Time for chapter three. I had two chapters that weren't really all that great on their own, so I glued them together for this one. Not terribly thrilled about it but the next one will be much better.

TayTheFan: So just to clarify, the story right now is taking place in the dead time after The End but before Chapter 14. So the Baudelaires and Beatrice are still on the island, the Quagmires are back on the mainland. Why hasn't he thought of Violet... I'm not sure really, I hadn't thought about that. I'll go over it in a later chapter.


Chapter 3:

"This is it" I said.

We stood in front of a large brick apartment building, with a green wooden door. I led us here using the map I got from Father Domingo. The apartments at 233 Blueberry Street were marked by a coffee stain, another code used by VFD to mark important locations. Inside there was a list of tenants on the wall, a woman named Sarah Jones was listed on the fourth floor. Up three flights of stairs to the room on the left, and we would be there. Simple enough.

"What kind of evidence do you think is in the box?" Isadora asked as we climbed the stairs. "It seems strange that he would give us this errand without telling us anything about it." She had a point, it was strange considering that it was safe for us to talk.

"It's not unusual for them to withhold information" I reasoned. "When I was working with Kit, we would often get these weird errands at odd hours of the night, but I would never get any sort of explanation as to why we were doing them."

"I don't know" Isadora said, shivering, even though the apartment was quite warm. "Something about this doesn't seem quite right."

"Do you think we should back out?" I asked.

"No I don't" Isadora quickly replied. "I just… I just think we should be careful with this VFD stuff. It's dangerous, and I don't want any of us getting hurt."

We arrived on the fourth floor; room nineteen was on the left. We came up to another green wooden door, the number 19 nailed in gold lettering to the top. I took a deep breath, and knocked on the door.

"Come in" a woman's voice yells from inside.

"Now remember, we don't leave without the money" Duncan said. We all nodded in agreement, and pushed the door open. The inside was very elegant, with fancy white furniture surrounding a glass coffee table, facing a television on the wall. We walked through the parlor into a spacious office. Inside a woman sat with her feet up on a large desk, dressed in a black blazer with a white shirt underneath. The walls were lined with books; I could tell she must be very well read. Now that didn't guarantee anything, but I knew from experience that well-read people were less likely to be evil than those who weren't. That was something at least.

"Father Domingo must have sent you" the woman said. Without making small talk, she reached her hand out for the box in Isadora's hands. She handed it to her, and without another word, the lawyer pulled an envelope out from under the desk.

"Here's your payment" she said, handing us the money in return for the box. Duncan took the envelope from her hands, while Isadora and I leaned over to see what was inside. He pulled out a roll of bills, and began to flip through them. There were about twenty bills in the envelope, but to our dismay they were all ones. Twenty dollars wouldn't get us to Lake Crimson, not even one of us. I wanted to complain. I didn't get the chance though before I was grabbed from behind and tackled to the ground.

"Oof" I yelled, the shock of the blow outweighing the physical pain. I tried to get up, but a strong force pressing on my back kept me on my stomach.

"Let me go" I heard Duncan yelling, but to no avail.

"The three of you are under arrest for Class A narcotics trafficking" a deep man's voice said to my side, I turned my head to see a large police officer with a gray mustache staring down at me. My arms were pinned behind me, and I could feel the cold steel clenching my wrists as I was handcuffed.

"Stop resisting" another officer yelled, and I could hear Isadora screaming as I was jerked up to my feet. She was squirming underneath two officers, trying to get away, but to no avail as she was cuffed as well. Mrs. Jones opened up the box with a golden key, and another female cop with latex gloves on slowly pulled out a bag filled with black powder.

"Looks like pure black tar heroin" the lawyer said, shining a flashlight on the bag. "Probably about eight grams, fetch about 20 grand on the street."

"WHAT!" Duncan yelled as he was dragged up to his feet as well.

"Listen to me" I pleaded as the cops checked my pockets for weapons. "We're not drug dealers, we had no idea what was in the box. We were just running an errand, for a priest I swear." I look at my siblings, and I can see the horrified look on their faces, pleading for help. "It was Father Domingo, the priest from the church by the beach."

"Father Domingo!" the officer who held me said laughing. "I think you've said enough." Without another word we were shoved out of the apartment, surrounded by cops and barking dogs nipping at our ankles. Isadora was right; we should have been concerned when we were given a random task from a stranger with no explanation.


CLANG!

The cop shut the door as hard as he could. We had fingerprinted and interviewed by police all day, until they finally placed us in a holding cell. I was sitting on the bottom bunk with my brother and sister, locked up and thinking only about how I could get out as soon as possible.

"This isn't legal" Duncan said exasperatedly as he sat down on the bed. "We got framed; they can't do this to us. They haven't even given us our phone call."

"Who would we call" I said, frustrated as I sat down as well. "Who on earth did you plan on calling?"

"Anyone!" Duncan yelled. "At least I'm trying to think of a way out of here, what's your plan smartass?"

"Oh I'm sorry" I said, getting up and getting angry, approaching him. "Do you think I want to be here, do you think I planned this whole thing out?" I yelled.

"This whole thing was your idea in the first place, if it weren't for you we would never have gotten arrested" Duncan shouted, shoving me back against the barred door. This set me off. I clenched my fists and ran at him, ready to punch his face in.

"STOP!" Isadora shrieked. She jumped in between me and Duncan just before I was going to swing. "We're all fighting over nothing" she said quivering, and I could see her eyes filling up with tears.

"Don't cry Izzy" I said, putting my hand on her shoulder trying to comfort her in any way I could.

"It's gonna be alright" Duncan said sitting down on the other side of the bed. "Once we explain what really happened they'll let us go free. We just have to make our case to the judge." Well he didn't know that, what would he say if that never happened. I glared angrily at him, but decided not to say anything. It wasn't worth fighting over. Truth is I was scared out of my mind. I had never been arrested or captured before, and being trapped in a cage frightened me more than I can explain. I sighed, leaning back against the wall. We all had to stay strong; I couldn't let them see me cry.

So three days passed and nothing happened besides getting our three meals a day delivered to our cell. We didn't hear anything about the charges that were undoubtedly being filed against us, or when we would be going to court. We didn't even get a phone call to post bail. Duncan and I had patched up our fight, but you could still cut the tension with a knife as we waited for our fate to be determined.

"And then the orphans were all like 'please don't arrest us'" I heard a voice say, accompanied by villainous laughter. Instantly I grabbed the bars of the cell, poking my head out to get a glimpse at who was probably talking about us. An obnoxious cop was still laughing as he walked closer to our cell, accompanied by two other cops and a woman with… shit with hair but no beard.

"No" I breathed as my siblings came up next to me to see what I was looking at. Her aura of menace made us all freeze as we stared at her.

"Here they are, your new prisoners" the obnoxious cop said to the woman. "These are the orphans you were looking for right."

"No" the woman said, after looking at us for a while "but that's ok, they'll do."

"What are you talking about!" Duncan shouted, only to be shoved back by one of the bigger cops, as everyone outside the cell started laughing at us.

"Stop it!" Isadora screamed, tears filling up her eyes again as everyone only laughed harder. I gritted my teeth clenching the bars, trying to avoid lashing out despite my immense hatred for them.

"Look how much they resist, it's so pathetic! Please tell me we get to torture them" the obnoxious cop said laughing still even though everyone else had calmed down.

"No" said the woman with hair but no beard as she looked down at her fingernails. "Take them to Mansfield like we do with all of the other orphans, we'll keep them there until they turn eighteen. Once we have their money I'll decide what to do next." Without another word she left the room, leaving us with the three visibly disappointed cops.


Thanks for reading everyone. Next one might take a little while to get up, but it'll be worth it.