After cleaning themselves, they went to the nursery with the excuse that they were playing rough and they had an accident, that was how they ended all messy and covered with dirt. And as incredible as it sounds, the nurse did buy that story, so all she did was heal the noticeable bruises and clean them, and after that they would return to class.
The rest of the day passed without any other troubles; the bullies left Lucy alone as they were minding their own business… messing with the other kids sitting in front of them. At the end of the school, Lucy met with Lola and Lana; the little princess had her hair all wet and some toilet paper in her shoe, which told that the other bullies that weren't with Mark earlier were teasing her in the bathroom shoving her head in the toilet. Lucy felt as rage built inside her; the mere thought of those bastards touching even a single golden hair of her little sisters made her mad, and in that moment she wanted to go find those pricks and use the knife she had hidden under her bed to slit their bellies and make them sleep in their own guts. But right now all she could do was put her arms in their little sister's shoulders and get them close to her, letting them know that she was there for them. She had to be strong for her little sisters, because even when they couldn't count with the teachers in the school to do their duty as the authority, they could count on her to do her duty as their big sister; and even when she was afraid of those monsters society insist on call kids, she would try to protect them.
They sat in the sidewalk to wait for their mother to pick them, watching as all the kids around them were leaving by foot, and as time passed, they started to thinkt in do as the other kids and walk home. They were about to leave, but then they met with the persons they less wanted to see…
"It looks like it's our lucky day boys…" Mark's voice could be heard by the little Louds. They turned and they could see Mark along with his four dogs behind him.
"Three Louds at once? Cool…" A kid with brown skin and black flat hair said; his name was Will, and he was the one who teamed with Mark to beat down Lucy and Lana.
"Why don't you leave us alone?" Lucy asked standing in front of them and hiding Lola and Lana behind her; just in case things get ugly.
"Because we don't want to, and if you don't want another… surprise like the one in the recess you better watch how you talk to us." Mark said as he stepped in front of Lucy with a daring stare. They both looked at each other for some time; expecting the other to do or say something, but none of them did anything. Mark just made a mocking smile.
"You're brave Loud, I must give you that." Mark said. "Or maybe you're just stupid."
"I can't say the first of you." Lucy said mockingly. Mark got angry by those words, and suddenly he grabbed Lucy by the neck of her blouse. He was about to punch her, but he saw in time a vehicle in the horizon; a vehicle he could recognize everywhere, so he let out Lucy.
"Next time you won't be so lucky." Mark said, as he and his friends left walking down the sidewalk. The van parked in front of them and the door opened, revealing Luna and Luan sitting far from each other, looking at the window with an expression of anger.
"Sorry girls, the principal from the middle school kept me busy telling me your sisters had a fight." Rita said, angrily looking at the two sisters who were sitting far from each other. Everyone jumped into the van except for Lucy; the goth said that she has something to do in The Little Morticians Club outside the school and would go home later. Rita understood that, so she drove away leaving a cloud of dust behind her.
Lucy returned to school, but instead of going into the building she walked to the football camp; luckily for her, the football team was not training today, so she could pass without being noticed. She walked through the field, seeing all the papers and the trash from the game that took place here last night. It was impossible to walk without accidentally kick a plastic cup or a beer can; Lucy couldn't understand how the school didn't do anything to clean this thing, especially when were kids who played in here. She was a person who enjoyed the cleanness; every 'secret dark place' she had was clean because she always liked to write without breathing dust or bad smells. She tried to ignore that and walked straight to the equipment warehouse. As she suspected the place was closed, so she had to pick the lock using a pin for the hair (a trick she learned from Leni), and the door opened. She got in the building and closed the door behind her; turning the light on, and walking to the center of the room to sit in the floor. Next, she opened her backpack to take out the book, and a bag with two candles and a bunch of photographs of the boys that had been bullying her and her sisters. She placed the candles in the floor, lighted them and then placed the photographs between them.
The girl got up and walked to the damper to turn off the lights, and then she walked to where the candles were. She sat again and opened the book, placing it in the floor so she can use the light of the candles to read. She was passing the pages, until she found the one she was looking for. Lucy sat indian style and rested her arms in her legs while trying to concentrate, and then she began to cast the spell.
Aliam animam meam faciet morte frangatur pugno…
Aliam animam meam faciet morte frangatur pugno…
Aliam animam meam faciet morte frangatur pugno…
Lucy repeated the words over and over again; as she was speaking, the temperature in the room fell.
Aliam animam meam faciet morte frangatur pugno…
Aliam animam meam faciet morte frangatur pugno…
Aliam animam meam faciet morte frangatur pugno…
The flame in the candles was rising up, and the shelves began to shake as some of the stuff on them began to fall. This made Lucy a little nervous, but she managed to keep concentrated and focus in the spell.
Aliam animam meam faciet morte frangatur pugno…
Aliam animam meam faciet morte frangatur pugno!
ALIAM ANIMAM MEAM FACIET MORTE FRANGATUR PUGNO!
The flames in the candle burst in a powerful fire blast that nearly reached the roof. The sudden burst scared Lucy and made her fall back. When she recovered, she couldn't see anything because the fire in the candles died, so she got up and quickly turned on the lights in the room; the candles and the photographs were intact, and the things that fell from the shelves moments ago were now in place. Lucy's heart was still racing, so she grabbed the candles and the photos to put them back in the backpack, and then she got out of the room.
"Great Grandma Harriet, please help me protect my sisters..." Lucy said as she walked away from that place.
In a not too crowded street in Royal Woods Mark and his friends were walking down the sidewalk; the boys were laughing about what they did in school, how they killed that frog that meant a lot to Lana and how they beat her and her sister. The ones who were teasing Lola were laughing as well, telling Mark how they entered the girl's room and shoved Lola's face down into the toilet.
"Hahahaha, you should have seen her face man." One of the kids said. This one was Daniel; he had brown long hair and tanned skin. The boy was tall, and just like Mark he had an explosive temper.
"Yeah, she almost faint when we took her head out of the toilet." Another kid said. The name of this kid was Alan, and he was a chubby boy with short hair. He was almost as tall as Mark.
"We need to think what to do next time we see them." A fourth kid said. His name was Harry, and he was a short but strong kid with black skin and long dread hair.
"Yeah, but first we need to eat something, I'm starving." Mark said as he and his trained dogs approached to a restaurant. Daniel opened the door and he and his friends got in, but then Will saw something in the sidewalk, something that looked like money. The boy approached and took a closer look, just to confirm that indeed, it was money: a $100 bill. Will was rich, but he also was stingy, so he couldn't help but try to pick the bill. In the moment he tried to catch it, the bill flew away; Will ran after it down the street, but he was so focused in catch it that he didn't notice that the walk sign he was approaching in the corner of the block changed from green to red. The boy kept running after the money, and when the bill finally landed in the street he stopped; he heard the claxon of the Ford Lobo 2017 that was driving at 80 miles per hour towards him, but all he could do was turn his head to see the front of the truck inches away from his head, and after that, everything went black.
The boy didn't feel the hit, but the truck sent him 20 feet away; his body rolled over the hot asphalt until he hit a street light. The boy woke up, opening slowly his eyes to see a bunch of people gathered around him, gasping and covering her mouths with an expression of horror. Will felt a dull pain all over his body, as if something heavy hit his body and he tried to remember what was he doing before that, but he couldn't. His head was resting in the pavement; he tried to get up, but his body couldn't even lift his head to see what was happening. However, it wasn't necessary because he looked around where she was, and he saw a long meaty thing near him; he could recognize the thing, but he saw had a shoe, very similar to the ones he was using, and after his head processed all that information he realized it was his leg. As time passed, he started to feel sleepy and his body began to feel light; his vision began to blur as his eyelids were falling. His breathing was deep and chaotic moments ago, but now it began to slow until his chest ceased all movement. Soon, he felt no more pain.
Lucy was walking home now; the hot wind blowing her hair as the sun was shining in the sky. She was still thinking in what happened in the warehouse; for what she could understand from the book, she did the spell as it was supposed to be done, but there was a part of that spell in the book that was blurry and she couldn't read it. She was now in front of the door; she was kind of afraid, because she didn't know if Lana spoke to her mother about what happened in school. It was not the fact of her mother knowing about them being picked on that made her fear, but the fact that things might get worse. She heard about cases where kids that were being teased in school told teachers or parents about their situations, and things gone really badly for them. The goth girl swallowed her fear, and expecting for the best, she turned the knob and opened the door.
The first thing she saw was her little sisters sitting in the couch with her mother in front of them, speaking in a serious tone. Rita stopped speaking when she saw her little black-loving daughter standing in the door.
"Lucy, please come here and sit down." Rita said pointing at the free spot in the sofa. Lucy walked with fear; mainly because she thought her mother was about to scold her and her sisters.
"Mom, I…" Lucy was about to say, but suddenly she was interrupted by her mother.
"Lucy, your sister told me about your little incident in the school."
"Well…" Lucy was really nervous, and the way her mother was talking to her didn't help.
"Lucy, please be more careful when you play with your sisters; Lana told me that accidentally you two fell from the stairs, and you even had to go to the nursery!" Rita said, rising her voice with concern.
Lucy felt a little better that her mother didn't know anything, but yet she still felt a knot in her stomach.
"I'm sorry mom; we went a little too far but I promise it will never happen again." Lucy said now more confident, but acting like she was ashamed.
"Alright kids, you can go." Their mother said as she went to the kitchen. Lucy let out a heavy sigh as she got up from the couch to stand in front of their little sisters.
"Why didn't you tell mom what really happened? Lucy asked.
"I don't care anymore." Lana said with the saddest frown Lucy has ever seen, and then she got up and went upstairs.
"Sorry Luce, b-but I can't; I'm scared and… I just can't…" Lola said with a defeated look. She did as her twin and went upstairs.
Lucy just sat there holding her head with her hands. A whirlwind of emotions was taking place in her head; she felt anger, wrath, sadness, disgust… It was a lot for her. She got up and just like her sisters she went upstairs; instead of going to her room she went to Lola and Lana's, and opened the door to see her little sisters in their beds. Lana was laid on hers, facing the wall and looking a photograph where she was holding Hops. She didn't want to cry, but a small tear fell through her cheek and then on the photograph. The little blonde hugged the photo and began to sob.
Lola was sitting while holding her knees; the little princess was really afraid just by thinking that tomorrow would be the same, or even worse. Not knowing what those bullies were capable of really got her nervous because she didn't know what would she get, or when would they strike. She grabbed her head and fell on her bed, and as her twin sister did, she began to sob.
Lucy felt her head heavy as she got in their room. The little goth walked in, closing the door behind her and laying against it with her head down. The twins stopped what they were doing to turn their heads towards her with confusion; Lucy then walked forward, dragging her feet and walking heavier with each step. When she was in the center of the room, she fell on her knees, slamming both hands in the floor. Lola and Lana ran towards her with a worried expression, and they were close they could notice how the rug under her was getting damp as tears were falling from Lucy's face.
"Lola… Lana… I'm sorry…" Lucy said, starting to whimper under her breath. This surprised Lana and Lola, who didn't know what to say or what to do. "I'm sorry for not being the elder sister you deserve… I was supposed to protect you from everything and everyone… but how I'm supposed to do that when I can't even protect myself…"
"Lucy… it is not your fault…"
"It is, Lola!" Lucy yelled. "I'm not a good sister, I don't deserve to be a sister… You would be better without me…"
"Don't ever say that again!" Lana yelled as she hugged tight her big sister. "You're the best sister that we could have! We love you Lucy… please, never say that again…" Lana said, burying her face on Lucy's chest as she cried hard. Lola did the same, crying as her mascara was running down her face. She rested her head on Lucy's shoulder and putting her arms around her neck to hug her.
"Thank you for always be there for us Lucy." Lola said as she clean her face with her gloves. Lucy stopped crying and calmed down; her face was just like Lola's, with mascara running down all over her cheeks. Lola and Lana noticed this, so they used one hand to lift Lucy's bangs, revealing her beautiful red eyes swollen by crying. They both were surprised that she even let them touch her hair, but more surprisingly was the stare of pain and suffering. They both cleaned Lucy's face, and after a moment they hugged her again.
"Thank you girls." Lucy said with a smile in her face.
After spending some time together, Lucy went to her room and sat on her bed; she really let out everything she's been keeping inside her the last few years, and now she felt really good. She felt like her body was lighter, and her head now felt as always. She never thought she would be that close to any of her siblings besides Lynn, but bonding with her little sisters really felt good. And she didn't plan to stop there, she would try to talk more to them and do things together, because even when that was not her thing and she would have to get used, but she would try it. And not only with her little sisters, but also with her big sisters and with Lincoln.
She grabbed her backpack from the floor and placed it on her bed to take out all the stuff she used in the warehouse to cast the spell, she opened it and took out the bag with the candles and the photos, and then she grabbed them. Lucy put especial attention to the photos; all of them seemed normal except for one. "What is this…?" Lucy asked and grabbed one of the photographs; this one was all black, but Lucy remembered that all the photos she used were normal.
"Could it be that…" the goth girl grabbed the book from her backpack and passed page over page to find the spell she used. When she finally found it she saw how the writing was blur and not very understandable; she grabbed a notebook and a pen, and then went to her desk, placing the book and the notebook on it. Turning on the lamp, she tried to decode what was written there; it was a difficult job she had to admit, but after a couple of hours she managed to recreate the part she couldn't read.
"If the object that represents the victim of the spell changes in any way, the spell was successfully casted…" Lucy said, not believing that the spell did actually work.
"It worked…"
