A/N: Thanks so much again and again for reading!!! Next chapter might take until next weekend (school's a drag) but I hope you enjoy this chapter... it'll just get better and better I promise, especially when I add more of the characters' POV's.

Ok, author's note is done, so scroll down and read!! huggles

Chapter the Fourth

"'And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door

And his eyes have all the seeming of a---'"

"Slow down! This is the best part!"

"And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming

And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor;

Shall be lifted---nevermore!'"

A crack of thunder bellowed throughout the night air and a thin streak of lightning split the sky. The children both screamed and then laughed as they set aside "The Raven".

"Stormy nights like this are the best time to read Poe's stories," said the young boy. He traced his finger on a raindrop that had hit the window from the outside.

"Jacques, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to read them. I'm scared," the younger girl replied, hugging a pillow. Thunder burst through the room again and they jumped.

"Kit, you shouldn't be scared," Jacques said as he placed the book back on the library's high shelves, "Everyone should be back soon."

"I'm not too sure… that fire sounded big." Kit responded.

"Well, it is raining. That should stop it some."

The V.F.D. headquarters seemed vast and empty without the regular grown up members bustling through and studying books. Out their window, they could see the magnificent waterfall in front of the dark, blustery sky.

"I can't wait until I am older. Then I can stop fires and send real messages and learn all of the secrets," Jacques said dreamily as he gazed out the window. "I want to be a reporter on my spare time. You know, interviewing all the big people in business, write articles, and such. He also wants to."

"Who?"

"Our brother! Remember, the one that's related to us? You know, L-E-M--" Jacques teased.

"Okay, alright!" Kit hit him with her pillow, but she was grinning. "Where is he anyway?"

"In his room, I think. He said he would rather finish his book tonight," Jacques said. He called out his name, but a clap of thunder drowned out his voice.

"I have an idea," Kit giggled, "Let's send a telegram to his room and make it sound really urgent. Then attack him with our pillows when he comes out the door!"

Jacques laughed and in a second he ran out of the library, his little sister tailing behind with pillows in her hands. They came to a telegram in the hallway and Jacques began tapping the device. He knew Morse code like the back of his hand.

"I need… your help, stop," Jacques said aloud as he tapped, "A Very… Frantic Disaster in the… hallway, stop." They tried to muffle their giggles. His room was only a few feet away. Kit helped with the message, adding in something about a 'Vase Fairly Damaged' in the kitchen, looking up at her brother admiringly as he tapped out the letter.

The V.F.D. was all one big game to them back then…

Kit snapped up out her thoughts as bleary light poured into the taxi. It took her a second to remember where she was. Morning. Beach. Taxi. That was right…

The door was open, letting in the light. Looking inside was a young girl with dark hair; she looked surprised. Kit saw her brother behind her and their little sister peering over the passenger seat. Kit smiled.

"Hello, Baudelaires. Climb aboard."

Kit watched Violet's eyes flicker over to the back seats and then the books in her lap. She gave her brother a hopeful look and turned back to Kit.

"Who are you?"

Kit transferred her gaze over to Klaus and Sunny comfortingly. It had been so long since she had seen any of them, except for the photos her brother sent her through his research. "I'm Kit Snicket."

Violet seemed to let out a deep breath; she opened the back seat door and climbed in, her siblings following her lead. The door snapped shut and Kit started up the engine after a few tries as it sputtered sickly. The beach disappeared behind them like a bad dream.

"Briny Beach is quite dreary, isn't it? In the winter at least," Kit started but she turned her head slightly, "Well, I might as well skip the small talk. Obviously the telegram was sent and received." The Baudelaires only nodded. The crackle of the radio filled the silence in the car.

"Where are you taking us?" Klaus finally asked.

"To the place we sent the telegram from. As in place, I mean the Volunteer Factual Dispatch control center. As in we, I mean myself and Quigley Quagmire," Kit finished with a small smile.

"Quigley? Will he be there?" Violet piped up.

"Isadora and Duncan?" Sunny asked excitedly in which Klaus and Violet didn't need to translate.

"That's more like it! I was afraid you didn't have any questions at all!" Kit grinned, "Yes and no. I found Quigley only a few days ago on that very beach, but Duncan and Isadora are hopefully still floating away with Hector, I'm afraid. Don't worry, I figure Hector will come down eventually," Kit said formally. She barely had time to turn the radio off with her gloved hand before she was hit with an outburst of questions.

"Where is the sugar bowl?"

"What's so important about the sugar bowl?"

"Hotel Denouncement!"

"Who is J.S.?"

"Are our parents alive…?"

Their questions stopped abruptly as Klaus finished his sentence. The wheels bumped silently under them and they could see Kit looking solemnly back at them in the rearview mirror, "So many questions… who is J.S.? You will find out soon enough. As for the sugar bowl, I wish I knew of its location. Did Widdershins explain its importance at all?"

Violet shook her head, "No, not at all. He said there are terrible secrets in the world that us young people must not know of. Fiona, his stepdaughter, didn't even know."

"Ah, yes, I remember Fiona. She reminded me of myself when I was younger," Kit said thoughtfully. Her mind flickered to a memory where she introduced Fiona to mycology after she gave her all of her books on mushrooms… after the Anwhistle Aquatics incident…

"She…" Klaus started shakily looking down, "she joined Count Olaf."

Kit said nothing. The Baudelaires looked at each other; they hated to break the news to Kit, especially when so many of the V.F.D. members of late had disappeared, changed sides, and died. Klaus looked for the right words to say.

"She left for her brother, Fernald; that's the only reason why," Klaus said, wanting to believe that what he said was true, "She's still good at heart."

After a minute, Kit looked back at them through the mirror with a weak smile to say she understood. Her blue eyes looked so terribly sad and the Baudelaires thought that the reason they looked so heartbreaking was the color. They were dark, like the depths of the Grim Grotto. "Tell me everything that happened on the Queequeg," she said.

The Baudelaires took turns explaining the series of unfortunate events that took place on the submarine, from the strange figure on the radar, the grotto under the Anwhistle Aquatics, being captured by Olaf, Widdershins's disappearance, and the Medusoid Mycelium. Kit was quiet for a long time and the Baudelaires remembered the letter they found in the Grim Grotto that Kit had written to Gregor Anwhistle about the dangers of the mushroom. Everything the V.F.D. had worked so hard for was now falling apart.

"… and Widdershins left, just like that?" Kit finished asking.

"Yes," Violet replied, "There wasn't a note or sign or anything to say where he went."

Kit studied the hard road in front of her. It was very strange of Widdershins. He wasn't a coward and he wouldn't leave Fiona… unless something extraordinarily important came up…

"Sugarbowl?" Sunny asked which meant, "If the sugar bowl is found, will it stop Count Olaf?" but Kit figured what she meant. She took a thoughtful moment to respond. What to tell the children…? Everything? Nothing? Finally she spoke.

"If all works out, yes. It is… very valuable to the V.F.D. as petty as it might sound. It holds a piece of evidence that is very crucial to---"

The car gave a great bang! as one side shifted to the left. Kit swerved the car to the side of the road and pebbles hit the windshield, leaving little star-like cracks. It stopped with a sudden jolt and Violet looked out the window to the back of the car.

"You must have hit something in the road… your left tire is flat."

---

The stillness in the room seemed almost unnatural as Quigley read the telegram three times over before actually moving. His mind was slowly coming to reality, as if not believing what was written in front of him. My brother and sister…Isadora and Duncan. Stranded? Yes, stranded on the Mortmain Mountains. They could freeze to death. Go, now, save them.

He gathered up all of the food the man delivered from Kit into a blanket and tied it into a knot. There was enough to last the journey… he had done this before once already. He collected his commonplace book with a map he drew of the mountains when he was with the Snow Scouts and stood a few more minutes by the telegrams to make sure he wouldn't miss any more messages.

It was nearly two in the morning. Quigley found a scrap piece of paper and started to write a note he would leave for Kit. Then he stopped. Perhaps he was being foolish by going out on his own to look for his siblings. He could just wait…

But he had done it once before, so why not do it again? And besides, last time Jacques didn't come back for weeks… or at all and he wasted all of that time just waiting. What if Kit never came back?

But you could freeze to death out their with them.

He made up his mind.

---

Kit left the driver's seat to work on the flat tire, leaving the children in the car although Violet gladly offered to invent a sturdier wheel, Klaus suggested tips from a driver's manual he read once, and Sunny added in that she would willingly bite any nuts or bolts Kit needed shaping.

"I felt horrible telling Kit all about what has happened," Klaus said sitting anxiously in the car. The skies were looking darker every second and the clouds were turning gray like smoke.

"Me too," Sunny added.

"Yes, but we had to. She has to know what has happened and she'll help us answer all of our questions… she said soon enough we'll know who J.S. is and maybe she even knows how to get the Medusoid Mycelium back to destroy it." Violet said hopefully and Klaus rolled down the window. He stuck his hand out. No rain yet.

"It smells like horseradish… we're on Lousy Lane," Klaus said quietly.

"Uncle Monty," Sunny reminisced.

"He was so nice to us… remember that coconut cream cake he made for us before we even introduced ourselves? He was the best guardian we've had since---," Violet tried to say it but she covered her face with her hands, trying not to cry. "Oh, everything has gone completely wrong! I wish we never met Count Olaf! I wish… I wish a lot of things didn't happen."

"So do I, but maybe the tables have turned now that we're with Kit," Klaus said with an arm around her shoulder. Sunny crawled into their laps. "She not officially our guardian but everything will work out. We still have some hope…"

He opened his commonplace book and took out the thirteenth page to the Snicket file. They looked at the picture of the four people, but only concentrated longingly on the faces of their parents.

"Because of the evidence discussed on page nine," Klaus recited by heart, "experts now suspect that there may in fact be one survivor of the fire, but the survivor's whereabouts are unknown. Quigley admitted that it was him when we first met him, but he's not in this picture. There could be one more survivor and even if it's not one of our parents… we should still have hope that one more V.F.D. member remains alive."

Right after Klaus set the page back inside his notebook, Kit came back in the car. The car started and rode off smoothly and Kit laughed quietly, "It's good to know I can still change tires. Besides, we should consider ourselves lucky. We're barely a mile away from where we need to be."

The Baudelaires looked out the window to see what they remembered as Swarthy Swamp and saw a rickety, old shed. "There?" Klaus asked skeptically. Kit stopped the car under a gigantic willow tree so the draping branches hid the car.

"Quigley was doubtful too. Inside is the factual dispatch control room… the shed frame around it is just a false illusion to people who pass it. Remind me to use a telegram once I get inside," Kit explained and they nodded, "I borrowed that taxi from a friend. Hopefully he won't be too bothered with our tire accident."

They were nearly to the shed. The rotten wooden door was swinging strangely in the wind. A raindrop fell on Violet's arm and she asked, "What did you hit in the road?"

They stepped inside of the sinking shed and in front of the Vernacularly Fastened Door. "This," Kit said and reached inside of her pocket and handed it to Klaus.

"A fork?" Klaus said. It was bent straighter than most forks but the strangest thing about was what was tied to it. They looked like colorful, thick strings. Klaus went to hand it back but Violet took it from him and examined it with wide eyes.

"The world is quiet here," Kit said and waited. No reply. She repeated it but the door didn't open. The wind outside started to shake the shed. "He must be asleep."

Klaus watched Kit type in the answers into the door but Sunny tugged at the bottom of Violet's dress. "Violet?" She asked in her small voice but Violet was tying her hair up.

The door opened after a buzz and a click and they walked inside. Kit strode down the hall of telegrams to the back where Quigley kept his sleeping cot.

Klaus started to follow but Violet caught his arm, "Klaus, look."

"Violet, it's just a fork," Klaus said but Violet held it up to his face.

"No, it's not. Look at it closely. I invented this, Klaus! I made it when I went climbing up the Slippery Slope. Remember?" Violet said fretfully.

"Your fork climbing shoes! Yes, I do remember! But how did they get all the way here?" Klaus asked, confused as ever.

"They didn't! I tied ukelele strings to my invention; these are wires. Someone else made them."

"But no one else knows how to make them! No one else except you, myself, and---"

"Quigley," Kit said and the Baudelaires turned around. Kit was standing beside a small dining table with a beraggled note in her hand. "He's gone. He's heading towards the Mortmain Mountains to find his brother and sister."