Dear Reviewers:
NewbiaTheElf: You know, that was EXACTLY what I was hoping it wouldn't sound like. The whole time I was writing that scene I was thinking, "Gosh, I hope I'm not making this too easy for Sunny." I wanted to have Sunny eavesdropping on Fiona at one point, but I didn't want Fiona to practically tell her the whole plan while she was doing it, but it came out that way I guess. –Sigh- It was probably because I was tired and I made it so short, I didn't have the time to write it well enough. Oh well. I'm glad you liked it though. And I'm thinking of writing a short story about Sunny before "After All." It might be just a one-shot, but I'm becoming even more interested in what it was like for her running from the law with Violet…Hmm. It's a possibility. Oh yeah, and by the way, it was Fedora, not Fernald. :)
MlynnBloom: Wasabi! And how could Sunny be in denial? She knows now, weren't you paying attention? ;)
Ed the giant Racoon: Thank you! Sometimes fanfiction . net can be weird like that, I know. But thanks for reviewing anyway!
SaturnStorm: Go Baudelaires! And, –Quickly looks around- Let's just say Quigs won't be gone forever… -wink wink- Oh, how happy Violet will be!
Phoenix72389: Yes, poor, poor Sunny… And Fedora is a rather interesting character, isn't he? Hmm…
PinkyChik27: Actually, the farthest part in the grotto wasn't underwater. They took off their helmets, remember? Anyway, I'm glad you like my story! :)
You know, I've just realized something. I haven't been making Fiona say "Aye!" Darn me, it keeps slipping my mind. Darn my mind. I'll try and remember now. If I ever go back and revise this, I'll be sure to put in some more "Aye"s…
Hopefully this chapter will be longer…
Chapter 9: The A r t of the L o c k p i c k
How could I have been so stupid?
The next day, Sunny spent most of her time doing nothing, a captive in her misery. It was a weekend, so there was no "Volunteer" training and plenty of time to lie on her bed and stare at the ceiling. Every once in a while, Jacky would come in and ask her how she was doing.
Jacky became more of a friend to Sunny than she had expected him to be. He didn't say, "I told you so," when she told him about what she had heard. He was more relieved that Sunny hadn't been caught and that they could finally share their plans to escape their imprisonment. Sunny had never really had any friends her age. Well, Jacky's age wasn't necessarily the closest to hers, being about four years younger, but now they had a common enemy, and this time it was the real enemy.
"I didn't exactly have any friends before this," Sunny commented, as the two lounged on the balcony.
"Me neither," Jacky said. "The kids at my school always made fun of me, mainly because I'm so short."
"I never really had a chance to make friends. It was always just me and Violet, moving from one place to another. Life was pretty fast-paced."
"I know what you mean."
Sunny quirked an eyebrow at Jacky. "Really?"
"Yeah."
Sunny waited for a further explanation, but after several moments, she decided there wasn't going to be one.
"I just can't stop thinking about how easily I believed Fiona. I mean, I did have sort of an argument with my brother, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't trust him over these things." She recalled the conversation she had had with him that one morning, how he wouldn't let her go with him on his investigation. "He…he was just trying to protect me," Sunny added quietly. She couldn't stop wondering how angry Klaus was at her right now.
Sunny turned back to the view. After studying the far-off buildings, the roads below her, and the sky that overlooked them all, she decided that there were only two words that best described this city.
Cold and gray.
Sunny frowned. "How come the weather around here is always so…sad?"
Jacky shrugged and looked up at the sky. "I dunno. I guess I'm so used to it, I never noticed."
"Hmm," Sunny mumbled to herself. He was right. It had taken her a while to notice it too. She looked up also, but her gaze was directed to something else. "You know," she said, "for some reason, that tower gives me the creeps."
Jacky nodded. "Me too." He squinted, eyeing the window at the very top. "I wonder why she spends so much time up there."
"What do you think she could be doing?" Sunny asked.
He shrugged again. "Obviously something she doesn't want us to know about."
Sunny continued to stare up at the tower window. Maybe Jacky was getting somewhere. She thought about it for a minute or two, a simple concept slowly forming and shaping into a plan in her mind.
"I think," she said to Jacky, "you've just given me an idea."
"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Jacky asked.
Sunny turned the knob of the door that led to the tower room's staircase. "The door's locked," she muttered.
Jacky let out a sigh of relief.
Grinning at Jacky, Sunny pulled a tangled mass of paperclips from her pocket. "Lockpick."
He groaned. "Let me guess. Your sister taught you."
She nodded. "Lock picking is an art," Sunny said, twisting the paperclips to fit the lock. "I don't see why you're so worried. Fiona's out of the house. She won't catch us."
Jacky shrugged.
"Listen, if you don't want to go up there, you can stay down here and keep watch," she said, fiddling with the lock.
"But what if someone comes?"
"Brigitte, Gwenyth and Weasel are with Fiona." She smiled faintly to herself, remembering how she had almost been caught the night before. "And I don't think Fedora should cause you much trouble."
The doorknob made a clicking noise as it unlocked. Sunny turned it and opened the door. Then she looked back at her friend.
Jacky was staring at the ground, like he usually was when he was uncomfortable about something. Sunny considered asking him how he knew about Fiona, but she figured she wouldn't get an answer out of him if she tried.
"Jacky," she said. He looked up at her. Sunny again noticed the ice-blue color of his eyes. "Don't worry about me."
He nodded, and watched her take her first steps up the tower staircase.
Sunny didn't know that if she had been more worried, she could have avoided a lot of trouble.
Finally, she reached the top and found herself facing another door. The doorknob to this one also resembled an eye, just like everything else in the house. Sunny slowly turned it and braced herself for whatever lay beyond.
The room was good-sized, not huge, but not small either. The place was cluttered with old papers, assorted books, and just plain junk. Dusty floorboards creaked under her feet and the wind moaned and seemed to cause the whole tower to sway slightly. There was practically no light, except for several candles that illuminated the numerous eye paintings that hung on one wall. In one corner, an old, broken clown puppet hung by its strings from the ceiling.
The tower room was even creepier on the inside.
Sunny crept closer to the desk that sat at one end of the room. She guessed it was used mainly as a place to put things when Fiona ran out of room for them; the desk was too cluttered to write on.
She examined some of the different objects that were on the desk. There was a book entitled Mushroom Minutiae, which looked ancient and was falling apart at the binding. There was also an old pair of glasses that Sunny carefully picked up. The lenses were cracked and falling out of the unusual triangular frames. She gingerly set them back down, hoping that Fiona wouldn't notice that she had been snooping around.
Sunny opened a desk drawer and peered inside. There was only an old picture frame lying face down at the bottom. She pulled it out and wiped some dust off the fractured glass cover.
In the faded photograph was what seemed to be a younger version of Fiona. She was smiling contentedly, eyes twinkling behind a pair of glasses, the ones that now lay broken on her desk. Her head was leaning on the shoulder of a young man who looked a bit older than Fiona, their arms linked. Sunny noticed he had hooks for hands.
"Ferdy," she whispered.
How would Fiona know Fernald?
Standing next to Fernald was a young woman wearing a long coat and a pair of gloves. Sunny recognized her as Kit Snicket.
Did she know Fiona too?
There was still more she didn't know, Sunny reminded herself.
She held the picture up and blew more dust off of it so she could see it better. Fiona looked so happy. Her eyes were different, not so cruel. They looked more like Jacky's, soft and concerned. More like Fernald's.
Sunny studied the picture closer.
Now that she saw it…Jacky's eyes looked more like Kit's.
She pulled the photograph out of its frame. Maybe I just needed a reminder, she thought, that there could really be some good in everyone. She put the picture in her pocket, carefully, yet somewhat hesitantly. If Fiona really used to be the girl in this picture, what kind of memories was Sunny robbing of her?
Sunny moved on to the next drawer. This one was stuffed with papers and more assorted junk, but after sifting through it all for a minute or two, she finally found something worth looking over.
It was a small glass vial, one that was scarcely wider or longer than Sunny's thumb. The top was sealed tightly with a cork, and a thin string was laced through a tiny hole in it and tied at the ends like a necklace. There was something green and moldy growing inside the vial. Sunny wasn't going to even try and guess what it was.
Sunny glanced up at the tower window and approached it cautiously. Outside, there was a strong-looking steel bar protruding from the top of the window frame, as if it was meant for hanging things from. She then looked down at the ground far below her and suddenly remembered her intense fear of heights. Stumbling away from the window, Sunny caught a glimpse of a long, black automobile pulling into the driveway.
"Sunny!" she heard Jacky call from downstairs. "They're back!"
She crammed the glass vial into her pocket as she quickly darted out of the room and slammed the door behind her.
Sunny also didn't know the importance of the items she had just stolen.