Chapter One
The truth is an awful thing. This specially true when such truth is a particularly bad one, specially the truth of the fact that life is unfair, and the world is not a fairy tale land where good guys win, and the bad guys lose. The truths revealed in this book, I have to say, are among the worst truths there ever were, and I must tell you the truth: this books contains nothing but a series of awful truths and if you would rather taste the sweetness of lies and live your life in normalcy for the rest of your days, I will not hold it against you, dear reader. Because if you continue to read this story, you’ll discover truths so frightening that you won’t be able to sleep at night.
Violet Baudelaire opened her eyes. She was floating, and the water was cold. There was a faint dim light coming from above, yet it did little to brighten her surroundings. Violet tried to stand up, but it –whatever it was – was very deep. Violet was a tall girl, yet she could not touch the floor of the pool – assuming it was a pool. Or was it the sea? She was confused, scared and cold. Klaus, and more worryingly, Sunny and Beatrice were nowhere to be seen. Sunny and Beatrice were small children. They did not know how to swim properly. Violet did, and she began swimming, in that dark water, with the faint blue light shining from above. Soon, Violet saw something. A large structure which she was not able to identify at first, but as she got closer, the shape of a train’s locomotive. It was wrecked, of course, as locomotives are not supposed to go into the ocean.
Recently – Violet Baudelaire did not have a clue as to how long it had been since – the
Ethereal Express’s locomotive, tender and two front cars had plummeted into the sea, while the rest of the train derailed, crash and burned behind it. The person responsible for this, Esmé Squalor, was nowhere to be found.
Violet hadn’t had much time to think, let alone consider the things Esmé had said before she pushed that red button, which caused Violet to be in that dark pool, swimming in the darkness, with nothing to guide her. Violet was too worried for her siblings. It was no time to be thinking about what anyone had said. Violet Baudelaire had more important things to do. Things like finding out where she was. Violet Baudelaire didn’t know it, but I do. It is my sad duty to inform you, dear reader, that after all the woe and misery in the Baudelaire orphans’ lives, fate – or, one could argue, the plots of an evil mastermind – had taken the Baudelaires into the bowels of most terrifying place they could go. Because Violet, Klaus, Sunny and Beatrice Baudelaire had heard of that place before. They had
seen it. That place was the
Great Unknown.
‘Klaus!’ Violet cried out in the darkness, trying not to sink. She approached the wrecked locomotive. Near it, she could touch the floor of the pool – if it was a pool – with her feet. ‘Sunny!’ Violet cried out once more. ‘Bea!’
No response came from the darkness. Violet Baudelaire was beginning to fear the worst. ‘Klaus! Sunny! Beatrice!’ She cried out again, in the darkness. Violet moved through the shallows, trying to find her siblings. It wasn’t long until she found the wrecked former
Ophiuchus car, or the
Ultra Deluxe V.I.P. car. It was halfway sunk into the water. Violet dove and she saw that the car was in a deeper portion of the black pool. She even ventured inside the wreckage, but no one was inside.
Violet moved through the shallow parts of the black pool, and just as she was about to give up. She heard a voice. ‘Violet!’ Violet turned back. It was Klaus. Augusten Burton was beside him, his round dark glasses missing. Violet almost didn’t recognize him, what with the damp hair and being without those peculiar glasses of his. ‘Everyone is out there diving looking for you. We searched and searched, and no one found you.’Augusten said. Klaus was crying, and he hugged Violet. She began crying too. ‘Where are Sunny and Beatrice?’ Violet asked him. ‘Over there.’ Klaus signaled Violet to follow him, and the two waddled through the shallow waters, the blue light above them casting an eerie glow on everything. ‘Where is Cindry? Where is everyone?’ Violet asked Klaus as they trodded through the dark waters. ‘Nowhere to be found. Neither are Esmé, Felix, Carmelita, the Finches, Fiona or Fernald.’
Violet said nothing, and merely followed Klaus and Augusten. Eventually the water was at their knees, then at their ankles, and then they were stepping on a dry metallic floor. They found Beatrice and Sunny sitting quietly with Lars Gabriel and Charles. ‘Violet. I’m so glad they found you.’ Lars said to her when Violet crouched near them and hugged her younger sisters. ‘We’ve been worried. Desmond, Victoria and Ferdinand are out there looking for you.’
‘Where are Audrey and Margot?’ Violet asked. ‘Audrey is well…Margot on the other hand…She drowned.’ The faint blue light above them was stronger now, and they could almost see each other down in that darkness. ‘Margot…drowned…’ The words didn’t make sense to Violet. ‘When the train hit the water, most of us were knocked out unconscious. Some us for longer periods of time than others. When we found Margot floating out there in the darkness, she was already dead.’
‘Esmé and the others?’
‘Gone. Each and every single one of them was gone before we knew it.’ Lars told her.
‘And where exactly are we?’
‘Why, where else but inside the one thing all V.F.D. sailors learned to fear years ago? We’re all inside the
Great Unknown, Violet.’ Lars said. Violet felt like contesting, but she saw no point in it. The truth was plain to see, even if they were in the darkness. That place could only be the Great Unknown, the mysterious object that put fear into the hearts of volunteers across the world. Of all the bad places in the world their misfortune had taken them, they had finally arrived at the worst.
Soon after that the Baudelaires had remained idle on that metallic shore of sorts, down in the darkness while they waited. For what exactly, they had no clue. But soon the truth would be revealed to them, along with the rest of the volunteers. Desmond, Victoria and Ferdinand soon returned from their swim, and they were relieved to have found Violet alive and as dry as she was like to get. They were now eleven, as one of them was already dead. They wondered how many of them would survive their predicament, and more importantly,
if they would survive their predicament. They did not know then, but I do know now, and I can tell you that only a handful of them would survive the events of the Great Unknow, and that is the terrible, terrible truth, and there is no point in deying it.
There was not much to do in that dark place but wait. For what exactly, no one knew. They were all cold, scared and some even were hungry. After a long period of silence, however, a noise was heard. The loud repeating noise of an alarm system of sorts, which promptly stopped, as suddenly as it had begun. What changed was that the distant blue light above them disappeared; it was replaced by a series of red lights. On the wall behind the group of volunteers, mechanic noises could be heard behind the walls. A line of light appeared. It begun to enlarge, and they realized that a set of mechanical doors was opening slowly before them, letting in a blinding white light. The light was blistering, and the Baudelaires were nearly blinded by it. The volunteers heard steps – the characteristic steps of soldier’s boots against a metallic floor – and saw several silhouettes come in from the light.
‘All of you, form a line, and walk out!’ One of the silhouettes shouted. ‘That was an
order!’ One of them shouted, shoving a club into Lars Gabriel’s ribs. ‘Gaack!’ Lars crouched in pain, and Charles went to help him, only to be struck by another silhouetter with a club. ‘All of you, in a line, now!’
The eleven volunteers had no choice but to obbey. They walked out of the gigantic dark pool room into the blinding white light. As they walked in, the lights diminished, and they saw them selves in an enormous hall. It was an immitation of a traditional ballroom, but this one was all metal and corkscrews and bright lights. The volunteers were made to stand next to each other, in a line, shoulder to shoulder, in front of an enormous staircase. A blue carpet had been laid out, and was the only décor of the hall. The carpet, the Baudelaires noticed, had a swirly pattern of question marks all over it, and here and there, they could see the shape of an eye.
‘Welcome to the Great Unknown!’ A grumpy, husky voice was heard. The doors above the staircase opened. ‘We apologize for the incovenience of you entrance, but we were too busy steering away from the mainland to properly welcome you.’ A man walked out of the doorway above the staircase. The Baudelaires were still a bit disoriented from that turn of events; they did not recognize the man at first. It was only when the man began descending the staircase that they remembered who he was. A terrible man, who they had first in their time at the Mortmain Mountains, and after that, at a kangaroo court at Hotel Denouement. A tall, bald man with a fierce beard, he was. A man with a beard, but no hair.
‘Come say hello, dear. There is someone here who you haven’t seen in a long time.’ He said, turning back. Then, she appeared. She was wearing a sleek, sophisticated, grey woman’s suit. Her very long blonde flowed behind her, reaching down to her thighs. There were many ways to describe that woman, but the one that most people used was the woman with hair, but no beard. ‘I
have been looking forward to this.’ She said with her deep voice as she joined the man in their descent of the staircase. They were absolutely terrifying.
‘It’s been a while.’ The woman said, walking towards no other than Desmond Fulfillment. ‘You haven’t changed. Well, you surely have put on weight, that much is plain to see. And you seem to have been banged up pretty bad as well.’ The woman smiled. Her smile was absolutely terrifying to behold. ‘Dominique. It
has been a while.’
‘Our daughter. She is so beautiful now isn’t she?’ Dominique asked him. ‘You’re a heartless woman.’ Desmond said to her. Dominique’s smile faded. ‘Some people might disagree. I am merely a mother longing to be with her long lost child.
‘Where is she? Where is my daughter?’ Desmond asked, enraged. One of the guards – were they guards? They didn’t know – struck him with a club, and Desmond fell to his knees. ‘She is safe, which is more than I can say for you.’
‘We don’t have much time in our hands at the moment, but we’ll all rejoin soon for a meeting. We’ll allow you to rellocate your allegiances. Until then, consider your options. You can choose to employ your talents in helping us in the shaping of a new world, or you can wither and die shoveling coal in the Great Gaol beneath us.’ Dominique said. The man with beard but no hair took her cue. ‘Meanwhile, you’ll be kept in the Dread Down with the rest of our…
guests.’
‘Guards, take them all down to the Dread Down and give them new changes of clothes, as well as body suits. We won’t be having them in those damp rags.’ Dominique told a guard next to her. ‘Yes, mistress.’ The guard said, and the eleven volunteers were escorted out of that hall. They were about to discover many terrible things, I’m afraid, and you are too, if you are so brave as to continue reading this particularly ruthless chapter in the blighted lives of the Baudelaire orphans.