Alone (A Loud House Lost Episode)

One hears many things about so called “Lost Episodes”. Most of them are supposedly episodes of child-friendly animated series like “The Amazing World of Gumball” or “Spongebob Squarepants.”

Filled to the brim with gore, blood, other child unfriendly imagery, most of the time pretty over the top stuff and not that scary or original in the end.

“Squidward’s Suicide” comes first to mind, but since because it was one of the first, it can get away with the clichés and can stand on pure shock volume alone and because it introduced those ideas in the first place.

I, like many others, heard the tales but never saw such an episode. It peaked my interest and one day after seeing another episode of my favorite show “The Loud House,” I thought about searching a Lost Episode of that series. It was a long stretch to think that I could find one for a relative new series but a try wouldn’t cost me anything.

So I booted up my computer and started to search on the free web. There I just found some usual Lost Episode Creepypasta and badly edited “scary” Loud House videos. I had reached a dead end after a while after even more obscure sites and sources didn’t give me any useful results.

There was another option, one I have never tried before called the Deep Web. A place people said where even entering it was a tremendous risk. You could hire assassins there, watch snuff Livestreams in so called “Red Rooms”, buy illegal goods, (drugs, slaves, etc.) and find secrets about society, different governments and the truth about Aliens and how they control humanity. All of that was not true of course, but it was very interesting to read.

Still, I hoped that I had found here, in the Deep Web, a lost episode of the Loud House. At least maybe a short animation of something scary would also suffice. I didn’t expect something official, something more elaborate by a fan at best. Deeper and deeper I searched with my virtual machine I used to avoid catching malware and viruses. Better safe than sorry. Eventually, I found a little really obscure, strange but also somewhat normal looking site. It had an older feel to it, from a time when the Internet was still in its infancy, a little bit more unstructured. A slightly pixelated group picture of the Loud Family was at the Top of the Page with the official Logo underneath it and underneath that in turn, in small writing white, was written “Loud House Fan site.” The background of the site was forest green in color and with cut-outs of Loud Family members here and there. On the right side, there were links in the form of words like many old websites used them. From top to bottom, the options I could choose from the following were:

''Home Character Bios Episode Guide Fanart Fanfic Fan-Comic Staff Credits''

Site notice Not much different from your usual Fan Sites, even if it was made in the style of older websites.

I wasn’t impressed by the design at first but I got used to the retro-charm the layout and design had in my opinion.

I looked at the Fanarts. Some bad, some good and some very bizarre. No Loudcest pictures anywhere and despite the very rookie-looking design, the pictures always had also their sources in order.

The Fanfics were mainly links to their respective pages on the free web. The page had some comments under the links, most likely from the creator and administrator of this site. He put links there to stories he liked but also some he didn’t think were good had also a place for some reason.

Character Bios weren’t surprising either, general and detailed information about the Loud Family and some supporting characters. It had also bits of Trivia I knew already like that Leni was supposed to be an eight-year-old girl, obese and having super strength she didn’t know how to control and that Lincoln could have been of the younger siblings or the older ones instead of being in the middle. Stuff one could easily find out on the Loud House Wiki or at other places, but it was nice to read them anyway.

But the Character Bio page made me raise an eyebrow as I read Luna’s entry.

Luna Loud was a brown haired, purple dressed rocker who played guitar and spoke with a British accent. After Leni, she was the nicest of the Loud girls. In the Description Section of her Bio, it was written that she was Bisexual and in love with a girl named Sam. I dismissed that instantly, thinking that this just was either a mistake or a rumor the administrator of the site had taken too seriously. Probably some fanon theory, written in a very convincing manner but ultimately false. I looked a little around on the site before doing other stuff.

A week later, two new Episodes of the Loud House were going to air soon. The Name of the Episodes were “Pets Peeved” and “L is For Love.” That second Episode shocked me because of the revelation at the end. Not because of the fact that it revealed that Luna Loud was Bisexual but because it was the grand premiere of that episode and there was no way in hell I should have known that beforehand. But I did, thanks to this Loud House site in the deep web.

I returned to the deep website on my computer and looked up the information about Luna again. Still there, not suddenly vanished but still visible. No changes, no nothing, still as I left it. I was really curious now. Who made that site and how did he get information about such an important reveal? Or was that person just very lucky with a fan theory?

I visited the site every time before the premiere of a new episode from that point on. That hadn’t been my plan but I looked through the Bio-Entries of the deep web site before the airing of another Episode called “Garage Banned.” It said that Lana, the tomboyish blonde 6-year-old twin of Lola, was bunking with her oldest sister Lori in her bed whenever she had nightmares. At first it sounded unusually caring for Lori to let that happen but on the other hand it made kind of sense. She wasn’t uncaring after all.

As I watched the Episode a week later proper, Lana really was regularly sleeping in Lori’s bed whenever she had nightmares. It was very cute and I really started to wonder who had created this page.

Leaking such spoilers was nothing new for any media, but spoiling that Luna was bisexual was a pretty large one, one people behind the production would actually try to keep a secret because of its important and sensitive nature. In a sense, it was very lucky for the show and the fans that this spoiler had only appeared here and not on a site used by the larger internet surfing public. It would have ruined the surprise of that Episode big time otherwise and some people on the production staff could have gotten in trouble.

Before the premiere of more episodes I found more leaked information. For the episode “ARGGH! You For Real?” the Bio-Page informed me that Lincoln Loud would capture a real ghost and he did. This trend would continue until I spotted a peculiar entry on Lynn’s Trivia-Section of her Bio. There it read “the most horrific event in Lynn Loud’s young life took place in the Episode “Alone”.”

Most horrific event? Plausible and implausible scenarios played before my eyes, asking myself what it could be. Lynn losing a championship game? Would Lynn accidentally injure one of her siblings? Would she break one of her own bones and be forced not to partake in any sports for a while? Lynn’s favorite sport gets banned? Losing her legs? Lucy getting killed before her eyes? It sounded like a description a “Lost Episode” could have, so my hopes for finally finding one could be fulfilled soon. Of course, anticipation has grabbed me, I could be wrong and the thing could turn out to be a normal episode. After all, this site spoiled information from episodes that still had to air, some small reveals and some big reveals. But there was no mention anywhere else about an Episode called “Alone,” not from any official sources or very well informed fan-sites. Was this episode such a big secret or was this truly one of the infamous Lost Episodes the Creepypastas were telling about?

I thought about my next move and decided to look through the Episode guide, maybe it had more information about the situation. Expectedly, I found a list of episodes, with brief summaries of the plots and other information, title cards of the Episodes, length of the episode, names of the directors and authors, the date of production, the date of actual airing and more information about the episodes. I looked up info on the unaired Episodes and indeed I found “Alone” listed in it. There was no director listed, neither was a storyboard artist or writer and I guessed they hadn’t been revealed yet for some reason. The premiere airing date was the 25/08/2017.

It was the 25th and I was ready. The official sources didn’t say anything about this episode airing today but there was a slight glimmer of hope that it could be a surprise. That slight glimmer went out as the episode that premiered was not the one I was waiting for, instead it was a rerun of “A Tattler’s Tale.” I sighed in disappointment, I think I got my hopes too high. I watched the episode which aired instead and after it ended, I had another idea: Maybe the Episode would premiere on the deep web website. There was also the realization that it could have been a livestream, a livestream posted only today, one that was already over.

Still I got over to my PC and submerged myself into the deep web once again. On first glance there was nothing, not even the mentioning of a livestream. I searched everywhere, the Fanarts, the Fan Videos, every nook and cranny of this Loud House Deep Web page.

But I found nothing.

Crestfallen, I was about to leave when I had another hunch: Maybe there was a hidden link somewhere. To decrease the amount of searching the entire site again, I thought about the problem. I reasoned that the link would be in the Episode guide, specifically the place where the description of “Alone” was. I looked for a link, hovered my mouse over every word and every letter in the hopes of finding a link. I found one, in the Description, in the word “horrific.” Very fitting.

I clicked on it and it led me to a hidden video. I didn’t know what kind of video program this was. It wasn’t YouTube and I wasn’t able to recognize the layout, probably from some really small unknown site that people use to upload videos when YouTube blocks them. There weren’t any links that could lead me to the host but I wasn’t interested in that anyway.

I clicked on the video and the episode started. I will try to talk about the episode in a more flourish way and interpret some scenes because just describing it would not do the Episode justice. I am not a professional novelist, so don’t except too much either.

--The Episode “Alone” Starts--

Lynn Loud Jr., athlete of the family with thick brown hair and a ponytail, woke up in the room she was sharing with her younger sister Lucy. The rest of the lightly freckled young woman during the night had been a good one even if she had a strange feeling upon waking up. She stretched her well trained body and yawned, ready for the new day. She looked over to the bed of Lucy but didn’t see her. Her bed was made and everything looked clean. Lynn didn’t care, she was probably already up and had made her bed herself this morning for some reason. Lynn just shrugged, got out of her bed and put her usual clothes on, a red and white Jersey with a red 1 on it, red-and-white track shorts and cleats with striped knee-high socks.

Walking out of her room, she noticed how unusually quiet it was in the house. There were no screams, no noises, no trampling, no fighting sounds, no explosions, no smoke, not even Lori talking to Bobby on her phone. Confused, the young sportswoman called out for her siblings. “Lucy?” shouted Lynn, calling out for her roommate. “Did you hide the family to scare me?” She didn’t get an answer. “Lori?” she called out. “Are you here?” No answer. “Leni?” she continued more nervously. “Luna, Luan? Are you here?”

She walked from one room to another, looking for her sisters. “Lincoln, Lana, Lola?”

No answer. “Lisa? Are you there Lisa? Is Lily with you?”

There was nobody on the second floor.

Lynn ran down the old stairs of her home, hoping her parents could bring light into the whereabouts of her siblings. She shouted: “Mom, Dad, do you know where the others are?!” Once again, the young girl received no answer, only silence. “Mom? Dad?” She looked for her family in every room of the house. She didn’t find them in the living room or the kitchen. No trace of them in the parents’ bedroom or the cellar.

Lynn was confused and a little scared. Did the others play a joke on her? I can imagine how Luan would do this but why would the others agree to cooperate with such a joke?

In her thought bubbles, she imagined how Luan stole away the entire family except Lynn in the middle of the night, probably to put them in some horror-movie location. But today wasn’t April 1st and even if that was the case, she doubted that Luan could kidnap all of them without anyone noticing.

She ran up, searching for any hints and clues about what could have happened to her family. One thing that she hadn’t noticed the first time was how clean everything was. No evidence of a fight, all the rooms looked clean, like after all the kids did their housework and nobody else had been in there. Everything was at its place, minus all the animals. Which disturbed Lynn even more, who and why would somebody steal all their animals? In more visuals, Lynn thought that maybe Luan brought them to an animal care facility.

Her smartphone! She took it out and immediately phoned Lori. She didn’t know why her, maybe because she was the one most often seen with a Smartphone but that didn’t matter right now. Her picture showed up and Lynn clicked on the number. No signal. She tried to phone Lucy as she clicked her number with her picture next to it but she didn’t get an answer either. She tried to call Leni, Luna, Luan, Lincoln, Lana, Lola, Lisa, Dad, Mom and even Lily. No signal from any of them.

Lynn regulated her breathing as good as she could, while fear was gripping her heart. Someone or something had stolen away her family, her large family. Her beloved family.

Only her iron will and stubborn proud kept her from crying, even if nobody was around, she wouldn’t show any weakness, she had to be strong now more than ever if she wanted to see her family again. Opening the door to her home, she stepped outside and started her search.

Her first course of action was to ask their cranky neighbor Mr. Grouse for help. Maybe he had seen something of interest. Hoping that the old man could give her any useful information, she made her way to his house. Reaching it, she didn’t bother with the doorbell and knocked on the door. “Mr. Grouse, are you there?” No answer. In a more desperate attempt to make the old man notice her, she tried the doorbell but still no answer. She was very anxious, so it was no wonder how daring she was, climbing the fence of her neighbor’s garden and running to his backdoor. She knocked and screamed his name this time. “Mr. Grouse?! Please, answer me!”

She knew her neighbor hated anything or anyone trespassing in his garden so she ran a few rounds around said garden, screaming about how she would wreck the grass. But no angry neighbor came running out of the house screaming “My yard, my property!” Lynn even started to damage the grass, ripping it out of the ground and throwing it around, screaming like an angry dog in the hopes it would summon the curmudgeon of a neighbor.

But he didn’t come out.

Lynn was considering smashing one of the windows but decided against it. She didn’t feel desperate enough to get in trouble for a broken window. Yet, she was yearning for a scolding from her mom and dad, thus she would know that they had returned to her.

Leaving the property and yard of Mr. Grouse behind, she made her way to the house of the McBrides. They were on the emergency contacts and very good friends of the family.

She ran towards their house, not knowing why it just felt right. While running through the streets, she noticed how empty, how lifeless everything was. She didn’t hear or see anyone. The streets were as empty as the salt desert of Utah. It was a haunting view and it didn’t feel right for the young sports ace. Everything looked clean, the houses looked like people still lived in them, the cars aside the pavements didn’t look unused, the meadows, green and healthy looking. There were no traces of any kind of fight, flight or sudden vanishing in the area.

She didn’t spot any kinds of crashed or abandoned cars, belongings on the street, damaged houses or even garbage littered anywhere. Slowing down her pace, she knew that wasting her energy wouldn’t get her anywhere now. She adapted to a slower speed to take a better look at the situation.

She walked to the High school she attended with her four older sisters. She didn’t know why, but for some reason, her feet had brought her to this place. She had forgotten if today was a school day or not and she didn’t have the time to think about it. The doors to this place of learning were open and with no better idea, she invited herself to the place she had to visit regularly. The halls were empty like they were supposed to be but Lynn hoped that somebody was here. If nobody else was there, she would just look through Royal Woods elementary.

While she was running through the deserted but not abandoned looking halls of her current school, Lynn wondered how fast she could check up all the rooms. She made a few stretching exercises to prepare her body for the self-imposed challenge. It filled the young brown-haired lady with determination through the use of routine. Routine, a powerful tool to get through the most unusual situations.

As she finished her training she got onto one knee, her hands on the ground. 1. 2. 3. GO! Lynn ran through her school, opened every door and ran through every room. The classrooms, the gym, the teachers’ longue, the laboratories, the principal’s office, etc. No one was there, not even single soul in the cellar, seeking solace from the empty town. This led Lynn to abandoning this place quickly because a school without people can be an incredibly frightening place. Her next target was the school she had once visited and now her younger siblings were doing that at the moment.

On her way there, she still spotted neither animal nor human. But the places she ran through and saw continued to just look empty, not abandoned or given up. It looked so serene, which made the absence of any life even more disturbing. Lynn wasn’t used to such a sight. It made her spine tingle with terror.

As she reached the elementary school of her younger kin, her hopes welled up just to be brought down quickly. This place was also empty, clean looking and yet empty. There was nobody in the Kindergarten, there was nobody in the different classrooms, there was nobody in the gym, there was nobody in the teachers’ longue, cellar and the principal’s office. Even the large terrarium filled with frogs was void of said amphibian creatures.

The young sports ace then ran to the supermarket, so she wasn’t forced to hold still and think about the ramifications of her situation. Nobody was there. No customers, no staff and no hummers. At least all the food and drinks were there, so she didn’t have to worry about starving or dying of thirst in the near future. She played with the thought of swiping something to drink but decided against it, just in case. She had no money to pay and she wasn’t willing to risk becoming a thief, especially if she wasn’t thirsty enough to excuse such an act.

Lynn ran. She ran out of the supermarket and to the Mall. Empty.

From the mall she ran to her dad’s old workplace. Empty. The dentist her mother was working for. Empty. Dairy Land. Empty. Jean Juan's French Mex. Empty.

Empty, Empty and even more empty. Nobody was in this town anymore.

This was it. She tried to call the police. Somebody took the call. “Hello? Is the police there? I need help!” Nobody answered. “Hello? Miss or Mister Police officer?” She didn’t receive an answer. She listened very closely but she wasn’t even hearing anybody breathing on the other end. Then the call ended.

Lynn started to feel strange. She felt something she hadn’t felt before. True terror. Her family wasn’t there, nobody else was there, no animals were there and the police answered the phone but didn’t say anything to her. Not even a creepy breathing, which freaked her out even more for reasons she didn’t really understand. Something would have been better than nothing at this point. She had no idea what was going on.

She played with the idea of finding the police station but decided against it, fearing of what she didn’t know. Something HAD answered her call but she could only think up horrible things on the other end. She imagined everything from cannibalistic aliens to mass murdering ghosts, from slasher monsters to insane lunatic scientists.

She wished that Lucy was here. She probably could figure out what kind of spook was going around here.

The fifth oldest thought about phoning the fire department or the 911 but she feared what could happen if somebody answered her phone. Her face was a picture of worry, the cheeks hung down, the eyes were weary, the forehead showed many lines of worry and her lips trembled a little bit. The young girl rubbed her own arms, suddenly feeling cold and wishing somebody else could embrace her, favoring her family.

“Guys… I need you. You are always around me, why not now? Where did you go? What is going on? I don’t want to be alone… Why am I alone? What have I done to deserve this?” Lynn started to become really self-reflective and started to think about the entire situation while she wandered through the empty streets (visible more thought ballons). Was this even her home? Was this the Royal Woods she knew? Was this an empty alternate Royal Woods? Was this… Hell? Lynn wondered how and why she could have died and what deed brought her a stay in hell. Was it her behavior when she won games? Was it the way she treated Lincoln sometimes? Yes, she used him to test her new fighting techniques sometimes but she was careful not to break his bones (anymore) or to produces any bruises on his body. One month long grounding was enough in her book.

She tried to calm herself with the breathing practice she had learned during her Judo Training. If she wanted to get behind the mystery of this, she had to keep her nerves under control. If she wanted to find her family, she had to make a plan. She decided to go home for something to eat, drink and to recover. She had to get rid of her ever growing anxiety. She worried about the latter, in this situation she asked herself how long she could take this.

After another quick controlled run, she was home again. Her mind was tired, her body still tense and she just wanted to cry. But her stubbornness and sense of toxic masculi… Toxic femini… Toxic pride held her back. She wasn’t one to cry. She wouldn’t cry, only a strong person would survive such a situation. Feelings would only get in her way. With a raised chest, she entered her home, closing the door behind her and got herself something to eat and drink from the kitchen.

After finishing her simple meal consisting of cola and Pop Tarts, she returned to her room, ready to get a good sleep. Her mental exhaustion hadn’t been really quelled after her meal and her fears didn’t diminish like a snowball in the sun but rather increased like a snowball rolling down a snowy hill. She wondered if she would even be able to sleep under those circumstances.

She sighed as she opened the door, bare all hope.

She spotted somebody lying in her bed and as she recognized the person she never thought of seeing here or anywhere else for that matter. She looked at somebody in her bed sleeping. Herself. The sound of the opening door woke the other Lynn up which made her go up from her lying position into a sitting one and she stretched her limbs. This other Lynn then looked at the original. The other looked at her, not moving a muscle, not making a sound. She just sat there, starring at the original.

Lynn was at a loss for words. But more importantly she was losing her mind. She wasn’t able to form even the simplest reaction, her thoughts meshed together into a blob of chaotic feelings, a requiem of confusion, they had become an unsolvable mess of questions, confusion and fear. She tried to find a reasonable explanation for the impossibility before her eyes, but a person whose intellect was at the edge of madness wasn’t able to conjure the logic to solve such a question.

Her doppelgänger continued to stare at Lynn. Nothing else. Her eyes weren’t empty or white, she didn’t grin, she didn’t make any aggressive postures, she didn’t have any weapons on her or any scary looking abnormities on her body. This entity didn’t look any different from herself. There was no difference but also no sound from this being. It was just there and starring.

After a while, Lynn opened her mouth to ask her doppelgänger a question, but instead she started to scream. First slowly and controlled and then louder and louder, making her family name proud. Her scream was so loud, so intense and so filled with fear, it howled through the entire house. Her doppelganger continued to just stare like she was watching something she watched every day. She was not perturbed by the screams which in turn made the original Lynn even more perturbed and she screamed even louder. The fact that her voice hadn’t broken so far was a little wonder.

Her scream, fueled by her breaking mind and the doppelganger who just was staring, turned into a cacophonous shriek of total terror, caused by the unknown before the young sportswoman.

Lori stormed into Lynn’s room with her golf club, followed by Leni, holding a hair dryer like a pistol. “What is going on here?” the oldest demanded to know. “Where- Uah!” Luna, with her axe, came in, pushing Lori out of the way and to the ground, while Luan did the same with Leni, armed with an oversized mallet. “Is everything alright?” asked Luna. “Who is screaming?” “Do I have to introduce the intruder to my mallet?!” shouted Luan with a giggle. “Get it?” Before anyone could groan, the rocker and the comedian got run over by a little pink car, driven by Lola, with Lana on the other seat as a co-driver, holding a wrench in her right and a hammer in her left hand. “Who dares interrupt my beauty-sleep?!” Lola angrily demanded to know. “I hope you wrote your testament!” Lisa was the last one to arrive in the room, climbing onto the car, with Lily in her arms who was, to the surprise of everyone, very quiet. “You are all kissed by Fortuna, you know that? Our youngest didn’t start to clamor as you aroused her from her journeys in the land of Morpheus who gave her the sleep of R.E.M. during your rhubarb here.” Her other siblings looked confused at the child genius. She sighed and said: “You are lucky that you didn’t awake Lily with your noise.”

Lynn had stopped screaming and her gothic sister was by her side, stroking her leg. None had seen her move from her bed, she had just appeared beside her. “Lynn, why do you scream during the middle of the darkest night? Was a vampire visiting you?” Woken by the tumult, the only son of the family came into the room. “I have an important meeting in the morning with Clyde,” Lincoln sighed. After hearing the scream, he was quickly out of the bed, but after hearing his sisters being on their way and the lack of ensuing fighting noises, he took his time so he wouldn’t run into a pile of bodies of overprotective sisters. “What happened? Did Lucy manage to do the ultimate accidental scare and killed somebody?”

“Maybe you are on to something,” remarked the oldest. “But before we can figure this out for sure, I have to ask for a favor: GET DOWN FROM ME NOW!” The seven sisters who had positioned herself on Lori and Leni scattered and helped them up. “Like, that was heavy,” Leni explained. “What could Lynn make totes scream so hard?”

Lynn was staring at her sisters. They were here. Blinking. She was not alone. “Lynn what happened?” asked Lana worrisome. “That scream was unusual, even for us.” “I went to hard rock metal concerts with less volume,” told Luna the family. “What happened, dude?”

Lynn wanted to say something casual, something chill, something cool, saying that she was in control again. But as she opened her mouth, she started to cry. There was no strength left in herself not to cry. Her entire body started to shake like a freezing dog on a very cold day.

Lynn had feared that that the others would make fun of her for crying in the past but instead she felt several hugs around her body. Warm, soft, cuddly, loving. There was no scorn or mockery, only affection and concern. Lynn felt safe, safe and free to cry her eyes out. With the dam broken, she cried harder than ever before, happy about the comfort of her family.

“Like, I totes don’t get it.” The Loud Family has gathered in the room where Lori and Leni had their domicile to sort this situation out and calm everybody. For some incredible strike of Luck, nothing had woken up their parents despite Lynn’s incredible scream. Lynn was lying with her head on Leni’s lap who was affectional stroking her head while Luna was stroking circles over Lynn’s back with her finger. “That nightmare didn’t sound scary at all,” was Leni’s opinion. “Dude, that was scary, alright?” was Luna’s objection. “Totally alone, nobody there and you find a Doppelganger of yourself. That sounds frightening to me. I would be really scared to be lonely.”

The sportster had told her siblings about the nightmare she had. It had been difficult to her because it didn’t sound that scary to her. “Some alone time sounds heavenly,” chirped Lola in. “Only alone with your thoughts, total peace and no worries about somebody running into the way of your car.” “It was literally your own fault!” protested Lori who was sitting on her bed looking up from her Smartphone. “Drivers have to watch out for pedestrians.” “Pedestrians should know their place!” “I think it was scary,” Lana, who was sitting next to Lori, commented. “I would feel really lonely with nobody around, not even our pets. Absolute depressing,” Lana sighed. “And the only other person you find is a clone of yourself. Wait, that last part is my daily nightmare.” “Hey!” protested Lola, feeling insulted. Lana laughed as her twin hunted her through the room.

Lucy, who was sitting on the ground between both beds reading a book titled “Oneiromancy for beginners,” looked up and told their sisters in her usual moody tone: “I didn’t find anything about the dream Lynn had. There are similar themes but not combined like that or dreams that take place in such a normal looking environment.” Lucy sighed before she added: “Your dream sounds more atmospheric and surreal at the end. I don’t know that it means, but it seems to be scarier that way.”

What followed was a discussion of the siblings about this strange and unusual dream of Lynn. It became a back and forth of opinions, interpretations and arguments of its true meaning, reaching from complicated omens to random chance and very bizarre theories. Lynn was not satisfied with any answer they came up with, but she was happy that the others tried so hard to help her.

“So, you were not aware that you were dreaming,” brought Lisa the discussion back to the topic. “Then it was a normal and not a lucid dream, but more coherent than a usual dream. To put it for you in simpler words: Normal dreams are random, incoherent, chaotic and messy while we sleep, not coherent clear events like in most media. You my athletic ardent sister encountered something not many people encounter.” “Dreaming of your Doppelganger could mean that you fear yourself,” speculated Lucy. “Maybe you have to face yourself?” “You mean like in that movie there that guy talks to his reflection?” “That was a crazy guy, Lola,” explained Lori. “Wait, you saw Taxi Driver?” Before Lori could ask more questions about Lola’s unusual viewing habits, Lynn chimed in again with the question: “Can I stay this night with you guys?”

The question was followed by utter silence. “Did that dream scare you so much?” asked Leni worried but also in an understanding tone. “Yes, I… I am ashamed to admit it but the dream scared me so much.” Lynn sniffled and looked down in shame. “I don’t want to be alone. I want to bunk with one of you.”

“Lynn, you are strong, feisty and brave,” told Lori her younger sister. “You don’t really need some company tonight, right?” Lynn blushed heavily, looking down in disgrace and shame. “I am still scared… You all think of me as a wiener right now, right?” “And how!” “Lola!” scolded Lincoln. “Be nice, that wasn’t your usual cookie-cutter bad dream, that was a surreal nightmare!” “And?” “The unknown can scare us more than anything we understand,” chimed Lucy in and Lincoln nodded in agreement. “Leni can understand spiders, so any encounter with them can only lead to temporary fear. But what Lynn dreamed is unexplainable at the moment. It may look silly to you Lola but her fear is understandable for me.” Most of the others agreed and even the ones who didn’t thought it was scary said nothing. “Still, prepare to be teased later down the line,” promised Lola. “You better don’t become a scaredy-cat because of one stupid dream.” “I have nightmares all the time,” reminded Lana her twin with a serious expression. “You don’t make fun of that either.” “I do too.” “You did?” “One day or another, our usual arguments,” Lola tried to remember and succeeded. “Wasn’t that important. Whatever… Probably a thing that is forgotten soon. Don’t think too much about it Lynn.”

Lynn didn’t know if Lola was condescending, sympathetic or both but once again she looked over to Lori with begging eyes. “If you are so scared, go to Lucy,” the oldest recommended. “Or Lincoln.” “Never again,” Lincoln said in a stone-cold tone, before adding in a softer tone: “Only as a last resort.” “Why don’t you come to me?” Luna offered her little sister while softly poking her back with her fingers in an unusual massage. “We will rock my bed together.” “Phrasing,” Lisa said without looking up. Some blushed, some laughed and the younger ones were confused. “Or you could come to me,” offered Luan. “You will have the bed-st time in my bed.” Luan laughed, her siblings groaned and Lisa once again said “Phrasing.”

“Hey! Like, we could totes do a sleepover together,” Leni suggested. “All together.” “No,” was Lori’s reaction. “Awesome idea sis!” Luna agreed with Leni. “No,” proposed Lori. “I guess I could leave the dark solitude of my bed for one night,” exclaimed Lucy. “No,” said once again Lori who felt ignored. “Of course!” answered Leni. “No!” shouted Lori. “I will accompany you in this concomitance,” added Lisa stoic as ever. “NO!” Her final shout of denying finally got their attention, silencing her sisters. Lori was fuming with rage.

“It is bad enough with Lana’s regular nightmares! This is not the Ritz, nightmares or not I will not stand this behavior from my 13 year old sister!”

Silence followed and everybody felt uncomfortable. But after a few seconds, Lori sighed. She wasn’t even really upset about the situation, she just wanted to make Lynn feel comfortable. Despite Lori’s generosity, Lynn had to promise that this wouldn’t turn into a regular occurrence. It also helped that it was Friday and with the Weekend in sight, they could live with a different sleeping arrangement for one night, also nobody’s beauty sleep had to suffer, at least for the siblings who thought more about their appearance.  Lori gave her orders:

“Luna, Luan, Lana, Lisa, you come to me, Lynn, Lucy, Lola, Lincoln you stay with Leni.” “Yes, Ma’am!”

They quickly got into more or less comfortable positions on the two beds. The little Lana positioned herself between Lori and Leni’s bellies to be safe and sound, while Lisa cuddled herself to Lori’s back while Luan was behind her. Then, Luan embraced Lisa with one hand and Lori with the other, while Lori embraced the two sisters before her with one arm each.

Leni solved her situation by placing Lynn before her with an embrace while Lucy embraced her roommate from behind, Lola was placed on Leni’s back with Lincoln embracing the little pageant queen from behind with one arm and Leni with the other.

“If you move too much, you can sleep on the ground,” threatened Lori, cradling her sisters at the same time. “And no talking. Everyone just wish the other good night and then close your eyes… Good night everybody, I love you all, I will protect you all with all my might.” Several “good night” and “sleep well” were heard, including a “good night, Jim Bob” for unknown reasons.

Leni and Lucy did their best to comfort their the sporty sister, cuddling her and telling her that she would be safe. “No one will harm you, baby sister,” promised Leni and kissed her on the head. “We are here for you.” “I am never-ending darkness, darkness that will surround and protect you,” promised Lucy in a somber-friendly tone. Lynn was calmed by those words, even the ones from Lucy worked. She closed her eyes, snug as a bug, cuddled together with her sisters who laid around her like a protective wall. No reason to worry, she was home, she was safe and she was not alone.

The doppelganger of Lynn observed them out of Lori’s closet before the scene cut to black.

--The Episode “Alone” Ends--

I was speechless as the episode ended. I couldn’t believe how harmless it was at the end.

This was the lost episode of the Loud House? No gore, no graphic imagery, no violent deaths for the characters, no hyperrealism, no Luan or Lola going psycho and killing everybody, no sudden inclusion of inappropriate material. The Episode had been tame… It was scary in a way, the doppelganger of Lynn raised questions but this was not the fair I was used to when it came to Lost Episodes. I wasn’t disappointed by what I found, in fact, I was astonished finding a Lost Episode that was breaking the mold of the usual fare. But I was surprised by that I found. I was also kind of glad not to see how the 11 children, including a baby, got mutilated in the most gruesome way. I doubt it would have psychologically scared me for the rest of my life, but I liked the Louds and seeing them die horrible deaths was not something I was eager to witness.

Of course I tried to save the video so I could show it to the whole world but the unknown video host ignored any and all convert-programs. I tried it for so long, used so many different programs but gave up after a while. Unfortunately, I was so tired after watching the episode and trying to save it that I didn’t think of using my Smartphone camera to record the episode. Instead, I shut down the computer and went to bed. The next morning, as I had the idea with the smartphone, the link to the video was broken. I felt like an idiot, only this document can tell my discovery now.

This is my story. What do you think this episode meant? Why was it never officially aired? Will it ever see an official release? It didn’t come across as an episode which could break any TV Ratings. Was it still too risky for the management at Nickelodeon and they forbade airing it? Did somebody from the production staff decided to upload it but got cold feet later and took it down? What was the deal with Lynn’s doppelganger and will this strange unsettling being return in another episode? Was that being friend or foe, a bad omen or a good one? Why was all of Royal Woods devoid of people but otherwise normal?

So many questions I can only speculate about. What do you think?