I'm here again! It's March 20th, and it's the one year anniversary! Sorry for the long wait, but today is a special day, so I'm here wooohoooo!
Review Response!
VeronicaWeasley - Very true, very true. Montgomery is here! Dramatic irony... Wonderful but terrifying. Thank youuuu!
HollyHook - Keep saying it all the time because it makes me happy! Thank you so much!
Who's ready for the chapter now? I certainly am, so if you're not... too bad.
For the Baudelaires and Harpers, a week at Count Olaf's house had felt like a month. They were forced to do a lot of difficult chores, and got no sleep in the wretched man's home.
In Montgomery's house however, a week flew by like an hour. The children got two bedrooms in the house, and decided to split themselves by families. All of them got one real bed each, which was to great relief. They spent most of their time in the reptile room. Violet, Klaus and Ricky read through all of the books about snakes Monty had in his scientific library.
Dicky spent his days exploring the room, taking care of and getting to know all of the reptiles in there. He was particularly attached to the turtles with headphones.
Even Dawn had started to grow okay with the numerous snakes and reptiles in the room. She wouldn't clutch her arms and be on guard for attacking animals any more, and you could see the development she made. Especially the lizards had started to grow on her. Her absolute favorite thing in there was the winged lizard.
Nicky and Sunny had both grown a bond with The Incredibly Deadly Viper, especially Sunny. Stars appeared in her eyes whenever she entered the reptile room, and she ran over to the big cage. She and Nicky had not only bonded with the snake, but also with each other, and Sunny practically viewed Nicky as a second older brother.
Regarding Montgomery himself; the kids had certainly developed a familiar friendship with him. Violet and Klaus, who had been suspicious at first, found that they felt very happy to be in the care of the scientist. Of course, the quads did as well. For the first time since their parents died, they all felt genuinely happy and safe. For some time, they thought what Monty had said was true. The unfortunate cycle was over, and they were actually going to live with Montgomery from now on. Unfortunately, the sad truth would come crashing down on them like a boulder very very soon.
On the tenth day of staying with Monty, the children were as usual in the Reptile Room. Dicky, Nicky and Sunny had a fun time feeding the turtles with headphones bananas. Violet had a little conversation with the broken hearted crocodile, even though she knew it couldn't understand her. Dawn sat by the researching desk and played with the flying lizard. Half an hour earlier Monty had left to go into town to buy some thing he liked to keep in stock. Such as canned peaches. Before he left he had told them that today was the day when they would watch their first movie at the movie theatre. They were all excited for it.
"I wonder what we'll be watching," Dawn stated while happily letting the winged lizard climb all over her arms.
"Monty said we were going to watch some very important and very special movies," Violet reminded her.
"Do you think the movie will be about reptiles?" Nicky asked.
"Possibly," Violet answered.
The crocodile next to her let out a depressed-sounding sound, which was also known as its mating call.
"I'm sorry," Violet looked gloomily at the broken hearted crocodile. "you won't be able to come with us."
"No need to worry. I don't think he wants to," Nicky grinned.
"True," Violet nodded. "Maybe he said he misses Monty."
"Hey Croc!" Dicky leaned over the table to look at the big reptile. "Monty's coming back soon, dude!"
At that precise moment, someone came through the door. It was not Monty, but it was Ricky and Klaus, carrying a big cobra. They had been up in Monty's room for a while, trying to lure it out of his sock drawer. Dawn leaned back a little when they entered. She wasn't quite fine with the snakes she knew to be dangerous yet.
"I don't know about that," Klaus replied to Dicky. "It's a long way to town, and Monty's only been gone for half an hour."
"Hush!" Dicky put a finger in front of his mouth. "We're trying to cheer him up!" he gestured to the crocodile.
"He can't understand you," Ricky pointed out.
"I know," Dicky raised his eyebrows.
"So why are you talking to it?" Ricky asked.
"Come on, Ricky, you talked to Squishy all the time!" Nicky pointed out.
"Who's Squishy?" Violet asked.
It was first then when the Harpers realized they had never mentioned Squishy. They looked at each other, sadness filling their eyes. None of them had gone deep into thought about how much they missed him.
"Squishy Paws was our dog," Dawn told the Baudelaires.
"We don't know where he is now," Ricky explained further.
"Oh," Violet gave them a reassuring smile. "I'm sorry about that. I'm sure Squishy Paws is great."
"I hope so," Nicky sighed.
During the next ten seconds, not a lot happened. Ricky put the cobra back in its cage, Klaus went up to the desk, and the others remained where they were before.
"On a more urgent matter than your lost dog," Klaus pulled something out of a drawer. "I found this earlier."
It was a blueprint. The quads, Violet and Sunny went up to join Klaus and look at the blueprint. At a first glance, no one was sure what they were looking at. Then;
"It's the blueprint of Montgomery's landscaping," Klaus said.
It clicked for the others, and they realized that the complicated shape they were looking at was the hedges next to Montgomery's house.
"It looks just like the eye tattoo Count Olaf has on his leg," Dawn said, sounding a bit weirded out.
"It's a sign of evil," Klaus stated.
"But... Monty's not evil," Nicky unsurely said. "Right?..."
"He seems so nice," said Ricky.
"Things aren't always what they seem," Klaus pointed out.
"If Monty's in cahoots with Count Olaf, that would explain why our parents never mentioned him," Violet reasoned. She didn't want to believe what she said.
Their conversation was abruptly interrupted by the sound of the doorbell ringing. All seven heads were turned towards the door to the reptile room.
"Is Monty back?" Dawn asked.
"He wouldn't ring his own doorbell," Violet said truthfully. "This is someone else."
"Do we... answer?" Nicky looked at the others, a bit of worry in his eye.
Klaus decided by nodding. As they walked out into the hall, he also turned out to lead the group to the door. Despite that fact, Violet was the one to open the door. They all looked at the man outside.
He was tall; around six foot, and was bald. His head looked a bit obscure though, like it wasn't meant to be bald. The man's eyes looked giant behind a pair of very big, round glasses. Above the eyes were no eyebrows at all. Not two, not one long. He had a long, gray beard, and wore a lab coat. A large, ugly smile adorned his face.
"Good morning," the man said in a very high pitched Italian accent. "I am Stephano, Doctor Montgomery Montgomery's new assistant."
Even though the man introduced himself as Stephano, the children easily recognized him as someone else. They all got sick feelings in their stomachs, and felt themselves freeze inside the house.
"It's afternoon, so it would be good afternoon," Klaus corrected. "And we know you're Count Olaf."
"We're not gonna let you into this house," Violet said strictly.
Dawn took the next step of action, which was to close the door in Stephano's face. Before the door was fully closed though, she was stopped. Stephano had ripped a knife out of his pocket, and put it between the door and the frame, thus stopping the door from closing.
The smile was not gone from his face as he looked into the house. He took the knife out of the door.
"Well, I see you children haven't changed a bit," he said bitterly.
The children started backing away as Stephano held up the knife in front of him and started walking towards them.
"You're still stubborn as ever."
"Yes we are," Dawn concurred. "and we will keep on being stubborn if that gets rid of you again."
"Careful, careful children," Stephano held the knife up higher. "If you don't calm down, Stephano", his voice went high pitched and Italian again as he said his name, "might get confused by you calling him Count Olaf, and he might accidentally cut one of you with his knife."
The children could feel the situation getting more serious. They started backing up the stairs. Violet, who had picked Sunny up by the door, held onto her sister tighter.
"Now, let's talk about a more important matter," Stephano continued. "Your dead parents, and their fortune."
"You have nothing to do with our parents!" Violet argued.
"Oh but I do! I knew them you see," Stephano sniggered.
"How did you-" Klaus began, before getting cut off.
SCREEEECH SCREEEECH!
The Screeching Iguana clock burst out right in front of Stephano. He got so startled that he almost fell backwards.
"Run!" Dawn instructed the others.
They were off down the stairs on the other side of the clock. The clock screeched a couple more times, giving them an extra head start in front of Stephano. What Klaus didn't notice was that the strange device he had held onto fell out of his pocket. Led by Dawn, the group ran back into the reptile room. Violet slammed the door behind them. Just a second later, they could hear the knife stabbing the door. Then came Stephano. He began trying to open the door, but of course he was fooled by the multiple fake security gears.
The children inside breathed in and out harshly, as they thought of what could have happened if they had waited one more second to close the door. Another terrifying thought also made its way into their heads.
Count Olaf had found them here, in the middle of nowhere at the end of a smelly lane. This led to them realizing that he could find them wherever they went. It would only be a question of time before he found out if they were to leave again.
Then, much to their relief, they could hear a car pull up outside.
Monty was back.
The pounding, grunting and shouting on the other side of the Reptile Room door stopped immediately. The Harpers and Baudelaires listened intently as Monty went inside and started talking to Stephano. They couldn't make out a lot of words, but understood that Stephano was trying to convince Monty he was a kind human. Soon, footsteps walking up the stairs was heard, and not long after that, Monty walked through the Reptile Room door. He closed it behind him, and looked down at the children, slight suspicion in his eyes, and a small smile on his lips.
"That man isn't who he says he is, right?" he asked the children.
"He's not," Violet confirmed.
Monty turned around and opened the door again. He began speaking loudly.
"I understand that you were frightened of this man, but I assure there is nothing to fear," he took a break to shake his head and mouth 'yes there is'. "The reason for him chasing you up the stairs with a knife is that it is part of an exercise regimen he follows. Stephano will be staying here with us, for he is my new assistant," he shook his head again, and made a disgusted face with his tongue out. "So we're all in the clear?"
"Yes," Ricky nodded and spoke loudly. "We are."
"I see now that he is just a normal person," Violet said loud enough for Stephano to hear. "Maybe I'll join him in his exercise regimen sometime."
Monty put a hand over his mouth to cover up giggling.
"I thought you said he was not nice," Dicky hissed.
This time, Monty held up a finger in front of his mouth in order to tell Dicky to be quiet.
"We're all safe with Stephano in the house," he said. Or as you would say to be more truthful;
"We're all safe with Stephano in the house," he lied.
As Monty had promised, the group were going to the movie theatre that evening. This meant that Stephano would have to come along, as none of the others wanted to leave him alone with the reptiles. Convincing him had taken some time, but soon Stephano was on board.
Soon, they realized taking him with them wouldn't be safe either. When Monty, the Baudelaires, Nicky and Dicky were outside waiting for Dawn, Ricky and Stephano, Monty had almost been killed already. Stephano had "accidentally" dropped a porslin vase right where they were standing. It missed Monty just by an inch.
When everyone had joined them, they were off for the city (but not without some more knife threats from Stephano). A very tense twenty-minute ride later, they were outside the cinema. No one was by the ticket stand, so they walked right up.
"Hello there, old chap!" Monty greeted the ticket seller.
"Hello Montgomery," the ticket seller answered.
"Two adults, seven minors, please," Monty said.
"Wonderful. I'm giving you the Verified Film Discount for that," the ticket seller pronounced as he gave them their tickets.
"Lovely," Monty grinned. "Thank you, thank you old chap."
Monty took the tickets and the group went inside.
"What movie are we watching?" Dicky asked.
"We won't know that until we're inside," Monty asked cheerfully.
"That's strange," Dawn frowned.
"There are many strange things in life, young Miss Harper," Monty kept calmly saying. "Life is a conundrum esoterica."
The quads didn't know what that meant, while the Baudelaires knew it meant "life is a mystery of obscure objects".
"I'll buy us popcorn," Stephano volunteered when they entered the theatre.
"Thank you, Stephano," Monty thanked him.
He then led the children into the theatre room. It was pretty much empty. The only people in there were a family with a couple of children, a business man who looked very misplaced, and an old lady who had nothing exciting going on in her life at all. The Baudelaires, Harpers and Montgomery sat down in an empty row of seats.
"I am so happy to finally be seeing a movie with all of you," Monty said, a big grin on his face (as usual). "Your parents would be so proud."
"That we're watching a movie?" Ricky asked hesitantly.
"Oh, it's not just a movie," Monty stated. "This is so much more than a movie. There's more to a movie than just a story. But we'll have to wait to talk about that until we're rid of you-know-who."
The Baudelaires nodded understandingly, while the Harpers could only think of a villain from a popular movie series when Monty said 'you-know-who'.
"Now I must ask something of you, children," Monty suddenly turned serious.
"What?" Violet asked.
"If I leave at any time during the movie, you will not let that man out of your sight."
This sentence worried the children. Why would Monty leave?
"Okay. We won't," Klaus agreed.
