My first SOUE fic. Please bear with me, it's four in the morning.
Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire could not believe that they were in a taxi, traveling along a busy city street, with a woman they didn't know. Oh, they knew her name, but that only seemed to unveil more questions. Was Kit Snicket really Kit Snicket??? Was she the sister of Jacques Snicket, who had wanted to help them before his murder??? Of course, you have probably never been in this predicament, having heeded the advice your parents gave you and not getting into a car with a stranger. But these poor orphans had no other option. For a moment, no one spoke. But soon the questions were tumbling out of their mouths like marbles from an upturned jar.
"Who exactly are you??" Violet asked.
"Where are we going??" Klaus questioned.
"Aribo??" Sunny shrieked.
"I know you Baudelaires are suspicious, as you should be." The children saw her gray eyes take a quick look at them in the rearview mirror. "You have many questions, but I must ask that they wait. It is not safe to talk here. I assure you, I can be trusted. I knew your parents well, and they would prefer that you be in this car with me rather than with Mr. Poe."
All three Baudelaires were startled by this fact for a moment, but soon realized that it wasn't so surprising. Mr. Poe was not someone you would call reliable, unless you wanted someone with a cough.
Klaus was staring out the window of a taxi, not knowing the driver or where they were going. Under normal circumstances, he would be more frightened, but these were not normal circumstances.
Violet was also staring out the window, thinking of a way to invent a lie detector. She only had the woman's word that she was Kit Snicket. Violet no longer trusted anyone's word. She suddenly realized how much she had changed, and how horrible the change was.
Sunny was staring at the seat in front of her. She was the most relaxed of the orphans. She trusted her siblings and she trusted the woman driving. She saw no need to be upset. Instead she hoped that the place they were going had a kitchen, where she could further develop her culinary skills.
The car fell silent. No one spoke for a very long time. Violet watched as the sun began to sink down to the horizon. She sighed. She always loved watching the sunset. Klaus was watching the city turn into flatland, the flatland into forest, and the forest into mountains. Sunny was busy gnawing on her seatbelt.
The Baudelaires were so lost in their own thoughts that none of them noticed the car stop.
"We're here." Kit announced, turning off the engine.
Klaus opened the door and stepped out to see an enormous brick building stretch towards the red-streaked sky. There was a large central tower that held a stained glass window. Klaus lifted his head straight to the sky, but still couldn't make out the design. Sunny tumbled out after him, landing on her bottom. She too tilted her head to the heavens in awe.
"This is Hotel Denouement. I know it's rather large." Kit stepped out of car as well. "But we have several people staying here, and we need the space to accommodate them."
She led the Baudelaires to the large oak doors and knocked six times in an exact rhythm. The door slowly creaked open. Just as Violet went through, they slammed shut, making the children jump.
"You'll get used to it." Kit assured them.
The Baudelaires were led through a large entrance hall. There was another set of doors at the end. Here, Kit recited a passage from one of the first books Klaus had read, The BFG. Suddenly, a voice came from the other side of the door.
"Password?" It insisted.
"The world is quiet here" Kit mumbled.
The door creaked open, admitting Kit and he Baudelaires. A man in a dark trench coat nodded to them. Kit gave him a small smile, then led the children down another hall.
"Are you hungry?" She asked.
Violet and Klaus looked to each other. They were, but their hunger for knowledge was greater.
"Not really." Violet replied.
"Well, that's the kitchen." She pointed to a metal swinging door. "And that's the dining room." She pointed to a door adjacent to the kitchen door. "There's always someone making something, so if you are ever hungry, just come down."
"Who is here??" Klaus asked before he could stop himself.
"Oh, several people. I'm afraid we don't have many people your age around here." Kit explained, as they headed up a flight of stairs. "But we do have a couple. You of course know Quigley Quagmire." Violet's eyes grew brighter at the name. Kit noticed. "You will see him soon enough. And then there is Sharada." Violet and Klaus exchanged a quizzical look. Kit had put a certain emphasis on the name, which led the elder Baudelaires to suspect that this girl was different.
Kit opened a large wooden door on the first landing, revealing a library so big and magnificent that Klaus nearly went into cardiac arrest.
The walls were covered with books of every size and color. They were categorized by subject and alphabetically. Scattered in the middle of the enormous room were several large leather armchairs, mahogany tables and antique lamps. Klaus longed to grab a book, plop himself down in a chair and read for the next six hours or so, but Kit was leading them way. He grudgingly followed.
They approached a teenage girl curled up in a dark leather armchair. Her dark hair was curling under her chin, tucked behind her ears so that her dark eyes could see the book in her lap. She had a pretty face, with full, red lips and a slight smile. Her eyes were speeding across the page with a speed Violet and Sunny had only seen in their brother.
Kit walked up and tapped her lightly on the shoulder. The girl tilted her head upward, causing her hair to fall away from her face. Her dark eyes held a questioning look.
"Sharada, the Baudelaires have arrived." Kit said.
The girl called Sharada turned her gaze to the Baudelaires, a slight smile playing at her lips. She looked at Violet, then down at Sunny, and finally at Klaus. He felt his heart quicken pace as her dark eyes bore into his blue ones.
"It's a pleasure to meet you." Her voice was soft and melodic, as if she sang every word. "I'm Sharada Lambert."
"She's our expert linguist." Kit explained.
"I wouldn't say expert…" Sharada's cheeks were turning a bright pink.
"She speaks four languages fluently." Kit's voice held a note of pride.
"What are you fluent in?" Violet asked.
"English, Spanish, French and German." Sharada said. "I also know Japanese, Italian, Russian, Hindu, and Chinese, though a bit broken." Her cheeks were now a flaming red.
"She's studied for several years with several instructors." Kit explained her hand on Sharada's shoulder. "Her mother would have been proud."
Sharada instantly looked down at her book again, her face expressionless. The Baudelaires knew the look, for they often wore it themselves. She was hiding pain.
After blinking a few times, she spoke. "My mother died when I was nine. I was in Spain, as a test and treat from my Spanish tutor, when I got the news."
"Excuse me for asking," Klaus mumbled after a few moments of silence, "but was it a…"
"Fire?" Sharada said, turning her stare to Klaus. "Yes."
"I'm sorry." He whispered. She took his hand.
"Thank you." She murmured. Then she smiled. "We should be thinking of happier things while we are not working. There will be plenty of time for gloominess later." She placed a ribbon in the book to mark her page, and then set it on the table. When she stood, the Baudelaires saw that she was tall, but they also noticed that Klaus had grown as well. He now towered Violet by at least four inches, and Sharada by one.
"I'll take them to their rooms." Kit nodded, and Sharada motioned for the Baudelaires to follow.
"We have been anticipating your arrival, so we had the time to examine all the information we had on each of you and prepare rooms that would fit all of your needs and interests." She led them to the stairs and began to climb again. "I'm actually quite pleased with the results. We also have plenty of tailors around, so you can all get new clothes." She looked at Klaus and Sunny. "I know at least two of you will need them."
They left the stairs and walked down a long hallway lined with portraits of richly dressed old men and women looking at them sternly. Sharada noticed their stares.
"I'm sorry if they irk you." She said. "These are my ancestors." When the Baudelaires looked at her quizzically, she continued. "My mother owned this hotel. But after her death, it was mine. My uncle Will, who adopted me, runs it. But all decisions must be cleared by me."
She stopped in front of three oak doors. "Here you are." She handed each of them a key, pointing to the door it went to as she said the numbers. 703 went to Violet, 705 to Sunny, and 707 to Klaus.
"I realize that Sunny may be too young to use a key, so I had this installed." She kneeled down and pointed to a small key pad. It was unremarkable except for the foods printed on the keys instead of letters and numbers. "We figured that an appropriate password would be a recipe she would remember, instead of a word. There are common ingredients printed on each key, so simply by typing the recipe, she can get into her room. No one will know what the recipe is, because she won't tell."
"Pensavito!!" Sunny exclaimed.
Sharada stopped for a moment, thrown off kilter by a word she didn't know. "Pardon??"
"She means it's very thoughtful of you to think of that." Klaus translated.
"It was no trouble." She shrugged. "It's odd to not understand someone." She pulled a dark red notebook out of her pocket. "I'm going to keep track of what Sunny says and its meaning." She began to write. "This way, I'll be able to study it in my free time, and get to know it." She slipped her book into her pocket. "Well, here you are. There is a door in each room connecting it to the other, so if you need to speak to each other and don't want to disrupt anyone, you can do so." She walked to a door across the hall. "I'm in 708, in case you need me." She opened the door, only to close it again. Her smile grew wider, as she looked down the hall.
"It's about time you showed up!!" She called.
"It's not my fault I got locked in the closet!!" A voice called back. Violet's eyes widened as she recognized the voice. She turned, and then raced down the hall, flinging herself at the person waiting at the end of the hall.
Now, I know you know who to review.