Authors note: I wanted to give a notice that this chapter is rather darker than a lot of them, I'm not exactly confident on it, I have my reasoning for it but I still am indecisive on it, I rewrote this chapter a half dozen times as is honestly I still am debating on changing it or not. Either way I'm sorry in advanced if it's bad.
The familiar sound of the alarm clock ringing out in the morning, Lynn felt her eyes slowly opening to the sound, she felt exhausted to no end, like she wanted to just roll over and go back to sleep, the auburn-haired girl reaching over and shutting off her alarm clock, only to just lay back in her bed, staring at the ceiling. She felt wrong, her head was killing her, her hair was a mess, Lynn felt like she had taken a lot of damage across her body, the brunette's whole body felt heavy, the closest she could compare it to was like being football tackled by 2 people at once after being awake for 2 days straight.
"Wuh?" The sports loving Loud felt a sharp throbbing pain in her left hand, Lynn raised the limb up so she could see it, her hand having bandaging wrapped around her pinky and part of her palm. She hesitantly reached for it with her right hand, she winced in pain, merely touching it caused it to feel like a nail was being driven through it.
"Dang it, did something happen...?" Lynn gave her body a rough onceover, the device Lisa had allowed her to take was not on her side anymore, it was on the floor, the brunette reaching down and picking it up, seeing it appeared to be intact. She sighed, aside from that though and her newest bandage, nothing seemed wrong. Lynn lifted the side of her shirt up and reattached the device, while she looked over and could see Lucy was already gone from her own bed, the aspiring sports star spent a minute mentally debating collapsing back in bed and pretending today was already over, yet Lynn knew she could not do that, she had agreed to more or less be Chandler's bodyguard tonight at the party, she forced herself out of bed.
"W-Whoa!" Lynn stumbled, falling onto her hands and knees, her legs were more numb than sore, it did little to aid the many questions forming in her mind already this morning. She forced herself onto her feet, putting up with it while her body seemed to just want her to lay down and go back to sleep.
Stepping out into the hallway, Lynn could see a decent line already formed for the upstairs bathroom.
"Whoa Lynn, you look rough." Luan took notice of their sister, while tempted to make a joke about sleeping on the wrong side of the bed, the sporty Loud looked like she had slept in the floor.
"Lynn, okay?" Lily worriedly asked, she was wearing a light purple nightgown, the youngest Loud sibling was becoming scared about what was happening to their 5th oldest sibling.
"What happened to your hand?" Lana queried as well, noticing the bandaging, sure none of them looked the best when they first woke up in the morning, this was a new extreme.
"I... I guess I did something to it in my sleep? I feel like I didn't get any sleep at all last night." Lynn replied to her siblings, guessing the rest were at the downstairs bathroom currently. The sports loving girl was going to ask Lucy if she knew what happened during the night, though guessed she was the one in the bathroom at the moment.
"I didn't know you sleepwalked." Lana commented, the mechanically inclined twin and the comedic Loud seeing Lily step over to Lynn, before giving her a hug in an attempt to try and make her feel better, even if she couldn't reach that high.
"Aw, isn't she adorable? Why don't you return the love?" The maternal personality chimed up within Lynn's head, much to her irritation, she guessed the morning peace she normally got from the split personalities was not going to be in the cards today.
"This is gonna hurt." The girl with the cracked skull mentally sighed, she reached down and picked Lily up into her arms, giving her youngest sister a warm hug. Lily giggled and did her best to return it, wrapping her arms around Lynn's neck. Despite how light the youngest Loud was, for some reason it still felt like an anvil to Lynn's body currently, she put up with the pain and discomfort, toughing it out to the best of her ability. Lynn's expression looked rather content and peaceful, despite the clear exhaustion it held.
"Aw, maybe we should start calling you 'mama' Lynn." Luan could not help but crack a joke, Lynn shot a small glare to her older sister, she did not get to say anything however, the sound of the bathroom door opening and Lucy stepping out drew her attention, Luan going into the bathroom next.
"Dang it, I was supposed to go next." Lana groaned, having stepped out of her place in line when trying to talk to the sporty Loud.
"Hey Luce, hang on a sec." Lynn stopped her younger sister before she could make her way downstairs, Lily had her head resting on her older sister's shoulder while being held, she was really enjoying the sporty Loud's affection.
"Do you want me to help you with your makeup for today?" Lucy offered, presuming this was going to involve reconverting her roommate into the goth side again.
"You wear makeup?" Lana chirped, the only time she ever saw Lynn wearing makeup was when Luan pulled a prank of some kind in their sleep.
"It'd be wasted on someone as ugly as us." The depressed split personality sighed, the auburn-haired Loud wanted to activate the pain inflicting device on her side to shut it up, but given her current condition, and that she had to focus most of her strength on not collapsing to the floor, she realized that might be a bad idea.
"No, just, I tried something new yesterday, that's all." Lynn gave a nervous grin, attempting to brush off the topic of makeup for the moment. "Do you know what happened to me last night? I feel like I had the roughest sleep of my life." The sports loving Loud followed it up with a question for her gothic roommate, she could not remember a thing for the life of her.
"Well, something did wake me up, I think it was nearly 6? I saw Lincoln standing by your bed, he was fixing your hand, but you were really asleep, I've never heard you snore that loudly before." Lucy explained what she remembered seeing, it had been a rather normal sight to her, Lincoln or Lisa tended to most of Lynn's injuries, so she thought nothing of it was weird, aside from the time it was happening at. "Lincoln looked pretty bad though, like he was going to be sick..." Lucy added, she had decided to just pretend to be asleep instead of interrupting the two, Lincoln had left their room, one thing that was etched into the gothic Loud's mind, however, was the broken expression that had been on their only brother's face.
"Did you crash into him when sliding downstairs again?" Lana attempted to inquire, it wouldn't be the first time Lynn had done that, not just to him but to several of the many siblings.
"No, I don't remember anything... Thanks Lucy." Lynn thanked her raven-haired sister, letting the gothic Loud continue downstairs, the aspiring sports star let Lily back down to the ground. Lynn knew she had to find Lincoln now to figure out what happened, she heard the bathroom door opening, the second Luan stepped out the sports lover went in immediately afterward, wanting to get ready for the day as soon as possible.
"Oh, come on!" Lana groaned while holding her head.
"No fair." Lily pouted, crossing her arms. Luan laughed, even when angry the youngest Loud looked cute, she walked past them, continuing back to her and Luna's room to get changed.
After Lynn cleaned herself up and got changed into a solid red shirt and jeans, she went straight to Lincoln's room, only to find he was not there, when making that realization the brunette went downstairs, she could see Lola on the couch, watching television, while Lisa was reading a book beside her, this time Luna was trying to help Lynn Senior with breakfast, and Lynn Junior could tell just from the amount of smoke coming from the stovetop, it was not going well, she saw no sign of Lincoln however.
"Hey, Lisa, have you seen Lincoln?" Lynn leaned forward over the back of the couch, trying to talk to the only other person that knew her split personality secret currently.
"He said Clyde had an emergency that he needed help with, so Lincoln left earlier to lend a hand before school began." Lisa answered from what Lincoln had told his few sisters that had been awake already, the child prodigy leaving out just how upset Lincoln had been, the bucktooth boy had tried his best to hide it, but the genius could see through that persona rather easily.
"He's not here...? Dang, I was going to ask what happened last night, Lucy said he was fixing my hand while I was out cold." Lynn presented her left hand for Lisa to see, the glasses wearing girl quirked an eyebrow.
"It doesn't look that bad." Lola stated, the bandaging was primarily wrapped around the bottom of the pinky finger and part of the palm to keep the bandaging on, it did not restrict her entire digits movement thankfully. Lisa grabbed her older sibling's hand, looking the injury over curiously.
"How peculiar, if you needed medical attention, why did he not come and wake me to assist?" Lisa verbally pondered, talking to herself was an unintentional habit, something that she shared with their only brother. When the glasses wearing girl took a peek under the bandaging, she went wide-eyed upon recognizing there were teeth marks around the injury.
"What is it? Is something wrong?" Lynn asked, not able to see from her position, Lisa cleared her throat while returning the bandage back to its place.
"No, just a rather bad cut, that's all." Lisa lied; she doubted her sports loving sibling would be able to relax if told that she had most likely tried to bite her own finger off in her sleep. Though the three of them had their attention from the conversation interrupted, as the sound of the smoke detector began blaring loudly.
"Oh man! Not again!" Luna coughed, getting a face full of smoke.
"Luna, you used too much oil, please open the window." Lynn Senior remained calm in the situation, he was just baffled at how Luna had a tendency to light whatever she was trying to cook on fire, and not in the way most intended when attempting to cook.
"Oh dear, maybe we should go help cook breakfast?" The maternal split personality suggested, Lynn Junior groaned while letting her upper body dangle over the back of the couch. "I'm gonna go try and make sure there's something other than cereal for breakfast today." Lynn told her younger sisters, shoving herself away from the couch before making her way to the kitchen to see if there was anything she could do to be of help.
Lincoln at the moment was walking with Clyde to school currently, the glasses wearing boy normally took the bus or had his parents drive him there, though he was pretty surprised when Lincoln rang his doorbell and asked to walk with him. Something about the white-haired teenager seemed wrong however.
Lincoln looked rough, his eyes red like he had been crying, though he had done his best to clean up, he appeared completely tired as well, like he had gotten zero sleep last night. Clyde wondered if something had happened at the Loud house, sadly any attempt at inquiring was met with a stone wall of silence.
"Are you mad at me for asking Lynn to be my date? If you are, I understand, I'd be worried too if someone that was a freak about one of my sisters suddenly started dating a one of them." Clyde tried to break the silence between them once more, the boy in the blue coat was wondering what the problem was, all he could assume was that it was about Lynn and him going out.
"At this point, I'm more worried about you than Lynn..." Lincoln sighed out his reply, after last night, he hoped Clyde was not in danger at all.
"Relax, she's hit me in the face with plenty of balls, I can handle her rougher side." Clyde assured that he was not as weak as he let on, he could tell something was wrong just from how Lincoln was behaving, the Mcbride boy knew that his practical brother of a best friend was not going to tell him about it though, it might be too soon or too much to bring up, any attempts at finding out so far had not gone anywhere.
"Oh, by the way, I figured out what Chandler had in store for the party. I overheard him talking to one of his goons about it." Clyde tried to change the topic, at this point wanting to get his friend talking since it seemed like Lincoln was close to shutting down mentally.
"I don't think I'll be going Clyde; I might just see if I can talk Stella into going out to a restaurant instead." The middle Loud sibling stated, he had lost all interest in the party knowing Lynn was going to be there, he knew it would be rude to force Stella into a change of plans, but the white-haired teenager would feel more comfortable the further away he was from his 5th oldest sibling.
"What? Dude, changing plans on the first date is a major bad move, it's like an unspoken rule." Clyde insisted, nothing said unreliability and uncertainty than plan changes, last minute ones only made it far worse. "Chandler got a bunch of alcohol prepped for this party; a lot of kegs worth, he had to bribe a lot of people to get them to get it for him. this party is going to be one of his biggest yet too." The bespectacled boy exclaimed, Lincoln groaned and held his head back, staring at the sky as they walked.
"Fine, I won't back out." Lincoln grunted out in response, albeit the only reason he was agreeing to it now was because a night spent being carefree and relaxed would be a great thing, especially given that he needed time to think. The bucktooth boy was utterly distracted, lost in his own mind, last night being burnt into his memory like a nightmare that he wished he could forget, the worst part about it all, was that he blamed himself for it all.
When Lynn got to school later that day, she had no chance to find Lincoln, she wound up arriving nearly late, having to rush straight to class upon arriving. The brunette did feel better than she did this morning, though not by much, getting through her first few classes was easy, the device Lisa had given her to suppress the depressed personality was useful, it had a dial on it that went from 1 to 10, hitting the dial in would cause it to send out a painful pulse, having it at 3 was enough to silence Dismal Lynn for the time being.
When Lynn got out of class, she headed straight for Lincoln's locker, hoping to meet him for lunch, instead of finding him however, she found nobody, it was strange to the aspiring sports star since she knew Lincoln tended to go to his locker at specific points in the day, even if he was unaware of it.
"Why are we wasting time looking for him? We could go fight those idiots that hang out at the back of the school." The aggressive split personality suggested a better alternative to waste their time on.
"Because he should know what happened last night to me, he fixed my hand after all..." Lynn explained her train of thought, if her brother fixed her up then he had to know what had happened to begin with. The aspiring sports star was mentally debating having Lisa reinstall the cameras in her and Lucy's room now, though knew that the goth Loud would be against it.
"Jeez Lincoln, of all the mornings you have to be busy, why this one?" Lynn held her head while asking herself out loud, feeling annoyed, despite her best efforts, no memory of last night came to mind, normally her memories would bubble back to the surface gradually in a slow manner, last night was a total blank image in her brain.
"You entertaining yourself, Lynn?" Clyde's voice caught her attention, the brunette looking to her left and seeing her date for tonight, she had a nervous blush on her face now realizing he had seen her talking to herself, it embarrassed her though she was glad to know he had not heard anything too bad.
"Clyde! H-hey, nah I was just thinking out loud." Lynn nervously replied, stepping over to him, happy to see a friendly face. "What're you doing here?" She tried to avoid talking about her seemingly harmless conversation with herself.
"I was trying to check on Lincoln, he seemed pretty out of it this morning." Clyde stated, albeit he had a hunch that it might involve the Loud sisters themselves in some way, he had seen Lincoln nearly reach his limit several times over after all, but this morning, that was the worst he had ever seen Lincoln in their many years of knowing each other.
"Well, he's probably at lunch. Come on, I'm starved." Lynn tried to shrug it off, she was wondering what was wrong with her only brother, the girl with the fractured skull had to assume that he had merely been exhausted from last night, he had been awoken enough to tend to her injury after all. Clyde did not argue, following his date along gladly.
Lincoln was not at the cafeteria, he was sat outside the side exit to the school with his tray of food, sneaking out of the cafeteria through the emergency exit was a common thing among the many students at the Highschool, there was no alarm hooked up to it or the sorts, so it basically was another door to some. A few others were around the young boy, but no one he personally knew, Lincoln having just grabbed his servings and decided to try and enjoy his lunch outside, though he couldn't lie to himself, he was doing it to avoid Lynn.
"If I tell Lynn, she'll have a breakdown on the spot, who knows what she'll do if she knew? What do I do...? Do I tell Lisa? Do I tell Mom or Dad? How do I tell anyone about this?" Lincoln mentally pondered while he found himself playing with his food half-heartedly, his brain was all over the place, the events of last night kept replaying in his head, over, and over, and over again.
"I need to stay away from Lynn, at least until she can get rid of that personality... If she can..." The bucktooth teenager continued thinking to himself, he had no clue if there was any chance of Lynn being able to get rid of any of the split personalities, the middle Loud sibling had faith in Lisa, he just did not know how long it could take. As far as Lincoln cared, he had already done enough damage himself. That was when an idea sprang to the bucktoothed teenagers mind, he reached into his pocket and took out his cellphone, he went down his list of contacts until he found the name he was looking for, hitting call and putting the phone up to his ear.
"Hi, this is the Golden Ribbons, how can I help you?" A rougher sounding girl's voice answered, Lincoln blinked, he swore the voice sounded familiar, but he could not put his finger on who it belonged to.
"Uhh, this is Lincoln. I need to talk to Leni." Lincoln responded, he would have thought he had the wrong number initially, though hearing the name of the custom dress store Leni owned was enough to tell him he had not messed up in his call attempt, the white-haired teenager swore he had called Leni's cell phone and not her work phone however.
"If you're an important client, then you have to wait until the appointed time, if you want to make an appointment, there are no openings until two weeks from now. Do you want to leave a message?" The voice sounded rough, yet sounded like a clear forced attempt at being professional and formal. Lincoln guessed it was Leni's new employee, why she had his 2nd oldest sister's cellphone was beyond him.
"Just, tell Leni her brother's calling." Lincoln held his head, there was a moment of silence from the other end of the phone.
"Lincoln? Hey! Sorry about that, so many people call my phone now that I have to let my assistant handle it." Leni apologized when answering the phone, sounding bright and bubbly, as if no amount of work she was tasked with could possibly exhaust her if said work involved fashion.
"It's fine, Leni, I'm sorry to bother you, but I need to call in a favor... a HUGE favor." Lincoln began while he rested his half empty food tray aside, leaning back on the wall, he was hiding beside the steps, out of anyone else's vision, it just felt safer being there than it did being in the cafeteria.
"Of course! Anything for the best brother I've ever had and greatest model I've ever had!" Leni was more than happy to help her little brother, as far as the 2nd oldest Loud cared, she had a huge mountain of unpaid favors to repay him for, Leni was also the one that was terrible at keeping track of favors she owed or not. Lincoln could not help but chuckle, resisting making a 'I'm the only brother you've ever had' joke, that was probably the first time he had smiled all day.
Lynn found herself spending a majority of her free time with Clyde today, she never could find Lincoln, any class that ended she would try to find him, only for him to seemingly not be where he normally would be, the brunette even tried interrogating Stella at one point, the Zhau girl was in a similar position as the other two though, having not seen the white-haired boy for most of the day.
Once school let out for the day however, Stella found herself being the only one Lincoln wanted to be around, when they ran into one another he wound up giving her a tight hug, Stella appreciated it, though she swore his smile was hiding grief, and the white-haired boy had clearly been suffering with a giant emotional burden. The two left without Clyde and Lynn, Lincoln was not going to head straight to the party, instead, he had opted into taking Stella on a date to the mall as a way to burn the few hours of time they had before the party would supposedly begin.
"So, you wanna head straight for the party before it starts, or would you like to do something to kill time?" Clyde asked Lynn, the two standing by idly outside, the weather seemed pretty perfect today, the auburn-haired girl pondered on it for a moment.
"Think he'd agree to a sparring match?" The aggressive split personality asked, Lynn's head throbbing at hearing the question.
"How about we just go grab some ice cream and talk?" Lynn suggested to her date, she did not know an awful lot about Clyde, aside from sharing similar interests with Lincoln, getting to know the Mcbride boy more personally seemed like a good idea to the 5th oldest Loud. The first place that sprang to mind was the very ice cream shop that Lincoln had taken her to the day that the two of them were attacked.
"I was expecting you to say we should go to the batting cages, but sure!" Clyde happily accepted this offer, he sounded enthusiastic, his date could not deny, it was cute to see him like this.
The two went to the familiar ice cream place not far from their school, while Clyde did not have that big of a sweet tooth, he did not mind it today, it was nice to sit down and just talk with Lynn for a change, instead of their only exchange being her apologizing for hitting him with something on accident.
"... And my bike fell apart halfway through, I pretty much was screwed." Clyde finished the story he had been sharing there, Lynn lightly laughing at hearing that.
"That had to hurt, I've fallen off my bike enough times to know." The brunette replied, the more she talked with Clyde the more relaxed she felt, Lynn was noticing one major thing though, the lack of the obsessed personality, normally by now the split personality that was completely infatuated with Lincoln would have insulted Clyde a dozen times over or made some snarky remark about how this was a waste of time. Instead, Lynn only heard three of the voices in her head, the maternal one was the only one that encouraged the sporty Loud in this date, the aggressive one didn't care and came off as bored, and Lynn did not grant the depressed one a chance to say anything. The aspiring sports star was not getting her hopes up, she just presumed the obsessed voice was suppressed for now.
"By the way, how did you convince your folks to let you stay out for the party? I figured your curfew was like ours." Lynn asked while taking another bite out of her ice cream cone, wondering if the Mcbride boy was actually a lot better of a liar than he let on, or was merely great at convincing others when he needed something.
"Oh, I just told them the truth." Clyde claimed, seeing his date staring with wide eyes, unable to really believe that. She knew his dads were a lot more cautious with this sort of thing, they were great people, the aspiring sports star just couldn't see them ever agreeing to letting their only son go to a possibly all-night party.
"Seriously? And they just said yes?" Lynn wondered if she had overcompensated when requesting Luna's help to give her and Lincoln a cover story for tonight.
"They think it's better if I get the partying out of my system BEFORE college." Clyde grinned, he was not going to complain, his dads were treating this party more as a chance to let their son get out any potentially bad behavior while he was young.
"Someone who doesn't mind honesty, he seems like a perfect boyfriend doesn't he?" The maternal split personality commented, Lynn could not argue that she was jealous of just how honest Clyde could be with those around him.
"You really aren't a wuss." Lynn complimented her date, the brunette could only be terrified of the truth as of late, she missed when she could be open and honest with everyone in her life, now all the sports loving Loud could seemingly do was pick and choose very cautiously, out of fear of losing said life.
"Thanks, and you really aren't that mean." Clyde gave a cocky grin in response, standing up from his seat and brushing the crumbs from the ice cream cone off his shirt.
"It's almost 7, you ready to get going?" He offered, though the way his tone sounded, it came off more like he was giving her an opportunity to not go to the party with, Clyde could tell something had happened between Lynn and Lincoln, it was not that hard to tell from the fact they could not find the white-haired boy all day, and he would be at the party after the conversation that Mcbride had with him on their walk to school this morning.
"Yeah, Chandler wanted me to be his guard for the party. I can't NOT go at this point." Lynn reminded him of what she had to do to get their invitations to begin with, the bespectacled boy did not argue, simply nodding.
The location on the invitations for the party seemed rather random at first, it was in the southern part of Royal Woods, on the outskirts of town, the address had led them to an old house that was more at the edge of a forest, it looked like it had been long forgotten by all but father time itself. Vines and overgrowth were everywhere, Lynn initially was thinking it was the wrong address, yet seeing so many others there made her realize otherwise.
"I knew it was going to be bigger than his last party, but I didn't expect this..." Clyde was absorbing the sheer impact of just how many people were there, he imagined the party was going to happen outside just as much inside. Lynn swore she could smell the alcohol already, and she was not excited about it one bit.
"I can just smell the opportunities to fight out here. Drunk idiots are the easiest to challenge." The aggressive split personality eagerly spoke, the brunette trying to ignore it.
"Loud! There you are." Chandler's voice caught their attention, they saw Chandler hopping out of a broken window, or maybe it was a hole in the wall, it was hard to tell, the party king of their school approaching them.
"I was starting to think you weren't gonna show up, what took you?" Chandler asked, treating her more like an employee clearly, though she could tell he felt rather unsafe.
"I didn't realize the party was literally next to nowhere. Relax, I'm here now." Lynn retorted, understanding his anxiety given the severity of the threatening letter he had gotten. "Have you seen Lincoln by the way? I need to talk to him." The auburn-haired girl requested; she saw the host of the party point a thumb towards the second floor of the house.
"Last I saw, him and star girl were with the relaxed crowd topside, I'd appreciate having you downstairs, the only people that go upstairs are the lightweights or those about to crash." Chandler exclaimed, it was obvious he had his guard up completely, Clyde had to wonder who would be crazy enough to attack someone when so many people were around, it sounded insane.
"I know he's being rude, but try and assure him, he's depending on you completely tonight. Most wouldn't act like themselves if their safety was in the hands of someone else entirely." The maternal split personality's voice chimed in Lynn's head; the 5th oldest Loud taking in a breath and exhaling, she hated being nice to people she saw as jerks, but listening to her softer side, or Miss Lynn as Lincoln named it, seemed to be working out a lot better for her as of late.
"It's okay Chandler, nothing bad'll happen as long as I'm here. I'll handle anyone causing trouble, not just the one threatening you." Lynn declared to the one that hired her tonight, Clyde was rather surprised, he half expected Chandler to be in a headlock the second he started talking.
"Thanks." Chandler managed to force the words out, before returning inside to handle the last-minute arrangements.
"I'm gonna go find Lincoln, be back in a minute." The sporty Loud told her date, Clyde nodded understandingly.
"Come find me if I can help." He said, watching as the 5th oldest Loud made her way inside, heading straight upstairs.
The inside was already getting decently crowded, the only thing that really were offering lights were a bunch of lanterns that were hung up everywhere, including some extras for the outside. Lynn had to admit, Chandler seemingly covered nearly everything about this party, there even was a large assortment of food in what she presumed was the kitchen, it was hard to tell when a tree was essentially growing through the tiled floors. Going upstairs made the brunette feel unsafe, the steps felt loose and creaky, she did not let it stop her however as she headed straight up.
"Are you sure you want to do that, Lincoln?" Stella questioned her date, the two were sat in the floor, relaxing in a corner part of one of the bedrooms, there were several others in there with them, though unlike the downstairs guests these ones seemed to be more there to either kill time, enjoy the peace, or were merely looking for a more private place to make out with their significant others. The Zhau girl had insisted on Lincoln taking one of the beers to enjoy, he needed to loosen up, normally she would be against it, however he was so tense and bad off that she felt it was the best option. Lincoln never had any interest in alcohol personally, this was his first real one in his life, he knew not to go overboard, but he needed something, anything to calm his nerves.
"What choice do I have, Stella? I'm too dangerous to stay at home... Leni said yes, me and her are going to talk to Mom and Dad tomorrow." Lincoln exhaled, the bottle he held being a quarter full, the bucktooth boy had begun to calm down and loosen up, he had been telling Stella about his latest plan mainly.
"Never thought I'd hear you call yourself dangerous." Stella confessed, she had been gently attempting to pry the truth out of her date, Lincoln meanwhile had been trying to avoid the topic entirely and divert the conversation onto talking about anything else.
"Lincoln! There you are!" Lynn called out when entering the room, having been looking all over upstairs for him, Stella suddenly felt Lincoln's grip on her left-hand tightening, what once was simple handholding had now devolved into trembling terror. The raven-haired girl motioned for him to calm down, having to practically pry her hand free from his, she stood up when Lynn approached, stepping in front of her.
"Lynn, hold on. I need to talk with you first." Stella stated, the auburn-haired Loud blinked, leaning to the left to look at Lincoln, he was trembling once again, he looked ready to break down on the spot. Lynn knew what that looked like especially, she had enough breakdowns as of late to be more than experienced with it.
"Sure, sure." The athlete did not resist, stepping out of the room with the taller girl, sure there was not exactly anywhere that was private in this old house, but going to a nearby room where people were busier with games or one another was plenty of privacy.
"What happened at home?" Stella got straight to the point with what she was asking, the tall girl had her arms crossed and looked disinterested in beating around the bush, her best friend and date had been next to distraught ever since they first met up after school.
"What do you mean, Stella?" Lynn requested clarity, as far as she knew, everything at home had been alright. Beyond everything going on within the sporty Loud's head, that is. The athletic Loud had noticed one thing however, the lack of the obsessed personality, she half anticipated it speaking up to insult Stella in some way or form, yet once again, there was silence on that split personalities voice.
"I'm asking what happened, I know your home can be crazy, I couldn't find Lincoln at all today, he was like a ghost. Then the second school let out, he was waiting outside for me, he practically latched onto me." Stella began recounting what she had personally experienced thus far today, at first, the black-haired girl had been getting worried that Lincoln was going to cancel the date entirely, instead he seemed more than glad to go to the mall with Stella while they waited for the party to start.
"And now he's telling me that he doesn't think he can go home, because he thinks he's too dangerous to be there." Stella added with her hands on her hips, looking accusingly to the 5th oldest Loud. Lynn raised her hands defensively.
"Whoa, whoa, this is the first I'm hearing of anything being wrong. I was just wanting to ask Lincoln what happened to me last night, because I can't remember." Lynn showed the bandaging on her left hand, she had not seen anything happening to Lincoln as of late, the worst he had to deal with was the fact he had upset Lisa by entrapping her into helping the sports loving Loud with her split personality issue. "Lincoln thinks he's dangerous?" She had to repeat that part, it sounded like a bad joke, Lincoln had an angry side to him that could give Lori's rage a run for its money, but he never took it out on others and it took a lot of effort to draw it out.
"I want to help, but I can't if I don't know anything... And I know Lincoln's the type to blame himself before he blames anyone else." Stella did not really believe Lynn, if anything seeing that injury made the Zhau girl more suspicious of the 5th oldest Loud.
"Just sock her in the nose, that'll convince her." The aggressive split personality advised, she bit her lip, trying to shake off the throbbing pain she felt in her head.
"Well, just let me talk to him, I promise I can get him to tell us what's wrong." Lynn insisted, she hated seeing Lincoln upset, their whole family did, this was a whole new level of troubling however, she had never seen her only brother being this scared of anyone in their family before.
"Look, I know I can't stop you, you're the most stubborn person in the whole school." Stella began, Lynn already did not like where this was going, even if she appreciated the fact Lincoln had someone to look after him that he could share his affection with, it seemed like the aspiring sports stars plan to get the two to hook up had worked perfectly. "But let it wait for a few hours, he needs to calm down, I'll try to help convince him too. I know you care about him, but if you're the cause then it'd only make things worse by trying to force him to talk." Stella finished there, trying to convince the sporty Loud to leave the white-haired boy in her hands for tonight.
"She's so sweet, it's nice knowing we have someone to look after Lincoln." The maternal split personality hummed in delight, sounding more like a proud parent than anything.
"And if you can't convince him?" Lynn had to bring up the what if scenario of Lincoln refusing to talk, though the sports loving girl was completely oblivious to the plans her only brother was making with their 2nd oldest sibling. There was a long pause between the two of them, Stella sighed, not wanting to be mean, there was only one answer that sprung to mind.
"Then I'll respect his wishes and do my best to make sure he doesn't fall apart." Stella swore, she owed Lincoln that much at the very least, it sounded almost like a passive threat to the sporty Loud, she had to internally admit, she respected how brave the Zhau girl was, despite their strength difference.
"... Alright, just, make sure he doesn't get wasted." Lynn requested, she still felt responsible for Lincoln's wellbeing for whatever went on tonight, Stella nodded, with the agreement made, the two split apart and went their own ways, Lynn heading back downstairs for the time being.
The next few hours went by with little to no incidents, Lynn spent most of that time with Clyde, though she felt obliged to at least keep Chandler in her vision to the best of her ability, thankfully that was relatively easy, wherever the largest amount of people was, the party lover himself would be there. Albeit when the music began to get louder and louder, the sports loving girl wanted to stay outside since it was annoying her, sadly she was the bodyguard for the evening.
Lincoln and Stella had come downstairs after enough time, though the bucktooth boy was clearly still not wanting to be near Lynn for the time being, the auburn-haired Loud could see Lincoln being affectionate with Stella, she was happy for him, yet there was still nothing from the obsessed split personality, it confused Lynn, she had never been able to suppress it for so long before, it was weird, she was happy to not hear it, it just was strange.
Right now, Lynn was just sat on an old, tattered couch, or rather, the part of it that was intact, the other half having collapsed when someone dived onto it from the staircase. No harm to the person done, thankfully. The auburn-haired girl saw Clyde returning to her, with two beer bottles in hand, he held one out to his date for the night, the sporty Loud shrugged and took it, she had not had a drink so far, one couldn't hurt she thought.
"Thanks, you're such a gentleman." Lynn gave a toothy smirk, using her teeth to take off the bottlecap with no trouble, Clyde was impressed, he was not going to try that himself, he just used one his keys to pop the cap off.
"Seen anyone trying to hit Chandler yet?" The bespectacled boy quirked, so far it seemed like nobody was even giving one angry look in Chandler's direction, not that the two were complaining, they may dislike him but that didn't mean they wanted to see him hurt.
"Nah, I think he just made someone annoyed, angry enough to make a threat but not mad enough to act on it." Lynn spoke out her thoughts, she brought the beer bottle up to her lips, though before she could drink from it, the smell hit her nostrils, the aroma, it was so strong, it made Lynn suddenly feel sick to her stomach.
"Something wrong?" Clyde quirked a brow, seeing the sporty Loud take the bottle away from her face before she even took a sip.
"I dunno, I just can't handle the smell." Lynn claimed while covering her mouth and nose, the smell of liquor was permeating the air, sure, that happened when people threw away half empty bottles, misplaced them, or outright dropped and spilled some, the scent directly from the bottle itself however, made her feel close to losing control of her stomach contents entirely.
"Alright, you need some air." Clyde decided for her, taking the beer bottle from her hand and setting them in the floor, he helped Lynn to her feet, guiding her outside. Lynn barely took two steps into the yard before she immediately lost control and began vomiting.
"Jeez Lynn, how much have you had tonight?" Clyde asked while rubbing her back, most of the people outside currently seemed to be gathered around one of two bonfires that had been made.
"Zero..." Lynn coughed in response, wiping her mouth with her forearm, she had no clue what that was about, a few nights ago she was able to drink with no trouble, it was like the sporty Loud's body was refusing to tolerate any liquor now, even the mere scent.
"Do you want me to walk you home?" Clyde offered to his date, he hoped she had not suddenly got a stomach bug or had been sick this whole time and was forcing herself to get through the party.
"I can't leave, Lincoln's upset about something and Chandler needs me to play bodyguard..." Was all Lynn managed to get out before another bout of nausea hit her, forcing her to begin purging her stomach contents yet again.
"Oh dear. We haven't touched any of the food or drinks here to be safe and we still get sick anyway? That's not good." The maternal split personality stated, feeling sorry for the sporty Loud. "If you want, I can take over for a while so you can rest." Miss Lynn offered, hearing that only made the real Lynn far more suspicious, she doubted the voices in her head had that much control over her body however, not to the point they could make her sick on demand.
Lynn was sick of today, she had been fighting her own body seemingly all day, from this morning to the current hours of the night, sore, tired, unstable, she did not know what was wrong. The brunette would rather be stuck fighting her nightmares than dealing with this physical turmoil.
After emptying her stomach completely, Lynn found herself sat on the ground, leaning against one of the trees, once she was seemingly okay, Clyde had left to go get Lincoln, the only brother of the Loud sisters would know best what to do given the situation, the glasses wearing boy being completely oblivious to the entire situation going on though.
"A burden as always, we should just lie down and die..." The depressed personality sighed; Lynn initially was about to use the device Lisa had given her to shut it up but realized causing pain in her body when she was already physically unstable was not a good idea.
"I'm really fallin' apart here, huh?" Lynn tried to joke to herself yet was not able to smile. She was scared, and she could not deny it. The sporty Loud had to ask herself if she was falling apart from the stress, like Lincoln had brought up the other day, it didn't make sense given that today was rather stress free, aside from worrying about her only brother. "Maybe dropping dead here wouldn't be the worst thing." Lynn muttered to herself, her gaze drifting to the ground.
Lynn heard footsteps approaching, she saw a familiar pair of shoes enter her vision, she looked up to see Lincoln standing before her, he looked a lot more composed now, Stella and Clyde were with him, the white-haired boy had one hand on his hip.
"Linc, hey." Lynn weakly greeted, she forced herself to her feet, pushing herself up by leaning on the tree with her palms.
"How much did you have to drink, Lynn?" Lincoln looked unamused, like he suspected Lynn of poisoning herself just to have a chance to talk to him, his sister seemed weak in the legs, she had been throwing up a lot according to Clyde.
"N-Nothing, honest. I smelled one beer and the next thing I know, my stomach's upside down!" Lynn defended herself. "Lincoln, can we talk? Please, I really hate seeing you so miserable." The brunette requested, since he seemed to be mentally stable for the time being, like Lincoln had been able to finally get his answers and a plan formed, when Lynn looked him in the eyes, she took notice of just how upset they looked, like he wanted to hug her and cry, despite his tough act.
"Stella, Clyde, can you let us talk for a minute? If anything happens, I'll come get you." Lincoln asked them, Stella nodded, she had been enough to help the middle Loud sibling calm down, she had enjoyed the party with Lincoln so far, she had been surprised when Lynn had respected her request to not force a conversation upon him.
"Alright bro." Clyde nodded, aware of the fact Lynn had been hunting down her only brother all day more or less since this morning. The glasses wearing boy stepping away to head back inside alongside the tall girl.
"I'm sorry." Lincoln spoke first with no hesitation once they were alone, his tone did not sound certain anymore, he sounded afraid.
"What are you sorry for...? I just wanted to ask what happened last night? I know you patched me up, but that's about it." Lynn replied, holding up her left hand to show the bandage. "I woke up feeling like crap, and my finger felt like it nearly got cut off." She continued, elaborating on her morning, hearing this seemed to only upset him further.
"Lynn, don't act dumb, if you want to hit me, just do it... I know you remember what your personalities do." Lincoln sniffled; it seemed his tough act was starting to falter swiftly, usually Lynn's memory would come back gradually after one of her split personalities take over, but lately it had been hit and miss on if it happened or not, Dismal Lynn seemed like a no go on having any recollection, the aggressive personality did not affect her memories at all, Miss Lynn took a while for her brain to catch up on whatever they did.
"Lincoln, I genuinely don't know what you're talking about, I have no idea what's happening." The sporty Loud insisted. "Please, talk to me, why would I even want to hit you?" She reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, only for him to instinctively smack it away, much to her surprise. The bucktoothed teenager's breathing became heavier.
"That obsessed personality, it's been sneaking into my room to steal my stuff... I caught it last night." Lincoln was reluctant to say anything, he knew he was not going to get out of this, Lynn would push herself beyond her exhaustion and sickness to talk to him. "I tried to get it to let you go, but it got mad and said it had to punish you for me being mean... It tried to bite your finger off." Lincoln continued, his gaze no longer looking directly at his older sister.
"Wait, what? No, that's not right, I..." Lynn paused mid-sentence, she had wanted to deny that any split personalities had taken control, but now that she thought about it, it made sense, every day Lynn was tired, like her sleep was interrupted, someone taking control of her body against her will during the night would explain that. "I tried to bite my finger off?" Lynn could not fathom it, could anyone do that as easily as he implied?
That was when it hit Lynn, how upset Lincoln had been acting, the fact he practically vanished from the house, why he avoided her all day, she immediately grabbed him by his shirt collar, forcing him to look at her.
"What did I do?" Lynn shakily attempted to inquire, her hands trembling, as she held onto her only brother.
"I-It wanted... It told me it'd let you go if I gave it a kiss, so I did..." Lincoln whimpered, his older sister found herself pausing, she wanted to laugh, but she had no chance to do anything, she saw her only brother look at her with water welling in his eyes. "It kept saying it'd let you go if I just played along, so I did, I did everything it asked me to... It wanted more and more, it just wouldn't stop, but it kept promising to let you go as long as I did what it asked..." Lincoln choked out, recalling every moment of that night now in unfortunate detail, he tried to be strong, but it felt like it was all his fault, Lincoln felt like a toy in his own bed, Lynn's eyes were wide and her mouth slightly agape as she listened.
"I'm a monster, Lynn... I hate that I did it, I hate myself for feeling anything from it, after so long, it finally passed out, I carried you back to bed, fixed your hand, and left... I'm sorry for being such a bad brother. I could've stopped it, I should have fought it, but..." Lincoln had tears streaming down his face at this point, he no longer could speak, his vocal cords were locking up, as his voice descended into light sobbing.
"I raped you...?" Lynn's grip on her brother's shirt loosened, she had accepted these split personalities as part of herself, she couldn't believe any part of her was capable of this though, she wanted to be angry, yet she knew the situation her brother had been forced into, and here he was, crying and blaming himself for it, all because that split personality had been obsessed with him to no ends. Lynn shook her head, no, it was because she had been obsessed with him to no ends, she corrected herself internally.
Lincoln had never experienced such feelings in his body before in his entire life, he wanted to hate Lynn, it was easy to just tell himself it was all her, and to run away from it all, the middle Loud child could not bring himself to do it however, he took all the blame upon himself, the most unforgivable aspect of it to him was the fact he felt any pleasure from it.
Lynn felt shattered internally upon absorbing the news, they had sex, and she couldn't remember anything? Her first time was with her own brother? Her heart was beginning to beat faster and harder, she was starting to become upset as well. Her emotions were all over the place, anger, fear, sorrow, disgust, it was like they were all going off at once, it made her head and heart both feel like they were going to explode.
"It was all my fault... I didn't call for help, I just accepted it..." Lincoln argued his reasoning for blaming himself, as if conveniently forgetting the fact that Lynn would have most likely been gravely injured if he had tried to resist the obsessed split personality whatsoever. She saw him reach up for his shirt collar, pulling it to the side, enough to reveal his right shoulder, and the teeth marks that were there. "She did this to me before passing out, she said she wanted me to 'remember' how much you loved me..." Lincoln sniffled, swearing he could still hear the whispering in his ear still from when she was entangled with him.
"Lincoln, why? Why do any of that for me?! You never put yourself first! Why?! It was just one finger! I don't give a damn about any of my limbs, I'd give up my whole arm if it meant protecting you!" Lynn screamed at him, the Loud sisters knew one thing about their brother, as he got older, he seemed to prioritize himself less and less, he always put them first, maybe it was instinctual, it just came naturally to Lincoln, to sacrifice for his family. She received no reply, just his sobbing. The middle Loud sibling had broken down completely, he had been trying to stay strong since last night, but he could not resist anymore, so Lynn did the only thing that felt natural, she pulled him into her, letting him bury his face in her shoulder. The brunette being completely unaware of her own dampened cheeks as well, her mind was empty, her body felt lifeless, and now the voices in her head had done what she had feared most, hurt her family.
"We're telling Mom and Dad tomorrow." Lynn firmly declared, her grip tightening on him. "This isn't your fault, it's mine." She growled.
"Bu... But, I thought you didn't want anyone to know about the voices?" Lincoln whimpered, his older sister could not look at him, she felt too ashamed. She hated knowing Lincoln was going to always blame himself for this situation, no matter what she said.
"You think I'm going to be able to live like this? I can't keep lying to myself... I never had any control over anything." Lynn exhaled, she guessed this explained why she was hearing nothing from the obsessed split personality anymore, it was satisfied. The auburn-haired girl just hated knowing all this news combined was going to potentially blow up her family. The two stayed like this for a while, silently crying in one another's embrace, the sounds of the world around them were fading out, Lynn had finally given up trying to keep things secret anymore, all she could do now, was try and prevent any further damage.