Loud Visions 2

Chapter 24

Lynn's dream

Lucy took Lynn to her hotel room. She visited the town for a book signing event for her latest dark fantasy novel. It was a great success as many people bought her book and wanted an autograph. She was so exhausted that she needed some coffee but had trouble finding a coffee shop. Upon her search, she ran into Lynn. Lucy wasn't a person to be easily surprised, but seeing her long-lost big sister, whom she and everyone else assumed was dead, shocked her.

Lucy went out to get Lynn lunch, but when she returned to the room, she found Lynn chugging the bottle of vodka Lucy had received as a gift from her publisher.

"Lynn?! What are you doing?" Lucy questioned loudly.

"I just need something to numb the pain," Lynn defended.

"Are you fucking serious?! I found you out in the streets, and the first thing you do when you get my hotel room is chug some liquor?!" Lucy yelled.

"Please don't yell at me," Lynn pleaded.

"Give me that!" Lucy ordered.

"No!"

Lucy tried to take the bottle away, but Lynn didn't let her. They struggled for a while, and it quickly got out of hand when Lucy had to yank so hard that Lynn was shoved into the wall. When Lynn got up to try to get the vodka back, Lucy slapped Lynn hard in the face. Then Lucy lost control of herself, and she was hitting Lynn in the head until she was curled up on the floor, holding her head, trying to protect herself.

After a while, Lynn noticed that Lucy stopped. She looked up to see tears streaming down Lucy's face.

"I can't fucking believe you. Twenty years. Twenty years. That's how long it's been since we last heard from you – over twenty years. We searched for you, Lynn. We thought you were dead. We buried you! There was a funeral and everything! There's a tombstone back in Royal Woods with your name on it!" Lucy sobbed.

Lynn stayed on the floor, but she felt her sister's sorrow. Her heart ached to see her like this, adding more shame.

Lynn sat up, "I'm-I'm sorry, Lucy."

Lucy held her face and asked firmly, "Where were you?"

Lynn sighed and explained as they sat on the bed, "After high school, I applied for college, but I failed. Each time I tried again, I kept failing miserably over and over again. I wasn't good enough."

Lynn teared up, and her voice broke.

"I was chasing a dream that would never come true. I was going after something I could never have . . . trying to be something that I'm just . . . not. (sobs and sniffs) After that, I lost my job, my apartment, my car, everything. I had nothing. I hit rock bottom," Lynn continued.

"Why didn't you call us? If you were struggling so bad, we would have helped you," Lucy said.

"One: my phone was inactive when I couldn't pay the phone bill, so I couldn't call you even if I wanted to. And two: I was too ashamed to show my face around you guys. You were all so successful and perfect! And I was just some worthless failure. (sobs) I wanted to prove I could do something great like you and Lincoln. I was so tired of being invisible and excluded. I wanted to accomplish things on my own. So, I chased after the impossible," Lynn explained. She squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her nails into the blanket, "But I kept failing, and now I'm just a worthless deadbeat loser."