Why, hello. You decided to read past the prologue to the first official chapter. Aren't you special? :D
Thanks to the people who reviewed!
Disclaimer: *Sigh* As I've said before, a REAL fan would know what's mine and what's Lemony Snicket's. I do not know ASOUE, which makes me absolutely unhappy. *Cries in corner.*
About two month later…
***
Dream…
Isadora stood in her house, the mansion she had grown up in. She looked around, taking in the sight. It had been forever since she had seen her house, and it was grand. It was white marble, four stories tall. Her yard had a fountain in the front, with a tall gate surrounding the home.
Isadora ran around the home to the back. Her mother's flower garden was as beautiful as ever, full of colorful roses and an assortment of other flowers. Another fountain was in the back, but grander that the one in the front. Gorgeous, clear blue water flowed through it.
She took in a deep breath of fresh air. Ahh… It refreshed her, making her feel rejuvenated.
For once, she didn't breathe in smoke.
Her home never looked as wonderful as now. It never seemed as perfect, as welcoming, like she had been on a long trip and just arrived to the place that really matters.
She turned around to observe her mother's amazing flower garden. She walked by each flower and plant, observing its magnificence. Her mother had a green thumb, no doubt about it, and each flower was without flaw.
She picked a red rose from the garden and held it close to her heart.
The sound of voices met her ears. She spun around quickly, startled. Walking out of the back door were her brothers, Quigley and Duncan, laughing and talking to one another. Isadora, in spite of herself, ran around to hide behind a bush. When she realized what she had done, she felt stupid. Why had she hid from her brothers?
She peaked around the bush. The two of them had sat down at a table the family had in the garden. With the sun shining bright, they were hard to see, but she could see their silhouettes. Quigley opened his purple commonplace book to a page to show to Duncan, and the two laughed.
There she stood for the next few minutes (how long had it been? Did it matter to her?), watching, taking in everything she had lost. Happiness, home, and the beautiful garden in her backyard. Tears welled up in her eyes; tears of joy and longingness. She sighed and choked on her tears, she could hardly believe that she would ever see this place again other than in her memories. She didn't just remember it, she felt it.
Then, when she was just about to walk over to her brothers, someone walked out of the back door to come join the brothers. Isadora saw two silhouettes, which then walked into the sun.
The two people looked different though, they didn't fit into the picture. They looked depressed, distraught. As they walked, everything behind them, started to....
As they walked toward the boys, hand in hand, their faces to the ground, tears flowing down their cold, distraught faces, everything behind them started to loose color, to fall apart, to... to...
Burn.
The sky darkened. The smell of smoke filled the air. They walked out of the mansion door, and the house started to crumble. The windows shattered, the smell of smoke filled the air, and the house fell down behind them. The flowers that ran along the sidewalk to the garden wilted. They walked slowly, as though each step broke their heart, and her father pulled her mother into an embrace as they walked. Everything behind them was setting ablaze, dying.
Isadora stepped out from behind the bush, but no one seemed to notice her. Quigley and Duncan stopped their conversation and looked at their parents, pale and hurt as could be. The two finally reached the triplets and stopped to look at them. Their eyes begged for them run away, and yet, they begged for the triplets to stay.
Their father stepped up to the table, and put a small box on it. It couldn't have contained much, yet the three triplets understood immediately that it must be important. He pushed it toward Quigley, who looked up at him with a begging sadness in his eyes. All three triplets wondered, what does this mean?
Their mother walked over to them, and, with a tear flowing down her face, whispered, "Goodbye."
As though like a young child, Duncan stood up abruptly, tugged on his mother's sleeve, and asked, "Where are you going?"
His mother started to weep quietly, simply because she had no answer for him. Where does one go after death?
"Away." Their father answered with a deep sadness in his voice. "We will never see you again."
Quigley stood up, the box still in his hand. "No! You can't go! What will happen to us?" His voice sounded fearful, pleading.
Their mother turned around. "You must take care of yourselves. You're all three strong, bright children. I know you survive without us."
Isadora dropped to her knees. Quigley started to cry, hugging himself. Duncan did the same, taking three steps after his parents as they walked away.
The three children were like this for what seemed forever. Time seemed irrelevant.
Finally, Quigley and Duncan sat beside where Isadora was sitting. The three huddled together, silently crying to themselves, their shoulders shaking as they sobbed.
"No," Quigley whispered to himself, as if comforting himself. "They are not leaving. They cannot leave."
Duncan looked up, his face streaked with tears. "They might have to."
Quigley looked at him, considering what he said. "No, they can't." He decided, although he knew he was wrong.
And Isadora started to weep into her hands. There she sat, letting the tears flow. Yet again, time felt irrelevant, like something that was unimportant. When she looked up, the two of them were gone. Alone, she sat amongst the rubble of the once beautiful mansion that she and her family lived.
And then her surroundings went black. Suddenly, she was looking at herself. Fifteen year old Isadora was watching her younger self cry. The younger Isadora screamed, cried, and shouted in frustration. But the older Isadora couldn't move, couldn't breathe, just stood and watched herself cry.
And it killed her.
...
Isadora awoke with tears in her eyes. She raised her hand to her face, letting the tears flow from her eyes. She almost couldn't breathe right because she told herself not to scream. Nothing in this world could have made her feel better. Nothing. She pulled the blankets around her, making sure they covered her completely.
There, in her bed, she laid awake, until she eventually cried herself to sleep again.
***
Even with the morning sun shining bright
I still fail to see the light
There was nothing that could get Isadora out of her bed; at least, it seemed to be that way. The morning sun shone through her window, which bothered her, but she was too lazy to get up and draw the blinds. Her eyelids remained tight over her eyes, making sure she wouldn't be distracted by the light. She remembered her obligations today, but did she care? No.
Quigley opened the door slightly, peeking into Isadora's room. When Isadora realized that he was coming into her room to wake her up, she groaned and rolled over. Quigley walked over her bed, leaned over, and shook her shoulder. She slapped his hand off. He smiled, sitting on her bed. "I know, you don't want to get up. I would be asleep if I had a choice. But we have to get up. We have very important business to take care of today. Duncan sent me to wake you up."
Isadora rolled groaned. "For your sake," she muttered, "you better be on fire or something." At that, he laughed.
Isadora stood up, shaking Quigley's hand off of her shoulder. She sighed, and walked over to her dresser. She started to pull out clothing to wear that day, and laid each article of clothing onto her bed. "This better be important for Klaus to call a meeting this early in the morning." Quigley nodded.
Isadora turned around. She stared at him with a face that said, 'excuse me?'. Quigley sat there until he realized she had to change.
"Um, yeah. I'll be waiting on the porch." Quigley stuttered quickly, before walking out of her room hastily and shutting the door.
She sighed, and changed. She put on simple, black, tie-up shoes with two-inch heels that came to about the middle of her lower legs, a loose light lavender blouse with a black sweater, a black skirt that came down mid-thigh, and black-and-white faded tights. She put her black hair into two low pigtails and applied makeup (she didn't wear much, only eye makeup and light cover-up). She grabbed her black commonplace book, a pen and pencil, and walked out of the door.
She walked down the hall of her and her siblings' small but homey house to the porch.
There Quigley stood. His green eyes shone that sunny morning (that was quickly growing cloudy), like he was in one of these moods. He was wearing a deep-red collared shirt with the same black sweater as Isadora, with sleek, fitted black pants and black flat shoes. He kept his black hair shaggy.
Quigley smiled at her. He had become a handsome young man, just like Duncan. Quigley, however, was intelligent and nice, of course, but he was more mischievous, adventurous. With his knowledge of maps and direction, his cartography skills, and his drive, he could take on anything.
"Are you ready?" he asked.
"Ready? I'm always ready." Isadora replied.
***
The headquarters was almost completed.
The beautiful headquarters towered over everything. It was very far out in the country (so they would be hidden from the rest of the world), so the ride there couldn't have lasted longer. Quigley and Isadora were silent the whole time as they flew down the roads on their way there.
"Quigley, can I tell you something?" Isadora broke the silence.
"Of course." He replied.
The next few moments were quiet. "I had a dream last night. I just thought you might want to hear about."
"Yes?" The car swirled around a tight corner. The scenery swirled by as Quigley's car raced down the back roads. Trees, houses, and sidewalks seemed like a blur. "What happened in that dream?"
"Um," she swallowed, "it had mom and dad in it."
The car pulled up slowly to a stoplight, and Quigley sighed. The happy smile on his face faded slightly, and it was obvious that he was trying to look calm. "Really?" he whispered. "What did they say?"
Isadora looked out of the car window, wishing she had never brought it up. It always seemed to her like she ruinned the mood of everything, like when she entered the room everything became darker. "It started in the front of our mansion." She was surprised at her usage of the word 'our' instead of 'the'. Maybe it wasn't a big deal, but it made it seem more personal.
A few moments of silence. "Continue?" Quigley's voice asked.
"I ran to the backyard; you and Duncan were there, laughing and- and- ... happy." She started to choke up on the last few words, but then regained composure. "I ran behind the bushes and watched you. I felt so joyful. I even picked flowers from Mother's garden."
"Mom had the most beautiful garden...." Quigley whispered to himself. His smile was completely gone now.
"And..." Isadora continued, "mom and dad walked out of the house."
Quigley looked at her, only for a second, then turned his attention back to the road.
"They looked so distraught, pale and cold like corpses. And when they walked, everything behind them.... burned."
Quigley bit his lip. "Really?" he asked quietly, sadly. "Then what?"
"They handed you a small box, and told the three of us goodbye. We pleaded for them to stay, but they just walked away. Everything around us went up in smoke, and we were left to cry."
Quigley turned onto a dirt road that would take them to the headquarters. "Isadora, listen to me." he said gently. "I understand that their death hurts. It hurts to think about, knowing that they were taken from us when we were so young. But, I think it's time that you learn to move on".
Those words couldn't have hurt any more.
Isadora looked down. Had her brother really just said that to her?
Tears formed yet again. She sighed angrily, tired to looking weak; and that's all that crying did: made her look weak. She looked up at Quigley with a hurt face, crossed her arms and looked away from him.
"Izzy." Quigley sighed deeply, his eyes filled with concern. "I know that it hurts-"
"Shut up." she spat. "Please."
"Isadora, I'm sorry!"
The two were quiet for the next minute.
"I know you must miss them, Izzy, I do too. I didn't mean to say that to hurt you. But-"
"But what?" she said, dejected.
"But I think that's it's best for the three of us to focus on the future now."
"Well, what's wrong about remembering the past?" Isadora asked. The question hung in the air, waiting to be answered, lingering over their heads.
Quigley finally answered. "There's nothing wrong with remembering the past. I just think you need to start remembering the present. Build a new start, Izzy. That's what we're all trying to do."
Isadora let those words sink in. Perhaps, they really would help her.
That's where the conversation ended as they reached the headquarters.
***
The two siblings stepped out of the car and walked toward the enormous building. With commonplace books in hand, they walked up the steps and into the headquarters.
They walked into the breath-taking lobby, filled with beautiful chairs and a chandelier. They walked past some other volunteers talking, but didn't pay much attention to them. It was about noon now, and the Quagmire dashed up the staircase to the next floor so they would get there on time. Duncan, impatient that morning, had left before them, and now they were panting as they dashed up another long staircase to reach the meeting room.
On the third floor, they ran to the right to see a tall door, elaborate with design. (The building's architect, Avery, had put much effort into detail, which meant that the building couldn't have been more awe-inspiring.) Quigley took a deep breath, as though preparing himself, and opened the door.
The door opened. The two triplets walked inside. Standing inside was a group of people socializing. Most of the looked concerned. They looked over to Quigley and Isadora, with faces that said, 'Hope you're prepared.' The group consisted of a group of people called the council, which is what looked over all of VFD's issues. See, this 'new' VFD took precautions and came up with new ideas to make VFD better, and to have a group of leaders seemed to have things more organized.
The group sat down on some of the sofas and chairs beside each other. Sitting on the sofa was Klaus Baudelaire, writer and researcher. He was the middle Baudelaire sibling, and was Beatrice's adopted father. He had grown into a relatively handsome young man, but with everything that had happened to him, he had become a little untrusting to strangers, but once he trusted you, he was completely loyal. He had his blue commonplace book in his lap.
Beside him was Fiona, a young scientist, who's specialty was mycology. She was about a year older than Klaus, yet the two had taken a liking to each other. She was volatile and unpredictable, but nonetheless noble enough. She smiled at the two triplets as they took their seat. Beside Fiona sat Duncan Quagmire, and beside him sat Avery, architect and artist. On the other sofa sat Violet Baudelaire, an inventor and the eldest Baudelaire sibling. Her mechanical smarts had saved many of them in dangerous situations. It seemed to many that she had been forced to grow up way too fast, but it didn't seem to have affected her too much. She was the adopted mother of Beatrice. She smiled as Quigley sat down beside her. Beside him sat Isadora.
The people looked at one another as the akward silence filled the air, but only for a second, before Duncan spoke. "Well, it seems that we have some problems."
Everyone nodded. "Not necessarily 'problems'. This isn't too bad." Fiona said.
"That's true," Klaus said. "We can work this to our advantage." Everyone nodded again.
"What's going on?" Quigley asked, before Isadora could ask herself. Both of them opened their commonplace books.
"It seems that two of our enemies have found us." Avery answered. "Or, our headquarters, at least. It turns out that a man and woman are staying nearby, in a hotel." Everyone knew what he meant by 'man' and 'woman'; he was, of course, referring to two people that VFD referred to, if they had to, as 'the man with a beard but no hair', and 'the woman with hair but no beard'. VFD never said their names; that's how much they hated this couple.
"Which hotel is that?" Isadora asked. She had been quiet the whole time, and so everyone was startled to hear her speak.
"Hotel Preludio." Violet and Klaus shared a knowing glance.
"So, what are we going to do about it?" Fiona asked.
"Well, usually the natural thing for VFD would be to either hide and run, or stand up to them. But this time, they have something we need." Violet said confidently. "The Snicket Files. The files that the Snicket siblings have put together, containing important evidence and facts that we could use to put our enemies in jail. If they have it, then it's useless, but if we have it-"
"Then we have the power." Isadora finished with a confident smile. "We can show the law our evidence and bring them to justice. Speaking of justice, with the Snicket Files, we should be able to take the Snicket Files to a certain judge..."
Everyone nodded. "What we need is a plan." Avery said.
"Right." Duncan nodded. "What we should do is find out their plans for the week- er, month.....however long- and then get a good time to sneak into the hotel room and see if they have what we need."
"I know that they have what they need." Klaus said confidently. He and Fiona exchanged a smile.
"How?" Violet asked. Many people didn't try to say Klaus was wrong (Klaus was rarely wrong), but Violet didn't hesitate to. He was her brother, after all.
Klaus smiled. "How else? Research. I did some snooping around to find out facts. That's what I do, after all." He stated proudly.
"And, also, he received a telegram." Fiona added helpfully.
Klaus shot her an annoyed glanced and sighed. "Yes, from someone who will be of great help to us." He mumbled.
"Then what's the plan?" Avery inquired.
"Klaus and I have already discussed this and we decided that we should all meet here, tomorrow morning at six o'clock exactly." Duncan answered. "We will then present to all of you what will happen. Is that okay with everyone?"
The rest of the group nodded.
"I think it's amazing you all can do this just by researching." Isadora commented.
Violet smiled. "They don't do it alone. We're have volunteers all over the world. VFD is a growing organization. There are many people in the world who want the world to be quiet."
Fiona smiled. "Aye, the world is quiet here."
And with that, the council's meeting ended.
Um, to have all the main characters as council members would be cliche, so I threw in an OC. You'll learn more about him later. There will be more OCs. But it's okay, my OC's are great. :D
Sorry if this chapter was either too long or dragged a bit. Anyways, this is different from how I imagined it, but I like where it's going! I hope it turns out as awesome as it is in my head. Review and favorite! :D
With all due respect,
Jewel