Yay I'm updating fast for once! The end of this story is in sight! I've written the next two chapters after this one, and there are only three chapters let in all, unless I do an epilogue as well ...

DEAR MISS. BAUDELAIRE,

I CAN ONLY HOPE THAT THIS TELEGRAM WILL REACH YOU, AS I HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING WHETHER OR NOT THE WIRES BETWEEN THIS TELEGRAM DEVICE AND THE ONE WHICH YOU OUGHT TO RECEIVE THIS FROM ARE STILL UNBROKEN STOP SO MANY WIRES HAVE BEEN SABOTAGED THAT I HARDLY DARE SEND THIS MESSAGE BY TELEGRAM - - I WOULD ALMOST PREFER TO REVERT TO CARRIER PIGEON, EXCEPT THAT ALL THE CARRIER PIGEONS FLEW AWAY FROM THE FIRE LONG AGO AND ARE NOW GROWING FAT ON SEED FED TO THEM BY CERTAIN WANDERING MONKS STOP

I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU ARE ALVE AND WELL, AND YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY KNOW HOW HAPPY THIS MAKES ME STOP I AM TAKING A GREAT RISK IN WRITING TO YOU AFTER SO LONG, BUT I HAD TO GIVE YOU A MESSAGE STOP I ONLY HOPE THAT THIS TELEGRAM DEVICE IS NOT SABOTAGED, OR DOES NOT BREAK DOWN BEFORE I CAN TYPE OUT MY MESSAGE TO YOU STOP

THE MESSAGE IS AS FOLLOWS:

MEET ME – – –

Quigley stared down at the faded telegram, a dull shock spreading through him. All around him was quiet; he stood amid the ruins of a building, his boots sunk deep in the inches of brick dust and ashes that lay in a thick coating over everything in sight. The telegram device was ancient and rusted, the wires all melted.

Quigley coughed and gave a slight sniff, but managed to hold back tears. He knew now. He knew why it had all gone wrong, why he had waited for hours, more than two years ago now, for the girl he loved to meet him in the lobby of a hotel she had visited just once before, and why she had never turned up. Quigley screwed the dusty telegram into a ball in his first and thrust it into his pocket, giving another sniff.

'She never received my message.'

His words were quiet, barely audible, but they seemed to break something inside Quigley.

'Why does everything always go wrong? Why did it break? Why did this place burn down? WHY?'

The last word came out as something between a yell and a scream, his voice breaking half-way through.

Coughing, stumbling, wiping his face as he went, Quigley Quagmire made his way out of the burnt-out building which held so much disappointment, and so many secrets.

He knew now what he had to do. He would reply to Violet, before it was too late. And this time, she would get his message.

There ... it's alll getting tense! :D

See you soon,

Tabs ~