Hello everyone, I've been busy working on the next chapter that I didn't realize I hadn't finished this one. So the next update should be out sooner than later. I hope you all enjoy! Don't forget to leave a review!
Spending the night in the cramped room running through scenarios got them no closer to coming up with a way out in which none of them were unharmed. The threat of their sister in the morning was no inspiration. The short but miserable car ride was as rough on their minds and joints as their room the night before. Even seeing Justice Strauss was uninspiring as they sat down next to her. Count Olaf had taken to the stage and begun his awful play with a horrendous monologue. The henchpeople all working on their parts of the set.
The four of them sat, nearly resigned to the fact that it was over. Their fears were turning into reality with every second that slipped through their fingers.
They sat on their chairs. Violet was on the left, hugging Max who kept his other arm around Bree. She held steady as she carded her fingers through Klaus's hair on her right. "We need help," Bree said defeatedly.
"We need a miracle," Max muttered as he held Violet just a little tighter. Every once in a while throughout this long and tortured story, poor Max would be engulfed by a horrible, chilling, and discouraging thought. The question would engulf him like a soft wave that held him under for longer than it had looked like from the surface. One that he always tried to prove wrong but never seemed to stay away completely. In that moment, the poor boy wondered if he was even worthy to be their big brother. He hadn't protected any of his siblings. All he'd ever needed to do was watch out for Bree and his siblings, and now under his watch, they were in the most dangerous of peril.
Thankfully, for every problem posed, there is always an answer.
"We need his walkie-talkie," Violet's head lifted up as the words slowly left her lips. The four of them turned to see a glowing look in her eyes and her hands reaching for her ribbon. "If he doesn't have his walkie-talkie, he can't tell the other person to drop Sunny."
"But that still leaves Sunny in a cage and us stuck here," Max pointed out. "How do we get her out safely?"
"Someone needs to get her while the show is still going on," Klaus answered, his cleverness slowly waking up from an unwanted rest. "We need to create a distraction once we disable the walkie-talkie so that either one of us or a group of us can escape to rescue Sunny."
"The Duel," Bree's eyes brightened as the plan formed more and more. "Max will play his part but intentionally destroy the walkie-talkie during the fight. Then Max will look like he's losing, Count Olaf will call out for the bride and instead of Violet, I go on stage instead."
"I'll get the upper hand and start fighting with Count Olaf on stage while you two run back to the house and get Sunny out safely," Max agreed.
"How do we get her down without getting caught?" Klaus asked.
One of them might have offered a suggestion but unfortunately, the tall beefy henchman was walking over towards them. All knowing if they wanted any chance of saving Sunny, they needed to stay absolutely quiet. The henchpeople rotated, depending on who was needed on stage, watching the children. This went on for what felt like hours. The only sound to break up the white noise that had become the play was someone snoring every now and again. When intermission came, the four of them could finally breathe again as everyone hurried about rather chaotically. Within the silence of their heads, Bree had managed to come up with the perfect distraction to get both Klaus and Violet out to rescue their baby sister.
As the second act began, Bree stood and tapped the tall, beefy henchman on the shoulder. He turned to her with a confused look on his face. "I'm terribly sorry to bother you, but it seems I've put on the wrong costume. I need to change into the right one."
"The dressing room's over there," he pointed to the closed door on the back wall.
"Thank you, I'm afraid I need Klaus's help. I've got a rather outrageous knot in my dress and I can't get it out by myself," she told him kindly. "I'd take Violet with me but of course, I wouldn't want her to get into trouble. You know the situation."
"Just hurry," he groaned. "And don't take too long or I'll report it to the boss."
"Of course," she nodded quickly before turning to collect her brother. "Come on Klaus."
The two of them headed to the changing room and quickly closed the door behind them. Bree couldn't help the sigh of relief that escaped her as she leaned against the door for a moment. "Bree? What are we doing?" Klaus asked.
"Giving you a headstart," she answered as she stood back up again and turned around. "Untie the knot on the top of my dress. Quickly."
He did as she asked and she turned back around to face him, "Okay, so, Max is going to be going on stage very soon. The henchman will have to escort him over to the right area for the scene. When this happens, I want you to get out of here as fast as you can. Hopefully, Max will be dueling with Count Olaf when I get back so he can't radio when I show up instead."
"How do I get Sunny out safely?" Klaus asked again as he still had no plan that ended with everyone with all their limbs.
"Sunny may be a baby, but she certainly is smarter than the average one," she told her brother as she searched through the trunks for another period-piece dress that could fit her. "I'm sure she's already chewed through the bars on the backside of the cage or something. Ah-ha! Here we are."
She pulled out a dress that reminded her of Sleeping Beauty. Only instead of being pink or blue, it was a sunshine yellow with similar sleeves to that of Belle's own yellow dress. Klaus turned around as she quickly changed dresses. Thankfully, no assistance was required for this particular costume as it went easily over her head. "Well, how does it look?" she asked her brother, letting him know he could turn around.
He faced her and smiled a particular smile that she'd come to recognize as very reassuring, "you look wonderful."
"Thank you," she smiled back, a portion of the tension leaving her as she gave him a quick hug. She walked up to the door and pressed her ear against it. She could barely make it out but she could hear the henchman telling Max it was time for his debut. She waited another four seconds before opening the door. "Run as fast as you can," she told Klaus before he nodded and sped off towards the back exit.
Bree picked up the bottom of her dress and quietly walked back to where her sister was still sitting. Panic arose in Violet's eyes as she looked around for Klaus. "I gave him a head start," she told her quietly. She carefully sat down, pulling Violet close to whisper, "You're going next."
"How?" she whispered back.
"Leave it to me," she told her, promising, "I have a plan."
The henchman came back around and was very aware that Klaus hadn't come back. "Where's the boy with glasses?"
"I don't know what happened to be honest with you," Bree played innocently. "One moment he was fine, the next moment he ran to go throw up in the bathroom. I think he's got stage fright with a pinch of unintentional food poisoning. He had me come back here to let you know. He promises he'll be back as soon as he stops but I wouldn't try bringing him back before then. Who knows where it all could end up."
The henchman looked back and forth between the bathroom and the girls. Utterly unsure what to do with himself and how the boss would react if he found out.
"Besides," Bree pulled his attention back to them, praying her switch would work. "I'm supposed to go on stage any minute. Count Olaf would be furious if I didn't go on when I was supposed to."
The two could see the henchman try to work out what he would do as again his head moved back and forth between them and the door and then to the stage as they listened to the sounds of swords whacking. This went on for quite some time before he finally growled and said, "Fine, Let's go." He looked very closely at Violet. "You better still be here when I get back."
With that, he took Bree roughly by the arm and began pulling her towards her mark to where she would enter the stage. She looked back at her sister, mouthing the word now as she was being dragged over. Thankfully, her sister took her signal and quietly ran towards the nearest exit door.
As far as what happened to Sunny, Bree was correct in telling her brother that she was particularly smart. However, she had not chewed her way through the bars of her cage. Instead, our darling Sunny played to her strengths through the classic art of card counting. How the hook-handed man understood her or decided to challenge her to a card game, I will never know or even fully understand. What I do know is that our hook-handed henchman had a gambling problem as he bet again and again until Sunny was cheering happily in a wheelbarrow as he took her to the theater. I also know that, thankfully, Violet and Klaus saw the scene and took off after them, not quite fast enough to catch him but enough to keep the same distance between them. How I wish I was there to see the look on Count Olaf's confused and enraged face as Bree came on stage instead of Violet. The magnificent duel between him and Max. Oh to have seen the crowd so utterly invested for the first time throughout the entire play. To have witnessed the moment Count Olaf was defeated by Max's excellent skill, ending the fight with Count Olaf on the ground under Max's boot. To watch the teens' enthralling ad-lib declaring the evil knight to be anything but, and to have heard little Sunny's coo as she was lifted into her big brother's arms after being returned. To watch the events that happened next would have been thrilling. Sadly, I will only be able to imagine those moments as I was not there and know only what I've been told and have read. However, I do know for certainty what came next.
Not two minutes later, Violet and Klaus burst back into the theater and onto the stage where Bree, Max, and Sunny stood center stage. The crowd still cheering for the performances of Bree and Max. With a quick signal from Bree, Violet took Sunny in her arms and moved to the other side of the stage with Klaus. Bree and Max resumed character for one final act. Both Count Olaf and his henchmen would be frozen in place by the trance caused by their mighty love of a good story
"My brave and noble knight, a saving grace from foreign lands, whilst I might be out of danger for the moment, I fear I will be returned shortly," Bree turned her back to him in fear.
"My love, I've searched far and wide for the pure heart I've found within you. I've bested the man that tried to take you away and use you as a slave. I've proven myself worthy to protect you and your heart from all of those who wish you harm and unhappiness. There's nothing I wouldn't do to keep you as you are. Tell me your fears. Let me put them to ease. What foe could possibly scare you so?" he begged her.
"It is that foe you have fought," she began to explain. "For he's mad in the head. By the cruelest twist of fate, that man owns us."
"Us?" he questioned her.
She motioned for his siblings. The three of them scampered over as quickly as possible. "My siblings, they too are a part in this perverse man's plot. While he may own us, he can not take control of the crown as stated in our will. Yet even now his evilness knows no bounds as, if he can not wed me, he will wed my dear young sister and use her to take the thrown and the riches that come with it."
The night knelt down, placing his hand on Violet's shoulder. In his eyes though, she could see the truth in the words he would tell her, the sincerity amidst the fantasy. "My fair maiden, what strength you must have inside that you stand here tall and proper at an age where you should never have to shoulder this kind of fear. I do not hold the power to give you the apology you deserve or the power to reverse the events that have transpired. I can only give you the promise that I will guard you til my dying breath from scum like him and things that no child should be forced to play a part in."
Violet could not help the tears that spilled from her eyes as most of the anxiety she'd been bottling up was thrown far into the distance. She rushed into her brother's arms which wrapped around her, solid and loving.
"I intend to honor that promise with all your siblings," he told his brother and youngest sister before embracing all of them tightly. The silence was broken by the lovestruck audience as they fawned at the touching moment.
"But how can we escape him?" Bree pulled them back into character. "We can not run. We can not hide. The authorities would simply deliver us right back into his clutches if not his goons. We've no one to set us free from him."
It was nothing she said that sparked the answer in Klaus's mind. No innocuous thing that cleared the clutter and revealed the way out. Nothing she did pulled the idea to the forefront of his mind. It just came to him at a very fortunate time. He only hoped it could work. "I have a way," he said. He stood tall and hopeful for the first time in days.
"Young Prince if you've found a path to freedom, I'm yours to command," Max told him.
"Justice Strauss," he started. "We were too afraid to tell anyone about what's been happening to us but if she knew, she could declare Count Olaf an unfit guardian and release us into the care of our originally intended guardian."
"We must send for her right away," Bree told them, directing her next words to Max. "She lives just on the inside of town. We must get her here, now. You must hurry."
"Of course my lady," Max told her.
"You needn't worry children," Justice Strauss appeared on stage to everyone's surprise. "I've heard it all and I can say that without a doubt Count Olaf is an unfit guardian and hereby relinquish you of his custody."
The crowd whooped and cheered. A few got up on their feet as they were overjoyed by the outcome.
"Enough!"
The audience was instantly silenced by the frightening shout of Count Olaf as he began approaching the children.
"You think that you've beaten me but this is all just a play! When we go home real life will start again and there will be none of this insubordination. You will do as you're told and if you want to see the light of day again you will start acting like it! Violet may not be my wife, but she is still my daughter."
"Do you honestly believe I will allow you to continue to care for these three children after the treachery I've seen here tonight?" Mr. Poe told him, the children were not quite sure they were hearing them right." I'm even considering firing your associate - as my secretary."
"Hear, hear!" they looked to find a blonde-haired woman standing in a red dress making her way toward them.
"Jacquelyn, is that you? Where have you been?" Mr. Poe demanded.
"I was kidnapped by Count Olaf's associates and tied to a tree before I could tell you that the Baudelaires' uncle, Dr. Montgomery, was designated by the parents as their legal guardian and has been waiting to hear from you," she answered.
"Dr. Montgomery?" Violet questioned.
"I've never heard of him," Klaus told her. Both grew concerned as they looked up to find Max and Bree shaking their heads at the name.
"Well, you are hereby rehired as my secretary with an 8% increase in salary. The Baudelaires will be sent to a suitable guardian and this series of unfortunate events has come to a close," he summed up before turning to Count Olaf. "As for you, Count Olaf"
The lights went out and plunged the theater into complete darkness. It didn't stop Count Olaf though as he whispered into Klaus's ear, "I'll get my hands on your fortune if it's the last thing I do. And when I have it, I will tear you and your siblings from limb to limb."
As suddenly as they'd gone out, they came back on with Count Olaf nowhere in sight.
Mr. Poe tried calling for him, "Olaf? Olaf? Olaf! He's escaped!"
"Wait until the readers of the Daily Punctilio hear about this!" Mrs. Poe squealed in delight, unlike most others.
"You have to capture him! You have to go after him!" Max pleaded to anyone as everyone stayed exactly where they were.
Justice Strauss kindly took Max's arm to turn him towards her. "You let the authorities worry about that," she told him as she moved closer to the kids. "You children, come home with me." For a brief minute, they imagined what life could be like with Justice Strauss.
"Sorry, but the children must come with me. I cannot allow the Baudelaires to be raised by someone who is not a relative," Mr. Poe told them quickly, shattering the ten-second dreams the children had allowed themselves.
"What? After all Justice Strauss has done for us? We never would've figured out Count Olaf's plan without Justice Strauss and her library." Violet argued.
"That may be so, but your parents' will is very specific," Mr. Poe recounted.
"He's right," Jacquelyn confirmed. "There's a vigorously fixed destination your parents had in mind for you, and it is not with Count Olaf or Justice Strauss."
"Well, that might be true," Bree began to counter. "But think of it this way. It's very late, we would never make it to where we're going at a decent hour. Not to mention that one of us would have to drive the car and we couldn't do that responsibly at such a late hour. Now that would leave us at staying at your home again Mrs. Poe where we'd be in the way and you wouldn't want that. Give us the night to spend at Justice Strauss's so that we can pack and say goodbye. After all, what's one night compared to the rest of eternity."
"Arthur, give them the night," Mrs. Poe told him sternly.
"But, Dear," he tried to do things according to protocol.
"I do not want those kids in my house again and this lady wants them for the night. Not to mention this will give me more opportunity to write about the kind and wonderful banker who arranged this heartwarming story," she told him.
"Please Mr. Poe, just the night," Klaus asked as well-mannered as possible.
"Oh, very well children. But we leave in the morning at 8 sharp with no doddling," he finally gave in."
"Oh thank you, Mr. Poe," Bree gave him a hug as the others celebrated their little victory.
"We'll see you bright and early in the morning," Mr. Poe said as he and the missus headed out of the theater.
"Well children, what do you say we make camp in the library tonight?" Justice Strauss offered.
"That sounds wonderful," Violet told her with the others smiling away in agreement.
It took the children little more than a half hour to pack and load everything they owned in the car before they went over to Justice Strauss's house for the final night. When they arrived, they found the place nearly covered in blankets with the glass-covered fireplace roaring inside. There were snacks of cheeses and crackers and apple slices and peanut butter on the table for them. Violet, Klaus, and Max all found good but short books they could read before bed while Bree and Sunny made their blanket nest on one of the couches. Justice Strauss entered in with a tray of teas and cocoas.
"Are you all finding things you like?" she asked as she set the tray on the small coffee table.
"Yes ma'am," Violet told her after having cocooned herself in her blanket.
"Good, good," she smiled before noticing Bree with no book. "Nothing for you Bree?"
"Oh, no, I, um, I'd rather talk with you and thank you for saving us back there. Without your help, I don't know what we would have done," she told her as she gathered some food for her and Sunny.
"I only wish I could have been more helpful," she said as she sat down next to her with her tea. "Goodness knows I would have taken you all in, in a heartbeat."
"We really wanted that too," Klaus told her, looking up from his book.
"We'll miss you, Justice Strauss," Bree told her as she and Sunny gave her a hug. The justice could help the little laugh that came when Sunny cooed in agreement.
The six of them looked at each other. All of them knowing that tonight would never happen again. That they were going off to who-knew-where to meet nobody-knew. Again their life was pulled out from under them and again they were given nothing to help them understand what was going on.
"Maybe this won't be goodbye," Max said a little more optimistic. Everyone turned in the hopes he had something. "There's no reason we couldn't come back for a visit."
"Yeah, we can come and visit," Klaus agreed.
"If you'd like that," Violet offered.
The Justice's eyes welled up with tears as she said, "I would like that a lot."
Violet and Klaus got up from their spots and ran over to her and she happily took them in her arms. Max came over and wrapped Bree and Sunny in his own arms. The six of them content had them all yawning. Justice Strauss looked at the clock. "Well my dears, tomorrow is a busy day. We need to get to sleep."
Max got up and tucked all his siblings into their blanket nests before turning out the lights. He looked over at his family. He took in the sight as for once since their parents died, everyone was safe and content. He had been fighting for this for a while and tonight, he felt accomplished.
Unfortunately, that feeling would become rare for him. It would be rare that the Baudelaires and Miss Porter would ever feel this way again. As you already know, this story is not a very happy one. They would never know why they weren't allowed to be placed with Justice Strauss. They would never know what made Mr. Poe place them with Count Olaf in the first place. They would only know that their journey had been filled with misery and far too few friends like Justice Strauss. Their friend they left tomorrow. A friend they wouldn't visit for a long, long time.