Chapter Text
“Aw yeah, you're going down now!”
“Not if I take you down first, Lincoln!”
Lincoln Loud and his older sister Lori sat on the couch, playing a video game with one another. It was a fighting game, the latest in one of Lincoln's favorite series, and the two had been playing for nearly three hours. Lori was surprisingly good considering she usually cared more about golf and her dates with Bobby than she did about gaming, but Lincoln had won the majority of their matches, and he was about to win another one.
“Oh no, this controller's messed up!”
“Yeah right, Lori! Here's the finishing blow!”
Lori's character was tossed into the air in a shower of sweat and blood, and “KO” appeared on the screen in large red letters. Lincoln celebrated, Lori sighed, and another match was in the books.
“That was a close one, wanna go another round?” asked Lincoln, as soon as the disappointed look had disappeared from his sister's face. Lori sighed, then took out her cell phone and looked down at it.
“Midnight already? Actually, it's almost 12:30,” said Lori with a sigh, looking over at Lincoln. “Sorry, but I think it's time for you to go to bed.”
“Okay,” replied Lincoln with a yawn, setting down his controller and getting up from the couch.
“Just like that, huh?” Lori asked, smirking slightly. “Not going to make a scene about how unfair it is that you have to go to bed?”
“Well, it is pretty late, and I'm pretty tired... and c'mon, you know I don't throw tantrums like that anymore! I'm in middle school now, I'm not some little kid.”
“I know, I know...”
“What about you? No drill sergeant uniform? No whistle?”
Lori rolled her eyes, standing up and watching as Lincoln began walking toward the stairs. She followed him, mostly to make sure there wasn't anything he needed before hitting the hay.
“I don't do that kind of thing anymore either,” said Lori. “Actually, I kinda cringe a little when I think about how I used to treat all of you guys while I was babysitting... I mean, it worked to get you all to behave, but looking back, I was a real jerk.”
“Guess we could be kind of a handful ourselves,” replied Lincoln as he turned back toward his sister.
“It is a lot easier to keep things under control when it's just you here,” said Lori.
Lori actually hadn't planned on babysitting Lincoln for the weekend. It was a rare weekend when she was free from studying and playing golf for Fairway's team, and she planned on heading to Great Lakes City to spend time with Bobby. It was only when her dad called at the last minute, asking Lori to come babysit Lincoln so that he could attend a chef's convention while Rita took the girls to a “Strong Girls Of America” conference. Lori needed the extra cash her parents promised her, so she took the job... though another reason she agreed to babysit Lincoln was so she could spend some quality time with him. Though Lori loved all her younger siblings equally, she had to admit that she had more fun with some of them than with others, and Lincoln, despite his quirks, was one of Lori's favorite people to spend time with. They'd already spent the day playing video games and catching up on DVRed shows together, and Lori planned to spend all of Saturday doing fun things around town with him, letting him pick most of the activities.
“Well, I'm really enjoying spending time with you,” said Lincoln, smiling graciously. “I never imagined I'd be excited to have you babysitting me all weekend, but things have really changed in the past year, haven't they?”
“I'm glad they did,” said Lori. “Good night, little bro.”
Lincoln leaned in and hugged Lori tightly.
“Good night, sis,” Lincoln replied. “See you tomorrow.”
Lori watched Lincoln go all the way up the stairs to his room, then went back to the couch and put the game away. As she cleaned up the living room and got ready to go to bed herself, Lincoln had already changed into his pajamas and was curled up snugly in his bed, excited about just what Lori had planned for them when he woke up. It really was late, and he let out another loud yawn.
I'm really glad you came back for the weekend to babysit, thought Lincoln. I'm almost old enough that I don't need a babysitter anymore, so if this is the last time, I'm really glad it's you.
As Lincoln wrapped the covers around himself, warmed by thoughts of his older sister, he fell asleep almost as soon as he closed his eyes.
-
Lincoln awoke to a loud, sharp bang echoing through the wall. He sat up, blinking his eyes, wondering what he could've possibly heard. Then, there was another bang. It sounded like someone was slamming into the wall, and seemed to be coming from some distance outside the door.
What's happening? Lincoln thought to himself, continuing to clutch the sheets and blanket tightly to his chest. There was another, slightly quieter bang, and the sound of muffled voices could then be heard. One voice sounded gruff, the other voice was much lighter, and almost sounded like... Lori?
More banging, more voices. Lincoln thought he could make out some of the shouting. The gruff voice, of which there seemed to be more than one, was shouting things that sounded like orders, or sometimes swear words. The voice that sounded like his sister was shouting as well... and Lincoln almost thought he could make out phrases like 'get out!' and 'don't touch me!'.
That definitely sounds like Lori! What's going on in there?!
Lincoln began to tremble as he got up out of bed and nervously walked to the door, accompanied by the sounds of more thumping and screaming.
Maybe it's just her computer? She's watching a movie?
Lincoln quickly dismissed that idea... the bangs and thuds were far too loud and far too close to be coming from a computer speaker. It almost seemed like the walls were shaking. Lincoln reached out and grabbed the doorknob. As he dead, he could hear several loud screams, followed by tearing noises and then mostly silence. He could still hear the gruff voices, and some quiet thuds, but things seemed to have calmed down. The only thing that hadn't calmed down was Lincoln's heartbeat... it felt as if his chest might burst, and he had to catch his breath as he began turning the doorknob.
“Lori...?” Lincoln whispered quietly after opening the door. The hallway was empty, and the house seemed dark, lit only by a dim light coming from downstairs. Lincoln could hear more banging, but it seemed to be coming from below now, and was further away and quieter than the earlier sounds he'd heard. He thought about going down the stairs in pursuit of the noises, but then he could see the light coming from under the bedroom door. What if she's hurt? I have to help her...
Lincoln quietly tiptoed to the door of the bedroom Lori once shared with their sister Leni. Since Lori had moved away to college, it was now Leni's room, but Lori still slept there whenever she was visiting.
I wish the others were here... thought Lincoln. He wanted to call out Lori's name, but he feared whoever might be downstairs. What if it IS the others, and they're home early and playing some kind of prank? Yeah... stay positive, Lincoln. Everything's gonna be okay.
Lincoln turned the knob, and sighed with relief when it didn't turn out to be locked. As scared as he was to go into the room, not knowing what he might find there, he was glad that he'd be getting answers soon.
But when Lincoln finally opened the door and looked inside, he saw something that shocked him to his core... an image that would be burned into his mind for the rest of his life. When he saw what awaited him, he started to call out Lori's name... but his mouth could only form a loud, sharp gasp.
Lori was seated in a heavy wooden chair placed in the center of the room. She was trapped there by many layers of duct tape wrapped around her body and the chair, just below her chest and just above her waist, pinning her to the chair and pinning her arms behind her back. Her wrists were behind the back of the chair, crossed and secured there with many more wraps of the shiny silver tape, while her legs were spread and taped at the ankles to the two front legs of the chair.
The fact that Lori was tied up was frightening enough to Lincoln... but not nearly as frightening and shocking as the state she was currently in.
Lori had been stripped entirely nude. Her clothes, including her bra and panties, had been removed and tossed into a pile on top of Leni's bed. Lincoln's mouth hung open as he continued to gasp, and his eyes were almost as wide. Stunned into a state of near shock, he was barely able to bring his eyes up to meet hers... and Lori's expression was equally shocked and equally terrified, her eyes wide open. She screamed, a scream muffled by a strip of tape that was tightly sealing up her lips. It wasn't a scream of embarrassment that Lincoln had seen her like this... it was a warning. She screamed at Lincoln to get out, though the tape made all efforts at speaking completely indecipherable. She begged him to turn and run... but Lincoln, seeing his sister in such a terrified, desperate condition, began to walk forward.
“L...Lori...! What happened? Are you okay?”
Lori hadn't been hurt, though her bare breasts were slightly reddened with several pairs of hand imprints, as if someone had been groping her. Her entire body was slightly slick with sweat, no doubt from the intense struggling Lincoln had heard before. She screamed at him again, desperate to warn him about the other people in the room.
Lincoln, get out! Run! Get help! Go, now!
Lori's frantic cries only served to beckon Lincoln forward. As embarrassing as it was to see his older sister naked, he was determined to get her out of this situation... not realizing he was walking into a terrible situation of his own.
“It's okay, Lori, I'm getting you out of this...”
As Lincoln reached forward, Lori lunged forward in her chair and screamed a final warning. Her toes wiggled frantically, just half an inch from the ground as she tried to tip her chair forward to get to Lincoln.
“Lori? Are you-”
A large hand, covered in white latex, clamped itself down tightly over Lincoln's mouth, and in the same motion, lifted him high into the air. As Lincoln screamed and struggled against the set of big arms holding him tight, another masked man, slightly smaller than the one currently holding Lincoln, emerged from behind the trapped boy.
“Hey, guess there was someone else here after all!” said the masked man, clapping his own gloved hands together and turning to Lori. “Was hoping we'd be all alone with you for a while, but I guess your little brother just had to play hero. He is your brother, right?”
Lori's frightened face contorted slightly with anger, and despite the fact that she was tied, gagged, naked, and alone with several masked and armed intruders, she began to fight furiously against her bonds, shouting and swearing at the men to let her brother go. Lincoln, screaming in terror into the hand covering his mouth, was putting up an equally valiant fight, but neither one of the two Loud siblings was getting anywhere. Lincoln and Lori's eyes met again, but upon catching a brief glimpse at his sister's nudity, Lincoln blushed hard and looked away.
Why did you take my sister's clothes off? Lincoln shouted, managing an angry glare at the man holding him before resuming his struggles.
“This kid's a real fighter!” shouted the man holding Lincoln, struggling slightly to keep him under control.
“Yeah, so's his sister,” said the other one, pointing at Lori who was still struggling in her own chair. “Man, this is a hell of a show. Think maybe we should make some popcorn?”
The intruders shared a laugh, while Lincoln and Lori kept at it. The two exchanged another frightened look, and Lori ceased her struggles for a brief moment, trying to reassure Lincoln as she looked warmly into his eyes.
It's going to be okay, Lincoln. I promise it will. I'll do anything to keep you safe.
