Here's another chapter! Again, i skipped a few more parts. I skipped when they discover Uncle Monty dead in the Reptile Room the following morning. Stephano takes the Baudelaire's and Jane to the Prospero but collides with Mr. Poe who was driving to Uncle Monty's to bring the Baudelaire's luggage. The Baudelaire's and Jane try to tell Mr. Poe who Stephano really is but he refuses to believe it. The rest of the description is in this chapter. Soooo Enjoy! And there will probably be only one more chapter left for the Reptile Room after this. I'll post the Wide Window parts to this same story since i'm only doing a few parts from the third book. PLEASE REVIEW!
Chapter Eight: The Foil
Violet, Klaus, Sunny, and I had tried to tell Mr. Poe that Stephano was Count Olaf but he wouldn't believe us. We tried to show him Count Olaf's tattoo of an eye that the Baudelaire's said was on his ankle but he had covered it with concealer. Of course, Mr. Poe was fooled again. We went back to the house and Stephano went ahead with the jeep. He said he was going to reach a doctor. But the doctor seems to be an idiot and believes that the Mamba du Mal broke out of its cage, bit Uncle Monty, and then it just climbed back in its cage and worked the locks itself. Honestly, that is the lamest excuse I've ever heard.
After talking some more about the dilemma, Mr. Poe made us excuse ourselves from the table. Reluctantly, we followed Violet into the Reptile Room.
"We have to do something," I said, immediately.
"Yes," Violet said. "We have to prove to Mr. Poe that Uncle Monty's death wasn't an accident and that Stephano is really Count Olaf."
"Then, we need really good evidence," I said, "Once Stephano is behind bars he won't be able to harm anyone."
"Including us," Klaus said.
Violet nodded. "Now, Jane and Klaus, I need you to research about the Mamba du Mal."
"But that could take days," Klaus said.
"We don't have much time," I said, "and you don't want to end up alone with Stephano in Peru, do you?"
"All right, fine," Klaus said. "Let's get started. Here, you take this book." He handed a book to Violet who didn't take it.
"I'm not taking any book," Violet said. "I'm going upstairs to see if I can find evidence in Stephano's room."
"Alone in Stephano's room?" I asked.
"I'll be fine," Violet said, confidently.
"Are you forgetting whose room it is?" I cried, "What if Stephano finds you? 'Cause that wouldn't be the best situation to be in. If you want, I could come."
"Alright," Violet said, sighing. "But, Sunny, I need you to guard the door and bite anyone who comes in."
"Ackroid!" Sunny shrieked, which probably meant "Roger!" because Violet started heading to the Reptile Room doors. I followed closely behind. When we reached the kitchen door Violet stopped and stuck her hand out so I knew to stop too. She took her hair ribbon out of her pocket and dropped it to the ground, kneeling slightly. I knelt down beside her, listening to the conversation behind the door.
Apparently, the adults were still trying to figure out which car we should ride in to town. We had time, though, so we stood up and very quietly headed up the stairs and down the hallway to Stephano's room. When we reached his door Violet stopped. My heart was pounding loudly in my chest with fear that we'd get caught. Adrenaline moved through my veins. I didn't want to think what Stephano would do to us if he just happened to go upstairs.
"Come on," I whispered encouragingly to Violet. "It'll be one hundred times more terrifying if we're alone with Stephano then, being alone in his bedroom."
Violet nodded slightly and turned the brass handle doorknob and we walked inside. We both began to search the room for any evidence. I looked around the bed, which was unmade and covered in crumbs. There were curtains covered in something crusty. I almost puked when we realized it was Stephano's snot.
As I searched near the bedside table I stepped on various papers and postcards on the floor. I found nothing on the bedside table so I turned to walk around to the other side where Violet was looking. As I took a step forward my foot landed on something round. I slipped and fell on my butt.
Violet's head snapped in my direction. "Are you alright?" she asked.
"Yeah," I answered. I found the cause of my fall was an empty wine bottle that had been lying around, actually they were scattered all over the room. "Whoa, he really likes wine."
Violet rolled her eyes. "Oh, I know," she said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
I started to get up from the dirty floor when one of the papers stuck to my hand. I pulled it off and saw that it was some kind of conversation through a telegram. I scanned the letter but it was just from some lady named Abigail Murray talking about her baby. I noticed there was a wine splatter on the letter that looked almost like blood…
"What's that?" Violet asked, noticing what I was reading.
I shrugged. "Nothing useful. It's just some telegram conversation between Count Olaf and some women. All it talks about is her baby. The lady's name is Abigail Murray."
Violet gasped. "What?" she cried. She strode over and knelt down to take a look.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
Violet grimaced. "Nothing really important at the moment. I heard about the Murray family. The parents were mysteriously murdered a long time ago. There was this huge murder investigation in the news for years. I haven't heard anything about this family for quite a long time. Maybe Count Olaf had something to do with the murder." Her eyes widened in horror, "what if he committed the murder?"
"But why would they contact each other if he was responsible for it? The telegram makes it seem like they were friends of some sort." I pointed out.
"I don't know," Violet said, studying the paper carefully, "well we should keep it. It might be useful."
Suddenly something about the murder mystery crossed my mind. "Wait," I said, "what happened to the baby?"
"No one knows for sure," Violet said, "but the most widely accepted theory is that she was killed too."
I stared hard at the telegram. 'That poor family,' I thought. I pitied the baby especially. She had been so young and her parents had been taken away from her like that. My parents had just abandoned me and died later on in a car crash…
"Come on, Jane," Violet said, holding her hand out to help me up from the ground. "We'd better get out of here. Let's stop at the kitchen door again, though."
I nodded silently and put the note back in my pocket. We made our way, quietly down stairs and back to the kitchen door where we listened again.
"I've told you over, and over again," Stephano said, growing angrier. I shuddered thinking about how he may have actually murdered that unfortunate family. "The children should ride with me while you ride with Dr. Lucafont and the corpse. It's that simple."
"Perhaps you're right," Mr. Poe said with a sigh. Violet and I looked at each other scared to death. We hurried back into the Reptile Room.
"Klaus, Klaus," I cried.
"Tell us you've found something!" Violet cried from behind me. "There's nothing that can help us in Stephano's room!"
"And we think we're going to end up alone with Stephano," I said, "and he's really disgusting and scary so I'd rather not have to live with him."
Klaus smiled as an answer and began to read, "'The Mamba du Mal is one of the deadliest snakes in this hemisphere, noted for it's strangulatory grip, used in conjunction, with its deadly venom, giving all its victims a tenebrous hue, which is ghastly to behold.'"
I gasped, knowing what that meant. Violet looked between Klaus and I and asked, "What does 'strangulatory', 'conjunction', 'tenebrous', and 'hue' mean?"
"Well, 'strangulatory' means," Klaus began.
"'having to do with strangling'" I finished.
"And 'conjunction' means 'together'," Klaus said.
"'Tenebrous' means 'dark'" I said.
"And hue means 'color'," Klaus said. "So the Mamba du Mal strangles and bites its victims and leaves dark bruises on the victims body."
"So it couldn't have been the Mamba du Mal because Uncle Monty wasn't covered in bruises when we found him," I cried, triumphantly.
"Exactly," Klaus said, smiling at me.
"Then, how was he poisoned?" Violet asked.
Klaus asked. "I think Stephano took the venom from Uncle Monty's samples and injected him with it."
"Really?" Violet asked, shuddering. "That's awful."
"Okipi!" Sunny shrieked in agreement.
"Gross!" I shuddered.
"Well, when we tell Mr. Poe about this," Klaus said confidently. "Stephano will be arrested and sent to jail. He won't be able to whisk us away to Peru, or, threaten us with his knife, or make us carry around his suitcase, or murder anyone, or anything like that."
"Suitcase!" Violet said, looking at me excitedly. "His suitcase!"
"Of course!" I said, understanding what she meant. Why hadn't I thought of it before?
"What are you talking about?" Klaus asked quizzically. But before Violet or I could explain, there was a knock at the door.
It was Mr. Poe and he confirmed that we would be riding in the jeep with Stephano. Klaus tried to explain what we discovered but Violet warned him not to. Mr. Poe said we would be leaving as soon as all the suitcases were unloaded from the jeep. He left and Violet and I took immediate action.
"Klaus, Jane and I need to go find the evidence," Violet said, quickly, "stay here and…find us time…somehow…maybe a…"
"Distraction," I suggested.
"Yes," Violet agreed, "and we need it fast before we're whisked away to Peru."
"What could we use for a distraction?" Klaus asked, "the only distractions I've read about was the Trojan horse and I don't have time to build something like that."
"You need to think of something," I said, "I'm sure you can come up with something. You're smart. Well, Violet and I have to go now."
Violet and I hurried from the room.
"Where to?" I asked, quietly.
"My room this time," Violet whispered as we climbed the stairs, "There has to be something we can use to break open that lock."
We reached Violet's room as a loud scream echoed through the house. I looked horrified towards Violet. She had a smug smile on her face as she tied her hair back with a ribbon. Then she scanned the room for something useful.
"Relax," she said, when she saw my expression, "it is only Sunny."
I relaxed. "I guess I need to work on that," I muttered, "Is there anything I can do to help you?"
Violet's gaze was fixed on the floor lamp. "No," she said, "I think I found something. Stand back."
I did as I was told and watched curiously as she examined the lamp. She knelt down and unplugged the lamp. I watch in amazed horror as she removed the two prongs. She then took a tack off of the wall that held up one of the white sheets of paper. She skillfully created the invention so that the sharp point of the tack was sticking out through the holes of the two prongs.
"What's that?" I asked.
"A lock pick," Violet answered, "come on."
We hurried back down stairs and walked quietly past the Reptile Room. We hurried down the hall and outside into the driveway. Violet went immediately to the suitcase while I stood guard and watched Klaus, Sunny, Mr. Poe, Stephano, and Dr. Lucafont who were all in the Reptile Room.
Violet cried out in frustration. "It's not working!"
"Maybe it needs something," I suggested, "Something to help it to easily fit."
"Soap!" Violet cried, "stay here, I'll be right back."
I nodded and Violet rushed back inside. I turned my attention back to the scene happening in the Reptile Room. Everyone was staring at Stephano who was saying something. Then Klaus spoke and Mr. Poe seemed to interrupt him. I looked away from the scene, too nervous. What was taking Violet so long? I glanced back towards the Reptile Room and my blood ran cold.
Stephano was staring through the glass at me. He didn't look very happy to see me at all. I glared at him even though I was terrified. At that moment, Violet came back out of the house. She went right for the suitcase. I hadn't looked away from where Stephano was still standing. His gaze shifted to Violet and his face went livid. I realized I was trembling and my heart pounded fast in my chest.
"Violet," I squeaked, "hurry up…Stephano is looking…"
Violet took a sharp intake of breath and tried once more with the lock pick. There was a snap like metal breaking and a thud. I turned around to see that the suitcase was wide open and the contents spilled out on the ground. Violet spread out all the evidence on the ground. Swallowing back my fear, I knelt down and picked up a vial labeled 'Venom du Mal' and a syringe. I shuddered.
"This must be what was used to inject Uncle Monty with the venom," I said, disgusted. Then I picked up a laminated card. I gasped. "This is Uncle Monty's membership to the Herpetological Society! That nasty Count Olaf must have been using it to get on to pose as Uncle Monty."
"Here are the tickets for the Prospero," Violet said, picking up a stack of folded papers.
I examined the last two items: a powder puff and a small hand mirror.
I grinned triumphantly. "And we both know what those items were for," I said, "well let's gather these items and hurry back to the Reptile Room before it's too late."
BTW i always got really scared whenever i read the part in this book where Stephano sees Violet picking the lock on his suitcase lol! :)
