Begin!
~Normal POV
It was a cold, winter, night at the Baudelaire/Quagmire estate as the family members rested comfortably in their houses. Christmas was coming soon, and the children had been given their annual winter break week off from school for the holidays. However, on this night something else was happening at the estate that the family wasn't aware of yet. And that something, more specifically someone, was trying to open the locked gate to the estate.
A small boy was working to jimmy the lock on the gate. After several attempts, he succeeded and very carefully pushed the gate open. He would have just climbed over it; however he realized he was too short for such a particularly high climb. He grabbed a backpack off the snowy ground, and put it on before carefully surveying the area for any sign of motion or people. The moon was full, illuminating the whole area.
With very light steps, he trekked over the asphalt of the driveway that led up to the three houses situated on the lot. He had only realized who lived here based on seeing the occupants playing outside in the snow the other day. He looked between the houses and decided on trying the one on the left first. He reached the front door and began to pick the lock.
Once he succeeded, he froze momentarily as he gave the door a little push open, waiting for any sign of an alarm or security mechanism. He heard nothing and breathed a sigh of relief as he entered the house, and carefully shut the door behind him. He looked around the living room area before advancing forward slowly.
In the back corner of the room he saw a tall Christmas tree, dressed up with ornaments and its lights helped him see. At its base was a small mountain of presents; all wrapped up and ready to be opened in a few days. He took slow, quiet breaths just in case someone in the house woke up. It would ruin his plan if they did. He stepped over to the tree and reached into his backpack to begin part one of his plan.
However, what he didn't know was that something was awake at this hour. And that something could sense that he was in the house. And that something was coming down the hall and into the living room as the boy searched his bag. The boy finally found what he was looking for, a small, neatly wrapped present; which on the inside was anything but a present. He set it gently on the rest of the gifts and took a step back to admire his handiwork.
But when he turned around to sneak out of the house... He came face to face with the largest, most threatening looking snake he had ever seen in his life. Its body was black as night and its unblinking green eyes glowed eerily in the dark. Its tongue flicked out a few times. It coiled and uncoiled itself a couple times as he stood frozen in fear. The boy just so happened to be terrified of snakes. And somehow the snake seemed to realize that. The fearsome creature opened its mouth and bared its sharp fangs as a loud hiss erupted from it. The boy couldn't hold it back anymore. The snake inched closer to him and the boy let out a blood curdling scream, surely waking the entire house; possibly even waking the residents in the other two houses.
He ran from the creature and jumped onto a couch holding his backpack in front of him like a makeshift shield. The snake continued to stare him down with its, surely venomous, fangs bared to keep him in place. The boy heard the sound of several different pairs of footsteps coming down the stairs. Suddenly the lights in the room were turned on and in walked two adults, a man and a woman, a 15 year old girl, a 15 year old boy, and a little 6 year old girl. (Just the same age as the boy standing helplessly in the couch.)
"What on earth is going on here," The man asked.
The boy couldn't stop himself from doing what he did next: begging, "Please! G-Get that thing away from me! Call it off! Make him stop looking at me like I'm his late night snack!"
The snake hissed at the remark. The teenage girl then stepped forward and tapped her leg, as if she were calling a dog.
"Monty, come here boy," She commanded, "He's had enough."
The snake turned to his obvious mistress and moved to coil himself around her. She patted his head affectionately.
"Good boy, now let us handle it ok?"
The snake made a motion as if it were nodding. The other people stepped forward.
"Cameron," The young girl said quizzically, "What are you doing here?"
"He broke into our house, Nikki," Her father said, "That's what he's doing here."
"Get off the couch you little brat," The teenage boy commanded grabbing him by the collar of his jacket, "Monty won't hurt you unless he's told." Cameron then figured this guy must have been a guest in this house as he didn't look related to the other people.
"Hold him Trevor," The woman commanded, "We don't want our intruder to escape."
Her husband smirked, "Kid, meet the Incredibly Deadly Viper; his name is Monty. If you know what's good for you, you'll stay put so we can sort this out. Oh, and Sunny is the only person he'll listen to."
"So, this is Cameron Spats," The woman asked her daughter.
"Yes mommy, that's the boy that gave Sam a black eye."
"You and your brother started that," Cameron retorted.
"Sam is my cousin, not my brother," Nikki replied calmly.
"Huh? But he looks so much like your dad?"
"Sam is my nephew," Her father answered, "My brother Quigley and I are part of a set of identical triplets."
"If I might make a suggestion," Trevor spoke up, "I say we call the police. Who's with me?"
"Not so fast Trevor, let's first find out what he was doing here. Make him sit down."
Trevor kept his hold on Cameron as he pushed him onto the couch.
"Monty, what was he doing," Sunny asked.
The snake moved over to the tree and picked up Cameron's surprise package in his mouth and brought it over to his mistress. Sunny took the present and looked at Cameron suspiciously.
"I doubt that there's anything good in here?"
Cameron was too scared of the giant serpent to lie; he shook his head and replied, "It's a prank. For her, and I was going to do the same to the other two." He pointed at Nikki. Obviously by the other two he meant Sam and Lizzie.
Trevor snatched the boy's backpack out of his hand and handed it to Sunny, "So what do we do with the rest of them?"
"Nikki go back to your room and let us deal with this. Duncan, Trevor, make sure he doesn't go anywhere, I'm going to call the others and let them know we're alright."
"You got it, Violet."
Duncan and Trevor nodded as the girls all left the room. Monty fixed his gaze on Cameron and coiled himself menacingly.
"So you're Carmelita's son, huh," Duncan said glaring at the kid, "Does she know you're here?"
Cameron looked surprised at him, "No she doesn't, and how do you know my mom?"
Duncan shrugged, "My sister, Isadora, and I knew her at Prufrock back in the day. Now tell us your phone number so we can call her."
Cameron was about to refuse, but then he noticed Monty staring hungrily at him. He quickly rattled off his number.
"So who are you," Cameron asked looking up at Trevor.
"Sunny's boyfriend, I'm staying with them over the holiday break from our school."
Sunny shoved the prank gift into the backpack with the other two and dropped it on the couch beside Cameron. Violet entered the room once more
"Alright I've called the others and let them know what's going on. I suppose before we start we should properly introduce ourselves. You've already met our daughter Nikki. This is my younger sister Sunny. I'm Violet Quagmire and this is my husband Duncan."
Duncan pulled out his phone, "He gave me his number so I'll take one for the team and call Carmelita to have her come pick up her spoiled brat."
When Carmelita arrived to pick up her son she had been quite shocked to see who the estate belonged to. Nonetheless, she seemed to want to keep things civil for now, and the rest of the family agreed with her on that.
"You broke into their house," Carmelita asked her son.
"It was just for a prank, mom. I wasn't going to take anything."
Violet handed Carmelita the boy's backpack and she shifted through its contents. The red haired woman sighed heavily.
"He got the idea from his older cousin Marcus. He liked to send people prank gifts around the holidays and I guess Cameron thought it would be better to just give them to you. Son, how many houses have you been to already? Including this one?"
Cameron looked down and muttered, "Eight."
Carmelita gave her son a very disappointed look, "I see. Well, you're going to come with me to those houses and take back all those fake presents. Violet, Duncan, if you don't mind watching him for a moment I need to call my husband and let him know what's going on."
Violet nodded, "Of course we understand."
Carmelita gave her a half smile before pulling out her phone and walking into the hall. Sunny had sent Monty to Nikki's room since his services were no longer required, while she and Trevor went back to bed for the night. Violet and Duncan kept a careful eye on the small boy as they could hear Carmelita talking to her husband over the phone.
After several minutes, she returned to the living room and handed Cameron his backpack once more, "Your father is coming home from his business trip tomorrow, and when he does he's going to have a lot to say to you."
Cameron nodded and mumbled, "Yes mom."
Carmelita turned to Violet and Duncan and a tiny smile crossed her face, "So, this is where you two ended up?"
"Yes, we're married now, and our daughter Nikki is upstairs," Duncan replied.
"I suppose I wasn't entirely wrong about that rumor I spread at Prufrock then, huh? Since you two did end up together after all."
"You were wrong about the timing," Violet replied, "We didn't officially get together until my siblings and I saved Duncan and Isadora from being kidnapped after we left Prufrock."
Carmelita nodded, "I remember that happening. It was all over the news. So, uh, where are Klaus and Isadora?"
"Married, they have a daughter too; they live in the middle house on the driveway. And we found out that my triplet brother Quigley was alive after all; he and his wife live in the third house, they have a son."
"Ah, yes the boy who helped beat up my son I take it?"
"And your son gave our daughter several facial bruises," Violet replied, "If you think we're going to forget that part you're surely mistaken."
"Point taken," Carmelita said, "Jett and I have been strict with him since that fight happened. We don't enjoy seeing him act like that, especially if it puts him in pain. What about your sister? The one who bit me I mean."
"Sunny has winter break off from her private school; she's asleep in the guest room."
"Well good for her," Carmelita said, she paused and put a hand on her stomach, "Hopefully, Cameron can straighten out his attitude before he becomes a big brother."
"You're having another kid," Duncan said quizzically.
She nodded, "Just found out last week." She paused once more before continuing, "Listen, I'm not here to apologize for anything I said, or did, when at Prufrock with you two. I'm here because my son did something I didn't want him to, and that's it."
"We weren't planning to ask you for it," Violet replied, "We don't need an apology from you because we moved on years ago."
"And we didn't need to forgive you to say we moved on," Duncan added.
"Are you going to press charges? He did break into your house."
"I think we've settled the matter just fine without involving the police."
Carmelita nodded, "We'll say no more about it then, Mr. and Mrs. Quagmire. I'll keep my family out of your life, and you keep your family out of mine. I think that will be an appropriate way to handle this."
"For once, I agree with you, Carmelita," Duncan said.
"Come on Cameron, we have to sort out the rest of your mess before someone gets hurt from whatever is in those boxes. Good bye." Carmelita took her son's arm and pulled him along with her out of the house.
Once the two were gone, Violet and Duncan smiled at each other.
"Glad we sorted that mess out," Violet said.
"God yes," Duncan replied, "Now let's get back to bed because I'm exhausted."
"Me too, and tomorrow I'm going to spend the day working on a better security system for us. I never realized how easy it was to pick open the gate until tonight."
~The End!
This was obviously a very different kind of Christmas story I know. Carmelita is a character that crossed into completely irredeemable, so I kept that mentality by not forcing her to apologize for her past actions. And Cameron is irredeemable too by the way, he will continue to be a jerk and I think this is the last time I'll use the two of them. Unlike the White-Faced Women, these are people who don't want to change, thus they won't. I know from personal experience that forgiveness is not necessary to move on from something by the way, just in case you were concerned about that. (I won't say anything more on the subject) Oh, and if you were wondering, Cameron is a jerk because he's a jerk. He has no other reason beyond that, he's just a brat. Anyway, I'll see you in the next one.
