Chapter 10

Lemony and Daniel stepped back, away from Olaf. To say that they were scared would be an understatement. The most that they expected was to see Olaf depressed about something. Needless to say, the two friends were thoroughly spooked. Lemony saw that Daniel was shaking and that his eyes were wide open in terror.

Lemony, however, found that even though his mind was frightened, a strange calm had taken over his body. All his premonitions from years ago seemed to come to life. But even though he had grown used to his premonitions, he wasn't used to this. He just stood there, stunned as Olaf continued to chuckle.

"Can't you see?" Olaf declared. "I want to join the side that always wins!"

"Don't be a fool, Olaf," Lemony half-whispered. "Don't give up your life and well-being for something so evil."

"What if you're the fool?" Olaf asked, growing angry. "The concept of good and evil is just an illusion. There is no good or evil, only point of view. And the one who triumphs is the good one."

"Don't hurt yourself," Lemony said. "This will end in disaster, you'll see, you're playing with fire!"

"How dare you disagree with me!" yelled Olaf, becoming furious. "I'm the specialist; you should agree with me!

"No matter," Olaf continued. He had suddenly grown calm. "You're just a problem." He produced four more matches from inside his filthy coat. "And all problems can be solved..." He struck the matches on his shoe. "With fire."

With these words, Olaf threw the matches on piles of dry grass. As Daniel frantically ran from fire to fire, Lemony calmly walked to the closest fire and stomped it out. However, Olaf used the diversion to flee. The last thing that Lemony Snicket heard from Olaf was, "Fire will fix those who oppose me: you, your friends, and all of V.F.D. if necessary. By the way, call me Count Olaf!"

By the time Daniel and Lemony had extinguished all of the fires, Count Olaf was gone.

Very Long Author's Note! - Instead of combining chapters, I'll use the fact that this chapter is short to describe my writing process, so you'll understand what goes on in the time between updates. First, I take my little green book, which is about the size of a CD case, but a few inches longer, everywhere I go. Then I write in between classes in school, in the waiting room for the doctor, etc. I separate the chapters with the V.F.D. insignia and two lines of space. Each chapter is about four or five pages long (this one was about two). I am currently on page sixty-five! Then I have my friend at my lunch table read it to make sure the plot is ok. Then, when I feel like it, I type it up here on my terrible laptop, chapter by chapter. But I often write faster than I type it on the computer. Right now, I'm about five chapters behind! Oops! Yeah, I know, this is long, but I don't think there's a chapter limit! Progress, however, is going a bit slower now because the plot is getting thicker... Are you intrigued? Too bad! You have to wait!!! SUCKER!!! (hint: What is going on with Kit Snicket?) I also get my friends to draw some illustrations, but they're behind and I'm ahead and my scanner/printer is broken. I just can't get the pictures online.

One more note from me to those nit-picky people: Sorry about the age difference between the siblings! Geez... It's just that I didn't know that Lemony was the youngest, and also that I wanted him to be the one to look after Kit and Jacques, for reasons that will become obvious later. I know that I will be proven wrong more eventually, but I want to stick to my story more than be accurate, now that it's really getting good. Don't let the little things bug you, ok? I'll try to be accurate! I'm glad y'all like the psycho Olaf! Thanks everyone for reading!