A Visitation
What a predicament.
The Baudelaires had just escaped from V.F.D., and were in the middle of nowhere.
That was the predicament.
They knew that so long as they were running from Count Olaf, he would always be there, like a persistent cockroach that doesn't know how to die.
And now, in this desolate landscape, where they were the only things that weren't flat, they felt like despair was a constant companion nowadays…
And what's more, a crow had followed them from that town…
Damn crows.
As they continued their walk through that flat wasteland, the crow continued to follow them.
At first, they paid no heed to it, but after a while, it was getting increasingly annoying.
They walked on, but then stopped, when they heard a sound they didn't expect.
"Why don't you stop for a while, young ones?"
They turned around, and saw only the crow.
No one else.
"It must be the heat…" said Violet.
Kraus was looking at the crow intently, trying to find something different about it. After a minute's worth of inspection, he found no other marking or trait that distinguished him from a picture he had seen in a book, Murder!: A Book Of, And About Crows
They began to walk, but they heard the voice again.
"Hey! Stop for a bit or two…"
They looked back once more, and saw the crow, still following them, still staring at them with it's beady black eyes.
"That's better…" it then said.
The Baudelaires were surprised. The crow had spoken!
"Now that I have your attention…let me show myself…"
The small bird hunched over, and it began to grow.
It grew and grew…till it finally stopped growing.
It looked nothing like a crow, but instead, it looked like Count Olaf, wearing a long, black cloak.
"Let me introduce myself…" said the doppelganger Count Olaf.
"I am Death"