The Loud House - Wild Card

Chapter 14 - Don't Give Me Hope

Six months had passed since Lincoln's death by his own hand. To say things had gotten bad for the Louds was an understatement. The world demanded answers about this madman Wild Card and how he was connected to the mayor of Royal Woods and her family. It wasn't long before news got out that their long-lost brother of ten years and this terrorist were actually one and the same. The Assistant Mayor and his team of prosecutors petitioned the courts to unseal the criminal file on the Loud parents, as well as the children's involvement in his disappearance. The entire family was now facing all new criminal charges.

Lori was nearly virtually crucified overnight. The people of Royal Woods were rioting in the streets, and with the lack of a police presence due to their destruction of Wild Card required the National Guard to be called in to prevent further harm from befalling the people of the city. Hundreds of lawsuits were filed against Lori and the city for the deaths of their loved ones in the attacks. Among these lawsuits, the one that stood out the most was from the Casagrande and Santiago households. The families were devastated beyond belief at the deaths of their precious Ronnie Anne and Roberto, especially in light of the fact that they were both murdered by someone who they once called their friend. Lori could still remember the pain and hatred behind Maria and Arturo's eyes as they confronted her. Along with court documents detailing the suit against them, Maria delivered a swift slap to Lori's face, shocking and saddening her further.

The people were leaving this once-peaceful city in droves, reducing the populace significantly. The City Council had called an emergency meeting and moved for a vote of no-confidence, effectively removing her from office. Assistant Mayor Brooks, who had assumed office in Lori's stead, made it his mission to offer up the Louds as a sacrificial lamb in an effort to save the fledgling reputation of Royal Woods.

Leni had shuttered and sold her store in the Royal Woods mall. It had been vandalized and stolen from on multiple instances, and Leni no longer had the motivation to continue running the store without her beloved husband. What's worse, seeing both Chaz and Lincoln die in one day had greatly traumatized her. She would lock herself in her apartment for months on end, falling into a deep depression. Lori had to periodically check on her to make sure she was all right. The happy, bubbly Leni that the family knew and loved was no longer there, and it frightened them.

With Sam and Lincoln's death, Luna began using narcotics again. She destroyed her beloved axe guitar and abruptly quit her band. Often she would disappear for days on end, not answering her cell phone, prompting the family to go searching for her. More than once they found her passed out in an alleyway behind a dive bar or club, once with a needle in her arm. It had gotten so bad they had to hospitalize her to prevent her from killing herself.

Luan was muscled out of her company by her business partners. Her connection to a domestic terrorist was considered bad for business. With nowhere else to go, and reeling from the experience at the Royal Woods baseball stadium, she moved back home to be close to the family she once avoided, knowing that both she and they needed all the support they could get during this time.

Lucy moved in with Haiku and Clyde, who were helping her to try to come to terms with what happened. They had both been understandably shaken upon discovering that the man they thought had killed their friend was in actuality the man himself, they didn't blame Lucy for her involvement in what happened to him, as she was only 8 years old at the time, and was very susceptible to peer pressure from her sisters. This did little to ease her conscience, however, as she placed blame squarely on herself, lamenting and cursing her sensitive and cowardly nature, failing her brother twice. More than once she was caught harming herself, which Clyde and Haiku put an immediate stop to, but they knew that it was going to be an uphill battle for her to recover, if it was at all possible.