Hi!

Thanks reviewers!

Somewhere in this chapter, I have hidden the initials of VFD! (It's a sentence, like Vinegar Filled Donout, and whoever finds it and says where it is in their review gets the next chapter dedicated to them.)

         

          Wow. Klaus was excellent at snogging, I thought as we sat by the crystal-clear water. It sparkled like sapphires under the calm sky. As we made out, the water lapped gently at the fine, soft white sand and--

          "Isadora! Wake up!"

          "Hungh?" I blinked. And I blinked again. And again. Ah, said my sleepy brain. It's dark.

           "Wake up!"

          "I am! Couldn't you see—Oh. Wait. It's dark."

          "Obviously," Duncan snorted.

          "Very funny, Duncan. What happened? How long did I sleep for?"

          "Not too long," he admitted. "But it felt like much, much, longer. After you passed out, they stopped the car and carried the cage for a long time until we were still. Than—it felt really weird—like we were falling but not moving."

          "Omigod, Duncan! Are we dead?"

          Over the time we were captured, Count Olaf told us about his plans. Duncan took notes while I shivered and blinked away tears. Duncan was braver than I was, because he could write down what was said to us and make it real. I couldn't. I won't even say it here, even now, now that I know it was real and it was bad and it did happen. Not even now.

          He made a kind-of-laughing noise. "No, Isadora, it was an elevator. I could hear them talking about it."

          "Do you think the Baudelaires are here, too?" I asked in a small voice.

          "I don't know," he said, making his voice sound smaller. We experimented with seeing who's voice could sound smaller, until Duncan said, in a normal voice that scared the heck out of me, "Isadora?"

          "Uh-huh?"

          "Do you think they'll come back? With food or something?"

          I shrugged, than remembered that he couldn't see me. "I don't know. If they do, we should rest."

          "Rest? You were taking a bloody nap!"

          "No, I'd passed out! I banged my head, remember?"

          "On what?"

          "Your's. Your head. We're so freaking close in this cage!"

          "Isadora..."

          "Duncan?"

          "What?"

          "Shut up."

          "You shut up."

          "No, you."

          "Why than?"

"I'm trying to sleep."

          Unfortunately, I couldn't go back to the tropical island I had fantasized about minutes before. My next dream was in truth a nightmare. It was warm like the island. But a different kind of warm...

         

          Duncan and I were in the room with big windows, sprawled out on chairs. Our parents were downstairs, and Quigley was downstairs studying books of maps in the library.

          I was writing a couplet on trees and Duncan was making  a graphic organizer, something newspaper reporters and other people often make to organize facts.

          "Trees...bees...knees...fleas...Duncan, what rhymes with trees?"

          "Tease, wheeze, knees..."

          "I already have knees." I got up and used them to walk to the window. I looked out at the trees. "Hmmm...they're mostly brown with green on top. Duncan, what rhymes with brown with green on top?"

          "How'm I supposed to know?"

          "Okay, I'll ask Quigley." I walked over to the door. As I approached it, I felt the oddest sensation in my feet. "Yikes! Duncan, the floor's hot here!"

          "Hmm?" he said distantly, muttering to himself. "What...when...where...who—"

          "Duncan! The floor's hot! My feet—Ow! It's hotter near the door!" I let out a high pitched shriek when I saw a sliver of orange dart up from beneath the door. "THE HOUSE IS ON  FIRE!"

          Duncan sprang up. "What?"

I screamed again. "The floor was hot, it's---OMIGOD! It's burning downstairs! Downstairs! Mum and Dad and Quigley are downstairs! We have to go get them—"

          "No! Isadora, they probably already got out!"

          "No!" My voice raised in pitch as I got more and more frantic. "DON'T WORRY, WE'RE GONNA COME DOWNSTAIRS AND—" I screamed again. "The doorknob's hot!" It had burned my hand. The flames danced up around through the sides of the door.

          "Isadora, DON'T OPEN THAT DOOR!" I ran towards the window, across the room, where Duncan was standing. "Jump out the window!" HE struggled to open it. "Jump now, before it's too late!"

          "Duncan, I'm too scared of heights, I'll—"

          Suddenly, in a burst of orange, yellow, red, and gold, the door exploded in towards us.

          I was frozen in shock. Duncan leaned over and pushed me out the window. "It's just the second floor. You won't die!"

          He leapt after, I think, but all I knew was my hair was streaming out, my skirt was billowing up, I was screaming  and I was falling...falling...falling...