A/n: Ok I shall continue. I'll have you know I'm having a lot of trouble updating my fanfics lately so... bare with me. As we all know a certain someone i shall not mention names for reasons like perhaps getting banned, however this certain someone has copied my work. Further up this list of fanfics you shall find another fic called 'The only way' please do not read it as it's a cheap knock off of mine. they have been reported
Chapter three.
Violet woke up between the two male triplets. She disentangled her hand from Duncan's and pulled herself up. Sunny was already awake and banging on the edge of her cot with a plastic cup. She looked like a miniature jail bird.
"Morning." Violet yawned
"Risey Sunshine." Sunny smiled, a rare option for the toddler. She was often to be seen with her face puckered and scrunched up in tears.
"Yeah, yeah, wakey wakey I know." Violet yawned. She crawled to the bottom and escaped over the foot of the bed. "Come on." She said heaving her sister from the bed.
"Triwake." By 'Triwake' Sunny meant 'what if my brother or the Quagmire triplets wake up?'
"They're old enough to get their own breakfast." She said. She was followed down the stairs by Quigley who was evidently an early riser. Or perhaps he had been awoken by the two sisters talking. Talking is not the most unpleasant sound to wake up to in the world, you may for instance wake up to the sound of dogs barking, in a bloodthirsty pack about to tear you limb from limb. You may wake up to the ominous sound of creaking and realise the self sustaining mobile hot air home you borrowed from Hector has crashed on top of Mount Fraught leaving you totally stranded. Or you may wake up to dogs barking and an ominous creaking sound indicating you are stuck on Mount Fraught with a pack of bloodthirsty dogs about to be torn limb from limb. So you can imagine how much of a relief it may be to wake up to talking.
"You don't know how much of a relief it is to wake up to you talking." He said. Violet looked at him and smiled.
"Sorry about yesterday," she said nervously. He laughed.
"It's water under the bridge Violet." Water under the bridge refers not to water below rickety footbridges like the one I have crossed many times, not at all. Water under the bridge in this case means 'he had gotten over it' just like I myself got over the rickety footbridge.
"Informative." Sunny snapped.
"Sorry Sunny, she means that we should tell her what's happening or...not speak at all." Violet explained.
"Sorry Sunny."
"S'okee." She probably meant s'okay rather that a sock puppet or a wet...anything. Violet passed around the breakfasts. Sunny insisted she didn't want her own, she'd rather pick at Violet's food.
"OlaThurs?" asked Sunny.
"I hope not."
"Pardon?"
"She asked if Olaf is going to show up on Thursday..." Violet bit her lip. "And I can't answer..."
"Hey don't beat yourself up over it Violet." To not beat oneself up doesn't mean you're not allowed to hit your head in annoyance or kick yourself [although that shouldn't be attempted either], it means it isn't that persons fault, and that they shouldn't blame themselves.
She nodded.
"We can only hope our side of V.F.D get here before his do."
"True." Violet stated pulling her hair up into a ribbon. Her hands were numb from the cold. It was nearly as cold inside the hotel as outside on the mountains. After being there a few days she knew the heat didn't turn on til ten. Quigley leaned over and tied it in a bow. She blushed.
"Thanks."
"What are you thinking of?... from experience I know you only tie your hair up when you're thinking of an invention."
"Yes... the heating system, auto switches on at ten right? I'm wondering if I can rig the system to go on earlier." She paused. Quigley respected she was thinking and absently gave Sunny a carrot.
"Aha..." she said she grabbed a chair and dragged it over to an airing cupboard. She stood on it and began to tinker inside. Although he knew she was examining to see if she had the equipment she needed to create her desired invention he asked her anyway. For the sake of conversation.
"What're you doing?"
"Re wiring the heating, If I can re route this, only it will be in a channel of heat, Sunny check that storage cupboard is there a fan?" Sunny tottered out carrying fan larger than herself. Violet dragged a long tube, big enough to fit Sunny in comfortably, across the room.
"Careful you two this is hot. Hopefully the fan should act as a ground and disperse the air."
"If it works I'd say it's brilliant." He complimented. She gave a small smile and dragged the hot tube to the floor. She lay it on the floor.
"Ouch...no honestly I'm ok..." she sucked her finger she had burnt it on the tube. She switched the fan on. Instantly the room began to heat up. Quigley grinned.
"And the amazing Violet Baudelaire does it again." He announced as though he was telling them who had just won the football. She smiled and went back to her food.
"Did we sleep in?" asked Isadora as she came down the stairs, she added a yawn for effect. Klaus was right behind her.
"Nope, not really, it's only eight." Quigley said. "When we used to live at home we never saw you before two pm Izzy." She grinned sheepishly.
"I've grown up,"
"If it's only eight o clock why is the heating on?"
"Violet fan." Announced Sunny as she finished her carrot. She stole another from Violet's plate.
"Pardon me for being oblivious, but a fan is usually put in place to cool something down." Violet explained about the heating tube and the fan dispersing the heat.
"Violet you could've been hurt." Klaus scolded.
"She was." Quigley said without thinking. Violet glared daggers at him. The expression 'to glare daggers' does not mean small knives decided to protrude from Violet's eyes, more like she was very, very mad at him, and he should do best to stay out of her way.
"It's nothing, honestly, a little burn." Klaus gripped her wrist and viewed the mark on her hand. A red shiny burn had appeared on the back of her hand stretching up her right index finger. He shook his head.
"Does the hotel have a first aid kit?" he asked Isadora.
"The hotel doesn't seem to have anything... there's not even a bus boy or a manager or a receptionist."
"How does the food get here then?"
"Computer... we type in our names and it serves us, we don't even tell it what we want."
"Our names, where does this data go, anybody could access that!" Quigley panicked.
"Calm down, all this time with Jacques has made you a little paranoid." Isadora said soothingly. Her sing song poetic voice seemed to have that effect on anyone.
At midday Duncan was still not out of bed. Violet's makeshift heating fan had been turned off as the normal heating was now on.
"I'm going to go check on him." Isadora said worriedly, "He's usually awake before I am. I mean it's not like he had a late night or anything." Quigley shook his head.
"Typical Izzy you worry too much." He said surveying his map. He had worked out the distance in miles from Mount Fraught's Summit to the hotel. Klaus had found a book. This book is one found in almost every home in the UK and US. The dictionary. A very boring book it is, but very useful. Someone may ask you what 'Brummagem' means if a man has just announced it, you may then take the opportunity to tell them that that man is a fake and therefore not to be trusted. Thus saving this persons life.
"Well excuse me for caring Mr Sensitivity." She disappeared upstairs.
"Did you know Denouement means 'the final conclusion where the plot begins to make itself apparent?'" Klaus read.
"Coinkidink." Said Sunny. By 'Coinkidink' I can only assume Sunny meant Coincidence.
"I don't know it seems a little odd to me, do you think we'll find out everything about the VFD?"
"I don't think even the VFD know everything about the VFD." Quigley said scornfully
Violet was staring out the window. Snow lashed at the frame and stuck to the glass. 'The world is quiet here' she knew that song. Who had sang it to her? Was it her mother? Her father? She tugged her hair into a purple ribbon to keep it out of her eyes. Everyone who knew Violet knew she did this when she wished to think of an invention, her own little idiosyncrasy such as Klaus polished his glasses on his shirt when about to embark on his research. This time however Violet was not thinking of an invention, she was thinking about life, about the past, about her future, if it even existed. She wondered if she'd ever be happy, she wondered about the safety of her friends and siblings. It was enough to make a grown man cry. She remembered what Duncan had said to her 'a woman shows great bravery only by facing herself.' She sighed. She felt the warm tears sting her eyes. She didn't want to cry, Klaus and Sunny were still in the room. Isadora came down and sighed.
"He says it's a 'him' thing, and I wouldn't understand." She chewed her lip. "I'm worried about him."
"Ugh I better go see." Violet said. She was really just glad for an excuse to leave the room.
"Duncan?" she asked. He looked up at her.
"Hey." He said flatly.
"Hi, you ok?" Violet had found herself asking the question she had hated to be asked.
"I'm fine." He said. He was evidently a very good liar, she wondered where he had the experience from.
"You shouldn't lie to your friends." She scolded. He looked defeated.
"You caught me." He held up his hands in defeat and then became silent again. Violet had been hoping for an explanation.
"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?" He looked upset.
"No." She sat on the edge of the bed beside him. She fiddled with the hem of Isadora's skirt.
"I told you about my nightmares I've never even told my brother about that." She said. She knew a way to manipulate people. It is not a very nice way to control someone, infact controlling someone is not a nice thing to do at all. Violet knew it was that or her friend was hurting on his own. She had sent him on a guilt trip. There is a saying I should now like to refer to 'a problem shared is a problem halved' I always thought this expression inadequate and would have thought 'a problem shared is a problem doubled' more accurate because then two people have to worry about this problem. Violet evidently saw the first one as correct.
"A problem shared is a problem halved Duncan, how can I help you if you won't tell me what's wrong."
"Violet! Snap out of it ok, you're not my mother and I'm not a little kid! I can deal with it on my own ok." She looked alarmed. He'd never yelled at her before. She raised her hands to her head and kneaded her temples.
"Look, I'm sorry I shouldn't have..." he started
"You're right I'm not your mother, and I'm sorry I care but I do okay and you'll have to accept that. You know I never understand you, one minute you're fine with me then next... the next I don't know you." she stormed off and locked herself in the bathroom.
Quigley couldn't concentrate on his cartography. Isadora was reciting poems like there was no tomorrow. Klaus was quoting every word in existence and it's definition from the oxford dictionary. Sunny was dropping a spoon repeatedly on the floor. She evidently enjoyed the effect it was having. He noticed Violet hadn't come down. He could only imagine what she and his brother were doing probably kissing. It made him a little sad. There is another expression I should like to use here the expression is 'plenty more fish in the sea' why women are referred to as fish I shall ponder to my dying day, but I have chosen this moment to say this because it was at this moment in time Quigley came to a revelation. She was not the only girl in the world. Although it made him sad to think about, this was not the end of the world.
"Violet?" Duncan knocked on the door.
"Go away."
"If you're like this now, imagine how you're going to be in a few months time!" he said.
"Shut up what if Klaus or somebody hears you!" everyone knows it's incredibly rude to tell someone to 'Shut up' but in the situation perhaps this is the one time it is excusable.
"Oh, please just open the door, we'll talk about this."
"Now you want to talk?" she said hysterically. Hysterical as Klaus may tell you someday can mean either VERY stressed or VERY excited. I can only assume Violet said this in a stressed voice, but the hotel mysteriously vanished long before I embarked on my research.
"Don't make me go get your brother,"
"Oh yeah drag him into it." It was obvious from her tone of voice to tell she was crying.
"Please Violet," he begged. He heard only silence and he prayed she hadn't done anything stupid. Then there was a click and the door opened. She was stood staring at him.
"Come here." He said he wrapped his arms around her. She stared over his shoulder absently. He ran his hands across her back. "I'm sorry ok I shouldn't have yelled."
"It's...ok." She said finally. "I guess with yesterday and everything..."
"Let's not talk about that eh? Cheer up." He put his fingers under her chin and brought her face up to his.
"Duncan what're..."
"You have GOT to chill out you're getting stressed over everything." He said calmly. She suddenly realised how tall he had gotten during his exploits on the self sustained mobile hot air home.
"What do your brother and my sister talk about?" asked Klaus a few days later. He had totally forgotten what day it was.
"Kiss." Said Sunny answering for Isadora.
"Oh they are not Sunny behave." Klaus told his little sister. She giggled playfully and continued to drop her spoon.
"What?"
"She said they're making out...basically." Klaus said he closed the dictionary. She shut her poetry book. Quigley rolled up his map. Sunny let go of her spoon for the final time. Something made them all stop in their tracks. A fire alarm had sounded. They all sprang into action.
"The assembly point is... What? The assembly point is VFD?" he queried.
"Violet, Duncan come on!" yelled Quigley, they didn't need to be told twice.
They stood shivering in the cold. Violet grasped Sunny close to her. So far there was no sign of any hotel staff, there was no smoke, and no apparent fire. It was thoroughly confusing.
"Who are you?" asked a voice. The spun round to see around a hundred people all stood behind them.
"Are you the VFD?" asked Klaus suddenly. He had been looking for this organisation for ages he wasn't about to let them slip through his fingers once again.
"How do you know about..."
"My name's Violet." Violet volunteered. "These are my siblings, Klaus and Sunny, and these are the Quagmires."
"Quagmire." Said a woman slowly... "But there's three, two died in that fire."
"No, my mother hid me in the tunnel, the one you all dug, Isadora and Duncan escaped."
"Your parents were noble." Said a man but he was not looking at the Quagmires he was instead looking at the Baudelaires which made them a little uncomfortable.
"Violet Klaus and Sunny..." repeated a different man. "I know those names."
"Baudelaire!" Sunny screeched. It came as a surprise to the VFD. One man removed his ludicrous purple top hat and said.
"The three Baudelaire children..."
"Yes that's us, you know of us?" asked Klaus.
"How know!"
"Sunny we've been following your progress, we heard your names mentioned in the murder of Jacques Snicket." Sunny gasped and shook her head.
"Innocence!" she cried worriedly. The man smiled at her.
"We know that, Men like Jacques make many enemies." Explained a woman. "Hello darlings." Isadora suddenly screeched.
"MOTHER!" and ran up to her. Duncan and Quigley looked at each other and nodded before running off too. Violet shifted her weight uncomfortably. She knew there was nobody here for her or her siblings.
"I'm afraid we can't tell any of VFD's secrets."
"There's so much we need to learn though." Said Klaus sadly. They were all sat around the table. "And we have to go tomorrow."
"Olaf is coming to burn it down." Said Violet. "The whole Hotel. And everybody in it." She cried. Quigley bit his lip and squeezed her shoulder. She shrugged it off.
"We know this must be difficult for you three after losing your parents we know you were taken on by Olaf himself."
"After he MURDERED our parents he tried to marry my sister. He murdered Uncle Monty and Aunt..."
"Josephine was a very brave woman until Isaac's death she began to fear everything including telephones." Said Mrs. Quagmire.
"But what I don't understand Mrs. Quagmire, if you'll forgive me asking, how did you escape."
"I told Quigley to stay put, we had expected an attack. I went to try and find my other two..." Isadora squeezed her mothers hand and Duncan looked at the floor. The floor tiles were bare and I see no sense in looking at floor tiles. Much less writing about looking at floor tiles. Much less than that reading about writing about floor tiles. Feel free to hit the back button on your browser at any time during this story. "So I went looking for them, I thought Isadora would be listening to music in her bedroom and Duncan reading in the library, the library was where it had started so Duncan was more of a priority... I ran around looking for ages looking back now they must have already escaped. I tried to go back for Quigley but it was too smoky. I escaped out the back way."
"And why didn't you try to find us mother?" Asked Quigley
"I knew you must be alive, I thought you were under the care of Dr. Montgomery. It wasn't safe for me yet."
Violet packed up Isadora's clothes. They were going to live with the Quagmires, in a new mansion. Isadora looked at her.
"I'm sorry Violet."
"Eh, for what?"
"For... it may seem stupid but for not being an orphan." She said sheepishly. She was right. It did seem stupid. Infact it was incredibly stupid.
"Oh Isadora I wouldn't wish that on anyone, much less you or your siblings." Violet straightened up. She turned to face Isadora. Isadora was a little younger than her and a little older than Klaus. She was not a child. A young woman. Violet surveyed her and then finally wrapped her arms round Isadora. Isadora started to cry.
"You're like a sister to me Isadora and I would NEVER wish anything to hurt you I swear it."
"Biological!" Sunny cried. Which probably meant 'hey and I'm your REAL sister can you please help me out of this cot' Violet broke the hug and collected Sunny. Sunny waved goodbye to the Mortmain Mountains, it wasn't as if she'd miss them. She just wondered what misfortune might await them in the Quagmire Mansion. Surely life couldn't just go on as it had done before their parents had died. Could it?
