Hi there! Here's another chapter for you all ...

The Best Day

Violet's legs seem to be working too fast to keep up with themselves. She can hear her breath coming in gasps too slow to sustain her speed for long, too small to fill her lungs. A laugh cuts through the air, light and carefree, taking the sting from the chill winter winds that are reddening Violet's cheeks more with each passing moment. Violet turns around, beaming, searching for her mother's warm smile, for her long winter coat and wide brown eyes.

'Mama!'

Violet flings herself at her mother, wrapping her arms tightly about her legs. Beatrice Baudelaire laughs again, hoisting her daughter into her arms.

The view is breathtaking to Violet, and she wonders dimly what it's like to be this tall, promising herself she will be taller even than this, one day … as tall as her father, even …

Beatrice sings a lullaby as she carries her daughter across the sand. She sings of peace and quiet in a world gone hopelessly wrong, of safety born from disaster, of tranquillity snatched from the jaws of terror.

Violet's eyes slide closed as the dying sun turns the sky, the sea and the sand a pale gold, and her mother's voice carries her away from Briny Beach and into the realm of dreams.

Violet lay in bed, staring with unseeing eyes at a vase of flowers which stood on the windowsill, a shaft of moonlight turning their petals into shards of silver. Their sweet, decaying stench filled the room, cloying and musty. Violet was too despondent even to cry. How could she? How could she do anything but lie and stare and grieve in stifling silence?
Her mind was blank and hazy, quite unaware of the world around her. With an effort, she focused her thoughts on her parents. Violet wasn't quite sure why she was finding it so difficult to think about them – but then, since their death, she had found it very hard to focus on anything at all.

One of the Poe children – it might have been Edgar, but then again, it could have been Albert – gave a loud, grunting snort and rolled over in his bed.
Violet sighed, confusion and misery flooding her as she realised that even this simple action was tiresome to her body. What was wrong with her?

And then, suddenly, the tears came. Her throat ached and burned with them, and her eyes narrowed as her vision blurred.
If her mother were here, she would have held Violet tight in her arms, a melancholy yet comforting tune already upon her lips as she embraced her daughter. The thought made Violet weep harder. She fought to control her tears, feeling her body shudder alarmingly with every breath she took. Violet wanted to talk aloud, whisper pleas and miseries to her dead parents, but she knew she couldn't. Klaus and Sunny might also be awake, and she couldn't let them know how scared and weak she was; she was the eldest Baudelaire child, and it fell to her to stay strong for all three of them, no matter the circumstances.
I'm only fourteen, she thought desperately, I should still have my parents.
Violet buried her face in her pillow, blocking out the pressing silence of the night so her own thoughts echoed loud within her head.
I need you, Mother. Now more than ever. I had the best days with you.

***
It was quiet in the arboretum. Klaus and Sunny were taking a stroll along the shore; they would be picking through the detritus that coated the coastal shelf, explaining various items to Beatrice, hiding other from her so she might never have to see them.

Normally, Violet would accompanied them. But not now. Not today.

Today she was sitting curled in a large armchair in their home under the bitter apple tree, trying to block out the world. She had a book in her lap – A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was heavy and large, the weight and feel of it reassuring to her touch. With shaking fingers, Violet traced the words her parents had written so long ago. Words of hope and joy. Words about Violet.

They hadn't even known if she would be a boy or a girl, and yet they had loved her. She could tell it from the way they wrote. The words they used.
A single tear fell through the air to land on the page she was reading. Angry with herself, Violet mopped it up with her sleeve, hoping not to have smudged the ink.

'You were an excellent father, you know,' whispered Violet. Her eyes were focused on the writing at her fingertips, but in her mind, she saw only her father.
'And I wish you could see Klaus and Sunny. They're brilliant. Better than me, both of them. And mother … '

Words failed Violet. Sniffing, she flicked the pages until she found her mother's handwriting. Shaking slightly, Violet pressed her face to the page, inhaling the scent of dust and spices that clung to the book. Her mother had touched these pages pages, long ago. If Violet closed her eyes, she cold imagine it was her mother's hand which now caressed her cheek, and not the dry pages of a book.
But she couldn't remain like that. She knew that soon she would be crying in earnest, and she would ruin the book which was her only link to her long-dead, precious parents.

'I don't know if you knew, mother, but I had the best days with you. I'll never forget that. I had the best day with you, and I love you. I love you. I – '
Violet's voice wavered and cracked, and she shut the book, tears obscuring her vision and stifling her speech.

Slowly, softly, she kissed the front of the book, then stood up and replaced it on its shelf. She left the armchair warm and wet with tears.

'I had the best day with you, Mama. I wish you were – ' But Violet could not finish. With a sob, she buried her face in her hands, crying for a day long gone, a day she would never see again.

So. Two very exciting things to do with the two things this story combines: today Who Could That Be At This Hour? comes out, the first book of Lemony Snicket's new series All The Wrong Questions. Aaaaghhh! I pre-ordered it, and I think it should arrive tomorrow, because they dispatched it today ... EXCITED SQUEEFULNESS!
And Taylor Swift's new album, Red, came out yesterday and I've got it and it's splendiforousawesomeamazingn ess. And there are a lot of new songs to write stories on ... ;) Especially since I got the deluxe version, which has extra songs. :DDDDDDDDD

Tabs ~