Lincoln's courage began to retreat with every step he took towards Leni's room. His feet grew heavier and his palms slick with sweat. He had to do this. He had to save his sister. Lincoln stood frozen in Leni's doorway. She sat on her bed, casually filing her nails in her pajamas when she noticed him.
"Oh, hey Linky!" she said happily. There wasn't anything new or different about her demeanor than there had been in years past. That revelation was particularly frightening. Killing people had little to no effect on her day to day routine. She was that ice cold.
Lincoln swallowed his fear and managed to rasp out a few words. "Hey, Leni..."
She raised an eyebrow as her little brother remained stock still in her doorway. After a moment's pause, she questioned him.
"Everything, like, okay?"
'No! You're a murderer!' he wanted to shout.
Far less confrontational words replaced his thoughts.
"Uh... Leni, there's something I need to talk to you about."
Leni stopped filing her nails and sat more upright on her bed, turning her legs to face him.
"What is it?" she asked genuine concern for him across her face. She patted the spot beside her on the bed and beckoned him over.
Lincoln found his legs and began trudging slowly over to her as though he were a convict walking to the electric chair. Which could have been a fate reserved for his sister if he didn't stop her now.
He slowly took his seat next to her, now more nervous than ever as his heartbeat pounded in his ears.
"You know you can totes tell me anything," Leni reassured him. He was certainly about to test that theory.
"Anything?" Lincoln repeated nervously.
Leni smiled, putting an arm around his narrow shoulders and pulling him into a small side hug.
"Duh! That's what big sisters are for!" she relaxed her arm, but kept it around his shoulder. That didn't exactly allay his fears. "Now, what's up?"
Lincoln inhaled deeply, gathering all his bravery.
"Leni..." he whispered. "I know what you've been doing."
He was almost too afraid to look at her, but he had see her reaction for himself. Especially if said reaction was to wrap the other arm around his neck and silence him for good.
Leni stared blankly back at him, which in and of itself was not unusual. It took her a few moments to say something as Lincoln waited for what felt like days.
"I... uhm... Okay," she sighed, dropping her head and removing her arm. "I'm sorry, but I just can't stop!"
Lincoln's eyes widened. It was as he feared. She had developed a taste for deciding who lives and dies, and now she couldn't get enough!
"You have to!" he stammered quickly. "What if you get caught?" he asked urgently.
"Like, I've been at this for years, Linky, I won't get caught."
His jaw hung slack. Perhaps he had misheard.
"Y-years?"
Leni exhaled heavily. "Yeah, but buying it at the mall would be totes embarrassing, they only make it for kids and I never take enough for Lola to notice—"
"Wait, wait, wait," Lincoln interrupted standing from the bed. "What are you talking about?"
Leni looked at him like he was the dumb one. "Borrowing Lola's gummi vitamins. What are you talking about?"
Lincoln drug his hand down his face in frustration. Closing her bedroom door with his foot, he squared up in front of her. He was just going to confront her in plain language.
"I'm talking about you going on your 'internship' trips and killing people for money!"
The words smacked the elder sister like a runaway truck. She was completely speechless. How had he found out? How long has he known? Who else has he told? She needed to do some damage control, in a hurry.
"I-I like, totes don't know what you're talking about." She tried to play innocent, but now it was her turn to sweat.
Lincoln had figured she'd try to deny it. He had to execute his backup plan.
"Then what's in the guitar case you brought back from New York?"
Leni scoffed. "A guitar, duh!"
"And where did you buy this guitar?" Lincoln continued, his fear now overcome by frustration.
"At a music store in queens," she answered naturally.
"You told us you went to California," he reminded her.
She froze. Had she told them California? She couldn't remember!
"I-... uh..."
Lincoln got down on one knee in front of her and took her hand in his own. He looked her straight in her now faltering eyes.
"Leni, what's in the guitar case?"
He desperately wanted her to tell him he was off his rocker. He wanted her to walk over to the case, undo the latches, and find a beat up second hand guitar staring back at him, but he knew that wasn't going to happen, no matter how hard he wanted it to.
She closed her eyes. She couldn't lie to him. She was tired of hiding.
"You already know what's in it," Leni whispered.
Lincoln closed his eyes, flushing from them a line of tears that rolled down his cheeks, gathering at his chin.
"Leni..." he muttered quietly, maintaining his composure by a thread. "How many?"
His tears were becoming infectious as her vision began to cloud. "W-what?" she asked.
"How many people have you killed?" Lincoln asked harshly, staring back into her eyes as his own flashed with outrage.
Leni sniffed. The tears were falling freely now. She had hoped the day would never come for her to confess her sins, and to her own kid brother, no less. But this time, fortune had turned its back on her.
"Five."
It was true. The number carved on the casing was a sick running tally. Her own personal scoreboard. Lincoln felt sick as he stood up and wiped the tears from his eyes.
"Please... can I just explain—"
"Explain?!" Lincoln shouted. "How in the heck do you think you can justify killing people?"
"I did it for us!" She yelled back, more frightened than angry. "I did it to help our family! What have you ever done?"
Lincoln was honestly surprised at how he was handling the situation, when only moments ago he was sure Leni would have killed him by now.
"Well I didn't murder anyone!" he replied quickly. "Just... why? If you wanted to help the family, why not just get a normal job like Lori?"
Leni wiped the tears from her eyes and stood from her bed, now towering over her little brother. "Because..." she thought for a moment. "I'm dumb."
He was not expecting that answer. "What?"
"Don't act like you don't know!" she snapped, pointing an accusatory finger at him. "I know I might not, like, be the smartest person ever, but I found something I was good at, and I got paid good money to do it. How do you think Lori is gonna pay for that fancy school she wants to go to without any scholarships? Did you ever think of that? Or how Mom and Dad are gonna have enough money to put eleven kids through college?"
Truth be told, he hadn't. College was one of the last things on a little boy's mind.
"Oh, Leni's too dumb to drive a car, Leni's too dumb to play an instrument, or ride a bike! I heard it all, from my own family!"
At them point, she seemed to just be venting. Lincoln wisely decided to stay quiet while she let this out.
"I may not be smart, or coordinated, but I found a way to help, and I did it because I knew none of you would think I could!" By the time she was done, Leni was gasping for breath. She just stood there, waiting for a stunned Lincoln to reply.
He knew he was guilty of the exact sins she had described. Leni had been the butt of more than one joke at her expense in the Loud house, but he'd never imagined it would have driven her to this.
"I... I don't know what to say, except... I'm sorry." He took a step towards her. "But Leni, you... you killed people." He was still having trouble grasping that hard truth.
"I killed bad people. Ken said so," Leni said in her defense.
"Who is Ken? Were they bad just because he said they were?" Lincoln's anger began to flare up again. Not aimed directly at Leni, but that she could be so easily taken advantage of.
"I like, read the files, they were bad guys!" she insisted. Lincoln did seem to remember the people Lisa had been researching were all slain criminals.
"But that doesn't make it right, Leni! The law is supposed to decide what happens to criminals!"
"What about your superhero comics? They do it all the time! How come it's okay for them and not me?"
"Because they aren't real!" Lincoln was nearly shouting again. He reigned in his anger and tried to calm himself. He had confronted her, now he had to ask her to stop.
Leni plopped back onto her bed in defeat, holding her head in her hands as her sunglasses tumbled off of her head. "A-are you gonna tell Mom and Dad?" she asked through her tears.
How could he? The whole reason he'd confronted her was to save her from the electric chair, not to sell her down the river. "No," he said, sitting beside her on her bed. "But you have to promise me something." He whispered to her, rubbing her back gently as she cried.
"What?" she asked, looking up from her lap. Her mascara was streaked down her face as she tried to wipe her eyes.
"Promise me, that you will never kill another person again."
She looked into his eyes. She couldn't lie to him or anyone else anymore. If she needed a reason to stop, now she had one. "Okay. I promise."
They embraced each other close before letting go. Leni grabbed a box of tissues on her nightstand and began to clean up her face while Lincoln dried his own tears.
He turned to leave, but not before stopping at her door.
"Leni," he said over his shoulder. "I love you."
"I love you too, Linky."
After he left, the emotional toll the previous conversation took weighed on her as she felt her eyelids droop. Lori was still out, but figured she'd be home eventually. She snuggled beneath her blankets, all set to sleep before she heard a buzzing. She glanced at her personal cellphone on the charger. It was silent. It was her other phone.
The one Ken had given her.