Not sure what else to do, the four teens sat on a bench in the school courtyard not far from the dorms. Thankfully there was a bench under a tree.
"Girls, I know this sounds odd, but I've got to ask, is it really that bad if I do end up staying in the girl's dorm with you?" Lincoln asked, testing the waters.
"Girls need their privacy and safe space Lincoln." Stella told him.
"You've all seen the kind of place I've grown up in. You all know for a fact that I know damn well how to live around girls." He pointed out.
"This is different, you couldn't have sex with your sisters." Ronnie Anne pointed out.
"Not legally anyway." Lucy added.
Lincoln frowned, looking very offended. "Do the three of you really trust me that little?"
"It's not about trust Lincoln, it's about security." Lucy claimed.
"Lucy, I never once barged into any of your rooms. Can you or any of our sisters say the same thing? If anything, my privacy and security has always been the one being compromised, not yours."
"Lincoln, you just can't be in the girls' dorm." Ronnie Anne told him bluntly.
"I know that, but someone put me in there with Lucy. Maybe it's because she said she won't be here without me, so they took it one step further. What if we can't make them change their mind? What if we have to live with it? Lucy, is having me as a roommate really that horrible to you? Ronnie Anne, Stella, do you both trust me so little that you think I'm going to try and molest someone just because I'm in the same building as them?"
Lucy, Stella, and Ronnie Anne all had the decency to look ashamed of themselves, but none of them responded.
"Hey!"
Lincoln and the girls looked toward who had called out to them. They saw the pink-haired vampire girl from the pool before, this time wearing normal bright-colored clothes, coming their way. And she wasn't alone. She was accompanied by a frankenperson with streaked hair and an artificial leg, a redhead girl who looked like a werecat, and a boy that looked like a wereskunk of all things.
"Is that a wereskunk?" Ronnie Anne whispered to Lucy.
"Yes, though they also go by the name skunk ape." The gothic girl whispered back.
"It is you guys. Good to see you." The vampire girl said with a smile when she got close enough.
"Ah, hi… Laura, right?" Lincoln greeted back, receiving a nod. "Good to see you too."
"Oh, are you the new boy Laura told us about?" The frankenperson asked, looking excited. "Hi, I'm Francine Stein, but everyone calls me Frankie."
"You're a frankenstein named Frankie Stein?" Ronnie Anne asked.
Frankie nodded. "Yeah, I think my parents thought it was funny. I'm still trying to decide if it's worth the effort to legally change it when I'm eighteen."
"Change it to what?" Stella asked.
"That's why I'm still deciding. I can't figure out an alternative I like."
The werecat looked over Lincoln, and he couldn't tell if she was sniffing him or sizing him up. If she had anything to say, she chose not to and backed up, crossing her arms. She gave the impression that she kind of wanted to get out of here. The skunk boy appeared neutral, looking over them all like they were products for sale on a shelf and he was trying to decide which one was worth the money.
"We should get going, we have some homework to do. Hope to see you around Lincoln." Laura said.
"Oh, you'll be seeing him around a lot more than you're expecting to." Ronnie Anne said, giving her friend a look.
"What does that mean?" Frankie asked.
"Apparently Lincoln here has a room in the girl's dorm." Stella clarified.
"What?" The werecat asked, looking threatened. "A boy is going to be in our dorm?"
"I'm sure there's a-" Lincoln started, but was silenced when she growled and showed her claws.
"Stay the hell away from our sanctuary creep!"
"Yeah dude, that's not cool." The skunk boy agreed, speaking with an accent Lincoln and the others didn't recognize but assumed was southern.
"Toralei, Teez, don't get so hostile." Laura warned.
"Why not? This pervert's planning on stealing our underwear and molesting us in the showers!" The werecat, Toralei, shouted loud enough for any and all around to hear.
Lincoln was too surprised to properly deny or protest. Any attempt to do so turned into incomprehensible sputters.
The wereskunk, Teez, pulled out a phone that was shaped like a coffin and immediately began to type something in.
"I'm not that type of guy!" Lincoln managed to make himself finally say.
"Yeah right! We heard how you groped Laura at the pool and peeved at Lagoona! I bet she'll devour you to the bones once she finds out what you're doing!"
"Guys, tell her." Lincoln pleaded to his friends.
"To be fair Lincoln, you did grab Laura at the pool when you didn't have to." Ronnie Anne said. He reacted as if she had just stabbed him.
"And you were staring at the girls when you knew we didn't like it." Stella added, crossing her arms.
Lincoln stared at them in horror. His eyes went to Lucy and the goth girl was doing everything she could to avoid being drawn into this aside from actually leaving.
"You peeped and groped defenseless girls in broad daylight? Not cool dude." Teeze sneered before tapping the screen on his phone. "And there, now everyone will know what a sleaze you are."
Lincoln looked worried and for good reason.
"Not good enough!" Toralei claimed, grabbing his collar. "We're going to make an example out of this asshole!"
"What the hell?" Ronnie Anne said, surprised.
"Hold on Toralei!" Laura spoke up, getting in and grabbing the werecat's arm. Ronnie Anne did the same with the other arm.
Lincoln took the opportunity to break free and for a moment he wasn't sure what to do. But years of having people view him as the bad guy prompted him to not make things worse, and so he did the one thing that could help him right now.
He took off.
Toralei tried to chase after him but Frankie grabbed her tail and zapped her enough to make her unwilling to stand for a moment. This shocked Ronnie Anne and Stella to see, no pun intended.
"What the fuck is wrong with you Toralei?!" Laura almost shouted.
"Do you want a rapist in our dorms?!" Toralei hissed.
"Lincoln is not a rapist!" Ronnie Anne, Stella, and Lucy shouted.
"You just said he groped Laura and ogled Lagoona!"
"Yeah, but he was catching her in a fall!" Ronnie Anne argued.
"And that Lagoona girl was swimming naked so she was practically begging for someone to see her!" Stella added.
"So what? There's no way some boy is getting into the girls dorm for any reason other than to rape us!" The werecat stated as if this was an indisputable law of the universe.
"Good news, people are responding." Teez told them all, sounding pleased with this.
Laura took out her own coffin-shaped phone. "I'm going to tell everyone that you're slandering an innocent boy."
"What is all the commotion?" Miss Grimwood called out, coming towards the gathered teens. Ronnie Anne and Stella noticed that accompanying her was a creature that looked like a wingless dragon. Either that or one of the eggs at Jurassic Park had gone bad but hatched anyway.
"Miss Grimwood, there's-" Frankie started, but Toralei was determined to get in her thoughts first.
"Some boy has gotten into our dorms so he can molest us all and for some reason these idiots are defending him!"
Ronnie Anne, Stella, Lucy, Laura, and Frankie were all too angry to speak at or against her. But they all looked like they wanted to throw a fist at some part of her. Teez just stood there with his eyes on his phone, checking out the feedback on his post.
Miss Grimwood looked at the assembled crowd and noticed the absence of someone. "Lucy, this boy in question wouldn't happen to be your brother, would it?"
"Yes, but he is nothing like the cait sith is claiming him to be." Lucy proclaimed.
"Of course you'd say that if he is your brother." Toralei spat.
"Miss Grimwood, the lady who brought us here and told us where we'd be rooming, said that Lincoln and Lucy would be sharing a room in the girls' dorm. This person here has jumped to conclusions and slandered our friend viciously."
"I only said the truth!" Toralei insisted.
"Children, let's take this inside." Miss Grimwood said in a way that made it clear she wasn't asking.
Lincoln vacated the entire Grimswood campus in his run but he hadn't headed deeper into the Nevermore town of Haven in his search for safety. By the time he stopped and actually noticed where he was, he could safely say he was lost.
"Where am I?" He asked, looking around. He was in what was clearly a forest with no signs of civilization in sight. Had he actually left the town borders entirely and was in the Massachusetts wilderness?
His legs were not happy with his recent run and were begging for a break from supporting him. He went over to the nearest tree and slumped against it before sliding to the ground, sighing in relief.
"I… I just can't believe it. That girl looked like she was ready to skin me alive. Do they actually do that here? I mean, it's not like this was the first time a Nevermore wanted to kill me. Hell, it wasn't even the second time. Do these people just kill anyone who gets them angry?"
He looked up at the sky, not sure what else to think. But one thing was clear, he couldn't go back to Grimswood anytime soon, if ever.
"How much will it cost to get back home?"
For a moment Lincoln got the feeling that he was being watched. He looked around, seeing nothing, but he was too smart to think that meant anything. For all he knew, the trees were Nevermores. There was some rustling, making him more certain that there was someone or something out there.
Lincoln sat there waiting for any followup, but it didn't come. Whatever was out there wanted to leave him alone, which he was fine with.
"Someone's coming." He heard softly, like a whisper. He looked around and there was no one close by. No one that could have possibly whispered to him. No one human that is.
So he remained, and the rustling went off again, this time sounding like something was going away. But not too long after, he heard other sounds from behind, like someone was heading towards him.
"So nice to be done with that test. I so need to unwind." Someone could be heard saying, a boy from the sound of it.
"Is this wise? The headmistress has been warning us about too much howling." Another voice, this one a girl, added.
"Relax Howleen, we've earned this. And no Normal is going to be looking for wolves out here." Another voice, a boy but a different one, told her.
'Werewolves?' Lincoln thought, perking up a little. 'This could be good for Clyde.'
He got up and walked, trying to locate them via sound. The werewolves, if that's what they really were, weren't exactly bothering to be subtle. But at least they weren't running, though they must have heard him since they stopped.
"Hello?" Lincoln called out. "I'm not a Normal. I'm a dhampir."
He heard footsteps and soon saw three werewolves come into view. Two boys and one girl. One boy looked like a grey wolf except he had dyed blue hair with a dark red hoodie and torn denim shorts, and the other boy was a more normal wolf with blonde hair and wore a green flannel jacket over a black shirt and denim pants. The girl had orange and purple hair with blue mascara above her eyes, and wore a black leather jacket over a white blouse with a moon emblem on it along with blue yoga pants that had dark blue and purple stripes down the legs.
"You sure smell like a dhampir. Bit of advice pal, don't go announcing that sort of thing where the Normals can hear it. Even if they don't take it seriously, you should never be that open about it." The boy with dyed hair warned.
"Sorry, but my best friend is a werewolf so I didn't think it was a bad idea." Lincoln replied.
"You look familiar." The girl werewolf said, looking him over.
"I did recently tour the school, maybe you saw me then? My name is Lincoln Loud." Lincoln offered.
The girl took out her phone and began scrolling, clearly looking for something.
"Hi Linc, my name is Barkimedes but most people call me Bart." The blonde werewolf said, extending a hand for a shake, which Lincoln accepted. "This here is Romulus and Howleen. You said you have a werewolf for a friend?"
Lincoln nodded. "Yeah, his name is Clyde."
"Clawd?"
"No, Clyde. He's not here right now but he might come around someday."
"Sounds cool. Now, we're going to go relax and blow off some steam. And it's kind of a just for werewolves kind of thing. So… see you around?" Bart said, trying not to sound rude but clearly wanting to get back to what he was already doing.
"Alright, sorry to bother you guys." Lincoln replied, turning to walk away.
"I knew it! It's him!" The girl exclaimed.
Lincoln paused, now a little worried since she didn't sound too happy about that.
"This is the guy everyone in school is talking about! The creep who wormed his way into the girls dorm and has been perving on us all semester!"
"What?" Lincoln and the two male werewolves asked, the former much more surprised than the latter.
"It's all here!" Howleen declared, showing her phone to her companions.
The two boys looked it over, with the dyed hair one glaring at the dhampir. "You son of a bitch!"
"I swear none of that is true!" Lincoln claimed, sweating a little and backing up.
"Hey Romulus, some people are even saying you're in cahoots with this guy." Bart added, eyes on the screen.
"What?" Romulus cried while looking back at the phone.
"Yeah, and it's not just you. Several boys are being accused of it. A few of the girls too supposedly helped them all get away with it."
Lincoln took the opportunity to flee for his life again, which in hindsight was a bad idea. These were wolves after all, and he was running prey. They soon were alerted by his movement and their hunter instincts took over. They ran after him, and while Lincoln had yet to truly test to see his own speed, the werewolves were just naturally faster and caught up to him with little difficulty.
Lincoln was pinned to the ground, claws digging into his skin and drawing blood. He could hear growls and feel their breath, but he couldn't see a single one of them.
"I'M INNOCENT!" He shouted, hoping that someone would hear even if these three wouldn't take it seriously.
"We should rough him up and drag him to campus, have the student body decide what to do with his remains." Bart claimed.
'Remains?' Lincoln gulped.
"No, we found him first. We have the right to make the kill." Romulus countered.
'Holy shit! These guys really are going to kill me!' Lincoln worried, struggling to get free but that just earned him deeper cuts into his flesh.
"SOMEONE PLEASE HELP-!" He called out in pain, only to feel something sharp tear open the skin on his back. He screamed in pain, drowning out the sound of cloth being torn apart too. The one good thing was that whoever had been standing on him before wasn't anymore, but that didn't make moving any easier now.
"Hold on Romulus, shouldn't we give him a chance to escape?" Howleen offered.
"Yeah, the hunt is half the fun." Bart agreed.
"And give him a chance to actually get help?" Romulus countered. "I agree it would be funner, but we have the prey now. Let's just get it over with and enjoy the school calling us heroes later."
"Please… someone help me…" Lincoln wheezed, praying that someone would respond.
Romulus cracked his knuckles and motioned for his friends to get closer, which they did.
There was a whooshing sound and the next thing Lincoln knew one of the werewolves had fallen to the ground as if pushed back unexpectedly.
"What the hell was that?" Bart asked, looking around. Some of his fur was already bristled.
Romulus, the knocked over one, scrambled up to his feet. He looked scared and confused at the same time, trying to check everywhere at once.
There was another whooshing sound, this time Lincoln saw a bit of a blur, and it collided with the girl werewolf. She was knocked over but there was a flash of something like a small firework had gone off, followed by a yelp of sorts. The blur fleeted into the trees and the girl werewolf was spasming on the ground.
"Howleen!" The blonde werewolf said, going over to check on her while Romulus stayed alert. "What happened?"
"I… it feels like-"
She was cut off by the blur coming back and hitting the blonde werewolf, knocking him over too. The same small flash occurred and soon he was on the ground acting like he was having a mini seizure.
"What's happening?" Romulus asked, sounding worried.
'Whatever it is, don't stop now.' Lincoln thought.
Romulus began to growl before howling. The blur came for him but this time he slashed at it. The blur wasn't deterred and came right at him, and in one split second Lincoln swore he saw a blueish person tackle and grapple the werewolf before the firework flash occurred and Romulus was knocked over. The blueish person stood there, waiting for a reaction, and after not getting one they turned to Lincoln.
"Thank you." He said, trying to get a better look at them, before his vision suddenly went dark.
"Now, I want to know what this is all about but I do not want to hear a bunch of rambling or 'She started it'." Headmistress Bloodgood told the gathered teens inside her office. Miss Grimwood was there as well, standing by her desk while Bloodgood was seated. The dragon was curled up like a cat at Grimwood's feet.
"Headmistress, could you check the registry regarding where my brother Lincoln Loud is going to be rooming?" Lucy asked.
Bloodgood raised an eyebrow. "What does that have to do with this?"
"Everything."
Confused, the dullahan turned to her computer and typed in a few commands, pulling up a window and browsing through it.
"Huh, that's odd. According to this, Lincoln was assigned the same room as you."
"Why is that?" Ronnie Anne asked.
"Wait, you mean you gave him permission?" Toralei asked, shocked.
"This must be an error. I think I must have forgotten to register him separately when assigning rooms and so it linked the two of you together due to your names. Or something like that. It's an easy mistake to correct." Bloodgood explained.
"Excuse me, that doesn't solve the problem at all." Toralei protested. "There's a boy out there who now feels entitled to being in our dorms. He should be removed from the campus entirely rather than merely put in another room."
"Miss Stripe, do you believe that it was Lincoln's choice to be assigned a room in the girls' dorm?" Bloodgood asked.
Toralei's eyes lost a little of their steel. "I… I assumed…"
"You assumed? So you hear that a boy has been told he was assigned a bunk in the wrong dorm and rather than even consider the more reasonable idea that it was computer error, you immediately jumped to the conclusion that not only was it deliberate on his part, but that he must have malicious intentions?"
"I was just looking out for the other girls! The dorms are our sanctuary! Our place for privacy and safety! If a boy is allowed into our dorms then none of us can feel comfortable in there ever again! We have a right to a boy-free area to just be ourselves!"
Stella felt very ashamed of herself right there. These were all the sort of things she had just been saying to someone she genuinely called a friend. But Toralei was no friend. Sure, there was truth to these words, but hearing it come from Toralei made it sound less like an explanation and more like an excuse. So how did it sound when Stella had been the one to say it to Lincoln?
Bloodgood was silent for a moment, taking a deep breath, and the teens wondered what she was thinking. Teez was instead still focusing on his phone, only half-paying attention to this conversation.
"Alright Miss Stripe, your stance does seem normal, even if your reaction and escalation is excessive. One could argue that you did have good intentions but faulty information and a moment of more passion than rationality."
The werecat smiled, feeling vindicated.
"However, that said, I would like to hear your stance on the reverse of the situation." Bloodgood continued.
Toralei lost her smile and arched an eyebrow. "Huh?"
"The situation right now is that Lincoln and Lucy Loud share a room in the girls dorm, but what if they were in the boys dorm? What if Lucy had free reign to come and go in there? Would you be preaching that this is a violation of the boy's privacy and safety? That their comfort was taken away from them and they have a right to a girl-free area to just be themselves? Or would you only be concerned for Lucy and what danger she could be in surrounded by boys?"
"That… that's completely different! Girls can't rape boys!" Toralei countered.
"I'm a witch. I assure you, if I wanted to rape someone, I sure as hell could." Lucy stated.
"She's right. And rape isn't the only thing that can happen in a situation like this." Miss Grimwood added.
Toralei looked perplexed. Why were they fighting her on this? Did they really not see what a problem this was?
"Well if he's such a good guy then why were the three of you agreeing with me earlier?" She asked, looking at Lincoln's friends and sister.
"What?" Ronnie Anne asked.
"Yeah, I may have been saying some nasty things, but you girls were saying he did stare at girls and groped Laura. You admitted he was a potential threat to all of us."
Lucy, Stella, and Ronnie Anne just stared at her in horror.
"I can verify that those three did say that the boy had stared and groped girls before." Teez spoke up. "And people are not happy to hear about it."
"Explain." Bloodgood ordered.
"I thought it was a good idea to warn everyone about a boy trying to get into the girls' dorms, so I posted a mass alert about it to everyone I could. It's spreading and there are a lot of students decrying him and much worse. It seems to be close to devolving into a full on gender war with some girls now accusing all the other boys of plotting to do the same and some of the boys now demanding this Lincoln guy suffer for making them look bad."
Ronnie Anne jumped to her feet and was about to book it for the door.
"Hold it!" Bloodgood called, making her stop. "Sit down Miss Santiago!"
Ronnie Anne complied, feeling very much like the times a teacher had told her to behave when she was younger.
"Is this true? When Miss Stripe was slandering your friend, did you not defend him?"
"I was caught by surprise. Her jumping to conclusions and threatening to hurt him were so unexpected I didn't know what to do until it was too late."
"So you didn't say Lincoln was innocent of anything inappropriate?" Bloodgood asked.
"I…" Ronnie Anne paused, and felt ashamed of herself. "I don't remember exactly what I said."
Stella hung her head. "I did admit that I didn't like what Lincoln did at the pool the other day, but I didn't think this girl would use it as proof that Lincoln was a monster."
"What exactly did Lincoln do?" Bloodgood asked.
"I can answer that." Laura chimed in. "I nearly slipped on a puddle and he caught me. He also saw Lagoona and Ruby naked, but in his defense they were skinny-dipping and as merfolk they don't actually have visible naughty bits. They didn't even mind it either."
There was silence for a bit.
"That's it?" Grimwood asked. "That event is worth demonizing a boy over?"
"I thought he had conned his way into our dorms and I wanted to make it clear he had made a big mistake." Toralei claimed, sounding less gung-ho about her stance than she previously had been.
"Regardless of your concerns, this was not your problem to solve Miss Stripe. I think it's clear that several people owe Lincoln Loud a big apology, but first I want two things. I want him found, and I want you to post a retraction and correction to the entire school." Bloodgood said, looking to Teez at the end.
"I can do that, but I can't promise it will get the results you want."
"I don't intend to do just that. I'm going to make the entire school put a stop to this witch hunt whether they like it or not. Now, where is Lincoln Loud?"
"I'll find out." Lucy said, taking out her own phone and calling.
"Why does your I-Coffin look like that?" Frankie asked.
"I-Coffin?" Stella asked.
"Is that what you call your phones?" Ronnie Anne asked too.
Lucy paled. "He's not answering."
Lincoln couldn't see or move, but he could tell that he was being carried by someone piggyback style. He was scared, but at the same time whoever was doing this had saved him from the werewolves.
"Who are you?"
No response.
"Thank you for saving me."
No response.
"Where are you taking me?"
No response.
"Are you going to hurt me?"
"No." The stranger said, their voice feminine.
Lincoln took a few deep breaths, since he still had wounds on his back and was trying not to let it overwhelm him. He hoped this person was bringing him to a hospital, but he highly doubted that. But this person must have something in mind for treating his injury, right?
He heard a knock, followed by a door opening.
"Hi there G-dear Cthulhu what is that?" Another feminine voice asked, quicking turning from jolly to horrified.
"Get the med potions. This boy needs help." The carrier told them.
"I'm on it!" Another feminine voice said, this one strangely familiar to Lincoln but not one of his friends or family.
"Wait a minute, Lincoln is that you?" Another voice, also familiar, called to him.
"Who's there? I can't see."
Someone helped take him off the carrier and Lincoln was set down on what felt like a hard floor on his front side. The others moved aside his shirt, seeing his wounds. Then a hand gently touched his face, and his ability to see came back to him.
"I'm sorry for that, but it was needed to keep me safe." The carrier told him, and now he could see her. It was a teenage girl about his age, maybe a year older, with pale greyish skin, dyed blue hair, and red glasses. She wore a black jacket over a pink blouse and a black skirt with grey shoes and her head was topped with a grey beanie.
"Lincoln, what happened?" Another girl asked, coming into his view.
"Phantasma?" He asked, recalling her from the tour not too long ago.
"Good, you recognized me. You haven't lost that much blood. Is that how blood loss works?" The ghost asked.
"No Phantasma." A boy's voice told her.
"What do you know Scott? You don't have any blood either." Phantasma challenged.
"I used to."
Footsteps were heard and Lincoln saw another familiar face, the mummy girl from the pool. "Cleo?"
She didn't respond, instead she knelt down and poured some kind of liquid on his back from a small jar. He felt like he was being stabbed by half a dozen knives and yelled accordingly, but fortunately the pain didn't last long. After about ten seconds, he felt nothing.
"There, that took care of the wounds." Cleo said, putting down the jar. "For the blood loss, I think he just needs something to eat."
"I'm on it." Another unknown voice said.
"Can you move?" Phantasma asked Lincoln.
He slowly pushed himself up, finding his limbs wobbly but aside from that nothing actually hurt. "Yeah, but that bite to eat sure sounds good. Do you actually have dhampir food?"
Phantasma and Cleo helped him get on his feet before guiding him to a couch. Once he sat down, he saw where he was. He was inside a house, a decent one at that, but rather bare and unkempt. It wasn't exactly dirty, but it was definitely unclean and even had cobwebs in the corners. At least the room had a tv.
In the room he saw four other people. There was another ghost girl here like Phantasma except she was purple and had longer hair. There was a skeleton wearing a black shirt and grey jeans. And there were two young girls around 8 or so, one that looked like a mummy except she had more bandages than Cleo, and the other who looked oddly like the character from The Ring, staring at him like she was nervous or shy.
"What the heck happened to you?" The purple ghost asked.
"Werewolves tried to kill me." He muttered, avoiding eye contact.
"Wait a minute." Cleo said before pulling out her phone and scrolling. "Messages have been going out all day about a white-haired boy trying to get into the girl's dorms. Was that about you?"
"I didn't do anything!" Lincoln said, very defensively. The Ring girl eeped and hid behind the tv, quivering.
"It's okay Erma, he's not mad at you." The skeleton told her, going over to comfort her.
Lincoln sighed. "Sorry, but someone made a mistake and said I was supposed to be in the girl dorms, and some cat girl acted as if I had basically stolen everyone's underwear or something. I did absolutely nothing other than be a victim of some typo."
"And some werewolves were clawing you apart because of this?" Phantasma asked.
"Oh it gets worse." Cleo spoke up. "Some of the messages are calling for his blood with students saying if they find him they'll do all sorts of things to him. It's like they think he's raped someone or something like that."
"I'm back." A bright yellow almost golden ghost girl exclaimed, coming into the room holding up a box of pizza. "I hope you like this."
"Thanks." Lincoln said, taking a slice regardless. It looked like a basic pepperoni, but at the same time the cheese looked moldy. So he took a bite and found it delicious, which resulted in him chowing down on the rest of the slice.
"There is more if you need more. Oh, I'm Molly by the way. What's your name?"
"I'm Lincoln Loud, and right now I'm a dhampir."
"Cool, right now I'm a wraith. Go on guys, introduce yourselves." Molly all but commanded.
"You already know me, Phantasma the ghost."
"And you know me, Cleo the fabulous mummy."
"I'm Spectra, another ghost."
"I'm Tanis, another mummy."
"I'm Scott, but friends call me Skull Boy. This here is Erma, she's an ikiryo but be careful around her."
"Why?" Lincoln asked, wondering if the Ring girl was dangerous. She sure didn't look dangerous, but then again people could say the same thing about Lola.
"No, I mean, yeah we all can be, but Erma's autistic. She's prone to sensory overload so keep the noises down, especially if you're watching sports on tv. And she only talks to those she trusts, so don't hold that against her."
Lincoln nodded. "I understand. Hi Erma."
Erma didn't move any closer, but she looked less guarded now.
"And I'm…" The girl who saved him started, only to hesitate. "Listen, I don't want to sound like a jerk, but I need you to promise that no matter what, once you leave this place you will tell no one about me. Absolutely no one, please?"
"Can I ask why?" Lincoln asked.
She hesitated some more. He looked over the other Nevermores and they all seemed uncomfortable.
"Okay, I promise. My lips are sealed. You saved my life, this is the least I can do for you."
She sighed then smiled. "Thank you. I don't really remember my original name, so everyone calls me Ghoulia, and I'm… well, do you know what a zombie is?"
Lincoln nodded. "You do kind of look like one, but I thought you were something else. I've seen zombies and they weren't like you."
"They're not. You see, I'm not a normal zombie. I'm a lich."
"Okay." Lincoln said.
Ghoulia blinked. "Okay?"
"I've only been a Nevermore for about a week. I don't know these things."
"Remember when I first showed up Ghoulia?" Molly asked, helping herself to a slice of pizza. Erma reached for another one too.
"Right, well let's save the explanation for later. Right now I just need you to know that it's best to pretend that I don't exist. Even if you talk to these guys outside of here, pretend that you've never heard of anyone named Ghoulia and you've seen no lichs anywhere."
"Sure." Lincoln complied, and she smiled.
"I feel like we're missing somebody." Molly said, looking around.
"You are. Me." Another person said, this time a face appearing in the wall of the house.
"Holy… cow." Lincoln said, panicked, but the sight of Erma made him avoid saying what he was about to. Oddly, the Ring girl didn't look scared at all.
"Hi, I'm Carol, and I'm a poltergeist. You probably won't see me around anymore unless you come back here, which we should discuss."
"Yeah, she has a point." Ghoulia admitted. "Lincoln, this bguilding is basically our clubhouse. A place for us undead and honorary undead to socialize after school and hang out. Only we know about it, and to be frank, unless you're one of us, once you leave here you won't be welcome back."
Lincoln paused for a moment, then nodded. "I understand, this is your club and I'm not a member. You saved me but you don't owe me membership. I get it. I should probably get going then."
"Hold on buster." Cleo commanded. "I want to hear what happened to you. Why were werewolves trying to kill you? Why were you out in the forest all alone in the first place? And what's this about the girls' dorms?"
Lincoln groaned and plopped down on the couch. Then he began to tell his side of the story.