Chapter Text
When a helping hand comes near
it becomes an empty glove
Things are not what they appear
starting with your hopes and dreams
Just one thing in life is clear:
nothing's ever what it seems
-- Things Are Not What They Appear from "The Tragic Treasury"
By the time the ship was close enough to see those aboard, the sun had lowered, leaving the sky a strange red-orange color. Violet shuddered, realizing that the color was that of blood. Her father had explained to her, one day long ago, the phrase 'Red at night, sailor's delight; red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.' She rather wished the phrase was reversed, and that Olaf and his entire horrible crew would drown far out at sea; glancing at Klaus, she knew by the look in his eyes that he was thinking the same thing.
Olaf, on the contrary, looked as if Christmas had arrived early. The gleeful triumph shining in his eyes below his single eyebrow was a look the Baudelaires had rarely seen before – and wished never to see again. Klaus shuddered and wished the ship would hurry and take the despicable man standing tied with wire on the beach as far away as he could be.
Aboard the vessel, which was a small ship that looked as if it had seen better days – both physically and morally – Olaf's crew watched the Baudelaires with malice, looking as if they would enjoy nothing better than slitting the orphans' throats and leaving the two to bleed out into the sand. Neither orphan could forget the long nights spent seeing those faces in the dark, threatening and terrible.
Klaus shoved Olaf, who fell to his knees in the sand. "Tell them that only one of them may come to collect you, and the rest must stay aboard."
Olaf snarled but yelled the directions to his crew, who had anchored the ship close to the shore. As one troupe member climbed aboard a small rowboat and began rowing to shore, Olaf turned from where he kneeled and spat at Klaus, "If your sister did not have that sword, boy, I would gouge out your eyes with my fingers this moment for your insolence."
This time it was Violet who responded without thinking. With fury clouding her mind at the thought of Olaf harming her beloved brother, she bashed him across the back with the sword, just hard enough to send him gasping into the sand face-first. Realizing that Olaf's entire crew was watching, she stepped back, anxious for the man who was now coughing sand out of his mouth to be on the ship, and out of her life forever.
Klaus touched her shoulder, and Violet turned to see that the rowboat had reached the shore, and that instead of the one man, three now stood on the shore – armed with pistols that gleamed in the evening sun. It was then that she realized that Olaf had not been coughing but laughing.
"Seize the girl, men. And get my damned hands free."
Several of the burlier henchmen wrenched the sword from Violet's hands and grabbed her arms, holding her hard enough to bruise. The angry metallic glare of sunlight that gleamed off the barrels of the guns silenced any attempt she would have made to fight back; she was bitterly aware that among the two of them, she and Klaus had only a flimsy sword to defend themselves with. And even more bitter was the knowledge that this time, they were truly powerless.
The only hope she had was that Olaf would overestimate their lack of power and let her brother, who was now being held much as she was after rushing to help his sister, go back to Sunny and Bee. Visions of the maimed bodies of those she loved swelled in nightmarish clarity in her mind's eye, and she fought back nausea. She knew that Olaf was capable – and even more willing – of destroying the Baudelaires.
So as Olaf stood, hands now free, and dusted himself off, she forced tears to come to her eyes with less effort than she would have thought, and wished her voice was still damaged enough that her sentences would be stilted and seem all the more pathetic.
"Olaf…please."
At the sound of the pitiful mewl of her voice, Olaf turned, victory gleaming in his eyes. "Was that really you, Violet Baudelaire, that just sounded like a little lost kitten? This is rich!" The laughter that spilled out from the looming man as he approached her, ignoring her captive brother, was maliciously cruel. "Aren't you going to fight me, hellcat? No brave words or glares? No devious plans? I had hoped better of you, orphan."
"No. I'm tired of fighting, Olaf. I just want the fight to be over, one way or the other. Just let Klaus go…and I'll do whatever you want." She was shocked to discover that, although she was hugely amplifying her despair in hopes that her submission would quell Olaf's murderous rage, she really did feel a large portion of it within herself. If she could but save her family, it would be worth sacrificing herself to the man she loathed and feared most in the world.
He bent down and wrenched her chin up with his long fingers, so that she had to look into his pale eyes.
"You know, Violet Baudelaire, I believe I may just do that – leave your brother here and take you hostage, that is." His voice dropped to a whisper as he leaned in closer. "And do you know why that is? Because you have lost everything and everyone you have ever had.You have lost."
And when he said this, final and echoing as the slam of the door to a tomb, she began to cry in earnest. Klaus too, finally ceased struggling in his captors' arms, and wept, because all Olaf had said was true. Were he and Sunny, baby in tow, going to build a raft, survive the whimsy of the sea, and find Olaf wherever he ran to and execute a daring, successful rescue? Were they going to find the world a safe haven, and live in a quiet home full of laughter and comfort?
No.
And as Olaf laughed, and his henchmen threw Klaus headfirst to lie weeping in the sand, and Violet was dragged to the ominous rowboat, one phrase echoed through her mind…"You have lost everything and everyone you have ever had. You have lost."
Violet raised her head for one last look at her only brother, and struggled against her captors in a last effort to save herself. She cried as she fought, and screamed to Klaus, "Don't forget me! Tell Sunny I love her! And take care of Bee! Klaus!"
And then she was wracked with sobs, and let the rowboat take her and her smug captor back to the ship and away from all she loved forever.