Story 14: System of a Shakedown
A/N: Here we go, season two! Since tonight's
Halloween, I'd thought I'd do the ffrst holiday-themed one shot to kick off the second season of the series.
Dont forget, I am open to any suggestions for this series and this series only through reviews or PMS.
A dark, starry night has begun down in the good ol' neighborhood of Royal Woods. It's only two days away until the one traditional day that all the kids love to participate in only for the sweet, sweet candy and dressing up in wacky costumes. Who wouldn't love a simple piece of candy to crave that sweet tooth of theirs or become harmless victims at a little trick? The Loud family would definitely be up for both of those questions together all day, everyday. There was probably not a single child under their teenage years that would turn down a fun and spooky little holiday like this one.
Inside the Loud House, the four family pets were alone together. They were sitting in that comfortable family couch as their eyes gazed upon the television screen. They were all nervous, especially the white, friendly dog of the household as it circulated a rerun of a film intended to be a horror film.
A woman in her mid-twenties was on the edge of curling up into a fetal position after she swore on her life that she closed more doors than she'd opened. She had the eeriest feeling that something or someone was in her house, haunting her until she broke.
"Oh geez. Why do these doors keep opening... ? I swear to gosh that I have closed a lot more doors than I thought in this house. '
She analyzed her surroundings ofher supposedly haunted house as creepy ambience subtlyplayin the film's background. She was heavily breathing from that point. Nothing happened inside that house for seconds. That is, until she caught some movement of another door down the hallway.
The woman was clearly not alone now. She quickly knew that she had two options to decide with. The first one was to go all in and try and take the intruder down, or to just simply run and get the heck out of dodge.
The pets, sans Walt, all quivered with fear. Charles especially, since he shook vigorously like a ringing telephone. He was the most fearful out of the rest of the animals living inside the house.
"Ohhhhh...what do ya think's gonna happen ya guys?" Cliff nervously asked.
"They're gonna scare us, I just know it!" Geo whimpered.
"I'll have ta agree with ya on that, Ham," Charles added. "I'm straight shakin' over here!"
"This is no time for speculations, you guys," Walt quietly answered. "Now hush!"
The animals all gazed back at the television screen now. They were mostly getting scared on what was about to happen next in the program they're watching.
The woman grew more anxious just like the pets as she saw a door swiftly shut completely out of the blue. She clearly had a choice to make. Either take a chance, and confront the stranger face to face, or get some of the authorites right there on the scene as quickly as she could. Hesitance took over the woman for a good second or two as she breathed heavily as if she was performing an intense workout routine.
Tensions quickly arose as the innocent woman made her decision to wander close and closer to the moving door inside her house. It became clear that she knew that she wasn't alone in the house from this point. It became evidently clear that she was being stalked. Her heart came pounding with each step towards the door that she observed shut within the blink of an eye.
This is it.
From this point, she didn't care. She always wanted to show herself that she wasn't one to mess with in her house. She thought about how she wanted to give people a piece of her feminine mind whenever she finds disrespect to her and her hard earned property. It was time to take a stand for herself once and for all. But she didn't realize that she may have been making a terrifying mistake.
The woman was only two inches away from the door now. In her mind, she didn't feel the need to put her own life at risk and would rather contact some authorities about this. But in this case, she must do whatever she had to do this time. She reached out to the metal knob of one of her doors. A quick twist and a push later, she got probably one of the most biggest surprises of her life.
A loud sound omitted as the woman got a glimpse of the intruder's face from her point of view. She let out a loud bloodcurdling screech as she was presented with a badly messed up face with huge bloodshot eyes and realistic slits all over his face as if he looked like a homicidal maniac.
All of the animals jumped as Charles yelped and howled like a coward as he landed into the arms of a black cat. He held on tightly as if they were replicating the same action from an animated seventies mystery show. None of the animals were ready for something like that. Especially since it was like being exposed to some new for the first time in their animal lives. The canine whined. He couldn't manage to handle something this terrifying. It felt highly traumatizing to him.
"Whoa! That was... something." Geo reacted, still shaken from the surprise.
"That's... because it is." Walt responded. He and Geo
glanced over to a shaken Charles and an anxious Cliff by their side. They were too scared to even get even one single word out of their mouths.
Geo started to worry about them. "You guys alright?"
Cliff attempted to calm himself down for a second before he answered the hamster's question. "Turn... the channel. "
Charles quickly nodded in agreement. "Yeah, yeah! I second that!"
"What's wrong with you two?" Walt asked. "Are you two scared or something?" He scoffed. "Cowards."
"We are not scared!" Charles and Cliff protested. They were hugging it out now as if they were really afraid of something.
Geo smirked. The dog and the cat's actions seemed to be funny for him. "Are you sure about that?"
Walt looked down and noticed a stream of liquid on the couch underneath Charles. He decided to point it out to add in some bit of humiliation all while he snickered. "Mr. Tinker says otherwise."
Charles looked down on the couch. It was from this moment that he found out that he failed to hold it all in. He quickly blushed upon observing what he did without noticing. Cliff was quick on his tail to get grossed out by Charles' incontinence. He casually backed away from the blushing white dog as well as Geo from behind.
To further in the embarrassment of the dog, the cat decided to add in another comment before he laughed. "How long before that bowel movement a yers takes its course, eh dog?"
Charles growled at the three animals now. He highly felt that was exceeding the limit to it's maximum capacity from that sentence alone. "Enough! That was completely uncalled for, cat!" He grabbed the feline with no hesitation to show. "C'mere!"
The two ended up forming a ball of violence now. It lasted for a good three to five seconds with barks and meows all around before all of a sudden, the power in the house completely died out, influencing Charles and Cliff to call off the brawling. It happened so fast, without any coincidences or anything.
It was almost pitch black in the house now. Some tension rose as the pets started to gulp down their saliva. They are scared that something was amongst them in the house. Out of the blue, thunderclaps were added in the background as it provoked the fears of Charles and Cliff.
CLAP!
They jumped up high, simultaneously spitting out a word as loud as they could.
They shook as they held on tightly to the living room fan on the ceiling. Walt and Geo started snickering now. Their amusement has reached at a high enough capacity to find their cowardice funny for them. Charles and Cliff were quick on their tail to notice. They promptly glared at them until their amusement finally withered out.
Cliff confronted the two in angry words. "Stop that!"
"Yeah guys, knock it off!" Charles added.
Geo proceeded to wipe a tear off his face as he regained control of his emotion. "I'm sorry. "
Walt added with a blank expression. "Same. "
Charles and Cliff made their way down from the fan, landing just upright on the floor. They had to figure out what to do now. It was dark inside as if it was really a haunted house.
"Anyway, we've got work to do," Geo said. "We need to think of a plan, and it needs to be well thought out as well..."
It didn't take long for someone in the room to hatch up a plan. It came from the dog of the house. "I've got the plan!" Charles said.
He bolted out of the living room for a split second before coming back with a suitcase for traveling. "I say we get the heck outta here while we still can!"
Cliff thought the dog would never ask. "Like, I was thinkin' the same thing! Let's scram!"
They were about to zip out of the room until Geo spoke up. "Now now, nobody's leaving this house."
Walt added in a reminder to the two pets. "Cowardice will get you guys nowhere. "
The hamster thought to himself for a bit. He figured that it had something to do with whatever it was in the house that cut off the power to the house. "Anyway, I have a feeling I know how and where we can get the power back on in this house."
"Either that or those humans must be really low on dough." Walt added.
Charles licked his lips the moment he heard the last word of the bird's sentence. "Mmm. Dough good. Could go fer some-a that. "
He got Cliff to start salivating now. "Delicious... cookie dough. "
Walt grabbed the attention of the dog and the cat. "Snap out of it! This isn't the time to think about delicacies. "
Charles and Cliff stared at the bird as if they were watching a door, waiting for their owner to return to them. Geo resumed to his plan without hesitating a second.
"So yeah, we gotta find the source of the power." he said. "Let's split up. You two check this floor and the basement, me and the bird are gonna check the floor upstairs. "
"Nuh-uh!" Charles said. "Whatever happened ta stickin' together?"
"Like, there's no way yer havin' us split up." Cliff added in anger.
As Geo was about to offer a quick alternative, they were met with a creaking door coming from the parent's room. It caught all of the pets off their guard as they shifted their attention to the door. A four-foot monster dressed in a kooky black cloak along with red scratches all over its face emerged from the room it omitted a ghoulish voice. Smoke omitted from the doorway as it increased the realism the pets were about to endure.
Charles and Cliff whimpered as they caught sight of the monster approaching out of the room. "Yoink!" the fearful feline said.
"Ruuuunnn!" Charles yelled out before they proceeded to panic mode as they bolted to the upstairs hallway. The monster crept over to Walt and Geo before they yelped out simultaneously. They decided to bolt inside the kitchen as they intended to split the gang up in the first place.
The monster uttered out but one word as it walked around like an undead zombie that came straight from the grave. "Mammals... mammals."
Upstairs, Charles booked it inside the bathroom as fast as he could with Cliff following from behind. He slammed the door shut, causing Cliff to crash right into it before he promptly fell backward on the floor. His eyes spiraled for seconds as he moaned before he shook his head to regain consciousness. He didn't see this coming at all. He was understandably outraged as he clawed away at the door.
"Hey! Lemme in there!" he uttered.
Charles had to be quick to give the cat an answer. "Uh... this is taken! Do ya mind..?"
Cliff grew more anxious by the second as he continued to claw at the door. He was desperate to get in with the canine. "Oh stop yer fakin' 'n open the dang door!"
That moment, the feline heard footsteps coming up the stairway. Those sudden creeks of the floorboards made the cat feel trapped inside a small box. He had to hurry up and hide somewhere else. He frantically looked around until he noticed a slight open bedroom door right next to him. As the creaking grew louder, he dove right into the room.
Footsteps approached the left side of the hallway. Cliff's heart sank like a rock as he took notice. He looked through the tight opening of the door to catch the monster, right there in front of the doorway now. The feline didn't know what to do now. He was too scared to even think.
The monster stood quiet for a couple of seconds, it was sure that it heard meowing and barking coming from the hallway. The very next thing he decided to do was bust open the bedroom door of Luna and Luan. The force was so audible that it influenced Cliff to jump back and hide somewhere in the room he was in. Anxiety ensued all around as he settled on hiding just under Leni's bed.
A full minute has passed as Cliff was on the lookout for what he believes is a monster out to get them. He heard audible footsteps outside the hallway as he desperately hoped that he was leaving the hallway. But nope. That hope of his was defied and snatched away from the animal in an instant. The monster came busting through the door of Leni and Lori's room now. Cliff was shaking like a motorized vehicle on a regular day as he paid close attention to the monster in front of the doorway. It decided to inspect the room from top to bottom, walking all around the room. Whoever it was, their desperation was at tall values. All the fraidy cat could do now was hope that the intruder wouldn't notice a thing under the bed he's now currently hiding under.
Geo and Walt were deep in the dark basement. They were thinking about the monster as it eerily but slowly approached the two before they took off running. They never thought they could observe something this frightening. It's almost as if it was extremely realistic. They both talked about how they reacted as they looked around for switch to tamper with.
"Wow." Geo said. "How do they have so many scratches on his face?"
"Whoever they are... they need some flip-flockin' treatment. " Walt said.
Wouldn't they know it, It was the hamster's lucky day. By chance alone, there just happened to be a flashlight right in front of the two pets. Geo gasped upon noticing the item.
"Bird! I found something that'll help us out!" he said with a smile. Walt flew over on top of Geo's ball. He casually reacted like it was a normal occurrence.
"A flashlight." he said. "Good."
The bird flew on top of the object, switching the light on. It flashed a good amount of space in the basement with a few objects in the way such as tables and boxes and lastly a concrete wall inside the interior. He would soon lift up the object to shine some light on a bigger amount of space that it shines on now.
"Alright, now let's get to searching." the bird commanded. He and Geo searched all around the interior of the basement for minutes.
"Not there." Geo mumbled. "That's not it either..." He may have the feeling that it's probably not down in the basement. Maybe it was located in another room of the house, but they have yet to search the entire room. From what they have unveiled, they only covered about half of the basement.
Walt turned the flashlight into another direction. He gasped, catching the attention of the hamster. He finally found something that'll be real useful. "Look!"
It was a breaker box that controls the electricity of the house. Their hopes rose up as they saw it right in front of their eyes. Finally, there was some progress going down for the two pets.
"Could that be...?" Geo wondered.
Walt answered the hamster with a satisfied "It is!"
Charles was rocking on the toilet seat now. He was whimpering for seconds for what seemed like minutes on end. Unfortunately, the noises the dog was making caught the attention of the monster who was just outside of the doorway now as he was going to check the other side of the hallway. The dog couldn't do a simple thing to not get noticed in a situation like this. It was like answering a math problem under a large amount of pressure.
The monster knocked away at the door. The jig was up for the dog now. His heart jumped as he didn't have much time to think of where he was going to hide. His paws and nose began to sweat for a short time before he had no choice but to settle with hiding behind the shower curtains.
Each bang from the monster grew with more force into the door until it busted open like a balloon. What he saw was nothing suspicious at first. That is until seconds later, he heard some scratching inside the bathroom. It came from the shower head, behind some curtains. The monster walked over to move the curtains out of the way. What he saw was something it didn't expect to see in a situation like this.
The reveal was Charles cleansing his back with a shower brush while he whistled with sincerity. It took seconds to pass by before the dog looked over to the monster. Upon noticing it, he screamed like a lady as he covered up with part of the shower curtain. He hit the monster a few times on the cranium with the brush before he jumped out of the shower.
"HELLLPPP!" the dog screamed at the top of his lungs as he zipped straight out of the bathroom. The monster decided to chase after the scared canine as they would soon head downstairs. Cliff figured that was his cue to make his way out of the bedroom. He sighed in great relief upon realizing that he was safe, for now.
"Phew." he uttered. "Now that he's outta the way..."
At this point when the cat least expected it, there was a sudden change of plan. A crack opened up underneath him as he fell through with a long meow. That fall would eventually lead him straight into the room of Rita and Lynn Sr. as he landed in a pile of laundry.
He got up as he placed his paw over his head, not knowing there's a pair of underwear hanging on his nose. For him, that was some fall. The second the cat finally noticed the pair of underwear, he reacted by swatting it off as if it was an irritating fly.
"Bleh, I really hope those were clean..." he spat. The cat started to look around. He realized almost immediately that this was where the monster came from. A sound rang in the feline's earlobes seconds later. The cat jumped again as he shook around in the pile of clothes. After the cat took a few seconds to calm some nerves, his curiosity influenced him to check out the source.
"Hmm..." he uttered as he squinted his feline eyes. He walked over to the other side of the room. What he was about to discover was an elaborate setup that he didn't see coming. He stopped upon noticing the source.
It turned out to be fog machines. Cliff was understandably confused now. At the same time, he was a bit suspicious about what was going on in the household. As the machines were still running, the feline grew more curious overtime.
He lifted up one of his paws off the ground as he started resisting. His paw came in contact with the machine before it started to omit some fog once again. As he looked on the item, it would suddenly hit him in his head. He was more suspicious than ever. He was starting to get the idea that this was in fact, some sort of prank.
"Like, wait a minute." Cliff said. "I know exactly what's goin' on here! This is a complete-!"
Charles ran inside the bedroom where Cliff is located, covered in splats of red all over his fur. He whimpered like a scared little animal the second he hid inside the closet. He was ducking for cover with his paws over his head all the while he shook in trembling fear. Cliff was understandably a little mad at the pup. At the same time, he was concerned as he approached him inside the closet.
He spoke to him in a rather sarcastic tone. "Thanks so much for yer undyin' loyalty. "
Charles turned to the feline, giving him a little shock as he noticed some red splatters over the pup's face. "Well I'm sorry, cat! I thought if we-"
"Whoa whoa whoa!" Cliff reacted. "What is that on yer face, dog?!"
"Huh?" Charles said in confusion. The dog wiped his face off, getting some of the liquid on his paw. Because of his own curiosity, he licked the contents of his paw clean off, only to find out it was some traditional tomato sauce. He wagged his tail upon deciphering the taste. "Hoo boy, tomato sauce! Musta been from that bucket that fell right in front of me. "
Cliff lightened up a bit now. "Oh, thank goodness."
For a second he thought it was something else.
Unbeknownst to the two, that was the only chance of relief he or the dog was going to get. Creaking omitted from the stairs that were just outside of the bedroom they were in.
The animals were shaking again. "Ruh-roh, cat..." Charles uttered as he had no idea what to do from that point. "What are we gonna do? I'm scared..."
Suddenly, Cliff had a flashback on something that Walt said to them earlier in the night.
"Cowardice will get you guys nowhere. "
Cliff reached out to Charles. "Dog, remember what the bird said about bein' cowards?"
Charles was a little confused. "Huh?"
"We need ta toughen it out and show our dominance!" Charles whined to the cat. "What if that doesn't work?"
Cliff reassured as if there was nothing to worry about. "Trust me dog, it will!"
"Oh, I dunno about this..." Charles nervously responded.
Cliff resorted to one more tactic he had left up his sleeve. He whipped out a doggy treat, in hopes to get him convinced. "...Would ya do it for a bacon flavored doggy treat?" He asked with a sheepish smile.
Charles' tail started to wag now. He licked his lips upon observing the treat. "Ya had me at bacon!"
"Try that one." Geo said. He was outside of his ball now as he held the flashlight on the box for Walt to see. The bird flicked one of the switches before he switched it back to it's original position. To no avail, there was no change in the lighting whatsoever.
"Doesn't work. " the bird replied.
Geo started to worry. Halfway in the box, none of the switches seem to get the power up and running again.
"Aw geez, that's like the ninth switch we tried!"
"Don't worry, Ham," Walt said. "We're still have nine more to try out. "
"Okay, but can we hurry?" Geo said. "My arms are getting tired from holding this thing. "
A second later, he fell forward. The flashlight bounced off the hamster as he fell flat on his stomach before it rolled around. It eventually flashed a table , a large bucket of water filled with apples, and a wall behind it. Walt gasped as he took notice of the fallen hamster.
"Ham?!" he reacted.
A few seconds in, Walt noticed an odd object laying right on a table the flashlight shined upon.
"Hey," he uttered as he flew towards the object. "The heck is this?"
Geo managed to recover as he pushed himself off the ground. "What is it?" he asked out of curiosity.
It was a ball of paper. Out of shear curiosity, Walt unfolded the ball of paper to reveal that it was just a receipt. Though it did take him a couple seconds, he managed to get the task done.
"It's... some sort of receipt... from A Fair City."
Geo was understandably confused. "A receipt? What's something like that that doing down here?"
"Hmm... it looks like there's several items listed on this piece of paper."
Among the things listed were the following:
Fog machine... 19.95
Halloween mask...5.49 Leather cloak. ..24.99 lg Tomato sauce.. 6.79
Total...81.80
Upon finishing up with the reading, Walt was now understandably outraged. "Sacre bleu! I don't believe
this ! t,
"What?" Geo asked.
Walt brought the receipt over to Geo. "Look at this!"
Much to Geo's surprise, he was a little suspicious about what was going on. He gasped upon reading the contents of the receipt. "There just happened to be this lying around huh...?"
"Such dumbos." Walt added. "You'd think they wouldn't leave this out in the open."
Geo giggled. "Yeah."
A second later, the two pets heard Charles and Cliff yelling as they approached to the basement. They ended up fumbling all the way down like a rolling hamster wheel until they finally reached the bottom due to slipping on a sudden misplaced rollerblade at the door. They were both temporarily dizzy for the moment. Walt and Geo approached them with some bit of concern as the bird shined the flashlight on the two.
"Oh thank gosh, it's you two!" Geo said in relief.
"What happened?" Walt said.
Charles shook his head as he recovered from the tumble. He was mighty quick with an answer. "I'll tell ya what happened. We were facing the monster when we had ourselves cornered and we were on the winnin' edge for... quite a while now and just outta nowhere, it pulled out this huge garden tool to cut down tall fields a grass! I did not see that comin' at all."
Cliff pointed towards the dog. "He actually farted when the latter part happened. "
Charles glared at the cat. "Ya know that ain't me, it was that fog machine!"
"1 never get tired of usin' that kind of humor on youse." Cliff chuckled, playfully punching the dog's
"Speaking of that..." Walt said, grabbing the cat and dog's undivided attention. Geo walked over to the two as he gave Cliff the receipt they found. "Look at this."
As they were reading the contents, it all became clear to them now. This was all just a little prank. Cliff and Charles felt more confident and less scared after reading the receipt.
"Aha!" Cliff uttered. "I knew it!"
"Knew what?" Walt interfered. "You went bolting upstairs after the dog the minute you saw that thing!" "Ooh. Got him good." Geo quietly added.
Cliff sighed from that remark. "Now ya wanna waste time bashin' us for bein' cowards or ya wanna catch this monster and put a stop to its reign of terror once and for all?"
"You got a plan?" Walt asked.
The cat answered with confidence. "Ya bet yer sweet tail feather I do."
"I'll admit, they picked a good brand of sauce!" Charles said as he was still reading the receipt. He backed off a couple inches as the feline balled the receipt up once again and threw it aside.
"Alright, are y'all ready?" Cliff said before extending his paw out. "Paws 'n wings in."
One by one, Charles placed a paw, followed by Geo and later Walt with a wing.
All together in unison, they all answered with "Break!"
Seconds later, moaning came from the doorway leading down to the basement. The sudden noises made Walt drop the flashlight. Charles and Cliff started to shake once again after the bird's action.
"Roh no..." the dog quietly uttered.
"It's here!" the cat added as he picked up the flashlight. He shined it towards the doorway to find the monster, menacingly standing there with his bloody scythe as if he was finally about to get the job done. The animals' fears were increasingly provoked upon noticing the monster again.
"I have you now..." the monster slowly uttered in it's lowest voice possible.
Charles began to whimper again as he held on tightly to the cat followed by Geo and Walt doing the same seconds later. As the monster was about to descend down the flight of stairs, the animals resorted to confessions as if they were under pressure.
"Well, I guess this is it you guys..." Cliff said with a gulp. "I was the one who ate the leftover fish!"
Walt followed soon after. "It's my fault that I poked a hole through the front door!"
Charles laid all he way down and took cover. "I didn't mean to leave that present in yer litterbox!"
All that's left now was Geo. He thought real hard under pressure before coming to a conclusion. "...1 really love SMOOOCH!" Charles, Cliff and Walt glanced over to the hamster now. He was confused about their sudden shift of attention towards him.
The monster started to approach the flight of stairs now. There was nothing the pets could try to do now due to being cornered in as if they were locked away together in a cage. Tensions rose as they were close to crossing paths. To make matters worse, their fear were increased even more as the flashlight unexpectedly died out.
" ...Shoot. "
It was pitch black in the basement.
They were goners.
The pets hugged tightly as if this was their final moments together. Until by chance alone, the monster had a nasty little fall down the stairs, hitting its face on the concrete floor below. It was temporarily knocked out cold now.
They didn't know it, but it was all over. Silence filled seconds passed by before all the power came back to the house when they least expected it.
Geo opened his eyes. He smiled as he noticed the electricity to the house was up and running once again. "Hey, the power's back on!"
It didn't take long for Charles, Cliff and Walt to do the same. They were all glad they made it through unscathed as they sighed in relief.
"Like would ya look at that?" Cliff said. "We did it!"
"Yeah, yeah!" Charles added while Walt glanced over to the fallen monster. There was a small pool of sauce made to look like blood as he subtly fidgeted. He knew for the longest that it was someone disguised to maybe at least get a cheap thrill. He was mad.
"Now let's see who this monster really is." The bird flew over to the costume someone was wearing as he laid into it like a scene in interrogation. "Alright you, " he said. "The game's over with! Come out here and face me like a man!"
"Where have I seen this before...?" Geo spat.
"Is he... dead?" Cliff wondered.
The monster regained consciousness after hearing the bird angrily tweet at him. It was on its knees as it was about to make the reveal right in front of the four furry little animals.
It slowly tore its mask off. The pets were surprised upon seeing the face that they all recognized the most.
Lincoln.
"Surprise!" he said. "Bet you guys didn't see this coming huh?"
The pets may be mad at the child for a second, but at the same time, they were impressed. Charles barked as he knocked the kid down. His tail wagged frantically as he licked the boy's face out of excitement.
Lincoln laughed as the pup's tongue tickled him. "Down, Charles! Heel!"
The rest of the pets gave each other high fives with smiles all around. They finally got their mystery solved once and for all. Best of all, the power was back. They were ready to resume their activity back in the living room. Cliff, Geo and Walt headed back up the flight of stairs to the doorway of the basement. They wanted to plan their retribution onto the child one day, especially since Halloween is coming up real soon.
"We're gonna get him back fer this, right?" Cliff quietly asked.
Walt and Geo's responses was quick and simple as they sinisterly rubbed their paws and wings together. "You bet!"
End