Failure; you know there is no one else to blame.

For the choices you make are always the same.

"What the actual fuck?" Lincoln grabbed for Clyde's neck, but his hands only went through.

Male Claudia? Lars thought.

"Lincoln, I'm dead. No souls can kill each other," Clyde lightly informed him. Lincoln kicked at his feet, but that didn't work.

Lars moved in front of Lincoln. "Hey, why are you doing this? Stop!" Lincoln went around him easily.

Lincoln tried a third time, and only succeeded in tripping through Clyde. He made a hard landing, now seething with rage. "Why, you motherfucker."

"I didn't come to die again, buddy. Please stop-" Lincoln ran into the kitchen, rummaging for utensils. "Buddy? Buddy!" The forks and knives thrown phased through Clyde easily.

"Lincoln, he has a purpose being here!" Lars walked in front of him, holding his arms out this time.

"Get out of the way, little man," Lincoln snarled. "Or you'll get it, too."

"Lincoln, all I did was try to help you. There was no need for senseless violence! You could have stopped Lori, and not kill her. As for Lily..." Clyde held his ground, still trying to reach out.

Lincoln twitched at the mention of both names.

Clyde took off his glasses. "I put all my cards, thinking you wouldn't go if I was gone. That way, you wouldn't have gone. Instead, you took Lily to your war zone! Lincoln, that was not on me..."

"Well, fuck you too, Clyde."

Lars scratched his head. "Youngest sister is named Lily? Huh, interesting."

"I tried to help you, Lincoln. I really did, and you awarded me with death. I thought I was your friend..."

Lincoln grabbed and tossed Lars away, no longer being blocked. "Hey!" Lars cried out.

"Alright, nigger. I'll play your little game. Why are you here?" He stood right in his face, almost challenging him.

"Did you just... Jesus, Linc..." Clyde slapped some sense into him. "You need to open your eyes. You're wrong about everything you see."

"Enough people tell me that, nowadays. Why do you think I'll listen?"

Lars spat out his reasons. "You care about the clone, and you care about Lily. You're a hardass, but we do see it. That's not something an inhuman could really do. You can stop the darkness, let your sisters in."

"My sisters... Don't see what I see! The world isn't going to be molded into their own image. I learned this with Lori! I know the truth! It won't mold, so we force it to! I will keep doing what I have to, and you won't stop me!"

He fell to his knees, raised his fists high, and began to scream towards the ceiling. "YOU CAN TAKE ME TO HELL! I AM THE MONSTER! I CAN'T BE SAVED! I WON'T BE REDEEMED, SO TAKE ME NOW! YOU HEAR ME, DEVIL?! TAKE ME NOW!"

Nothing happened, and Lincoln still had his head held high, hoping for something to occur. It never came.

"Lincoln, why are you really mad? And... At who?"

"Don't Dr. Lopez me, goddamnit. Might as well go away." That's when the weirdest thing yet happened. Below his knees, water leaked from the floor, and went on to form a huge mess around him. And there, he saw a reflection. It was not of his current self, but his eleven-year-old self, smiling. "Wh-What the fuck is this?"

The boy in the puddle waved at him, still keeping his innocent smile. Lincoln crawled backwards, crying out. "DO NOT DO THIS TO ME!"

"No one's doing anything. This is your guilt, locked away for a very long time. You can't run, you can't hide. Face it, Lincoln. Don't turn it into hatred, like you've always had."

"I have no guilt! I have no regret! Just... Fuck off, both of you!"

"Let it out, buddy. Let all that bad chi out."

"Lincoln, bro. See reason."

Lincoln had enough of the talk. He jumped out the window, screaming. His first instinct was to run like hell. And he did so, but only rammed into the wall of the kitchen. He hit his head, and was left dazed and confused. "What the fu-"

"You're not supposed to run from it, Lincoln. You're here to face it. Fail do to so..." Lars pointed downwards. "You don't want to know."

"This is insane. What's this place wanting to tell me?"

"Tell? It wants- No, it needs to show you to forgive yourself, and let go of the darkness and hatred you carry, for the sake of your loved ones. Otherwise, you'll drag them with you, and you'll make them hate you. That's why I'm here, Lincoln. I'm not actually here. I didn't end up in the Deadworlds, I've come from heaven just to help you."

Lincoln scoffed. "I don't need your help, or anyone's help for that matter. Return to heaven, let me be." He strolled upstairs, voting to head to his room. The house model seemed to be the house before the fire, so it was likely that all the rooms would be as they once were. He had his hand on the doorknob of his room, but he didn't fully know if he'd see the room that way. He gently turned the knob, and pushed the door open. He peered back behind him, waiting for it to open enough to get answer. In truth, he was a bit scared, but the fear went away.

It was like he remembered it. The posters, the comics, his action figures. Even the first Bun-Bun was sitting on his bed, in perfect condition. "Buhhh... Buhhh-"

The unmistakable screams of Leni Loud cried out behind him. The surprise got Lincoln off guard. This place was a very unpredictable one, indeed. Luan was following behind her, holding a toy spider on a stick. Luan was laughing like she used to, and those were the days.

The two disappeared downstairs, screams and laughter not switching off. Lincoln looked into the other rooms. Every sister was there, respectively doing whatever they enjoyed. Lucy read her poems, and Lynn was bouncing a ball on the thin walls. Both did not seem to notice him at all.

"Guys?" He circled around, seeing if these versions of his sisters could see him. He ripped the book from Lucy's hands, throwing it at Lynn. Lincoln didn't know what to expect, but Lynn reacted angrily.

"Hey, what gives?! What was all that about?!" Lynn pulled Lucy by her legs and pulled her to the floor. "That hurt!" Lynn rubbed the side of her head.

"I didn't do anything! It just flew out of my hands!" Lucy protested. Lincoln stepped back, confused and felt-

Clyde touched his shoulder. "All actions have consequences, always. You made Lynn enraged, and Lucy got hurt. How do you feel?"

"I didn't mean for... Lynn, stop!" Lincoln was helpless to stop Lynn beating on Lucy. "LYNN!"

The punching stopped, and Lynn rubbed her bloody knuckles on her jersey. "You made me do this, Lincoln. You made me hurt Lucy. You're hurting everyone!" Lynn and Lucy both disappeared from the room.

"No, wait! Clyde, where did they go?!"

Clyde shook his head. "No one went anywhere, buddy. It's you who's abandoned them. Again, that is. Why is it you run? Why do you keep running?"

"I'm not running from anything!" He closed the door on Clyde, sealing himself in the room.

"It's no use trying to run, man. Face your demons." Lincoln magically ended up outside the room, prevented yet again by the supernatural forces at work.

"You're goddamn persistent..." Lincoln reached the end of the staircase, and jumped over it. He hit the third to last step, rolling down from there. "I have nothing to hide. I have nothing to face."

"I wouldn't say that," Clyde called from upstairs. "You're trying to hurt yourself."

Lars held an empty picture frame in his hands, and showed it to Lincoln. "What do you see here?"

Lincoln sat down on the bottom step, getting worn out by Clyde's good-for-you chatter. "There's nothing in the photo, its just blank."

"No, look again. Here, take it."

"Take it, buddy." Clyde was making his way back down. Lincoln grabbed the frame, and there, something replaced the nothing it presented. The frame was taken up the picture of them that Lincoln took for mom and dad's anniversary. The pic he didn't think was good enough at first.

"I remember this..." He softly uttered. "I remember they all got mad at me... And-" Rather than throwing it, he set the frame on the step.

"This is who you can still be, Lincoln. Nothing is ever too late, if you know where you can start. Their brother, not this thing you've become, is who they miss. They'll show it if you return to them as the boy in the picture.

"Hmmmm. So, tell me, how do I face... these demons you've mentioned?" The entire house then began to shake. "Is this an earthquake? Lars?"

Clyde stared upwards. "It's time for me to leave. I trust that you'll find a way to face them, somehow. I hope you end up in heaven, buddy. I'll wait for you there." Clyde vanished instantly. The house kept shaking harder.

"Lars, what the hell's going on?!"

"Someone is entering the Deadworlds! Everything is resetting!" Lars' hands began to turn into thin air, and he screamed. "Meet me back here!" The house itself was also changing, going through its transparent phase Lars had just gone through. Lincoln was the last to go. He closed his eyes, and ppened them again. He found himself back in the empty nowhere like he encountered when he first got there.

"NO, FUCK!" Lincoln had no choice but to walk again. He past various shadows he didn't care for. This went on for a good while, until he found one particular being he recognized. "Lynn?! How is this possible?!"

The thirteen year old girl reacted to her name being called. She gave him a funny look, almost studying him. "Okay... What the hell is going on?" She asked.

"I don't know where you're from, but you're in the Deadworlds. Follow me..." He led the way back to Royal Woods.

AN: *raises shoulders* eh. I don't fully think the N word might've necessary, but I don't intend it as a racism thing, rather just Lincoln trying to shoo Clyde off. I'm not one to use it, so it's a rare thing to see it have typed from me.

I apologize if it comes as offensive, aye.