Life is but a dream
-Prologue-
It's been 10 years, 3 months, 2 weeks and one day.
10 years, 3 months, 2 weeks and one day since Violet Baudelaire lost everything but her siblings. 10 years, 3 months, 2 weeks and a day since the Baudelaire fortune was destroyed. She doesn't regret losing the fortune; she doesn't regret losing the house she once called home. She regrets losing Beatrice.
Beatrice. If she had survived she would be ten, now. But she hasn't; she was lost that day, a month after their boat sank. She disappeared into the Great Unknown. They did everything to find her but their trials had no result.
Violet was heartbroken when it happened. Kit died to save her daughter but the Baudelaires hadn't managed to do so. What irony! Sometimes she thinks someone has cursed them to this dreadful fate.
Deep inside, she hasn't given up. But convincing herself Beatrice is dead, Duncan is dead, Isadora is dead, Quigley is dead… it's better that way. Less devastating, she tells herself. Better for me; better for my brother and sister. That's her goal in life now, to protect her siblings. Their well-being and happiness is her first priority. That's what made her stop looking for VFD, stop trying to find out the truth. Justice doesn't matter; truth doesn't matter. Survival matters.
That's why she stopped inventing anymore. That's why, after she lost her ribbon in the sea, she never got a new one. She chose to study literature, to become a school teacher. She's deleting her past, from her mind and from history.
However, that doesn't mean she doesn't wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night, that doesn't mean that she doesn't have dreams and fears about her brother and sister's deaths. The dead haunt her. But that happens only in the night when she's alone and the door o f her room is closed. She won't allow herself to think like that in the morning, she can't allow Klaus and Sunny see that she's not as strong as she pretends to be.
Klaus has chosen to study Law. He could become a great lawyer but he chose to follow his sister and become a college professor. He seems happy with the turn his life took. He seems because he's the only one who dares to mention the past. But Violet is always stopping him. She doesn't want to listen. She doesn't want him to remember. She wishes she could just erase them all but Klaus can't do that. His sister is in denial and she has to realize they can't pretend forever.
Sunny is a beautiful young lady of 12. She goes to school and both her siblings are happy to see she has a natural talent for learning. Despite the misery and pain of her early years, she has managed to survive. Violet is grateful that her sister's so strong. She's still worried and unsure though; she doesn't know if Sunny has managed to forget.
And that's how life moves for the Baudelaire siblings, 10 years, 3 months, 2 weeks and one day after they peacefully decided to change their lives. But this peace is about to be shattered.
Life is but a dream: Lyrics from Row, Row, Row Your Boat, a song that, according to Lemony, Violet hates because of that exact part.
Also, in Beatrice Letters, young Beatrice contacts Lemony to help her search for the Baudelaire siblings. This is my take on how this might happen.
Beta read by Sugary Snicket.