handle this anymore. Lucy's world came completely undone, everyone was dead, she was it, her and Lily, they had no one. Lucy's breathing became irregular as she started hyperventilating, Sam quickly rushed to the door and yelled for a nurse, one was there in seconds and started to stabilize her. It was all a blur for Lucy, the nurse told Sam, "I'm sorry but you need to leave while I work!" Sam understood and started to back out of the room. Lucy saw her and remembered what she said, "Lily's… ok" Lily, her baby sister, Lucy remembered crawling towards her out of the wreckage, she looked so lost and scared, and now Lucy was all she had left, Lucy reached out towards Sam, "no! Take me to Lily!" The nurse tried to calm her down, "please Ms. Loud, I need you to control your breathing" Lucy continued to reach towards Sam, "no, I need to see my sister!" The nurse continued to attempt to calm her down, "please, you'll see her soon, I just need you to control your breathing" Lucy finally got what the nurse was saying and started to try to get control of her breathing. It took her a few minutes and the constant sniffling didn't help, but she was able to start breathing normally again, "please… I need to see my sister" the nurse reluctantly agreed to go get Lily for her and told Sam to wait in there with her while she does adding "and please, don't drop any more bombshells on her she's not in a stable enough condition for that" Sam could only say "s-sorry about that".

Sam nervously sat in one of the chairs in Lucy's room, never daring to look in the direction of the goth. Lucy just sat there staring intensely at the door, it hadn't even fully registered in her mind yet, she was the dark one, the one that enjoyed the idea of death and what peace it brings, but she expected it to happen naturally, she never once thought she would just lose them all. Just yesterday they were all so excited for their trip, and now… well Lucy didn't know what happened now. She was waiting for the door to open and all her family coming in and yelling SURPRISE at her, it was just one of Luan's sick jokes, they got her good.

The door started to come open, this was it here they come, but only the nurse from before entered pushing along some kind of box on a cart. She made a few adjustments to the box so it was level with Lucy and got it into view of the young goth. Sure enough there in that little box was Lucy's little sister, Lily. She was so much smaller than Lucy remembered her looking like, she had a mask on her face and a huge bandage wrapped around her torso. She was currently asleep, but it didn't look like she was having a good dream. The nurse watched the older sister's reaction for a moment before making her leave, she looked at Sam as she left, "you might want to give them some space", Sam for a second looked offended, but quickly realized the nurse was right, she stepped over to Lucy and put her hand on her shoulder, "good luck little dude" was all she said before she left.

Lucy just stared at Lily, what could she do? Her baby sister was right in front of her, living proof that what Sam had said was right, her family was gone and Lily was the only survivor, but Lucy just refused to accept that, how could she? Some of the strongest people she knew were in that car, and the only people that survived were a baby and a fragile nine year old? No, that's not true, Lucy couldn't accept, they just haven't found the rest of her family that's what it had to be. Lucy could feel tears welling in her eyes, she hoped for everything that's what it was, she wrapped her arms around the box and laid her head on top of it, as the waterworks started to go full force. "They're alive, they have to be" she whispered to herself, "please… please let them be alive", her tears trailed along the top of Lily's box, as the little girl continued to sleep.

The Louds decided to give Lucy some privacy and turn away from her as she cried, but her soft sobbing was still audible and it was hard for most of them to listen to. Lincoln turned towards his oldest sister, "hey Lori? Lucy's going to be okay, right?", this caught Lori off guard, Lincoln wasn't the type to come to her for reassurance, heck most people came to him, "why are you asking me?", Lincoln just shrugged, "I don't know, I guess cause you're the oldest, and I've always thought you were kinda wise", Lori didn't know what to say, she never thought Lincoln looked up to her as wise, she always assumed he just thought she was annoying and bossy. She put a reassuring hand on Lincoln's shoulder, "well you're right, I am, and I know for a fact Lucy is going to be just fine and she'll make sure Lily is ok too" Lincoln seemed to have gotten a little bit of hope from this, "really? Well how do you know?" Lori put on a confident smile, "because Lucy is strong, much stronger than she lets on, she has a Loud's resilience, she won't give up, I know it" Lincoln smiled at his older sister, but he didn't know about what she said, he knew Lucy better than anyone, she was more fragile than she let on, she had feelings that could be easily hurt, and she loved her family far more than she let on. But Lincoln trusted Lori, maybe she saw something in Lucy that he couldn't, he decided to trust what she said. "Yeah, you're right, thanks Lori" she gave him a nod and looked away, a concerned look came across her face, she really hoped, for her sake, that she was right.

Rita was the only person to continue to watch Lucy as she sobbed, it was so hard, she was so caught up on the fact that Lucy was going to be able to take care of Lily that she forgot…who's going to take care of Lucy? She was nine, she was a sensitive soul, she didn't have anyone to take care of her, Rita knew her dad would probably take care of them for a bit, but he was old, he wasn't going to be around much longer and the time he was around he wouldn't be able to take care of them as well as two much younger adults. Lily was still very young so it wouldn't be as hard on her, but Lucy was going to have to get used to a much crueler lifestyle than the one she was used to, she was going to have to give up so much of what she loved, she was going to have to do things for herself and Lily that Pop Pop wasn't able to do, she was going to have to lose so much even after losing everything. It wasn't fair, she didn't deserve that, she won't even have time to prepare for it, she'll just be thrown into a cruel unforgiving world with no one to truly help her, and she'll be Lily's only hope. Rita began to cry with her daughter, though Lucy couldn't tell, she hoped some way, somehow, Lucy would be able to do this, but she knew it was asking a lot, she put her mouth up to her still living daughters ear, "I will never blame you if you can't do this". For a second Lucy stopped crying, almost as if she heard her, but continued a few seconds later, Rita sighed and sat down next to her husband who took her into an embrace.

A week went by, Lucy had been visited by a few people, mostly her grandpa and Sam, and of course Lily, but a few others came by, every time they'd say they were sorry for her loss, but she never accepted what they were saying, her family wasn't gone, they couldn't have been, they were too strong to just die like that, Lucy knew it.

One day Sam came into her room, she had been extremely nice ever since that first visit, Lucy could see why Luna liked her, "hey Luce, how you holding up?", Lucy shrugged, "I'm fine I guess, I just wanna get out of here" Sam chuckled nervously, "w-well uhh, I actually came to talk to you about that" Lucy raised an eyebrow at her, which was strange to see as her hair usually covered them, "you see the doctor's need to make sure your leg isn't gonna be a problem, so they need you to stay here a bit longer and go through some physical therapy for it", great, she was going to be stuck here even longer, "sigh, how long will it take?" "Probably only a week or two" Lucy got less tense hearing this, "oh, that's not too bad I guess" Sam agreed, "yeah exactly, although… well, even though you will be able to go home after those few weeks, you still need to come back every once and a while and do more physical therapy, until they think you're comfortable with your leg" Lucy let herself fall back into her bed, "sigh, of course…".

She sat back up and looked at Sam, she had an important question on her mind, "did you go check?" Sam raised an eyebrow at the seemingly random question before realizing what Lucy meant, she fumbled her words, "well uh you see, I uh… couldn't" Lucy dropped her head in defeat, Sam saw this and tried to recover it, "it's not because I didn't want to! It's just… it's still technically a police scene" Lucy gently nodded while still looking at her lap, "I understand…" she looked up at Sam, "did they find them yet?" Sam just shook her head, "they're still out there then… they have to be". Sam was lying of course, all of the Louds body's had been recovered, and we're currently being cremated (for obvious reasons), Sam felt bad lying to Lucy, but after her reaction last week, she didn't dare say anything that might set her off again.

The weeks of physical therapy came and went, it wasn't easy to walk on her left leg, and when she did it wasn't how she used to, but she was doing good enough for the doctors to allow her to go home. Lily could have gone home days ago, but they decided to wait until Lucy was ready to. Lucy needed a walker to get around now, she would need it for a bit, it was kind of embarrassing to her but what was she supposed to do? Mr Grouse actually offered to pick Lily and Lucy up from the hospital and bring them home, but getting that walker into his car was a hassle. After putting a dent in his door, they finally got it in, Lucy sat down in the back and since they didn't have a car seat present, she decided to hold Lily. As soon as Lily touched Lucy's arms everything changed, she was… so small in her arms, so… fragile, she had her whole life ahead of her and yet it's already possibly been ruined. Actually holding Lily almost forced Lucy to accept the truth, she was all Lily had, the freak of sister, the dark one with nothing, no skills to help teach her or take care of her, no job, not even enough emotional strength to show her that she's loved, nothing. Lucy looked at her little sister and wanted to cry, she lost everything and now all she had left was Lucy Loud, her scary loser of a sister, Lily didn't deserve this.

Her train of thought was cut off when she felt a tiny hand gently touch the bottom of her face, "wucy" her little sister softly said to her, she looked concerned for her older sister, but when Lucy looked down all she saw was… precious. This small little girl in this moment became the most precious thing Lucy had in her life, it was as if a switch went off in her head, she needed to protect her, build her, keep her from going down the wrong path, she needed… to help her. Lucy brought Lily into a soft hug while whispering to her, "i love you". They remained like that for a few minutes before Mr Grouse finally came back and got in the driver's seat, "you ready to go Loud?" Lucy looked up to him and nodded.

In truth, she wasn't really ready, the humming of the car engine, the leather seats, the cars going by in the window, it all brought her right back to that fateful day. Lily didn't seem to enjoy it either, as every slight turn, car horn, stop or go caused her to start crying, Lucy did her best, but she herself was struggling to keep it together as thoughts of her family circled around her. After an excruciating car ride, they finally returned to the Loud House.

Grouse was lucky enough to get a matching dent for the first one in his door, as he took the walker out, Pop Pop was already there and took Lily from Lucy as she held onto her walker. She walked up to the door, this was it, she was finally home again, she took a deep breath before walking through the door.

This was the undeniable proof that her family was gone, a mortician, a police officer, her grandpa, no one would have been able to convince her that they were really gone, but her house was more than enough proof. Silence… that's all she heard when she stepped in, it was unsettling, this house hadn't been this quiet in years, it was… disturbing. But it was undeniable proof that… they were gone, that this was no longer The Loud House, it was just where she lived. Pop Pop slowly descended the stairs after putting Lily to bed, he felt it would be best for her, he approached the other of his remaining granddaughters, "well… it looks like I'm gonna be living with ya from now on… I still have to move some of my stuff, so I need you to take care of yourself just for a few hours, ok?" Lucy slowly nodded, he could see streams of tears start to flow from her eyes, "hey I know, but it's going to be ok I promise. I love you sweetie", he said as he pulled her into a hug, he was doing everything in his power not to cry in front of his granddaughter. He stood up and started to walk out the house before he turned around to face Lucy again, "oh yeah um, your brother's little friend is gonna be here in a few minutes, you know to help out with Lily and all that, and if you get tired you can use your mom and dad's room to sleep, I don't want you going up and down those stairs with your leg how it is", Lucy again just nodded and Pop Pop made his way out of the house.

Lucy stood there for what felt like forever, she didn't even know what to do, everyone was gone. She snapped back into reality, and looked up the stairs, she knew her grandpa told her not to, but she just… needed to see it. She crawled her way up the steps very slowly all while carrying her walker up with her, it was painful but she made it happen. Once she got the walker set up at the top of the stairs and got her grip on it, she looked around, all the doors were closed off like tombs, too sacred to be opened, but Lucy had to check, she had to make sure of what she already knew.

The first door she opened was her own, her side of the room looked exactly how she left when she was last there. She turned towards the other side, it was littered with balls, jockstraps, stained shirts, and bats, it was undoubtedly Lynn's but the jock was simply nowhere to be found. She left deciding that Lynn wasn't going to pop out of anywhere, and moved onto the next room. Inside there were teacups and stuffed animals on one side and empty frog habitats and muddy clothes, but neither of the twins were in there. The next one had gags and pranking items as well as amps and guitars, but no Luan or Luna, she also searched high and low but couldn't find Mr Coconuts anywhere, he must have been another passenger. Leni's room still had Lori's half in it, but didn't have either of them. She made her way to where Lily slept, she gently rubbed her hand on her baby sister, the last little piece of family she had, she looked so sad as she slept, probably thinking about their, looking at her made Lucy feel the need to protect and love her, she needed to make sure Lily got to live a proper life, no matter the cost. The other side of the room was littered with gizmos and gadgets but no mad scientist working on them. She stayed for a few more minutes watching Lily before making her way out of the room.

Finally she reached a door at the end of the hall, cracking it open she found the linen closet turned bedroom completely empty, the comic books laid out, never to be read again, the orange polo's sat one after another forever remaining empty, but sadly there wasn't a white haired brother anywhere to be found. Lucy could feel the tears building up again as she turned to head back down stairs.

The Loud family followed Lucy all the way to the house, as soon as they got inside they found Pop Pop taking Lily to her crib, the poor old man had trouble making his way up and down the stairs. Pop Pop talked to Lucy for a minute before leaving for a bit, as Lucy stood there the siblings all tried to go to their rooms. "Aww man, that stupid smoke stuff is all over my room!" Came the upset voice of Lincoln, "mine too!" Came Lynn, "Us as well" said the twins, "huh, well I guess no one is gonna be going to their rooms till Lucy or Lily does" Luna said. Lisa was all too pleased to have her room completely smoke free, perhaps access to her technology could assist them in figuring out what happened to them, and what the smoke itself is, but of course when Lisa tried to interact with anything she was unable to.

Lincoln looked down the steps and saw Lucy starting to crawl up them, "ah jeez Lucy, what are you doing?", this grabbed the attention of some of his other deceased siblings as they came to see what she was doing. It was so sad to see, their sister struggling just to get up the stairs, and she would have to recover by herself, she didn't have anyone to help her, "man… that must suck" Lynn solemnly said watching as her former roommate obliterated whatever self pride she had left. Lucy, eventually, made it up the stairs and set up her walker, then she just started checking the rooms, the kids found it bizarre, it was almost like she was looking for something, but they soon realized her opening the doors got rid of the smoke inside. She started with her own so Lynn was the first to finally be able to get back in their room (besides Lisa), even though she couldn't really touch any of her stuff, it felt really good to be back here. The rest of the siblings waited until their room was open to once again enjoy the comfort of it, Lincoln was feeling a little impatient after she opened Lisa's door seeing as she already got to see inside thanks to Lily, and Lucy seemed to stop to look a Lily for a bit, as much as he understood he just wanted to feel the comfort of his room again.

Finally, Lucy approached Lincoln's door, she slowly creaked it open but he darted through it and basked in his old shelter, it felt so good, his old comics, the models he was working on, his plans all right where he left them, man he missed this. Although Lincoln was reveling in the return of his room he did notice the look on Lucy's face, he stopped looking around and focused on her, she no longer was looking for something, now she just looked like she was about to cry and Lincoln finally understood what she was looking for. She was looking for them, she hoped by some miracle they were just hiding away in their rooms, but they weren't. Lincoln, although he knew it wouldn't work, tried to talk to her, "Lucy! We're here, we're with you!" she didn't respond of course, she just started towards the stairs again, "Lucy! You're not alone I promise!" She decided to just let her walker slide down the stairs as she did a sit and scoot motion down each step, Lincoln following her all the way, "please, hear me! Lucy we're here, I'm here! Please just…" his voice started to die in his throat, it was pointless.

Lucy made her way to the fireplace mantel where the picture of her family sat, she picked it up and brought it to the couch where she prominently sat down. She held the oversized photo in her hands as she scanned through all the faces. Lisa was always so smart, she would've been able to take care of Lily easily, Lana had the survival skills, but Lola certainly had a way of taking control of things, Lincoln would have been planning her college right now, and Lily wouldn't have anything to worry about if Lynn were here right now. Luan would be able to make her smile through the worst of it, while Luna would ease all her tension, Leni would have the purest intentions for her, and Lori was only one step away from already being a mom. Their parents of course… they could've raised Lily with nothing, they just had this special way of making it work. Then there was her, the black sheep of the family, the disgusting stain on the family photo, she hates that she was the one to survive, anyone else and no one would worry, Lily would have been fine, but it had to be the freak that made it.

Lucy could feel the tears coming, she's been crying the past few weeks but never let it go more than a quiet sob, but now nothing was stopping her and she didn't want to hold it in anymore. "NO! NOOOO WHY!? WHY… PLEASE COME BACK! I NEED YOU, LILY NEEDS YOU! PLEASE!" her tears coated the covering on the picture, as she fell off the couch and onto her knees, picture still in hand, "Please… I can't do this without you, I… I need you" she fought through the tears just to continue looking at her family but everytime she saw them she cried harder, at this point she completely collapsed onto the ground, hugging the picture as if it really were her family, "please… please don't be gone".

Having to look on and watch your sister cry and being unable to comfort her is one of the worst feelings in the world, not being able to do it for your child was even worse. Everyone looked on as Lucy cried her eyes out, no one even thought it was possible for the goth to cry so much, making it all the harder. They wanted to give her some space, but they couldn't leave her, even if she didn't know they were there, she needed them right now. Rita quietly sobbed as she knelt down near her daughter, her husband also sobbing in the corner.

Suddenly the crying of a baby came from upstairs, it was Lily, this caused Lucy to stop crying for a moment. She sat back up and looked at the picture, right there surrounded by tears, was her baby sister, she looked so happy in that picture, surrounded by people who love and care for her. Lucy caressed the part with Lily on it before looking at the others in the portrait. She put the picture down on the couch so it was facing her, she took a deep breath and began to address it as if it were her real family, "I'm sorry… I'm sorry I'm the one that survived, I wish it was any of you, you would have been able to handle this… but I don't think I can" she paused for a moment.

Her family listened to what she said, they gathered around behind the picture so she really was addressing them, they understood, this was too much for a nine year old girl who just lost her family, but Lucy continued, "but I… I'll try, for you" she looked down at little Lily on the picture before pressing her hand against her, "for her", she looked back to the rest of her family, "I promise". It wasn't just a promise to them, it was a promise to herself that she'd always watch over Lily. Lucy then stood up, used her walker to walk to the steps, and began crawling up the stairs, no doubt to check on Lily.

A huge sigh of relief washed over the Louds that have passed on, it was so nice to hear those words from Lucy's mouth, but a spiral of mist began to form behind them, they looked on in terror before a spirit came out of the mist. It looked very similar to Lucy, but there were subtle differences, she spoke in a grand manner, "it is I! Great grandma Harriet!" everyone looked on in awe, "wait, great grandma Harriet!? So does that Lucy really was contacting you this whole time!?" Lincoln asked, baffled, "Silence! I am here to tell you of your journey ahead, not answer your questions!" she then smirked a bit before saying in a much more normal tone, "but yes, yes she did" she went back to her grand speaking tone, "listen family, and listen well! You have attached your souls to my two remaining great granddaughters and become their guardians, you must watch over them till they join you in your grave!" Lincoln spoke up again, "but we didn't do anything, we just woke up and were attached to them, we don't even know how this works!" Harriet ignored his complaining, "you will learn in time, but listen! I was Lucy's guardian till you passed on, so now I must leave and carry on to the afterlife! But heed this, Lucy Loud has been forced into a journey of great struggle, one in which you cannot help her on, she will go to new lows, go through the worst of it, and very rarely be rewarded for her hard work! She will suffer, but it will not be in vain, as her sacrifice will allow Lily Loud to become the best of us! But the future is never certain, you must guide her, bring Lily Loud towards the light and do not let her stray too far into the dark!" Everyone was panicking now, "but how do we do that!? We don't understand how this works!" Harriet ignored their pleas as she started to warp back into the mist, "you will understand eventually, you must! But I must go now, take care of them, the very fate of the family is in Lucy's hands now!" and with that she vanished, the Louds all stood there, stunned.

The family didn't know what to say, how were they supposed to keep Lily away from a dark path? Lincoln realized that the crying had stopped, "guys, listen. Lily's not crying anymore" everyone listened and sure enough, no crying. They made their way up the stairs and into Lily's room and sure enough there lay Lily, sound asleep and, for the first time since the accident, looking happy, in Lucy's hands. The last hope for the family.

(Author's Notes)

Let me take you back a few years, I just started my senior year in highschool and I was really starting to get into the Loud House, mind you Junky Crab didn't exist at this time, but I thought 'man you know what would be a really good story? Lucy having to take care of Lily' well three years and some change later, and a WHOLE lotta brainstorming and concepts, I finished the first chapter… and I hated it. So in about three days time I completely rewrote practically the whole thing, and got what you have today. I gotta be honest I never thought this story was gonna see the light of day, I thought it was gonna be another 'seven seal's' deal (you don't know anything about that) but I think I actually like this enough to publish it. Now once again, I won't be publishing anymore chapters for this story till A Mother's Love is done, but this WILL continue, I swear it. All criticism is welcome, peace