Lucy's face appears out of the darkness, "If you should die before you wake…"

Luan pops out in clown makeup and laughs at you, "AH-HAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!"

I Dream of Lucy

Lincoln and Clyde were enjoying a nice summer day in Lincoln's room playing rounds of Marvel vs. Capcom vs. DC Universe vs. Tatsunoko vs. SNK vs. Smackdown vs. Raw All-Star Brawl Ultimate II Turbo Plus Ultra Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry Series Knuckles.

Lincoln smiled as they started another round, "Ah, this is the life! Hanging out at home, playing video games with my best bud, l and filling up our bellies with diet soda!"

Clyde smiled too, "Doesn't get any better than this!"

That's when Grim busted through the door, "Lincoln! There's an emergency!"

Lincoln groaned and paused the game, "And my day is about to be ruined. What is it this time, Grim? Vampires? Zombies? Oversexualized, overrated demons from Hell? What?"

"It's Lucy, mon! She won't wake up!" Grim told him.

Lincoln paused for a moment, "Uh…what?"

"Is Lucy taking a nap?" Clyde asked.

Grim shook his skull, "No! She went to bed last night and she hasn't woken up since!"

"Maybe she's just sleeping in." Lincoln suggested.

"Lincoln, it's two-thirty in the afternoon!" Clyde told him.

Lincoln checked his phone, "Huh, how about that? Well, I do know one thing that will wake Lucy up for sure."

…

"Rise and shine, Lucy! I got burnt eggs with ketchup and blood orange for your breakfast." Lincoln announced as he held a tray up to his sleeping sister.

Lucy laid in her coffin-bed, arms folded over her chest, sleeping soundly.

"Come on Lucy, it's time to wake up and face the world." Lincoln told her.

Clyde approached, "Does Lucy usually sleep this deeply?"

Lincoln shook his head, "Not really. Usually the smell of burnt eggs has her ambush me with a hug out of nowhere."

Grim rubbed his jaw, "I get the feeling this is no ordinary sleep, it seems more supernatural…"

Lincoln threw the tray onto the empty half of Lucy's room, "OF COURSE IT'S SUPERNATURAL! EVERYTHING THAT'S BEEN GOING WRONG HAS BEEN SUPERNATURAL!" he yelled.

"Woah! What's up your butt today?" Grim asked.

"Just TODAY? You know Grim, I used to love ghosts and magic! It was fun believing that out in the world there could be something more than our everyday busy lives. Now that I see it all though? It's a chore! A chore I have to deal with every day like everything else I have to deal with! Am I ever thanked for it? Hell no! I once saved Lori from a ghost haunting her and she barely acknowledged that I did anything! That's the LAST TIME I help her, OR ANYONE! I'm sick of it!"

Clyde took hold of Lincoln's shoulders, "Deep breaths, Lincoln!"

Lincoln took a few deep breaths. His whole body was shaking.

"It's good you're getting out your frustrations, but it's unhealthy to lash out so much!"

Lincoln nodded, "I know…okay…give me a minute…"

Lisa entered the room, "What is happening? Why is Lincoln going through a mental breakdown?"

Grim pointed at Lucy, "Your sister won't wake up."

Lucy slept soundly.

"Hm, even after all that shouting?" Lisa approached Lucy, checking her pulse and her eyes, "Well, she seems to just be asleep, and is in REM sleep."

"Is that good?" Clyde asked.

"It's abnormal. REM usually lasts up to two hours. How long has she been asleep?"

"For the whole day." Grim told her.

"...I see. I assume you tried waking her considering the mess of a breakfast on the other side of the room."

"It always worked before..." Lincoln remarked, "Hmm, say Lisa, don't you still have that machine that lets us enter people's dreams? Maybe we could go in and wake her up there."

Lisa shook her head, "Nope. I sold it to an international group of freelancers who do corporate espionage."

"...okay then, what about that machine you made in chapter three to watch my dreams? We could at least see what's-"

"I sold that to the CIA."

Lincoln sighed, "Lisa, do you really need all that money?"

"Running a lab and repair bills for the house aren't cheap, Lincoln."

"Okay, fair, can't you make another one of either?"

"Not without the materials needed, plus the last time I observed Lucy's dreams, I couldn't sleep for a week."

Lincoln waved her off, "Oh come on, I know Lucy likes dark things, but it couldn't have been that bad!"

Lisa looked through Lincoln with a stare that could stretch for a thousand yards, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter there."

"I'm sure it can't be as bad as our usual brand of chaos."

Eris poked her head in, "Did somebody say chaos?"

A loud applause came from the studio audience forced against their will.

Clyde shuddered, "Oh God! Are we on a Dan Schneider show now?"

Grim scoffed, "No mon, the hack who writes this junk just simps for Eris."

At least I admit it.

"So…what's going on now?" Eris asked.

"Lucy is in some deep supernatural sleep or something." Lincoln summarized.

Eris looked over at Lucy, "Hm…yep, this is something supernatural all right."

"Then I am out of my element, excuse me." Lisa left the room.

Lincoln then recalled something, "Wait a minute, Grim, back in chapter three, you used some magic to put me to sleep with nightmares. Can't you use something to wake Lucy up?"

Grim rubbed his jawbone, "Technically, I used some purple sleeping dust that gave you nightmares. Waking someone up from supernatural slumber is a different thing altogether."

Eris looked over at Grim, "Purple sleeping dust? Say Grim, who exactly gave you that stuff?"

Grim shook his head, "Nobody."

Eris approached Grim, "I think I know who did, it was someone who's domain is sleep."

Grim folded his arms and shook his skull, "I have no idea who you may be referring to."

Eris groaned, "Oh come on, Hypnos! It has to have been him!"

"I TOLD YOU NEVER TO MENTION HIS NAME!" Grim yelled.

Lincoln scratched his head, "Hypnos? Wait, if you're Thanatos, wouldn't that mean-"

Grim sighed, "Yeah, he's me twin brother."

Clyde gasped, "Oh no, are you two having problems?"

Grim sighed again, "Don't get me wrong, I love me brother, it's just...complicated. Ever since the 1800s, the two of us have been up to our skulls with work."

Clyde rubbed his chin, "I guess being the shepherds of sleep and death would be time-consuming."

"You said it, mon. The only time we see each other these days is when we awkwardly bump into each other at nursing homes."

"Oof, yeah that sounds awkward."

Eris patted Grim's shoulder, "Well? This would be a good excuse to call him up and see him again! I'm sure he misses you too!"

Grim groaned, "Fine, this is for Lucy after all. I'll call him up…I uh, need to be alone for this." Grim then left Lucy's room and headed up to the attic.

"So…do we just wait here?" Clyde asked.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

"Huh, that was fast!" said Lincoln, he, Clyde, and Eris left the room and headed for the front door. Upon opening it, they found Haiku at the door.

"Good day Lincoln, good day Clyde, good day Eris, Goddess of Discord " Haiku greeted.

Eris smiled, "Oh, hello!"

"Hi Haiku!" Clyde greeted.

"What are you doing here?" Lincoln asked.

Haiku tented her fingers, "Lucy and I had made plans today, but she hasn't even been reading my texts. I fear something has happened to her."

"Well, you're not wrong, Lucy's asleep and won't wake up." Clyde told her.

"May I see her?" Haiku asked.

"Sure, why not?" Lincoln said as he led her inside and the group went back to Lucy's room.

Lucy was still sound asleep.

Haiku traced a finger above Lucy's head, "...and she has been dreaming for nearly four hours?" she asked.

Lincoln shrugged, "I guess?"

"How could you tell?" Clyde asked.

Haiku shook her head, "That's not important right now."

Eris looked Haiku over a bit, "There's something…curious about you."

Haiku nodded, "Right. Did the Grim Reaper have anything to do with this?"

"Don't be blaming me, mon!" Grim said as he entered the bedroom.

"So, did the Goddess of Chaos do this?" Haiku asked.

Eris shook her head, "I would never!" She then turned to Grim, "So Grim did you-"

"He said he'll be here as soon as he can." Grim told her.

"Who?" Haiku asked.

The doorbell rang again.

"That's him!" Grim cried out, he led the group downstairs and opened the front door.

Behind the door was a six-and-a-half-foot skeleton wearing a white open suit with a light blue shirt, black aviator sunglasses, and a fake goatee. "Hey Grimmy." he greeted in a deep, raspy voice.

"Hey Sandy." Grim greeted back.

The two stood in awkward silence for a moment, then gave each other an awkward sibling hug. "Pat, pat." they both said.

"Uh, so Hypnos is going to help us out, right?" Lincoln asked.

"I appreciate you knowing my name, child, but I go mainly by Sandman these days." Sandman explained.

"It's nice to see you again, Sandman!" Eris greeted him.

Sandman pulled his sunglasses down to get a better look, "Oh, hello Eris. Almost didn't recognize you," he put his glasses back on, "Got split in two again?"

Eris nodded, "Yeah…"

"Yeah, listen Mr. Sandman, my sister is-"

Sandman walked into the house, "Grimmy caught me up on the situation. It sounded serious, but I only have an hour to spare before I need to get back to Asia for my route. More importantly, I have a date with the Tooth Fairy."

"Wait, the Tooth Fairy is real too?" Clyde asked.

"At this point, that's not surprising." Haiku remarked.

"The Tooth Fairy? I thought she was married to that big musclehead fairy?" Grim asked.

"I heard they had a nasty divorce a few years back." Eris chimed in.

"I thought you said fairies were wiped out?" Lincoln asked.

Grim nodded, "On Earth, yeah, wiped off the face of the planet. Most of them at least."

"That's a pretty flimsy retcon."

"Shut up, Lincoln."

The group entered Lucy's room, and the Sandman walked over to her, rubbing his jawbone, "Hm, did the little lady eat a poisoned apple or touch an enchanted spindle?"

Grim shook his skull, "Nope, she fell right to sleep while listening to me read H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness."

"I see, well that rules out the usual causes for this…" the Sandman took off his sunglasses and got a closer look at Lucy, gently moving her bangs away, "Ah…okay, I have good news and bad news."

"What the hell is good about any of this?" Lincoln asked.

"Deep breaths, Lincoln." Clyde reminded him.

The Sandman put his sunglasses back on, "The good news is that your sister is the one who put herself into her supernatural slumber, and she is completely safe for the moment."

Lincoln took a deep breath, "Okay…so what's the bad news?"

"The bad news is that since she put herself into this state, only she can wake herself back up. If she stays like this for too long, she might risk not waking up again."

"What! Why would she do something like that?"

Grim knew why, "Oh no." he gasped.

Sandy smiled, "Well, on the bright side, seeing she has been only dreaming for about four hours, there's plenty of time for her to wake herself up before she risks any-"

"Sandy, you need to wake her up." Grim told him.

"Excuse me?"

"This is important, the sooner she wakes up, the better. I know what she's doing, and it's a bad idea."

"Grim, what is she doing?" Lincoln asked.

"We don't have time for exposition."

Lincoln glared at Grim, "Are you being for real?"

"Once Lucy wakes up, I'll tell you both everything. I should have told you before, because that would've kept Lucy from doing this."

Sandman nodded, "I see. Well, I can't just snap my fingers and wake her up, I'll have to enter her dream and find her."

"I'm going too!" Lincoln declared.

"You?"

"The sooner Lucy wakes up the better, right? Finding her in her dream won't be easy, but I know more about her than anyone in this room. Besides, I've entered dreams in the show before, this is nothing new."

"What even is your show anymore?" Grim asked.

Lincoln shrugged, "I don't know, I stopped being the main character a long time ago because everyone likes my sisters more."

"As if your Middle Child Syndrome was bad enough." Clyde remarked.

"I'll go too." Haiku chimed in, "I may not know more than you, Lincoln, but Lucy has told me things she hasn't told her family, not even you."

Clyde smiled, "And I'm going to help you two out! I don't really know Lucy too well though."

"She certainly knows you're a vampire at least."

"A vampire?" Sandman took off his sunglasses and looked Clyde over, "...yeah, this is good. I'm not sure how you managed to go into dreams before, but normally you'd need to be a creature with that ability, like a vampire, a succubus, or a dream-eating demon…" Sandman then looked over at Lincoln and Haiku, "...huh, and coincidentally, somehow the two of you happen to have said ability."

"Probably a result of cheap writing." Grim remarked.

"Shut up, Grim." Eris chided.

Lincoln looked over at Haiku, "Wait, I have Bedlam Gold which seems to let me do whatever I can imagine, but what do you have?"

Haiku shrugged, "I'm half-demon." she flatly said.

Lincoln was dumbstruck for a moment, "You're… what?"

"Well, the specific term is yōkai, but half-demon is good for now."

Lincoln blinked, "Huh. Okay. Lucy's best friend is a half-demon. Sure, let's go with that."

"Does Lucy know about that?" Clyde asked.

Haiku nodded, "Of course she does. She's known that about me since the day we met..." she looked up wistfully, thinking back on a few years ago.

"Fascinating, but we don't have time for a flashback. Lucy needs our help right now." Lincoln reminded her.

We'll come back to this in another chapter.

Sandman put a hand in his suit, "Let's see what the Sandman has in his sack." He said as he pulled out a sack from his jacket.

"Uh, could you please never say that again?" Clyde asked him.

Sandman opened his sack and pulled out some orange dust, "Ah, here we go. One whiff of this can send all three of you into Dreamland, you all might need a bed to get comfortable first though."

Eris pulled out a bronze apple, "On it." She tossed it into the empty half of Lucy's room. When It landed, it transformed into a massive king-sized circle bed with three pillows in the center.

"You're very useful to have around, Eris." Lincoln told her.

Eris blushed, "Aw, thank you."

Lincoln, Clyde, and Haiku all got on the very comfortable bronze bed and set their heads on the pillows, "Okay, now what?" Haiku asked.

Sandman scattered the orange dust over the three and they went right to sleep. He then turned to Grim and Eris, "Grimmy, you and Eris won't be able to come with us, so I'm gonna need you two to keep anyone from coming into this room to disturb their slumber for the next forty minutes."

Grim nodded,"Should be simple enough. And Sandy? Thank you, this means a lot to me."

"No problem, see ya in forty." With that, Sandman turned himself into dust and flew into Lucy's eyes.

"So um…what do we do for forty minutes?" Eris asked.

Grim shrugged, "Lucy has Monopoly: Innsmouth Edition."

…

Lincoln opened his eyes and found himself in an open grave. He quickly sat up and hyperventilated a bit before recalling what had happened. "Oh, yeah, the Sandman showed up and…wait, this is Lucy's dream?"

Lincoln looked up again, he was in a hole that was at least six feet deep and he could barely reach out of it. He grabbed onto the headstone that accompanied the grave and used it to help pull himself up and out. After getting out of the grave, he read the headstone.

"HERE LIES LUCY'S HOPES AND DREAMS"

"Okay then…" Lincoln mumbled as he looked around, "Hello? Clyde? Haiku? Sandman?"

Lincoln was, of course, in a graveyard. Apparently he was at the back of it as there was only one path that led outward and all around him were either burial plots or an iron fence that seemed to stretch upwards forever, making them impossible to climb over or go through. Lincoln pushed on the fence, and shook his head, "Sheesh Lucy, this symbolism is very disturbing."

With no other option, Lincoln headed down the one path available. He kept seeing rows of buried plots on either side of him, but all of them ended with that iron fence. Eventually, he came across a mausoleum down the path, one with a statue of a bat in front of it.

Lincoln went inside to see several coffins sealed with chains sitting on raised platforms, one of which was banging. Lincoln approached the banging coffin, and surprisingly the chains vanished at his touch. The coffin lid flew up and hit the mausoleum ceiling and broke into splinters.

"AAGH! GAH! I THOUGHT I WAS TRAPPED FOREVER!" Clyde yelled as he sprung up from the coffin. The way he looked was completely different, he was now wearing a suit, a cape, had visible sharpened canines, and there were black wings coming out of his back.

Lincoln rubbed his eyes a bit, "Clyde? Is that really you?"

Clyde looked down at Lincoln, "Lincoln? Why did you dye your hair black?"

Lincoln hadn't seen his reflection before now since he had entered Lucy's dream. He grabbed a bit of his hair and plucked it, on closer inspection he could see it was black as night. He then looked down to see that he was in his Goth attire of black shirt, black and white sleeves, charcoal pants, and black boots.

"Huh, I guess I didn't notice that before." Lincoln remarked.

"Where's Haiku and the Sandman?" Clyde then asked.

Lincoln shrugged, "I haven't seen or heard from them since I found myself here, but there's only one path through this graveyard."

"Graveyard?"

Clyde followed Lincoln outside the mausoleum to see the graveyard and the path. The duo continued along it when they came across a disturbing site, a gallows where Haiku was hanging upside-down with rope tied around her legs and dress. Additionally, on top of her head were a pair of cat ears with black fur.

Haiku looked down at them, "Hello Lincoln, hello Clyde."

Lincoln headed for the gallows, "Don't worry Haiku, we'll get you down!"

"I am actually enjoying this a lot. The blood is rushing to my head." Haiku flatly said with a stone face.

Clyde could see the hangman's knot high up, "It looks like untying that will be difficult, Lincoln." He said.

"Oh, I can get rid of the rope easily." Haiku told Clyde.

"Uh, why haven't you done that yet?" Lincoln asked.

"Because the idea of cats always landing on their feet is a myth. I need you two to catch me." Haiku explained.

"Is the nine lives thing a myth too?" Clyde asked.

"No, that's very real, but the less said the better."

Lincoln and Clyde got under Haiku and prepared to catch her, "Okay, we're ready!" Lincoln cried out.

Haiku put a hand on the rope, and soon enough the part of the rope she held burnt through and she fell into the arms of the boys. Lincoln and Clyde quickly untied her legs and set her on her feet.

"Thank you." Haiku flatly thanked them.

"Huh, so you are some sort of cat demon?" Clyde asked.

"Yes, I am." said Haiku.

"Hey, I know this one! You're half-nekomata, right?"

Haiku shook her head, "I'm half-bakeneko, but I understand it's hard to tell the difference. The only obvious sign is that I have one tail and not two."

"You actually have a tail?" Lincoln tried to get a look.

Haiku grabbed Lincoln's shoulder so tight, claws dug into him, "Don't. You. Dare." She hissed at him.

Lincoln nodded as he stood up straight, "Ah, sorry."

Haiku let go, on closer look, her visible eye was more cat-like and glowed an amber color. She looked Lincoln up and down, "That outfit looks way better than your fake poser goth e-boy look."

Lincoln shrugged, "Yeah, I dunno what Lucy was thinking when she overdressed me the last time."

Blame the animators.

"Can someone please tell me why we look like this?" Clyde asked.

Haiku looked Clyde over and got closer to him, "I think you look incredible, especially your bat wings."

Clyde backed up a bit, "Respect my personal space, please. Thank you."

"They look more like dragon wings to me." Lincoln commented.

"Your forms in Lucy's dream are…interesting to say the least. They're that way to fit with her mindscape so it wouldn't reject any of you." said the voice of the Sandman.

The trio looked around, "Mr. Sandman? Where are you?" Lincoln asked.

"Technically, I am everywhere. Sorry for not being present, but I have been searching for Lucy." Sandman answered.

"Where is she?" Haiku asked.

"Well… it's a good thing you three are here. I can't seem to find her exact location."

"Isn't being in charge of sleep and dreams your whole thing?" Clyde asked.

"It is, but even I have my limits when it comes to mortals. Usually, they would be on the surface - where you three are now - but it seems little Lucy has gone deeper."

Lincoln looked around at all the burial plots, "Don't tell me we have to start digging up graves!" he pleaded.

"Not exactly. You need to go deeper into Lucy's dream. The most I can sense of her presence is in that castle down the path."

Lincoln, Clyde, and Haiku looked down the path and in the distance could see a castle on a moonlit hill. Lightning flashing for effect.

Lincoln shrugged, "...on second thought, maybe digging up graves would be easier."

Clyde and Haiku looked at him, "Really, Lincoln?" Clyde asked.

"Hey, the last time I went to a castle, I had to fight a dragon that some fat-assed old hag manipulated to try to kill me and my family!"

"Then this shouldn't be too hard for you." Haiku told him.

"I cannot get inside myself, so you three will have to go in. I'll try to see what else I can find in the meanwhile." The Sandman told them.

Lincoln sighed, "Well, let's get walking."

The trio walked down the path to the castle, chit chatting as they did.

"So, how's the middle school?" Haiku asked.

Lincoln shrugged, "Eh, a lot worse than elementary school. The principal is a moron, the teachers are insane, and the older students are a bunch of jerks."

"I still can't believe Principal Ramirez tried sending you to Canada." Clyde remarked.

"Are you two dating anyone?" Haiku then asked.

"No." Clyde and Lincoln said.

"Say Clyde, whatever happened with you and that Chloe girl you told me about?" Lincoln then asked.

Clyde rubbed his chin, "I never saw her again. I'm starting to think she was just a figment of my imagination to spare me from the despair of being constantly rejected."

"Devastating." Haiku remarked.

The trio approached the wooden castle doors at the top of stone steps. Lincoln pushed the door and it swung open. There was darkness there and nothing more. "Uh, Mr. Sandman? You said Lucy was in here, right? Did you ever go in?" Lincoln asked.

Sandman suddenly appeared from beside them in full form, causing Lincoln and Clyde to jump a bit, "I cannot go in there. It would not let me."

As if to prove it, Sandman tried walking into the darkness, but something pushed him back.

"Huh, I guess there are limits to how far you can go into a person's dream?" Clyde suggested.

"Her dream isn't accepting me as part of it." Sandman explained.

Haiku took a few steps forward and vanished into the darkness.

"Huh? Haiku? Where did you go?" Clyde asked.

"Inside." Haiku answered from within, "It stops being dark when you go in."

Lincoln shrugged, "Well, we got this far. C'mon Clyde."

Lincoln walked into the darkness and Clyde followed after. They found themselves in a very spacious, ornate, foyer illuminated with a fancy candelabra above them and several torches against the walls. There were ten busts along the wall with one of them having been destroyed featuring Lincoln as well as his and Lucy's sisters. In front of them was a staircase that went down with statues of Lincoln and Lucy's parents on either side, and a large oil painting of Lucy laying in an open casket on the back wall.

"I love what she's done with the place." Haiku flatly stated.

"This is a bit…concerning." Clyde looked at the destroyed bust. He could see the other busts were Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan, Lincoln, Lola, Lana, Lisa, and Lily.

"Don't worry about that, let's just find Lucy." Lincoln told him as he headed down the stairs.

The other two followed down the stairs. "This place is a lot smaller on the inside." Clyde commented.

"Things in dreams rarely translate to how they are in real life." said the voice of the Sandman.

"Mr. Sandman? Can you see us?" Haiku asked.

"No, but I can hear and sense you. You're getting closer to Lucy's location."

Lincoln nodded, "Good, let's find her and end this adventure."

At the bottom of the stairs was a pool of dark water, with the stairs leading into the water.

"I take it she's in the water?" Haiku asked.

"She's down there somewhere." Said the Sandman.

Lincoln walked down and tapped a foot into the water. Suddenly, a large pale hand reached out, grabbed his leg, and dragged him in. Lincoln Was under the water and out of sight within seconds.

"Lincoln!" Clyde cried out.

"Did something happen?" Asked Sandman.

"He just got taken by some monster!"

"This is a dream. Whatever it was is probably a creation of Lucy's mind."

"That's reassuring." Haiku remarked as she walked into the water.

The same large pale hand reached out, grabbed Haiku's body, and dragged her deep down into the water.

"I DON'T LIKE THIS!" Clyde cried out.

"Child, this is a dream. You cannot die in a dream, despite what your movies claim." Sandman told him.

"I STILL DON'T LIKE THIS!"

The large pale hand came out of the water again. It pointed at Clyde and then opened itself up and moved closer to him.

"Wha- what do you want? What did you do to my friends?"

The hand gestured for Clyde to grab it.

Lacking any other option, Clyde shut his eyes and took hold and was pulled into the water.

…

Flashing images was all Clyde could remember once he came to. He was in a dark void, and with him were Lincoln and Haiku.

"Wha-what was all that?" Clyde asked, trembling.

Lincoln shook his head, "I have no idea. I think my brain shut off from the sensory overload. I think there was even a chicken getting its head chopped off?"

"I saw what looked like a trillion different realities folding onto each other, like thin sheets of metal forming a single blade." Haiku informed them.

Clyde and Lincoln didn't know what to say to that. Lincoln then cleared his throat, "Well…I think we're at the bottom of Lucy's dream, right Mr. Sandman?"

Lincoln got no response.

"Oh no, we might be too deep for him to hear us!" Clyde cried out.

"Well, let's just hope waking up Lucy gets us out. He said she should be down here."

All three of them looked around the oblivion they were in. Haiku pointed outwards, "There!"

In the distance, the trio spotted two Lucys floating in the void of oblivion. One who inexplicably had white hair. The three of them ran towards them, calling out Lucy's name.

"Lucy!"

"Hm?" Lucy looked over, "What are they doing here?"

The Wraith looked as well, "It appears we have guests. Your half-demon friend, that vampire you told me about and…" she stared at Lincoln.

The trio approached, "Wait, there's two of them?" Clyde asked.

The Wraith zoomed at Lincoln and grabbed hold of him, "It's you!"

"Huh?" Lincoln asked.

"Lucius! You finally came back to me!" The Wraith started hugging Lincoln, pushing him onto the floor of the void.

"...what is happening? Haiku, why are you in my dream?" Lucy asked, approaching Haiku and Clyde.

"Lucy, we had plans today, remember?" Haiku asked.

"...oh. I must have stayed here too long."

"Yeah, Grim had to ask the Sandman to bring us in here. You need to wake up or you'll be stuck asleep!" Clyde quickly explained.

Lucy nodded and looked over at Lincoln being snuggled by The Wraith, "It looks like we'll have to end our session. Um, but why are you doing that?"

The Wraith held a disoriented Lincoln up with a big smile, "I haven't seen my Lucius for centuries! It's only natural that I embrace him!"

"Uh, his name is Lincoln, actually." Clyde corrected her.

The Wraith's smile vanished, "Oh…oooh…right…" She dropped Lincoln.

"Um, who's Lucius?" Lucy asked.

Lucy didn't get an answer, as the Wraith vanished into the void.

Lincoln recovered from the drop, "Well, all that happened. Lucy, can you please wake up so we can end this chapter?"

…

"No, see, it says right here, you need to own all the worship sites of the same color, then you can build ritual circles, and then you can summon a shoggoth." Grim explained to Eris, holding up the rules to Monopoly: Innsmouth Edition.

"Well, how can I even do the first thing when you're hoarding all the sites?" Eris asked.

"That's how the game is played!"

At that moment, all four of the kids woke up. The Sandman also reappeared, "Hey Grimmy, your little girl is awake."

Grim got up and smiled, "Thanks Sandy! I owe ya one."

The Sandman adjusted his sunglasses, "Think nothing of it. I need to be going now though, so I'll catch y'all later."

"Bye Sandman!" Eris waved.

The Sandman opened up a supernatural portal and went in, leaving the room.

Lincoln pulled himself up, "Okay Grim, Lucy is up, now you owe us an explanation."

Grim nodded, "Fine, first of all Lucy, you really shouldn't be listening to whatever The Wraith tells you."

Lucy looked over at Grim, "Why not? Also, what happened to not wanting to talk about her in this house?"

Eris shrugged, "Everyone else is out of the house, they all had better things to do than play Monopoly: Innsmouth Edition with us."

"What was the Wraith again?" Clyde asked.

"I assume that was the white-haired Lucy. She told me about her before." Haiku explained.

Grim cleared his lack of throat, "Anyway back on topic, The Wraith is not malicious, but she is not to be listened to. She is the manifestation of Lucy's innate magic and her soul."

"Lucy can use magic?" Lincoln asked.

"Lincoln, you've known me my whole life and you never once noticed or questioned how I magically teleport, predict the future, and use telekinesis against zombies?" Lucy asked.

Lincoln blinked a few times, "I uh, yeah, you know what? That's on me for not noticing."

"Your ignorance aside, Lucy's achievements so far pale in comparison to what she could do if she dedicated her life to magic and ascended." Grim continued.

"Wouldn't that be a good thing? More magic, more power?" Clyde asked.

Grim shook his skull, "No. Not good. Lucy's soul is already cursed to reincarnate, ascending to gain more magic - which is what The Wraith wants - would make her soul unstable, and powers uncontrollable."

"How bad could that be?" Haiku asked.

"Imagine an unstable, unkillable being that could tear reality itself apart with a thought!"

"That sounds incredible." Said Lucy.

One of Grim's eye sockets twitched a bit, and he sighed, "You know what? Warning given. I don't care anymore. If ya want to destroy the very fabric of reality, go right ahead, mon. Any more questions?"

Clyde raised his arm, "Uh…why didn't you tell us any of that at my house?

Grim folded his arms, "Because the idiot writing this forgot."

My bad.

"So…Lucy has another Lucy inside of her dreams who wants her to become all-powerful which could end up destroying reality itself?" Lincoln summed up.

"Sounds like it, Lincoln." Lucy told him.

"...yeah, this all may as well be happening. Say Clyde, wanna get back to the game?"

Clyde grinned, "Sure, it'd be nice to unwind from that!"

"Can I come too? I'm sick of Monopoly." Eris asked.

"Sure Eris, there should be a third controller." Lincoln told her.

"Bye Haiku, bye Lucy!" Clyde called out as he, Lincoln, and Eris left the room.

"So Grim, I have a question, who's Lucius?" Lucy asked.

"Lucius?" Grim asked.

"The Wraith confused Lincoln with someone named Lucius." Haiku explained.

"Was Lincoln's hair black at the time?" Grim asked.

Lucy and Haiku nodded.

Grim shrugged, "Well, Lucius was the first Loud. He took The Wraith as his bride."

Lucy shrugged, "Oh, I guess that makes sense."

She looked over at Haiku who's mouth was agape and visible eye wide with shock.

This is when Lucy snaps, "SHE WAS WHAT?"