The day of the Loud family's ultimate downfall began with rain. Linette Loud, daughter of Lincoln and Lynn, woke from a light sleep like a cat, her mind instantly alert. Muted gray light cascaded through the window on the far wall and the hiss of rain in the streets found her ears like the low whisper of many voices conspiring against her. She sat up in a rustle of sheets and shot a quick look at the door. The chair was wedged beneath the knob just as she had left it the night before.
No one had come in during the night.
Good.
Throwing the blanket aside, she got up and crossed the room on bare feet. A tall, shapely girl with lank blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail, she wore plaid lounge pants and a gray tank-top that clung to her not inconsiderable bosom. She was acutely aware of her breasts just...sitting there...as she made her way to the window. She was not a transsexual, but she hated her breasts and had considered removing them from her body like an offensive eye. The Bible of God condones and encourages such things. She decided against it, however. That would be admitting they won and she wouldn't let them win their campaign of lies and harassment against her. Oh no, quite the contrary, she was going to win their trust back. From what, she didn't know, as she had committed no transgressions against the pack, but she was SINGLED OUT regardless and coined a leaker, so she was Outside, but once she plead her case, they would understand.
At the window, she drew the curtain back and peered out at the rain swept day. Tiny houses wrapped in ghostly mist watched over the empty street, their darkened windows like the gaping eyes of fleshless skulls, and a tree moved in the wind in a very particular manner, as though it were trying to warn her of oncoming doom. A slight frown touched her lips and she turned away. In the hall, the sounds of her siblings getting ready for the day formed an ominous dirge that foretold disaster. Lamis laughed at the top of her lungs, probably at something Alex had said, and Lyle's shrill, girly voice called out from the head of the stairs. She heard Lemy, Lacy, Lyra, and all of the others whose names she didn't care to remember. She crept to the door and peered through the ragged hole she had Lana drill for her, and spotted Allie standing in line for the bathroom next to Cindy. Linette couldn't make out what they were saying, but it was likely nothing against her. Allie was in with Lemy's group but they had a falling out and Lemy accused her snitching the same way he had Linette. Now she was on Linette's side.
Meaning she was no longer a threat.
Or was she?
Linette's eyes narrowed and she stood back from the hole, one hand closing in a defensive fist. You couldn't trust anyone around here. All of her siblings - every single one - had lied to and about her and did small things to hurt her. Lemy made the TV staticky when she was trying to watch it, Lisa stole memories from her brain and left nightmares in their place, her mother added three sports channels to the cable because she knew Linette hated it, and people were always coming into her room and touching things or moving them around. They lied about her, said things that weren't true, said things that didn't happen, made up stories about her, scared each other with them, but none of it was real. They would see.
They would all see.
For a long time, she stood by the door, waiting for the others to clear out before unlocking the knob and slipping into the hall. She crept to the bathroom door, glanced over her shoulder to make sure she wasn't being followed, and hurried in, locking the door behind her. She stripped naked, folded her clothes neatly, and hid them in the cabinet beneath the sink just in case one of her siblings ran in and tried to steal them. They had done that before. They took the towel too.
She stopped and cocked her head. Did that happen in real life or did it happen in a dream? She couldn't recall. Sometimes telling the two apart was difficult.
Double checking to make sure the door was locked tight, she jumped in the shower, turned the water on, and hissed when the spray hit her. Cold. Of course. They always used all the hot water and left nothing for her. That was one of their battle tactics. They also slurped up all the food at dinner time before she could get any. If it wasn't for aunt-Lynn-mom giving her a sports bar she would literally starve to death like in Germany. She called Mom that because she, Linette, was born of incest and Mom was her aunt too. Mom, like every other woman in town, lewded themselves with Dad, and that disgusted Linette. She hated sexuality. It was base and coarse and for animals like nuts and twigs. She started calling herself Nnyl early in life, Lynn backwards because she was the anti-Lynn. Where Mom slobbered on her brother's cock, Linette put herself above such things.
She grabbed the shampoo, squirted some into her palm, and ran her fingers through her hair. She was a natural brunette like her aunt-mom but she dyed it blonde. She was not like Lynn, she was the convergence of Loudstory and she had set herself apart.
Having done so invited controversy and isolated her from the others. They did not understand her. She could forgive that. Sometimes, she did not understand herself. She was a creature of chaos but also of order, the truth in the lie, the shadow of the valley of the death, a living contradiction out of time and space. She could not blame them for not cracking the enigma that was Linette Loud. She would make them understand. She would show them that beneath her tough exterior beat the heart of a loyal sister and NOT A SNITCH.
When she was done cleansing herself of the filth of ACCUSATION, she toweled off and dressed for the day in a green and black bodysuit. She went to her room, sat on her bed, and pulled on a pair of black boots.
She was ready.
Getting to her feet, she went downstairs. The living room was filled with sisters. She had 68 the last time she counted. Today, they were all gathered around the television set, playing on their phones, talking, and doing other things. In the kitchen, Lizy, one of the youngest, sat at the table with a bunch of others, each busy at a drawing. Drawings papered one wall, some depicting happy family scenes rendered in crayon, others displaying scenes of a lewd nature. There were many, many, many of Dad having sex with his daughters. Linette did not like those, but she ignored them.
Lizy plastered her tongue to her upper lip and danced a purple crayon across a piece of construction paper. Lyle, their brother, watched over her shoulder, frowning in disapproval. "Those two characters don't go together," he said in a high, girlish voice.
"Oh welll," Lizy said, "I like them together."
Upon the page, a boy stick figure held hands with a girl stick figure. Both smiled broadly.
Lyle took a deep, frustrated breath through his nose and let it out in a shaky rush. His face was red, his eyes flashing. He looked genuinely upset. "Well I don't. It's not canon. People have used that ship to attack me." He shot Linette a dirty look as she passed. That was one of the ACCUSATIONS, that she used a ship to attack Lyle. She did not. Someone else did. Someone who was not her.
A shadow flickered across Lizy's face. "Well I'm not attacking you. This is what I like. If you don't like it, go somewhere else and don't look."
Lyle's lips peeled back from his teeth in a sneer and his cheeks flushed bright red. "Fine!" he squealed, "I will. I'm leaving."
With that, he spun on his heels and stalked out of the room, hands balled into fists. Lemy, Bed, Lupa, Lulu, Toby, Leni, and Rinn all called after, begging him to stay, but his stride didn't slow. When he was gone, they all shot daggers at Lizy. "I can't believe you," Toby said. "You know he doesn't like that ship."
"But I do," Lizy said.
"No," Lemy said, eyes narrowed to angry slits, "you're just trolling."
Lizy looked hurt. "No, Lem, I swear, I -"
"Ok coomer," Bed said.
"Have sex, incel," Rinn put in.
"Seethe harder," Toby said.
"KYS," Lupa added.
"Lizy's autism is shitting up the threads."
Tears filled Lizy's eyes. "I promise, I didn't do it to hurt his feelings."
"Neck yourself, faggot."
"I bet she's Lylehater."
Lizy's eyes widened. "No, it's not me, I -"
"It's either you or...someone else," Lemy said and looked pointedly at Linette. Linette ignored him because she was going to prove her innocence. She had screenshots and evidence that she wasn't the one who stalked and harassed Lyle for linking a ship she didn't. She wasn't that type of person.
At all.
Crying now, Lizy jumped up and ran away. Leni winked and waved and everyone else nodded and smiled at a job well done. Linette watched with cool detachment that turned slowly into burning hatred. They did the same thing to her.
Linette poured herself a cup of coffee and went into the living room, aware that they were watching her and conniving like the weasles they were. She found Alex, Lamis, and Allie sitting in an out of the way corner and sat next to them. They were all outcasts for one reason or another, Alex for telling the truth about what a dirtbag Lemy was, Allie for "snitching" (just like Linette), and Lamis for being "weird." Lamis made the grave mistake of talking about her real life sexual encounters in front of Lemy and Bobby Jr. Neither one could get laid if they were an egg in a henhouse and it made them jealous that Lamis could. She was also into being dominated, BDSM style, which went against their belief that women should be strong and dominnering while boys were to be weak and dominated. For that reason, they hated her guts.
"Primers, assemble," Linette said.
The others glanced up at her and offered good morning greetings of their own. Alex, a Chromebook balanced in her lap, was writing something and Linette didn't even need to read it to know that it was tryhard and 3edgy5me. She billed herself as the smartest, most beautiful, and best talented writer in the house, and long ago, the others rode her clit to the point that it sickened Linette. Then she wrote something using a character Lemy created and it eclipsed anything he had done with it, leading to insane jealousy and resentment on his part. Their relationship was once civil, congenial, with Lemy supporting and encouraging her and what she was doing with his OC. Then he turned cold and distant. He began to talk behind her back and offer snide criticisms owing to the fact that she was shipping his OC with Gwen Meyers' OC and not the OC he liked. Alex paid him 25 dollars upfront to do a piece of artwork for her, then the next day he asked for it again because his mother was sick and needed medication, and someone stole his bank card. That was an excuse he had used many times before and a few since.
Alex gladly paid him again - 50 dollars in total - and he pointedly made her wait six months while doing his own work, other commissions, and even free requests. He eventually told her "I put you on a list." Alex believed that he should have done her piece first since she went out of her way to help him. To be fair, he did do a pic for her before that: An insulting hatchet job of an OC she created and let Lamis draw. Alex's anger issues coupled with her inflexible principles lead her to become mad.
I worked to make your character better, and you gleefully shat on mine, buddy, she said once.
Lemy was well-known as a condescending bastard, hustler, liar, cheat, and raging, insecure dickhead but the others circled the wagons around him like cultists 'round their Jim Jones and attacked anyone who dared to speak against him. Even the ones who knew or suspected never called him out. They let him go, and the longer he was free to spew his toxicity, the more damage he did. Just last month, someone ripped all of Lamis's drawings off the kitchen wall and threw them away...a few of Alex's, too. The only people who had that power were Rinn, Lemy, and Lupa, and Rinn and Lupa had at least demonstrated restraint and emotional stability. It was Lemy. Alex knew this and told everyone, they laughed and waved her off because they hated Lamis. Leni said "Que poposa good."
No, Alex screamed and waved her arms like a madwoman, it's not good. This sets a dangerous precedent. If you let someone tear down artwork because you don't like the artist, you're opening a can of worms. One day it might be YOUR art or someone you DO like.
They wouldn't listen. Were too stupid to listen. But it would happen again. Linette knew it.
Oh.
Where was she?
Right. Alex hated Lemy but Alex was no better. She had an EGO as big as Lyra's and Linette only hung around with her because she needed allies in her battle against Lemy and Lyle. Once she was done with Alex, she would throw her away like the useless LEMY 2.0 she was.
Allie, the little blonde girl Luna adopted one one of her drug fueled bar crawls through the city, drew on a notepad. A giant pair of tits with legs. Allie loved tits as much as she loved venting. She was once one of Lemy's closest confidants. When Lemy needed money because his mom put it all into her crack pipe, Allie was there like Fry in that meme - shut up and take my money. She idolized Lemy and wanted to be just like him one day. She was one of his biggest APOLOGISTS and EXCUSE MAKERS. When he treated people like dirt, she was there to tell them, "Oh, he's had a bad day/week/month/year." Finally, she saw for herself when she posted a picure of Lncoln having sex with one of his daghters. Lemy dragged her aside, dressed her down, called her names, and threatened to sever all ties with her. Allie wept, begged, and knelt before him, as though he were a god and not a broke, headband wearing douchebag, and he looked down his nose at her like she was trash. Well, you get to explain yourself.
She did, and Lemy bestowed his forgiveness upon her, but continued to attack and insult her and her interests in public. He said of their neighbor Spider-Man, who hated their guts: There's always someone there to tell you the thing you like sucks. He then turned around and unironically told Allie the things she liked sucked. She chased after him and groveled at his feet, and he never missed a chance to kick her or spit on her. Literally.
Lamis...well...Lamis was strange, but once you got to know her, she was decent enough. Lemy kicked her to the curb as he had kicked many of his followers to the curb, and the ones who stayed were rabid in their loyalty.
It was a sad state of affairs.
"Lyle gatekept Lizy," Linette said.
"Shocking," Alex said without looking up from her computer.
"He did?" Allie asked. She and Lyle were once friends. Now she was persona non grata in their little circle.
Before anyone could stop her, she launched into a scratching, sputtering rant, spittle flying from her lips. Lamis ignored her and went on drawing Clyde McBride being lynched by Klansmen, and after a while, Alex joined in, recounting the same atrocities Lemy and Lyle had perpetrated upon the house.
Finally, Allie tuckered herself out and got up to go masturbate the stress away. Alex calmed down and went back to writing her 5.1 million word story, and Linette sipped her coffee. Soon, she would join Lemy and Lyle's secret club. She would show them that she was not the LEAKER they thought she was. If she had to sell out Alex and the others to do it, oh well.
"GUYS!"
Allie stumbled out of the kitchen, a pale look of horror on her face. Everyone turned to look at her. "Someone ripped down all the art of Lincoln fucking his daughters!"
Indeed they had. Torn artwork littered the kitchen floor like confetti, the hopes, hard work, and passion of so many aspiring artists. Alex gaped up at the wall, then her eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. She turned on the others. "I fucking TOLD YOU this was gonna happen!"
They rolled their eyes and waved her off.
"See?" She jabbed her finger at the half empty wall. "I told you just letting Lamis's art be deleted and not saying something about it would lead to this. If I have a chip on my shoulder, it's not because I write, it's because I see THIS SHIT coming a mile away and you people don't!"
"Shut up, autist," someone cried from the crowd.
"Alex is sperging again."
"It was Lemy!" Alex screamed. "I just know it!"
The group exploded in jeers, boos, and hisses. "Lemy would never do that!" Lupa called.
"Yeah, Lemy's not even here," Toby said. "He pointedly said he was not going to be in the kitchen."
Alex opened her mouth, then her eyes widened when she realized something. "The cameras!"
Five minutes later, everyone except Lemy and Lyle - both MIA - gathered around the dining room table where Alex had set up a portable TV set. She plugged it into the network of surveillance cameras Lisa installed and found the correct feed. She rewound it, and everyone leaned in.
On the screen, Lemy stood by the archway into the kitchen, his hands clasped behind his back and an exaggeratedly innocent whistle on his lips. Darna walked past, and he flashed a big, nervous smile.
"H-Hey, guys," he said and hooked his thumb over his shoulder, I'm totally not going into the kitchen, kay? I'm not going to be here, so if something happens, it wasn't me."
Alex crossed her arms over her AC/DC band T with a smug flourish. Linette watched intently. So...they finally had proof of Lemy's misdeeds, did they?
Now she was excited.
On screen, Lemy ducked into the kitchen, and moments later, the sound of paper ripping and shredding filled the speaker. Lemy came to the threshold, looked around to make sure the coast was clear, then scurried out like a small, feral rodent.
"See?" Alex said. "TOLD you."
To even Linette's shock, they didn't see.
"That doesn't prove anything," Toby spat.
Alex's jaw dropped. "Are you serious? Look, there're pieces of paper stuck to his shoe!"
"You're just jealous of Lemy," Lupa charged, "that's all."
The others mumbled their agreement. "It was totes not Lemy," Leni said.
Alex looked around, her face starting to flush in anger. "THERE'S VIDEO FUCKING EVIDENCE! ARE YOU REALLY DENYING THIS?"
As one, the crowd voiced its support for Lemy. He would never do something like this. He was a great guy who had been painted as a monster by "certain people" and not by his own actions. The number of people who hated him grew not organically, but because of LIES and RUMORS. Everyone liked and respected Lemy. Lemy was good. All hail Lemy. Alex was bad. Alex was a spag for telling the truth, she was a autistic for caring about the house, a retard for believing that the arbitrary deletion of someone's artwork at the whim of an emotionally disturbed man child constituted a problem. Stop caring, Alex, meme and lewd with the rest of us, stick your head in the sand while Lemy and Lyle run the house like a crime family. Shut up, Alex, fuck you, Alex, YOU'RE JUST AS BAD AS NYYL.
"It doesn't matter who deleted it," Lacy said, "we have copies, we'll put them back up."
"To be deleted again?" Alex asked.
Someone threw a balled up piece of paper at Alex's face, and that did it: She exploded like a nuclear bomb, spun around, and flipped the dining room table with a resounding crash. Linette watched her tantrum with amusement. She liked chaos and today was turning out to be a fine day for it.
Alex wheeled on the assemblage, and they cringed in holy terror of her awesome might. "THIS IS WHY I DON'T FUCKING RESPECT YOU PEOPLE! LEMY TREATS YOU LIKE DOGSHIT AND TEARS YOUR ART DOWN AND YOU FUCKING LET HIM! YOU HAVE NO GODDAMN DIGNITY OR SELF-RESPECT! YOU TAKE IT FROM HIM AGAIN AND AGAIN AND THEN ACT LIKE FUCKING RETARDS WHEN SOMEONE SHOWS YOU PROOF!"
In the back, Gwen and Connor glanced uneasily at each other. You could see it in their eyes: They knew Alex was right.
"THIS IS WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS. YOU LET HIM AND LYLE BULLY PEOPLE BECAUSE YOU'RE TOO SUPID AND SELF-ABSORBED TO CARE ABOUT ANYONE BUT YOURSELVES! HAVE YOU PICKED UP A HISTORY BOOK LATELY? DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO PEOPLE LIKE THAT? WHEN YOU SEE A HOUSE ON FIRE, YOU SAY SOMETHING OTHERWISE THE FIRE WILL SPREAD. IT WILL SPREAD TO YOUR HOUSE! FUCKING IDIOTS!" She lashed out and kicked the TV; It rolled onto its side like a wounded animal. She stood there, panting, shoulders rising and falling, and Linette grinned. She looked like an ape. And an ass.
"JUST LIKE I SAID WHEN IT WAS LAMIS. YOU DIDN'T LISTEN, NOW LOOK."
Lamis awkwardly patted her shoulder and Allie glared at everyone. "You guys know it was Lemy. You're just too busy sucking him off to care."
As expected, the Lemyfags shook their heads and rolled their eyes.
Lamis and Allie helped a shaking and visibly affected Alex away, and Linette followed. Lemy and Lyle were both gone and there was only one place they could be.
Now was her chance.
In her room, she put on a black trench coat and sunglasses to hide her eyes. She didn't like people seeing her eyes. They're windows. And who doesn't cover their windows? Weirdos, that's who.
She went out into the hall and down the stairs. Alex paced back and forth by the front door and Lamis played with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures. She made explosions noises with her lips and spun in a slow circle. "Oh, no, the bad guys are coming."
But the bad guys were already here.
"I'm this close to leaving," Alex muttered to herself. "This place is a goddamn nuthouse."
Then go, Linette thought but didn't say.
Only Alex wouldn't. She tried before and in the end, she came crawling back just like Lyle always did after rage quitting in a huff. This place...it exerted some kind of malignant pull, and once you came into its orbit, you were trapped. You could thrash and scream and pray to your God - be it Allah or Lemy - but you'll never break free, and one day, it will consume and poison you to the core.
Outside, cold rain drizzled from the leaden sky. Dead leaves clogged the gutters and the few remaining on the trees lining Franklin Avenue shook in the chill wind, their red and orange hues faded like swaths of old fabric. Linette went out into the rain, head held high and proud, and crossed the soupy lawn, mud squelching beneath her boots. She fetched her bike from the gloomy garage and walked it out into the driveway, a green and black ten speed with a raised seat. She jumped on, pedeled to the sidewalk, and hung a sharp left turn. She leaned over the handlebars and pumped her legs, the wet wind in her face exhilarating. Sometimes, when the same thoughts raced through her mind on an endless loop, she rode through town on an aimless jaunt to nowhere, the simple act of pedaling enough to soothe her into a state of transcendental meditation.
At the end of the street, she turned left and sailed through the intersection, the bike's big tires splashing in puddles. The frame jostled on the uneven sidewalk and water dripped from the interlaced branches overhead, splattering Linette's shoulders and the top of her head. Cars passed in the street, kicking up sheets of water, and a few people hurried along the opposite sidewalk, their heads bent against the slackening deluge. At Main, Linette stopped to let traffic pass, then went on. Pine Street crossed the rain swollen Royal River over a crumbling concrete bridge and turned into State Route 10. It curved to the right and wound up into the wooded foothills sweeping back from Royal Woods.
Linette kept to the gravel shoulder, tensing only slightly when an eighteen wheeler pulling a load of timber blasted. The air displaced by its passage broke over her like the icy breath of some undead giant, and water soaked her coat. She didn't notice and wouldn't have cared if she had. She was single-minded in her determination to convince Lemy to let her join his club. The need to be in it smoldered deep in her chest and…
She frowned to herself.
She didn't like Lemy.
Or Lyle.
Or any of the others.
Why did she want to be in their midst again?
She couldn't recall. She had a plan, but it had slipped her mind. Something about exposing him, perhaps, or maybe waking him and Lyle up to the error of their ways. She hated them, hated them BIG, but they were her brothers and she wanted to CHANGE them. Surely if the right person said the right thing in the right way...at the right time...they would understand where they had gone wrong and apologize. Then everything would be okay. They would be happy and no more of these LIES & HEARSAY would happen. They could all be reconciled and work toward the greater good and unity of the family politick. That was her dream, anyway. Would Lemy really admit to his evil and wrongdoing? Would Lyle ever apologize for enforcing his favorite cartoon OC ship like a CRAZED DICTATOR? They had been told again and again, many people saw, many people came to them with thoughts and prayers but nothing had ever changed, it all went on and on like a merry go round in Guyana. But Linette was different. She wasn't a rage monster like Allie or a condescending bitch like Alex, she was JUSTICE and TRUTH. She would guide them into the light and save the shattered remnants of her family from itself. She would make everything whole and healthy as it should be. No more gatekeeping, no more seig heilling Lemy.
It would be a new heaven and a new earth, and they would abide for a thousand years, one happy family united in the ways and means of the universe. She was certain she would do it, for she was the rock upon which the word would be made flesh.
She was the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, she was the One.
All she had to do was SPEAK and it would be so.
Two miles outside of town, the dense forest pressing against the left side of the road parted and a wide dirt road appeared. Linette slowed and turned onto it, the treetops blotting out the rain and what little light the day held. Dirty water filled ruts and potholes and discarded garbage was visible through the trees. People came here to get rid of unwanted junk and refuse, dumping washers, driers, fridges, and even old cars. It was no wonder that Lemy and his inner circle chose to locate their den of depravity here of all places.
A mile up, Linette jumped off her bike and leaned it against the gnarled trunk of a dead oak. A footpath led up a steep, wooded hillside. Linette followed it to the summit, where the land flattened to an overgrown field. On the other side, a tiny, roughly hewn clubhouse cobbled together from rotted sheets of plywood was nestled in a stand of brush like a Hobbit's hidey-hole, its frame slanted, its roof composed of rusted corrugated metal, and its tarp covered windows gaping and misshapen.
It was obviously the work of unskilled hands. Linette herself had contributed time and effort toward its construction. She found the sheets of metal for the roof in a gully two miles from here as the crow flies and dragged them forth herself. She also helped dig the foundation. This place was as much hers as it was anybody's, but Lemy banned her from going in because he believed she stalked Lyle over his ship. This LIE was fed to him by none other than Bobby Jr., whose hatred of Linette stemmed from sources unknown. Linette had been nothing but kind to the little Hispanic boy yet he aligned himself as her enemy and whispered sweet nothings into Lemy's ear. Linette was NOT a leaker or a Lylehater. She was not a Lemyhater. She was only a hater of those who distorted the truth and basked in the glow of their egotism. Alex was guilty of it, Lyra was guilty of it, Lemy and Lyle and BJ and Connor and Gwen - so many of her family and so called friends were monsters of the first order and were against her. They whispered and plotted and pretended she didn't know but she did AND IT STOPPED NOW.
At the door, Linette squared her shoulders and stared at the crooked knob. There was a lock that only Lemy, Lyle, Rinn, and Lupa could open. Without their blessing, one did not enter the inner sanctum. Beyond that splintered piece of wood lay the beating heart of the community. IDEAS and WORK were shared here. A slithering snake nest of bubbling proportions. Alex was a member here but her ideas were rebuffed. Lamis was a member here, but she was excommunicated on trumped up changes. Lops left and made her mark elsewhere when she realized the level of cultish devotion and gatekeeping that occured here. Others had come and gone over the years, many of them driven away by Lemy and Lyle and their blind, cloak wearing follow behinds.
This was not how it was supposed to be. This was supposed to be a place of art and fellowship where content creators with a shared love and passion could come together, a melting pot of different ideas. Instead, it had turned into a veritable dictatorship. The culture was stifling and stagnant, the creativity dead, conformity pushed above artistic individuality. Standing here in the cold and the rain, Linette imagined she could smell the place's rot and ruin. She could taste the sin. She could hear the cries of a thousand Louds who had come here with a dream of a better tomorrow, like pilgrims overland to the shining promise of California...only to turn back in disappointment. Avenge us, Linette, AVENGE US.
Her hands balled into fists and her nostrils flared. Indignity cried out from her chest like Abel's blood from the ground to God. Her fingernails dug into the soft padding of her palms and the wind rustled her blonde hair, lending it an ominous Medusa-like appearance. Like the Gorgan of yore, Linette would turn all who looked upon her to stone. Stone of the mind...and stone of the heart. She would freeze their untruths and doublethink, then thaw it like Austin Powers until they comprehend the magnitude of their thoughts and actions.
Suddenly, she was not alone. A thousand angels all in white were with her, some standing next to her, most behind. She could not see them, but she could feel their presence. Everyone who had ever suffered the outage of desolation at Lemy's hands or ever would if she did not act was here, bolstering her. Like the goddess Ishtar in the 10001 Crazy Nights, she would wrench the lock and knock down the gatepost, she would call up a legion of the dead to eat the living, and the dead would outnumber the living. It would do no good to fight her, for she was supported by truth and virtue, she was the Second Coming, here to change the wrongheaded assumptions of the Central Powers and to call down the veil of night over their lies. All darkness comes to light and she was that light, she was…
She was NNYL, the Chosen Among Women, the last of a dying race who believed in things the way they ought to be, not as they were.
Lifting her hand, she knocked on the door. It rattled in its frame. She could easily force it if she wanted, but she was here to battle with words and ideas, not with fists.
A little slot in the door slid open and a pair of suspicious eyes appeared. They registered her, then narrowed. "What do you want?" Bobby Jr. asked.
"I'm here to speak with Lemy," Nnyl said.
"Lemy doesn't want to talk to you."
"I'm here to speak with Lemy," she repeated.
BJ rolled his eyes. "Hey, Lem," he called, "it's that psycho Linette."
Muffled voices reponsed, and Nnyl could imagine them all jumping to their feet in shock. Who was in there? Surely Lyle and Lemy, maybe others too.
"Lemy says go away," BJ said.
Nnyl didn't flinch, didn't stutter. She expected this and she was prepared for whatever might come. "I just want to talk to him," she said, "please."
"We heard what Alex did," BJ said, "and you were right there with her. Lying and framing Lemy for something he didn't do."
For a moment, Nnyl didn't know what he was talking about. She vaguely remembered something to do with Alex making a scene, but it was hazy. A dream, she thought, but apparently not. "I didn't do anything," she said firmly, "it was Alex."
"You hang out with her."
"Only because I'm forced to," Nnyl said, "the others have disowned me."
BJ stepped aside, and Lemy took his place. "What do you want, Linette?"
"I want to talk about...things."
"What things?" Lemy demanded.
Nnyl met his gaze directly. "The way things have become. It's not right, Lemy, and you know it. This started as a...a good place. WIth good intentions. Now it's a nightmare of lies, cronyism, and gatekeeping. We can change it, though. We can make it better. You just have to understand that I want the best for everyone...for the fandom. I am come to show you the light and the way. There is a second way, a new way, a way to bring back what used to be. We just have to -"
"You're talking out of your head again," Lemy spat.
"I'm talking out of my heart, Lemy," she corrected. "You must understand. You're doing this wrong. Lyle is doing this wrong."
"You're the one who snitched, leaked, and tried to destroy us."
Nnyl blinked. That accusation, the same one she had heard a million times before, the one that ruined her life and put her at odds with her family, that made her an OUTSIDER, cut through the fog in her brain. "That's not true," she said, animation creeping into her voice.
"Yes, it is," Lemy said. "BJ matched the way Lylehater typed to the way YOU type. You left the club when Lylehater announced her big win on 4chan. It was you, Linette. Probably in one of your mental psycho blackouts."
Nnyl's eyes narrowed and a shadow passed over her face, her features casting in darkness. "I'm not a psycho," she said.
"Yes you are," Lemy said. "My mom says you have to take pills to keep from going full apeshit."
Nnyl wanted peace...she wanted unity and a better tomorrow...attacking Lemy would not achieve that, but she couldn't stop herself. "Your mother knows all about pills, doesn't she?"
Lemy flinched, then set his jaw. "Go away."
"Let me into your club."
"No," Lemy fired back, "you're a psycho leaking bitch, fuck you."
Deep inside of Nnyl, something happened. Heat rose up from her depths and spread out through her chest. Her teeth clenched, her nostrils flared, and all of the rage she had been fighting so hard to keep contained broke upon her like a warhead. She felt herself losing control...and did not try to stop it. Her vision strained, her skull throbbed with every sickly pulse of her brain, and some OUTSIDE AGENCY seemed to possess her. "LET ME IN!" she roared.
She watched from afar as her fist shot out and slammed into the door. A crack raced up the wood and Lemy let out a womanish cry of terror. She grabbed the handle in both hands and wrenched the door off its hinges like a deranged superhero playing for the other side. Lemy, Lyle, and Bobby Jr. screamed and hugged each other, fear on their faces.
Nnyl panted like a wild animal with the scent of its prey in its nose.
The time for mercy had passed.
Now was the time for vengeance.
She stepped over the threshold like the specter of Death itself, and Lemy wailed. He shoved Bobby Jr. at her like a sacrificial lamb, and without thinking, she snatched the little Hispanic by the throat. His eyes widened and his pulse pounded crazily under her fingertips. She saw in his eyes all the FALSEHOODS he had told Lemy, and with a primal cry of fury, she clamped down on his neck. His eyes bulged out of their sockets and he thrashed in her grasp, arms flailing wildly about. Her nails pierced his dirty flesh and blood oozed out around them like water from the ground. She gritted her teeth, redoubled her hold, and ripped his throat out in a shower of gore. A long, high-pitched gurgle burst from his bloody lips, and rich red spurted out in powerful arcs, splashing the front of Nnyl's coat. He pressed his hands to his throat to staunch the bleeding, but it pumped through his fingers. His face drained of color, turning gray, and moist, child-like terror filled his eyes.
Sneering her disgust, Nnyl shoved him out of her way; he hit the wall and collapsed to a heap, where he twitched and bled. Lemy went for a knife lying on a card table, and Nnyl sprang, her hand closing around his wrist. Their gazes met, and with relish, she twisted his hand hard, the snapping of bones like music to her ears. Lemy screeched and sank to his knees, face twisted in agony. Lyle climbed through the window, little feet kicking, and dropped to the ground on the other side.
She would deal with him later.
"P-Please," Lemy hitched. Tears streamed down his cheeks. "I-I'm sorry. You can be in the club."
Nnyl laughed. "It's too late for that, Lemuel."
With that, she took his face in her hands and plunged her thumbs into his eyes. They popped and Lemy howled in pain. Nnyl bared her teeth and pushed deeper, the warm, gelatinous feeling of his ruined orbs awakening feelings in her loins that she didn't think possible. Lemy clawed at the backs of her hands, ripping flesh, and throwing her head back, she savored the pain.
That's when she remembered Lyle.
Pushing Lemy back, she snatched a broken piece of wood from the floor, ran out the door, and gave chase. She caught up to Lyle at the end of the clearing. He fell to his knees, rolled onto his butt, and scuttled backwards like a crab. And what do you do with a crab?
You break it open and slurp out the meat.
Just like she'd slurp out Lyle's soul.
"L-Linette, stop!" he begged in that girly voice of his. "D-Don't do this! It's not worth it!"
He backed up against a tree and couldn't go any farther.
Nnyl stood over him for a moment and regarded him with a blank expression. She tried to summon feelings for him - he was technically her brother after all - but there was only rage and hatred. "You started this."
"No, I -"
"You said you had a hater, but you didn't...did you?"
Lyle swallowed.
"ANSWER THE QUESTION!"
"NO!" Lyle squealed and shook his head. "I never had a hater. I made the whole thing up for sympathy! It was Lemy and Bobby Jr.'s idea to blame you. I just went along with it because they'd kick me out of the club just like they did you. I didn't want to do it. You have to believe me." He was sobbing like a little baby now, and Nnyl imagined she could smell the salty tang of his tears. "I'm sorry, I-I-I...please don't kill me." He squeezed his eyes closed and pursed his quivering lips.
Nnyl tried to feel sorry for him...but she couldn't.
'You gatekeep cartoon OC ships," she said and lifted the club, "I gatekeep your life."
She brought the club down as hard as she could. It struck Lyle dead center in the head with a sickening thunk. A jarring vibration ran up her arm, and Lyle screamed. Nnyl raised the club and dropped it again. Lyle jerked and toppled to the side, blood gushing from a jagged gash in his scalp. He rolled onto his stomach and clawed impotantly at the mud in an attempt to escape. "Mommy!" he cried hysterically. "Mommy! MOMMY!"
Nnyl hit him across the back, and his words broke off in a childish bawl. She circled him like a shark, and lashed out, kicking him in the side of the head. He rolled to his side, and she kicked again, the tip of her boot smashing his nose. She kicked again, again, again. Lyle was limp, his lips split and broken teeth poking through holes in his bottom lip. His forehead was dented and partially caved in; blood and chunky brain matter seeped from cracks in his skull and convulsions wracked his petite frame.
Tossing the stick aside, Nnyl mounted him and stared down into his ruined face. She shoved her hands into his mouth and pulled in opposite directions. Muscles tore, skin ripped, tendons snapped. She grunted with exertion, then let out a pent up breath when his lower jaw came free. Now his face was a red crater, not recognizably human at all.
She threw his jawbone over her shoulder and stumbled to her feet. Bending over, she yanked his pants and underwear down. Unsurprisingly, he had a micropenis. It wasn't even big enough to cut off. "I take solace in the fact that I will be the only woman that thing ever disappoints." She pulled his pants and briefs all the way off, forced his legs apart, and stomped on his tiny, malformed testcles, grinding them beneath the heel of her boot until they were a red smeer just like his face.
Done, she went back to the cabin and found Lemy where she had left him: Curled up on his side, moaning and hugging himself. A big wet patch stained the crotch of his jeans. BJ lay spread eagle on his back, unmoving. His face was white as milk, everything below saturated with blood. She knelt next to Lemy and he trembled.
"Please...I don't want to die."
She stripped his headband off, sat, and sat him up between her legs. "Please…"
"Shut up," she commanded. "Your day of reckoning is at hand."
Lemy wept.
She threaded the headband around his neck and pulled, cutting off his air supply. He gasped and clawed at it with shaky fingers. "Go to sleep, Lemuel," Nnyl whispered into his ear. "You won't be homeless in hell."
Lemy kicked his legs and tried to stand, but Nnyl pulled tight, trapping him. Slowly, the fight ran out of him and he went limp. When she was sure he was dead, she pushed him off and stood.
Now, she thought, for the rest.
Alex Loud was sitting at the dining room table and trying to write when the front door exploded open and Lupa staggered in. The poser wannabe 3edgy5me Lucy knock-off's face was a bloodless shade of white and her eyes strained from her haggard face. She took three steps into the living room then collapsed.
A knife jutted from her back.
Suddenly, everyone in the house surrounded her, all talking at once. Lyra pushed her way through the crowd, knelt, and felt for a pulse. She looked up. "She's...she's dead."
Alex blinked. Dead?
Just then, Lacy ran in from outside, eyes wide with horror. "Hit the deck!" she cried. "Linette finally lost it!"
An excited murmur ran through the living room. A moment later, the window next to the door detonated like a bomb and something landed on the carpet with a thud.
Rinn's severed head.
Someone screamed, and in an instant, pandemonium erupted. OCs ran every which way, screaming and clawing at their faces. Bed was knocked to the ground and trampled to death underneath 90 sets of feet; Laikia the Russian shoved Bean the Spic out of the way and made a B-line for the stairs; Loli spun in circles crying for Dad; Lorenzo video taped; and Gloom used her massive breasts as a floatation device. Alex looked around for Allie and Lamis, and spotted them cowering in a corner. She had to get them out of here.
She started toward them but came to a halt when Linette came through the door. Alex gaped at her state: Clad in sunglasses and a trenchcoat like Neo, she was covered in blood and holding -
"SHE'S GOT A GUN!" Lina screamed.
Linette took aim and fired: Toby flew back, hit the wall, and sank to his butt, leaving a greasy red streak on the plaster. Linette came in, the hem of her coat fluttering, and spun to the left, shooting without aiming. A round struck Leni in the arm and she went down with a shocked cry. Sonette the weeb came out of nowhere with her katana raised high and rushed the gunwoman, Linette ducked, spun, and threw out her elbow, catching the dumb cliche in the chin. Sonette stumbled back, then charged forward again. Linette lifted the gun and fired: The round took Sonette in the stomach and drove her back.
Alex shook her head, then went over to where Lamis and Allie hugged each other and cried. "We gotta go!" Alex screamed.
Behind her, Linette threw the gun aside, picked up the fallen sword, and chopped Lacy's head off: It flew through the air, mouth open in a silent scream, then hit the TV and fell to the floor. Blood spurted from Lacy's ragged stump, and her fingers went to her neck. Realizing she was dead, she gave up and collapsed. Linette turned and jammed the sword through Lizy's chest, then jammed the blade deep into the plaster, pinning the little girl to the wall. She grabbed Leia, knelt, and broke the money-grubbing Lola daughter over her knee. Leia's spine cracked and she let out a breathless oof.
"She's killing everyone," Allie moaned.
"They deserve it," Lamis said spitefully.
Yeah, well, maybe they did, but Alex wasn't trying to lose her life today. She still had 1000 more chapters of her story Yeeling in the Rears to write.
She grabbed Allie's hand and pulled her to her feet. "Lamis, come -"
Her words turned into a scream when Linette spun her around. The blonde's face was blank and covered in blood. Bodies littered the floor behind her: Lori tried to stuff her entrails back into her stomach cavity, Liena sat dazedly against the wall, missing part of her arm, and Panther lay on her back, now missing all of her limbs instead of just one.
Alex's heart raced and terror gripped. "L-Linette."
"I am Nnyl now."
Alex swallowed. "N-Nynl...we're friends, right?"
"I have no friends."
She picked Alex up by the throat, turned, and chokeslammed her through the coffee table. Alex's head hit the floor and white light burst across her field of vision...then she knew no more.
Nnyl went out onto the porch, grabbed a push mower, and held it up, blades facing out. The others had regrouped and faced her like an army, Laika at the head. "Your reign of terror ends now, crazy girl," she said in her comically thick Russian accent.
Grinning, Nnyl pulled the mower's cord and it coughed into life.
Letting out a Ruskie battle cry, Laika charged, and the others followed. Nnyl stepped forward, and the spinning blades took Laikia in the face, chopping it to mince meat. She turned and caught Gloom in the tits, reducing them to red jelly. Terry threw a punch and her hand sank into the mower's guts. Blood, body parts, and visera flew into the air and rained onto the floor. Nnyl spun in a circle, cutting anything that moved and slipping on the layer of blood covering the floor.
When the mower died, she threw it away and stood before what was left of Laikia's troops: Twenty OCs carrying bottles, clubs, and knives.
Nnyl was weak, riddled with bruises and cuts, and beginning to come down from her bloodlust. Her fury had been spent and the carnage around her only depressed her.
This was it.
The end.
She opened her coat to reveal the suicide vest she stole from Mano the Arab. The OCs before her froze.
"See you in hell."
She pushed the big red button, and the house exploded in a massive fireball. The ground shook, windows rattled as far away as Elk Park, and flaming bits of debris fell over Franklin Avenue like hellish rain.
It was over. The family that started in love had ended in hate, and what could have been beautiful was made, through EGO, into a nightmare.
And in the end...nobody won.
Nobody.