Book the Thirteenth: The Frightening Finale
Chapter One: A Fateful Fire
It was late, at least 10:00 pm and Mr Poe was working the late shift at Mulctuary Money Management. He was working in the Transaction office, a great room of steel, Plexiglas and closed circuit surveillance. He had just finished checking the analysis records and cash transactions for the day when a small monitor on his desk started to flash red and beep. Mr Poe knew immediately what was happening, he frantically rushed to the fire alarm but he was too late. A crackle reached his ears and he could smell smoke, burning plastic and frayed computers, the fire had started it quickly caught up with him and engulfed him completely. However he managed to reach a window and dived through it, landing on the pavement a foot below, Mr Poe hurried to the Police Department and told them quickly what had happened. The police responded quickly and within minutes there was a barricade around Mulctuary Money Management. Mr Poe sighed wearily, it was 8:00 am and he has managed to catch a few hours sleep. His family had come to see him at the local hostel he was staying at and he felt revitalised because of that. He yawned, got dressed and then went to his local café, it was Café Salmonella. Mr Poe reached it and went inside, forcing a grim smile on his face he greeted the salmon dressed waiters and then sat down to his breakfast.
Meanwhile at Hotel Dénouement, Klaus, Sunny and Violet Baudelaire were finding it very hard to concentrate. After the uneventful cab drive from Briny Beach to the Hotel they were bored and now they were faced with the big problem. How they were going to warn the volunteers and get into the hotel. Klaus looked up at the hotel. It stared down at him like an empty shell, one that was derelict and rotten with age. Above the door a motto was engraved on the stone, Memento Mori, then Klaus looked at the doors which Kit Snicket had entered into the Hotel, they were big, old and wooden. The knockers were made of rusty iron and around the framer were eyes, millions of dark green eyes. On the actual door were brass studs nailed in deeply and showing clear signs of rust. Klaus was sure that this place had not been inhabited for a very, very long time, after a while Kit came out of the hotel and beckoned the Baudelaire's out from the taxi and into the damp, poorly lit hotel. They entered the hotel and stared around the big hall. There was chaos everywhere and over in a dark, dusty corner was a concierge desk. Just behind that was an old fashioned elevator that had a poorly made sign stating it was out of order. Violet looked around and sighed, and then she looked down at her shoes. She had promised her parents that she would look after her siblings but now they were in a shoddy hotel with people belonging to V.F.D, Meanwhile she had walked over to the lift and was busy pressing buttons and fiddling with a large knob on the wall. Sunny crawled over to the desk and started to gnaw on it. Klaus meanwhile was testing the doors for reinforcement and weight stability. He figured it out just when Violet managed to start the elevator up and Sunny had gnawed a good sized piece of wood from the desk and carried it over to Klaus. Klaus smiled at his sister and then they realised the hotel had gone quiet. They looked round in dismay and saw that all the volunteers had disappeared and they were quite alone in the room. Klaus wiped his glasses and then barricaded the door with what ever came to hand. After a while the door was blocked with bits of wood, chairs, tables and pieces of brass. Violent pulled her hair up through the ribbon and went to the elevator. She examined it closely and saw the numbers 1-13 marked on the wall. Violet rapped on the wall and found that it was hollow; quickly she scraped away the wallpaper of green eyes and tore open the wood panelling beneath, inside was thirteen buttons. Under each button was a brass letter plate stating what floor the elevator went up to. She called Klaus and Sunny over and Klaus began to look more closely at the letter plates. Sunny said "Yakamino?" and Violet replied "Hopefully this will take us to where V.F.D is meeting." Klaus stuck out a clean hand and delicately pressed Floor 13, a rumble could be heard and the elevator descended from above. It reached the ground floor and the Baudelaires entered the dingy, grimy elevator. Like everything else in the hotel it was unclean and seldom used. As they went up, Klaus thought about what they would encounter at the top, Violet thought about whether the people up there would be friend or foe and Sunny thought about whether she could defend all of them with her teeth.
Meanwhile Mr Poe had finished his breakfast and having tipped the salmon dressed waiter with a three digit bill, he left the restaurant. Once outside Mr Poe turned left to leave the Fish District when an old man in a dark grey overcoat shuffled from the Various Finery Disguises store opposite Café Salmonella and proceeded to beckon Mr Poe, quickly Mr Poe followed the old man past the Victorious Financial District, the Flower District, the Garden District and into the Rental District. Once they had entered, the old man hurried to a grimy terraced house. It looked like all the others in the row, dirty, grimy and generally unappealing. Mr Poe followed more slowly and as they entered, Mr Poe looked up to see a face staring at them from one of the upstairs windows. The inside was better then the outside, the walls were painted white with a faint hint of green eyes. A vase of fresh flowers was on the small table opposite the front door. All around the room were curtains framing the noble things V.F.D had done and only four of them were closed. Mr Poe assumed doors were behind the curtains and he was right. However, the man went upstairs and turned left on the landing, instead of continuing up however he rapped on the wall and it opened. Mr Poe followed him inside. Inside was something that astonished him. Mr Poe would never forget it in his entire life. Inside was a massive room filled high with files. They rose to the ceiling. However the man was only interested in one thing. In a glass display box and protected by bars lay the secret too terrible to be told, lying on a plush pillow of gold velvet. Lying next to it was the complete set of the secret that was not to be named and finally, next to that was the secret Mr Poe had been waiting for.