Interlude - Thinking of You
Lucy awoke arms crossed, and rose up in her bed. She blinked her eyes and sighed to accept another new Autumn day in the now not-so Loud House.
It had been one year since Lincoln was found dead. Shot by an unknown assailant for reasons nobody could figure out. His sudden and meaningless death having quite an effect on the entire family.
Lucy looked over at the mostly empty space on the other side of the room, other than a bed without sheets and an empty bedside drawer. Lynn had left a few months prior, having been scouted by a college that actually wanted to promote female athletes. Lucy was thankful for not having to see and hear Lynn's rage workouts anymore, but was still getting used to having a room to herself. It felt a lot bigger and emptier than she was used to.
Deciding to not spend the day in bed, Lucy got up and headed for the hallway. Lana and Lily were waiting outside the bathroom door. The line for which had gotten shorter over the years, and now there barely was one. Lucy walked over to her younger sisters, "Good morning."
Lily smiled at her, "Hi Lucy!" the full weight of the reality of her brother's death hadn't hit Lily yet thankfully. While she understood that he was gone and not coming back, she didn't realize the ramifications of this fact.
Lana nodded, "Hey, Lols is hogging the bathroom again."
Lucy didn't react, "...do you want me to do something about it?"
Lana shrugged, "Nah. Kind of wonder if I should just put in a new bathroom in Lori and Leni's or Luna and Luan's old rooms."
"Ask mom and dad."
The two rooms hadn't been used much since the four sisters left either for college or to pursue their entertainment careers. They had been used for a couple of weeks when both pairs of sisters came home once hearing the news of Lincoln's sudden passing. They stayed for a time to mourn and help their parents with their younger sisters during the troubled time. They couldn't stay for too long however and soon enough returned to their lives.
"Lily, have you seen Lisa?" Lucy then asked.
Lily shook her head, "She still won't come out of her bunker."
"Maybe we should have another funeral for her." Lana scoffed.
Lily looked confused, Lucy got up in Lana's face.
"What? Am I wrong?"
"You're out of line, Lana."
"Luce, she's been in there since Lincoln died! She hardly talks to us anymore!"
"I know. We all know. But it's how she chooses to grieve and you need to respect that."
Lana folded her arms and looked away, "Yeah, whatever."
Lucy sighed, she couldn't get upset at Lana. Aside from Lucy herself, Lana was closest to Lincoln, and was having a hard time accepting his death. Grief counseling could only help so much, and Lucy felt Lana wasn't ready to hear where Lincoln had ended up.
Lucy took out her phone and texted Lisa.
"hey"
"just letting you know we're all worried about you, and love you"
"take care of yourself"
Soon enough, the messages were sent to Lisa's phone. A bit after that they were notified as read. Lucy sighed as she kept scrolling through previous messages she sent that weren't responded to.
After the funeral Lisa had gone down into her bunker in the backyard and only came out for family meals or to sleep. After a few weeks she stopped leaving the bunker. It was hard to figure out why, either she refused to believe that death would take Lincoln so early or she was trying to figure out what had happened, or perhaps she was trying to bring Lincoln back to life or create a clone for him. Or, most likely, she got horrified of the outside world as someone like Lincoln could just be taken out of it so easily.
Lola came out of the bathroom in her pink robe and a towel wrapped around her hair, "Good morning sisters." she calmly said as she walked past them all and entered her and Lana's bedroom. Presumably to fix her hair for the day.
Out of all of them, Lola seemed the most put together. Lucy knew that Lola was still grieving as well, but was not showing it as much as everyone else. The first few months had her bawling the most after their parents. Lucy couldn't help but admire her resolve to try to move on.
Lana gestured Lily to go before her, and the youngest sibling went in. "Hey um..." Lana tried to come up with something to say but was struggling to find the words.
"It's okay Lana." Lucy assured her, "Do you want to talk about it later?"
Lana nodded, "Yeah..."
Meanwhile, Lincoln's old friends were spending the last days of summer vacation on a hike in the woods.
Rusty was leading the way while Zach followed behind, frustrated with his phone getting no service, "Hey uh, I don't want to be that guy but I gotta ask, did we have to go all the way out here?"
Rusty nodded, "We have to go quite a bit away to this pond that's barely watched by forest rangers. My cousin Daryl told me he used it a few times to get rid of things."
"Like what?"
"He said if he told me, he'd have to dump me into it too."
"Right..."
Stella spoke up, "Relax Zach, we owe it to Lincoln for not being able to do this for him sooner."
Clyde was crying, unable to keep it together.
Liam was trying to console Clyde with some reassuring back-patting with one hand while the other carried a shotgun. "Hang in there bud, this won't take too long."
The group of five finally ended up at their destination. "Hey, I think this is it! Who's got the raft?"
"I do." Zach told him as he took off his bag and took out a small raft crafted with wood and rope.
Rusty nodded, "Who's got the laptop?"
"Me." Stella answered as she took out Lincoln's laptop from her bag.
Zach watched as Stella and Rusty set the laptop on the raft and began to tie it onto it, "Are we all sure we should destroy the expensive gaming laptop Lincoln's parents bought him due to that bad luck thing?"
Rusty nodded, "It's what he would've wanted."
Stella nodded too, "Plus there was so much porn on it...I needed to wash my eyes a few times when I looked through it."
Rusty looked a bit uncomfortable, "Yeah, I mean, dang I thought I had weird kinks but Lincoln...wow."
Liam frowned, "Golly, kinda wish I got a look."
"I made some copies if you're interested." Zach whispered to him.
Clyde sat down on the ground, arms hugging his legs as he whimpered.
Rusty and Stella helped the raft onto the water and gently pushed it out towards the middle of the pond.
Liam readied his shotgun at the raft as it neared the center. "Stand back y'all, I got the dragon's breath rounds."
Liam shot the raft a few times, setting it on fire. The group held each other as they watched it sink slowly into the pond.
Clyde took off his glasses, "Good-night, sweet prince; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. Oh God, I never told him that I loved him!"
"I...we all loved him, Clyde." Rusty told him.
Lucy entered Lynn's Table which was as busy as usual. Lynn Sr. pushed himself into his work as the owner and head chef of his own restaurant more than usual after Lincoln died and didn't look to be stopping anytime soon. Lucy found her mom sitting in a booth typing on a laptop with a pot of coffee and a mug to keep filled nearby.
Lucy walked up to her and gave her a hug.
"Lucy?" Rita asked as she saw her daughter.
"It's good to see you mom." Lucy told her.
Lincoln's murder case went cold after a few weeks. The investigators had tunnel vision, blaming his parents as there was virtually nobody else who could possibly be behind shooting or putting a hit on Lincoln. Their history of mistreatment of him from kicking him out of the house for no good reason, forcing him to wear a mascot suit in the hot sun, refusing to stop his sisters constantly physically abusing him, and their overall neglect of the boy didn't do the parents any favors. Despite the fact that the worst of it happened years ago and had no bearing to the death itself.
Granted, law enforcement could never have figure out that demonic imps from Hell killed Lincoln in a case of mistaken identity. Rita and Lynn Sr. both also had airtight alibis and nobody could prove they hired a hitman to kill their son. It didn't stop the public from blaming them, and the shock of it all on top of her son's death made Rita catatonic for a time.
Rita hugged Lucy back, "Aw, it's good to see you too. Do you want to look over the draft for my next chapter?"
"Sure." Lucy looked over the laptop screen as Rita scrolled. Her mother was writing a memoir for Lincoln. Lucy scrolled thorugh the current work in progress, "Aside from a few embellishments, it looks okay."
"Thank you sweetie." Rita told her as she went back to typing.
Lucy took a seat in another booth and figured she should order some mac 'n cheese bites with blood orange juice. She wondered when would be a good time to contact Lincoln again.
See you in the next arc.
