Post Awakening
Chapter Six - Closure
Lori had become distant to the rest of the Loud Family, as if she was never really there. After that breakfast the had where she had pretty much inspired all of them to not just treat Lincoln better, but to treat each other better as well, she disappeared. She rarely came to eat with them and when she did she always looked completely disheveled. Her hair was a mess and her blue eyes lacked the conviction that she had coming out of the dream. It was like they were looking at a zombie version of their older sister.
This was especially the case when she looked at Lincoln. She was always staring at him as if she had seen a ghost, and in a way, she had. They all had. Waking up from that dream wasn't something that they were expecting. But even after a week, after most everyone else had accepted the fact that Lincoln was here to stay, Lori continued her trance.
The girl rarely left her room, only when she had to use the bathroom or when she was so hungry to the point of making the others worried about her. Leni was the only one who was in there with Lori regularly, but she didn't even have a clue as to what was going on. Lori had been a mystery to everyone and nothing that any of them could do worked. Even Lincoln tried to work his magic, but all she could do was stare at him like he was merely a phantom, creeping him out in the process and making him leave. They would give anything to have their older sister back.
She wasn't sleeping either. Every night she would just lie on her back in bed, refusing to allow herself to go to sleep. Of course, she drifted off every now and then and greatly regretted it every single time, as it only made things worse. Every time she fell asleep, she would wake up, not knowing whether it was a dream or reality. Her mind was still recovering from the trauma of losing her only brother. Was she ever going to go back to normal? She wondered this herself when she wasn't trying to convince herself that what she was in wasn't a dream. In her mind, Lincoln was still dead, and every time she saw him, it only made things worse. She knew he was alive, but she didn't realize it.
Lincoln had been enjoying his time. A week after the dream he realized that all of his sisters were totally and utterly being over-protective of him, with the exception of Lori of course who refused to even interact with any of them. Someone would be with him at all times unless he was in his room. They had actually started to respect his privacy for once! But despite that, it was still rather annoying. having to deal with them all the time like that.
But just a week and a half after he woke up, he started to realize something. They weren't just being over-protective, they were practically doing whatever he wanted. He would be taking out the trash and Lynn or Luna would suddenly come up to him and offer to take it from him. He tried to insist on doing it himself at first, but gave up, as they were better at insisting on things. He was at the point now where he was expecting it from them.
"Let me take that trash out for you! Don't worry about it!"
"Let me take your plate to the sink! Don't worry about it!"
"I'll clean your room for you! Don't worry about it!"
Don't worry about it, that was what they said every single time. It was like they didn't think he could do anything which to him, was kind of annoying, but at the same time, he was grateful for it. It meant that he could sit back and relax in his room all day and not do a single thing, and none of them caught on to his trick. It was the exact opposite of what happened with Lynn when she thought that he was bad luck. Lincoln was set for a while, however there was one thing still bothering him. Lori.
He was worried about her. All of them were. She would hardly eat and she never came out of her room. Why? He knew he had to do something, but every time he tried, she just acted like he wasn't there until he gave up and left. What was it going to take to get her back he wondered. How long was she going to be like this?
Lori walked beside the casket, wherein Lay Lincoln's lifeless body. It was sunny, despite the somber mood that had encompassed all of them. The grass below her feet flattened with every step she took and with the continuous trampling of her other sisters, stayed flat. Ronnie-Anne and Clyde were there as well as both of their families, tears were streaming down the African-American boy's face with Howard trying to console him. Ronnie-Anne refused to budge emotionally and tried to remain as stoic as possible, but even she couldn't help a single tear streaming down her slightly darkened cheek. Bobby was trying his best to stay strong for his sister, but it was hard for him too.
Despite the fact that it was sunny, it was still cold. The previous few days had been dark and dreary, making the temperature drop to the low 40's despite the fact that it was spring. The breeze didn't help either, crawling up underneath Lori's dress and making her shiver. Luna and Luan seemed to be fine, but Leni especially seemed to be suffering. Most everyone else didn't seemed to be bothered too much by the weather.
As their parents finally passed by the casket, they slowly made their way back to the seats situated right at the front, dragging themselves along until they finally sat down. The service was short and simple, preacher got up and said a few words, then a few close friends of the family said a few more words and then it was over.
The men that brought Lincoln to the grave site, the pallbearers, slowly let him down into the ground. Lori was sitting in between Leni and her mother with the Santiago family sitting right behind them. Rita was crying, leaning into Lynn Sr's shoulder. Leni had muffled sobs escaping her lips and her mascara had started running, but Lori couldn't do anything. Why not?
The funeral ended and the family all got into vanzilla which was parked on the grass just outside of the grave site and went home. As soon as Lori got home, she fell asleep.
"Lori! Wake up!" Lincoln said. "It's almost 2 in the afternoon."
Another dream. That wasn't the only one she had. In the previous nights she had had dreams that seemed to continue off of the dream given to them by the dreamcaster. Why this was happening she had no idea. Lisa tried to work with her, but even her efforts proved fruitless. Oh well, Lori would get over it eventually, hopefully.
"Lori, what's wrong?"
Lori couldn't bear to tell anyone what had been happening with her, the dreams. Sometimes she couldn't tell whether or not they were real, and it tormented her. She wanted desperately to believe that Lincoln was still alive, yet despite the overwhelming evidence, she just couldn't force herself to believe it. For goodness sake, Lincoln was standing right there in front of her! Why couldn't she just tell herself that that was him?
"Nothing's wrong Lincoln. Don't worry about it."
"I don't believe you..." the boy started. "But I'm going to leave you alone. I hope you're able to figure out whatever's happening."
He left the room and softly shut the door. Hearing his voice alone almost made her break down crying, but her own stubbornness to not let her siblings see her cry got the better of her. After Lincoln left the room, she started sniffling. Why? Why did it have to be like this? Why couldn't she just know once and for all that he was alive?
Another one. This one was on Lincoln's birthday. Everyone had taken the day off from work to go visit Lincoln's grave. They all left flowers on his gravestone and told him stories about what had been going on in their lives. Lynn talked about how she won the state championship in softball. Lana talked about how their tree was going. It was almost as tall as she was now. Lola told him about her pageants, Luna told him about her latest concert. All of them told him something about what they had been up to recently. More than anything, they talked about how much they missed him. About how they wish he was still here with them. Tears were shed to say the least.
Finally, they all made their way back to the van. All of them except Lori.
"Lori, are you coming?"
"Not yet. I want a minute to talk to Lincoln by myself."
Lynn Sr nodded and put his head back in the van.
"Hey Lincoln..."
"..."
"Other than today, the girls have seemed to be... fine..."
"..."
Lori sighed as she bent down on her knees. She pulled out a single white flower that she had been hiding from the others. "They've been doing good... as well as they can without you that is..."
"..."
"I've been trying but..." tears began falling from Lori's eyes. "It's just not the same... I need you more than I thought I did..."
"..."
"Lincoln..." she said through stifled sobs. "I need you... I need you so much..."
"..."
Lori dropped the flower on the ground as her hands went straight to her face. "I can't live without you..."
"Lori Wake up!"
Lori opened her eyes and saw Leni kneeling next to her bed with a concerned look on her face. Lori was on her side and she had tears in her eyes.
"Are you okay Lori?"
"No..." she answered.
Two Weeks Later
"Oh man... this is great!"
Lincoln strolled through the hallway with his head held high. His master plan that he had been working on for the past week had fully come to fruition. Because of what had happened, practically all of his sisters, except for Lori, she was still in a funk, would do everything for him. He didn't need to do any chores, and even if he did, all he had to do was pretend to be hurt, and they would all immediately rush to his side. He didn't have to do anything.
"Lincoln, could you wash the dishes please?"
"Sure mom!"
Lincoln smirked as he passed his mother, he waited until she was out of earshot and then pretended to fall over with a yelp. Within five seconds, two of his sisters, Luna and Lucy, who were sitting in the living room, rushed in to see what had happened. What they saw seemed much worse than it actually was. There was soapy water on the floor and he was sitting on his butt with his hand on his head.
"Lincoln! What happened!"
"Oh, it's nothing much. I just slipped."
He made an attempt to get up and faked pain when he did, acting like he hurt his knee. But in reality, he was fine.
"Dude. Let us help you."
He looked at the fake camera and smiled as his sisters practically carried him to the couch in the living room. "Brother. Let us do it for you."
"Yeah little dude, we're gonna take care of it."
He stretched his arms out on the couch and started relaxing.
On the other end of the house, Lori finally decided to get up and do something. She streched her arms and looked around her room. Her side was a complete mess, Leni's however was perfectly normal, as if nothing was wrong. Lori got up, and for the first time in 2 weeks, left her room to do something other than eat or use the bathroom. The first place she went was downstairs. Lincoln was sitting on the couch watching television, and Luna and Lucy were doing dishes in the kitchen. Lincoln looked back to see who was coming down the stairs and his eyes widened when he saw Lori.
"Lori!" Lincoln jumped off the couch and ran up to his oldest sister. She froze almost in shock with her arms to her side and her eyes wide. She wasn't expecting this. Of course she had been gone for a while, but this was a whole new level. Not to mention she was also still having doubts. What was she going to do?
"Lori?" Luna called from the kitchen. "What are you doing?"
She shrugged and made a noise that implied she was thinking "I dunno..."
Lincoln pressed his face into his lost sister's shirt.
"Lincoln?" he looked up.
"Yes Lori?"
"Why aren't you helping the others with the dishes?"
"He slipped and fell so we said we'd do it."
Lori looked at them quizzically. "Oh really?"
They both nodded their heads.
"Whatever..."
"Hey Lincoln, could you go sweep the kitchen real quick? It looks dreadful!"
"Not a problem dad."
Lori was in the living room reading a book at this time. She was watching Lincoln carefully, making sure he wasn't doing anything fishy. Lincoln began sweeping the floor of the kitchen and Lori looked away for five seconds and in those five seconds, Lincoln fell. This time, Lana and Lynn came rushing in to help.
"Interesting..."
Lori had been carefully keeping an eye on Lincoln for a while and she noticed something that none of the others did. He was totally faking his "Injuries" even Lisa with her intellect was fooled by his shenanigans. But Lori could see right through it. She tried to do the same thing too many times and was never able to get away with it. But Lincoln was able to do so because of what had happened recently. He was playing them like a master of a deck of cards. But even the most experienced masters had their flaws. And Lincoln's was that he wouldn't continue to act like he was hurt.
Finally, she set up her own chore for Lincoln to do and set her own plan into action.
"Hey Lincoln!"
"What's up Lori?"
"Would you mind taking out the trash in the bathroom? It's not completely full yet, but we need to start taking care of it before it overflows."
"Sure!"
Lori stood in place and watched him enter the bathroom. He closed the door behind him.
"Why do you need to close the door, you're only taking out the trash."
"Uh... hehe... you're right." he said as he opened the door. She continued keeping an eye on him as he took the bag out of the can and walked over to the stairs. She watched him as he went down the stairs and out the door. Finally, he closed the door to the outside. This is where her plan would go into action.
As soon as he got down the steps of the front porch, he pretended to trip and fall. When he did, he cried out.
Lori was watching the whole time through the window and she wagged her head in disapproval. Everyone else, sans the parents, ran as close to the front door as they could, only to be stopped by Lori.
"Watch..." she told them.
As much as they wanted to help Lincoln, they also knew that what Lincoln was doing was not hard, and they figured that maybe Lori had a point. So they watched and waited.
Lincoln sat on the ground and was grabbing his ankle, when no one came after ten seconds, he looked around, still grabbing his ankle. A minute passed and he wasn't grabbing his ankle anymore. Another minute passed and he stood up as if he was fine and scratched his head. They could see him mouth the words "Where are they?" Not just confirming Lori's suspicions, but also letting them know that he was faking it. Finally he gave up and took the trash to the garbage can.
"Has he been faking it this whole time?"
Lori nodded.
"So, he's never really been hurt?"
Lori nodded again. "He's been faking injury to get out of doing chores. And because of the dream, it's worked phenomenally. You guys didn't even notice it."
"You gotta hand it to him, he really is the man with the plan."
"So what are we gonna do?"
Lori stared them all down and said, "We're gonna confront him about it when he comes back."
"You guys saw all of that?"
Lori turned around to see Lincoln standing in the doorway. "Yes, we did. And we wanna talk to you about it."
"Why you little!"
"Lola!" Lori snapped, "That won't be necessary. No physical fighting, no wrestling, no human pretzels, just talking."
Lori sat down on the couch and patted the couch next to her. Lincoln came and sat down.
Lori sighed, "Lincoln... how long have you been doing this?"
"About a week now..."
The other sisters all looked at each other in shock. He had been doing it for a week and none of them had noticed it.
Lori sighed again. "Look, Lincoln. You can't keep taking advantage of the fact that we're all overprotective of you just because of that dream."
"Yeah man... not cool..."
"So you're gonna promise me that you won't do it again."
"Maybe..." Lincoln started. "What if I don't?"
"You won't be able to... I used to try it myself, I'll be able to see right through it."
"Oh..."
"Lincoln... We've all promised to change for the better in some way. I think now you need to do the same. Alright?"
Lincoln nodded his head.
Lori wrapped her arms around him. This was what she needed. She had been avoiding him because she was scared. Scared that she might do something to him on accident. It was true that she had a hard time believing he was really alive, but that belief stemmed from not wanting to hurt him. If he wasn't alive, then she couldn't hurt him, even on accident. But this proved that she could trust herself. After this change that she made, she could trust herself to keep that promise that she made to him, to all of them.
Lincoln was alive. And that was all they needed.
The End
Well, I know I said that this would be the longest chapter yet, but after not even touching this for almost two months, I changed my mind. Sorry. I still think I was able to bring a good ending to this story anyway.
Time for the big announcement that I was going to tell Y'all.
I'm leaving the Loud House Fandom in general. It has nothing to do with something someone said or people being mean (if you can't take a little harsh criticism you shouldn't be a writer anyway). I've just lost interest in the Loud House. Again, like I said, it has nothing to do with something that someone else said, I just don't really want to do it anymore. Whether or not I want to keep writing is a different story, but as for Loud House Fanfics, I'm done. I had a great run and I Learned a lot of things about writing that I never would have been able to find out if I had never done this, but I am completely finished with writing Loud House Fanfics, and there's nothing y'all can do to change my mind.
I would have quit sooner, but the reason I didn't is because I have a bad habit of not finishing things and I need to not do that. So I finished this one last story so that I would have no qualms about leaving. I will continue to keep up with the story that this fanfic is based off of, but once UnderratedHero finishes "Requiem for a Loud" I will no longer associate myself with the Loud House.
Again, it's been a good run and I've learned a whole lot. Maybe one day when I'm bored I'll come back and write a one shot or something, but as of now, I am done with Loud House Fanfics.
Thanks everyone and I leave you with these parting words. Be Careful, Be Safe, Make Good Choices, Be Nice, Be Sweet, and Be kind. I love you all!
Goodbye.
rctperson85 signing off - 7/20/2018
