A/N: Hey. Thanks for all the reviews, some of y'all crack me up! (even though it shouldn't be funny...) As for everyone thinking they know what's going on-well, your probably right. But, if you please, continue reading, I love (!) knowing somebody is! Sorry, sometimes I should just not type...
Anyway. Here's what y'all came for... Pleaseset your moods from humorous to serious.

Facing Down Demons

That night, I got into bed, praying that no nightmares would plague me tonight. I needed to sleep well, if I was to keep from making mistakes, like the disaster of letting Sunny see my arm. For almost seven years, neither of my siblings had known my secret or even that I had a secret. I didn't want that to change. They were happy, and I for the most part, remained happy.

I was woken up for the second time in two nights. This time, however, it wasn't because of a nightmare. I heard someone crying. That person was right outside my door. I got up and softly walked to the door. I opened it and found Klaus, a stack of books scattered beside him, his knees pulled up to his chest, crying softly. I kneeled beside him.

"Klaus?" I almost whispered, not wanting to wake Sunny up. "Klaus, what's wrong?"

He didn't look at me until I shook him gently. He lifted his head up from his knees and looked up at me with red eyes. "Violet? What are you doing here?"

"You're outside my door," I teased gently. "C'mon." I picked up the books and guided him downstairs to the library. We had furnished it exactly like our library in the Baudelaire Mansion. I pulled the doors shut, in case our voices carried. I put the books down on a coffee table and pulled two of the comfortable armchairs closer to each other. He sat in one, I, the other.

"Now. Klaus, what's wrong?"

His eyes were clear and he just stared at me. After a few minutes, he spoke quietly. "I'm sorry, Violet."

I was really confused now. "You're sorry? For what?"

Slowly, he got up and walked the few steps to me. He gently grasped my arm and pulled my sleeve up. The scars were plainly visible. I stared at my arm as if it belonged to someone else. I was so shocked I didn't even resist when he did the same to my other arm.

Klaus pulled his chair closer and sat back down. "I'm sorry for that, Violet."

I stared at my arms a moment more, then shoved the sleeves back down. I was angry and I wasn't even sure why. I fought to get myself under control before speaking.

"How long? How long have you known?"

Klaus shook his head. "At first I didn't. I saw the way you acted around Olaf. I saw that you hated him but I just thought that was because he was such an despicable, greedy person. I didn't know he was hurting you."

Klaus broke off, shaking his head. The memories I had tried so hard to bury were flooding back. Olaf coming to the room the Baudelaire orphans had shared and taking me down to the basement. Beating, burning, cutting…anything to inflict damage. Tying me up with rope or chaining me...

"I…" Klaus's voice was hesitant. "I remember one night waking up and not seeing you there. I thought it was strange but I guess because I was so tired I didn't remember it in the morning. I'm sorry for that, too." Tears were reemerging in his eyes. I still wasn't seeing Klaus. I was remembering Olaf's laughter, his sick pleasure as he brought me pain.

"Violet…?" Klaus whispered. My eyes refocused and I looked at him. "Why didn't you tell us? We could've-"

I cut him off, all the anger pouring out. "Could've what? Run further from him? Told some idiot adults what he was doing! What would've been the point! They never LISTEN!"

I was on my feet, hands clenched at my sides, practically yelling at my brother, tears streaming down my face. Klaus stood up and wrapped his arms around me. I started sobbing and couldn't stop. He knew I wasn't yelling at him. I was yelling for all the injustice we had ever had to face, for all the pain we had felt at other people's hands. I was yelling for all the times Olaf had hurt me, for the emotional scars I carried and from the sadness I felt every time I thought about my parents. Our deceased parents who had planned for everything and nothing. I was yelling at them, too, for leaving me and my siblings alone with unfit and unfortunate guardians. Finally, I was done crying and I stiffened reflexively. Klaus stepped back and we both sat down. He had never seen me that upset. He had seen me scared and had seen me cry but never like that. But he didn't look startled or scared of me.

"Sorry, Klaus."

Now he did look startled. "Violet, you don't have anything to apologize for. Its about time that you released that anger. You've had it bottled up for so long now…"

He was right. For almost seven years, I'd lived with the thoughts and the memories, unable to speak them out loud, doing my best to forget they even existed, burying the diary I had wrote them in.

"If you didn't know then, how did you figure it out?"

"That reoccurring nightmare. It seemed to happen only when we had had to do something about Count Olaf. I remembered talking about him one night and then a few hours later, you had woken up screaming. I did some research, combining it with what I already knew about pyschology. I connected the dots, so to speak." Klaus shrugged. "But I was never completely sure and I didn't want to press you if nothing had ever happened.

"There were other things," he continued. "Like, last night, you had the nightmare again. You only mentioned Count Olaf and yourself being in the dream. I noticed how you kept your face blank when you told us it. Sunny mentioned that she had seen scars on your arms today. I thought about all the clothing you have and how your shirts cover your arms and your dresses cover all of your skin. Even your night clothes cover you up,"he said, pointing to what I was wearing now.

He was right, of course. Olaf had taken full advantage of my dress's covering potential. Later, when I began buying clothing for myself and my siblings, I continued the trend.

"So what do I do, Klaus?"

"What do we do, Violet," he said firmly. "We are a family. We'll face this together, just like every other horrible thing we've ever been through."

Klaus's expression softened. "Violet…I…I'm sorry to ask you this but…did Olaf do anything else?"

I looked at him. Confusion flit across my face. Then I realized what he meant. "No. The abuse was physical only."

It felt so strange to talk to, well, anyone about this. I had done everything I could to convince myself it had never happened, even though all I had to do was look at myself to see the evidence.

"Would you feel comfortable talking to someone else about this?"

Klaus knew the question was loaded when he asked it but he did it anyway.

I shook my head. "I…I honestly don't know. This has been the first time I've even talked about it with you and you're family." A look of pure terror masked my face.

Klaus saw it and I saw fear flash across his face, mirroring my own. "What?"

"Sunny," I whispered. "What do we tell her?"

The fear faded from Klaus's face.

"It is up to you. Though she would probably prefer the truth."

"She's so young, though." Then I shook my head. After all the horrors we'd been through she'd been the youngest the entire time.

"Sorry. I'm sure this is not how you'd want me to hear this."

The door knob twisted open and Sunny came in.

I looked at her and noticed that she had been crying, too. "How much have you heard?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

"All of it." Despite her age, she crawled into my lap and wrapped her arms around me.

"I'm sorry we didn't know, Violet."

I sighed. "Truly, it wasn't your fault."

"You have been so strong for us throughout these years. Please, please, let us help you," Sunny said, Klaus agreeing with her.

"Okay," I said softly, not really sure what to say or even what to do.

So we talked. They asked me questions and I answered each one, no matter the pain it caused me. As we kept talking, the pain seemed to lessen. In the background, we heard a chime. The grandfather clock chimed five times and then stopped. We had been talking for most of the night and into the morning. At that last chime, Sunny and Klaus looked at me.

"Happy Birthday, Violet."

A/N: So what did you think? (I know, I know, some of y'all already guessed it...) Only one more chapter to go...