Here's an idea I had all of a sudden and thought it would be perfect for the Halloween season. I know I already have two stories going on right now. So I'm going to put Cold Winter's Night on hold for the time being and work on this and Out of Sight. And I even have a shorter fear based story planned as well so I figured to get started on this one so I can get to that one when I can.

I should also note that these chapters are going to be a bit shorter than the ones I put in Out of Sight. This just a simple little story I had planned and wanted to write it purely for fun.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Loud House

Lincoln Loud sighed as he stepped out of the school a little later than he normally did thanks to detention. What had happened was that he had been involved in a little prank earlier in the day in order to have to a pop quiz that Mrs. Johnson had planned; postponed. Sadly though it had backfired on him and he had humiliated himself in the process. Worse yet, as a result of the prank he had been given detention for today and all of next week as well. At the very least he was glad that it was Friday and his parents were gone for the weekend so he wouldn't have to face the music with them until Monday at the earliest.

He was humming to himself as he tried to think of a way to explain to Lori why he was so late getting home, but he knew that no matter what he said she'd be angry at his tardiness. He didn't have any extra curricular activities like most of his sisters did and she had told him to come straight home after school, so either way he knew that he was a dead man once he told her that he had had detention, because she certainly wouldn't buy anything else.

'How could this get any worse?' Lincoln asked himself in his head.

"Heads up!" called out a voice that Lincoln was all too familiar with right before he was struck in the side of the head by her soccer ball.

"OOF!" Lincoln cried out as he fell over to the sidewalk below.

He groaned and rubbed the sore spot where the soccer ball had clobbered him. Thankfully the soccer ball hadn't done more than give him a moment of irritation and that he had fallen into the grass next to the sidewalk, but at the same time it annoyed him how he never saw that coming.

He could sense someone standing over him on the sidewalk and could hear them laughing.

Lincoln pulled his head up and said, "Seriously Lynn?"

Looming above him was the youngest of his older sisters, decked in red shorts, sports jersey and, for the time being at least, a red jacket due to the cooler temperatures of the autumn air. She stood over him, giving him a condescending smile and even twirled her soccer ball on her index finger.

"Hey Linc. Getting out a bit late today aren't ya?" she said as stood over him.

Lincoln pulled himself up, dusted himself off and said, "Detention. All because I tried to weasel out of a quiz."

Lynn laughed at Lincoln and said, "That's why we leave the pranking to Luan. At least she puts some thought into them."

Lynn then frowned and added, "That is until she nearly gets us killed in the process."

Lincoln nodded in agreement and began to walk away from Lynn and back onto the route that leads to their house. He had tried to get a good head start away from his athletic older sister, but before long he could hear her running after him. He rolled his eyes as heard her getting closer to him.

"Hey Lincoln, wait up!" she called out as she approached him.

Lincoln turned one of eyes to her and said rather coldly, "What is it Lynn?"

Lynn held up her hands and said, "Hey don't shoot me. I was just going to suggest we try to take a short cut home today. I mean Lori's still gonna throttle you when we get home."

"Don't remind me. Why take a short cut when we can stay on the sidewalk and be safe?" Lincoln said as he interrupted her.

Lynn shrugged and said, "Well the longer she waits, the more and more angry she's going to get. So why not take a shortcut home and save some time and some of her wrath?"

Now this Lincoln took an interest in. It's true, no matter what he said or did, Lori was going to be angry with him for getting home so late. Why face her full fury when he only had to face most of it? Anything was better than that.

Lincoln gave into Lynn's suggestion and said, "Okay Lynn, you win. We'll take a short cut."

Lynn fist pumped and said, "Yes! Lynner wins again. Come along slowpoke and I'll show you where to go."

She grabbed Lincoln by the wrist and dragged him off towards the Royal Woods City Park. Or to be more specific, a more heavily wooded section of the park. An area where the trees were so tall and thick that sunlight had a hard time penetrating through the thick foliage above. One standing before the gravel path could look in and see nothing but the looming darkness, waiting to swallow up anyone who dared to enter it's domain.

Lincoln couldn't help but shiver and shake as he stared off into the darkness ahead of them. He even watched as Lynn walked partway in, humming to herself as if she were trying to taunt her brother, which she most likely was.

"Well? You coming Lincoln? Or are you too chicken?" Lynn asked mockingly.

It was true, Lincoln was scared. Just looking at the forest in front of him was terrifying and he had no idea what could be lurking within. He had always believed in the possibility of ghosts being real and had had an encounter before with one of his idols, Hunter Spector of ARGGH!, once before. So he knew anything was possible. But he also dreaded the wildlife that probably lived within. He had bad experiences with raccoons and a few other wild animals in the past (courtesy of Luan) and he did not want to have a similar experience ever again. In their own home was bad enough, but out in the wild was a whole different story.

He was pulled out of his thoughts as Lynn began making bawking sounds and was even doing wing flaps with her arms. All the while, a huge mocking grin was plastered across her face, just daring Lincoln to follow her in.

With that, Lincoln puffed out his chest, beat it with his fist a little and said, "I'm no chicken. I'm a real man."

Lynn laughed and said, "Yeah sure you are. Well don't just sit there slowpoke. Last one to the other side of the woods is a rotten egg."

Lynn ran ahead of Lincoln and into the gloom. As soon as she had turned her back however, Lincoln resumed his regular stance and rubbed the spot where he had beat his chest with his fist.

"Ow ow ow! Bad idea! Bad idea," he whimpered.

He looked back up to see that Lynn was already far ahead of him.

He ran after her and said, "Hey wait for me."

Lynn had stopped running and was humming to herself again as Lincoln quickly caught up to her. She had her eyes closed as if she were focusing on the world around her and not her brother.

"Come on Lynn, how far in this do we have to go?" Lincoln asked her.

Lynn shrugged and said, "Beats me. All I know is that it exits out in our neighborhood and cuts through the park. I have no idea how long this path is."

Lincoln's jaw dropped and he blurted out, "You don't even know how long it is?"

Lynn continued to smile and said, "Nope. Didn't you just hear me?"

"Then why are we out here?" he asked.

Lynn laughed and said, "Because I wanted to scare you silly. I knew you'd be scared by the darkness and decay of this woodland."

Lincoln cringed as he absorbed her words. He looked around at the taller trees surrounding them. With it starting to get late in the year, several of the leaves on the trees were beginning to turn colors and some had even already fallen to the ground. It wasn't enough however to decrease the gloom that surrounded the two of them.

Lincoln gulped and then hollered as Lynn wrapped an arm around him, pulled him towards her and gave him a noogie on the top of his head.

"Aww lighten up lame-o. At least you have me here to protect you from whatever," Lynn said and then laughed at his expense.

Lincoln squirmed in her grip and began trying to pull himself free from her grip. She still laughed as she loosened her grip and let him loose.

"You are just too easy Lincoln," she laughed and continued along. "But I do promise it'll lead us home and we won't even have to walk around the park to get there."

"Yippee for me," Lincoln said sarcastically.

Lynn resumed humming to herself as they walked along the path, both of them stepping on twigs as they proceeded ahead. Unbeknownst to Lincoln though, Lynn actually was a little bit familiar with this part of the park. This part of the park was legendary and the stories surrounding it were various, but she didn't believe them and really viewed them as simply scary stories designed to keep kids inside at night. Still... she knew Lincoln had a taste for ghost stories and knew that he would probably believe some of it. And with that, an awful idea crossed her mind. A terrible, horrible idea that could make Lincoln shake even more.

"Oh come on. I thought you liked all these scary places. After all, you like that stupid ghost hunter show," she teased.

Lincoln glared at her as he walked beside her and said, "It's called ARGGH! and it's not stupid, it's insightful. And there's a difference between seeing these places on TV and actually being there."

Lynn laughed once again and said, "Yeah keep telling yourself that. Either way I figured you'd like walking down here because of the ghosts."

Lincoln suddenly stopped, gave Lynn a puzzled look and said, "What ghosts?"

Lynn couldn't stop smiling and said, "Oh you know. You never heard?"

Lincoln raised one eyebrow and asked, "Heard what?"

Lynn let her smile fade and gave an almost frightened look. Lincoln would have taken it a bit seriously, if he didn't know Lynn any better. But he knew that she liked to pick on him, especially when he was at his most curious. And these moments usually involved her giving him a Dutch Oven prank.

"Oh you know," she said with a whisper and then took a quick look around her. "The murders."

Lincoln still continued his questioning look and asked, "What murders?"

"You don't know?" Lynn asked.

Lincoln shook his head, giving her his answer. He had never heard anything about any murders taking place near where they lived, past or present. Given Royal Woods very low crime rate, he couldn't recall any heinous crimes taking place in a number of years or even in his own lifetime. Then again their parents did try to shelter them from some of the news regarding their area. So chances were, there were things that he had missed. So how would Lynn know?

Lynn laughed while shaking her head and then said, "Bro you have got a lot to learn about this town. It happened many many years ago. Before us, our parents, or even Pop Pop were born. It happened near our own neighborhood. Course from what I've been told it's just a legend. But you know the thing about legends. Sometimes they ARE true."

Suffice it to say, Lincoln wasn't really buying it. He knew Lynn too well to believe any story that she'd tell him, especially a scary one after she had admitted that she had wanted to scare him. But still, he really wanted to humor her and just give her what she wanted.

Lincoln crossed his arms, gave her a smile and said, "So tell me then."

"Are you sure Lincoln? You don't want to be scared do you? Besides you don't want Lori to explode at you do you? It's going to take us longer to get home," Lynn said slyly.

Lincoln shook his head and said, "If the story is as scary as you claim it to be, then it'll all be worth it."

Lynn shrugged and said, "Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you."

And I think that'll be a good stopping point for this chapter.

I know that this chapter isn't very long, but I'm not trying for long chapters in this story. Just a simple little horror story for the Halloween season.

Next chapter will have Lynn tell the story, but I warn you now. It will get a little graphic next chapter, but only enough to keep this at a T rating.