Dear Reviewers:
WonkaVision: I can too end a chapter like that! I just did! Hehe, sorry... But anyway, thank you!
Powerof1P3PadfootsGrl: I'd just like to say that I can now type your name without having to go back and look at it! (Lol.) I guess that just proves what a great reviewer you are. Thanks!
Animeomega: Actually, believe it or not, I have never been to France and cannot speak French. I have Google . com's language tools and fleursdumal . org to thank for everything I've written that does not look like English. But I would love to go to France someday...
QuigleyRules: Thank you! I love writing this story. I'm glad that people out there are liking it!
Nny11: Yay! I love camp-outs! –Grabs a bag of marshmallows- Want one? o.O AAAAAH!!! Mine caught on fire!!!!! Sorry. I'm a little hyper today too.
NewbiaTheElf: Ok, I get what you mean. I don't remember reading that the bad side of the schism was called the O.F.D. though... But I understand what you're getting at. He helped him find Violet right? So I say he's good! There. ;)
Lady Emily: Ah, yes, a cliffhanger. Don't worry, I won't leave you hanging for too long!
MlynnBloom: Thank you! Yes, I spend too much time throwing the ends of my chapters off cliffs. All they can do is hang on until I write the next one... Ok, that joke was a tad cheesy. But anyway...
Phoenix728389: Yes! You did it! You guessed it right! YAY!!! I'll play a song for you to celebrate your keen observation skills! –Pulls out accordion and plays "Scream and Run Away"- Ok. Like I said before, I'm a bit hyper. And when did I learn to play the accordion?!
Anyway, I'd just like to say, once more, that I really really really appreciate your support! This story's getting closer to the end and I'd just like to say that it's you, my Dear Reviewers, who have kept me going! Thank you for sticking around!
Chapter 12: The V i o l e t H o u r
At the violet hour, when the eyes and backTurn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits
Like a taxi throbbing waiting.
Klaus remembered the words as well as he remembered his sister's face. It was a part of a poem he had read many years ago, yet it was a part with vast significance. He repeated the words in his mind, summoning the courage to take another step across the expansive, polished floor.
The library was almost definitely the grandest Klaus had ever seen. Even the Baudelaire Library that was destroyed in the fire was not even half this size. Rows and rows of bookcases trailed down the length of the room. They all reached high up to the ceiling, and when Klaus looked up he could see that there were several more levels, all with a ledge overlooking the floor below it. The walls were lined with massive stained glass windows, each one with a crystallized painting depicting a scene from history, or from a classic tale, and you only had to look at one to feel like you were watching time unfold before you.
Klaus would have loved to go through every section of the library, pulling off the shelf any book he could have wanted. He would have given almost anything to be able to sit and read for hours, forgetting everything that had been haunting him for years on end. But no, now wasn't the time.
This was the Violet hour.
Klaus wandered through the library, gazing up at the highest shelves, contemplating how anyone could reach them. He let his fingers trace the swirls on the marble pillars as he walked by. He listened to the echo of his footsteps, listened to the sound of nothing. The world was quiet.
And then suddenly, it wasn't.
It was barely even a noise Klaus heard, more of just a vibration in the air his ear barely caught. Somebody else had to have made it. But as far as he knew, the library was empty. He hoped it was.
And he hoped it wasn't.
He took several silent steps towards a door sunken into the far wall. It was bordered with a tall iron frame, the kind that would have survived a fire. He put a hand on the cold, steel door handle, and paused. Klaus looked up at the iron frame once more. He had seen one like it a long time ago. Engraved on it were the words "The World is Quiet Here." The phrase on this one, however, was quite different, but just as familiar:
"He Who Hesitates is Lost."
Klaus looked back down at the handle, and told himself that as long as he waited, Violet would still be lost.
He couldn't afford to hesitate any longer.
Klaus pushed open the doors and took a quiet step in.
Again, he heard the noise, only now it was much clearer, and he could finally identify what it was. It was a sound Klaus had heard many times over the course of his unfortunate existence, a sound that only brought grief and misery. It was the sound he would hear whenever life was treating him horribly, and he was not eager to hear it again. But there was something about listening to it this time, something that drew him further inside the expansive room, another room lined with shelves and shelves of books that he didn't dare look at.
Somebody was crying.
There was only one stained-glass window in that room, but it was as tall and as wide as the wall that it bejeweled. On it was a picture of an angel, hands outstretched towards the heavens, ascending to her final home.
And kneeling before the window was a shivering, thin young woman, weeping like she was crying harder and more mournfully then she had ever cried before, as if her entire soul was pouring out in her tears. And amongst her sobs, only three words were discernable, and she repeated them over and over, as if the more she said it, the more she meant it:
"I'm so sorry...I'm so sorry..."
Klaus froze, and felt himself begin to tremble.
This couldn't be her. This couldn't be Violet. Violet who had been so strong; watchful Violet who had stood vigil over he and Sunny when the nightmares invaded. His sister, his hero.
Klaus stared at her back; her face buried in her hands, long, chocolate hair falling forward with each shudder the sobs brought on. Suddenly, Klaus was overwhelmed with pity.
This had to be Violet. Violet who had given up everything for them; devoted Violet who would have done anything for her siblings and received nothing in return. Violet who just couldn't take it anymore.
She abruptly stopped crying and looked up at the angel in the window. Violet sat sniffling for a few still moments, wiping the tears on her sleeve. Klaus opened his mouth to speak, but stopped cold when she stood up and pulled something out of her pocket.
Klaus's heart stopped. A gun.
She stood there, staring at the angel, not knowing that her brother stood horrified behind her.
Or so he thought.
Just when Klaus got close enough to make a grab for the gun, Violet spun around and leveled it to his forehead. "Who are you and what do you want?" she demanded.
Klaus halted, putting his hands up in the air. "I-I...uh...I just..." he stammered. He finally got a good look at her face. Now he was positive. The same soft chin that stuck out determinedly, the same pursed lips, the same green eyes, eyes that had lost their sparkle, eyes that were now fierce and haunted. "I didn't know you heard me," he said.
"You go through what I've been through and you start to hear things. Things you shouldn't hear." Violet narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. "And see things..." she said, quieter.
"You aren't really going to shoot me, are you?" Klaus asked.
With a click, she cocked the gun, as if to answer his question.
Klaus didn't know what to do, or say, next. He could tell her who he was, but how did he know she would believe him? He could make something up, but, thinking about how hard it had been when he found his little sister, Klaus knew he didn't want to go through that again. He just had to say something.
"I have Sunny."
Violet's eyes widened and she let the gun fall to the floor. She began to tremble, and her eyes filled with tears. "Oh, please," she said, dropping to her knees. "Please don't hurt her. I'll do anything, I'll give you anything you want, just don't hurt her."
Violet buried her face in her hands, and Klaus felt guilt stab him in the heart as she began to cry again. "Please," she wept, "My Sunny...She's all I have left..."
And suddenly, everything became clear to Klaus.
Violet had thought he'd been dead all these years. She somehow managed to escape from Olaf but had never been able to shake the police. They were still wanted for the murder of Jacques Snicket, although Klaus knew very well that they had been framed. She and Sunny had probably lived the past ten years running from the authorities, trusting no one, going from home to home, seeking some sort of refuge. That explained why they were going to France.
And poor Violet... The weight of the world on her shoulders, hoping to do for Sunny what she could never do for Klaus...
"I don't want anything, Violet," he replied, taking her arm and helping her up. "I just came to tell you that she's safe and she can't wait to see you."
She wiped the tears off her face and eyed him suspiciously. "Who are you?"
Klaus sighed. He had changed much over the years. He remembered when he had to look up to see Violet's eyes, but now he towered over her. She was still tall for a young woman her age, but Klaus wasn't as short as he used to be. He guessed his face must have changed the most, because Violet was looking him in the eyes and she didn't seem to recognize him at all.
Suddenly, Violet started and whirled around, listening for something Klaus couldn't hear. He took the opportunity to pull his glasses from his pocket. That was probably the main reason why Violet saw him as a complete stranger. Before, you hardly ever saw Klaus without a book tucked under his arm. He needed his glasses to read, which meant you hardly ever saw him without his glasses. She had to remember that, had to remember him.
If she wasn't trying to forget.
"What is it?" he asked.
Violet shook her head, still looking for something off in the distance. "Nothing I guess. Just thought I heard someone," she murmured.
She turned and looked at him. Her eyes grew wide.
Yes, Klaus thought. That did it.
Violet stood, stock-still, searching his face for an answer to the question that was written all over her face.
"Violet..." Klaus whispered.
She put a hand over her mouth, an expression of fear, confusion and disbelief beginning to cloud her eyes.
"It's me, Violet," Klaus said.
Slowly, she shook her head. Once again, tears began to drip down her cheeks. "No... No, it can't be..."
"But it is!" Klaus choked, his voice cracking on the last word. He pulled out Sunny's hair ribbon. "This is yours, isn't it?"
She silently took the ribbon and ran her finger over the smoothness of it. She looked up at him and shook her head again, refusing to accept it.
"But you're dead!" Violet cried. "I saw you! You were dead!"
"Violet don't you get it?" Klaus asked her, hot tears stinging his eyes. "I've been alive this whole time, I've been looking for you! It's me, Violet, it's really me!"
Violet bit her lip and took a few hesitant steps towards her brother. She inspected his face closely, more tears brimming in her dark, sad, eyes. Then she stepped back and her mouth dropped open.
"Oh my..." she whispered. "You are Klaus."
Klaus nodded, and he felt something he hadn't felt in a long time. It was the feeling you get when you walk into a strange, untried place, and you see someone you know, someone who can help make the experience less frightening. It was like the world was out to get him, and finally he had found something familiar. It was the feeling Klaus was experiencing now, when Violet buried her face in his chest and began to cry, and when he felt tears running down his own face. And Klaus couldn't help but drift back to his childhood, back to a memory that wouldn't leave him.
Klaus, Sunny, and Violet were at the beach, and the sky was cold and gray. Violet was skipping stones in the water; her hair tied up in a ribbon, like it always was when she was thinking up an invention. Sunny was playing in the sand and biting a rock, testing to see whether or not it was too hard for her teeth. And Klaus was examining some tiny fish swimming around in a small tide pool, trying to remember what he had read about them.
"Your parents have perished in a terrible fire..."
It had been so long ago, yet seeing Violet made it seem like only the day before.
Klaus smiled to himself. He and his sisters would straighten this mess out. Maybe their lives would finally go back to normal. Maybe it will all be perfect again.
Klaus held his sister tight, as if he thought he might lose her again, and wept like he hadn't wept since he was a boy.