Chapter 7: Thinking

excerpt from the memory of Klaus Baudilaire

As my eyes slowly opened I heard the sound of my sister's voice, "Ow!" she said, wondering what had happened I looked in the direction of the noise. Sunny lay next to me, on the sidewalk, behind her, a little ways off; there was my sister and Quigley. Not knowing what had just happened or why I was so sore, I slowly sat up, and looked at the scene in front of me:

There stood Quigley with his arms around my sister and her crying. I stood up and walked over to them and tore Quigley away from my sister. Violet had bruises on her arms, and so naturally I assumed Quigley had given them to her, since he was the last to touch her. I punched him right in the nose and broke it. "What did you do to her?" I demanded, standing over him and his bleeding nose. "What are you doing Klaus?" Violet screamed behind me pulling me back so I was standing right in front of her. "Are you ok? What did he do to you?" I asked ignoring her question. "Nothing." she said sounding irritated pulling her arm out of my hands and running over to Quigley, who's front was now drenched in blood. "Wait, what happened?" I asked looking at my sister, as she was trying to stop the bleeding. She explained what happened in full detail still mopping up the blood. "Are you serious? Quigley didn't do anything to you?" I stared blankly at her, still surprised that I was able to break Quigley's nose. She nodded and looked at me, I just stood there. 'How could I be so stupid? I didn't even know what had happened. I just jumped to conclusions. Idiot!'

I looked at the blood stained face of Quigley Quagmire and thought, and thought, and thought. Not about anything really, but about something. About how hectic life has been since our parents died. Our parents, oh how I miss them. Mom and Dad, even though they kept all these secrets from us I still love them. Violet and Sunny, Violets practically dating Quigley even though they won't admit it, and Sunny growing up so fast. I thought about these things before I realized that I was staring blankly into space, with a stupid expression on my face. I shook my head to get the thoughts out of my head and returned to the present situation.

"I'm sorry Quigley, I-I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions like that." I walked over to him and helped him up. "It's ok." He said in a very nasal voice, which I assumed was because of the broken nose. "I think I read some where that if you hold the part right above the bridge of your nose it stops the bleeding." He grabbed it and within few minutes the bleeding stopped. Violet finished mopping up the blood before turning back to me. "So, where do we go from here?" I looked around and noticed we were in the banking district. "Um, well if we go this way, we can head back to Dr. Hardgroves house and grab our stuff and some supplies. If we go this way we can go to the Hospital and get Quigley some help. Besides Count Olaf might check the Hardgroves' Manor and see if we're there. I think it wound be safest if we went to the hospital." I suggested and pointed towards the hospital. "Well that would probably be the best solution only, we don't have any money." (A/N: You all know it's wrong to steal, right? Good, please read on.) Quigley reached in his pocket and pulled out a large wad of pounds (British money). "I thought we might need it so I grabbed it out of Olaf's pocket when I was looking for the keys." He shrugged when he said this. (A/N: This kind of stealing is ok, only because it was stealing from someone who stole the money that you stole from them. OK?) Violet hugged Quigley and then kissed him on the cheek before saying "Good work Quigley. Now, lets get you to the hospital."

A couple of hours later we were walking out of the Hospital and Quigley had a new bandage on his nose. "So how much money do we have left? I'm starving" I asked rubbing my stomach with my free hand. Sunny had fallen asleep when we were waiting for Quigley to get his bandages, and since Violet was helping Quigley, I offered to hold her. "Um, only a few pounds, but I think we can get something cheap." Violet said pointing towards a convenience store right across the street. We crossed the street and got some small parcels of food. I ate quickly because I had not had much to eat all day.

Just as I finish the last crumb the sun came up. "Well, good morning." Violet joked as she yawned "Maybe we should find a hotel to stay in for the rest of the day, give Olaf time to get over his hang-over and search Dr Hardgroves' home, then tomorrow we can go back there, Dr Hardgroves home, and get our stuff." She suggested. We nodded our heads and headed towards 'Hollywood Haven'( the cheapest motel in town). We rented a room with two beds, which was all we could afford. The door was only on one hinge but that still wasn't as bad as the room. I was the first to walk into the dark room although I'm not sure why I stayed. The smell was horrible; it smelled like someone had peed all over the walls, and then lit a tire in the bathroom. It didn't look too nice either, the beds were stained and the mirror was broken. "Well, this is great, isn't it?" Violet asked sarcastically through her shirt. "Quigley, you should consider yourself lucky you can't smell." I joked as we looked around the room. "Yeah, well at least you can take off your glasses so you don't have to look at it." Quigley said, taking away my glasses, "Yeah, well it still doesn't get rid of the smell." I laughed and felt around for my glasses. When I put my glasses back on, I looked around the room again, and sighed.

That night none of us slept on the beds, because 1) they were stained and 2) they smelled worse than the carpet. Sure, all of us were sore in the morning but at least we didn't sleep in something wet.

We spent the rest of our money on a taxi, which brought us to the Hardgroves' Manor. It looked the same as when we left it on the outside but when we went in, we saw that Count Olaf had been there just as we had suspected. Tables were overturned, chairs broken, walls indented, and the list goes on. We went to our rooms and began to pack all of our stuff in bags. When I finished I went to the parlor. I knew some of the books in there that will help us uncover the mystery of V.F.D..

When I enter the parlor, I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was. All the books, except one, were off the shelf, all the comfy chairs overturned. I looked at the only book still on the shelf. It was big and the title was so long I'm not going to bother to tell you it. I reached up and tried to pull the book of the shelf, but when I pulled it, it didn't come off the shelf. I heard a small crack behind me like the sound of a gun going off. I turned around quickly wondering what had happened and instead of seeing shelves of books, there was a giant hole. The hole stretched from the ceiling to the floor and was as wide as couch. Quigley, Violet and Sunny stood in the doorway as we all stared at the hole that was slowly growing wider and the person emerging from the middle of it. "Hello, Hello, Hello."

A/N: So here you go chapter 7. I typed it right after the sixth one I'm not sure why though. Oh well, who really cares anyway, not I. 1,356 words, that's not bad, is it? Don't ask me where I got the title, I'm not good with titles. I loved making Count Olaf slur, it was fun. I wasn't going to do that but, oh vell.