|
Post by Tiran O'Saurus on Oct 7, 2022 11:18:06 GMT -5
Hmmmm. Well, we know why Jacques was such a Jerques now. Less explained is Quigley, although it's probably to establish thematic parallels. If there's one thing I learnt from ASOUE, it's that thematic parallels justify all sorts of things. Also, HOW DID OLAF GET THE MEDUSOID MYCELEUM!? With its appearance here, we have everything from the opening summary and we're only at Chapter Eight. All in all, great chapter.
|
|
|
Post by Isadora Is a Door on Oct 7, 2022 11:44:36 GMT -5
This chapter was orgionally planned to be all of Chapter Seven, btw, but it got so long I needed to split it for my own sanity. I'm still planning to stick to Thirteen chapters, though the last one may take about four years to write at this rate.
|
|
|
Post by HAL 10,000 on Oct 7, 2022 15:40:40 GMT -5
Well, this is a new side of Jacques.
|
|
|
Post by Isadora Is a Door on Nov 1, 2022 6:19:08 GMT -5
Chapter Nine
Mount Fraught jutted out against the skyline, it's odd, square peaks indistinguishable from the grey and murky sky surrounding it. The clouds were thick, heavy and dull, with wisps of white wreathed through them, and the mountain was a monolith of grey, peppered with snow and ice.
'This is a mistake' said Jacques, those his words were barely audible over the whipping of the wind, cutting his words to pieces. 'This should be a simple operation, drop in and out as quickly as possible, but instead...'
The Self Sustaining Hot Air Mobile Home was a mechanical marvel, and just the kind of thing that Violet Baudelaire would have loved to fully examine, to look over each single tiny part of its working contraptions, and devour. But she was not that person anymore, and she did not have the time for such things. Despite the many technological geniuses of the ship, perhaps the biggest design flaw was the inability for them to land, which made excursions such as the one they were about to undertake extremely difficult.
They would have to land half a mile away from their intended destination, as this was the only place the ship would be able to descend low enough for the rope ladder enable them to disembark. They were stood at a hatchway, the ladder descending downwards into white and grey, into the unknown. The plan had been hammered out between them over the last twenty-four hours, but even now Jacques was still protesting.
'You're making a huge mistake' he repeated, shaking his head in Justice Strauss' direction. 'She should not be coming with you.'
Violet decided this was probably the time to tune out what was being said. Over the last day the debate had carried on in much the same way; Jacques arguing against the idea of letting Violet come with them, or even doing anything, while Justice Strauss argued that she had every right to do so, and that Violet was never going to earn their trust by sitting around doing nothing for the rest of her life. It didn't matter what they thought, Violet was going with them anyway.
Jacques left them, shrugging angrily, and without a moments more hesitation, the three of them descended the rope ladder.
The cold struck Violet hard, even through her snowsuit. Suddenly, her hands began to grow numb, and she found it more and more difficult to hold on with each step downwards.
'Hold on!' called Justice Strauss from a few rungs below; 'We're almost there, don't move too quickly or you'll loose your grip!'
'If we don't move quickly we'll freeze to death.' Shouted Quigley from above.
Violet simply kept going, taking each step one at a time, heading further and further down.
When she reached the bottom her boots crunched against the fresh layer of snow on the surface. Justice Strauss smiled at her kindly, her cheeks reddening from the harsh air around them. She reached into her pack and took out a pair of goggles. 'You should probably put yours on as well, the snow might freeze your eyes closed, which would make looking for the sugar bowl even harder than its already going to be.'
Violet nodded, and took the pack off of her back, setting it gently onto the ground. She made sure her back was turned from the others when she opened it, careful not to reveal what was inside.
When she opened it, Inky looked up at her moodily. He was large, and being stuffed into a small backpack was clearly causing him a lot of discomfort. Violet smiled at him sympathetically, but it didn't seem to improve his mood. She had had no choice but to smuggle him out of the ship - it would have seemed unreasonable to take him with her, and she didn't want to alert anybody's suspicions that was she was not coming back. And, of course, there was the diving helmet, still wrapped up in the remnants of her wedding dress. For a moment Violet considered telling Justice Strauss what was inside. She wasn't sure why she wanted to do that - she knew it wouldn't help anything. It was hard for Violet to be carrying this secret around with her. Even though Justice Strauss had let her and her siblings down so badly, she had always been kind to Violet, and perhaps the least that she deserved was the truth.
'Are you okay Violet?' said Quigley, who was now standing directly above her.
Violet pulled out her goggles and quickly closed the bag. 'Just peachy' she said, though she didn't look at Quigley when she spoke.
Justice Strauss was bending down, some folds of paper perched on the top of her backpack. 'If my calculations are correct the VFD headquarters should be in -' she pointed a hopeful finger '- that direction. We should get going, daylight doesn't last for long at this height, and we don't want to still be up here when the temperature drops.' And with that, she began to head off, taking fast strides through the drifting snow.
Thankfully, the direction in which Justice Strauss had pointed was downhill, which made the going easier than it could have been. Violet was unsure how easy the journey would be back to their landing point, but it would not matter to her. By then she would be gone.
The three of them continued on in silence, Quigley occasionally casting hopeful looks in her direction. The two of them had not spoken since their conversation outside her bedroom yesterday morning, and Violet did not want to broach the subject again. Things were complicated enough for her at the moment, and it was his own mistake for failing to understand that.
As they continued their descent, Violet noticed the snow beginning to thin, and more of the mountains odd, square peaks were starting to poke their way up through the ice. She had not seen these mountains in a very long time, though not quite as long as Justice Strauss seemed to imagine.
'Now, If we turn left here then we shall arrive at the headquarters in a matter of minutes' said Justice Strauss, after what must have been nearly an hour of walking. 'We won't be able to miss it, especially not with all this snow around. The green should stand out by a mile.'
They continued on for several more minutes, but no building was in sight. Justice Strauss began to have a worried expression on her face, her brow creasing more and more intensely with each passing stride. The snow was only a few inches deep here, and there were occasional items strewn about the place, sticking out from the blanket that had formed on the ground. The snow made it hard to be sure, but there were pieces of wood and metal strewn about the place, and occasionally a chair or table, fallen over, all askew. But there was no sign of any headquarters, not anymore.
'What is that?' said Quigley, pointing at something in the distance. There was a huge, think line of ice cascading down the side of the mountain face, barely a few feet from where they were standing. It was an immense piece, frozen solid, clinging to the rock like lichen.
'That' said Justice Strauss 'Is the waterfall of the Stricken Stream. Which can mean only one thing.'
She sighed heavily, and sat down on the ruin of an upturned bookcase. 'It seems that the headquarters have been destroyed, and this is all that remains.' There were tears in her eyes as she spoke, and for a moment she turned her head away from the two of them. Quigley looked to Violet, as if hoping she would have some explanation.
The Hot Air Mobile Home was visible above them, casting a shadow across the trio, making everything around them seem darker than it already was. Violet watched for a moment as the snow fell, mingling with the blackened ground around her, where the flames that burned the headquarters to the ground had once been. It had not been long after their wedding, probably only a year or so, when Olaf had brought her here. He had been looking for the Sugar Bowl as well, and though he had not found it, he had found something else much more interesting.
'Well, we may as well get started.' said Justice Strauss, her voice trembling. 'We have to search this entire area.'
'There's no point.' said Violet. 'There is nothing here to search for.'
'Violet, we can't give up hope.' said Justice Strauss, as she took Violet's hands into her own. 'This is our last, best hope for peace. For all we know, it is still here somewhere, amongst the ruins of this place.'
'No.' said Violet, simply. 'The Sugar Bowl isn't here, not anymore.'
'You cannot know that, not for sure.' said Justice Strauss.
'I do know.' Violet did not understand why, but she could feel the edges of her lips curling slightly. It was a curious emotion, a mix of pity and sorrow at the information she possessed. 'I was here, many years ago, when Olaf and his associates burned this place down to the ground.'
'I see.' said Justice Strauss, her eyes betraying a hint of disappointment. 'But that does not mean that the Sugar Bowl is lost.'
'It does.' said Violet. 'The Sugar Bowl was here, and there were some Volunteers as well. One of them threw the Sugar Bowl out of the window, into the waters of the Stricken Stream. The currents pushed the Sugar Bowl downriver, and eventually far out into the ocean.'
Justice Strauss clasped her hands to her mouth, as if to prevent the sharp intake of cold air. 'But then... It must be nearly impossible to track where it went from there...'
Violet shook her head. 'It was. But Olaf managed to find it. He has the Sugar Bowl. It's in his house, in the tower. I could have picked it up and taken it with me when you rescued me. It's funny, It was right under your nose the whole time, and you never even thought to ask me.'
Justice Strauss turned away from Violet, and sat down for a moment amongst the snow and ashes. 'Why didn't you say anything?' Where Violet may have expected anger and rage, instead her voice was hollow and leaden, as if a weight were dragging it down.
'Well, it's you like just said, the Sugar Bowl was your last hope.' said Violet, sadly. 'I couldn't take that away from you.'
Quigley had been stood silently by the edge of the frozen river, simply taking all of this in, but finally he spoke. 'I don't know if we should trust you.'
Violet almost laughed. 'No, perhaps you shouldn't. But you never really trusted me anyway, did you?' She sighed. 'I'm sorry that I lied to you, but I had no other choice. I needed to come here, I needed an excuse to -'
But Violet never got a chance to say why she need an excuse, for at that moment that was a terrible, piercing, sound. It cut through the sky above them, the sound quickening abruptly, deadened by the snow. When she looked up, at first all Violet could see was grey, but after a moment the shapes became clearer. The last embers of the dying light were reflecting off the peak on Mount Fraught, and she could see the faint outline of the Self-Sustaining Hot Air Mobile Home, hanging in the air high above them. She did not know what the sound could be, perhaps it was coming from the machine itself?
Then she heard the noise again and realized it could not possibly be coming from the ship. It was an animal, shrieking, ferocious. It was calling, almost like a warning.
'What is that?' asked Quigley.
There was something moving in the sky, around the Mobile Home. Something dark, swirling around its surface. swarming.
'It almost looks like...' said Violet
'Eagles!' Shrieked Justice Strauss.
And then Violet could see, the name clarifying the images in her mind. The Eagles were massing around the ship, claws striking into its surface, ripping it apart. Now Violet noticed that the machine was coming closer and closer, heading towards them, descending rapidly, falling. Perhaps it was the sheer weight of the creatures clinging to it that was dragging it down, or perhaps their talons had damaged to ship so badly it could no longer stay in the air. Whatever the reason, the ship was heading towards them, faster and faster, with nowhere to duck for cover.
'We have to move.' said Violet, as a terrible creaking noise came from above, the sound of metal twisting and ripping apart.
Violet rushed past the two of them, but then realized it was hopeless. The ship was coming down towards them, she could hear the cries and shrikes of the eagles growing louder and louder as the ship gathered speed. There was nowhere she could go. She was surrounded by nothing but mountain and rock, snow and ice.
Violet looked toward the frozen river, and knew what she had to do.
'We need to go, now!' Violet shouted, but the other's just stood there, looking up at the ship as it crash down towards them. Violet took hold of Justice Strauss' hand and pulled.
'Please!' Violet screamed. 'Come with me!'
Violet tugged at her arm, and Justice Strauss turned to look at her, tears running down her face.
'I'm so sorry, Violet.' her voice just a whisper, barely audible over the growing carnage above them.
There was a horrendous, tearing sound, as if the sky itself were being rent apart. Violet looked up for only a moment and saw the ship breaking apart, black shards of debris reigning down toward them.
She turned and ran back toward the frozen river, abandoning the others. Huge chunks of metal and wood were crashing down around her now, the eagles screeching ever louder.
Violet threw herself down onto the streams icy surface, pulled open her backpack, took out the diving helmet, and began to hammer down on the ice with all of her might.
With each thrust, the metal scraped away at the thick layer of ice. She could hear the scratching of the metal, the flurry of feathers above her, the groaning of the ship falling towards her.
There was a huge rush of air behind her, and she could feel the force of an explosion, but she could not turn to look back. She hammered down against the ice, and could feel its surface cracking around her.
Something heavy crashed into her, pulling her weight down. Violet lost all sense of direction, spinning, lost. There was water in her mouth, her hands holding tight onto the helmet, as was pulled into the steam.
And there was something clawing at her, dragging her down into the darkness below.
|
|
|
Post by Tiran O'Saurus on Nov 1, 2022 11:26:15 GMT -5
So Olaf has the sugar bowl and has never done anything with it. Also, it doesn't seem smart to try to break something by hitting it with the only thing keeping a highly poisonous substance contained. Also, where did the Incredibly Deadly Viper go?
|
|
|
Post by Isadora Is a Door on Dec 22, 2022 15:33:09 GMT -5
Again, apologies for the delays with this, but moving house took more time than I had anticipated. Still, I hope to wrap this story up over the festive season.
|
|
|
Post by Isadora Is a Door on Dec 22, 2022 17:34:51 GMT -5
Chapter Ten
There was a sound, like a cork popping, and with it came a rush of wind and air cascading around her. And yet underneath it all she could hear the gentle ebb of waves lapping back and forth against her, and she could feel the movement against her skin. and birds crying up above her. It was an echoey sound though, drowned out by a dull ringing in her ears that she could not answer.
Violet sat up and opened her eyes, but she could see nothing. Night was surrounding her, so she must have been unconcious for a long time. There was a chill soaking through her clothes, and looking down she could see that she was half submerged in water. She could feel sand shifting beneath her weight, meaning they they must have washed ashort somewhere far, far away from where they had been.
The last thing she could clearly remember was smashing the helmet against the icy surface of the waterfall, and then something or someone pushing her forwards, down into the rushing waters of the Stricken Stream. Whatever it was that had happened, she felt lucky to be alive.
There was an odd, flicketing light coming from somewhere in the distance, and Violet was not quite sure what it could be. There seemed to something green rising upwards from the ground, barely more than a few feet away from her, and yey she could not understand where it was coming from.
Violet moved to raise her hand, but found that her right arm was badly hurt. Touching with her left, she could feel that her arm was slick with blood, sand sticking to her clammy skin. Her head felt heavy and hot, a dull ache resounding around her skull. She made to rise, but her legs felt weak and wiry, so she simply splashed back into the water around her.
Something moved, standing unnervingly close to Violet. In the darkness they had been hidden until now, but the movemnet had releaved themselves; a figure standing at the edge of the shoreline. Violet turned her head, and for a moment was overtaken by a sense of de ja vu. Here she was, on a beach, a myserious figure was waiting for her.
But then she realised that it was Justice Strauss. She was staring out into the distant ocean, and firmly clasped in her hands was the diving helmet, oddly dented on one side but thankfully still encasing its poisionous contents.
'Justice Strauss?' said Violet, her voice hoarser and croakier than she had been expecting it to be.
For a moment Violet was unsure wether her voice had been heard, as Justice Strauss simply continued to stare out into the ocean as though nothing had been said. Eventually however, she turned to look at violet, her face blank and expressionless.
'I'm glad you're alive.' said Justice Struass, her face unchanging.
'What do you mean?'
Justice Strauss walked over to where Violet was sat, and smiled at her sadly. 'I mean that I'm glad, despite everything. I've been waiting a while for you to wake up, and in that time I've been wondering what it is that I will say to you when you do. I thought that perhaps I should be upset with you, angry even, for leading me down a blind ally. For betraying my trust. But really, it's no more than I deserve. I failed you, Violet Baudelaire, just liked everyone else has failed you, for your entire life. I cannot blame you for your actions, nor can i blame you for the choices you have made, however much I disagree with them, because the blame lies with me, and with us, and with everyone who stood back and did nothing while you suffered. So i'm glad that you're alive, because it means I still have a chance to put things right.'
Justice Strauss offered Violet her hand, and helped her to rise.
'The only problem is' she continued 'I don't know where to begin.'
'You could start by telling me where we are.'
'Well, it wasn't part of the plan to fall into a waterfall, however -' Justice Strauss surveyed her surroundings. 'I believe that we are on a beach. Where we are isn't important, anyway. What matters is where we are going.'
'And where is that?'
'Somewhere safe.'
'And how are we getting there?'
'One can never be sure with VFD, but I have signalled our associate.' She indicated towards where she had been standing a few moments ago, and Violet could see what looked like a green tube laying on the sand. There was a large amount of green smoke issuing forth from one end of the tube, rising lazily up towards the sky and casting a green glow over the oily surface of the sea.
'He was expecting to meet us after we had left the mountains.' Justice Strauss continued. 'But he will be here soon enough. Of course, we do not have the Sugar Bowl in our clutches, but you can't have everything.'
Violet was not sure what to make of that statement. She shivered as the wind blew across the surface of the ocean, spray dashing against her face.
'What about the others?' asked Violet
Justice Strauss smiled sadly, and after a few moments Violet understood that she would not be getting anything other than that as an answer. They stood in silence for a moment, until Violet realised that Justice Strauss was still holding the diving helmet in her hands.
'May I please have that back?' she asked.
'I'm not so sure.' said Justice Strauss, clutching the helmet tighter, looking at Violet intently. 'I've seen a diving helmet like this before, you know, remarkably similar. Almost identical, in fact. It would be a very strange coincidence if it happened be a helmet from that same submarine, especially as everyone who was on board that submarine is dead, and I can't help but wonder.... Does this helmet contain the very same posion responsible for so many innocent live?'
Violet sighed. 'Yes, I rather think it does.'
'I thought as much. In that case, I think I better keep hold of it. After all, we wouldn't want it to fall in the wrong hands.'
Justice Strauss smiled kindly at Violet, but Violet was not sure if it was a smile that she could trust any more. Thirteen years ago, Justice Strauss had seemed like someone the Baudelaires could trust, to help keep her and her siblings safe, but she had failed them then. After all this time why would anything have changed? She did not trust Violet - and she never would – but in the end that did not matter. She would only let her down.
Violet something slither between her legs, and she looked down to see Inky crawling across the sand.
'Thank god.' she said, kneeling down to gently stroke his head. 'Are you okay?'
He nodded slightly, and she could see that some of his skin was damaged.
'He really is a remarkable creature.' said Justice Strauss. 'He must have been a great comfort to you.'
'He is.' said Violet. 'Someone had to be.'
They waited for a while, the three of them, stood together on the beach in silence. After a while dawn began to break around them, streaks of light cracking through the clouds and setting the world into a golden glow. Violet could now see that there was a large, deep gash running about the length of her right arm. Justice Strauss seemed to be comparatively unscatched.
There was a sound, a sudden noise from afar, and when she turned her head in its direction Violet noticed for the first time that there was a road in the distance. There was a black cab sat there, and the sound was the driver tooting his horn.
'Our associate is here.' said Justice Strauss. She began to stride up the beach towards the cab, not even asking Violet wether or not she was going to come with her. Violet had no choice, nowhere else to go.
They climbed into the backseat, and Inky curled up into Violets lap. Justice Strauss sat with the diving helmet clutched to her stomach, almost like an expectant mother.
The cab began to wind its way toward it's destination, and as the light began to grow brighter Violet realised they were heading back into the city, that place she had been waiting so long to escape.
'You said that we were going somewhere safe?' Violet asked.
Justice Strauss sighed. 'I hope so. It seems that everywhere we once thought was safe is now anything but. Perhaps there are no safe places, only safe people.'
'Or perhaps there's just nothing safe at all.' said Violet.
At this, the taxi driver seemed to shift, as though wanting to say something, to join in the conversation somehow, but then he thought better of it. There was a mirror hanging in the center of the windscreen, and Violet could see the reflection of the drivers face caught in its frame. There was something about him that seemed oddly familiar to her, as though she had seen him before somewhere else, but she could not quite place where that palce might be. The driver looked up, and for a moment their eyes met, the miror linking them, but he looked away quickly, and Violet did the same.
After a while, Violet began to doze, the motion of the automobile helping her drift far away from her current situation. Every now and then a sudden turn or dip in the road would jolt her awake, her arm stinging in pain. She was still wearing her snowsuit, but it was damaged and torn, covered in salt and sand and blood.
Eventually they came to a stop, and Violet opened the taxi door and stood outside, looking around, trying to work out where she was and why they had been taken there.
There was a pond, its surface covered in algae and lily-pads, the water completely hidden and obscured by green flora and fauna, so much so that it would have been impossible to tell there was anything there at all were it not for the sharp contrast in the ponds surroundings. It was a charred and blackened ruin of a wasteland, not too dissimilar to the scene that had greeted them at the top of Mount Fraught. It seemed clear to Violet that there had been another fire, only this time the building that had been destroyed was on a much larger scale than anything she could iamgine. There were twisted pieces of metal and debris scattered around them, everything cast is shades of black and grey. And so the pond stood as a green circle, of the middle of this blackness, like a eye, staring back at Violet.
'I'm so sorry' said Violet, as Justice Strauss excited the taxi.
Justice Strauss looked at her quizzicallt for a moment, before understanding. 'Oh no, Violet. The ruins of the Hotel Denouement are not where we are going. Well, not quite anyway.'
The taxi driver exited the vehicle, and Violet once more became confused by his appearance. She had definitley seen him before, somewhere.
'Are we ready?' said the man.
'I don't see any reason to hesitate. We need to make sure that this is contained as soon as possible.' Justice Strauss indicated to the diving helmet in her hands, and the two of them set off around the edge of the pond, Violet and Inky following at a pace.
The ground was charred and blackened, soot and ash caking everything. There was an unearthly stillness and quietnees in the air, an unnatural peace, as though they had left all the world behind. There was still a dull ringing sound in Violets ears, and her footsteps seemed to vibrate and shake around her, the sound trapped and muted, like a whisper tickling away inside her brain growing louder with each step. It did not help her to relax. There were so many thoughts swirling around inside her brain, so much uncertainty, and she could hear them echoing around in her mind, snarling and shrieking.
After a few moments they came to a stop, but there was nothing to indicate the reason why. Justice Strauss knelt down on the ground, and began to root through the grime and dirt. The sun was shining in Violets eyes now, making it hard to see for certain, but it seemed as if Justice Strauss was searching for something among the ashes. Whatever she was looking for, after a miute or so she had found it, and she rapped four times on what sounded like a piece of metal.
Justice Strauss rose again, and exchanged a nervous look with the taxi driver. This did little to fill Violet with assurances. Inky, camoflauged completely against the dark, hissed in anguish at her side.
There was a great creaking sound, and the next moment the floor seemed to give way as the ground rent itself apart. A huge square of emptiness opened up before them, as black as the ground that had been covering it, the space ending just a few inches from where they had been standing. Violet could just make out the shape of stone steps heading downwards, below the earth, but she could see nothing other than that.
At least she could see nothing until a figure emerged, climbing up the stairs.
She was a young girl, barely more than twelve. Her skin was pale and soft, as though she had not seen much sunlight lately. She was dressed in overalls, like the kind a workman or builder might wear, and she was carrying a candle encased in a lantern, raised in one hand abover her head. As she stepped out of the hatch, Violet could see that she had long fair hair, and sharp inquisitve eyes. Her face looked serious and harsh, but she smiled when she saw the three of them, and turned her attention immediately towards violet.
'Hello Violet Baudelaire, I've been waiting a long time to meet you.' The girl offered out her hand. 'My name is Beatrice.'
|
|
|
Post by Tiran O'Saurus on Dec 22, 2022 19:33:44 GMT -5
Great chapter! I'm glad you're back.
|
|
|
Post by HAL 10,000 on Dec 22, 2022 20:49:44 GMT -5
Great to have you back.
|
|
|
Post by Isadora Is a Door on Dec 24, 2022 7:54:02 GMT -5
Chapter Eleven
'Beatrice?' said Violet, witb a note of confusion in her voice.
The girl nodded slightly, the edges of her mouth almost curling up into a smile. 'Yes, Violet. I can see why you might be confused. VFD has had a long tradition of naming their children after deceased relatives, or friends.'
'You mean our parents knew each other?'
'Well yes, but it's also a bit more complicated than that.'
The taxi driver shifted uncomfortably, and Beatrice seemed to notice him for the first time.
'What are you doing here?' she asked testily, a note of scorn in her tone.
'He can be here if he wants to be.' said Justice Strauss, with an air of no-nonsense about her.
'Father will not be happy about this.' Beatrice replied. 'It might be best if you were to wait outside.'
'That works for me.' The taxi driver replied sheepishly
'No, I will not be having any more of this petty behaviour.' replied Justice Strauss
'Really, its fine.' The stranger insisted, and he was already beginning to head back in the direction they had come from. 'I'll wait for as long as I'm needed.'
Violet was confused by the whole situation, not least because she still had this strange niggling feeling eating away at her. She had definitley seen this man before, but she was no further to learning anything more about him. Now he was walking away from her, and she did not know if she would ever see him again, or if her questions about him would ever be answered.
'Hello.' said Beatrice, and she knelt down to pat Inky gently on the head. He seemed to instantly like her, a judgment that surprised Violet somewhat. He was not normally this comfortable with strangers.
'We must make haste.' said Justice Strauss, the diving helmet sitting uncomfortably in her hands. Beatrice eyed it for a moment, and Violet could see her brow creasing in puzzlement, but she did not question what the strange object was, nor why it was with them.
'Understood.' she said. 'Come, follow me.'
They descended into the passageway, their footsteps echoing (and Inky slithering) on the dark stone steps. The tunnel seemed to go on for more than a few minutes, and in the darkness Violet could tell very little about their surroundings. She could see the candle held by Beatrice, and its light bounced off of her hair, casting an almost angelic glow in the darkness, but the light did not permeate any further at all. Violet felt trapped by the darkness, and yet all she could do was go ever deeper.
Eventually, they came to a stop in front a large dark door. Beatrice set the lantern down on a small shelf built against the wall, and Violet could see the numbers 000 etched into the side of the wall. There was a small panel next to the door, and Beatrice puhsed a few buttons, an electronic buzzing issuing from the device after every touch. A moment later the door swung inwards, and Beatrice led them through.
The room was dark, but there were a few small candles dotted around nestled into alcoves at intervals along the walls. There were several rows of metallic shelving, each filled with boxes and crates. They themselves were full of papers, files, and books, held together with tape and string and wire. There were 10 riws on each side, and at the end of each row was another number, going up from 000 to 090, and at the end of the room was another door like the first, with the number 100 wrriten of the wall next to it.
In the middle of the room, sequestered between the two rows of shelving, was a small desk covered in papers. At first glance, Violet had taken the room to be empty, but now she noticed there was a man bent almost double, leaning over the desk and studying something closely. He had not looked up at the new arrivals, but as Beatrice went up to the table and placed the lantern down upon it, she spoke to him;'Violet Baudelaire and Justice Strauss are here to see you, Father.'
The man looked up, and Violet tried not to gasp. He had thin, scraggly hair, most of which turning a haunted shade of grey. He had mistry, watery eyes, and a pair of wiry spectalces which them look sharper and fierecer. He wore a scowl on his face like an old friend, and his body seemed bent, almost mishapen, like a childs doll thrown on the floor in anguish. But the most remarkable thing about his apperance was that most of his body was covered in thick burns and lesions, large red welts covering the whole of his face, which seemed to give him a waxy, sticky look.
The man rose, and Violet could see that this was taking him a great deal of effort. Beatrice helped him to stand, taking his arm in hers, his other side leaning on a long wodden stick clasped tightly in his grip. He coughed as he rose, a horrible wheezing sound that chillingly reminded Violet of Olaf.
Eventually, the man held out a scarred and twisted hand for her to shake.
'Hello Violet. My name is Dewey.' His voice was thin and rasping, almost sounding like it did not want to be there.
Violet took his hand and shook it cautiously, almost fearing that he would break under her timid weight.
Dewey acknowledged Justice Strauss with nothing but a cursory nod, before he moved to collapse back into his chair.
'I take it we have bad news then, or more of your company would be here with us.' Dewey sighed, not even waiting for a reply from Justice Strauss before returning to examining the papers in front of him.
'The very worst. We believe Olaf has the Sugar Bowl.'
Dewey snorted. 'And on whose word are we to take such nonsense?'
'Violets.' said Justice Strauss, almost as if she was not still in the room with them.
'I don't believe a word of it. As if Olaf would have such a dangerous weapon and refuse to use it. We would not be able to afford such luxuries.'
'I trust Violets word, in this at least.'
Dewey looked at Justice Strauss scornfully. 'Well then, you're a fool. Thirteen years is a long time, and a lot can change. Time does strange things to people, things you can't understand.'
'I can understand perfectly well, thank you.' said Justice Strauss.
Dewey let a small, dry, laugh. 'There you go again, living up to your name. You know, just because you used to be a judge, it doesn't mean you need to be so judgemental all the time.'
'Can you blame me? Look at you. You're a mess.'
'Don't talk about my father that way!' said Beatrice, more forcefully than Violet would expected. Beatrice moved behind the chair and placed her arms comfortingly around the twisted man.
'I know things have been hard for you, Dewey, and I know how much you've lost. but-'
'Don't play yhe sympathy card with me' He interjected 'Tt won't work.'
Justice Strauss continued 'But, this isn't good for you. This isn't healthy. You can't just lock yourself away down here, looking for answers that you won't ever find.'
Violet thought this was an odd comment for Justice Strauss to make, especially coming from someone who had spent the best part of thirteen years locked up in a self sustaining hot air mobile home, floating around in the sky, but she decided that now would not be the best time to point out such a thing.
'And you need to think about your daughter.' Justice Struass continued. 'She needs to see more of the world than this place. She needs to see people otherthan you. She has family still, Uncles shes never met and Uncles who wish dearly to be allowed to know her better. You cannot keep denying her all this.'
'I don't need anyone else.' said Beatrice. 'I want to stay here with dad, where its safe. I don't want to be anywhere other than here, and that's final.'
Violet could see the sadness in Justice Strauss' eyes as she looked at the goung girl, but she knew that it would be no good. Nothing she could say would be able to change there minds.
'What is this place, exactly?' Violet asked.
Dewey looked almost cross, perturbed that she would have asked such a question.
'This place is an archive, Violet, of all the information that VFD has managed to amass over the years.' Justice Strauss explained 'The knowledge has been kept here, secret and safe, deep underground for all these years.'
'But what happened up there? It looks like there was some kind of fire.'
'There was.' said Dewey. 'Almost thirteen years ago, that was when everything began to fall apart. Where we are standing right now, this has always been here. A secret complex, built in the shadow of a hotel, where nobody would ever have suspected it to be. The Hotel and almost everyone it was destroyed, but this place survived, unkown.'
'The Hotel?' said Violet, remembering what Justice Strauss had said to her only a few days ago. 'You told me that you had escaped?'
Justice Strauss nodded serenely. 'Quigly, Jacques and I were the only survivors. Well, except for you and Kit of course.'
'And I barely survived as it is. I was wounded, badly, but I was reborn. Not physically perhaps, but mentally. I was able to cling to life by sheer force of will. I needed to.' He looked at his daughter and smiled. 'Kit died giving birth to this one. The last victim of the great schisim. And thats why we've had to stay down here ever since. The tables were turned against us, and nothing was safe, not anymore.
'But don't think that we've been idle. We've been searching endlessly for a way to change all that, to get things back to how they should be, but most of the time it seems like a futile effort. I have been trying desperatly to cultivate my own methods of reponse, but so far every single experiment has been a failure. If we only knew where the sugar bowl was, then perhaps we could finally have a chance to change all that.'
'I've already told you.' said Violet. 'Olaf has the Sugar Bowl.'
'And I very much doubt that, Ms. Baudelaire.' said Dewey, his face twisting into a scowl once again. 'Besides, even if it was the case, how does that help us? It's not like we could simply walk up to him and take it.'
'It's at his house, in the tallest tower. I know it is.' said Violet, a tone of desperation in her voice. 'If we go there we could -'
Dewey laughed again, cold and sharp. 'We can't go there, absolutely not. It wouldn't be safe.'
'Olaf won't be there. He'll be looking for me, trying to get me back.'
'Oh Violet.' Dewey sighed, rubbing his brow with the heel of his hand 'If only things were that simple.'
'They are that simple.' Violet could feel the fear starting to build up inside her as she spoke, pulling at her throat. 'He'll be so angry with me for leaving, for running away. He would stop at nothing to get me back, he would do anything and go anywhere to get his hands on me again.'
'No.' said Dewey. 'He won't. I'm sure he would like to, but not any more.'
'You're wrong.' said Violet. He did not understand. This man did not know Olaf like she did, and he had not been through what she had been through. How could he sit there and tell her she was wrong?
'I know it's hard to understand, but things have changed. Olaf is an old man now, and the last thirteen years have not been good for his side either. They lost a lot of people in the fire as well as us, and their side was never as organised and structred to begin with. They have fracutred and splintered away, almost becoming nothing. Olafs' power has diminished by the day, and he no longer has access to the resources that were once available to him. I do not doubt that he is angry, furious even, but I think there is very little that he can do about it. I think that at times you still overestimate him.'
Violet was not sure how to take this. She had spent thirteen years living in fear with this man, and she could not simply accept that he would have given up without so much as a fight. Ever since she had left that house she had been moving, scared to slow down because she constantly fearing that he would be one step behind her, just about to catch up. Violet wasn't sure how to process the idea that he had never really been after her in the first place. If anything, she found it an insulting and terrifying thought. Perhaps she simply did not mean enough to him.
'I thought you said your side had lost.' asked Violet, after what felt like an age of silence. 'If that's the case than how can Olaf's side be so powerless?'
Dewey smiled. 'Sometimes victory is harder than defeat. I wasn't the only one who lost everything thirteen years ago. Everybody did.'
'So where does it end?' asked Violet. 'What do we do?'
'There is nothing we can do.' said Dewey. 'Except to wait for something to fall into our hands that will change the course of our sad fates.'
Justice Strauss smiled. 'And that is exactly why I have come.' She had been holding the diving helmet by her side all this time, but with her last statment she heaved it up on to the desk, landing it on top of the papers Dewey had been studying intently.
For a moment he simply stared at the helmet in incomprehension, and Beatrice raised a quizzical eyebrow at Justice Strauss.
'What is this?' she asked.
'I thought the same thing at first. I wondered what on earth could have such value that Violet would take such care and risk to smuggle it from out of Olafs house, but then I finally understood.'
A look of understanding danced across Deweys face, and he smiled more widly than Violet had seen him do so before.
'Medusoid Mycelium?' he asked
Justice Strauss nodded. 'The very same. Once the opposition knows that we have this in our grasp, everything will change.'
Dewey was eyeing the helmet intently, as though he was hypnotised by the dull, shining metal, reflecting a distorted version of his own features back at him.
'We can bargin with them, exchange the mycelium for the sugar bowl perhaps?'
Dewy shook his head. 'No. We will do no such thing. We cannot risk these mushrooms falling back into their hands, especially if those hands are anyone's besides Olaf. Anyway -.' he shot Violet glance. 'Now we have something else to bargin with.'
'No.' Justice Strauss protested. 'You cannot be seriously suggesting -'
'I am always serious, Justice Strauss. And besides, the mushrooms are far to powerful a weapon to simple be left unused.'
'Unsused??' Justice Strauss was shocked. 'You can't! I won't let you. In fact -' She placed both hands firmly on the edge of the diving helmet, and lifted It up. 'This helmet is currently in my possession, and there is nothing you can do about that. I knew I should never have come here. Staying couped up down here for so long isn't healthy Dewey. Not for anyone, least of all you. I'm going to take these mushrooms far away from you, where you can't ever get to them!'
Dewey moved, suddenly, quicker than Violet would have thought possible. He stood, reached under the desk, and pulled something out, aiming it at Justice Strauss.
She froze, staring at the device pointed directly at her chest. Violet realised she had seen it before, a long time ago. It was a harpoon gun, with a single, slender harpoon jutting outwards.
'Oh, Justice.' said Dewey, sadly. 'I really don't think you have a choice.'
|
|
|
Post by Tiran O'Saurus on Dec 24, 2022 13:17:57 GMT -5
Quigley, Jacques, and now Dewey? Why are all the VFD members horrible people?! Also, who is this "taxi driver"? I'd guess Lemony, but I'm not sure Violet would have ever met him pre-TWW.
|
|
|
Post by Isadora Is a Door on Dec 26, 2022 12:01:32 GMT -5
I'm really starting to race through this now, so there may well be a few more typos in the last two chapters. Hopefully I will wheedle them out.
This is the longest it's taken me to get to the end of a story, and I'm hoping it'll be worth the wait. I have a lot to say about things, I think, and I hope I can subvert peoples expectation's a few more times before we get to the end!
|
|
|
Post by Isadora Is a Door on Dec 26, 2022 12:46:48 GMT -5
Chapter Twelve
The four of them headed deeper into the underground complex, through a continuing series of darkening rooms, each of which was set out in a manner identical to the first; Shelves either side, and a metal desk situated in the middle. The only difference was the numbers, which increased the further and further that they went.
Beatrice led the way, the diving helmet clasped in her hands. Violet was holding the lantern, its' light reflecting off of Beatrices hair as she moved in front of her. Justice Strauss was following behind them, with Dewey taking up the rear, the point of the harpoon pressed firmly against the small of her back.
They moved along in silence and darkness, pausing at each set of doors to allow a keycode to be typed into place, and for the next set of doors to slide open. Violet's pulse was quickening, though it was not out of fear, more expectation. She did not know where Dewey was taking them, nor what would happen when they got there, but there was a large part of her that just simply did not care any more. Whatever happened would happen, and she doubted there would be anything she could do about it.
They were walking through the 500s when Dewey suddenly proclaimed them to halt, and he beckoned them to head down between the row of shelves numbered 579 The space was very limited, and so Beatrice hung back at the edge of the bookcase, the deadly helmet clutched in her hands . 'I still don't understand' Violet said to Beatrice, speaking in an undertone so as to not be heard. 'Why exactly is it that you have my mothers name?'
'As I said, its common practice among VFD members.' Beatrice smiled at her. 'But, well, there's more to it than that. My sister was good friends with your mother. Very good friends, in fact. Maybe you met her, before she died?'
'Possibly. My parents used to have lots of friends over for dinner parties, but I can't be sure. What was her name?'
'Kit. Kit Snicket. '
The name meant nothing to Violet, and she shook her head.
''The Snickets and the Baudelaires were good friends, for all the difference it makes. Look where it got them.' said Dewey, who had been busying away at the far end of the row, but clearly listening in to their conversation. 'Lemony is a broken man with a broken heart, Kit is dead, and Jacques is as good as. It was Kit's wish that her daugther bore Bearice's name, and I honoured those wishes, but I never understood why.'
'Lemony has always been uncomfortable with it.' Said Justice Strauss glumly. 'It all does is remind him of Beatirce Baudelarie, and he had always-'
'Enough chit chat.' said Dewey, and Violet could see that the wall at the end of the row was now opened, revealing a secret compartment cotnained within. Dewey beckoned Violet and Justice Strauss through, and he followed them inside.
The room was bright white, contrasting greatly with the dim surroundings they had been in for the last few hours. There was a clincial, laboratory-like feeling about the place. There were several strange and exotic looking machines dotted around on worktops, some of them still buzzing away on various computations. But the room was dominated by several hundred small glass cases, each only a few centimeteres wide, and each containingg a small sample of some strange substance. Violet could easily guess what they were, however, given the circumstances.
'Ever since the fire, I have been attempting to cultivate my own retaliation' said Dewey, as he paced up and down intently before the cases, the harpoon gun still clutched firmly in his hands. 'Medusoid Mycelium is incredibly difficult – not to mention dangerous – to grow, and my resources have been limited. But I have tried, the very best that I can. The lake above us had been the perfect place to carry out my tests, but...'
He paused, tapping his finger gently against one of the containers. 'Every single attempt has failed.' Violet could see that each of the glasses boxes contaited differing variations of fungi, most of which were tiny and rotting, and a world away from the Medusiod Myceclium. There must have been thousands of specimens in here.
I have spent thirteen long, hard years trying to create my own weapon, and I have nothing to show for it. But fate has played its cruel game with me once again, it seems.' He smiled at Violet. 'It has brought you to my door, with everything I could possibly need.'
'You're insane.' said Justice Strauss. 'You can't possibly mean to release this fungus?'
Dewey nodded solemnly. 'Of course I do.'
'But the risks are too great!' Justice Strauss protested. 'You know as well I do that it cannot be controlled. If the fungus infects you, you will be dead within a single hour. If you attempt to infect our enemies with it, the risk of the infection spreading is so high that it would be suicide. It doesn't discriminate, it can't tell the difference between the good side of VFD or the bad. Just one spore, thats all it takes,'
'Oh Justice Strauss, you still don't understand.' Dewey sighed, and looked at her mornfully. 'I don't care what side of VFD anyone is on. I don't care if you're part of VFD or not. I just want it all to finally end. Once I release the Medusoid Mycelium, it will spread and infect and kill everyone and everything.'
'But why?' said Justice Strauss. 'Why would you want to do such a thing?'
'It took me a long, long time to understand it, and even longer to accept the truth. It does not matter how noble your intentions are, or how much good you think your cause will bring to the world. Everyone is the same, in the end, and everyone will go to any efforts to achieve their goals.'
'Perhaps some people, Dewey, yes. But not all of us.' said Justice Strauss, defiant. 'There are some of us who still hold true to the ideals of VFD.'
'Ideals? Pft.' Dewey snorted in derision. 'Ideals are nothing more than words on a piece of paper, and paper goes up in smoke just as easily as so many libraries. It doesn't matter what you believe, or how steadfast you may prcolaim yourself to be, anything can change. All it takes is a push, a single action, and everything you believe in is gone. I saw it happen with my siblings. The three of us, we were all once so opposed to each other, each taking a different view on how the world should be. Frank on the side of the noble librarians, Ernest on the side of the fire-starting malcontents, and I in the middle, just trying to hold the balance. But in the end, the three of us realised that there was no way other way. Things were growing so desperate, each side attempting to out-manouvere the other, that it didn't really matter what side you were on. The motives may have been different, but the actions were the same. The whole thing was corrupt, and it spreads, that corruption. We foresaw a time where that disease would infect the whole world over, so we realised it needed to end, all of it, before it was too late.
'So we arranged a meeting at the last safe place, or so we called it. All of VFD were gathered together under one roof, in one place, at one time. And we burned them. We burned them all.'
Justice Strauss gasped. 'You. But I thought it was... Olaf?'
Dewey shook his head. 'Olaf wasn't even there. He took the credit for the fire, like so many others he has claimed to cause over the years, but he had nothing to do with it. Not that it mattered, fate had played it's cruel ccame with us once more. The plan was a failure. My brother, you see, had betrayed us. Ernset informed his side of what we were planning, and most of his side were able to escape. But that doesn't matter now!' The sudden rise in his voice made them all jump, and Beatrice let out a small gasp. Violet had forgotten that she was there, and she turned to see her standing at the edge of the doorway. She wondered how much of this Beatrice had already known, or how much of it she was discovering for the first time. Dewey seemed to have forgotten that she was there.
'I've now come to realise that this whole thing is bigger than just VFD.' Dewey continued. 'It doesn't matter if you're a volunteer or not – every single person on the earth is just as corruptible, just as culpable.' Dewey began to raise his voice, his eyes staring blindly at them, lost in a fugue of adrenaline and paranoia. 'Gathered in these walls is more information and knowledge about the history of the human race and its crimes than anywhere else on the planet, and I have read and absorbed it all, and there is only one logical conclusion that you can make. It. Must. End. And it is my duty to make sure that it does. I am going to ensure the death of all life on earth, and nothing you can do will stop me!'
Nobody spoke for a few moments, and the room fell silent except for the rugged breathing of Dewey. Violet could see his chest rising and falling dramatically. He seemed visibliy exhausted from the effort of what he was saying. Justice Strauss was staring blankly at the ground, her face crestfallen and dour, before she finally broke the silence.
'No.' she said. 'I can't allow it. I'll have tostop you.'
'How?' said Dewey. 'You're a useless old woman. What kind of a threat are you?'
'Violet' said Justice Strauss, turning to her with desperation in her eyes. 'Help me.'
Violet was taken aback. She wasn't quite sure what Justice Strauss was aksing of her. Dewey was still holding the harpoon gun, and Violet felt nothing but weak and tired. Perhaps together they could overpower him, but all Beatrice needed to do was simly open up the grating on the front of the diving helmet and they would all be dead within an instant.
'Violet.' said Dewey, as he moved in front of her, his eyes staring directly in to hers. 'You understand me, don't you?' His voice was soft, almost whispering into her.
'I.. I don't know what to think.'
'But you know better than anyone.' said Dewey, his voice barely audible. 'The horrors of the human exsistence. Surely Count Olaf is a prime example of that, more than anybody else? The man who held you captive for thirteen years, abused you, raped you, murdered your family? He isn't an abberation, Violet, or an error, or a bad seed. Everything that he is capable of, everything he has done, we are all capable of it. The only difference is that some people choose not do those things, and others choose to do them. Let us make a choice for ourselves, and remove this whole filthy stinking species from exsistence!'
Violet thought for a moment, and she could feel the eyes of everybody in the room boring into her.
'I agree.' said Violet, and Dewey began to smile, but she continued 'That everyone is capable of bad things. But there are still some people who deserve to live.'
'Such as?' said Dewey
'My sibilings, for example. They deserved so much more life than what they got. Every single day of my life I remember them, and every single day I have pushed myself to keep going, to keep on living, for them, and for all the days that they did not have. If we do this thing, we would be taking away the lives of so many others, and iy is not our place to take that away.'
'Why?' said Justice Strauss 'Why do you keep going?'
'Because I made a promise. A promise to my parents, one that I broke. I promsied that I would keep my siblings safe, and I let them down. I need to make it up to them..'
'How?' she asked.
'I'm not sure.' said Violet. Though perhaps now she was closer than she had ever been.
'Your siblings did not deserve their deaths' said Dewey. 'But is it not better if we were to simply wipe the slate clean? If everyone, the whole world over, were to die at once, in this same way, there would be no discrimination, no evil deciding who lives and who dies.'
Justice Strauss shook her head. 'You can't be sure of that. There would still be people who would survive. It wouldn't be instantaneous.'
'It would be good enough.' said Dewey. 'And perhaps those who lived would be changed for the better.'
'You're a naive fool. The survivors would be no different than they were before. All you are trying to do is justify murder.'
'This isn't murder.' argued Dewey. 'This is Justice!'
'Justice??' replied Justice Strauss. 'Justice would be to lock that helmet away down here and never come back to this awful place.'
Violet sighed deeply, and she could feel her hands shaking. Justice Strauss and Dewey stood there arguing with each other for several more minutes, but Violet didn't hear any of it. She was done listening. She had become used to this, standing back whilst other people debated around her, and she simply let the whole thing pass her by. Their words simply washed over her, as she though about her situation.
She was fed up with it all. That was all anybody ever did. They would stand back, and discuss, and argue, and disagree, but nothing would ever actually happen. She had been Olafs' prisoner for thirteen years, and during that time she had imagined that someone would come along to rescue her, but she now understood that that had been a foolish hope. The people who had rescued her had been just as inaffectual as everyone else that she had met. No wonder it had taken thirteen years, if this was all it came down to. People arguing with each other, and doing nothing, whilst she was forgotten.
Violet looked at Beatrice, and saw a look of sadness upon her face. Beatrice locked eyes with her for a moment, and there was a strange look shared between the two of them. It was a look of dissapointment and great sadness, but it also spoke of something else. It was a look that was difficult to describe, as Violet had never seen it in anyone else before, but it was a look she had made herself so many times, and she understood what it meant immediately.
Violet walked carefully over to Beatrice, and as she had suspected, neither Justice Strauss nor Dewey even noticed that she was moving away from them. She smiled sadly at Beatrice, who handed Violet the Diving Helmet, and smiled back. Violet turned, and walked out of the room.
As she headed back the way she had come she was careful to not quicken her pace too much. Whilst she was certain that it would be a while before either Dewey or Justice Strauss would notice that she was gone, and that the very object that they were arguing over had gone with her, she did not want to do anything that would cause undue attention.
Violet headed back up the dark stone passageway, her feet slipping and sliding a few times on the slick stone steps, until she evetunally pushed open the steel door, and emerged back by the side of the pond.
The sun was already low in the sky, the day dissappearing fast. Violet could feel the cool afternoon air brushing against her skin, and she noticed a thick layer of sweat building up over her body. She took a few deep gasps of air, and could feel the blood racing in her ears. Inky slithered past her, and she realised she had forgotten all about him. The tension must have gotten to her. She could have almost left without him.
Violet could see the taxi still parked across the other side of the pond, and she began to walk, much more quickly now, to find the driver. Hopefully he had had kept his promise. As she ran, great plumes of ash and soot cascaded around her feet, and small pieces of wood and brick cracked underneath her feet. This was all that remained of the fire that Dewey had caused, that one that had killed so many people and yet had failed to kill the one person she truly wished was dead.
She came to a standstill a few metres away from the taxi. The driver was leaning against its side, a skinny cigarette in his mouth, and he was staring in her direction almost absent-mindedly.
'So you're back then?' he said, his expression unreadable.
Violet simply nodded, unsure what else to say.
'I'm not surprised. The last thirteen years have been hard on Dewey. Please understand that the creature you saw today is not the man he once was.'
Violet nodded again, still unsure.
'So.' said the taxi driver, smiling at her as he thrwe the butt of his cigarrette to the ground. 'Where do you need me to take you?'
'I... I don't know.' she said. 'Away.'
'Ah. Well, that's normally where I take people. Perhaps I'm asking you the wrong question. Perhaps what I should have asked is; 'Where do you want to go?''
Violet almost laughed. If there was one place she wanted to go, more than anything else, it was wherever her family were. She could open the diving helmet in her right now, or throw herself into the lake, and then she would be with them. Or, even better, she wished she could go back in time, to before any of this had ever happened, before Olaf and the the fire, and be with her parents and her siblings in their mansion. But she was no child, sheknew that she couldn't do that. That life had ended thirteen years ago, half a lifetime away, and there was no going back. It had all been taken away from her, and there was one big, fat, ugly reason why, He haunted her, every time she closed her eyes he was there. His hands touching her, his breath against her skin, and his evil eyes, staring into her soul.
Violet stood for a while, in the ruins of the Hotel Denouement, and thought about those eyes. She could feel the breeze on her skin, and the weight of the diving helmet in her hands, and the power of the poisonous fungus contained within.
And just like that, she knew where she wanted to go.
'Home.'
|
|
|
Post by Isadora Is a Door on Feb 4, 2023 11:40:49 GMT -5
Apologies if there is a higher number of typos in this, I really wanted to get this one done with! I hope people like the ending (if anyones still reading haha) and sorry about the huge delays
Chapter Thirteen
The tiny automobile wound its way through the streets of the city, two headlights casting small pinpricks of light through the darkness. Violet leant her head against the glass of the window, feeling the vibrations of the vehicle drumming against her skin. She stared blankly out at the shuttered windows of the houses passing by, trying not to comprehend the many people who were inside, people whose lives she could be about to change irrevocably.
The journey had progressed this far in silence, but Violet would occasionally glance at the back of the driver's head and wonder. She had seen him somewhere before, and yet still she did not know where. She was tempted to ask him, but she was almost afraid of what the answer might be.
The helmet was still clenched in her hands, nestled into her lap. Violet had been holding on to the metal so tightly that the metal had been digging into her palms, but she was scared to loosen her grip by even the tiniest iota. The helmet had been through a lot in the last few days, and Violet could not be sure if the integrity of the thing would hold together for much longer. The one thing she could not risk was contaminating her or anybody else. Not yet.
Inky was curled up restfully on the vacant seat next to her, and she looked guiltily at the sleeping reptile. What would happen to him when she was gone? Or would he be infected as well? She had no way of knowing if other animals could be affected by the fungus. And she had no way of knowing how far the mushrooms would spread once she opened the helmet. But there was only one way that she could find out.
'Mrs. Baudelaire?' asked the driver, making her jump. Her heart was already thumping, and she had almost forgotten that there was somebody else with her.
'You scared me.' Violet said, and she could feel her grip on the diving helmet tightening ever further.
'Well, you're scaring me.' said the driver, matter-of-factly. 'That's why I wanted to ask you a few questions.'
'About what?'
'I want to know exactly what it is that you are intending on doing tonight.'
Violet shook her head, as though disagreeing with his statement. 'I've had enough of explaining myself to people who don't even know me. This is my choice, it doesn't concern you.'
'Except I think it does, Violet, and I am indeed very concerned.' said the driver. His voice was calm and measured, as though he was not really concerned at all. 'I have a pretty good idea of what is inside that diving helmet, and I have a pretty good idea of what you intend to do with it, and therefore I think I have a right to question what it is you're involving me in. Over the years I have had plenty of experience of guilt by association, so it's something I strive to avoid.'
Violet thought for a moment, and the more she thought the harder she found it to articulate what it was that she was going to do. The words seemed to struggle inside her, fighting one another to get out, as if they were not quite sure what order they were meant to be in. She could see the driver's eyes fleeting glances at her, but he didn't press her any further for an answer. It was as if he was letting her struggle deliberately.
'Revenge.' She said, finally. 'That's all this is.'
'I see.' said the driver, and he sighed. 'That old chestnut. Revenge.'
'He deserves to die.' she said, finitely.
'Does he?' said the driver. 'Yes, I think he probably does. But just because he deserves to die, that does not mean that you deserve to kill him.'
'Deserve?' Violet snorted. 'I don't need to explain myself to you, I'm tired of telling people who know nothing about me what I should or shouldn't be doing. You don't know what it's like. Nobody does. I lived with that man for thirteen years. The man who destroyed my home, murdered my siblings, raped me, took everything from me. You cannot possibly say that I haven't earned the right to -...' her voice trailed off, the word unspoken.
'Kill him?' said the driver, sighing once more. 'That is not what I meant, Violet. I'm not decrying what Olaf has done. My concern is for you and for you alone. I don't think that you're a killer.'
'You have no idea what I'm capable of.'
'I have no doubt that you are capable of a great many things. You have shown such miraculous tenacity and drive, where others would simply have been unable to go on. But I have seen you over the years, Violet.'
'How? What does that mean?'
The taxi driver turned around to look at her, and he smiled softly at her. 'I've been watching you. With one eye at least, if not both. VFD may have abandoned you, but I did not. I made a promise, a long time ago, one that I intend to keep. You've been in my cab many times over the last thirteen years, as it happens.'
'I thought I recognised you from somewhere.'
The driver turned back to face the road. 'But you couldn't quite put two and two together? It's no matter. I tried to be discreet.'
'So you did nothing to help me?' said Violet, bitterly.
There was a pause, a silence that hung in the air, and for a moment Violet could feel tears building in her eyes.
'No.' said the driver, his voice full of sorrow. 'I didn't help you at all. I'm very sorry, Violet, but I...' his voice trailed off.
'You could have done something,' said Violet. 'Even if you had just spoken to me, just to let me know that there was someone out there who-'
'I know.' he interrupted. 'But I'm not as brave as you are, Violet. I'm a coward, and a failure. I let you down. I let your mother down as well, and not for the first time. She would be disappointed in me, I think. In how I've failed you, failed everybody.'
Violet realised that the man seemed to be talking as much to himself as he was to her. She felt almost uncomfortable at how saddened he seemed to be. She was not used to this.
'But I am trying to help you now, Violet.' he said, trying to find conviction in his tone.
'No.' Violet shook her head defiantly. 'You're trying to stop me, and that's the one thing I don't need.'
'You will die, if you do this.'
'That's not so bad. At least it will be my choice. I can't think of anything better, anything more deserving. This is the man who burned down my home, the man who-'
'Violet.' the driver interrupted. 'Can I ask you something? Would it make you feel better or worse if I were to tell you that it was not Olaf who caused that fire, but someone else entirely?'
Violet wasn't sure what to make of this question. Was it hypothetical, or did he simply not know?
'Why does it matter?' she asked, testily.
'I just... wonder. You seemed very sure, and I wanted to know why.'
'I think that...' she paused for a moment. 'If it was somebody else, I think that would be much worse.'
'Why is that?'
'Because there are only so many monsters that I can take in this world. I can't kill all of them.'
'Violet,' said the man. 'I've watched you all these years, and I know exactly what you are capable of.'
'I can kill him.' said Violet, feeling her hands tremble. 'I will.' As she said it, she could picture Olaf, her husband, the life sucking out of her his body as he choked on his death. The thought filled her with nothing but pleasure.
'I know. I do not doubt your ability to kill such an evil man, someone who has corrupted and destroyed your entire existence. The thing is, I do not think that you should.'
'You think he should live?'
'No, of course not. There is no part of me that believes Olaf deserves another moment on this planet, not at all. But -' The driver paused, searching for the right words. 'I have lost things as well, Violet, perhaps more than even you can imagine. And I have been in your place as well, faced with the possibility to enact revenge on those who have wronged me. The trouble is that revenge is just another poison. Once you let it out of that helmet, it will spread and corrupt you just like those mushrooms, until everything that you are is destroyed.'
Violet sat for a moment, pondering over his words, biting the inside of her lips nervously as she considered, until finally she spoke; 'What did you lose?'
'Everything. My family, my friends, all of them are gone. And worse than that, the people that I have left have turned on me. I was cast as a villain in their wretched play. The woman I love, she -' he paused, glancing at her in the mirror once more. 'She believed that I had done the most terrible things. She spent a long time believing them, and then... She was gone. Every day I wish that she could be here, that we could be together, that My Silent Knot could be untied once and for all. I will carry that with me to the grave, I know that now. The things you have experienced, they may be different, but deep down it is the same. The same pain, the same anger. For a long time I thought that revenge would make that pain go away. That if I could get back at those who had wronged me, I may finally be free. But do you know what? I got what I wanted. I had my revenger, I made my enemies pay. And... I felt the same. Every single day. It's easy to imagine that one simple act, like the opening of a helmet or the firing of a poison dart, will be enough to undo a whole series of unfortunate events. But it won't. In the end, you just become a whole new cruel person, being cruel to someone else, who will end up being cruel to you. The wheel just keeps turning.'
'You don't understand.'
The driver let out a small, hollow laugh 'I do understand, Violet.'
'No.' she shook her head stubbornly. 'This is different.'
'Yes, Violet, this is different because its happening to you. And because I am here to try and-'
'Stop me?!' Violet interrupted.
'Convince you. When you go through all that pain, all that hate, all that suffering, all you are left with is shadows. You think it will make you whole again, this revenge, this unthinkable act, but it won't. The cracks just grow ever deeper. You have thirteen years of trauma, Violet, and that needs to heal. You need to learn to move past it, and to break free of it. If you kill that man it won't help with any of that. You'll just keep searching for a way to make the pain disappear, until you lose yourself in it.'
'Then what can I do?' Said Violet, half shouting at him. 'Tell me what I'm supposed to do to make it go away.' The driver sighed for a moment, and it was only when he turned around in his seat that Violet realised that the taxi had stopped moving quite some time ago.
'It never goes away.' He said, simply. 'But you hold on to it, and you make damned sure that nobody else will ever have to feel the way that you do, right now. Nobody else should have to suffer as you have suffered.'
'I can't. I can't live like this, not anymore.' Violet's voice was small and weak, and she felt pathetic as the words fell out of her. As she admitted it, she finally realised that it was true. She couldn't bear it, the thought of everything that happened to her, all of the terrible things she had been through and had done to her, it was all too much. She couldn't go on like this.
'I know it's hard.' said the gentle voice of the stranger, for that was all he really was. 'If you let it, the past will destroy you. Eventually, you have to move on.'
For a moment his words simply washed over her, but then something changed inside Violet's head. Something seemed to click into place, like a gear switching into position, and she understood.
'But you could never move on from my mother, could you?'
He looked at her and smiled, almost in resignation. He reached out a hand and gently patted her on the knee. Inky stirred for a moment, and raised his head up into the driver's palm.
'No' Lemony replied. 'No I don't think I ever did. But I thought that perhaps together we may be of some assistance to one another.'
Chapter Fourteen
As Dawn broke the morning it cast a red split across the horizon, the clouds seeming to part as if the sun were cutting a trail through their skin. The light streaked down, reflecting off of the water and bouncing up across the sand to greet them. There was a chill in the air, and the wind from the ocean rippled across Violet's skin. She could feel icy water sneaking into her shoes and wriggling its way between her toes, and she could hear the soft sound of her feet pushing against the surface of the sand with each footstep.
It had been here, when she was just fourteen years old, that it had all started. Mr Poe had appeared from the fog, and delivered that terrible news. Her siblings had been there, Klaus examining the rockpools, Sunny playing in the water. On that day when everything had changed, they had been together, as they should always have been. They had been happy here, she felt. She smiled at the memory. There were some things she would never let go of.
Violet stopped at the water's edge, and breathed in deeply, the salty air filling her lungs. Her hair was kept out of her eyes with a ribbon, like it has always been when she was young. Lemony had given it to her, a gift from her mother long ago, and it felt right to have it with her now. She stood for a moment, watching the waves rolling in and out, the sun hanging low in the sky in front of her. The sea stretched out before her, meeting with the sky. An endless possibility.
Violet bent forward, and placed the diving helmet onto the surface of the water, where it slowly bobbed up and down on the surface for a moment. She could feel something moving against her feet, and suddenly Inky was there. He pushed himself into the water, dragging the helmet going with him, and soon it was moving further and further into the sea, out of her reach, the snake pushing the metal globe and its deadly contents far into the water. She hesitated for a moment, as the waves began to take a hold of it, but she could feel the weight lifting off of her, and she turned away.
She rejoined Lemony, standing aways further back. He smiled at her when she returned, and they turned to look out at the ocean. The Incredibly Deadly Viper slithered back to join them, and Violet scooped him up into her arms. She could see the helmet drifting out into the depths of the ocean, the sun glinting off of the metal. They did not know where it would go, or how it would get there, but it was the best for which they could ask. It wasn't their story any more.
It was time to move on.
|
|
|
Post by Tiran O'Saurus on Feb 4, 2023 13:04:49 GMT -5
I'm still reading! I really like this story. I feel like there's a lot of untapped potential in alternate timeline stories. What if Stephano reached the Prospero? What if Josephine didn't die? What would have happened if the Quagmires never learned about VFD? I think this story is the first in what could very well be a genre, one which I might add to once I finish The Coup.
|
|