Review Responses

Bellatrix: Because he can, I guess.

PearlGirl: I'm continuing. Don't worry.

Aroura: I guess that's just your bad luck.

Princess Mia: I felt that I needed a prequel myself when I started this.

Fantomfairy: As you'll see, he feels pretty bad about now.

Visualpurple: Oops. Sorry I made you wait so long, then! I hope you remembered to eat!

CC-Krystal: Thanx! Olaf is a meanie, ne?

Chapter 28 – The Lousy Letter

Lemony Snicket received the news of the deaths of his friends one cloudy afternoon after he had come back from his favorite café. He had been spending much time there since the middle of the previous week after meeting a new friend, Daniel Handler.

Since his arrival in New York, Lemony had been living a boring life, devoid of any joy. Before he left to go back to England, Jacques had made Lemony promise to go outside every once in a while. Therefore, Lemony began to make his daily pilgrimage to that small, dark establishment faithfully until he was considered one of their regular customers.

Mr. Handler also frequented that same café and had eventually noticed Lemony sitting alone in the corner booth day after day, so he began sitting next to him and talking to him. Lemony took a leap of faith and decided that this man could be trusted, and thus a refreshing friendship was born. The two authors and researchers had many interesting conversations, and finally Lemony had someone who he could tell about his sadness over Beatrice's death.

On this cloudy day, his heart felt a little bit lighter as he walked back to his apartment. He was still sad about Beatrice's death and the separation from his friends, but he now looked forward to a letter from Dorian or Daniel. I hope they aren't worrying too much about me.

On reaching his apartment, Lemony took out his typewriter and sat by an open window to enjoy a fresh, cool breeze while he wrote. Scarcely as he began to type, a team of carrier pigeons arrived on his windowsill carrying a message and a small package. After opening the fairly dirty envelope, he untied the package from the birds' legs and shooed the pigeons away.

Dear Brother

I'm sorry to tell you this, but there have been terrible fires at the Baudelaire and Quagmire mansions. Both were burned to the ground. Kit arrived at the Baudelaire mansion shortly after the blaze was set, but it was too late for her too help. All four of them were working together to clear your name, but the other side of the schism must've found out about their plans. I'm sorry; Dorian, Sarah, Samantha, and Daniel are dead.

Lemony dropped the letter. At this point, it felt like Lemony's heart would stop. After that small bit of hope from meeting a new friend, everything was crushed. Dorian was his best friend, and he had known Daniel since his arrival at VFD. He had been at each of their weddings and they had all been through a lot together. It seemed like a piece of his heart was suddenly gone, but he forced himself to pick up the letter again and read on.

Fortunately, the three Baudelaire children are still alive, since they were at Briny Beach at the time of the fire. Isadora and Duncan Quagmire are apparently still alive and well, but Quigley is reported dead. No remains have been found, which leads me to belive that he might not be dead after all, but I don't know where he could be.

Dear brother, I wish I could be here to comfort you in person, but I can't. After this, VFD is in chaos and I have to do whatever research I can to help. I shall also make sure Olaf doesn't hurt the surviving Quagmire triplets. The Baudelaires should be fine; I heard that they're going to stay with some relative somewhere.

Whatever you do, be careful, Lemony. There is too much danger back here, and I can't be around to protect you, and until all the fires have been extinguished, we must go our separate ways and risk our separate lives. But I couldn't bear it if you got hurt. All Kit and I have left is you now.

With tears in his eyes, Lemony put the letter down. First, his only love, and then all four of his best friends… Dead. All of them were kind and well-read, and now they had all been killed by terrible fires. Jacques was right; all Lemony had left was his siblings.

But suddenly a horrible thought came to him. Back near the beginning of the letter, Jacques had said that the Baudelaires and the Quagmires had died because they were trying to clear Lemony's name. Now they were dead and he was safe in an apartment in New York City. Their children were now orphans reeling from the tremendous loss of their parents' death and the loss of all their cherished possessions. One of the children might have even died as well.

And it was all because of him.

Of all the terrible facts that Lemony had learned from that letter, this was the worst.

A/N: Were you worried about me? Jeez, I was just at all-state band! Luckily, it gave me lotsa time to write in the fanfic notebook, so you'll get the next chapter sooner. PS: I hope you know who Daniel Handler REALLY is. He's a real person y'know.