After the funeral, Lucy Loud went upstairs, past her bedroom, and crawled into the house's air vents. Whenever she felt upset, her 'secret dark place' always offered her comfort. But this time, it was worse than just being ridiculed by her peers for her dark personality. She had seen her entire family die right in front of her, only for it to have all been an illusion.
But everything she had seen was starting to come true, up until she forced her family off of the train. The train did end up crashing, but this time, only her father died. The rest of her family had praised her for predicting the tragedy, Lana and Leni even hailed her as a hero. But she didn't feel like a hero. Her father was still dead.
"Death does not like to be cheated."
The little poet kept thinking about the coroner's strange warning. His voice was as smooth as molasses, but at the same time, it was also frightening and foreboding. What did it mean?
"Kids! Time for bed!" Rita's voice called from downstairs.
As per usual, the kids obeyed their mother's orders and went to bed. But Leni couldn't sleep. Witnessing her father's death had taken a serious toll on her mind. Without waking up Lori, she crept out of her room and made her way into the kitchen, deciding that one of her smoothies would help.
She shut the door to the kitchen so that the noise wouldn't wake up anyone else. She reached for the blender and cutting board on the top shelf. Then, she got strawberries, peaches, milk, and yogurt out of the fridge. But she was being rather careless and didn't notice that she knocked over a bottle of water, spilling the contents on the floor.
She poured the milk, strawberries, and yogurt into the blender, and then started chopping the peaches into small bits. She scraped the peaches into the blender, accidentally putting a pit in, as well. She turned on the blender and started wiping off the knife with a dish towel.
After a few minutes, she set the knife down, with the towel still wrapped around it, and turned off the blender. She poured the smoothie into a tall glass and took a long sip. Yawning a bit, and thinking that it was working, she chugged the rest of the fruity liquid down. Unfortunately, she also swallowed the pit, which got stuck in her throat.
Leni grabbed and scratched at her neck, gagging and choking on the pit. She stumbled to the door, thinking that if she could get to her mother's room, and she could save her. But on her way to the door, she slipped on the water and fell to the ground. She tried to grab something to help pull herself up, and for a moment, she thought she had. But it was the towel.
She yanked it down, making the knife pierce her wrist. Leni's eyes became bloodshot as her breaths became weaker. Everything went dark, and the last thing she could think of was; "I wish I had said goodbye…"
The next morning, Lynn's screams shook the very foundation of the Loud House. She always woke up earlier than everyone else to go jogging in the morning, and all she wanted from the kitchen was a quick drink of water. Instead, she ended up waking her entire family.
"Mom!" She backed against the kitchen wall, crying as she slid down to the floor. "MOOOOOOOOM! LENI'S DEAD! Mom! Lori! Anybody!"
Lori and Lincoln were the first to reach her. Lincoln froze in place at the sight of his big sister's body. When he started to cry, Lynn got up and hugged him, tightly. Lori had pulled the knife out of Leni's wrist and checked for a heartbeat. When she didn't hear anything, her dam broke, too, and started crying.
Rita and Luna were the next ones to enter. "Oh, my God!" The rocker cried.
"Lori! Call an ambulance!" Rita ordered.
"I'm on it!" Lori was so distraught, she didn't even add one of her signature 'literallys' to her sentence.
Lucy finally got to the doorway, and when she saw Leni, a new wave of fear flushed over her body. She turned away from the kitchen and saw Lola, Lana, and Lisa rushing downstairs. She stopped them just in time.
When the paramedics arrived, they put Leni's body on a stretcher and took her to the hospital. Luna, Luan, and Lincoln comforted Rita while Lori and Lynn took care of the younger sisters.
"This is, literally, all my fault…" Lori sobbed.
"No, Lori…" Lynn patted her shoulder, calming down a bit. "There's no way this is your fault."
"Yes, it is!" Lori cried. "I-if only… I paid more attention to her...sh-she would've gotten h-help… and she wouldn't have…" She didn't finish, she just let her sister's hug her.
Lucy, however, was sitting on the staircase, deep in thought. In her vision on the train, Leni died after their father. Now, one week after he had died, Leni commits suicide? It didn't sound right. She needed answers, and she knew where to get them.
Later that night, Lucy confronted her brother in his room. He was still a little shaken up about the situation. "Lincoln…?" The surprised look on his face reminded her that she had abandoned her usual monotone voice. Now, she sounded like a normal, frightened little girl. "Lincoln, I need your help."
"Okay…" Lincoln wiped his eyes. "W-with what, Lucy?"
"I need to go to the mortuary, tonight. I need to speak with that coroner. He knows something."
"I don't understand."
"Understand what?"
Lucy turned around, face-to-face with Lynn, Luna, and Lori. She realized that if they were ever going to help her, she needed to tell them the truth. "W-when I warned you about the train, I saw it. I don't know how, and I don't know why, but I saw it. I saw each of you die before me. That coroner at the funeral home said something that made me think he knows something about it… can we go see him? Please?"
Lori looked at Luna, Luna looked at Lynn, and Lynn looked at Lincoln. Their expressions were a mixture of confusion, skepticism, and disbelief. But, eventually, Lori went into her old room and came back with the keys to Vanzilla. "I did say I wanted to do something with you guys before going back to college." She sighed.
Lucy led the group to the back of the funeral home, where they found a small window to the morgue. The neon lights shone brightly onto the clean, marble floor. Lucy was most familiar with the inner workings of a mortuary, so she took the lead. When they finally found the right room, they saw Leni, lying on a cold steel table.
The girl's clothes were laying on chair in the corner, a white sheet covering her naked body. Lucy saw multiple tools and realized that they had just walked into the middle of an autopsy. But where was the coroner?
"Oh, God…" Luna grieved as she stroked her big sister's forehead. "She looks so peaceful."
"We're really gonna miss you, Leni." Lincoln cried.
Suddenly, Leni's body sat up on its own. Lori and Luna screamed and held each other. Lincoln jumped into Lynn's arm, both of them screaming at the top of their lungs. Lucy recoiled from the table and backed into a shelf that knocked over a book. But instead of hitting the ground, someone's hand reached out and caught it. It was the coroner. The five Louds screamed in terror, once again.
"Shhh… please, you'll wake the dead." He spoke, softly. His cold, smooth voice managed to calm their nerves as he moved towards the table. He gently pushed Leni's body back down and covered her with the sheet again, unfazed by the sight of her exposed breasts. As he reached for a needle and spool of thread, Lucy, bravely, stepped forward.
"Um, excuse me, w-we're her family. My name is Lucy Loud and I just wanted to-"
"I know who you are, Lucille." He replied, sewing the surgical cuts on Leni's body shut. "And why you've come here. But I'm afraid you're going to leave most disappointed." Lucy's mouth shut as she stepped backwards.
"Why'd she sit up like that?" Luna piped up, trying to clear the air.
"Chemicals in the vascular flush create cadaveric spasms." The coroner explained. "Don't worry, once rigor mortis sets in, it will be impossible for it to happen during the memorial." He chuckled slightly, much to the others' disgust. "We wouldn't want to startle your relatives."
"What are those marks on her neck?" Lincoln asked.
"Cuticle lacerations. From scratching at her neck. The autopsy found a peach pit lodged in her throat."
"Lodged in her…?" The gears in Lucy's mind started to turn faster. "She was choking. Didn't we see a spill in the kitchen when we found her?" Lori thought for a moment and nodded. "Maybe… maybe the knife fell on her wrist. She didn't do it on purpose. It was an accident."
"Lucille…" The coroner shook his head. "In Death, there are no accidents. No coincidences. No mishaps. And no escapes…"
"You sound pretty sure of yourself." Lori crossed her arms, suspiciously.
Lucy rallied her courage again. "At our father's funeral. You warned me. You said Death didn't like to be cheated. What did you mean?"
"It's just that I've seen this before." He snipped the thread when he finished a stitch and moved on to another cut. "You have to understand that we are all just the prey of a cosmic predator. Every action we make, from the mundane to the monumental, is observed by Death as it waits to strike. The bridges we cross. The planes we fly on. The highways we travel. The roller coasters we ride. The arenas we spectate. No place is safe from its prowl."
The group shivered as he stretched the thread out from Leni's wrist. "You see, you changed things when you warned your family to get off that train, Lucille. You interfered with the design. But make no mistake, Death does not take 'no' for an answer. It will come for you all. One by one."
"Are you saying there is nothing we can do to save ourselves?" Lucy gulped.
"Oh, come one, Lucy!" Lori pulled her sister towards her. "Don't let this guy get in your head. Let's just go." They started to walk out of the room, the coroner spoke up again.
"Well… my mentor, the man who proceeded me at this mortuary. He was one of the first people to witness Death's design… he found a way to appease Death." The Loud's reluctantly turned back to him. "Have any of you ever wondered what it is that compels a person to take another's life? When we do, we take their place in Life. And all the days, and weeks, and months, and years that they have yet to live will be ours. And then, they take our place in Death."
"We have to kill somebody?" Lynn clenched her stomach.
"But be warned... " He concluded as he put away his tools. "There are severe consequences to cheating Death. To disrespecting the design. If you risk continuing to avoid it, you may instigate a fury that could frighten even the Grim Reaper… and you don't even wanna fuck with that Mac Daddy!"
The coroner slammed his scalpel down on the table, smirking as the noise made them jump out of their skin. Lincoln clapped his hands together and pulled Lucy towards him. "Well, okay then." He stammered. "Uh, well, we're sorry we broke in, and, uh-"
"No harm…" His smile grew wider as they left. "No foul." Lucy was the last one out of the room, following close behind Lincoln. She paused for a moment, looking back at the coroner once again. "I'll see you soon." He whispered.
Author's notes: Yes, I did reference all FIVE Final Destinations in the coroner's speech!
On a more serious note, the next chapter is based on Saw(due to popular vote) now I have a different election: Should the chapter star Lincoln and his sisters like all the previous chapters, or should I switch it up and have it star Linka and her brothers from "One of the Guys"? Let me know in the reviews!