Taylor arrived at the park with Mikey, and they saw Lily playing on the playground with a few other kids, Mikey quickly rushed to go play with Lily and Taylor looked for her brother, thankfully, he had come but once she was him, her eyes filled with concern as Lincoln looked like he hadn't been sleeping well at all, he was dozing off and waking back up over and over again.
this was the 2nd time she had seen him like this and that made her worry. She walked over to the bench and sat next to him, shaking his shoulder slightly to wake him up, which it did, as he turned to her, now fully awake.
Lincoln looked at her with wide eyes, "Taylor? When you get here?" Lincoln asked.
"Just barely," She replied, "You ok? You still look like crap," She told him.
Lincoln chuckled, "Ugh... I feel like crap," he told he leaned over and put his face in his hands.
Taylor looked at him, concern still on her face, "Nightmares again?" She asked.
Lincoln slowly nodded, "They haven't stopped, they have before but... they just keep on going, and I... I'm getting scared," He told her. "They're getting more real, feeling more real, like they actually happened and a part of me feels like what happened in the nightmare did happen, but when I ask my sisters they all say that it's just a bad dream and it never happened and I don't know if I believe them or not, and it all feels like I'm going crazy!" He cried, his voice rising with confusion and fear.
Taylor could see how much this was tearing Lincoln up and she knew that something was extremely wrong here, and she knew she needed to help him get to the bottom of it, maybe she was right and it was something like repressed memories or maybe it really was just nightmares, but she wanted to help Lincoln and find out what was causing all of this, and she knew just who to go to for answers about this kind of stuff.
Taylor grabbed his hand and looked at him, "I think I know someone who can help you figure this stuff out," Taylor told him. "Listen, tomorrow let's meet up here and I'll take you to them and we can figure out if these are really dreams or repressed memories," Taylor told him.
Lincoln looked at her and nodded, simply wanting to know what was going on with him, and while he usually asked Lucy about this kind of thing, she wasn't being much help when he asked about it before, so he couldn't turn to her.
Taylor gave him a smile and she relaxed, but then another thought popped into her head, reminding her about the day before with Evelynn.
"Hey, you know Evelynn, right?" Taylor asked.
Lincoln nodded, "Yeah, why?" He asked.
Taylor looked away and to the ground, "You know she's got the hots for you right?"
Lincoln was surprised to hear that and he raised a brow, "Really?" He asked. "That's weird..." he said.
Taylor looked back at him, her brow raised with confusion, "How is that weird?" she asked.
Lincoln looked back at her, "Well, we're more acquaintances, we've hung out a few times and we're partnered up for a class project, but that's about it, I never really knew much about her," He told her, "I don't know what about me she finds attractive," he told her.
Taylor smiled, "I have a few guesses," She told him.
Lincoln looked at her with a raised brow, "What?" He asked.
Taylor looked at him with a smile, "Well, you're a nice guy, not over the top nice, but a nice guy, you care about other people and want to help them in any way you can, not to mention you're... cute," Taylor said with a small blush.
Lincoln gulped as a blush spread on his face, "I-I'm cute?" He asked.
Taylor nodded, still blushing, "You look like a bunny," Taylor told him before looking away bashfully.
Lincoln's heart was racing as he had never seen Taylor blush and he too couldn't help but think she was cute as well. "I-I think you're cute as well, Taylor," Lincoln told her, "The way you're hair covers one of your eyes, it gives that sense of mystery, and I... I really like that, not to mention you're tough but really sweet too, and I-"
However, before he could say more, Taylor smashed her lips into Lincoln's and the white-haired boy's eyes widened.
Taylor broke the kiss and looked at him with a glare and a blush, "You keep saying those things and I won't be able to hold back anymore," She told him sternly.
Lincoln saw her expression and he gulped loudly and nodded, "G-Got it," he told her with a blush.
From the playground, Mikey was grossed out as he had just witnessed the scene with his sister. "Ugh! Yuck!" he cried.
Lily giggled at Mikey's reaction, "Aw! I think it's romantic!" Lily said.
Mikey looked at Lily, "Girls have cooties! No way am I ever gonna let a girl kiss me!"
Lily giggled as a great idea came to mind and she turned to Mikey, "Oh Mikey~!" She said in a sing-song tone.
Mikey froze and looked at Lily as she puckered her lips and was getting closer to him.
"Can I get a kiss~?" Lily asked.
Mikey screamed and quickly ran away and Lily giggled but decided to chase after him, wanting to tease him a little more.
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Later that night, Lincoln lay in his bed as he slept, but despite being a peaceful sleep, his face was etched with unease, as he tossed and turned, his mind became a battlefield of vivid, unsettling dreams.
In his nightmare, Lincoln found himself in a chaotic whirlwind of misfortune. Everything he touched seemed to crumble, break, or fall apart. He tripped over toys and slipped on banana peels, and his attempts at fixing things only led to further disaster. He watched helplessly as his family's belongings were reduced to ruins by his cursed touch.
He then began hearing the voices of his family in the darkness.
"YOU MADE ME LOSE THE GAME!"
"YOU FREAKING RUIN EVERYTHING YOU TOUCH!"
"WHY CAN'T YOU JUST STAY UP IN YOU'RE ROOM!"
"DON'T YOU EVER COME IN THIS HOUSE AGAIN! WE CAN'T HANDLE YOUR BAD LUCK!"
"YOU WERE BAD LUCK THE MOMENT YOU WERE BORN!"
"Stop it! Stop it! I-I promise I'm not bad luck!" He cried. "Don't leave me out here! I-I'm cold! I-I'm afraid! Please let me back in!"
Sweating and panting, Lincoln woke up with a start.
He began breathing so heavily that he thought he had stopped breathing for a while somehow, but after a few deep breaths and seeing that he was inside his home, he calmed down.
The nightmare had felt so real, and his heart raced as if he had truly been experiencing those unfortunate events. He laid back down, his breath shaky, and he rubbed his eyes, trying to shake off the lingering unease.
As he took deep breaths, the details of his dream started to fade, but fragments remained. He remembered feeling so isolated as if his own family had cast him out due to his bad luck. An unsettling thought took root: Had he ever been kicked out of the house because of his misfortune?
With that lingering thought, Lincoln got up and decided to go downstairs for something to drink, however, as he did, he saw the kitchen light was on and when he got to the ground floor and walked toward the kitchen, he saw that Lisa was up as well, drinking a glass of milk.
"Lisa?" he whispered
Hearing her older brother's voice, the scientist looked at him with a bit of surprise, "Lincoln, what are you doing up?" She asked.
"Another nightmare," He told her.
Hearing this, Lisa frowned and slight worry coursed through her body, her concern evident, yet Lincoln had failed to notice it. "Another one, what was this one about?" Lisa asked.
"Same thing, but it was more... vivid," He told her. "Everything around me was falling apart and then everyone blamed me for everything, all because I was bad luck and was causing bad things to happen," He told her.
Lisa finished taking a drink and then replied to her brother. "It was merely a dream, dear brother,"
Despite hearing it from her over a thousand times, Lincoln nodded, however, he began to doubt his sister's words that it was merely a dream and he was slowly believing that his dreams were actually repressed memories. "But... It felt so real, Lisa, like it all actually happened"
"The power of bad dreams," Lisa told him, "I'm sure everyone has had a bad dream that felt extremely real, Don't worry much about it, I'm sure these nightmares will stop,"
Lincoln looked at her with a peered gaze, "And if they don't?" He asked.
Lisa didn't answer for a few seconds, She took a drink from her glass and then looked at her brother, "Then I'll figure out how to fix it," Lisa told him, "I always find a way to fix things," She told him.
Lincoln couldn't help but feel an odd sense of Deja vu from those words.
Suddenly, a memory flashed in his head.
In the memory, he was strapped down to something and he was breathing heavily, not out of fear, but out of anger, he could just feel that in the memory he was angry. Then he saw Lisa, who looked down at him with a forlorn look on her face.
"I'll fix everything, dear brother, and everything can go back to Normal... I promise..." She told him.
After the memory finished flashing in his head, he felt pain, he felt like he had just been hit in the head with one of Lynn's basketballs, and he gripped his head as he groaned.
Lisa noticed this and looked at him with concern, "Lincoln, are you ok?" she asked.
the pain faded and Lincoln nodded, "Yeah... I'm fine, just a... a small pain in my head," he told her.
Lisa nodded slowly, "Get some sleep older brother," Lisa told him, "You'll need it,"
Lincoln chuckled and nodded, "Yeah, I know," He told her, "Lisa... somethings are unable to be fixed, some things stay broken forever, and I know that even you can't solve everything," he told her.
Lisa shrugged, "We shall see, dear brother, we shall see," Lisa said.
Lisa finished her drink, placed the glass in the sink, and headed back upstairs to sleep. Lincoln got his own drink, and sat down in the kitchen, and began to think about the memory that had just flashed in his head and he began wondering what that was and why if caused his head to ache like that.
Suddenly, another memory flashed in his head.
He was breathing heavily and appeared to be looking out of the eye holes of some sort of mask, and he was watching one of Lynn's games, but he could feel the heat inside the suit, he could feel himself growing tired of being in the suit and how his legs slowly began to buckle.
Pain coursed through his head once again and he grabbed his head with both hands, as the pain felt much sharper and much harder than it had before, and that's when an image flashed in his head.
A Squirrel suit.
Lincoln's eyes widened with horror as he remembered seeing a squirrel mascot mask up in the attic once when he had to go fetch Lucy, and that triggered something inside of him. Despite not being asleep, he had flashes of him dying of heat in the suit, and he remembered at one point how he felt like something scary was happening to him, he felt everything go black and he thought he was dead.
That couldn't have been a nightmare because it felt too real, and the mascot's head only made it more real. That was a Memory, but then why... did he not remember it?
Lincoln put his head down as sadness took over, "I'm going fucking crazy..." He muttered with a sob.
After he regained his composure, he finished his drink quickly and left to go back up to his room, once he was inside, he lay down on his bed and tried to go to sleep, but he couldn't. His mind was racing with too many thoughts and he was frightened that once he fell asleep, he would enter into another nightmare, but another night of almost no sleep was much worse, so he tried to close his eyes and force himself to sleep.
But nothing happened, he couldn't go back to sleep... so he just waited for morning to come and hopefully get some answers later...
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OOOO~! Looks like things about the Bad luck event are coming back to Lincoln, but the question is, what will happen now, and what will happen should Lincoln remember what happened? Will Taylor be able to help Lincoln unlock the memories?
Guess we'll have to see in the next chapter! I hope you guy's enjoyed and I hope you guys are ready for what happened next.