Author's Note: I know I said Chapter Ten would be out
tomorrow but I felt like posting it tonight. Enjoy!
A.N.: I apologize for the 2 week hiatus. My schedule has been exceptionally busy.
Chapter Ten
After experiencing a free fall inside of 667 Dark Avenue's empty elevator shaft, Violet Baudelaire thought nothing of such heights as the slippery slope she climbed with the help of Quigley Quagmire in the Mortmain Mountains. This was the same with the fall to the basement of Montague Manor. After a few terrible seconds, Violet fell with a thud on a big pile of cardboard boxes which broke her fall and kept her from breaking her bones.
This does not mean that Violet did not get hurt, as she got various paper cuts trying to get out of the mountain of cardboard she found herself in.'Violet! Can you hear me?' Violet heard Cindry Fulfillment's voice sound from way up the hole that opened beneath her feet in the secret passageway upstairs where Cindry was locked in. 'Cindry!'
'Violet! You must find your way back up here! It's not long before Esmé executes her plan! You, Klaus, Sunny and Beatrice are in great danger!' Cindry shouted, from behind the prison door upstairs. Her voice ecchoed down the dark shaft, and almost as if she were waking up from a dream, Violet realized where she was.Marked with a question mark in the map of the manor, was an area of the manor that read as the 'basement' but Violet thought, as she looked around, that she was close to finding out what was about that place that Esmé wanted to discover. 'Cindry! I'm coming for you!' The darkness seemed impenetrable, yet Violet breathed deeply and ventured into the shadows, using her hands to guide her way. As she walked in the darkness, she had inumerous and painful encounters with boxes, furniture, and many other objects that cluttered up the place. Violet even tripped and fell into what she later discovered, by use of her hands, was a coffin, covered in spiderweb. Violet quickly got up and proceed through the room, removing the spiderweb from her hair and clothes.
After a few twists and turns, Violet began to notice a dim light shining across a mountain of unwanted, dusty, spiderweb covered objects. It was a lamp, an electric lamp, an unnusual novelty in the home of a darkness loving man such as Mortimer Montague. Proceeding towards the small light, Violet's thoughts rushed from her family to Cindry, to Victoria and Ferdinand Fulfillment, the still missing aunt and uncle of Cindry's, the murder attempt the Baudelaires had suffered not too many hours ago, and Esmé Squalor's dedication to further ruining their lives, albeit indirectly.Violet felt, and this later proved true, that whatever Esmé Squalor seemed to be doing at Montague Manor did not necessarily involve the Baudelaires as her main targets. What, or whom the real target was, that was the main question, a question that was answered not much time after Violet first made it, in her thoughts. After a few more painful moments where her feet would always meet a hard surface, or she would touch a sharp, pointy object, Violet arrived in front of the small light. Beneath it, she saw a sign that read
This way up
A treasury vault is an expression which here means 'a secret room full of riches, treasures, and things more valuable than any ammount of said riches or treasures, such as a certain missing tea set item', and Violet reached for the doorknob. Just as her hand was about to touch it, it creaked and turned, someone was on the other side! With the door about to open and not a split second to waste, Violet Baudelaire hid the only place she could think of. Behind the now opened door, invisible to a certain duo of familiar women she had met earlier that evening.'Are you sure it's here?' asked one of the women, as they stopped on the other side of the door, unable to see Violet hiding behind it. Violet's heart raced, and she was sweating. She covered her mouth with her hands, standing in the dark.
'Not only am I sure
it is here, I am also sure that the smart girl is here also.' said the other woman. Violet heard steps, and she could see the backs of the two maids from behind the door. The dim light given by the electric bulb besides the door sufficed. As the two woman turned, Violet realized why they felt so familiar. The characteristic hairdos were the same. Even though they wore maid uniforms, the uniforms were not to different from dresses Violet knew the women once wore. As her eyes went to each of the women's faces, Violet recognized them by their ghostly, pale white make up covered faces. The two maids were the two white powder faced women from Count Olaf's theater group. They had parted with Olaf atop Mt. Fraught in the Mortmain Mountains, leaving a life of villainy and crime. Some said they died, others said they went on to perform at decadent establishments in the city, and there were even others who claimed they had been slain by wild animals from the mountains. But there they stood, the two women Violet could never forget, and their trademark pouting lips and raised eyebrows.'I knew who they were as soon as I saw them. I'm glad we confirmed it.
He will be pleased.' said one of the women. The other replied, 'Yes,
he will. But we have lots to do. Remember our list?' to which the other one replied affirmatively, taking out a piece of paper from her corset. She proceed onto reading it, and Violet could hear.
'Secure the basement, procure the vessel for dyssacharydes, retrieve the contents and retreat to new aquatic headquarters with the
Beauregards in tow.' and she folded the paper, and removing a lighter from her corset, lit it on fire. 'Now
she won't find out about our involvement. We have to be quick. Her plan is almost complete.'Violet could not think straight after hearing that conversation. Were the two white powder women now in
VFD? Who was
he? Most importantly, what exactly was Esmé's plan? Violet did not have time to come up with theories, as a noise was heard, scaring the two women, who turned their backs to the door. Footsteps were heard. Footsteps that were the characteristic noise of heels against cobblestone.
Heels. Then, the soft, unnerving noise of
something dragging on the floor. The two women whispered, almost too desperate to act. 'No way! She's found out! Come, Agatha! This way!' and one of the women ventured into the cluttered innards of the basement, followed closely by the other, who whispered 'Wait, Christie!'
Violet knew she did not have second to waste. She quickly hid behind a large crate on the adjacent corner. The electric bulb besides the door went off and on again as Esmé Squalor entered the basement, almost as if disturbed by her presence. In the dim light, Esmé was a frightening vision; her dark hair, her pointed, dangerous looking dark glasses, and her terrible dead polar bear coat. But there was something more terrifying than all that. Walking behind her, silently, was someone Violet had talked to not long ago. An eccentric, blonde girl named Cindry Fulfillment, looking down at the floor, teardrops falling from her face. To Violet's terror, she noticed that Cindry had been chained to Esmé by a collar, similar to that of a dog, and that Esmé held the chain with a fierce grip.
Looking at the chain, Violet felt unbearable grief. She too, felt as if her life was chained to misery and despair. She feared now, most of all, that her life would always be chained to Esmé Squalor, who had appeared once more to make her life miserable. But Violet's greatest regret was that one more person had been caught in the grim chains of events that are these
Yet Another Series of Unfortunate Events, that person being Cindry Fulfillment. Feeling this, Violet thought, made her take action. After Esmé ventured into the darkness of the Basement, with Cindry in tow, Violet followed them, determined to break the chain and escape Montague Manor with Cindry and her family, whatever the price might be.