Klaus and Violet had had a very long, very cold and snowy, very uphill hike on the north road of Mount Fraught when they came to a fork in the road. Klaus stepped off the path and up to the sign, wiping the snow covered words off with his sleeve. He leaned in and had to squint his eyes to make out the faded letters in the gray daylight that filtered through the snow.
One arrow pointed to the left, to the road leading up the mountain, which was also the same road Count Olaf had taken their kidnapped little sister, Sunny, according to the fairly recent wheel tracks in the snow. The other arrow pointed to the right and read V.F.D. Headquarters, to where help could surely be found. Both siblings, exhausted and grumpy from so many unfortunate events stood at an impasse, each wanting to take a different road, their exasperated breaths visibly curling in the frosty air like question marks.
"We have to find Sunny!" Violet demanded, barely refraining from stomping her foot. "We can't leave her with Count Olaf and his vile troupe of actors a second longer than we have to."
"Which is why we should go straight to V.F.D. Headquarters to find someone to help us!" explained Klaus, trying to be patient. "They can easily catch Count Olaf and make sure he is put in prison for his crimes once and for all. We need help! "
"Klaus! Don't you understand?" Violet stepped closer to Klaus, her voice rising "It's been over three years since our parents died and no one has ever been able to help us, yet! We have only ourselves and we are all that Sunny has in this whole world. We have to do everything in our power to get her back and…" her voice broke, " and we can't let them get too far ahead of us or we might lose her forever."
Klaus clenched his jaw. "I don't think we can catch up to them on foot. I really think we need to go this way," he said, gesticulating down the low road. He also stepped toward Violet bringing them face to face to look in her eyes and added in a low, strained voice, "I want to get Sunny back just as much as you do. Don't ever think I wouldn't do everything I could to protect her or you." Klaus turned away and began to march down the road towards V.F.D. Headquarters.
Violet huffed and rushed to catch up with her brother, grabbing his arm and pulling him around. She tried to frogmarch Klaus back to the other road, but that was pretty silly because Klaus was taller than her by at least six inches now and a bit heavier and stronger. He just stood his ground as Violet pulled at his arm.
"Klaus! I'm the oldest and I say we need to go this way," Violet said bossily, pointing up the road. Klaus tried to pull his arm free from her grasp but she held on tight. They scuffled together momentarily.
"Just let go!" he said sternly. Violet, surprised at his tone, let go immediately, causing Klaus to lose his balance and stumble back toward the edge of the road. Behind him was a large drop off down to a deep, rocky ravine with small trees growing along a quick running stream. Klaus saw all of this as he violently pinwheeled his arms, trying to regain his balance. Luckily, Violet darted forward and grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling his body upright just as he started to topple backwards.
They stood still, staring at each other, panting, their cheeks pink from adrenaline. Then the pair grinned at each other, relief etched on their faces. Klaus opened his mouth to say something, probably an apology, but was interrupted by the sharp sound of a loud crack. He glanced down at his feet just as the ground he was standing on fell away down the steep ravine.
"Klaus!" Violet screamed. She dropped down to her belly at the edge of the road and peered over. She could see part of his body through the sparse trees. It looked like he was laying half in the stream and he wasn't moving. "Oh god," she thought. "What if he was…? No!"
"I'm coming down to you," she hollered, but she was positive he couldn't hear her. Violet looked up and down the snowy ravine trying to find the quickest and safest way down to her brother. Time was of the essence. He would soon get hypothermia in that freezing water. "If he is still alive," she thought again, against her will. "No, no don't think that!" Violet reprimanded herself.
She managed to scramble down the ravine with only a few scrapes and bruises using rocks and branches for hand and footholds. It took her some minutes to follow the stream downhill a bit, tripping on hidden, snow covered rocks, her feet getting quite wet, desperately searching for her brother's body, saying a silent prayer all the while.
She didn't feel any relief when at last she was kneeling at his side. His face was very pale, lips blue. She carefully checked for a pulse and was overjoyed to feel a strong one. She ran her hands over his scalp, feeling a bump forming there, then down his arms and legs. Violet determined there were no major injuries, at least no broken bones that she could tell.
Squatting behind his head she grabbed Klaus under his arms and dragged him all the way out of the water. She fell back on her bottom and felt like crying. God, she was so tired and so alone. She had already lost Sunny. She couldn't lose Klaus, too! This thought fortified her spirit and strength. She would save him or die trying. She tied her hair back in her ribbon and looked around the forest floor for something that might help carry her brother.
Violet busied herself building a makeshift gurney. The activity kept her body warm but Klaus, laying in the snow, was looking paler by the minute. She rolled her brother onto the stretcher and picked up the handles. She was able to pick out a narrow animal trail on the forest floor in the failing light and followed it, for what else was there to do? They needed to find shelter.
The wind was really picking up, whipping strands of hair out of Violet's hair ribbon to lash at her face. Night was nearly upon them and it seemed she had pulled her brother's dead weight for an interminable amount of time when she glimpsed a small shack hidden in a think copse of trees. She nearly cried in relief. The one window was dark and nobody answered her knock.
"Hello?" she hollered into the dark, but the wind carried her voice away. "Does anybody live here?" She banged again on the door with her balled fist and the rickety door fell open. Violet fumbled for a light switch but found none. The light coming through the one grimy window was barely enough to see by. The place was small. There was a dusty bed pressed against one wall and a small fire grate on the opposite wall. A few small shelves filled the narrow space between. The stretcher wouldn't fit through the narrow door, so Violet picked Klaus up by his underarms and drug his body, step by step, over to the low bed. It took her a considerable amount of concentrated effort to hoist Klaus up onto the bed, which sent a small cloud of dust into the air. She leaned over Klaus's body, head in hands, her heart pounding, exhausted from the effort of lifting him. She took only a minute to rest, taking in long breaths through her nose.
Violet couldn't stop long. Klaus was in a very bad way. She had to find something to light a fire. She stood up and stepped up to the fire grate. There were some cut logs piled beside it. She ran her hand along the shelf and was so terribly relieved to find a large box of matches.
The fire's light illuminated the small pace around Violet. According to the layers of dust on everything and the family of mice living in the woodpile, this place had been abandoned some time ago, yet it was really well stocked with cooking utensils, some cans of food, and thank God, the matches. Maybe it was some sort of safe house?
Violet scooped up some snow in one large pot, and latched the door closed behind her. She set the snow over the fire to melt. She stacked a pile of dirty rags in the dirty window to block any light from shining through that could possibly give away their position. She heard the snow falling steadily and heavily against the window and was grateful to have Klaus inside.
Now, she must tend to Klaus. His face remained white as a sheet. His pants were wet and muddy from where she had dragged him across the stream bank. She made quick work of his shoes and the buttons on his shirt, pulling it off without too much trouble. The pants, due to the muck and wet, however, were a huge tug of war. She made a quick decision to pull off his underwear, too.
"Don't look. Don't think about it. He can't keep them on'" Violet reassured herself. She grabbed a rag from the pile and the warmed, melted snow from the fire. She began to wash Klaus's body. First, she wiped off what remained of that damn make up from their stay at Caligari Carnival. She took care with washing his head, neck, chest, arms and belly, all the while checking for bumps, bruises or cuts. She rolled him to his side finding a long, but shallow cut on his back surrounded by bruising. She dipped the rag into the warm water often and continued to wash her brother head to toe, then covered him up to his chin with the dusty blanket from the bed.
Oh god. All Violet wanted to do was lay down and sleep for a week, but that warm water was calling to her. She, with a side glance at Klaus's unconscious form, also stripped down to nothing, discarding the dirty clothes into a disgraceful pile on the floor, and quickly washed the grime from her own body.
So tired, she turned her attention back to Klaus's supine form on the bed. Everyone knew the best way to treat hypothermia is body heat. Skin on skin contact. That was Survival 101!
She pulled back the covers and climbed on top of Klaus, trying to tuck all of his coldest parts into somewhere warm on her own body. She laid chest to chest with him, pulling the blanket up over her back. She wrapped her arms around him. Her legs fell to the outside of his hips then she crossed her ankles back over his knees trying to cover more of him without crushing him. Once settled she looked at his face, so still and pale. She felt tears prickling her eyes. She rested her cheek on his cold nose, warming it for a moment, before pressing a long chaste kiss to his lips, then whispered against them. "I'm so sorry, Klaus. I got us into this mess. It's all my fault," she cried with tears of self-pity that fell onto his cheeks. "I can't do this alone, so please come back to me."
Violet tucked her face into Klaus's neck, but, although she had never felt disgusted by Klaus, the way some girls feel towards their brothers, Violet had expected to feel some aversion to laying naked with her brother. Instead she felt hugely comforted. The feel of his heart beat and his slow, deep breaths on her shoulder were reassuring. She had time to spare one worry for her sister and hoped that Sunny wasn't too cold, or too hungry, or too scared and then she fell into a weary sleep.