Author's Notes:

This is the final chapter. Thanks everyone for reading. And especially thank you, Flagg, for listening to me whine about this story for nearly two months and bouncing ideas around and developing characters and plot and everything else. You're awesome!

End of story notes at the bottom.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: The Loud House Copyright Nickelodeon (2017)

Two bright lights appeared over the horizon.

The sound of an engine hummed in the distance.

Luna hobbled to the edge of the asphalt, one leg crusted in blackened blood. Her arms were clutched around his nightshirt, trying to keep warmth inside her body.

Her soulless eyes watched as hazards blinked on and off and a man and woman jumped out and ran over to her.

Darkness tinged the edges of her vision and she felt so very weak.

She fell forward; the woman putting her arms out to catch her.

Her back laying in the warm lap of a stranger, her hazy eyes struggled to keep from the void.

Luna saw the man frowning and she used what little energy she had left to plead with him.

"M-my L-Luan… my s-sister… dead…"

When Luna next awoke, there was a dull pain in her arm. Something funny was itching her nose. The air smelt sterile and unnatural.

But what she most cared about was this tiny warmth: fingers resting upon her open hand.

She tried to squeeze her hand around that heat, to trap it and absorb it into her dead soul… but she couldn't do more than twitch.

"L-Luna…?" came the whispered voice of her mother.

Luna felt relief flood over her, and she knew if she could manage it she'd be smiling. It was comforting to hear her voice. It was something to focus on. To forget… about other things.

She couldn't open her eyes. She couldn't open her mouth to speak.

So, she twitched her fingers again and nodded her head almost imperceptibly.

Those warm fingers threaded in hers and gave her a squeeze in response, and Luna hummed inside with contentment.

"Luna, my baby…"

She felt another hand push through her short, brown hair, and she purred inside.

A pair of lips planted themselves on her forehead...

"I love you, little Luney."

…and Luna fell back into a perfect, dreamless sleep, her body surrounded in the comfort of a mother's love.

Rita watched over her daughter for a day and a half; barely sleeping, not eating, and never leaving the room (except for an adjoining bathroom).

During those first few hours, she'd messaged Lori and Leni to let them know what was going on. The ambulance came quickly for their father and Lily, and she made sure she was on it when it left.

It was twilight… she could forgive ignoring messages until morning.

But by the afternoon, her paranoia was clawing at her skin, and with four family members already dead she was unwilling to take any chances…

After twenty-four hours of watching over her precious daughter she received a call from a RWPD detective.

After hanging up her cell phone, she turned her weeping eyes toward Luna…

Her only child still left in this world.

After three long days in the hospital, Luna was finally cleared to leave. She'd only been awake for a day and a half. Only that morning her mom had finally broke the news to her.

Her whole family had died.

Just a few days ago, everyone's biggest worry was Leni.

But literally overnight, one by one they had fallen.

Luna shivered as they entered the car.

Life was bad enough when she was still processing the death of Luan!

But after her brief coma, she'd woken up as an only sibling…

Her mom was all she had left in this world; she was all her mom had left, too.

Have you ever imagined what it was like for a terminal patient to leave hidden letters all around the house, only to be found after their death?

When they'd finally returned home after a long, silent drive, they were bombarded by memories.

Linc's comic was still laying on the couch; Lynn's cleats were by the door; dad's apron hung over the oven's handle; one of Lucy's poems was clipped to the fridge…

Luna's eyes immediately spotted one of Luan's hair scrunchies on the stair steps, and she clutched it to her breast like a treasure of infinite worth.

If this is what living feels like without your family… without your lover… then, she wished she'd never have woken up…

With nine bodies in their possession, they had no choice but to order cremations.

Rangers had searched for days for Luan's body. But the only trace they could find of that brutal scene were Luna's cut panties… and Leni's blood.

They had no funeral.

They had no memorial.

They kept nine jars and a yellow scrunchie lined up in a perfect row on the entertainment center in the living room.

Every day, Luna would find herself sitting cross-legged in front of those objects.

On some days she would put the scrunchie on her wrist and wear it like a bracelet.

On some nights Rita would hold her husband's jar against her bosom and she'd tell him, over and over and over, that she loved him, until her tears put her to sleep.

Both refused to enter their own rooms.

Luna could no longer walk up the steps.

Rita could no longer enter the kitchen.

They helped each other as well as they could, but it wasn't enough.

They'd finally taken to sleeping in each other's arms, in the floor of the living room, but it couldn't replace what their heart ached for.

Finally, one day, Luna saw her parents' bedroom door open and she tilted her head.

It hadn't been open since the night the ambulance came for Lana and Lola; dad had needed to fetch his wallet and keys.

As Luna approached the door, she tried to remember how long they'd been in this state, but she couldn't.

It could have been a week… it could have been a month… it could have been longer.

Rita looked up from her spot on the floor. She watched as Luna came and knelt down beside her.

Luna's eyes widened when she saw her mom lift a pistol from a metal case.

Rita took out one bullet and put it in the magazine. She looked over at Luna and saw that same deep yearning, that same agonizing torture gnawing at her flesh, that she knew was reflected in her own…

So, she grabbed a second bullet and loaded it as well…

Luna walked through a graveyard in the early hours of morning.

Behind her, the sun had yet to peak over the hills.

Her tired feet walked down a worn path toward a single stone.

There were roses carved into the fine granite. The years dated from 2012 to 2016.

Luna knelt and put her hand beside the name of her sister, Lisa, and she sighed.

Lisa would have known what to do. She would have been able to fix everything.

And Luan would still be alive.

Rita assembled the nine jars in the shade of a tree, and sat down in their midst.

Luna stood beside her mother, the scrunchie wrapped around her wrist.

Rita pulled the handgun from her jacket and looked at it in the grey morning light.

Luna's heart skipped a beat when she watched her mother's shaky hand level the barrel at her temple.

Rita trembled and began crying. She looked up to the sky and put her finger on the trigger.

"L-L-Lynn… my darling h-husband…"

She clenched her eyes shut; Luna watched and held her breath.

"I-I-I… I… I can't do it…"

She dropped the gun to her lap and covered her teary eyes with her hands.

Luna sat down beside her and rubbed circles into her back.

"It'll be ok, mommy."

Rita sniffled and turned to look at her daughter's puffy, pink face.

She picked the gun up and put it in her daughter's hand.

"Can you be strong for mommy?"

Luna's heart broke, her face marred by a heavy frown, but she nodded.

"I put two in, darling…"

Luna sobbed.

"I know, mommy."

Rita laid down in the grass and placed her husband's jar on her chest, and wrapped her arms around it.

"Can you send me to your daddy? Can you send me to my husband?"

Luna closed her crying eyes, but nodded; the weight of the gun felt heavy in her tired hand.

Rita rolled onto her stomach.

"Place the barrel at the base of my neck, honey."

She shivered when she felt cold steel touch the ridge of her spine.

"Now, pull the trigger whenever you're ready."

Luna nodded even though her mother couldn't see it.

"I'm coming to be with you soon, my love. I'm coming to be with you and our children~"

Luna tried to take deep breaths but the rush of emotions was unbearable. She put her finger on the trigger, feeling her limbs trembling violently.

"I love you, mommy."

Rita hugged the jar tightly to her breast.

"Mommy loves you, too."

The blast of a gunshot frightened every bird in the vicinity; their flighty departure filling the sky like a dark cloud.

Luna rolled onto her back and cried herself dry, screaming until her voice was hoarse.

Her eyes fell upon the golden scrunchie around her wrist and she placed a watery kiss to the flimsy fabric.

Her lips came back with a single brown hair… her sister's… and a new wave of tears fell from her eyes as she clutched that last piece of Luan's body to her chest.

She looked to the hills and saw the outline of a golden sun peeking over the trees through her watery gaze. In her mind, she saw it as Luan's aura.

She opened her arms to the sunshine pouring down upon her quivering body.

"Open your arms for me, my love. Take me home…"

Luna closed her eyes and saw her beautiful, laughing sister in a robe of golden sunlight, her arms open and her smile pure.

"Come to me, Luna. Come home to your precious sunshine."

Luna walked towards her sister… opening her mouth to utter one final song.

"Y-y-you're are m-my sunshine, m-my only sun-shine."

A sweaty hand gripped a steel handle…

"You m-make me-me happy when skies… are grey…"

The icy sting of heartless metal pressed firmly against the skin on her temple…

"Y-you'll never know, d-dear, how much I love you…"

One slender finger rested upon the trigger…

"P-please don't take… my sunshine… away."

…and squeezed.

Deaths:

Lola, Chapter 10, cerebral hemorrhage by rat poisoning.

Lucy, Chapter 11, hypotension-shock by nitroglycerin overdose.

Lily, Chapter 11, severed spinal cord.

Lana, Chapter 13, cardiac arrest from brain swelling, by rat poisoning.

Lori, Chapter 13, chlorine gas poisoning.

Lynn, Chapter 13, blood loss by suicide.

Lynn Sr., Chapter 14, cardiac arrest from sudden heart attack.

Lincoln and Leni, Chapter 14, cicutoxin poisoning from water hemlock tea.

Luan, Chapter 14, major trauma from fall.

Lisa, pre-story, unknown cause of death: probably experiment-related.

Rita, Chapter 15, severed spinal cord by gunshot.

Luna, Chapter 15, suicide by gunshot.

Fun Facts:

If you'd guessed Luna would live... well, you were wrong. Haha. In all seriousness, I cried so much for these innocent characters that I just don't have the tears anymore. Yandere!Leni is a worthy concept that deserved to be written, but it took a lot out of me.

This story was driven by irony. Nearly everything was threaded with the stuff. In fact, most deaths were ironic. Lori was murdered by the girl she enslaved. Lynn Sr. died because he couldn't get to his heart medicine... Lucy had used it to commit suicide thinking Lynn Jr. was dead... and Lynn Jr. stabbed herself to death because Lucy had successful suicided. Luan became a yandere out of fear that Luna loved Leni... Lucy became a yandere out of fear that Luan and Lynn were having sex. Lynn attempted suicide three times... because she felt all her sisters, including Luna the only sane sister, had implied she would kill Lily... Luna had only given that implication when Lynn made an accusation against Luan (an accusation that was true). Leni killed Lincoln and initiated nearly every death and trauma in this whole story just to unite herself with him forever... but Lincoln had loved Leni the whole time, assuming she was too pure and good. Leni spent a long time agonizing over a way to kill Luna and Lynn... in the end, Luan had indirectly caused both of their deaths as Leni's accomplice.

I'm sure there are other neat ironies and facts I wanted to share but I've forgotten along the way.

This was enjoyable to write and plan, overall; if heartbreaking at times. I don't have a favorite chapter. But I have favorite scenes based on how much they hurt me: the scene when Lori rapes Leni the first time; Lynn's second attempted suicide; Lana's trauma scene when she falls into a coma; Lana's death scene at the hospital; and Luna's murder and suicide scene. The scene where Leni chloroforms Luna and Luan while singing Livin' in the Sunlight was my favorite for humor.

My plans for future writing are to focus on numerous little oneshots I've had on the backburner for two months, and finishing up my other multi-chapter stories. But I plan to write another suspence story in the future: focusing on Lynn and Linka in a genderbent universe. Think along the terms of "Red Dawn" meets the Loud House.