She forgot it. She forgot her real name. Somewhere along the way. Somewhere in the Disco era. Fucking disco was annoying, but the following decade was no better. Slasher movies pumped out likr crazy, and only so many about vampires. Only so many about beings like her.

The goth girl who was born in the past century, a teenager who had been bitten well over a hundred years ago, had been roaming all throughout the world, caught up in such bizarre spectacles and shitshows every now and then. All sorts of monsters she didn't want to get involved with had come out of the shadows every so often, but the teenager, if that was the correct term to use for herself, shoved them all away, telling them to fuck off.

Not like she wanted to avoid them for the sake of avoiding them. She just wanted to be a solo act and keep on doing what she'd been doing for so long; eating random people when she craved it. Oh? Did you think she would be a good little vampire? Wrong.

Gloom was a ravenous carnivore who looked just like a normal girl. She was able to deceive many horny boys this way. Fangs didn't apply to her, for all of her teeth were serrated to the core. Her eyes, usually a black color, were able to go red at will.

Right at the current second, she only had a black dress, pretending to be a drunkened girl coming from a heavy party. That was her best trick ever. Eighty-nine times and counting.

Walking along the empty streets of a neighborhood in a city of Ohio, Gloom, the name she gave to herself when she could no longer remember who she was when she was alive before the bite, reeled in her new victim. A girl with a weird greenish-colored hair, was coming down the street.

"Oooh, tasty!" Gloom's plan was to fall and stumble right before the girl passed by, so that she would try and help her back up, making for an easy kill. Girls, more rare to come across when it came to feasting. Normally, Gloom went for the guys, because they had more meaty protein on them. That, and she would sometimes try to seduce someone who caught her eye. She had, by then, fucked over two thousand guys by this year in time- And most of them were dead, eaten. She had an exception chart where if the guy had all the good qualities, she'd let him live. She only spared one guy in the seventies. If she remembered right, that dude's name was Lyle. Or was it Chip?

Bah, what did it matter? Right now, her eyes were set on the girl. Six feet apart. Five. Now four. Gloom wobbled around like a dirty party girl, tilting her head and hands. Three feet. "Ohhh... M-"

She pretend-tripped on her feet, striking against Linda as part of the ruse. "Oof!"

"Oh, excuse me- Hey, are you drunk?" Linda helped Gloom back to her feet, which is what she anticipated of her. "Come on, up you go. You're okay, right?"

Gloom smiled fiendishly up at her new victim, revealing her jagged teeth and bright red eyes. "Oh, I will be when I'm done eating you!"

Linda pushed the hostile away, immmedialy changing course. Then, she drew out a concealed pistol and immediately fired three rounds into Gloom's face. It was all the evidence Linda needed to confirm she had found the pheno freak killing people horribly out in this area. The bullets punched right through her skull, coming out from the other end, trailed by blood. Gloom groaned in complete shock and surprise, holding her wounded face.

"What the-?" Linda became bewildered as well, witnessing the carnivorous hostile still standing on her feet.

"Ow, that's my beautiful face!" Gloom was bleeding from her cheeks and forehead, shaking the disoriented feeling off. A bullet had penetrated through her brain, causing some wiring to be short-circuited. "Oh, my God, I..."

Linda fired two more slugs into Gloom's chest before racing towards her to perform a perfect pin-down maneuver. The poor blood sucker hit her head hard onto the concrete of the sidewalk, only further damaging her skull and rattling her brain around. But she was still moving about, trying to regenerate.

"Oh? Still moving, I see! How impressive for an emo pheno."

Gloom wiggled in pain while her body popped the bullet fragments out of her body. The came flinging upwards, with some of them striking Linda's face.

"Ow! You disgusting-" Linda aimed the gun point-blank at Gloom's face. "Any last words?"

Gloom hissed and slapped Linda's occupied hand away, sending the gun flying into the air. "Leave little old me alone!" She kicked at Linda's stomach, sending her back a few steps, enough for Gloom to get up and flee. And she could have gotten away clean, if not for Liena coming in hot with her Model X Holoboard, the hoverboard that was built into her shoes. The air in Gloom's stomach was forced out, with the little vampire groaning in dear agony. "Oh- Oh, no fair... No f-fair..."

Liena deactived the Holoboard by tapping her shoes together, making a not-so-perfect landing. "Ah! Linda, I got her!"

Gloom's wounds healed quite rapidly, but she wasn't ready to try fleeing again. "Oh-" She vomited out some reddish liquid, mixed with some chunks, and even a bone or two. "M-mom-"

This was like those other times she had thrown up, and in the horrible tightening of her throat while trying to wretch it all out, she called out to her mother and father. Her eyes watered up while she had her head over the bathtub in those times. Not her fault, for the food could have not been healthy. And this, right now, was just like those moments.

Gloom was on all fours, violently coughing up the blood and chunks of her last meal, smearing the nive white sidewalk. "S-stay-"

Linda opted to try shooting her once more, but she decided it wouldn't work this time. And she only brought so much ammo with her. "She's not dying, Liena! Stay back, I got this!"

Gloom went blurry eyed, reeling around with an aching throat from her numerous attempts to empty her stomach the wrong way. She breathed calmly through her nose, trying to grow to a calm. "H-hey, no fair-"

Linda came up to her, lifting a leg over Gloom's face. Just as the goth girl looked up, Linda send it down hard, knocking the girl out.

1913

Gloom was on an empty rooftop, on a bust night in the city of San Francisco, California. She was in a dark dress, a much more elegant one than she would come to wear in the present. That, mixed with some nice slippers, made her seem like she had indeed come out of a public ball, but only, she didn't. She was still in mourning due to her parents having-

She sighed with pain, trying to brush that very thought of them having died. Having left her, making her an orphan. It was horrible, it was an eternal damnation in the early stage of her life. She looked up at the moon, wondering, just wondering, if maybe they were up there, looking down from the beautiful heavens, smiling at her. Smiling and urging her to keep on living, to push past it. To move on. And Gloom wanted to. She wished she had the strength to do just that.

To push past it. To be ready to give them a proper goodbye. Needless to say, she cried alone up there. Up until the point that her heavy sobbing attracted someone. Someone who would prove to change the course of her life.

"Who's there?" She turned around- And screamed when the person came up to her and bit into her neck.

Now

It was still a haunting memory to her, but only one of a dozen few that would totally kill her. And man, did she hate that shit right fucking now. Right when she woke up screaming. "M-MOM!"

Linda slapped her good, shutting her up effectively. "Stay shut and stay put, fucking animal."

"What-?" Gloom had the idea to get up, not thinking of complying with this girl who had more bite that she initially believed. When she bent her feet upward, she found that she was tied up in chains, sitting against the ledge of a rooftop. And then, some certain memories began to kick back into her system. "Hey, hey, please..."

She was no longer the human-hungry carnivore she was moments ago, only merely crying in front of the two clones.

"Before we call it in," Linda suggested, "I want to have a little fun with her. And..." She had another idea.

"Linda?" Liena watched as Linda moved closer to Gloom. "We said we'd capture her and take her back! She's Domicile property now! Don't think about trying to kill her!"

"I'm not- I don't know how to," Linda shared. "This is getting annoying."

"Hey, p-please let me go... I promise I won't eat you!" Gloom regained much of her focus again. She still had the aching feeling in her throat. "I'll just-"

Linda hit her upside the head with the gun. "That's enough out of you, fucking psycho."

"Ow, that hurts!" Gloom had received enough brain damage to have lost one brain cell too many. "Stop it, I'm losing...-"

It wouldn't be the first time she developed some hardcore head injuries where her brain had received a devastating toll. Only a few times when her meals got lucky, and at the end of their escape, Gloom became an airhead for some time. Dumb. Linda made her dumb this time.

"Liena, you wanna take a shot at her?"

"Umm..."

"Don't be afraid, Liena! I've shot her in the head and she's still fucking moving!" Linda went back and gave the shorter girl her gun. "Remember the drills."

Gloom shook her body frantically, making the chains rattle along each other. "I-I'm chained! I can't escape-"

Liena set her finger on the trigger after holding the gun firmly. Just like many times before, she aligned the sights to Gloom. And she hesitated to shoot for one second.

"Oh, oh thank-" A bullet came out and hit Gloom's left ear. Her eardrums rang out intensely, re-adjusting the sound of the atmosphere around her. "HEY!"

Her earlobe had been remodeled with a clean hole, in addition to blood pouring out. And it only made that ear itchy.

Liena's hands shook after, making the fun tremble about uneasily with her grip. It could've been her first time in taking a life, and she totally wasn't ready to get there. Linda said otherwise. "Again, Liena."

"N-no-" Gloom was able to detect Liena's reluctance to fire the weapon. Naturally, she played into it. "I... I don't want to die! Have mercy!"

Liena looked on, then eyed the gun as if it was a stranger. "Linda-"

"Oh, brother," Linda rolled her eyes back and snagged the gun from Liena. "Just watch me, icy hair."

Gloom gulped visibly right before Linda fired another single round, hitting her right eye. "YEOW! WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TRYING TO DO?!".

"Hmmm, you're getting annoying, not dying and shit." Linda tucked her gun away and decided to use a much more traditional approach. She found a crowbar laying around and returned to the chained-uo girl. "Regenerative properties, I'm sure, right? Damn, for such an easy pheno caught-"

"Ph-pheno?" Gloom was familiar with the concept of phenos, having seen them come up on the news from various sources many decades ago. "I'm not one of those freaks!"

Linda raised an eyebrow before raising the crowbar. "Bullshit, you meet all the requirements!"

"I'm-" Gloom didn't need to tell me what she was in nature, but maybe it was because they believed her to be a pheno that she was here, chained up and rendered immobile. "Hold it, I'm-" It was an all-or-nothing gamble. She really had nothing to lose, unless there was more to them she wasn't aware of. And she wasn't considering it at all, which was why- "I'm a vampire!"

Linda had just raised the crowbar high, but had her hand come down again. Her serious face didn't stay for long. In five seconds of studying Gloom's face, Linda found herself laughing incredibly hard. Laughing so much that she lost grip of the crowbar, which struck Gloom's head.

"Uck! Oh, come on!"

Liena was merely scratching her head. "Are those even real?"

Linda bent over, setting her hands on her knees, bringing her laughter to a halt. "Oh, God, ohhhh, that's the funniest shit I've heard in my whole life!"

"Hey-"

Linda wheezed. "I'm sorry, give me a moment."

"Why do you-?" Gloom was cut off by another wave of laughter, even louder than before. Linda really found her to be pulling her chain. "Oh, my God."

"It's- Hahaha, I'm sorry, a vampire? A vamp-" She wheezed yet again. "A vampire! L-M-F-A-O!"

"What? What does that mean? Hey-!"

"Linda? Earth to Lindaaaa?" Liena placed her hands on Linda's shoulders, shaking her. "You're being totes weird."

"Ha, I can't! I just can't! A vampire! What are you, a little girl?"

Gloom's feelings had been struck with that question. Maybe she was a little girl, stuck in the body she had now. She didn't need to go back there again. Her personal misery, the empty holes where happiness and joy were required to fill in with, and then the profound curse of her live; the curse to witness the end of others, and, usually, to be their end. She was a man-eating carnivore who could simply not die. Or, she was just lucky to avoid such people or events that could have ended up being the death of her. The supernatural world, still uncharted, unexplored territory to her.

Gloom stayed silent after that, no longer feeling up to hear Linda. It was her silence, plus the look on her face, a broken expression of saddened agony, that made Linda stop and consider that Gloom might've been telling the truth. "You're kidding me, right?"

Gloom let her eyes circle around the cement ground beneath her. Man, she really lived up to her new name. The nickname she didn't wish to be branded, but it served more as a curse to her. Not what she wanted. Never what she wanted. But it was her dark mark now, more than a name. More than a name.

"Hey, psycho, answer me," Linda continued.

"Linda, let's just take her back," Liena suggested. "I don't feel good about this."

"Are you really- Really a vampire?" Linda poked at Gloom's head. "Boop!"

Gloom closed her eyes.

"Did I hit a nerve? Are vampires like this? Liena?"

Liena raised her shoulders. "I don't know about them, don't ask me."

"You look so miserable, you know?" Linda lifted Gloom's head, looking straight into her eyes. Gloom was looking at her, but she looked so dead, that she seemed to not notice Linda right there. Dead eyes. Red dead eyes. "Way gloomy."

"What do you want?" Gloom whispered. "Just... Leave."

"Wow, you were ready to eat me, now you're all mopey and depressed. Like, really? Bah!" Linda was pretty much fearless, having brass balls without being a male. She leaned against the barrier, on the right to Gloom's side. "Move over, She-Dracula."

Gloom didn't move.

"Shit, you're not kidding, are you really-?"

"Yes, I'm..." Gloom sighed before finishing. "One of those."

"One of those," Linda scoffed. "Yeah, okay. Liena, take a seater. We may just be here awhile."

"It's getting cold-" Liena had only an orange shirt and some dark blue jeans tonight. Linda threw her purple sweater at her, revealing a white shirt with a blue target underneath. "Thanks."

"So... A vampire..." Gloom couldnt tell if Linda was having trouble accepting it, or she was probably secretly fangirling. She'd have to be pretty gullible to be fangirling, that's for sure. "Let me see-"

"How can I-?" And then, Gloom ended uo screaming to the top of her lungs. Liena covered her ears while Linda was pressing the silver tip of her gun against Gloom's skin. "IT FUCKING BURNS!"

"Oh, fuck!" Linda pulled back the harmful silver from the vampire. "Holy shit! Holy fucking titty-sucking shit! No fucking way!"

"Linda!" Liena called her out on her potty-mouth. "Zip!"

"Oh, Liena! We've caught a catch! Ha! And they labeled her a pheno case! Hahaha!"

"I know that... So... We're not talking her back, are we?"

Linda did have a change of plans. "Girl is not a pheno, so there's no need to capture what isn't in their jurisdiction. This one does not need to come back with us."

Gloom was listening.

"So, we're letting her go?" Liena hoped this wasn't the case. "But she's murdered-"

"I never said we would, icy hair."

"Wait, wait, I was just-!" Gloom now understood the realistic severity of her situation, and tilted on her side. The chains made a loud cackle when she fell, and was then trying to roll away from them. "I was just doing what I was supposed to! I'm hungry! I was hungry! Who are you to take that away from me?!"

Liena felt bad about this. It would fall on Linda to end this evil girl's life. The life she lived and used to kill countless others. Others, more than the file case said she had killed. How many? How many more? How many of them have died in total? "Hey..."

Linda picked the crowbar again and made a pounce on Gloom. "Maybe if I bash your head in until I turn it to nothing but mashed potato, you'll be dead for good!"

"Linda..." Liena circled around her, watching as Linda was already striking away at Gloom. "H-hey."

Gloom became bloodied up, skin being grazed off, face being devasted. "St-stop!" She pleaded for Linda to stop, already having more than enough for today. As depressed and dead as she was, Gloom had no anticipation to meet death here and now. She had tried so desperately free herself, but it was utterly hopeless. Hopeless. Hopeless... Like all good things that came to an end. Lifeless. Maybe it was her time.

Linda noticed the change in resistance. "Are- Are you seriously giving up? Dude?"

"Why does it matter?" Gloom let out another sigh. "If you've come here to do it, then just get it over with."

Linda looked up to the sky. "Ugh, where's the fun in-? Oh, my God..." She dropped the crowbar again. "I can't, I just- I just can't kill you like this! Put up a fight! Give me a challenge!"

Liena raised a hand, slowly reaching out to her. "Hey..."

"You're really... Gone, aren't you?" Linda was displeased, but found herself to be relating to the downed sentiment. The three were drowning in dark waters, each for different reasons, but were really in the same sea of darkness. The darkness, a curse for everyone in existence. No longer were the Loud generations the prime target of the cruelty of it. "Jeez, gloomy, why are you bipolar? That's what it looks like to me."

"Mmmmm..." Gloom moaned out. "Gloom..."

"Yeah, that's what you have. Gloom. You are the epitome of-"

"That's what they call me..." Gloom added. "That name... That... Sign."

"Oh, my God, you-" Linda sat down in crisscross position and placed her hands on her face. "What the fuck is wrong with us?"

"S-speak for yourself-" Liena chimmed in and joined her, and the three were formed into a circle. "So... What now? Linda?"

"I'm so fucking conflicted. This girl is literally too sad to kill, and I want to fight a challenger who will give me his or her all! And this sad vampire isn't gonna grant me it, and..." Linda moaned and groaned, then hissed. "I just want some good foes. That too much to ask?"

Gloom scanned her eyes up to Linda. "And I was..." She wasn't enjoying it, however. She didn't want feisty food who could best her. Maybe... Maybe she just wanted freebies, and the easier ways to get through this uncommonly weird life she didn't ask for. Again, she wondered it. She wondered if tonight was possibly the end of her sad life. "But I wanted to eat you. Not..."

"You telling me you never had any opposition? That's horseshit!"

"What is even going on anymore?" Liena placed a finger on her bottom lip.

"I think you have, but not like this. Is it finally catching up to you? Yes, that's it, isn't it? You're accepting the outcome of all your fucking sins! Oh, ho!" Linda was laughing, smiling. "I got it!"

Gloom focused her attention to Linda. "No, no you didn't..."

"I think I did, girly. That's it! You're giving up because you're accepting it! Accepting that your journey must come to an end! Well..." Linda was less conflicted now. "It's not a death match, it's a mercy death! Sure, I can end you!"

"NO!" Gloom broke out of her chains in the least expected moment. Linda and Liena both jumped back out of fear. "I WILL NOT-"

There was a large piece of a broken mirror that caught her eye. Gloom advanced towards it when she noticed that she couldn't see herself in it. And when she neared it close enough to see her own reflection, she found that she couldn't. It simply wasn't there, but those of the other two were. They were there. Not her. She wasn't there. She was never there. And Gloom finally accepted something. She fell on her knees and started crying heavily.

Her sobbing was annoying to Linda. "I need a smoke."

Liena was attracted by the poor girl's leaking emotions. "Uhhh..." She lightly touched Gloom's back. "I'm... This is weird, but I'm sorry-"

"Liena! That is our enemy!"

"Well, I know she's... Done what she did, but... Maybe we can change her? Look at her! She's all... That!"

"Are... Are you kidding me right now?" Linda fell on her back and turned away. "Fuck it, do what you want."

"Change? Me?" Gloom thought she misheard. Not once had she ever heard these words spoken and directed to her. "I... I have to eat-"

"I know... And that's bad, and you scare me, but you just seem so sad, and lost, and I can't help but feel sorry for you. I guess I pity you in that way, and maybe we can help you or something. I... I would..."

"You want to-?" Gloom faced away from the mirror shard, turning to Liena. She had some eyeliner applied, it seemed, as her eyes were smeared with a black coloring that suggested it. "C-could you change this-?"

Liena was thinking of how to help Gloom. The main problems were that she had the appetite for the same food over and over again. This was what drove her to become empty and alone all of these years, only seeking relief through her eating. Relief. An escape. What the fuck? A purpose. Pointless living. A damned life of Gloom. "Yeah... As long as you don't try to eat us-"

"Hey, you're not in charge here!"

"And you are?" Liena threw back.

"What's changed?!"

"Because... She's a human!" Liena pulled out the hugging card for Gloom.

"Oh!" Gloom and Linda were both surprised by Liena's wholehearted affection. "You're warm..."

"LIENA, IF YOU GET KILLED-"

Gloom brought herself to relax with the tiny girl's hug. "N-no one's ever hugged me in-"

"Oh, give me a break," Linda grunted.

"Since forever," Gloom finished.

"I don't like this, Gloom. At the same time, I don't want to let you free, or to have you killed. So..."

"I... I'll- I can-"

Linda got up. "You follow us, and you do not say shit. Follow, and no funny business. Can you do that?"

Way Later

They established the factory Liena had found Linda at to be the their new hideout. This was where Gloom was to take her leave for awhile. And from there, Linda had the smart idea to include Gloom into their little duo team, now officially making this a trio.

At first, it wasn't a good fucking idea to Liena, but she was forced to get on board. The pair of solutions were that Gloom could help them in achieving to knock down the list of potential cases they planned to take on, and especially with Gloom's immortality, she was a big gun they could not afford to lose; and then the second one had benefited Gloom. Whoever that fell their way would automatically become the five-star course meal for Gloom. Targets, turned to food. It all worked out in the end.

The three were assembled in the main floor of the hideout. Linda was sharing the vital information on them, explaining much of the Loud family history, already having revealed to the vampire what they really were in nature. And then, there was what Linda had promised Liena to share.

Gloom has recovered from her wounds by then, and layed firmly on the floor. "So, you two are not actually real people?"

"Well, I think it varies on how it's perceived, dude," Linda threw in. "From what I've gathered, not everyone would see clones as real people, but we are. We're alive, and with authentic feelings and ideas. If that's not gonna grant me the same rights as any other person, then there might be something really fucked up with the world."

"I'm real..." Liena added. "I believe I'm real, and it's good enough for me. If anyone says otherwise-"

"I'd punch them for you, icy hair."

"What? No, the right answer is to ignore them, isn't it?"

Linda whispered to Gloom. "She's so innocent, its too cute."

Gloom smiled with a chuckle. "Adorable."

"Hey, I'm not cute, I'm serious! I- I can be serious!"

Linda decided to lie down as well, taking in the cold from the floor. As long as Liena was warm and toasty with her sweater, then it was all well and good to her. "I haven't shared, have I?"

Gloom was now an observant listener here, while Linda was to go in depth with their own origins.

Liena remainded sitting upright. "Lincoln... Lincoln Loud, who was he?"

"The whole story isn't for the faint of heart. His life, and their lives... It's messed up, icy hair."

Liena narrowed her eyes as a reaction. Messed up. The scariest of words to her, as of yet. "Go on."

Linda sighed. "I'm not kidding, or exaggerating. There's... There's just so much death..."

"Linda?"

Gloom turned to Liena and gave her own thoughts. "Hey, you'd be better off not knowing, if it really is that bad. If I were in your shoes, I'd say no to this, to never find out about this."

"B-but-" Liena didn't understand why she was being denied this. First them, now Linda. "Why?"

Linda stood up and moved to the windows. "Lincoln Loud sounds so much like a monster, and I believe that he was one, and his first clone Linka was one too. Your father and sister weren't that good of people, but you, Liena... You're not like them. You're a flower compared to them."

Gloom agreed that Liena was full of life as well. Even moreso than them. Than her. "You're really sweet, Liena. I agree with her if it means you yourself losing that side of you."

"I... Sometimes do want to know... But-" Liena went up to Linda. "Were they really the opposite of me?"

Linda nodded once. "It's the past, Liena. It has nothing to do with you."

"But I'm-"

Linda turned and placed her hands on Liena's shoulders. "Listen, just because you come from that same genepool does not make you one of them. You're not one of them, you're better than them."

Liena raised her hands onto Linda's waist, closed her eyes, and went on tip-toes to plant a nice peck on her lips. Linda grew shockingly alarmed at first, but then shut her own eyes and kissed the shorter girl back. It lasted long enough for Gloom to realize, to understand that she was witnessing not just love, but the power of a strong friendship blossoming strong here.

Love, again.

Gloom's dead heart became warm again. The scene brought a smile to her.

Liena pulled her lips away, but stayed near Linda to hug her. "I knew you liked me."

"N-no fair, you tricked me and stuff!" Linda tried to hide it, but it was far too late to deny her own heart's feelings. "Goddamn it, okay, maybe..."

Liena let out a giggle. "You're so cute when you get like that."

Gloom approached them and coughed. "You both are pretty cute together, and I like what you've sold me. I like this."

"What, the deal?" Linda inquired. "Hey, it's Liena's idea, so you should be thanking her more than me."

"Oh, I am, I'm really thankful, but... What I mean is, it's been so long since, well..."

Liena pulled Gloom by her hand and summoned her into the hug. "I totes get it, I think. You're among friends, Gloom. You're among friends. Right, Linda?"

"Just don't try to eat us, and we'll be good."

Gloom accepted the conditions once more. "Yes, I won't. Th-thank you, guys."

The three were locked in a big hug, instantly forgetting where they were in that moment. They needed it. Not just one, and not two. The three of them needed it. Wanted it. But soon, they would not be alone in this. They would soon come to fall into a greater set of conflicts, and would have to rely on each other, to build up their constructing bonds of trust and love to plow through them. Together. As one. The start of a whole new family.

Gloom. Her name. More than a curse. More than a curse.