Hello everyone! I'm back with Chapter 7: Setting the Stage! This chapter is significantly longer than the previous ones, so expect a longer read. I am trying to put more narrative's from other characters in so advice on that would greatly be appreciated. Any misspelling in the dialogue intentional. Enjoy reading Actor Chapter 7: Setting the Stage!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Loud House.
Luan woke up looking at the top bunk. She felt more tired than usual, though this was understandable. She turned her head to make herself more comfortable and saw her laptop and the vanity.
She sat up, remembering the email she had sent last night. She stood up and rushed to the computer, not bothering to put on her bunny slippers. She snapped the computer open and checked her email account. She clicked on the first notification and read the reply. Dreyfus had agreed.
"Yes," Luan said to herself, feeling a rush of anticipation knowing that this was actually happening.
Luan walked over to the closet and got dressed. As she removed from the rack her shirt and skirt that she would wear, she saw Mr. Coconuts, laying at the back of the closet against the wall, next to the prank box. He was sitting in a position similar to what Benny had been in last night when Luan left him. His large, brown pupils stared at her accusingly.
She changed and exited the room to get into the bathroom line. She was one of the later ones, with three sisters in front of her. They, however, let her cut in front of them; they were probably still being sympathetic to Luan after last night.
After using the bathroom, she went downstairs to the dining room to eat breakfast. The rest of the family was already eating. Luan grabbed a breakfast burrito and sat down at the far end of the table.
As she was eating, she looked across the table and saw Dad reading a newspaper. On the front in large letters was, "Silent Death," and right below a drawing of a white mask with crude face painting. Below that in smaller lettering it read, "Murderer dressed as a mime kills three."
Luan squirmed slightly at reading this. So, she had been recorded wearing the mime outfit. But they obviously still didn't know who it was, or she'd be in handcuffs.
Luan finished her breakfast and went to the dishwasher to dispose of her plate. When she turned back to the table, she noticed that Lisa had turned her head almost the exact same time as Luan. Luan grew concerned, as Lisa obviously did not want her to know she had been watching her.
Luan walked past the table and back to the bathroom to brush her teeth. She was still thinking about the newspapers as she moved the brush across her braces and teeth. She wasn't too happy that the shooting had gotten this much attention, but… she felt somewhat prideful that her actions had gotten such a reaction from everyone, and that they didn't know who did it. She felt the same way Bruce Wayne must have felt reading article after article of writers praising Batman for his deeds.
Luan spat the last of the toothpaste out of her mouth and waited outside for when it was time to leave. All the kids were waiting in the front yard, waiting for Lori to be finished doing whatever she was doing. Lynn, Lana and Lily were all playing some kind of game in the dirt under the tree, Lola and Leni were talking about fashion, Luna was humming a toon, Lucy was reading through her poem book and Lincoln and Lisa were on the porch together, not really talking.
Luan walked over to Lincoln and Lisa and sat next to them on the bench.
"Hey Luan," Lincoln said. Lisa didn't acknowledge her, just staring into blank space as if doing something in her head.
"Hi Lincoln," Luan replied.
"Are you feeling better?" Lincoln asked.
"Yeah… I guess so. I'm just happy that Benny wasn't killed."
'Me too. I couldn't imagine how I would feel if Ronnie Anne had been in Benny's place."
Luan didn't speak for a moment, thinking about just how much Lincoln cared.
"Well, thanks for asking how I've been," Luan said as Lori walked out the front door.
"Hey! Get in the car!" She yelled.
The kids rushed into the van. In the mad dash, Luan had been placed next to Lisa, the latter showing almost imperceptible discomfort.
"Something wrong Lisa?" Luan asked. Lisa kept staring at the car seat in front of her, not looking Luan in the eye.
"Just thinking," was all she said.
Luan started to feel some unease. Did Lisa somehow know about the gun? About her being the shooter? No, that was impossible. No one had seen the gun, not the cops, not her parents and especially not her. She had likely just done something she wasn't supposed to. What else could you expect from a five year old with the intellect and scientific ability of Albert Einstein?
She kept feeling on edge until Lisa had been dropped off at elementary school.
After that, they dropped Lynn and Lincoln off at the middle school. Luan looked at the front door, flanked by the two white pillars. This was the place where it would happen. She didn't stop staring at the school until it disappeared from view.
With Lisa no longer in the car the only person left in the row with her was Leni. She noticed that Leni was sniffing and looking down into her lap. Luan leaned over to her seat and asked, "Leni, what's wrong?"
Leni didn't reply right away. She looked up and said, "One of the -sniff- people that died last night -Sniff- I used to have a crush on him."
Luan remembered about a few months back when Mom disguised herself as another teenager, she had confessed her crush on Cowlick.
"That was him?" Luan asked, now starting to feel guilty, but not that much.
"Yeah," Leni sniffled.
"But… But aren't you dating Gavin?"
"Yes, I know… but I still feel some connection, I guess."
"Well, Leni, just be glad that Gavin wasn't at the park."
The high school, the place of Luan's torment for the past two days, came into view. Upon seeing it, Luan corrected herself; she felt no guilt whatsoever.
Vanzilla pulled onto the curb and Leni, Luna and Luan jumped out. They each went their separate ways as Lori drove away.
Walking through the other kids, Luan heard them talking about the three murders. They were discussing, arguing, debating on the details. For the most part, her humiliation at the hands of Dreyfus, at least in Royal Woods, had been overlooked. She noticed some odd looks aside from the usual ones but took no notice of it.
Upon getting to the place the mime kids hung out, she noticed that they weren't talking at all and were looking around wearily. Other kids were looking at them, as if expecting one of them to be the murderer. The mime kids just saw this as another social stigma, not affecting their place in the pecking order at school.
Luan looked around at them, trying to see if any of them were Benny. Nothing. He was most likely at Royal Woods General Hospital recovering from his beating, though she was sure he would be better soon.
The school bell rang, and Luan started her school day.
Luan exited the school immediately after dismissal, not wanting to spend the time between now and the time she got picked up in the courtyard.
Her day had been different, to say the least, from the previous two. The kids still taunted her, and a few had seen yesterday's broadcast of The day with Dreyfus, but even then not as much as she would've expected. They watched her throughout the whole day, as a safari tour would watch a lioness. Luan had noticed that some would stiff up when she got near them, as if afraid.
Some of the rumors circulating throughout the school held her responsible for the shooting. The majority of the student body scoffed at the idea of Luan Loud hurting anyone, let alone killing, but as with all rumors, there was a pang of truth in it; After all, the three dead were the ones that had beat her up just days ago, their corpses found near the Benny's unconscious one, who was known to be Luan's boyfriend.
And then, there was the sense of solidarity Luan shared with her social group. They were empathetic rather than sympathetic, as she and Benny had been popular in both acting and pantomime circles. Kids from both groups offered their condolences for Benny.
And then there was a third group of kids, both from in and out of Luan's social groups. These kids had taken to wearing mime masks, flimsy plastic things with basic eye paint and round, red lips. Shannon from Theater Club had been wearing one and Luan had asked her where she got it from. She, and everyone else who had one, had gotten it from Flip. Being the fat bastard that would do anything for a quick buck, Luan was not too surprised.
As for why they wore these masks, it was really quite simple. Luan was just one of many kids Teri, Boyfriend and Cowlick had targeted, and they had made many enemies picking on the social periphery. All were happy that the three were now out of the picture. Wearing the mask showed support and thanks for whoever had killed them; unwittingly, they were giving that support and thanks to Luan.
The faculty hadn't missed the message and weren't too pleased about it. Oliver, the assistant principal, had damn well near gone on the warpath, threatening suspensions and expulsions to whoever wore one. None of these crackdowns were ever actually implemented, as Principal Rivers, being the indecisive pushover that she was, was persuaded that the First Amendment allowed for such things.
There was growing unease in what could be described as the popular circles, as Teri, Boyfriend and Cowlick were considered a part of their outfit, and to see a noticeable portion of the student body celebrating the killer in this manner disturbed them.
To sum the whole thing up, the shooting was giving Dreyfus' arrival a run for its money in terms of hype at school.
Luan saw Leni and Luna waiting by the tree left of the school entrance.
"Hey dude," Luna said as she saw Luan walk up to them.
"Hi Luna, hi Leni," replied Luan. How was your day?"
"It was weird, man," Luna said. "All anyone was talking about was the… uh, shooting. And then there were the rumors. Hell, they said that you did it." She chuckled a bit, Luan joining in, albeit uncomfortably.
"Oh, and then there were also these guys wearing those mime masks."
"Yeah," Leni added. "They totes had no fashion sense." No one spoke. They all saw Vanzilla pull up to the sidewalk. They all climbed in and drove away.
When Vanzilla reached the Loud House, Leni, Luna and Luan all jumped out and went into the house. Luan was walking upstairs when her phone started to vibrate. She pulled it out and saw it was from Giggles. She quickly pressed the answer button and brought it up to the side of her head.
"Hey Giggles," Luan started off.
"Hi Luan," Giggles responded. "How are you doing?"
"Well enough," Luan signed. "You?"
"The same. I was calling to check on you. I heard about what happened to Benny and wanted to see if things were okay."
"Well, thank you," Luan said and she meant it. "I'm doing just great. I'm happy he wasn't shot."
"Me too. I'll come over to your house, say, by Friday."
"Okay Giggles. Have a nice day."
"You too," Giggles replied.
There was silence for a moment before Luan ended the call. Placing the phone back in her pocket, Luan heard the front door opening. Lynn, Lincoln, Lucy, Lana, Lola and Lisa all walked in and split off to do their own things.
Feeling now was the time to act, Luan walked up to Lincoln and found him in the kitchen eating some beef jerky for a snack. Seeing her approach he asked, "Hey Luan. How was your day?"
"It was nice enough, Lincoln. Hey, I've been meaning to ask you something."
"Yeah, what is it?"
"You know how Dreyfus came today?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I wanted to do something special for the occasion. Dreyfus had her own talk show, and I overheard you talking about how your Action News Team got that news stage. So, I thought, why not have Dreyfus give her talk show, courtesy of Royal Woods ?"
Lincoln sat there, playing with the idea in his mind.
"I don't know Luan. We're talking about hosting a really big star. Are you sure we can do this?"
"Yes, we can," Luan assured him. "I can be the guest, you and your friends can staff it, Luna can provide our music and Leni, Lana and Lola can provide the finishing touches if needed.
The man with the plan thought. Luan waited for his answer, her foot rapidly tapping against the floor.
"Yeah… yeah I can do that," Lincoln said.
"Thank you Lincoln. I can get our sisters on board, you just need to get the stage ready."
"Okay," Lincoln said, eating another piece of beef jerky.
Luan smiled and walked out of the kitchen. She had gotten Lincoln onboard, so this was happening no matter what. Now, she just had to get Luna and her band to play music and Leni to help out.
Her immediate priority was getting Luna on board. She walked into her room, thinking about how it might go. Lincoln was always eager to help with whatever his sisters were doing. But Luna? She might think of the whole thing as too formal. It wasn't likely to happen, but she couldn't be too sure. She had to make the talk show perfect. Perfect.
She suddenly got an idea. Luna liked to drink root beer after performances and practices, and at this point Luna had been in the garage for about ten minutes. Luan could take advantage of the situation by spiking the drink with actual beer. She just needed to see if this would work.
She walked over to Lisa and Lily's room and knocked on the door.
"Come in," she heard Lisa say. She pushed the door open and walked in. Lisa was hunched over her desk, sitting on the white stool in front of it. Her usual chemicals and equipment were pushed to the sides of the desk, and in the center was a piece of paper covered with unintelligible numbers and symbols.
Lisa had looked over and covered most of the paper with her left hand.
"Yes, fourth eldest sibling?" Lisa asked distractedly.
"Hey Lisa, do you have a book on density?"
"Yes I do," she replied, pulling one out of the right hand drawer and handing it to Luan without asking any questions.
Luan looked at the cover, which read, "Compilation of matter density,".
"Thanks Lis."
"You're welcome," replied Lisa, looking back at the paper.
Luan left the room and went to her own. Sitting down on her bed, she opened it to the liquid section and skimmed through the pages.
"Fuels… fire retardants… fermented barley," she said to herself, stopping on the page labeled "Alcohols,". "Beer: 1.060 g/ml cubed."
She then switched gears, looking for the density of root beer. She found the soft drinks and stopped at root beer, which read, "1.040 g/ml cubed." Perfect.
She could pour about a quarter of a bottle of beer into a pitcher and fill the rest with root beer. It would be slightly alcoholic, just to the point of making her tipsy and off balance.
She left the book on her bed and left the room. She walked downstairs and into the kitchen. She grabbed the pitcher and two plastic cups, in case Luna were to drop one. She then grabbed a can of root beer and poured some water for herself. She then looked around. The basement and dining room were empty, and Lynn was too immersed in her game to look inside.
She grabbed a bottle of beer, broke the seal and poured about a fourth of it into the pitcher. The rest she dumped into the sink, and she rinsed the basin to get rid of the residue and smell. She then hid the bottle in the trash can, hiding it under scrunched up paper towels. She filled the rest of the pitcher with root beer and walked out with it and the two cups onto the porch. She sat on the bench and waited for Luna to be done practicing.
"We're not going to take it! No, we ain't gonna take it! We're not going to take it anymore!"
Luna finished the song by shredding her guitar and stage diving onto a table. She got off the table and picked up her guitar. Dusting off the purple body, whe thought about how well her guitar had served her over the years, how it channeled her passion for music into beautiful song.
She switched off the sound system and left the garage. The stuffiness of the garage and the singing had made her thirsty. She walked up the steps of the porch and saw Luan sitting on the bench. Near her were two cups, one filled with water, the other empty. Behind those was a pitcher filled with dark, bubbly liquid.
"Hi Luna," Luan said.
"Hi Luan," she replied. "What're you doing out here?"
"Just enjoying the view," Luan said, gesturing to the suburban street. "It's nice to stop and sit down sometimes, you know?"
"I know what you mean bro." She looked at the pitcher, seeing how the drink bubbled and thought about how it would slack her thirst. "What's in there?" she asked, pointing to the pitcher.
"It's root beer."
"My favorite! Mind if I sit with you?"
"Of course Luna."
Luna sat next to Luan as she poured a glass of root beer. Luan handed the cup to Luna, to which she swallowed it in one gulp.
"Ah, that's the stuff." she said. Her thirst had disappeared, and she was feeling a bit happier. Luan refilled her glass.
"So how was your practice?" Luan asked.
"It was sick, bro. You should've seen me shredding my guitar. I was really in the zone."
She sipped her root beer again, feeling a positive sensation she had never felt before.
"What's in this stuff?"
"What?"
"The drink. It's making me feel weird, but in a good way."
"It's, uh, probably just aged well."
"Oh, that must be it." She sipped her drink again.
"Hey, Luna, I've been needing to ask you something."
"Go righ ahead luv," she had started speaking in a British accent, though she didn't really notice or care.
"There's a celebrity called Julia Dreyfus that came to Royal Woods. I set up a talk show with her and I wanted to ask if you and the Moon Goats could handle the music."
"O corse," Luna said cheerfully. She had finished off her glass again.
"You and the rest of the band can do the music just offstage with music sheets provided," Luan went on while refilling Lunas cup. Luna didn't notice, as she pulled the glass up for another sip almost before Luan was finished pouring.
Luna finished the drink in one go again and tried placing it on the bench, but her arm was shaking too much and she dropped it on the floor. She was feeling happy, very happy, and couldn't tell why.
"Oh, and one more thing," Luan said, picking up the fallen cup. "Have you and your band dress formally."
"Li Mig Swagger?" Luna slurred.
"Yeah, like Mick Swagger." Luan finished. She threw what was left in the pitcher's contents into a bush and grabbed both cups.
"Thanks for talking with me," Luan said with a small smirk, opening the front door.
"O corse, bra," Luna stood up to follow Luan, her body feeling weightless. She stumbled over to the door and tried to walk in. She hit the wall to its side before managing to get into the house.
Lucy walked over to the blinds and pulled them shut, submerging the room into semi-darkness. The only thing lighting the room were some candles placed around a glass ball in the center alley of the room. She had the room to herself and intended to make use of it.
She pulled out her poem book, which doubled as a spell book of sorts for occult purposes. Every now and then Lucy would reach out to Great Grandmother Harriet, asking for advice from those that came before and having someone to talk to.
She pulled out a picture of Harriet from the poem book and looked at it. They both looked uncannily similar, right down to the hair and smile.
She placed the photo leaning on the glass ball and stepped back. She looked through the poem book for the correct incantation to summon Harriet from whatever laid beyond Death.
She stopped flipping through the book and stopped on the page she had been looking for. She viewed the lines one last time to make sure she wouldn't mess up saying it.
"Ancestors past, hear my plea," she incanted. "I summon Harriet from my fathers family. On mystic winds, for the summoning at hand, bring Harriet to the living land!"
She stopped and waited for the magic to take effect. A glow grew in the center of the room, over the crystal ball, slowly started to take form.
But no, it was not one spirit appearing, but three.
"What?" Lucy said aloud, her voice betraying her surprise. This wasn't supposed to happen, she had only summoned Harriet. The three apparitions had taken a more definite shape, like a camera lens focusing on the right depth.
Floating in front of her were three teens, all aged between Luan and Leni's age. Two boys and one girl. The first one, the girl, had long brown hair that spread over her forehead like Mom. She was wearing a tan shirt with a red jacket and blue jeans. The jeans had a hole in them, red stained and blood dripping from it. Her head had one two, the blood zigzagging down her head. The second one wore blue jeans with a green hoodie and beanie, which was saturated in blood. The last one wore khaki pants and charcoal hoodie, with a mop of hair covering the front of his face. His right shoulder and left ankle were bleeding, and a single thin stream of blood ran from his lips.
She recognized the ghosts, her eyes widening behind her veil of hair. These were the spirits of the teens that had died in the park shooting. All of them were silent and looked at her resentfully.
They then all reached for their respective wounds, the girl leaning down for her leg, the one in the beanie for his head and the one with the cowlick for his shoulder. They all yanked the crimson colored bullets out and placed them in their palms. The one with the cowlick spat the last bloody round into his palm and they all simultaneously threw the bullets to the ground.
They landed in such a way that if spelled out by a calculator, it perfectly read, "LU". Lucy looked at the display and then back up to the ghosts.
"Wait," she cried. "What is this?"
All they gave her was a glare, as if she could have done something to spare them this fate, before slowly fading back into nothingness.
Lucy looked back at the floor. The candles all died out, as if snuffed by an unfelt breeze.
The carpets were fine; no blood stains or bullets to be found. She sat down on the bed, processing what had happened. She had not summoned them, but they appeared. The way they looked at her, as if she was the killer.
And their message, "LU". What did that mean?
Her thoughts were interrupted when Luna barged into her room. She stumbled through the center aisle, tripping over the glass ball and landing flat on the floor.
"Ay ther Luce," Luna said in an over exaggerated British accent. "Whadda ya doin in me room an wys eh so dark?"
"Sigh," Lucy said in annoyance. "Luna, this is my room, and the blinds are closed."
Luna looked to the window and saw that this in fact wasn't her room, and that the blinds were closed.
"O, surrey luv," she said, standing back up and walking uneasily back out. She bumped on the wall before closing the door behind her.
Luan entered her room, seeing Luna take a wrong turn and walking into Lynn and Lucy's room. The drink had more effect on Luna than Luan had intended. How her parents could drink a whole bottle and still be sober was a mystery to her.
She looked at her closet and saw the mime clothes she had worn yesterday. She had them washed in case there was blood or something compromising on them, but now they were as good as new. She looked at the pants and then to the shirt. Since forming the plan in her mind last night, she would often space out and visualize killing Dreyfus. Pulling it from a pant pocket seemed so… ungraceful. It would be much better to have it pulled from the shirt, like a jacket.
She pulled out the shirt to get a better look at it. Removing it from the wrack, she could see Mr. Coconuts looking at her with knowing eyes. She just moved the pants into the shirt's place to hide him from sight.
Holding the shirt out in front of her by the neck of the hanger, she looked for an ideal spot for a pocket. She decided it would be best to have it placed under her left breast, so that in one easy motion it could be pulled out and fired. Luan had the perfect person in mind for this modification.
Still holding the shirt, she moved to open the door, but then someone outside opened it. Luna stumbled in, a small smile still on her face.
"Ey, bro," she said.
"Hey Luna," Luan replied. "What are you doing?"
"Ima take a nap," she said. "Feels like I'm going to drop."
Luna moved past Luan to the bunk bed. She tried climbing it, but she couldn't seem to coordinate her hands and feet correctly, and instead fell face down on Luan's bed. She didn't get up.
"Eh," Luan said to herself. "Close enough." she finished as she closed the door.
She walked to the doorway directly opposing her and knocked.
"Come in," Leni said. Luan pushed the door open and walked inside. Leni was laying on the bed, reading a fashion magazine. She stopped reading and looked up, seeing that it was Luan.
"Hey Luan. What's that shirt for?"
Luan nudged the door closed with the toe of her shoe as she answered. "I, uh, wanted to ask you if you can help me modify my mime shirt."
Leni placed the magazine upside down, still opened, on the bed and stood up.
"Yeah, I can totes do that. What do you need?"
Luan walked closer to Leni, "I wanted to place a sort of pocket here," she said, pointing to the center left of the shirt.
Leni walked over to Luan, her hand extended. "May I?"
Luan held the shirt out, which Leni took and placed near the sewing machine.
"Where do you want it again?" she asked.
Luan walked over and pointed to the desired spot. "Right here."
Leni pulled out cloth scissors and Luan breathed as quietly as possible, lest any sudden noise caused her ditzy sister to make a mistake.
"How big should it be?" Leni asked.
Luan held out her right hand and looked at the front and back. She walked up to the sewing machine and placed her hand on the left side of the shirt.
"Well, I want it to be big enough to stick my whole hand in, but I don't want it to be obvious that it's there."
"I can totes do that!" Leni said, and got to work. She cut a slit in the shirt about four and a half inches long. She then pulled out two pieces of square cloth and sewed them together to form a pocket. She then stitched them to the inside of the shirt, connecting it with the new opening.
Leni pulled the shirt off the sewing machine and held it on.
"Here, try it out," she said.
Luan took the shirt and put it on. She walked over to the vanity next to the closet and admired herself. There was no perceptible difference, as Leni had stitched it in such a way as to make it flush with the outside of the shirt by adding an inch of overlapping cloth.
"Thank you Leni!"
"Of course."
Luan put the shirt back on the hanger and began to walk out when Leni asked her something.
"Oh, Luan I forgot to ask; what's the pocket for?"
Luan stopped. She thought about last night, the recoil of the discharging gun, the terror that had been on their faces, the thrill of the hunt she felt chasing down Cowlick.
"Improvisation," was all Luan said before walking out.
Dinner in the Loud house was usually a noisy affair, but not tonight. Lisa and Lucy kept to themselves, only talking when talked to and even then in only short answers. Luna was suffering from a splitting headache and taking large gulps of water. The only sounds she made were moans of pain.
Tonight they were eating leftovers and Luan was having warmed up spaghetti. She was spinning it around with her fork, seeing what unique shapes the pasta would make. She would catch Lucy and Lisa glancing at her and Luna, though they would quickly look away.
As she twirled her fork around, Luan thought of how the day went. Her situation at school had improved, as her three principal tormentors were now all dead and bigger matters (One she herself had created) had made her national humiliation mostly obscured. Dreyfus had agreed to a talk show, Lincoln had secured a stage, Luna would provide music and Leni had given her the perfect outfit for the occasion.
She ate the last of her spaghetti and had put her plate away. She walked upstairs to her room to make a phone call she had never gotten around to. Once she reached her room, she pulled out her phone and dialed Benny. The ringtone sounded for ten seconds before he picked up.
"Hello?"
"Hey Benny, it's me, Luan."
"Luan, thank goodness you're alright!"
"I'm fine Benny, how are you doing?"
"I really don't know. Yesterday was supposed to be perfect; just you, me and the sunset. But then those three, the ones that beat you up on Saturday? They beated me out of consciousness. Then I find that they were all killed, I was in a totally different spot from where I was before, and somewhat wet for some reason."
"I'm so sorry Benny, I had to make a detour and it all happened before I got there!"
"Well thank god for that! You might have been beaten, or worse, killed!"
There was silence for a few moments.
"Well, thanks for checking on me."
"Where are you Benny?"
"Royal Wood General. I'll be back good as new in no time"
"That's great to hear."
"Well, thanks for calling."
"Bye."
"Bye," Benny replied before the line went dead.
Luan turned off the phone and placed it on the vanity to charge. She turned around and noticed the density book she had borrowed from Lisa, half hidden under a pillow from when Luna crashed on the bed. She grabbed it and left the room.
Entering the hallway, she turned left towards Lisa's room. She was still downstairs eating, and Luan figured she might as well return the book herself and save time.
She opened the door and walked into the room. The only source of light was the soft glow of the moon wafting through the window, which contrasted to the harsh light of the lamp on the desk.
She walked over to the desk and opened the right hand drawer. She slid the book in and closed the drawer. As she was doing this she saw the piece of paper Lisa had been working on earlier. Curiosity overcame her, and she flipped the paper to see what it was. It was two lists of metals, one from yesterday and one from today. Scribbled below it was a set of equations;
X=grams of aluminum and zinc
Difference of the amount of aluminum and zinc from 12:00 AM yesterday to 12:00 AM is the same amount of six 125 gram 19 millimeter rounds, discharged or in some way removed in the last 12 hours.
` Luan started to shake. Lisa knew, she knew that someone in the house had acquired and used a gun, she even knew how many bullets were used.
She had to leave quickly, before Lisa came back and discovered that she had seen the paper. She flipped it back upside down and left the room. She beelined back to her room, hearing someone coming up the stairs. She had just closed the door as Lisa entered the hallway.
Luan changed into her nightwear and sat down on the bed, already slightly disheveled from Luna's drunk pass out. She knew Lisa had come to the conclusion that there was a gun, six bullets had been used, and it was only a matter of time before she put two and two together about the gun and the shooting.
She had to deal with her tomorrow, it was too late to do anything now. Calming herself down, she crawled under the covers of her bed. One more day until Friday. One more day until it all happened. She had gotten everything she needed. All she had to do was solve the problem with Lisa and it would all play out like clockwork.
With murder on her mind, Luan shut her eyes and slowly dazed off into sleep.
Thanks for sticking with me through the long waits. Comments are greatly appreciated, along with sharing the story with other users. I will be back soon with Chapter 8 soon!