June 10th, 2026

The covers of Lucy's bed, which was one on the floor, went untidy on her. She felt the cold air of this common night breach her system, making her try to pull back the covers. Her arms extended only so far, before something grabbed her, and her sheets wrapped around her neck like a boa constrictor making its tight kill.

Lucy choked, hands being held upwards. "Lo-" She gagged on her cry.

"Lucy Loud, your time is running out", came the voice of an invisible being. Lucy tried to kick away from the being. The grip on her neck tightened to the point she was growing hot on her face, eyes going watery.

"Nuhh mahh!" Her hands raised higher, making her come off the ground. Her legs flopped around wildly. The air was going... Going...

"Hehhh..." Lucy's head tilted downwards, on the verge of losing this fight for dear life. She was then dropped back down, and Lucy's eyes only moved. The sheets came off from her neck. She grabbed her throat, still in pain. She coughed, regaining her breath. "Lori-" Lucy spat out saliva, rubbing her arms with ease.

Lori, Lynn and Lily were still asleep, as if nothing happened. "Guys, guys..." She took her time getting up, taking a deep breath, before finally succeeding in screaming. "GUYS, WAKE UP!"

Lynn made quite a jump, shaking the floor, and probably the house, too. "Lucy, who's in the house?! We'll get that girl again!"

Lori helped the badly hurt goth up. "What's wrong? Why did you scream?"

Luna made a guest appearance, letting out a huge roar into the room. "What's all the damn ruckus?"

"They- They were here, they-" Lucy refrained from spilling the beans. "I... I just had a nightmare, I'm-"

"You? A nightmare, Lucy? Are you okay?" Lori looked at the sheets. "Yeah, it looks like a nightmare. You need me to keep you company?"

"No, no. It was just a nightmare. I'll be fine, Lori." Lucy returned to her bed. "Sorry to have alerted you. Goodnight."

Luna and Lori gave each other worried looks, before Luna left back to her room. "I don't know about you, but it could be something," Luna whispered. Lori heard her while tucking in Lily again.

"Nothing to worry about, little sis. Lucy had a bad dream is all."

"What if it wasn't one?" Lori read her expression.

"You think this was a vision, Lily?"

"Mmm-hmm, it can't be just me, right?"

Her visions were something else, and Lori was intrigued at how Lily can see such a thing. This wasn't a gift from Lisa, for Luan had said Lily was seeing them way before the family reunited.

"I don't know, Lily. I really don't know." Lori kissed her forehead. "Get some sleep now, okay?"

"Okay, Lori. Night night."

Lynn returned to her bed wordlessly, crossed at being woken up at whatever time it was. "It's too soon for this."

Lucy sighed, her mind still on the obvious. They were here, coming to collect. But why haven't they already? It didn't make sense. Lucy kept her eyes open for a good while, and only fell asleep over half an hour later.

Morning

Lucy was left alone, while the others went down for breakfast. Lupa went out of her way to wake Lucy up, bringing her scrambled eggs, extra well done. "Mother, it's time to wake up." Lupa let go of the platter, keeping it in the air with one finger. Lupa forcefully sat her up as if Lucy was a child who woke up late for school.

"Oh, god... What is it?' Her lunch landed softly on her lap.

"You gotta eat, you've missed breakfast. They're talking about you downstairs, said something about a nightmare. I dismissed it, until Lori mentioned you said something about "them" coming. You and I both know this wasn't a nightmare. You can't hide this from them. We can tell them together, if-"

"No, don't. I can handle this!"

"Lucy, what will happen after they take you? They'll go on an endless search for you, and likely more than they do for Lincoln. It's time you talked."

The two stared at each other. Black versus white. Need-to-tell against remaining secretive. Lucy was getting cornered, but wasn't going to be forced into finally revealing her own secret. "I can't-" She was met with an air slap from her clone.

"Think about them, first!" Lupa stormed out, fuming, but figuratively. Lucy did give it some thought. Lupa did have a point. The Cult would come, and then take her away like nothing. Lucy knew that, but had never realized what could happen afterwards. Everyone would actually be on a search for Lucy, only to never find her. Could she really die with that?

"Sigh", she sighed, eating away, already losing her appetite.

Lupa returned downstairs, just in time to see an announcement from Luna. Lupa took her seat besides Liby and Lacy, while Luna cleared her throat. Lily and Linka had already disappeared to the backyard, going about their child games. "As you all know, we've not stopped the search for Lincoln, but we've slowed down our efforts. There have been no signs of him in any part of the world. So..."

Luna met everyone's eyes, before making the reveal. "I think we should stop looking. And the twins have agreed to, but only because it's-"

Lynn could not believe her ears. Her fork soared through the table, striking Luna on her face. "We are not giving up! He has to be somewhere!"

"Lynn, we've been looking for so long..." Lana started.

"...And we've retraced our steps, too. There's nothing to find", Lola finished.

"Bullshit! It's only you two looking. How aren't we doing anything?"

"We can't, Lynn. Only the twins can do this. If they found nothing-" Lori broke off before finishing her statement. "You know what that means..."

"He has to be somewhere! He couldn't have just vanished! Lana, Lola-"

"Stop it, Lynn! They've had enough time to find him, and-"

"YOU'RE FUCKING LYING BECAUSE YOU HATE HIM! WHY YOU-" Lynn flipped the table, being taken over by her anger. Liby, Lacy and the twins fell off their chairs, being taken to the floor with the table, courtesy of Lynn's mighty strength. Lynn had no intention of being merciful.

"Lynn, calm down!" Lori blurted out.

"That bitch probably has the twins running around around town, pretending to be looking! You hate Lincoln, you punk bitch!"

"It's not true, Lynn! You need to relax!" Lori moved in between them, putting a hand out high for each of them. "This has seriously got to stop, you two."

Lupa helped her sisters up, keeping her eyes on Lynn. "It really is that bad..." she whispered. "I think we should leave..."

"Good call", Lacy agreed. "We'll come back after-"

"No, Lacy. What I mean is, we should hide elsewhere. Bad enough we unknowingly brought that blonde behind us."

Lacy and Liby looked back at the angry Lynn. "We're safe with them..."

"Are we, really?"

Lynn finally drew first blood in this fight. Luna assumed Lynn went for a face punch, and blocked effectively. However, her legs were kicked off balance, making her fall forward. She waved her arms in a quick response, getting caught off guard completely.

Lynn broke her fall, and gave Luna a nice headbutt upon grabbing her head. Luna shrieked with pain and an incoming headache, seasoned with giddiness.

"Lynn! We don't need this now!"

"Like hell we don't!" Lynn introduced Luna to her knee, and then threw her away like nothing.

"Oh, Luna!" Luan finally screamed.

"All of you- FUCK ALL OF YOU!" It took the twins to end Lynn's ventilation episode. They seized her by the arms, and disappeared in a heartbeat.

"Luna! Luna, are you okay?!" Luan picked her up on her shoulders, struggling. "Oomph. Lori, help."

Luna was too far out of it, circling her head around. "Muhhh..."

"Here, I'll take her back up."

Lily and Linka halted their childish giggles once Lynn made a thud on the grass, looking completely blue. She was wheezing, grabbing at her throat. Lana and Lola moved the two girls away from Lynn.

"What on earth-?"

"She needed to cool down, Linka", Lana told her, as she led her back inside. "Best we let her be."

"Let's go, Lily. She's not safe to be around right now."

Luna finally reached the comforts of laying down. She had a hand on her forehead, trying to drive away the pain that Lynn gave her this early Christmas. "She has a thick skull, guys..."

"All you need is to get a bit of rest. We'll take care of Lynn, don't worry a thing."

Luan sat on the bed. "Why do keep fighting each other? We're not-"

Luna grabbed at her shirt. "I'm trying my hardest here. I thought I... I could be a good leader here. I knew what was best for everyone. It was bad enough Lincoln clashed with what we believed in. And, everyone sees his way isn't needed. But Lynn-"

"Lynn just misses him, is all. She's not... Dark like him. She's not-"

"She sided with him, and we know Lori was involved with Lincoln and those terrorist dudes long ago. We're lucky she's more with us than him. I've been thinking, maybe we don't need him anymore."

Luan froze at the words. "B-but, what about Linka? She is-"

"Now our responsibility. We'll show her to be alive, and everything else but to be like him. We don't need another Lincoln."

"Well... What about Lily? So, we are really giving up?"

"Lily can, and will forget about him in time. And that's it. He's... He's-"

"No need to say it, I know."

Lori had a hard time listening to their thoughts on Lincoln. She heard more than enough, and headed downstairs, before hearing Luna speak again.

"Wait, where's Lucy? Wasn't she here?" Lucy had a knack for hiding in the bizarre places. Maybe she was hiding now. Lori was on the fifth step down, still listening through all the chatter she heard in total.

"Maybe she went to the bathroom?" Luan suggested.

Lori returned back up, listening closely for any movement. She heard a faint sound, like a small pile of clothes being dragged for laundry. It came from the first room, the one at the end of the hall. Lori was halfway through the hall when the unmistakable scratching of the wood alerted her. Someone was trying to get out.

Lucy was cut in various places, almost like a ritual at work. She smacked her hand against the closed door, trying to escape the second attack from the shadows. The reason she ended up here, is because of the noise that was brewed up downstairs. The switch was a good idea, it drove much of the racket away.

She was only dozed off for five minutes, when the blankets undid themselves. Cuts spawned all around Lucy, while she floated on her back. She was unable to scream high enough to make a difference, and faced the further torture from the shadow men.

Lucy moved back once she heard Lori through the other side. "Luce, you in there?!" Lucy felt painfully uncomfortable from the cuts. She heard the creaking sound, joined up by footsteps. "LUCY!"

The goth shivered disturbingly, poking away at her cuts. "LUCY, WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Lori lifted the duchess easily, returning back to the occupied room.

"Dude, what happened to Lucy?!" Luna turned her head at the two, and Luan placed a hand on her mouth. The pale-skinned sister hadn't ceased her shivering from the attack. "Duhh... Duh..." She was shaking with such fright, so much that the bed was following along.

"They're coming... They're coming for me..." Lucy squeaked in fear.

AN: You know how this'll end. Face it, face the departure of the duchess of darkness.