What is a nightmare?
A dream you particular disliked and it fear gave you scares through stuff you fear, oftentimes very irrational things. We all have irrational fears but not everybody deals with such nightmares the same way.

Sequuntur Somnia

From all the ways Lisa thought she would leave this world, she didn't expect it would be like this.

Before her, through the combination of highly advanced science, complicated machinery and a little bit of magic, she created a flaming red portal that led to a dimension so different from the world humans live in, they couldn't even imagine how a simple stone would look like there.

Lisa was observing the portal behind tank-proof glass, sweating like a Scandinavian in a sauna. She could not imagine that anything good could come through this entrance, this pathway into the unknown.
She gulped so hard, one might think she was trying to swallow a big rock, one with many corners. A very uncomfortable experience, to say the least.

Then, some shadowy being came out of the portal. Lisa was frozen in fear as the unknown thing stepped through the portal, revealing its unmentionable and indescribable appearance to the world.

"No, in Heisenberg's name!" cried Lisa in abject horror. "Anything but you!"

The Boogeyman, a creature made of cloth with a goofy grin drawn by black marker on its eye and nose-less face. In one hand, he had a squirming and bulging burlap sack. He waddled over in the direction of the tank-proof glass and put its clothy hands on it.

"NO, NO, NO!"

The monster just walked through the glass. "I got you, got you, got you, got you, got you, got you, got you!"

The strong hands hidden in cloth grabbed Lisa. She struggled with everything she had, but it was no use, and she was thrown into the big bag of the ol' Bogeyman.

"HEEEEEEEEELP! MOMMY, DADDY, LORI, HELP!"

But nobody came to the rescue, and she fell into the darkness, only illuminated by the glowing, unsymmetrically positioned eyes that starred at her.

"NO, HELP!" screamed Lisa. "I DON'T WANT THIS, I AM SCARED! HEEEELP!"

Help didn't come as Lisa landed on the ground.

Lisa, startled, found herself on the ground of her room, entangled in her blanket. She was at home, not in the hell dimension of the Boogeyman's bag anymore.

"My REM is not very productive."

Distressed, she freed herself from the blanket and stood up. The fear was subsiding, but still lingering within her. Anxious, Lisa took a little electric lamp and made her way out of the room she was sharing with Lily, happy that she hadn't been woken up by her nightmare and struggle.

She was thirsty and thought quenching this feeling would help chase away her darker thoughts, her thoughts of angst and her feelings about unknown or known horrors.

In the darkness, even her soft steps made unnerving noises for her, accompanied by the other noises the house made. Sneaking down the stairs, they creaked in a spooky cascade, to alarm any nearby monster that a little girl was on the loose and waiting to be eaten.

There is no Bogeyman, there is no Slenderman, there is no Freddy Krueger, there is no Sadako Yamamura, there is no Jared Leto, there is nothing scary in this house.

She almost fell down the stairs as she saw something running up to her. But to her relief, it was only Cliff, rubbing himself against her legs.

"Don't run up to me like that, you stupid feline," grumbled Lisa while patting the head of the cat. "I swear I almost had a cardiac arrest."

Having the shock out of her system, she quickly headed toward the kitchen and got a sugary drink out of her section of the fridge. Gulping half of it down at once, she had to realize that this would only give her a short reprieve from her nightmares.

"Somnium, dare mihi dulcis somnium…"

"Lisa?"

Scared once again, Lisa turned around fast, maybe a little too fast, to see the oldest sister. There stood Lori Loud, dressed in her white shirt and short trousers.

"What are you doing at this time?" asked the blonde the brunette in an indifferent tone.

"I was thirsty," lied Lisa, once again her words coming out a little too fast. "Very thirsty, I was in need of aqua in junction with saccharo."

Lori raised an eyebrow. "Saccharo?"

"Latin for sugar," explained Lisa. "Sorry."

Lori just shrugged in response. "Whatever, just go back to bed after you finish your drink. Mom will be upset if you don't get enough sleep."

"Yes, Lori."

Lisa, happy not to talk more about her motives, took another sip. She stood there with her sister, who grabbed herself a vitamin drink out of the fridge, drinking it with more restraint than Lisa did with her sugary beverage.

"Did you wake Lily?"

"Negative, soror, or you would have heard that already."

Lori took another sip. "Why are you using so many Latin words?"

"I use the language of the senectus Rome? Didn't have a perspicientia about that."

Lori gave her a subtle smirk. "Of course. Lana talked nonsense herself when she had her first nightmare. Talked in intervals like a cat, a dog, a raccoon, a chicken and finally an elephant."

Lisa didn't freeze, neither did she make any other suspicious gestures. She only took another sip, leaned with her elbow against the fridge and said:

"Exceptio probat regulam in casibus non exceptis."

Lori had her smartphone on. "What you say means "The exception confirms the rule in cases not excepted". That is a nice proverb, but I think you are the rule and not the exception."

Lisa tried to produce a witty counterargument to disperse Lori's idea. "Absurd, I mean, why should I have nightmares? They are only the result of irrational fears and I have only rational fears, so I should have rational nightmares and no irrational ones and, and… dang it."

"Your vocabulary is vast, but you don't use it in the best way."

Lisa, feeling her cheeks redden, looked away. "I don't have to do anything. Nor do I have anything to say. I just want to go to my bed."

"And despite me being annoyed by this situation, the big sister in me says "give her all your care and comfort" while the hormone driven teenager in me says "ditch her and go back to bed", but my inner big sister is stronger," explained Lori and added a sigh at the end.

"My fear is only temporally," tried Lisa to assure Lori. "It is just something silly, something unimportant and something minor. It will not happen again."

"How many nightmares did you have so far?"

Lisa was silent for a moment and sounded nervous as she said: "Three weeks…? Do not solliciti about it, I can manage it."

"If you say so, Lisa."

Lori grabbed herself a low-sugar chocolate bar. She still planned to sleep this night. "But if you need somebody to help you sleep, I suggest Leni, Luna or Lincoln. Don't try Lynn, except if the nightmare can be physically harmed."

Lisa's eyes became smaller at those recommendations. She looked at her oldest sister with serious discontent. "I do not need auxilium, some small night terrors are something I can overcome on my own."

Lisa then made her way to the living room, turned the TV on and started to watch some TV. She hopped on random channels, landing on a strange animated short where a little four year old in a green pullover and her sister in a cyan T-Shirt walked through a dark town.

"You know that you are not allowed to do this at this hour, right?"

"I need to be lassata before I can back to sleep."

Lori looked it up on her smartphone. "Tired? Okay, but keep it quiet."

"Ita, Lori."

Without a word, Lori joined the second-youngest on the sofa, looking at the screen with her. The short-movie looked rather strange. No monsters hunting them, and yet there was an incredibly eerie atmosphere. At some point, the two protagonists spotted scary things and beings, but otherwise, nothing.

"How is research going?"

"I'm working on the Symmetry-adapted perturbation theory. I think I will be potes to either prove or disprove it soon. Non-covalent interactions between atoms and molecules aren't as complicatas as everyone thinks."

"I will not even pretend that I understood what you just said," said Lori. "But I support you nonetheless in your endeavors."

"Gratias tibi my golfing sister."

They resumed watching the short. Now the two protagonists of the short were trying to hide from the moon that killed everything it saw with its cyclopean, horrific eyes.

"I remember my first nightmare well," told Lori seemingly nobody in particular. "I was 1 year old, Leni was only born a few days ago. I dreamed how Schredder was hunting me. The Schredder from the first animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle show, to be clear."

"Wasn't that the silly version that was voiced by James Avery?"

Lori nodded. "I was incredibly scared of him because I thought, at the time, that he was so dangerous. I don't know why anymore. He came across as… terrifying."

"Difficult to believe," said Lisa. "You told me he was silly in comparison to the other Shredders."

"Not less dangerous, though." added Lori. "But it is literally quite silly that I was so afraid and had literal nightmares about him."

Lisa nodded. "The mind of a normalem toddler can be afraid of the most nonsensical things."

Lori crossed her arms behind her head. "Meanwhile, you are not a normal toddler, you don't fear anything stupid."

Lisa looked around nervously. Was she so easy to read? No, this had to be a coincidence. Nobody could see through the emotional disguise of a genius except another genius.

"Leni's first bad dream was about Yosemite Sam," continued Lori. "She said she had nightmares about how he killed Bugs Bunny."

"Cotidie damnatur qui semper timet," retorted Lisa, not looking up to Lori.

"She is not in constant fear about Yosemite Sam killing Bugs anymore, so she is not condemned," Lori explained. "Same for spiders… kinda."

"Whatever," responded Lisa, sounding vexed. "I want to finish this show and return to my lectulo."

They watched how the two characters fled from the moon, avoiding to look at it. Yet, Lisa couldn't stop to think about her nightmare. Her heart said she should tell Lori about it, but her head forbade it.

Lori looked at her smartphone. "Return to your bed? That is not your only option. Not the only bed you could return to."

"I do not need the bed of any of my sororibus or my frater Lincoln," answered Lisa a bit more forceful than intended. "I only need my bed, for me alone!"

Lori shrugged her shoulders. "Sure, Lisa. There is nothing to be afraid of, after all."

Lisa was shaking. "Ita, eh I mean yes! There is nothing! Nihil can scare me! No monstra is capable to instill me with fear, they are not verum!"

"What is not real, Lisa?"

"The Boogeyman!" she shouted, jumping on her feet. "There is no reason to be timere of something that is not real, not existent, not a periculum!"

Lisa froze as she realized what she just said. Leni would have not questioned about the specific denial, but Lori would and did.

"You don't fear the Boogeyman?"

Lisa just shouted: "I am not significatur by him!"

Lori said nothing.

"I am the celebres cultissima of this family. Only real things can scare me!"

Lori took another sip of her drink, just nodding.

"The putaverunt that I would be scared of a creature that throws me into a bag and kidnaps me from everyone I love is absolutely… absolutely…"

Lisa's eyes started to water. "I am scared Lori. It is not logicae, but he… It makes no sense…"

Lori put her hand on Lisa's head delicately like she was a cat. "I know. Fear doesn't always make sense."

The dam broke. Lisa started to bawl like she never bawled before in the four years she'd been alive. "Ever since I saw that movie, the one with the Boogeyman, how he tollebant children and stuffed them into his lapides saccule- I-I mean bag and brought them to an unknown place. It… it… it was so horrifying!"

Lori took the little Loud into her arms and in turn, Lisa snuggled into her belly.
"I am here Lisa, I will protect you. Sssssshhhhhh… Everything is fine, I am here, nobody will harm or kidnap you."

"You're making a promissum to me?" asked Lisa under a series of sniffs. "I should not be degraded into such a situation. Having fear of non-existent beings is silly. The others will do nothing but make fun of me for my fear of the Boogeyman."

"I promise," promised Lori and then continued: "They'll just make fun of you for your experiments blowing up in your face, you using overcomplicated words and your rap about the Death of Mr. Rogers."

"No, only Luna made amet, eh I mean fun, about my Rap about Rammstein," Lisa corrected her eldest sister after a few more tears spilled out of her eyes. "All the others liked the Mr. Rogers Rap."

Lori put her right arm under Lisa's legs and raised her up. "I know, I remember it now, sorry."

Lisa sucked up the snot into her nose. "It's fine. No big multum."

"Now, literally calm down, and we'll go to my bed," told Lori her little sister, stroking her hair and cradling the little bundle. "You can bunk with me for the night."

"But the others-"

Lori shrugged and gave a smile. "I will remind them that they have irrational fears as well and just because that you are a genius, you are not above that, but that is not a bad thing."

Lisa's sobbing became quieter. "The idea is just so silly: I am able to memorizes and recite (among others) the formulas for gravity, speed of light, power velocity, kinematic viscosity, entropy, index of refraction, resistivity-conductivity, Schrödinger's equation and the Lorentz factor, but I am not able to rationalize my absurd fears and overcome them."

"Fear is literally a challenge for everyone," whispered Lori into Lisa's ear. "It is not easy to overcome it for anyone. Leni's fear of spiders improved after the incident with Francine. but she still fears them."

"Will I be in morem parturientium contremescant or anguish from the Bogeyman forever?" asked Lisa in a nervous and scared tone.

"No, you will not. You will grow and become braver," Lori told her to give Lisa courage. "Until then, Mom, Dad, Leni, Luna, Lincoln, Lucy and I will protect you."

"Lucy?" was Lisa's surprised reaction.

"She is a mistress of the dark arts. If anyone knows how to defend yourself against them, she is your girl."

Lisa gave her sister a smile. "Of course, fighting superstition with superstition. Makes perfect sense."
Despite the words, there was no sarcasm in Lisa's tone. She knew Lucy. Lucy was no danger, despite her connection to the darkness, because Lucy was a positive darkness.

"You stopped talking Latin, little genius," noticed Lori and gave Lisa's nose a kiss. "Feeling better?"

"Yes, I do, oldest sister unit," confirmed Lisa. "I think I would still like to bunk with you, though. Just in case."

Lori, holding Lisa like a baby in her arms now, nodded. "Alright, let's go."

Lori took a last look at the TV. It showed how the older girl and her little sister got away from the moon, hiding together in a house, hoping they would be safe. Then the short ended.

"Weird," mumbled Lori and shut off the TV.

Lana came into the room. One of her usual nightmares had been haunting her.
Discreetly, she tried to climb into the bed of her big sister, but she encountered a surprise.
In her arms was Lisa, cuddled to Lori's upper body, clinging to her clothes and sleeping peacefully.

"Whatever. I only need Lori's feet."

The little plumber slipped under the blanket and snuggled onto the feet of Lori like a dog laying above the feet of their sleeping master. She rolled herself around the feet and was fast asleep.

"Stay back, stay back!"

The Boogeyman tried to get away, but Lori grabbed him by the throat and held him up in the air. He could only fruitlessly struggle in this situation.

"Away from my sister, you literal sack of shhhhhhh… ack!"

Lisa suppressed a laughter from Lori's save. She was too smart to not know what Lori wanted to say, but there was no way to let her know that she already knew the seven dirty words.

"What is going on here?"

Lana had arrived and placed herself besides Lisa. Both were in a strange empty house which was transforming into a space station. Not completely, though, it rather mixed itself into the strange creepy house.

"Lori is fighting the Boogeyman," explained Lisa. "She is rather proficient in fighting this monster." Lisa looked over to Lana. "I assume she has often eradicated your nightmares in a similar scenario?"

Lana nodded. "Yeah, she always fights my nightmares here. Oh, no. Here it comes!"

Out of the darkness of the materializing space station came the extraterrestrial dark monster, also known as the Xenomorph.

It thrusted its long tail in Lori's direction, who just grabbed it in the air.

"I can make heads and especially tail of this situation," quipped Lori and whirled the nightmarish beings from another world over her head.

"I doubt that our parents gave you the permission to watch those movies."

Lana gave a sheepish smile in response. "Yeah, I made a stupid head out of me for watching that stuff."

"The horror created by the Swiss artifex H.R. Giger creates a more plausible fear than mine, though…"

Lana shrugged. "I dunno, your guy doesn't look like a pushover either. Maybe less athletic, but he looks muscular."

"None of them can overcome Lori. That is for sure."

Now Lori was boxing both simultaneously. "You want my sisters? You do not get them. They are safe with me!"

Lana knew she was right.

And so did Lisa, who was smiling. She would someday outgrow her stupid superstition, but until then, she was safe under the watchful eye of her big sister.

Then a screaming Leni came out of another materializing section, this one looking like Shelob's lair, with the Spider in question following her.

"Lori, help me, a spider wants to eat me!"

In response, Lori threw the Alien at Shelob's face.

She and the others were and would always be safe under the wing of their big sister Lori.

The nightmare is over.
Well, several nightmares get beaten up by Lori to be exact.

Hope you enjoyed the story, I had this idea in my head for a long time now.
It was a lot more simple then, no Latin and shorter.

Like always I want to thank ultrablud2 for his solid proof-reading job here and he also wrote the summary of the story on which I also thank him for.

Until next time!.

P.S.: More of "Platonic" will come. That is a promise. I didn't forget about and I am working on it but without my partner MamaAniki there is no way to upload new chapters at the Moment.
But be assured: The story of "Platonic" is not over nor is it forgotten.