Sorry it took so long to update. I had a big trip planned and wasn't able to work on the story at all. I will hopefully start posting chapters more regularly now. I will also start working on the epilogue chapters of my personal ending to "Requiem for a Loud." Thanks for reading and Enjoy!

Chapter 2

In the darkness of the evening, crickets were chirping. There was also the occasional frog croaking. Every five minutes or so a dog would be heard barking. Normally, none of these things could ever be heard except after midnight. The Loud family was always breaking the silence. But this time, all of them were completely quiet. The neighbors decided to enjoy the silence while it lasted, as this didn't happen very often, especially in the evening like this. None of them even considered that something could be wrong.

"Lincon... Are you sure?" Lynn Sr didn't want to believe it. He didn't want to believe that any of his daughters may have been taken from them, possibly violently. It was something that he couldn't bear to think about. All Lincoln did was nod his head and hand them Leni's bag as he continued sobbing, now having collapsed to his knees.

"I... I didn't see it... but I did see... I saw..."

"What was it? What did you see?!"

"Quiet Lynn!"

"It wasn't a lot... I've seen more in here... but... but it was so scary..."

"Lincoln..."

"Next to her purse... her things... they were all over the ground..."

"Rita, go call 911..."

"But... there was... there was blood..."

Lincoln completely broke down as he fell into his father's arms, the picture of his sister's blood staining the sidewalk still fresh in his mind. The rest of the girls, with the exception of Lily, ran outside to try to find Leni, despite it being as dark as it was. Running around the neighborhood in the night wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do, but they were all freaking out over Leni. None of them wanted to accept the fact that she was kidnapped, but they were forced to.

Luna was running towards the park screaming Leni's name with Lana following close behind her. It didn't take long for them to reach the place where Leni was kidnapped. Luna didn't realize they were there at first, but she stepped on one of Leni's bottles of lip gloss that Lincoln forgot to pick up and it splattered all over the ground. Luna looked back and saw not only the lip gloss, but the few drops of blood as well. She fell to her knees in defeat, just staring at the sidewalk. There were about fifteen to twenty drops of blood on the ground, and none of them were bigger than what a small raindrop would look like, but that didn't matter. To Luna, it could have been a trail of blood and no one would have been able to tell the difference by her facial expression.

Lana caught up to Luna and looked down at the blood stained sidewalk. She gasped, and then, falling on the ground, broke out into tears. It couldn't be true. Lana knew what kidnapping was, but she only thought it happened to little kids like her, not to teenagers like Leni. To her, Leni was huge. It didn't seem like anyone could ever take her older sister away from her. But someone did, and now, Leni was gone, and wherever she was, she was most likely hurt. Lana ran into Luna's arms and she willingly embraced her bawling little sister, despite the fact that she was now crying herself. Why did something like this have to happen? And why to Leni? She never did anything wrong, not on purpose anyway. It baffled Luna's mind, but she didn't need to be worried about why it happened. She needed to be worried about Leni and where she was.

Lori and Lucy were on the other side of the road looking for their sister. Lucy was keeping her composure, but only just, and tears had started forming in Lori's eyes as they were running down the sidewalk towards the park. Why would someone do this? What kind of sick twisted mind goes around kidnapping high school girls? The thought of it was too much to bear. Leni was out there, being held hostage by strangers, getting beaten, tortured, or worse. Lori stopped in her tracks for just a moment, closed her eyes and tightened her fists. It couldn't be true. This had to be some kind of a joke, a terrible prank that Luan and Leni were playing on them. More tears trickled from Lori's eyes as she just stared down at the ground.

She was snapped back to reality when Lucy began tugging on her arm. She was pointing across the street at two figures, one of which was staring at the sidewalk in front of her, holding the other figure in her arms. Luna and Lana. Lori's already racing heart started beating faster as she ran across the road in a sprint, trying to see what was going on as Lucy followed close behind her. The look of pure horror on Luna's face was enough to make even Lucy scared, let alone Lori. Then they saw the blood. Her heart stopped for a moment as she took it all in. Leni really had been kidnapped. Normally a situation like this would have made Lori break down, but all of their sisters were out looking for Leni, and in the dark. Anything could happen to them this late at night, so she sent out a text telling them where to go, and then fell to her knees next to Luna. Lori was the oldest. She was supposed to be there and protect all of her siblings, but she couldn't even keep Leni safe. What made her think that she could do better for any of the others?

In less than a minute, the entire Loud family, and two police officers who were struggling to keep up, were at the scene of the crime. Lincoln refused to look. The only reason Lincoln was there was because his parents dragged him along. He didn't want to relive the pain that he went through when he first saw it. Starting to cry again, he put his head down on his mother's side, her arm wrapping around him as he did. He couldn't stand himself, thinking it was his fault that Leni was gone. He would never be able to forgive himself if she got really badly hurt. What if she never came back? A thought like that had never even crossed Lincoln's mind. It was now more than ever that he regretted bringing the game with him. The game that was now shattered to pieces on the sidewalk. He wouldn't be playing it again. He didn't want to anyway. It was already hard enough live with himself, thinking it was because of him that Leni was kidnapped, but if something happened to any of his other sisters because he was too amused by his toy, his toy that didn't really ever matter, he may not be able to live with himself. Yes, he was sometimes selfish, but he was always able to make it up to his sisters when he messed up. He couldn't undo this though. It was something that they would all remember as long as they were alive.

The sound of the family crying drowned out every other sound that was being made. All of the crickets, the frogs, the crows; they were all nothing compared to the Louds. Normally, people would be yelling out of their windows, telling them to be quiet. But if hearing them crying wasn't enough, seeing the police officers close to the group was all they needed to stay quiet. They knew that something had happened to them, something bad, and despite the sleep they were all trying to get, they couldn't help but feel sorry for them. It wasn't every day that someone lost a family member, and with a family as big as the Loud's, it wasn't a surprise that they were all acting like this. Complaining would have only made the situation worse, so they just kept to themselves as best as they could. Even Mr Grouse, who would normally jump on the opportunity to yell at the Louds, was silent tonight.

Rita and Lynn Sr looked at the ground in horror as the police officers started writing the report. Lori was calling Bobby, telling him everything that happened with mascara running down her face. Luna had her arm around Luan as she sobbed into her sister's shoulder. Lynn, just barely fighting back tears, was nervously pacing on the grass, slowly making a rut in it. Lucy was simply staring at the drops of dried blood on the ground. Lana and Lola were sitting down, cross-legged, only because they kept getting in the officers' way. Lisa was doing the same for the same reason, except she got in the way because she was trying to figure out what had happened. Lincoln had broke free from his mother's embrace and sat down on the curb a few feet behind everyone else. Even if he wasn't crying anymore, it was obvious that he was affected the most by it.

"What's wrong Linc?"

"It's nothing Lynn... don't worry about it."

"Dude... You're my little bro, it's my job to worry about you."

"Yeah... I'm the one you should be worried about right now..."

Lincoln's sarcastic comment didn't exactly sit well with Lynn, but the circumstances made her push her anger aside so that she could talk to her little brother.

"Dude, chill out! It's not like you could have stopped it..."

Lincoln stood up and stomped over to his sister. All he wanted was to sit there quietly, with no one bothering him. But of course, it couldn't be done for more than two minutes. She tried staring him down to make him back off, but after a few seconds, she started getting worried. He wasn't backing off like usual. It was this moment that made Lynn realize how angry her brother could get. Not only that, but suddenly, she was painfully aware of how he was actually taller than she was. Lincoln was never angry like this, which only confirmed her suspicions. But now that she had accidentally pushed him over, she realized for the first time just how scary he could be when he was actually angry. Her little brother was actually scaring her.

"Just shut up... You have no idea what happened..."

"L... Lincoln?"

He turned back around and sat on the curb again, putting his hands up to his face, his elbows resting on his knees. Lynn slowly shuffled towards him, trying to think of something to say. It wasn't like it was his fault that Leni was kidnapped. Was it? Lincoln was one of the most kind-hearted people she knew. Despite picking on him and trying to get involved with every little detail in his life, he still loved them with all his heart. He would never intentionally put any of his sisters in harms way. Maybe that was why seeing him so angry scared her.

"I could have stopped it actually..."

Lynn froze at his comment, "Wh... What?"

"If I had never started playing that videogame, which I wasn't supposed to bring in the first place, I might have been able to prevent it from happening!"

"Lincoln..."

"I was too engulfed in my own selfishness, that I didn't even notice Leni was gone. The only reason I noticed was because I put my game away so I wouldn't get in trouble... I didn't care that she hadn't tried to talk to me for five minutes, I didn't even care that she wasn't making any noises at all." Lincoln's tone turned more somber, "All I was worried about... was getting punished for bringing a video game where I wasn't supposed to."

Tears had started forming in his eyes again. If he had kept going, it wouldn't have been long before he really started crying. Lynn broke out of her statue like demeanor and walked over to where Lincoln was sitting, then sat down next to him. She tried to wrap her arm around his shoulder but he pushed it off and looked away.

"Bro... you gotta quit being so hard on yourself."

"Why should I? She's not the only one who got hurt because I was being selfish. Or don't you remember what happened last year?"

Lynn briefly reminisced on what had happened just over six months ago now. Rita had tried to make Lincoln get some exercise and when it didn't work, she signed him up for football against his will. Lynn made a deal with him and they managed to fool the entire town and their family, making them think that Lynn was actually Lincoln. But their plan came to a screeching halt when Lynn got hurt in the last game of the season. She broke her ankle and Lincoln was grounded from video-games and comic books until Lynn could play sports again.

Lynn snapped back after pausing to think, "That was different!"

"How was it any different?! You got hurt because I was only thinking about myself! And now, the same thing happened today with Leni!"

"That was different because I wanted to do it. I was at least half to blame for what happened!"

"You know what? You're right. That makes this situation even worse!"

"How? The way you're describing it, how is this situation any worse than what happened last year?!"

"Because in this situation, how is Leni to blame?!"

The sudden outburst caught everyone's attention. Rita and Lynn Sr looked in his direction briefly then turned their gaze back to the police officers, who also looked over for a moment. Lori started making her way over followed by the rest of the ones that were there.

"What's going on?"

"Big surprise..." Lincoln started, standing back up again. "You just can't leave me alone? Can you?"

"You're right! We can't, because we're a family. It's what we're supposed to do."

"Sure... but all Lori has to do is close her door to get some privacy..." Lincoln mumbled.

"Don't say that! You know that's not the case anymore!"

"Whatever..." He paused, looking back and forth between his sisters' faces. "I'm going home..."

Lincoln put his hands in his pocket and started making his way back towards the house. They tried to follow him, but were stopped. Lynn was the last one they expected to defend their brother, but she had her reasons for doing so.

"Lynn? What are you doing?"

"Listen guys, he thinks it's his fault that Leni got kidnapped. That's why he's acting like this..." Nobody understood why, but they all understood his actions now.

"And... to be honest..." Lynn nervously started, "He kind of made some good points..."

"Wait... what?"

"What do you mean?"

Lynn told them what he said, from the moment she walked up to him, to the point where they all drove him off. Every time they wanted to make a rebuttal, Lynn told them something that answered their question and by the end of her lecture, all of them kind of believed that it really was Lincoln's fault, and they felt so guilty for it. He already felt bad enough for it, and if he found out that his sisters agreed, at least to some extent, it would destroy any confidence he had of trying to fix it, if he even had any.

Lincoln didn't look back after he started walking. They may have thought that he was mad at them, but he wasn't. He was only angry at himself. He knew it wasn't right to yell like that, but it was the only way that he could get them to leave him alone, and so far, it was working, even if it was just for a moment. Lynn would undoubtedly tell them what he said and before long they would come running to try to convince him otherwise. He wasn't going to let that happen just yet though. Just before starting his sprint, he looked back to see if any of his sisters were behind him. As luck would have it, they were still talking to each other. He ran and didn't stop until he got to his room and shut the door behind him. No one could see him now. He could do whatever he wanted. So he went to his bed, shoved his face in his pillow, and started crying.

"Please officer, if there's anything that we can do to help find our little girl, don't hesitate to ask us. Any of us!"

"Don't worry. They've assigned the best detective to the job. He takes cases like this personally. He'll find your daughter."

"Okay. You'll contact us as soon as you find her right?"

"When she's found, you will be the first ones to know."

"Thank you so much officer."

"It's my pleasure ma'am."

And with that, the police officers were on their way back to the station. It was now past ten-thirty and it was time for all of them to go to sleep. None of them could though. Not with Leni still out there. They all laid restless in their beds, doing something to try to force themselves to go to sleep. Lisa was solving quadratic equations in her head. Lola was mentally going through her pageant routine. Lana was tending to her pets. Lucy was writing poems about death. Lynn was throwing a ball against the wall. Luan was studying her material. Luna was playing the air guitar while listening to music. Lori was just staring at Leni's empty bed. She couldn't seem to get her mind off of anything else. They had shared a room for as long as she could remember, and now that the room was all hers, even if it might have been for just a few nights, she realized that she didn't want it that way.

Lincoln was still laying in his bed with his face buried in his pillow, thinking about the things that could be happening to Leni right now. The dampness would have been uncomfortable to anyone else, but Lincoln didn't care, he didn't even feel it. He wasn't about to be bothered by anything or anyone. And not just because he wouldn't have let anyone bother him. His sisters were all thinking about Leni right now. Nothing like this had ever happened to them before. A few days ago, just the thought of it would have been considered crazy. Now that it happened, it didn't seem crazy anymore. It was downright scary. If it happened to Leni, it could have happened to any of them.

Nothing about this made Lincoln feel any better. Not only did he convince himself that it was his fault, but if he was right, the reason his sisters were leaving him alone was because he convinced Lynn that it was at least partially his fault, and she convinced the rest of them. None of them wanted it to be his fault, but no matter how they looked at it, it seemed like he was at least partially to blame. If they were all convinced, then there was no way that they could un-convince him of it. Lincoln was to blame. He believed it, and his sisters believed it. As much as they wanted to, neither he, nor they were able to deny it.