-The Medusoid Mycelium -
By: Ariana Snicket (Violet's helping her siblings through another unfortunate event)
Rating: PG - PG-13 (depends on later chapters)
Disclaimer:
I own nothing of Lemony Snicket's worlds or characters. Everything recognizable belongs to Lemony Snicket; anything else belongs to me. This story was written for enjoyment only. Please do not use my original characters or situations (if any) without asking first. Thank you.
Summary: We all know what happened in the Gorgonian Grotto. We all know what happened when the Baudelaire orphans and Fiona were coming out of the grotto, and we all know what happened inside the Queequeg.
Think again.
Sunny's not the only one in trouble…
WARNINGS:
Healthy helpings of angst. And spoilers. LOTS of spoilers.
Time Frame:
Takes place during "The Grim Grotto".
Additional Notes and Disclaimers:
I am not a grammar- obsessed person like someone I know. coughAuntJosephinecough
I apologize in advance for any and all grammatical errors. I have been working to correct my most common mistakes. Please be patient with me. Thank you.
Okay, now that that's over with, on to…THE STORY!
The Medusoid Mycelium
Part OneIf you have ever traveled underwater against a fairly strong tide, you will know and find that it is very difficult to do so. If you have ever traveled underwater against a fairly strong tide, in pitch-blackness and biting cold in a cone-shaped grotto, then you will know what a hard time Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire were having. But I sincerely doubt you have done these things, because the only people I have known to explore the underwater gorgonian grotto are Violet, Klaus, Sunny, and Fiona Widdershins, the stepdaughter of the Queequeg captain.
I, of course, have not traveled this watery path, because I have no courage whatsoever; if a kindly old lady were to give me a bottle full of courage, I would promptly drop it out of sheer clumsiness, and it would shatter on the floor of my temporary jail cell.
But as the Baudelaire orphans neared the Queequeg, they felt as if they had run all those laps over again when Count Olaf had posed as their gym teacher at Prufock Preparatory School, and was forcing them to participate in S.O.R.E. once more. The tide was very strong now, and all of the children's limbs, even Fiona's, who had grown up doing this sort of thing, were very tired. Even Sunny, who had no swimming to do whatsoever, (she was so small she had to settle for being curled up within a diving helmet) was tired for some strange and obscure reason.
Klaus waved his hand in front of him through the inky blackness and numbing cold, afraid that he might miss the great hulking submarine altogether, and brush up against some sort of slimy aquatic foe instead. Since he was leading the chain of children- a phrase which here means "a group of three orphans and one girl clinging onto each others hands for dear life"- he was responsible if they were lost, which, thankfully, they weren't. He sighed in relief when he saw the blurred shadowy outline of the Queequeg, and swam forward with a little more vigor then would have if he had seen a huge man-eating shark in the water instead.
He could feel Fiona shuddering through her hand and he squeezed it reassuringly. She smiled a little bit and squeezed back, albeit a little shakily. Klaus wondered if she was as scared as he was. He didn't often show his feelings around strangers, unless it was a hopeless situation that concerned his siblings and friends. The Quagmires suddenly sprang to mind, and he wondered if they were alright, and what had happened to Quigley, and if he was still alive.
He gritted his teeth and tried to ignore the little questions pounding throughout his head. The faded shadow in the water was obscuring all of his view now, and he realized that they must be getting close. He stretched out his free hand and slowly advanced until the tips of his fingers touched the hull of the submarine.
"We're here!" He shouted as loud as he could, but it only came out as muffled because of the water pressing in on his helmet.
He was suddenly acutely aware that some of his oxygen was running out from the underwater headgear, and started to breath more evenly in order to conserve air.
The others nodded in a way that said that they had heard him, and grouped together. Sunny pressed her hands to the glass hole in the diving helmet as Klaus knocked on the hull. The reverberating sound echoed through the water, which made the sound more magnified than it would have been normally.
Klaus knew immediately something was wrong when the captain did not answer his knock after a few seconds. From the looks on Violet, Sunny and Fiona's faces, they did too.
"Captain!" Klaus shouted, and banged both fists on the submarine hatch. Violet copied his example, and Fiona twitched, and Klaus suspected she was trying to think why her stepfather would not answer their calls.
After banging on the hull for a few minutes, Klaus sighed and leaned against the submarine, which is a hard thing to do without sinking to the icy depths below. If there is any icy depths, that is. There may just be cold depths, or dark depths, or no depths at all, and you just wander around on the floor of the ocean, having already sunk to the bottom, being pursued by some ill-tempered catfish.
Violet sighed also, but did not lean against the hull, preferring to hold the diving helmet that incased Sunny. She felt into her waterproof pocket and found the ribbon she was looking for, but Klaus knew she was trying to think as hard as she could with her hair in her eyes, because she couldn't reach through the helmet and tie her hair up like she normally would in a situation like this.
"Klaus," she shouted through the underwater swimming headgear. "We have to open the hatch by ourselves! If captain Widdershins isn't going to answer us, we might as well!"
Fiona was trembling harder then ever. "Maybe he just-"
Klaus interrupted her. "Let's not think about that right now! We have to open the hatch before our air runs out!" He shouted, noticing that it was getting harder to breathe. The others nodded in agreement.
It is a very difficult thing to open a submarine hatch in the dark. Klaus felt around the edges of the hatch, and found the lever bar that would open up hull to the passageway. He called over Fiona, and they both heaved until the lever bar finally lifted upwards and opened the hatch. Violet went in first with Sunny, and Klaus and Fiona were last to enter. Violet set down Sunny and helped close the hatch again. Then the worried children surveyed their surroundings.
Klaus grew more worried when he realized nobody had activated the hatch, so quite a bit of water flowed into the passageway and into the place where he had first met captain Widdershins. He could hear water splashing around on the submarine floor, and he strained to hear even the faintest sounds of "What a mess! Aye!" or "Aye! The valve is broken!" or even something optimistic from Phil, like "Look on the bright side—It's like having a wading pool!"
"Captain Widdershins?" Violet called, her voice muffled through her helmet.
"Stepfather?" Fiona called, her voice muffled through hers.
"Phil?" Klaus called.
"Crew?" Sunny called.
It was deathly silent. Nobody answered, and nobody said anything about the water sloshing around the children's feet. No optimistic comments from Phil, no shouted "Aye's" from captain Widdershins. The silence pressed in around Klaus like a fluffy woolen blanket, blocking out all other sounds except for Violet's, Fiona's, and Sunny's breathing.
When the Klaus and the others reached the end of the passageway, and climbed down into the small, dim room, nobody was there to meet them.
"Stepfather?" Fiona called again, but heard only the water splashing her and forming into a puddle near her feet for an answer. Without bothering to take off his helmet, Klaus started down the hallway, splashing water as he went, passing the plaque with the captain's favorite philosophy engraved on it. The rest of the children followed in his footsteps, a phrase which here means "splashing after him and getting more wet then they already were."
They reached the Main Hall, which looked the same as ever, pipes all over the place, as well as a couple of consoles here and there, as well as panels, warning signs, and various buttons of different shapes and sizes. Although, Klaus now realized that it had been tidied up a bit, and a tiny bit of decoration dotted the room near the table where they had planned the expedition to Gorgonian Grotto.
Next to he table were three chairs, each sporting a hovering balloon, each with thick black ink spread on it to resemble three letters. The first was "V" the second was "F", and you will not be surprised to hear that the third one said "D."
"V.F.D." Violet said. "Do you think it's a code?"
Klaus nodded, but then stopped as Fiona said, "I'm not interested in codes at the moment." her voice tense in echoey inside the helmet. "I want to find my crewmates. Look around, everyone."
Klaus looked around carefully, but the room was as desolate and empty as the grotto. Without the enormous presence of captain Widdershins—a phrase which here means "large physical size, combined with vibrant personality and large voice"- the Main Hall seemed utterly deserted.
"Maybe they're in the kitchen," But he didn't quite believe it. "or napping in the barracks."
"They wouldn't have napped." Violet said. "They said they'd be watching us the entire time.
Fiona took a step to the door of the kitchen, but then stopped and looked at the wooden table. "Their helmets are gone," she said. "Both Phil and my stepfather kept their helmets on the table in case of an emergency." She ran her hand along the table as if that would make them appear again. "They're gone," She said. "They've left the Queequeg."
"I can't believe that," Klaus said, shaking his head. He knew they wouldn't abandon them for any reason. "They knew we were traveling through the grotto. They wouldn't abandon their fellow volunteers. I know they wouldn't, it's not like them."
"Maybe they thought we weren't coming back," Fiona said in a hopeless sort of voice.
"No," Violet said, pointing to a panel on the console wall. "They could see us. We were tiny green dots on the sonar detector, remember?"
Klaus sighed and stared at the sonar panel, hoping to see any sign of their lost comrades. But there was nothing. Not even a beep emanated from the blank black panel, no green light graced the glass covering the mechanical device. And suddenly, he was finding it harder to breathe. Then his breath evened out again.
Klaus started to get worried.
"They must have had a very good reason to leave," Fiona said, at last, noticing nothing wrong had happened in that few seconds.
"What reason could there be?" Klaus said, swallowing, hoping he was at least partially right. "No matter what occurred in the cave, they would have waited for us. All of us."
"No," Fiona said, and shook her head. Sadly, she removed her diving helmet, and Klaus saw that she had tears in her eyes. He felt a pang of guilt and something else he couldn't quite identify. "No matter what occurred," she said, "my stepfather wouldn't have hesitated. He or she who hesitates is…"
"Lost," Klaus finished for her, and put his hand on her shoulder. Surprised, he looked at his hand, and wondered how he had gotten the courage to do something like that. Usually, this gesture was only reserved for his sister, when she needed a helping hand, or a comforting brother. He'd never done it to a girl other than Violet.
"Maybe they didn't go of their own volition," Violet said, using a phrase which here means "by choice." "Maybe somebody took them somewhere."
"Crooway?" Sunny said.
"Took the crew away," Klaus said dubiously, raising his eyebrows, "and left behind three balloons?"
"It's a mystery," Violet said, shrugging her shoulders. "but I'm sure it's one we can solve. Let's just take off our helmets, and we can get to work."
Klaus nodded, and watched Violet unclasp the hooks and remove the helmet from her head, and set down on the water-filled floor. As she went to help Sunny out of her helmet, he unclasped his own helmet and drew it over his head, and was in the process of lowering it to the floor when a loud shriek stopped him.
"STOP, KLAUS! VIOLET! HOLD YOUR BREATH!"
Klaus suddenly found Fiona in front of him, with her cheeks puffed out from holding her breath. She snatched the helmet away from him, and clasped the top shut so fast her fingers were a blur. Then she threw the helmet to the other side of the room, where it landed with a sickly splash in the water near the hatch.
Klaus looked at her in surprise, while she looked at him in utter horror.
"What—" He began, but was cut off.
"Shut up!" Fiona hissed. "Keep your mouth shut, don't breathe on me, or Violet."
Violet looked as confused as Klaus felt. She glanced from Klaus, to Fiona, then to the helmet on the other side of the room, then to Sunny, then to the helmet again. And then to Sunny. Her eyes widened.
"Oh no," She whispered, rushed to Sunny, and looked at her through the glass, and then up a Klaus. "Oh no…"
Fiona looked at him with an apologetic horror-stricken face.
"Klaus…" She said.
Klaus's eyebrows knitted together. He glanced at Violet, who was rocking Sunny's helmet, and through the window of the helmet, to where a gray, poisonous fungus was spreading, it's stalks and caps clearly visible, to his own helmet. Through the glass window, he could see the Medusoid Mycelium growing slowly, but steadily.
Klaus stared dumbly at the floor.
He was poisoned.
This couldn't be good.
Author's Note:
Yes, I know, I took some words and phrases from the book, but it couldn't be helped. Everything up from this point will be completely my work. I just needed the whole situation thingy working. Read and Review, if you can. Critics and flames welcome.