Chapter 4 - Royal Woods, October 2021

It was a evening Saturday and Lincoln was up in his room at the end of the corridor, that had once been an empty closet, playing 'KEK' - short for Kingdom of Elves and Kobolds. He had his headset plugged in and was doing some banter with Clyde while both were grinding up in the game.

"The book club is really nice. There is this one girl a real cutie-pie. Really nerdy and stuff.", Clyde told Lincoln.

"Your type?", Lincoln asked while slaying an Orc.

"You know I love the nerdy girls. They are really dirty, you understand."

Lincoln forced out a perverse little chuckle. "I know what you mean. Also can you heal me?"

"Sure"

"So, who else is in this book club?" Lincoln asked absent-minded.

"Oh, yeah. There is Mike.", Clyde exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Mike?", suddenly Lincoln wasn't absent minded at all.

"And you know what?", Clyde continued. "He is a total Ace Savvy freak!"

Lincolns throat became very tight. His game character walked directly into an enemy.

"I just healed you man!"

"An Ace Savvy freak huh? He is really into it or what?"

"Oh, yeah, you should see his room. Man, everything Ace related that he could get his hands on."

Lincolns stomach was feeling very empty, despite dinner being only two hours ago. In front of his inner eye, Clyde was hanging out with this faceless Mike guy, chattering over Ace Savvy in the canteen and them both hanging around on weekends just like just two months ago he and Lincoln would do.

"You should really meet him. He is also into KEK. We should invite him into our clan."

"Sure. That'd be… cool." Lincoln managed to press out between his teeth.

Lincoln had already forgotten how sensitive Clyde was and how good he picked up on vibes, so it came to him like a gut punch when Clyde asked him: "And how is school doing for you?" Clyde had been asking the same question for months now every other time and Lincoln always came up with holfthruths or just cutting to the chase.

"Hey, Clyde… ähm, Lucy is asking for help with something, I think I have to stop for today. B-but why don't you, you know, invite Mike into the clan? I'll write you later."

"Yes, sure. Still as chaotic as every day in the loud house?"

"Thats the way it always is."

"Okay, I'll invite Mike. He is also a pretty high rank."

"Even better.", Lincoln replied. "I have to go off now. Bye."

"Bye, Lincoln."

"Bye."

Lucy didn't have any problems and wasn't asking him for help. She was probably sitting in her coffin-styled bed and writing down morbid poems. Lincoln took off his headset and closed his laptop. Looking down at his old Laptop, Lincoln came to the sudden realisation that he had been jealous at Clyde since summer had ended. Since the first week after summer and he had called Clyde. Since the first week after Fernandez and his friends had called him a 'gay nerd' and Clyde told him what a fun time he had in his first week. And Lincoln despised himself for his jealousy. It is my own damn fault for being such a… meek faggot. Where did everything go so wrong? Did it start when the 'Aloha Comrade' had to close and his dad had lost his job as a chef? Or, could it even have started way before: when Lori left to marry Bobby? When did it all go to shit? Was it always like this, and was I just too dense to not notice it? It seemed to Lincoln that since Clyde had moved to Canada, he just noticed new bad things everyday. Money was tight and Dads new job as a dishwasher really wasn't that great. Luan and Luna were basically unemployed and college was a dream for everybody except for Lisa who could get by on scholarships. And school was hell. Fuck those posers. You know what? Forget about it. Lincoln had just opened up his laptop to distract his mind with some dull shooter game, when the blue light from the screen suddenly illuminated Lucy's pale face.

"Woah! Lucy!", Lincoln shouted leaping a feet back on his bed. "Why do you always have to sneak up on me? I almost had a heart attack."

"You look terrible.", Lucy replied in her melancholic, monotone voice. She was an Emo straight out of TV-Tropes. She had been dressing like one since forever it seemed to Lincoln and still with 11 she showed no signs of growing out of her phase.

"Y-you look terrible!", Lincoln retorted, feeling very conscious about his mild acne.

"Whatever.", Lucy huffed into her bangs, setting her black hair in slight motion. She remained silent.

"What do you want?", Lincoln asked. It came out harsher than he he intended to.

"Your help.", Lucy replied calmly.

"I don't need your-"

"Haa! You lied to Clyde!", Lucy exclaimed dryly with fake shock in her voice.

"No. No I didn't. Where you spying on me, again?" Lincoln felt like an ass, he did lie to Clyde just because he couldn't stand how happy he was. I am a real dick.

"Well, then you help me!" Lucy completely ignored Lincolns question.

"Okay.", Lincoln sighed, his shame and guilty feelings getting the better of him. "With what do you need help, Luce?"

"I need help with helping you.", Lucy simply answered cryptically.

"Huh?"

Lucy sat herself on the bed facing Lincoln and before he could do anything about it she took his laptop and placed it under his bed. Lincoln cringed, but didn't say anything. Hopefully she didn't put it on top of my 'socks'…

"We are going to tell your fortune." Lucy said. "What Tarot deck do you want to use?"

"What the fuck!", Lincoln exclaimed in repulsion. Lucy was holding up a deck of cards with the top card showing a naked man with bloody pentagrams on his body standing next to a ghostly and twisted looking woman in white robes, torture devices in the background.

"Okay, no 'Sinister Tarot', for today." Lucy simply mumbled quickly swapping the satanic deck for a much nicer and dreamy looking one. "Crowley will have to do."

Totally enveloped in the preparation of the cards shuffled them like mad, before dropping them between her and her brother into an unorganised pile. Quickly she scooped them back up and shuffled the whole deck again. Lucy really knows what she is doing. An Image of Lucy working as a card dealer in Vegas, with a constant frown because of all the happy people winning money, popped into Lincolns head. He almost had to laugh. It died in his throat when Lucy jerked her head up, and looked him searchingly into his face.

"Because of your emotional compromised state, I will have to pick the cards for you." Lucy fanned the cards out in front of them. There were a lot of cards. They all had a brown back. "We will do the 'Celtic Cross'", Lucy continued. "You have to think of a question. An urgent question that is on your mind."

Lincoln tried to think of a question he'd like to know the answer to. Nothing. But everything. There were so many questions. The future! Why did all of this shit happen? Why? What? How? It was just a giant mess in his head.

"Have you thought of an answer yet?"

"Yes?"

"Please tell me."

"What- is going to happen?"

Lucy stayed quite. It kinda freaked Lincoln out a bit.

"Okay.", Lucy continued. "I will draw 10 cards face down and place them face down." Lucy drew the first card. "This is it." She placed the card center in-between them both. 2nd card. "This crosses it." She placed the second card vertically across the first card. "What lies above." The third card was placed above the cross that the first two made. "What lies below." The card was placed below the crossing cards. "What lies behind." She placed the firth card to Lincolns right of the cross. "What lied before." The left side. Lucy then proceeded to place four drawn cards left of the now bigger cross in a straight line, meanwhile saying what they meant: "This is you.", "This is where it takes place.", "This is what you fear or hope.", "This is how it ends.", "Done."

It was really dark in the room and if Lincoln before had just made light of Lucy's obsession with the occult, it was suddenly much more. Her timbre voice as she said these important sounding phrases impressed Lincoln quite a bit. "And?", he even asked nervously. Gaining him a 'really?'-look from his younger goth sister.

"This is what your question was all about.", Lucy simply said, taking the first card she placed from under the card laying vertically onto of it an placing it face up. Lincoln leaned over to get a better look at it. It showed a turning wheel with a Sphinx on the top of the wheel. It said 'Luck'.

Lucy explained: "This is the most accurate answer to a question I have ever seen. You asked what was going to happen, and this card means fate. This represents the essence of the question itself."

Lincoln, entranced in the hypnotic artwork on the card, simply nodded. What a coincidence.

Lucy flipped the card that was laid vertically on top of 'Luck'. She sharply inhaled. Lincoln read what was on the card: 'Sorrow', it showed three swords piercing a golden rose. "Three swords.", Lucy said with a soft voice. "Sorrow. I don't think I need to tell you the meaning of this. Clyde moving away…, the new school…, Dad losing-"

"I get it Luce.", Lincoln interrupted her. His mouth was getting increasingly dry.

Lucy was quite. "Lincoln-"

"What is the next one?", Lincoln simply asked.

Lucy sighed. "What is above", She explained while slowly flipping the card face-up. "What you consciously know you could do to resolve the situation or what you already know about about it. The two Disks?"

The artwork were one snek biting in its own tail while sliding around two Yin-Yangs. "What does it mean?", Lincoln asked excited. What if everything this says is true? Could he dare take a peek at the future?

"Ähm- Change! It means that you know that you have to… change somethings to resolve your… ähm. Future.", Lucy nervously explained.

"Wow.", Lincoln said in amazement. "This is really friggin… mind blowing! The next one is the one down here?"

"Ah-papapa! No touching!" Lucy flipped the fourth card she placed. "This is is unconscious. Something that is very hard tow shake in your soul. It is the… Two of Cups?!" Lucy sounded surprised.

The artwork of the two cups showed a fountain pouring water into two goblets, at the bottom of the card it read: 'Love'.

"Love?" Lincoln asked also surprised.

"It actually really doesn't come to a big surprise…", Lucy admitted. "You are a really kind brother and… find friends everywhere!" I wish that was the case, Lincoln thought, not without a good bit of self-loathing. "You are a really caring brother, - and person in general! But I think you don't really realise it yourself…"

"Maybe… I guess. I mean I am such a nice brother that I hanged up on Clyde to help out my little sis."

If you could have seen Lucy's face through her bangs, Lincoln was sure he would see her raise an eyebrow.

"We continue", Lucy said, reaching for the fifth card. "with your past. With whatever led you into your current situation." She flipped it. What looked like a mad Peter Pan grinned up at Lincoln. The name of the card was named: 'The Fool' "I don't think I'll have to explain tis either." She did anyway. "The 'Fool' represents the naive the new, optimism and idealism."

"Lucy, are you sure you aren't really some kind of real… witch? Because you are really scaring me."

"Thats what I have been trying to tell you guys for years.", Lucy replied with a grin on her pale lips.

"I had my suspicions, but know I know for sure."

Lucy was really smiling now. Her smile evaporated from her face as soon she flipped over the sixth card. 'The Future', if Lincoln could remember correctly. It was an eerie picture of a crowned skeleton with a giant scythe dancing over a dark field. Lincoln didn't need to read to understand what that card meant. Death. But something about it was strange: It faced the opposite direction than the other cards. It was on its head.

"Luce, why is it on its head?", Lincoln asked automatically.

Lucy's voice was heavy. "Death means a change: death of an old situation, birth of a new one. A better one. But cards on its head mean the opposite. Things will get much worse."

A chill ran down Lincolns back. "Stop shitting me Lucy. This isn't funny."

"I know it isn't."

Something overcame Lincoln, rage maybe? The cards had been right… they had been so right… "Well, what about the rest? Come on!", Lincoln exclaimed a little bit too loud. He started flipping the straight line of cards up that Lucy had laid next to the disappointing cross. Her words echoing in his mind as he flipped each card over: This is you The hermit, on his head This is where it takes place Five disks, on its head: Worry This is what you fear or hope Seven Disks, on its head: Failure This is how it ends The lovers, not on their heads.

The lovers? What how did that make any sense? Lincoln wanted to ask Lucy but when he looked up to her, he was staring in the face of a wide eyed man with a light bared, a unrecognisable tattoo and feverish glimmering eyes. "Lincoln!", he panted with a dry, cracking voice. "It hurts so muuuch!" Blood was dripping over his chin. The strange man suddenly just fell back off of the feet end of Lincolns bed into pitch black darkness. Lucy was nowhere to be seen, and the cards- Lincoln looked down at the cards. Every single card had turned into 'Death'. Every card was on their head. The skeletons grins growing bigger by the second. A female voice suddenly screaming with absolute bone chilling hysteria into his right ear: "NO! LINCOLN!"

Lincoln woke up in cold sweat. His alarm clock blaring into his right ear.