Coercion
Moxie wandered through an abandoned street. She knew she shouldn't be out and about on the bad side of Stain'd by the Sea (even if there was no good side), on a night like this, with Hangfire on the loose, along with all his dubious accomplices and with Snicket missing for three days now. But the old caviar factory was the only hint she had to find him. And he was the only person who could set things right.
No one else had seemed to care that he was gone. His chaperone had said that he would "turn up." Jake and Cleo had been worried about him, but not worried enough to risk their necks. And the Bellerophon brothers were taking care of their father, who was on death's doorstep. It was ironic, that had he been with them, Snicket might have roused their spirits with one of his overly-moral but still important speeches. But his sudden disappearance had shrunk the courage of his associates.
All but her.
She couldn't give up. There was a story to be told, and she needed to tell it whether or not her friend was still alive (oh god don't think about that don't think about that you may as well be dead too if you think about that).
She peeked around the corner of the closed down ice rink. The wind made rustling noises as trash tumbled along the street. The factory was a couple blocks north. All she had to do was stick to the alleys and avoid the street lamps that brought out so many irksome moths.
A hand gripped her shoulder and spun her around. Her stomach lurched and she staggered, stepping off the curb wrong and causing a flash of pain in her ankle. Suddenly, the scar Nurse Dander had given her was burning and her heart was pounding because there was only one kind of person who was up and about at this time of night, and they were the kind who liked to keep secrets (and she supposed that meant she was one of them).
Ellington Feint pressed a hand to Moxie's mouth, expecting her to shriek with surprise. When Moxie didn't, she removed her hand from Moxie's mouth, glanced around the corner and then glanced at Moxie as if she were a piece of rubbish.
"Sorry to startle you...I was afraid you'd be spotted. Umm...where's Snicket?" She asked, in a voice low enough to indicate secrecy but loud enough to pierce the fog of Moxie's mind.
Moxie thought she remembered Ellington being a lot more confident when last they met. She was wearing a black coat that she hugged to herself as if it was her only friend and a scarf with red and black stripes. Her hair was unbraided and it writhed in the breeze, making her face look even paler (and more perfect). The palm of Ellington's hand had smelled like coffee and old wool. Moxie hated the warmth which it had evoked in her.
Moxie's hands balled into fists. "You...you almost gave me a heart attack." She stuttered, barely able to look at the girl, let alone talk to her.
"Better than you getting spotted. The street was completely exposed. Why would you take the sidewalk and not the alley?" Ellington asked as if that was a question most people considered every day.
"What? Why would I take the alley?" Moxie extended her arms out. "There's no one watching me…"
Ellington rolled her eyes, in that infuriating way of someone who knows that they're smarter than you and don't think they need to bother explaining it. "Nevermind."
Moxie straightened and took a deep breath. She needed to at least try to be civil, not least because Snicket would want her to. "Why are you following me?"
Ellington shrugged. "I couldn't find Snicket. I figured you'd lead me to him."
Moxie's resolve to be civil slipped. "You really don't know, do you?"
Ellington was taken aback by Moxie's sudden, shocked quietness. "I...why? What's happened?"
She sounded nervous. She didn't have right to sound nervous, after what she had done.
This, all of this, was Ellington's fault, and the girl had the nerve to make Moxie feel bad about being so angry at her (that made Moxie angrier which in turn made her feel worse).
"Snicket has been missing since Thursday..." Moxie said, placing her hands on her hips. "...but you wouldn't know about that...you've probably been too busy doing Hangfire's work for him."
"That's not true. I haven't heard from Hangfire in over a week." Ellington replied, pausing before thinking to properly deny her involvement in Hangfire's heinous crimes. "Anyway, it's not like that."
"Really? That's your defense? Not, 'I'm sorry' or, 'I didn't mean for this to happen.' Just…'it's not like that'?" Moxie extended her arms out, no longer caring about being quiet. "Snicket could be kidnapped or worse and-and..."
Ellington wasn't taken aback by Moxie's emotion. She remained perfectly still.
"I'm sorry...it's not your fault. It's mine." Moxie pointed at herself. "I didn't realize how little you actually cared about him!"
"I do care," Ellington claimed, in that frustratingly perfect, cold voice. Even she didn't sound convinced by her own words.
"What were you going to do this time anyway? Ask him for another favor? Make him an unwitting accomplice again?"
Ellington ignored her. There wasn't time for this. "He must have told you something...you wouldn't be out and about at this hour if you didn't think you knew where he was," Ellington said, instead. As always, she was an enigma, an infuriating enigma who continually refused to answer any of the questions that loomed over Stain'd-By-The-Sea like pollution. And that made Moxie even madder than Ellington's untrustworthy nature, in a selfish, obsessive kind of way,
"If he did tell me something, I wouldn't share it with you." Moxie said. The nerve of this girl, to use someone as noble and intelligent as Snicket for her own ends and then to pretend she cared about him just to trick Moxie when five minutes ago she hadn't even known he was gone.
It made her throat hot. It made it difficult to think. Usually, Moxie could arrange words in her head, an account of what she would type before she typed it. Ellington made the words lose all alignment and the sentences started to criss-cross each other until it was impossible to know where which train of thought ended and which began.
Moxie turned away. She wished she could feel more disgusted and less hurt. Then she wouldn't have that horrible tinge of pity in her stomach, that told her that she would do the exact same thing if her father was captured.
Except she wouldn't, a different part of her brain reminded her, not just because her father was hardly himself anymore, but because Moxie wouldn't be able to function if a villain started holding her family captive and demanding she do terrible things in exchange for their safety. And that was the part that made her feel bad for being angry at Ellington, that made her wish more than anything, that Snicket was here. Because if he trusted Ellington, she would be able to stand to the side and follow out her part in his plan. And she would mutter and clench her fists, and it would gnaw at her, but she would bite her tongue because she could almost see whatever it was that Snicket saw in Ellington.
Moxie turned away, having to catch her breath and focus on something else. Her throat felt drier than it had a moment ago. She hoped that Ellington would disappear as quickly as she came. She hoped that Ellington wouldn't try to say anything else.
It didn't occur to Moxie to hope that Ellington wouldn't use physical violence to prevent Moxie from leaving.
Ellington grabbed Moxie before she could turn the corner (again) and pinned her against the brick wall of the ice rink, with one hand on each shoulder. Moxie's typewriter struck the pavement with a dull 'clunk!', with her hands now busy. Despite her slight frame, Ellington was disarmingly strong, as the pain of Ellington's elbows against moxie's shoulders would indicate. Moxie felt like a bug pinned beneath someone's finger.
Ellington's fingers felt like icicles even through the tan sleeves of Moxie's vest. The forearm of Ellington's coat-sleeve was coarse against the base of Moxie's neck and her breath was hot on Moxie's forehead. The coffee/old-wool smell was too pungent to ignore.
"What do you know? Has Hangfire already gotten him?" Ellington asked, her green eyes searching Moxie's downcast gray ones.
There would be no one around for blocks and Moxie had made the mistake of not alerting anyone to where she was going.
"Right...like I'm going to tell you," Moxie said, speaking as slowly as possible without sounding strange. The idea of Ellington knowing how much she was hurting her, made Moxie's resolve harden. "...so you can run off...and tell Hangfire before I even get a chance to save Snicket."
"Stop being ridiculous...I'm trying to help!" Ellington insisted.
"Yeah? Well, you have a wonderful way of showing it. Lying, stealing, and then you show up expecting for me to be friendly with you." Moxie said through gritted teeth, as she stared at the ground. She could not look back up into Ellington's stern, mysterious eyes. If she did, Moxie knew she would start yelling all the things she'd been wanting to say to Ellington since the taller girl first ran off with the Bombinating Beast.
"Look, I-I don't know how much Snicket told you, but I had good reasons for doing the things I did. Still, that doesn't mean I want to see him dead!" Ellington said.
Of course, you don't want him dead, Moxie thought, her head now hurting and her throat painfully dry. He means the world to you. That's why he's so in love with you because he thinks you've got such a big heart under that brain of yours. Because he thinks that you want him very much alive, and he's too blind to see anyone else's heart because of it.
"Stop it right now. Say something! Look at me!" Ellington ordered. She didn't care anymore if someone heard them, but she still wasn't shouting or losing her temper. She was being cross, like Moxie was the child and that she was the adult by supposedly suddenly growing a conscience (and at now of all time).
Ellington looked almost wounded when Moxie didn't listen. Then she forced that expression of weakness off her face and replaced it with a hardened one. She let go of Moxie's left shoulder to push Moxie's chin up. Her touch was soft yet strong, like she could snap Moxie in two if she wanted to, or make her feel like everything would somehow turn out alright (Moxie shook that out of her mind and shut her eyes tight right before her gaze met Ellington's.
If she saw those disarming eyes then she would lose all the resolve left in her.
The words would tumble out in every direction, sealing her and Snicket's doom. And then Snicket would be in even bigger trouble, because of her and she might never see him again. Or (and this felt almost worse) Ellington would run off without Moxie, find him, and rescue him. Then he would knock Hangfire unconscious with one punch and then save Ellington's father and the two would go dancing off into the sunset together and truth and justice and happiness would be served but she would be bitter because it felt wrong. You weren't supposed to be able to do terrible, conniving things and then turn around and save the day at the last moment. The world wasn't supposed to work like that.
And of course, Snicket and Ellington would both forget about her, because they were both interesting people, the kind of people who can save towns and rescue the helpless and who would never bat an eye at someone as (uninteresting) unimpressive as Moxie.
Ellington made a noise in the back of her throat and turned away from Moxie sharply. Finally freed, Moxie felt like all the strength had been taken out of her arms. Still, she bent to pick up her typewriter. It had been a gift from her father. It was her only way of exposing Hangfire's treachery. Of saving the town and the family business. It had been dented (she ran her hand across the dent slowly as if she could somehow bend the metal back into place) but it would still work.
The sentences were better now, the smell of Ellington wasn't so strong that Moxie couldn't think about anything but how weak her voice sounded. But all Moxie could think about was how stupid it was, that she was so afraid of Snicket leaving (forgetting about) her.
"You would rather spite me then save Lemony's life, wouldn't you?" Ellington asked as Moxie started to stand up as if she could read Moxie's mind. But Moxie wasn't really listening, she was focused on the thought that Ellington sounded upset.
"Because what...you think that if the Inhumane Society didn't already have him, they would send me of all people to get his location out of you?" Ellington asked, making hand-gestures to emphasize the (supposedly) ludicrous nature of such a plot.
"Of course they would send you." Moxie said through gritted teeth. "You're good at lying. You're good at making people believe you."
Ellington rolled her eyes in that same infuriating way and folded her arms, as Moxie continued, voice trembling. "And by the way, despite my...personal problems with you, I'm not being difficult because I don't like you." Moxie dusted off her typewriter. "I'm not telling you because you've shown repeatedly that you don't deserve to be trusted and because Lemony made me promise not to trust anyone the last time I saw him."
"So, you would rather keep your promise than save him?" Ellington asked as if the two were mutually exclusive.
"You don't even know what loyalty is...do you?" Moxie asked, the trembling gone in her voice.
"Loyalty? Oh please, the only reason you've been following Snicket around is 'cause you wanted to get a good story out of him and because you have a crush on hi-"
Moxie was charging by the first words. She caught Ellington by surprise, knocking the wind out of her and pinning her to the ground.
"Don't you ever say that, do you hear me!? I'm not like you, I don't befriend people just to get what I want!" Moxie yelled her hands on Ellington's collar.
She was crying now, but not because she was angry at Ellington or afraid that what Ellington had said was the truth. She was crying because she didn't have a crush on Snicket; not really. She just cared about him because he was brave and intelligent, and understood things in a way that most people couldn't. She didn't kid herself with notions that they would somehow stay in contact after his apprenticeship was over. She just wanted to see him again because as sure as she was that Ellington was a poison on him, she was also sure that he was one of the best friends she'd ever had, which was so much more important than some silly crush.
But she was never going to see him again. She realized, as her grip on Ellington's jacket loosened.
Ellington had recovered in the five seconds that Moxie had fallen to bits. She rolled over, half crushing Moxie and pinning her to the ground.
"Look, I don't know what your problem is...but I am not putting Snicket's life and my father's life in danger because you don't want to break a promise that probably didn't even mean what you think it does." Ellington finished, with one hand on Ellington's left arm, between her elbow and shoulder, and her other arm on Moxie's right arm, keeping her hand to the ground.
She was pressing down on Moxie's scar with her thumb and forefinger and perfectly aware of it. Moxie struggled, but that only made the flashing white pain worse. And the smell was back, the gentle pressure waiting to snap her in half, was back.
"Now, I don't want to hurt you...but I will do what I have to until you tell me where he is," Ellington informed her with a sneer.
Moxie's eyes were still wet and more tears were on the way, now from pain as opposed to grief. She thought about Snicket and his rigid belief in truth and justice. She'd never met someone who cared as much about journalism, good journalism, as much as she did before his arrival in town. She thought about Hangfire, taking off his mask to show some horrible, grotesquely sinister face, and then unhinging his jaw to eat Snicket for breakfast. She thought about her mother. She thought about her father, watching TV day and night because he didn't believe in anything anymore. And that was somehow worse than Hangfire and the Bombinating Beast and the Clusterous Forest and the idea of getting beaten to a pulp by Ellington Feint. But, it wasn't worse than the idea of telling Ellington, when she couldn't trust her.
Moxie opened her eyes. Get scared later. She told herself, as she opened her mouth. "You can beat me up and threaten my life all you like...but I'm not breaking my promise."
Ellington's savage expression turned tame, then unreadable. Moxie braced herself for a punch or a slap (or worse, hands around her neck).
Instead, Ellington leaned forward and kissed Moxie gently on the cheek. Moxie felt as winded as Ellington had a minute ago.
"Look, you're a very brave girl...almost as brave as Snicket...and you obviously care a lot about him and he needs someone like you to keep him away from someone like me. But he also needs to be rescued and you can't do that without my help." Ellington said, as Moxie's eyes finally met hers.
Ellington climbed off Moxie and sat the shorter girl up. She brushed a strand of blonde hair out of Moxie's face and removed a handkerchief from the pocket of her jacket. She wiped the wetness out of Moxie's face.
"Now please stop crying, because you're making me feel bad for hurting you, and tell me where you think Snicket might be," Ellington said, in that unknowable calm way that made Moxie feel like a little kid for getting so angry and then so panicked.
"Caviar factory." Moxie said, unable to look away from Ellington's eyes or stop rubbing the spot on her cheek where Ellington had kissed her. She was sure that she must as red as a beet from the heat on her face.
"Thank you," Ellington said, before standing up and bolting off down the alley, in the direction of the factory.
Moxie continued to rub her cheek as she watched the strange girl go. Then glanced to the side. She picked up her typewriter, or, what remained of it. Keys had fallen out when she'd dropped it, on running into Ellington, and the space bar was disjointed.
She scooped it up, rushed after Ellington, deciding to take the alleys rather than the street.
(0)
Snicket was alright after they found him. Suffering from a nasty fever and with burns from how tight the ropes around his wrists and ankles, but alive. Hangfire and his accomplices had snuck off into the night, escaping commit treachery another day. And Ellington had, naturally, vanished as the sound if Stew Mitchum making Siren noises approached the factory. But Snicket was safe and Moxie was safe, and that was all that mattered. Moxie was sitting at the end of her own bed, where she had placed Snicket for the night (there would plenty of time to tell S. Theodora Markson when Snicket was recovered and well rested), watching his breathing pattern when she heard a doorbell ring downstairs.
She crept down the winding lighthouse stairs to the door and peeked through the peephole. The entryway was bare. There was no fiend waiting to snatch her up (and if there was, then he or she was cleverly disguised as a nearby shrub).
She unlocked the door and opened it a crack. There was a package sitting in the middle of the porch. She snatched it up and then closed and locked the door.
Still standing in the front hall of the lighthouse, she unfolded the cardboard, wondering if inside would be a bomb and she would be too late to chuck it out a window. But of course, it wasn't a bomb.
It was a typewriter. One that was just like her old one, but evergreen instead of fire hydrant red. It had a pink silk bow wrapped around it and a little slip of paper sticking out of the top on which someone had typed "Sorry about your typewriter. Oh, sorry again about beating you up."
Moxie smiled. She was starting to like this Feint girl.