Lucy's Poetry Book
Leni's Got a Gun
Author's Notes:
I've been sitting on this oneshot for over three months. I kept returning to it and setting it aside because of how much it made me feel. This was inspired by Aerosmith's Janie's Got a Gun, which I borrowed for the title. Proceed at your own risk.
Disclaimer: The Loud House Copyright Nickelodeon (2017)
Leni's Got a Gun
Sometimes life gives no happy endings;
Sometimes life cares not for your pain;
Sometimes we don't have all the answers…
Just stringed-puppets, dancing in rain.
Leni shivered beneath her blanket. Her terrified eyes were shut tight.
In the next bed, her sister was snoring. Out like a light.
Leni saw the hand that dropped a pill into her sister's drink.
She knew what it meant… she knew there was no stopping it.
If she could only hide; if she could only make herself smaller…
But, no.
The door was opening. An emotionless face was peering down at her.
Two strong hands were coming for her body; ripping off her gown…
And Leni cried.
Can't run away and hide-
No matter how hard we try.
Doomed for failure from the start-
Guess this is how we die.
Leni fell against the toilet, her mouth full of acid and bile, as she retched harshly into the stale water.
Her hand was clamped around her stomach. Her nails dug in deep enough to draw blood; smearing deep-red against her nightgown.
Tears filled her eyes as she pulled her hair out of the way; not noticing it was stained with vomit.
She was alone. All alone.
Except…
She wasn't.
Her nails dug deeper into her stomach; into her vulnerable belly.
And she wished; she begged God that she was alone in that room.
And now the strings are clipped-
Our puppets dangle in the void.
No one can save us now-
From being a devil's toy.
Leni screamed louder as a fist beat into her jaw.
Her teeth felt loose and her skull exploded with pain as she crashed against the bedframe.
"You fucking fool. How could you let yourself get pregnant!?"
Two strong hands gripped her neck, and Leni tried to scream… tried to breathe… tried to whimper out her agony… but couldn't.
"I should make you kill the baby. No…"
Her bruised eyelids barely peeked open to see his fist drawing back…
"I should fucking murder it myself."
Her screams strangled her; blood oozing from her body in multitudinous places…
And two strong fists turned her once pure, creamy body…
…as black as night.
What are we to do?
What are we to become?
Oh, puppet on your cursed string-
Your time has now come.
Two quivering hands reached into the case and picked up sleek metal.
Two trembling wrists crackled with energy as a vase was smashed against a skull.
Two terrified arms held a steering wheel stiffly.
Two shoulders heaved as a man's unconscious body was dragged along the ground and thrown against a sleeping train.
Two eyes blinked open in pain and confusion.
"Where the hell are we?"
Leni pulled out that little piece of metal, and cocked back the hammer.
"At your grave."
He grinned and laughed darkly.
"You don't have it in you, Leni. You never have."
You're weak.
You're stupid.
You're only good for a quick fuck.
Why don't you turn that gun around, Leni?
Why don't you do what everyone wants you to do, Leni?
"No!"
He froze as the barrel was pushed closer to his face.
"I'm not weak!"
A finger slowly tugged on the trigger…
"I'm not stupid!"
Two startling blue eyes cried in rage and pain as they stared into the scared eyes of a middle-aged man.
"And I'm no longer your fucktoy, daddy!"
Sometimes life gives no happy endings;
Sometimes life cares not for your pain;
Sometimes we don't have all the answers…
Just stringed-puppets, dancing in rain.
Two police officers had their guns trained on a terrified young woman.
She was backed into a corner and holding her gun to the side; shivering, bleeding, scared…
"Drop the gun! We only want to help!"
She shook her head side to side.
"No one can help me. Stay away!"
A hand rested against a small bump on a belly, and squeezed.
There was no way to save them. There was no life for them now.
She looked at the officer on the left right in his eyes.
"Our lives are over…"
He shook his head.
"Don't! We can help you!"
She sighed as her hand flexed around the gun.
"No, you can't."
His mind stammered as that gun slowly quivered with movement.
"Please, don't make me do this!"
Funny.
Leni remembered telling her father that same phrase just a few months ago.
"I'm sorry to make you."
With the flash of lightning, her arm was raised and she pulled the trigger…
On the same night that a man was found murdered underneath a train, a woman was killed by a policeman in self-defense.
The next day the coroner determined three had actually died.
A trembling hand closed a fading book, as two feet walked down a long hallway.
A curtain of darkness hung over two pools of sapphire tears.
Lucy stood over her sister, Leni…
…and a single drop of sorrowful rain fell from her chin onto Leni's gown-covered stomach.