Chapter Twelve

Confrontation

I hear a voice say, "Don't be so blind"

It's telling me all these things

That you would probably hide

I see the blood all over your hands

Does it make you feel more like a man?

Was it all just a part of your plan?

- Always by Saliva

Klaus checked his watch, and frowned. The day was already more than half-gone and Sunny had not yet returned with Beatrice and their usual basket of found objects scavenged from the island's salt-crusted coast. The day was hot, but a cooling breeze occasionally skimmed from the water across the island, keeping its inhabitants from sweltering. He wiped beads of sweat from his forehead and adjusted his blindingly white cotton shirt before following the remains of their footsteps through the sand.

The prow of the boat tilted into the wave and pitched Violet forward, jerking her from her uneasy sleep to blink at the fiery light of the setting sun. She had slept leaning against the mast of the tiny vessel and now found her neck sore with uncomfortable sleep as well as worry. Olaf sat close to her, steering the ship towards the island which had just appeared faint and dreamlike on the horizon, still a few hours away. Some color had returned to his pallid face and he looked healthier for two days of sea travel. Already the ageing care that had crowded onto his face from the past few weeks, if not years, had started to fall away, making Olaf look almost younger than when he and Violet had first met.

Violet smiled sleepily to herself before a sharp pang of guilt stabbed her. She still struggled against her distrust of Olaf and knew that it would be perhaps years before he would be able to erase all of his past actions and the deep and serious rift they had built. She still saw the flames of the hospital and carnival as buildings, tents, people, and animals all collapsed in searing heat and destruction…she could still remember the terror of watching young Sunny dangle out the crooked tower window with only a cage to protect her against the ground if she fell…and Olaf's brilliantly shining eyes as he had stroked her face and told her in no uncertain terms that she would marry him, the threat against her siblings' lives blatantly backing his demands.

Her memories of Olaf were not pleasant –were horrifying, even—but she was tempting fate and bringing him to the place where all that she truly cared about sat waiting for him to protect or destroy at his own whim, the whim of his perhaps broken and certainly damaged mind.

She shoved her doubts about Olaf into the back of her mind and worried about the reactions of Sunny and Klaus instead until she felt a thin hand on her shoulder. Olaf had moved his wheelchair forward to rest beside her, letting the wind take control of the boat.

She searched his eyes again for the malice or shining, malevolent glee that she had so often seen there when Olaf was successfully tricking one or several people and could not find it. Olaf recognized her gaze and turned away with self-loathing already plastered across his face. They sat in silence for a moment, before he spoke huskily in quiet tones.

"I always did like to sail, you know. I wasn't pretending back at Lake Lacrymosa."

Violet flinched but she knew Olaf was trying, and so she ignored memories of breaking glass and timber and rabid leeches. "Did you, er, sail often as a child?"

Olaf snorted. "No, there wasn't much opportunity. I taught myself once I left home. I considered becoming a real sailor before I decided to start my acting troupe."

"Klaus and I always wanted to go sailing at Briny Beach, but we never really planned in earnest. We were going to sail there, then sail around the world, but then…"

She fell silent again as she thought of the day she had learned her parents were dead, and Olaf remembered the fire he had set as it had rapidly evolved from a flame to an inferno at the home where Violet's parents – or perhaps only one of them – had burned alive in probable agony.

Olaf sighed. "Oh Violet, I don't know how I'm going to make amends for what I've done." His voice was quiet and sober.

Violet leaned forward and rested her forehead against his. "You'll never be able to make up for what you've done, but you can start over, you know."

"Can I," he whispered as his hand slid to the base of her neck to entwine in the soft, dark curls that hid there. His kiss was just as gentle as hers had been and yet more passionate. Here was a man who knew women; she suddenly felt as young as she really was, not shy but painfully awkward and vastly inexperienced – a young woman far more mature in her experience of world and its tragedies than in age, being caressed by a man who had known many women long before he had met Violet Baudelaire.

A thrilling frisson rippled through her – it was the excitement of the unknown, the sense of being held by a man which she had known so rarely compared to many young women of her age. She remembered the look in Olaf's eyes so many times: the greedy desire she had believed was reserved for her fortune but perhaps had more often than she knew been directed towards her…

He pulled her closer towards him, lifting her closer over the wheelchair's arm until, while they continued to kiss, she slid sideways onto his lap, one arm resting across his shoulder, the other moving to cup his face in her delicate hand. His hands, too, were far from still, and she flushed when she felt the flutter of his fingertips across her chest, moving to unbutton her blouse.

Just as his hands reached beyond the thin fabric of her shirt, Violet happened to open her eyes and instantly froze. Olaf turned and followed her gaze and saw that not only had the boat managed to sail alongside the island, they could see Klaus standing on the dunes, a horrified look on his face.

Sunny came running with Beatrice when they heard the shouts coming from the shore. When they arrived, Sunny took one look and sent Beatrice to the tree to wait for them – Beatrice knew the short way home and the island's fauna was mostly harmless, and even though she was young, Sunny knew that this would be a fight not fit for a child of Beatrice's age to witness. Klaus had seemingly gone insane with rage and after dragging Olaf out of his wheelchair once the boat had landed, he had proceeded to beat the man with all his might. When Sunny came to a stop next to the trio, Violet was screaming and trying to hold Klaus back while he struggled in her grip. Blood splattered the sand from Olaf's lip and brow where the force of the blows had torn them.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, coming back here with her? Is there another boat of your minions waiting to kidnap someone else this time – or are you planning to kill one of us this time? I saw you kissing her, Olaf! HOW DARE YOU TOUCH MY SISTER!"

A sick feeling dripped into her stomach like acid, only to be replaced by shock that that Olaf was not lethally attacking Klaus in return. The Olaf that the three siblings had run from for so long would have beaten Klaus into a bloody corpse easily, despite the added muscle Klaus had acquired working at taxing chores on the island...and would have laughed while doing so. When Sunny heard Klaus's accusations, and saw that Olaf was resisting Klaus's blows but not striking back with any real force, she realized the truth. It spoke volumes on her infinite trust in her older sister that all she thought was: Oh Violet, you're too good. If Klaus doesn't kill him, maybe some of that goodness will rub off on Olaf. Heaven knows he could use some virtue after all he's done.

"Klaus, stop!" Klaus froze when he heard Sunny's cry, allowing Violet to put herself between him and Olaf. Sunny placed a hand on her brother's arm, trembling from the heaving sobs that racked his chest. Tears of anger streaked down his blood-spattered cheeks.

"Klaus, I don't think Violet would bring him back here without good reason, do you?" Before he could reply, she pulled him aside and heard an emotional description of how he had caught sight of Olaf and Violet entwined in the boat. "He didn't fight back, Klaus. There's something different about him…and if Violet's in love with him, something has to have changed. At least listen to Violet before you beat him to death."

Violet had settled Olaf back into his wheelchair by the time Klaus and Sunny turned back to them. She placed a hand around Olaf's shoulder protectively, her eyes never leaving her brother's as she came forward to speak in a low voice to her brother. "He needed someone to care for him, Klaus, and there was no once else. What he's done in the past is beyond horrible, I know, but I couldn't leave him. He saved my life."

"That doesn't mean you have to throw yourself at him like, like a hussy! Have you gone insane? That man killed our parents and our friends, Violet."

"Klaus, he's trying to make amends. I know the past doesn't give us any reason to trust him, but I've seen him turning into a better man. He's not after our money – it's gone. His henchmen took it. He's with me because he wants to be here with me, because I'm the only one he has to believe in him."

"Well, we lost that money a long time ago, and it's useless here. It's good to hear he'll never get his filthy hands on it."

"Klaus, please trust me. Put the past behind us, all of it. It won't bring them back, any of them…all we have is each other."

"But you were kissing him-"

"-Klaus, I'm an adult. I get to decide who I want to kiss, and I…I've chosen him."

For a moment the rage that had provoked the normally placid and good-tempered Klaus to violently attack another person rose again and his eyes blazed…and then it fell to simmer darkly upon his boyish face. He stepped close to Olaf and leaned his face towards the bloody man's, so close that they almost touched. When he spoke, it was in a low whisper that sent shivers down Violet's and Sunny's spines, a voice which they had never heard from their brother and hoped never to hear from him again.

"If Violet wants you to stay, you can stay…but I'll never trust you. If you even think about hurting her, Sunny, Beatrice, or myself, I will rip your throat out with my bare hands and leave you to bleed out right on this damned beach, Olaf. And stay away from me."

Olaf's tone was menacing as well but more controlled. "I do believe you would, Klaus Baudelaire. I give you my word that it will never come to that…but your sister has chosen to bring me here, and you're just going to have to deal with that," he growled. "And as for losing your friends and family to me, well, I lost a few to the Baudelaire family as well."

Klaus and Sunny's jaws dropped. "What are you talking about?" Sunny asked.

"Tell them, Violet."

Klaus opened his mouth to respond but the look on Violet's face stopped him. She looked absolutely crestfallen, and the despair on his sister's face cut deep into Klaus's heart. "Our parents…our parents…killed Olaf's parents," she whispered.

"WHAT?" Klaus looked ready to explode. "That's garbage, Violet, how could you believe- "

"It's true, Klaus! I know it's true because of the darts." Klaus's face turned a sickly shade of greenish grey and Sunny looked just as ill. That darts were the tools used in the deaths of Olaf's mother and father confirmed what Violet had told them.

"Violet, I don't know what to say…" Sunny choked out.

They were still frozen in shock when Olaf spoke. "No one is without guilt. I've done far too much for to ever expect forgiveness for all that I've done. All I want is to live here in peace for the future and forget the past."

"Fine. I won't provoke you, you won't provoke me. Stay, I don't care. But don't expect me to forget what you've done," Klaus spat. "And Violet, I hope you know what you're doing."

"I'm sorry, Klaus. But he's different, you'll see." He spun away without another word and stalked off through the dunes.

Sunny ran to Violet and the two sisters hugged, lacking tears only because of the amount that had already been shed. "Violet, I thought I'd never see you again!" As Violet told Sunny about all that had happened since she had been kidnapped, Olaf listened with a pang and thought, I did this to them. I made their lives hell…but she trusts me, Violet trusts me. I can be better…I will be a man worthy of her.

"You've been through so much, Violet. I'm so glad to have you back."

Violet smiled. Sunny seemed so much older, more capable, than she had before they had ever come to the island; she remembered when Sunny was only a bald toddler with sharp teeth instead of a curly-haired, energetic young girl full of empathy. "How is Beatrice? How have you been doing since I left?"

Sunny smiled. "She's fine, getting bigger and smarter every day – it seems she wants to be an inventor, just like her aunt. She keeps trying to build this simple machine she found in a book in the library but she's been having some trouble getting it past the planning stage. I'm sure she'll be so glad to see you and get some help from an expert."

Violet smiled in return, happy at the thought of seeing her adopted daughter as well as their home again. "Let's head back so we can get cleaned up. He was already so weak before Klaus decided to hurt him further and I think his eyebrow might need stitches."

They stepped back over to Olaf's side, and when Sunny saw the look in his eyes as he daydreamed with guilt and horror about his past, she understood just a bit more why Violet had decided to give her heart to a man who had murdered their parents and ruined their lives for so long. Sunny, too, had known that Olaf well enough and been deceived by him enough to know when the shine in his eyes was gleeful malice at some deception…but this agonizing guilt was altogether new.

She knelt next to Olaf's wheelchair to get his attention. "Olaf, my mind tells me Klaus is right about you…but my heart tells me to trust Violet. You frighten me. I still have nightmares about fires and death and fear. But if you're truly willing to try to become a good person, then I think there's nothing better for you to do to try to make up for what you've done."

"Well then, young Miss Baudelaire, I'll do my best. Your brother's a bastard, but I don't really deserve any better treatment. You've got your sister to thank, after all. If it wasn't for her, I either would have bled to death or died insane in some dank hospital."

Sunny's next words were too quiet for Violet to hear but Olaf could read the movement of her lips. "Just don't make us wish that you hadn't."

When she stood back up, the eyes of the sisters met with matching glances of happiness at being reunited after what was hopefully the final separation of their lives. "Let's go home," Violet said, and Olaf realized with an ache that a home was what he had denied himself for so long – a place of contentment and security and family. He had thrown what little he had had after the death of his parents away in exchange for violence, cheap affairs with tawdry women, and pure, consuming hatred. This place, with the Baudelaire orphans, was something different, something new and completely true, a start of the healing of the rift he had caused.

The trip back to the giant tree was difficult – Olaf's wheelchair kept sinking into the dunes until they reached the more solid dirt ground on the far side of the island – but they arrived back just as the sun finally sank below the horizon and shrouded the sky in thick darkness quilted with bright clusters of stars. The ocean tides lapped against the sides of the sailboat and on the beach, everything was quiet and still.

Author's Notes

So sorry for the long hiatus between updates – I've been in Ireland since mid September and thing have been kind of hectic. I was also suffering from a bit of writer's block for this story – I had no idea what I was going to have happen next. I now have the rest of the story planned out; there's only going to be one more chapter! Although I did realize earlier when I was planning that this is kind of fitting – 13 chapters for 13 books :)

Also, I'm putting out a call for illustrations! If you know of great Violaf art or want to submit a piece, you can PM or email me (kkempney , without the spaces.) I'm planning on making a proof copy of this story once it's finished just for me, to celebrate my first finished story, but if anyone does submit an illustration, I'll link to it on my profile here as well as including it in my copy! Since I think I know how most of the final chapter will go and I should be able to finish it soon, that will give me a chance to get the final chapter up in case anyone wants to draw a scene from it (and there will probably be another good ship-y one!)

Thank you again for all your support and please take a minute to review and share!

Cheers,

Katrina