Author's Note
I do not own A Series of Unfortunate Events.
"Go!" Klaus shouted, as if they could open the doors and jump out. He leapt forwards, rolling over the back of the front chairs and landing in the driver's seat. Finn scrambled after him into the passenger side. Elias lunged over Loki and grabbed at the door handle, banging on the window.
"Kyra! Break the window! Find a rock! Break the window!"
The littlest elf on the back shelf of the car began to giggle obsessively, its bobble head rocking back and forth.
"Onit!" Kyra shouted, marching off to the side of the tracks.
Klaus flipped switches and jabbed at buttons as though it might somehow help. Elias rolled onto his back and began to kick the window on the other side. One of the buttons Klaus hit turned the tape recorder on and it began to play a merry song. Elias blinked. "Is that the Happy Little Elf theme tune?"
"I think so," Klaus replied, dumbfounded.
"Turn it off!"
Finn lifted a book from the footwell of the passenger seat. "Inheritance Law and You: Municipal Statutes."
"How does he hope to steal our fortune by getting us hit by a train?" Elias snapped.
Klaus paused. "He doesn't."
"What do you mean 'he doesn't?'"
"He doesn't need us. He only needs Violet, and Indigo and the little twins to threaten her with."
"He doesn't need the rest of us," Finn finished.
"Can you use the book to smash the window?" Elias asked.
Even though there was a hot road beneath her feet, Lavender felt like they were walking into nothingness. For miles around them the sand stretched out. Damien had scratched a rudimentary compass in the ground to tell them which way to head down the road, and with any luck they would be able to continue that way. But it still felt like they were in the middle of nowhere, and she still feared they were going to die under the hot sun and their bones would one day be found in the red sand.
"Are you sure about this?" she asked. "We could be safe staying at the cottage and waiting for a car to pass by."
Damien shook his head. "It's not sustainable. There's water, but there isn't anything to eat. That lion meat wouldn't have kept. We need to get back to civilisation."
Lavender squeezed Phoebe's little hand. The plan was for her to walk a third of the time, and for her and Damien to switch her off between them the rest of the time.
"Besides," Damien said, and shuddered as though it were cold, even though it was burning hot, hotter than anything Lavender had ever felt.
"I have an awful feeling."
"About what?"
He stared into the distance, frowning slightly against the sun. "Violet."
Sofia was the first of the siblings to recover.
Without waiting for her sisters she turned on her heel and ran, nearly getting clipped by a car in the process. Violet and Indigo followed, Violet sliding awkwardly over the car's bonnet and Indigo darting around it.
"Where are we going?" Indigo shouted.
"Separate!" Violet shouted back.
Sofia, who had a head start and was a little more athletic than her sisters, largely due to the endeavours Elias liked to drag her into, was already a good twenty feet in front of them and could barely hear what they were saying over the roar of her own heart beating. Noah began to whimper in her arms.
"It'll be alright," she whispered.
It would, she told herself.
Violet had veered off first from her sisters, hoping that as she was the one Count Olaf wanted, they would come after her first and most. She only wished she had thought to pass Sunny to Indigo while forming that plan, because now it meant her youngest sister would be caught with her.
Indigo had lost sight of Sofia ahead of her, her blonde hair vanishing into the crowd in spite of her nightgown and the infant in her arms. She turned onto the next street she came across, which happened to lead into the furniture district, Dog close at her heels. The two of them wove in and out of the various furniture displays, to the sound of protests and impatient shouts from shopowners. Her legs were burning, aching, threatening to give out beneath her. Dog nipped at her hand and gave a slight 'wuff!'
"Alright, alright, I'm going as fast as I—"
A tall figure in a greasy trenchcoat materialised in front of her. Indigo skidded to a halt. The silver hook gleamed as it reached towards her.
"Going somewhere?"
Violet was still running, Sunny safe in her arms. She was desperately looking for somewhere safe to leave her – fuck, she had never even imagined she would be searching for a place to abandon her infant sister, but desperate times called for desperate measures – but so far she had seen nothing. She glanced over her shoulder. Count Olaf was still following, a tall figure at the other end of the street.
"You can't run forever orphan!"
"Neither can you!" she shouted back.
These were the times, Sofia thought, that she wished their parents had brought them into the districts of the city a little more. They might have known their way better. As it was she was running blind, and rapidly running out of power, but the thought of Count Olaf and his shiny, shiny eyes kept her moving.
At last, Violet reached the clothing district and decided to do the craziest and most reckless thing she thought she had ever done. More than any of her inventions, more than anything she'd been talked into by Damien.
She stuffed Sunny into a clothing display.
"Stay here," she told her sister. "I'll lead him away from you. Wait until he's caught me, and then wait an hour or so, and then go to the police station."
"Sawyer," Sunny agreed sagely. Violet kissed her head and took off up the street.
Sofia had been sure she was lost, but looking ahead she saw she was coming back up to the book district. Bookshops and libraries were always safe, she thought happily.
Violet kept running, trying to get as far as she could from the clothing district. From the few glances over her shoulder she had risked, Count Olaf was closer than ever – her stop had cost her – and, more importantly, was not carrying any infants.
At last she turned a corner and saw the two White Faced Women ahead of her. She attempted to cross the street and double round, but it was no use. Count Olaf smiled as he strolled along to catch up with them. "Don't worry my dear. It's perfectly normal to get the jitters before a big performance."
Sofia flung the door of the bookshop on the corner open and threw herself inside. There was somewhat of a surprised noise from the shopkeeper as she leapt across the store and dashed around the bookshelves. There had to be something – there was always something – she could use to hide.
There was a reading table nestled into a nook almost behind one of the bookshelves. It wasn't an ideal hiding place, but it was the best there was. Sofia dove beneath it and crawled behind the chairs, clutching Noah to her chest. "Stay quiet," she whispered, rocking on her heels.
The bell rung as the shop door opened. She squeezed her eyes closed.
They were going to die.
They were going to die.
They were going to die.
"Have you seen a tween girl come in here?" droned the voice of the henchperson of indeterminate gender. Sofia panted and rocked Noah against her.
"I… have not."
"Do you mind if I have a look round? Small children often like to hide in fancy bookshops."
"I really would rather you didn't. I have a lot of expensive books in here you know-"
"Literature is a dying art of the oppressive upper class."
Footsteps echoed around the store. Sofia curled herself into as tight a ball as she could, thankful that Noah was only small and all too aware that the chairs at the table were nowhere near solid enough to fully hide them. When she opened her eyes she saw the henchperson's shoes and held her breath, holding as still as she could, and still she was sure they were looking right at her.
"There, you see? There is no one here, and certainly not a child. Didn't you read the sign? No unaccompanied minors."
Oh.
Whoops.
"Thank you for your time. You have a very interesting shop."
"Go on; shoo!"
The bell tinged as the door opened again. Sofia heard it slam shut.
Sofia let out the breath she had been holding. Noah began to whine again, most likely in pain from the position.
"It's alright; I believe you can come out now. They won't be coming back."
Sofia uncurled slightly and collapsed back against the wall. For a moment all she could do was shake, and then she burst into tears.