Summary: Four years ago, Isadora Quagmire disappeared without a trace, clue or any evidence at all to help find her. Without any help from lazy police officers, the Quagmires and Baudelaires try to find her but slowly adapt to life without her their treasured friend. So what will they say when she shows up unscathed, unbruised but with a forgotten memory? T just in case.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
A/N: I know, I know. It's been almost a year since I've updated. A big reason for this is that when I started writing this story, I was on an Unfortunate Events high. I had just gotten into this brilliant series. Now, even though I still love the series, my high has worn off. The only reason I started writing again was because I purchased Book 13 a couple of days ago. I have avoided all Unfortunate Events forums and communities lately, for I have only reached Chapter 6 in my reading. I will most likely be finished by tomorrow though. Enjoy Chapter 10. Hopefully, I will update sooner from now on.
Also: Special thanks to Sarah. For all those of you who are completely thrilled at the fact I have updated, you should thank her. Ever since we got placed in the same homeroom this year, she has made it an almost daily habit to bug me about updating this story. she was the reason I update the last chapter(which she didn't even bother to read). Chances are that she will annoy me until I post chapter 11.
Forgotten
Chapter 10: Vicious Visitors
It was supposed to be a good day.
The bright summer day imposed itself onto the city's inhabitants, rendering them blissfully cheerful. Not a cloud in sight, not a single chill in the air. The city's people were all in a good mood; all except a handful. This certain handful (by coincidence of course) seemed to all be at the same apartment building.
"Klaus!" shouted a very disgruntled Violet Baudelaire, "Open up! I know you're in there."
It had been a good day for Violet, until Isadora Quagmire had revealed the surprising truth to her. It had quickly transformed itself into a very, very bad day.
"Klaus, come out! You sick, perverted, son of a-"
"Quigley Quagmire! If you plan to get married anytime soon, I suggest you hold your vulgar tongue."
Her fiancée huffed, but kept his mouth shut. They had been trying to get Klaus Baudelaire to leave his apartment for a full five minutes. He had yet to let them know if he was even in the apartment.
"This is useless," said Duncan Quagmire, Quigley's triplet brother, "Violet, I know you don't want to invade your brother's privacy, but just use your key to get inside."
"It's only for emergencies-"
"And I think this would qualify as an emergency!"
Violet snorted, "You don't know the meaning of the word! Last time, I had to use my key for one of your 'emergencies', it was because you ran out of coffee!"
Before Duncan could explain to her the importance of caffeine early in the morning, Violet sent him a stern glare which clearly meant that it would be better if he stayed quiet.
Sighing, the oldest Baudelaire reached into her pockets and pulled out her keys. As soon, as the door was ajar, the two Quagmire brothers had sprinted past her into the apartment. Before she could protest, they both were making their way through the small place, looking desperately for Klaus.
"Aha! I found him-No wait-just a bunch of coats..."
Violet resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she strolled quietly around the room, once again amazed at how neat her younger brother could be. His apartment had the ability to remain organized and at the same time contain a cozy atmosphere. Not that it would remain that way for very long. Quigley and Duncan were sprinting past her every couple of minutes, toppling over furniture and even checking in bookshelves (she hoped that they would later regain their lost brain cells). They moved about so fast that, to Violet, they were merely great big blurs.
She plopped herself on the couch, where she carefully awaited for the brothers' energy level to lower. It took a full ten minutes. It was Duncan who gave up first. He was even panting slightly.
"We think that...Klaus...may not be...in the apartment..."
"Way to go, it must have taken a genius to figure than one out. Honestly..."
"The fact is that Klaus isn't here and Sunny must have gone with him to wherever he ran off to. We need to find them."
Violet nodded in agreement as Quigley finally gave up also. He dropped onto the couch next to his fiancée.
"We need to find them quickly, before this one has a heart-attack."
Before Quigley could respond, Violet's phone rang. Looking at the caller id, she felt her heart skip a beat. It was Klaus.
"Hello," she said quickly.
"Violet?"
"Sunny? What are you doing on Klaus' phone?"
"Violet, can you stop by Isadora's apartment building? The door's unlocked."
"Sunny, what's wrong? You sound worried. Where are you?"
"I can't tell you."
Violet's patient tone suddenly became annoyed, "Why not? Sunny, what's going on?"
"It's just that- Klaus watch the road! That's the third time you almost crashed into that truck driver. He's going to actually try to run us over soon! - Sorry Violet, got to go!"
Without any further explanation, her sister hung up.
"Was that your sister Sunny?" Duncan asked first.
In spite of the serious situation they were in, Violet rolled her eyes, "No, my Aunt Sunny."
Duncan ignored her comment, "What did she want?"
"I don't know; it was really confusing. She just wanted me to stop by Isadora's apartment."
At this, Quigley started to make his way to the door. He turned only when the others didn't follow him.
"Well? What are we waiting for?"
#
After her brief conversation with Violet, Sunny closed the cell phone angrily.
"Just what do you think you're doing? Are you trying to get us killed?"
Klaus glared at her, "No, not us. Just you."
Sunny rolled her eyes at the childish retort. A moment later, the car swerved violently around the same truck again. Sunny could make out a nasty vane throbbing on the truck driver's forehead.
"Out of all those books you've read," She muttered, "you'd think at least one of them would be on driving..."
"One more comment like that and I'll make sure that I'm quite careless with the passenger's end of the car."
"More so than now?" she said in mock amazement, "Impossible!"
Her brother responded with an annoyed glare, "Just get the map out of the glove compartment. We need to find Isadora as soon as possible."
Saluting him, Sunny obeyed his directions.
"And you wonder why I always bring Violet along instead," Klaus muttered, his voice barely audible.
#
It was cold.
That was the first thing that had caught Isadora's attention when she had awoken several minutes ago. Whatever she was laying on was soft, but the atmosphere itself sent chills up and down her spine.
Her eyes remained closed tightly in fear. Who knew what lay beyond the darkness that she had grown accustom to these past few minutes? It was an awful thought, especially since her memory was clouded over. She could barely remember why she wasn't at home.
Someone had broken into her home. It had been a woman, and she had told Isadora her name. The name had been driven out of her mind by the awful blow to the head. Who knew vases were as dangerous as the movies portrayed them to be?
The thing that worried her the most, though, was Samantha. Her poor little girl had watched her mother as she struggled against the unwanted visitor. She shuddered to think at what the stranger had done to her.
"I could tell you're awake."
Isadora's eyes flew open. She turned her head to the left hand corner of the room, where a young woman sat patiently in her chair. She watched Isadora carefully, as if daring her to try and escape.
"I've been waiting quite awhile for you to wake up. I'm sorry I had to knock you out, but you refused to accompany me on your own accord. Just in case you were wondering, your daughter is with the nanny. I wouldn't worry; Ingrid's wonderful with children."
This statement obviously brought no relief to Isadora.
"I want my daughter," she spoke, her voice shaking slightly, "I want to see her now."
The woman laughed cruelly, "I'm sorry, Miss Quagmire, but from this moment on, you don't have a daughter anymore. She is my daughter now."
The statement sent chills up and down Isadora's spine, "That's ridiculous. You can't just claim her!"
"She is my daughter now," the woman repeated, "She should have been mine in the first place. You don't deserve all of this, it should have been mine!"
"What are you talking about?"
"You got it all, Isadora! You weren't content with Klaus' love; you just had to bear his child as well. At least I had a chance at him before. With you pregnant, there was nothing I could do. Not even erasing your memories seemed to help. You still found your way back to Baudelaire's arms!"
"You!" she cried, "You stole my memories!"
The woman laughed again, "Yes I did. Partly, anyways. I found those capable of the technology to erase human memories. Getting you to them was a simple plan. After that, I would take the child you gave birth to. I would return to Klaus, make up some false story about how he and I had had some sort of one night stand. Klaus, the ever noble gentleman, would commit himself to me because of our baby and end up falling in love with me. It was a perfect plan; absolutely perfect! We would discard you in some far away country without any memories. Whoever found you would have to deal with you."
The dozens of new pieces of information attacked her brain all at one, making her feel as if the wind had been knocked out of her. This was too much. The woman continued on talking. Isadora wondered if she knew exactly how absurd all this sounded.
"It would have worked; my plans always work. The procedure was going along smoothly. We kept you for a couple of months while your memories were repressed so much that you would never remember them. We took scans of your unborn child; checking to make sure no damage was done to it. I had already planned visiting Klaus, showing him my baby. I planned him falling in love with me, us getting married and having more children."
"I would have finally had my perfect life, if it hadn't been for one important detail. Someone had helped you escape. They had taken you from where you were kept prisoner. It still haunts me to this day, the unsolved mystery of who betrayed me. They put you where they knew a citizen would find you and alert the police. But no worries, I have a new plan."
Isadora didn't dare think what her new plan was. One thing was for sure; she wasn't going to like it.
#
"Stick...to...the...road!"
Sunny felt the sudden urge to scream as Klaus drove maniacally through the streets. Well, he was on the street most of the time. Whirling the car around, he slid into a parked position at the side of the abandoned road.
Sunny felt herself trembling slightly as she rested her head between her knees, fighting the unpleasant urge to vomit.
She really regretted coming along.
"You are trying to get us killed, aren't you?" she said, between huffed breaths. She felt as if she had run a marathon.
"Don't be silly," Klaus replied, even though his mind wasn't completely focused on what she was saying. He stared intently at the map in his hands. They had been trying to decipher it for nearly an hour. Even though it was obviously map of the city they lived in, it seemed to be at least five years of age. The architectural characteristics of the city had changed since then. When they had followed the route clearly drawn on the map, it had led them to a Wal-Mart.
How efficient.
"Nine-five-ten," he read at the bottom, where both Baudelaires had found someone's scribbled message. A look of understanding flashed across as face as he restarted the ignition.
Great, thought Sunny, Here we go again.
#
"Is it safe yet?"
That had been Sunny's first question as soon as the car engine had stopped. She had kept her eyes off the road out of fear of becoming ill.
She could almost hear her brother rolling his eyes, "Yes, Sunny, it's safe."
Sunny lifted her head and frowned. After all they had gone through so far, they were back at...
"Wal-Mart?" Sunny asked, clearly confused, "Are we doing Violet's groceries or something? If so, we need milk. Real milk, though. Not that soy garbage our sister buys."
"Nope," he said, "No grocery shopping. Actually, we don't really care about the Wal-Mart as it has nothing to do with our little mission. I remembered that a year ago a library had been torn down to build this building. It was completely abandoned, but the city had kept it for such a long time because of its historical value. Then, the business world stormed in."
Sunny tried not to look confused. Easier said then done.
"So, then why are we here?"
"Because, the library's old name used to be Victoria Ferald-Duncan, or for short VFD library."
"So...you think that...the library was somehow used by VFD...and that whoever kidnapped Isadora might be hiding out here...or something like that..."
"Good, Sunny; you're smart. And I was worried you'd take after Violet."
Sunny could not help but smile at Klaus' childish comment.
"One thing though. Couldn't you have figured this out when we came here before? It would have saved us one heck of a drive. You're lucky I didn't throw up all over your car the way you were driving."
Klaus ignored her. He was already making his way over to the store. Sunny muttered under her breath and chased after him. She knew not to disturb him; he was in one of those moods where he was rapidly mumbling under his breath, clearly lost in his concentration.
Quickly, without saying anything, Klaus darted to an alleyway next to the building. With Sunny hot on his heels, he made his way frantically through a cluster of stores. It was several minutes before they stopped, both of them out of breath.
"I think...we're here..."Klaus announced lamely.
"Great," Sunny muttered, teeth clenched, "now it would absolutely fantastic if you could tell me where exactly here is."
Sunny could not see how her brother had pinpointed this exact location. All she saw was a group of abandoned homes. It seemed like one of those places you saw on the history channel when they went on searches to find spirits in long-abandoned homes. Sunny guessed it was one of the poorer areas in the town.
"When the VFD library was still standing, it had a large statue on top of it. This statue was holding a large golden spear which pointed facing in this direction. People in the town always wondered what it pointed to; they thought maybe the town's founders were trying to lead them somewhere."
"Like what?"
"What else do people want these days? Gold, riches...This used to be a very rich place when it was first founded. One day though, their founders and leaders were gone and the town was left with nothing. It took them a long time to escape the poverty they had struggled with for so long. This part of town was left untouched to symbolize all the hardships they had gone through."
Hardships, Sunny though, that's for sure.
The buildings were torn apart. The few houses that could be found in the small historical square showed that they hadn't been inhabited for at least half a century. Most windows were broken, and those that weren't were extremely cracked. Dirt covered the walls, and moss grew along the brick. Sunny also had a hard time seeing some of the buildings because of the overgrown weeds that surrounded them.
Klaus made his way quietly to a house on his left. Sunny followed after him, once again confused by his apparent curiosity. She remained confused until she saw the number on the broken address plate.
Nine-Five-Ten. The number on the map.
"This is the place," her brother said from next to her.
"For what?"
"I don't know yet."
Sunny snorted. That was helpful.
Klaus put his hand against the building's cool stone surface. His hand traveled along the wall until it paused momentarily at what seemed to be a tiny crack. Sunny saw her brother smirk as he pushed his finger's against the crack. The youngest Baudelaire watched in amazement as her brother set off some invisible trigger, causing the "stone" to slide out, revealing a key pad.
"You know, considering how poor these people were supposed to be, their technology is pretty advanced. They're more hi-tech than Violet."
Klaus ignored her as he examined their map carefully. Sunny saw him smirk once again before pocketing the piece of paper.
"Well, I have good news."
"You're finally coming out of the closet?"
Her brother rolled his eyes before continuing, "The good news is that I finally found a way out of this place and a way to find Isadora."
"Good. I do not want to spend any more time than I need to in this place. It really makes me wish for home."
"Well, that's good, since that's exactly where you'll be going after we're done here."
Sunny was surprised by his response, "What are you talking about?"
"I'm taking you back to Violet after this. So far, it may seem 'fun' for you to be on this kind of...adventure, but it's not going to stay like this for long. It's going to get dangerous. I may have lost Isadora and I do not want to lose my sister too."
Sunny was too outraged to be touched by his words, "You have got to be kidding me! You are not going to drag me this far, just to take me back home. I've come all this way with you, and I am not going back."
"Sunny, it's going to be dangerous-"
"Dangerous! Is that your lame excuse? I went through a hell of a lot more with you and Violet when I was about two years old. I'm going to be fourteen soon. Are you telling me that I was more qualified for your adventures back then?"
"That was different, Sunny. Violet and I didn't have a choice on whether or not we had to take you with us. Now, I do. You will be a lot safer with Violet."
"What are you going to do? Drop me off at her door as she waves goodbye? Violet won't let you do this alone any more than I will," Sunny paused, "Not to mention- her fiancée and his brother will be there."
Sunny felt enormous satisfaction as her brother's face paled. He had forgotten about the Quagmire brothers.
"Fine," he said through gritted teeth, "You can come."
"Awesome", Sunny grinned.
"So...where to?"
#
She is my daughter now...
The words rung through Isadora's mind, chilling her to the very core. She still couldn't believe what the woman had told her. No one could be that insane.
Yet, the woman had gone on and on about how she had single handedly ruined Isadora's life, taking her memories and friends and family away from her. She even bragged about how she had been able to find Isadora a second time. The words that haunted her the most, though, were those about her daughter. There was no way that she was going leave some psychotic woman alone with her Samantha.
Her arms ached from the binds that she had been forced into. Her hands were frozen from the cool metal that they were forced up against. There was no way out; no way to get out of this miserable abyss, to find a way back to her daughter. She was stuck here.
Despite his secrets, Isadora could not help but long for Klaus to come save her.
#
"You're not going to die...you're not going to die..."
"Shut up, Sunny."
They had been walking for over an hour, and Sunny had been reciting words of 'comfort' for the last twenty minutes, annoying Klaus to the deepest point possible.
After entering the front door, they had walked down a long descending corridor. At one point, it had stopped going down, and was currently just a series of twists and turns. Klaus felt like he was in a labyrinth, and that he would be stuck there forever, unable to leave. Sunny had spent the first ten minutes firing sarcastic comments until they had reached a point where the lights were almost completely extinguished. Sunny hated the dark.
For now, Klaus had to deal with her reassuring comments of survival.
"I can't help it! It's your fault anyways."
"My fault?"
"Yeah, you were the one who used to sit outside my room acting like you were a ghost. It took me five months until I realized it was you. It's because of that that I'm so terrified of the dark."
Klaus rolled his eyes.
Sunny stopped dead in her tracks, "What was that? You heard that right? I'm not going crazy am I?"
"Well, you are, but not because of this."
"Shut up! It's not funny. I seriously heard something ahead of us."
"Don't be ridicu-"
He did not have time to finish his sentence, for he was interrupted by a sudden noise that was indeed coming from up ahead. It was the sound of screeching metal, of a door opening. Someone was entering the corridor.
"Are you regretting coming along yet?"
Sunny's answer was in the form of a slow nod.
The two Baudelaires remained as silent as possible, hoping that whoever was up ahead would resume whatever they were doing and close the door. Klaus had not made a plan of what to do if they were caught. If the intrude was armed, they were in serious trouble. He couldn't help but recite in his head choruses of "You're not going to die...you're not going to die..."As long as Sunny didn't know, he could think it.
His prayers remained unanswered, for they could hear the sound of the door opening completely, revealing a small light up ahead. Klaus could barely make out the figure of a woman further ahead in the corridor. Without thinking, he grabbed Sunny and pushed her backwards, behind a turn that they had just passed. There, she would be safe. Hopefully, she would be smart and remain silent.
The figure advanced slowly upon him, every stride that it took making his heart beat even faster than before. In seconds, the person was right in front of him.
She was a woman. She appeared to be his age, with long, dark cascading hair that hid her features well. The room was dimly lit, which made it impossible to see any part of the woman's eyes, besides two brilliant blue eyes.
"Well, well," she muttered huskily under her breath, "We meet again, Klaus Baudelaire."
Klaus remained silently idle, the only sounds he emitted being ragged breaths.
"What's the matter, Klaus? Don't you remember me?"
Klaus was about to voice his confusion, when an object caught his eye. Around the woman's neck was a familiar necklace, with the letters FW. Klaus felt the blood rush out of his head, his surrounding becoming a slight blur. It took him several moments to realize what he was currently seeing.
"Fiona?"