Loud Visions

Chapter 24

Stella and Ronnie Anne gazed at the light orb of his sisters protecting him and getting furious at their parents.

"So . . . the visions where either they beat you, or you beat them is not going to happen, right?" Stella asked.

Lincoln nodded, "Yes."

"And the bad luck one has changed. So, now your sisters are on your side, and your parents are the bad guys?" Ronnie Anne questioned.

"I think so. At least, for now, but that could change too. I don't know all the details right now. I can't use my vision powers to explore this image. It really hurts my head," Lincoln answered.

"Okay, my mom and I are returning to Royal Woods the day after tomorrow. I'll come to see you right away," Stella said.

"Thank you," Lincoln said.

"I'll come too. I'll convince Bobby to drive to visit Lori. He'll buy it," Ronnie Anne stated.

"When are we going to tell Clyde?" Stella asked.

"After he comes back from Hawaii. I don't want to ruin his vacation. If he found out about all this, he'd have a panic attack and faint," Lincoln said.

"He's gonna be so upset when he does find out after he returns to Royal Woods," Ronnie Anne added.

"I know, but he'll understand, and he'll feel so much better knowing that there's a chance that my sisters' lives won't be ruined and the two bad futures have been altered," Lincoln replied.

"Okay, now that actually will make him happy because he was hoping for that from the very beginning," Stella stated, rubbing her chin.

Ronnie Anne rolled her eyes, "Whatever. Get some rest, Lincoln."

The group video call ended, and Lincoln fell back on his bed. Before bed, he stayed up a while and scrolled through social media.

He found pictures posted by his friends. Thankfully, they were having good times. Polly won several roller derby games, and Rusty cheered her on. There were several pictures of the two of them taking selfies and kisses, and he took some pictures of her and her team winning.

Giggles taught Zach a few clown tricks, and they posted videos of him looking like a clown and performing some of the tricks – he was pretty good. There was even a video where Zach was Giggles' assistant for a kid's birthday party. The kids really loved their tricks – Lincoln couldn't help but smile.

Liam and Tabby posted several selfies together at a rock concert. Tabby got Liam dressed up, looking like a rock fan with parts of his hair dyed, a punk rock t-shirt, and some tricked-out jeans and sneakers. There were other pictures, like Liam showing Tabby some cool farm stuff. There was a nice photo of them on a horse together and another one of them sitting on top of a tracker. Lincoln's favorite was a nice picture of the two kissing on the lips.

"They look good together," Lincoln softly said out loud.

Lincoln found a few photos of a group in a cooking class, and among them were Chloe and his best friend, Clyde. There weren't many, but Lincoln saw them bake and frost a cake together. There were other photos of them hanging out with friends at a pizza joint. They were all smiling and looking like they were having fun. Lincoln smiled and felt a sense of pride for his best friend.

Out of curiosity, he searched for himself and Stella in the media. He found a couple of photos of him and her together – it was mostly her taking the photos. There were some photos where she was stealing a kiss and some of him doing the same. Lincoln realized they still didn't do their date yet. Now that his sisters were on his side, there was no big doom coming except for that one vision of his parents, but he felt optimistic. If the future can change for the better, then maybe they can change his parents, or something good can come out of it.

Lincoln chose not to worry about it now. He placed his phone back on the stand and laid back in bed. He drifted into sleep.

Meanwhile

The drive back home was quiet – as quiet as it gets. No one breathed a word. Everyone was emotionally exhausted down to the bone, especially the parents. Some of the family's eyes and eyelids were still red from all the tears that were shed. They entered their house, and everyone silently went to their rooms to prepare for bed.

As the girls quietly flossed and brushed their teeth while getting dressed in their PJs, they saw glimpses and flashes of all the things Lincoln showed them in the light orbs of the future. Some of the sisters froze at the terrible images. All the horrible things they would do and say to him. Tonight could have ended on a darker note. They couldn't tell which was worse, them beating their brother or him beating them with an inch of their lives. They could see it all. All the blood, the cries, and the fire in Lincoln's eyes.

They saw all that and the visions of the Bad Luck incident. Even though he said he loved them and had hope that things would be better, they still got chills about what could have happened.

Despite the parents being oblivious to their son's powers and the real reason why he ran away, his words sank into their core. Lynn Sr. sat silently on the bed, staring out into nothing. Rita was in the same state until she broke the silence.

"We failed him . . . we failed our son," Rita choked up, "We failed our boy."

"I failed him. At least he feels like he knows you. He said he feels like he barely knows me," Lynn Sr. said with tears building up in his eyes.

"How could this happen? Were we really paying so much attention to our daughters that we made our son feel left out? How could we let such a thing happen?" Rita questioned as tears dripped off her face and onto her lap.

Usually, her husband would object and rationalize the whole thing about how they were just too busy with their daily lives, but that was no excuse. They neglected him and made him feel that way so much that he ran away from home instead of going to them for help. Now he's in the hospital after getting hit by a car. Rita let her face fall into her hands while resting her elbows on her knees.

"I don't know, hon. I truly don't know . . . and I don't how we're going to fix this," Lynn Sr. said.

Rita rubbed her face before opening her eyes, "I'm worried whether or not it can be fixed. Please, Lynn . . . please tell me we haven't lost our son. (sobs) Please tell me it's not too late."

Lynn Sr. got up and walked around to sit next to her. He gently held her close as she softly sobbed. He tried so hard not to cry, but he didn't have the strength. After a while, they calmed down, and the husband spoke.

"We haven't lost him yet. He said he'd leave us if this happened again. We can still prove to him that we love him. We just need to reach out to him," Lynn Sr. said.

"We need to change Lynn," Rita said, turning to him, "We need to set rules for our daughters. We must make time for Lincoln and let him have his own time. We need to support him, Lynn. We've been there plenty for our daughters and not enough for him. We need to do that."

Lynn Sr. nodded, "Agreed. Of course, that'll be easier said than done—"

"I don't care. We have to make it happen. He needs a mother. He needs a father. He needs us," Rita replied firmly.

"You're right . . . for now, let's try to get some sleep," Lynn Sr. said.

They went to bed, but it was almost impossible for them to get any sleep with the guilt of their past neglectful behavior and failures as a proper parent lingering over them like a shroud. However, unbeknownst to them, their daughters were having a worse night, with nightmares resurrecting from deep within their subconscious.