I do not own these characters.

Trigger warning: brief mention of anxiety and nightmares

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- Olive

Violet Baudelaire often found herself staring at the ceiling at night. She couldn't control her nightmares. Most every horrible event from her teenage years was out of her control. She could not shake the feeling of them following her.

She remembered when Sunny and Beatrice started to grow a little older. She thought, for sure, that Sunny would remember every horrible thing Count Olaf did to them. The disguises, the schemes, everything. She was a bright baby, after all.

"Infantile amnesia," Klaus told her one morning at the breakfast table. Sunny and Beatrice were still getting ready for the day.

"What is that?" Violet asked.

"I read a book on psychology pretty recently. One thing that was mentioned is infantile amnesia. That's the phenomenon of forgetting memories from before you were about two to four."

It made sense to her, even though she had never thought it had a name. "I guess none of us remember when we were babies."

"Exactly," Klaus said. He walked to the kitchen counter and flipped on the coffee machine. "We should tell them everything that happened to us."

Violet thought about it. "No. There is no reason to tell them now. They are so young."

"Violet," Klaus pleaded. "This was our parents' biggest mistake. They kept VFD from us. They kept the schism away. We were in the dark. This is our chance to right that wrong."

"A few years ago, I would have said the same thing, but now," she looked away from him. "I have nightmares. Anxieties. I wish I could go back to the state of being before everything."

Klaus looked at his sister in disbelief. "Our parents' deaths were not our fault. There is nothing we can do about it. I am happy here in this house, living with my sisters. But don't think I don't get nightmares myself."

Violet sighed. "You are right. So many questions could have been answered if our parents have told us the truth. I'm the one who's not ready to tell them. Not yet. One day we can tell them together, okay?"

The coffee machine stopped and Klaus grabbed his cup from underneath. He sat down at the table. "Okay, Vi. We'll tell them together. One day we will."

That conversation with her brother played over in her head a lot. She knew she would never be ready. She got up from her bed and went to her bathroom. She took a long look at herself in the mirror. Eleven years have passed since they left the island. She was twenty seven and her brother's wedding was tomorrow. Her long black hair draped her shoulders elegantly. Her pale skin and baby blue eyes contrasted the dark circles under her eyes, a side effect of little sleep.

She wasn't ready for the wedding. She was quite content for the couple and very happy for her brother. There was just something about white veil occasions that rubbed her the wrong way. What is it that I hate about wedding so much? she would often think sarcastically. Ah, yes. Count Olaf tried to marry me at fourteen. That's what it is.

She ran her cold fingers under the warm tap and splashed her face. She heard Sunny's door close down the hall. She thought maybe Sunny would still be up perfecting every detail on the cake. She always put her soul into everything she did.

Violet peeked down the hall. Their doors were closed. She took a deep breath and shakily whispered to herself "I'm going to tell her now. Everything."

With every intent to tell Sunny the whole truth, she crept down the hall and knocked on her door. She did this despite promising Klaus that they would tell both girls together. The timing just felt right to her.

"Beatrice?" She heard from the inside.