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Chapter Text

Violet Baudelaire’s childhood ended the second she learned her parents were dead. In the chaos that filled her and her siblings’ lives in the week following their parents death, she’d barely had a second to breathe, let alone grieve. Her days living in the Poe’s house while they waited for Mr. Poe to find them a suitable guardian were mostly spent comforting her siblings as they slowly grasped the reality of their situation. Well, as Klaus grasped the reality of their situation. 

Sunny didn’t understand what was happening. Every day, she’d ask Violet where her mama was, and every day Violet’s heart would shatter into a million pieces as she tried and failed to explain what had happened in a way that Sunny would understand. And so her poor baby sister would cry and wail, and Violet could do nothing about it but hold her close and press comforting kisses to her chubby cheeks. 

Violet had thought that that was hard, trying to keep up with the emotions of her younger siblings in the relative safety of the Poe household. She was not at all prepared for any of what would come next. 

Meeting Count Olaf for the first time and coming to the realization that Mr. Poe fully intended to leave her and her siblings alone with the man was even scarier than losing her parents had been. She tried to be optimistic about the situation, tried not to judge a book by its cover, but Count Olaf soon proved that he was just as nasty on the inside as he was on the outside. Still, Violet tried to be optimistic, for her sibling’s sake. 

But what Violet’s siblings didn’t know was that, after living with Olaf for a few days, he’d begun to hit her. He’d hit her more than once, and always for something ridiculous that easily could have been solved without violence. 

The first time he’d hit her, it was because she’d swept the living room instead of vacuuming it, and after he’d slapped her, she was so stunned that she didn’t even react. She didn’t know how to react, because no adult had ever hit her before. And from the state of his house, she had just figured that he must have been morally against sweeping the floors, so she’d tried to put the unpleasant experience out of her mind. 

The second time he’d hit her, (this time because she’d taken more than thirty seconds to wash a cup as she was doing the dishes), she recognized that he was hurting her, not because she was actually doing anything wrong, but because he liked hurting her. The thought made her stomach churn, and after that, she was extra careful about what she did and said around him, scared that he’d use anything as an excuse to do more than just hit her. 

She hadn’t told Klaus any of what was happening; one, because she didn’t want to scare him, and two, because she didn’t want Olaf to overhear and get mad at her for tattling. Even after Olaf had started hitting her practically every opportunity he got, she didn’t say a word to her brother, but when the wretched Count was around, and Violet heard Klaus start to whine about something, she’d quickly shush him, telling him to stop complaining and just get whatever it was over with, even if she agreed with him completely. She didn’t want him to get hit, too. 

But Violet had thought she could handle it. In fact, after a few weeks, she was pretty sure that her life wasn’t going to get any worse than being hit a couple times a day. She was a strong girl, and though it hurt both physically and mentally to be treated so roughly, she could deal with it. She was determined not to let the pettiness of a bitter old man break her. 

But then he started mentioning the money. 

The Baudelaire parents were wealthy people, and had left quite a fortune to their children following their death. Violet, being the eldest child, was the heiress of the fortune, and as soon as she turned eighteen, it was all hers. But that was years away, and until her eighteenth birthday, she couldn’t use a single penny. 

Count Olaf didn’t seem to understand that. He kept asking about the money, about how much they had, about when they could use it. He’d guilt the children about it daily, saying things like, “If only we had a little money we could fix this place up,” as if they could just change the terms of their parents' will on a whim. Both Violet and Klaus explained to him, more than once, that they legally could not use the money until Violet turned eighteen, but that information must have not been able to penetrate his thick skull. 

And, finally, it made him snap. 

The argument had started well before the violence, in the kitchen before dinner one night. Count Olaf hadn’t been home that day, but he’d left the Baudelaires a note saying that he’d be back by dinner with his acting troupe, and that the children had to make enough dinner for all of them, all by themselves, along with completing the millions of other chores they had to do on a daily basis. By then, they’d been living with Count Olaf for almost a month, and they’d gotten good at completing chores quickly and efficiently, as they just had so many to do every day. So, they knocked out their jobs as fast as they could, and then began to make dinner. 

None of them really knew how to cook anything, so they borrowed a few cookbooks from the kind woman across the street, Justice Strauss, and eventually settled on a dish called pasta puttanesca. It seemed easy enough, and the picture in the cookbook made it look pretty good, so Violet did a few quick calculations to double the recipe, since the measurements in the book were only meant to be enough to serve four, instead of the eight people they actually had to feed, (not counting Sunny, because she was too small to eat a full serving size of food and would most likely just eat a few bites of Violet’s helping). Justice Strauss agreed to take the three of them to the market with her, where they bought all the ingredients they’d need with the small budget for food Count Olaf had left them, and then returned to their house and cooked the dish. 

The three of them cooking together, smelling the simmering pasta sauce that masked the nasty musk the kitchen usually donned, listening to the silly song that Sunny had started to babble as she watched her siblings bustle around the kitchen, made the house almost feel cozy. For the first time since her parents passed, Violet found herself genuinely smiling and laughing as she finally got to spend some quality time with her little siblings. It was nice to see them smiling, too, and when Sunny began to giggle, and the sweet sound echoed throughout the whole kitchen, it nearly brought Violet to tears, and she had to stop what she was doing to give her baby sister a kiss on her forehead. This only made Sunny giggle even more, and Violet was just about to pick her up and twirl her around the kitchen when the front door suddenly slammed open, and Count Olaf’s voice thundered through the house. 

“ Orphans! Where are you, orphans? ” 

Violet rolled her eyes and sighed. She didn’t understand why he insisted on calling them that. It wasn’t helping them get over the loss of their parents. Actually, that’s probably exactly why he does it, she thought. Just to upset us. The mere sound of Count Olaf’s voice ruined her good mood, but she tried not to let it show as she dumped the box of spaghetti into the pot of boiling water on the stove. 

“We’re in the kitchen,” Klaus called back, seeming like his mood had been dampened, too. “We’re just finishing dinner.” 

Count Olaf stomped into the kitchen, a grimace on his face for seemingly no reason at all. “You’d better be,” he grumbled. “Me and my troupe are hungry. Where’s the roast beef?” 

Violet stopped stirring the pasta and glanced over her shoulder at him, confused. “We didn’t make any. We made pasta puttanesca.” She turned around, trying to remember if his note had said anything about what, specifically, they should make for dinner. 

"... What? " He took a staggering step forward, and something about the off-balanced way he was moving made Violet think he might be drunk. " No roast beef?" 

She gulped, wanting to shrink back in fear. He wasn’t yelling, but the tone of his voice was so angry that she almost cried. Despite her terror and the trembling of her hands, she slowly positioned herself in front of Klaus, hoping to shield him from whatever was about to happen. 

To her relief, Olaf didn’t seem to register that she was trying to protect her brother by standing in front of him, and therefore he didn’t do anything to stop her. However, Klaus didn’t seem to register this fact either, and, clearly irritated, he stepped around her and snapped back at Count Olaf, “You didn’t tell us you wanted roast beef!” 

Violet’s hand darted out and grabbed Klaus’s arm, and she, again, put herself in front of him. Count Olaf’s eyes were glaring harshly at the two of them now, his face becoming red with fury. He stumbled a step closer to them, then two, then three, until he was right in Violet’s face. She tried to take a step backwards, but Count Olaf stopped her, roughly seizing her chin in his dirty hand and forcing her to stay where she was. A frightened whimper escaped her throat, and she tightened her grip on her brother’s arm, praying he’d stay still and keep his mouth shut. 

Olaf was so close that she could feel his hot, putrid breath on her skin as he seethed, “In agreeing to adopt you, I have become your father, and as your father, I am not someone to be trifled with… I demand that you serve roast beef to myself and my guests! ” He was screaming now, spit flying out of his mouth with every word. 

Violet didn’t know what to do. Feeling trapped and nauseous, she cried, “We don’t have any! We made puttanesca sauce!” The words sounded so ridiculous and weak as they left her mouth, but she didn’t have anything else to say. They didn’t have any roast beef, because he hadn’t instructed them to make any prior to this, and she didn’t understand why he couldn’t grasp that. 

Her mind was reeling and his fingernails were digging into her skin and Klaus kept trying to wriggle away from her and she was about to burst into tears… And then Sunny’s voice rang through the kitchen. “No, no, no! ” 

Violet gasped. She had forgotten all about her sister, who was still sitting on the kitchen counter. Olaf’s shiny, rage-filled eyes snapped to the baby, and before Violet had a chance to react, the Count had let go of her chin and snatched up Sunny in one jarring motion. With a loud roar, he lifted Sunny up in the air, holding her high above his head with only one hand, his body tottering as he struggled to keep his balance. 

Sunny screeched and began to cry, flailing her arms and kicking her legs, reaching down towards her siblings and screaming for help. 

“Sunny!” Violet called out, letting go of Klaus to try and take her sister back. 

“Put her down!” Klaus shouted angrily, but she could hear the tremor in his voice. He was scared, too. 

"Please, don't hurt her," she found herself mumbling as she tried to reach up and grab the horrified baby. "Please, please, don't hurt her…" 

But Olaf was holding her too high. Neither she nor Klaus could reach her, so they just stood there helplessly, arms outstretched and hearts pounding like crazy every time it seemed like he was getting ready to drop her to the floor. 

Violet was almost relieved when Count Olaf's troupe strode into the kitchen, laughing and calling his name, because it finally made him lower her baby sister and lay her down on the counter. Sunny was still crying as she lay on the dirty marble countertop, but, afraid if she made a move to grab her, she'd be taken away again, Violet stood perfectly still in the center of the kitchen. She didn't say a word as Count Olaf complained to his friends about how horrible and incompetent the orphans were, and how the orphans had cooked the wrong dinner so he was punishing them. She hardly even blinked when a tall, bald man walked up to her and grabbed her chin, standing much closer to her than she was comfortable with, mumbling something about her pretty face. She did absolutely nothing but stand and breathe, not wanting to trigger Olaf or any of his drunk acquaintances.

Only when the group headed into the dining room and the door slammed shut behind them did Violet dare to comfort Sunny. She rushed to the counter and quickly grabbed her sister, holding the wailing baby close to her chest and rambling apologies to her. She kissed her red, tear streaked face and gently rocked her, trying to mimic the way their mother used to calm Sunny down. 

Klaus was standing quietly next to them, watching with glazed eyes as the pot of pasta on the stove boiled and bubbled over, shooting hot water all over the burner. 

Violet reached over and quickly turned the burner off, but then backed away, not wanting the hot water to splash her already crying baby sister. 

"What…" Klaus started. He trailed off, his gaze still focused on the overflowing pot. He took a deep breath and slowly shifted his gaze to his sisters, letting Violet see how scared and confused he looked. "What are we going to do?" 

She knew she needed to respond with something cheerful and optimistic, but at that moment it didn't seem like the words in her brain wanted to make it to her mouth. She slowly shook her head, mindlessly rubbing Sunny's back as she stared at her little brother. "We… We serve dinner, I guess…" 

She shrugged at him, not knowing what to do anymore than he did. The shift from living with their loving parents who would hug them every chance they got, to living with an abusive man who would make them cry every chance he got, was a huge shock to them all. Violet was supposed to be the wise, all-knowing big sister, but right then? She had absolutely no clue.

After taking a moment to compose themselves, they quickly plated the food and brought it out to the dining room, where the group was laughing and joking with each other as if they hadn't just witnessed Count Olaf harass and terrify an infant. Quietly, they put food on everyone's plate, then headed right back into the kitchen. 

None of them were very hungry, but after serving the troupe, who were hungrier than the children expected, there wasn't much food left anyways. Silently, slowly, they finished off the rest of the pasta, with Violet purposefully not eating a bite until both her siblings said they were full, just to make sure they got enough. It left her stomach not quite satisfied, but she ignored it, staring down at the counter top as her brother and sister were. 

Eventually, the troupe got loud and rowdy, and started demanding the children serve them dessert. Thankfully, they had prepared a bowl of chocolate pudding earlier, and it had been sitting in the fridge ever since. 

They cleared the table and then brought clean bowls out, filling them up with the pudding and then retreating to the relative safety of the kitchen once more. Again, there was a lot less food left over for them than they were expecting. There wasn't even enough pudding left in the bowl for one serving, let alone three, so Violet handed Klaus and Sunny each a small spoon and told them to go ahead and scrape the bowl for whatever was left. She claimed she didn't want any, even though she desperately did, and she sipped on a glass of water as she stood quietly away from the pudding. 

The chocolate didn't look like it lifted their moods, as even after they abandoned their spoons in the empty bowl, they looked upset. Sunny's eyes were still red and puffy from crying, and Klaus just looked deep in thought. 

Violet grabbed a paper towel and wet it with the tap water from the sink, then wiped off Sunny's messy face. The baby squirmed a bit, but Violet managed to get the leftover pudding and puttanesca sauce off her cheeks. She tossed the towel in the trash, and by then it was about time for them to go clear the dining room table once more. 

The group was quiet now, all clearly very intoxicated. The children took all the dishes and silverware and brought them back to the kitchen sink, and soon the group was shuffling out the front door. 

Yet, Count Olaf remained, because there was still a chance for him to do some damage before he left to perform whatever atrocious play he was in this week. He walked into the kitchen and immediately spotted all the dirty dishes. He scowled and crossed his arms, his shiny, scary eyes darting to the children. "I suppose, since you've not cleaned up yet, you can stay home from this play. I don't want to deal with you brats anyways. But after you wash all the dishes, dry them, put them away, and…" He stopped, looking around the kitchen for some other chore he could sling at them. He didn't seem to find anything, as they had already cleaned the kitchen earlier in the day, and he scowled again before continuing. "After doing the dishes, you are to go straight to your beds." 

Bed. Singular, Violet thought, remembering the fact that Count Olaf had only provided one, very small bed for the three of them. She sighed and nodded, and was about to begin washing dishes when she heard Klaus let out an angry huff. She glanced his way and saw his stiff shoulders and clenched fists. She knew that look. He was about to say something, something stupid. She reached out to tap his hand, trying to discreetly warn him to keep quiet, but it was too late.

"You mean our bed, " he replied abruptly and loudly. This caught the attention of the Count, who was just about to walk away, along with some members of the troupe who had lingered by the front door. "You've only given us one bed!" 

Violet's heart caught in her throat. No, stop it, shut up, Klaus. She didn't want Count Olaf to react harshly, as she was sure he would. 

But, oddly, his voice was calm when he responded. "If you'd like another bed, you're welcome to go out and purchase one." His face had taken on a sleazy grin, the same one he usually wore right before he'd hit Violet. 

She took a step towards Klaus, nudging his arm. "Don't say anything, " she whispered. 

He shook his head, his eyebrows furrowed. He took a brave (and stupid) step towards the Count. "You know we don't have any money," he seethed. 

Count Olaf chuckled dryly, beginning to raise his voice. "Oh, but of course you do!" He headed back into the kitchen, his eyes shining with greed and jealousy. "You've inherited that large fortune from your parents. Why don't you just use that?" His hand twitched. 

"Klaus, stop," Violet said, recognizing Olaf's behavior. She knew exactly what would happen if her brother kept mouthing off like this, and she did not want him to have to go through it. It wasn't fun. 

"We can't use that money until Violet turns eighteen!" Klaus said, totally ignoring his sister. 

Will you please shut up, you idiot? Violet thought, upset that Klaus wasn't listening to her. She fixed her eyes on Olaf. His face had gone red with anger, but he stayed silent and still, just staring at Klaus. For a moment, it almost seemed like he wasn't going to do anything. 

Violet should have known better. 

In one sudden move, Olaf's hand struck Klaus in the face so hard that he fell to the floor. His glasses fell off and skidded away as he landed on the grimy tile beneath him, his hand cupped against his cheek. 

Violet gasped, tightening her grip on Sunny, who was balanced on her hip. Sunny shrieked in surprise, trying to lean out of her sister's grasp and towards her brother. 

But Count Olaf's troupe applauded, cheering for him like abusing a child was something heroic and not something illegal. 

"He deserved that," one of them said. 

Olaf's mouth had since twisted into a sickening smile as he looked down at Klaus, curled up on the floor. The man's eyes darted up to Violet. His smile widened, as if the fact that he had just hit her brother was an inside joke between them. 

She wanted to grab the knife sitting on the kitchen counter and jam it through his heart. 

He left the house with his troupe before she got a chance. 

She stood there, staring at the door, furious, for a good minute. The only reason she drew her attention away was because Klaus had begun to cry. 

He had pressed his back against the kitchen cupboards, his knees pulled tight to his chest, his hand still cradling his face and his glasses laying on the floor. His shoulders shook with sobs, and it made Violet's stomach hurt. 

"Klaus…" she sighed tiredly as she kneeled next to him. 

His eyes were shut firmly, and he kept them shut even as Sunny crawled away from Violet and into Klaus's lap so she could hug him. 

Violet dug the heels of her hands into her own eyes. She felt bad that he had gotten hurt, but she had tried to warn him. Olaf shouldn't have hit him, obviously, but maybe if Klaus hadn't been so stubborn… 

"I told you to be quiet," Violet mumbled. "I told you twice. " 

Klaus leaned his head back, his brow furrowing again. " That's not helpful right now, Violet!" he cried, his voice hoarse with sobs as he spoke. 

" No!" Sunny scolded, turning and shaking her head at her big sister. 

Violet let out a miserable chuckle, her head dropping down as she rested her arms on her knees. She stayed silent for a while, just sitting next to Klaus as he cried and Sunny hugged him. 

Everything was so complicated. Ever since their parents died, it was like she had to take over the role of parent for her siblings, because clearly their guardian wasn't going too. It was really hard. She didn't know how to be a parent. She was fourteen , for God's sake. She didn't know how to protect them or raise them, because she never thought she'd have to. 

Her nose burned and her eyes filled with tears, and as much as she wanted to cry right along with Klaus, she knew she couldn't afford that anymore. She had to be strong and unshakable for her siblings, because they needed her support. 

She gulped hard and finally raised her head. Klaus had sort of calmed by then, not really crying anymore but still breathing shakily. His hand stayed over his face where he'd been hit. 

"Let me see." Softly, she took his hand and moved it away from his face. He didn't struggle, just stared blankly ahead of him. His cheek was totally red and even looked a little swollen, and Violet frowned sympathetically. She knew exactly what being hit so hard felt like, but she still didn't want to tell Klaus that. "I'm sorry…" she said instead. 

He didn't respond. 

She sighed and stood up, heading over to the fridge. She opened up the freezer and took out an ice pack, wrapping it in a dish towel before pressing it gently against Klaus's face. He winced, but soon leaned into the relief the cold gave. He took it from her, mumbling a "Thank you." 

She nodded and walked over to pick his glasses up from the floor. She examined them for a moment, and thankfully they weren't broken. She handed them back to him, but he just held them instead of putting them back on.

Softly, she patted the top of his head. "Why don't you just go lay down, okay? I can finish cleaning." 

Klaus sniffled. He stayed on the floor, one arm wrapped loosely around Sunny and the other holding up the ice pack. Violet ruffled his hair, but then left him to his thoughts as she began to wash the dishes. 

He didn’t move from his spot on the floor until she had washed, dried, and put away every dish they’d used, and then said she was going to head to their room. He silently stood and followed her upstairs, and Violet realized that he just must not have wanted to be alone. She let him and Sunny take the bed that night, and promised that she’d keep watch by the door, just in case Olaf was still angry when he came home. 

Her promise seemed to calm her little siblings, and she took a seat right in front of the bedroom door, leaning against it so she’d know right away if someone was trying to open it. “I’ll keep the monsters away,” she whispered, more to herself than to Klaus and Sunny. Her dad always used to say that to her when she was younger, and afraid of the dark. She smiled softly, closing her eyes and leaning her head back. She kept thinking about her mom and dad, and all the good memories she had of them. She missed them deeply, but knew that somehow, some way, they’d always be with her. 

Still, she cried quietly all night long, and only slept for an hour or two, right as the sun began to rise.

I’ve got to get us out of here, was the last thing she thought before she finally drifted to sleep. 

The only person she could think of to talk to about what was happening was Mr. Poe. So, the next day, after they’d finished all the chores and manual labor that Count Olaf forced them to complete, Violet took her siblings down to Mulctuary Money Management. She had them wait in the lobby as she explained to Mr. Poe the abuse that they’d been put through over the past few weeks. 

Mr. Poe didn’t take her seriously. He talked down to her, told her that he couldn’t do anything about it, as if she was just whining for attention and not in legitimate danger. She tried to get him to listen to her, even told him about how much Olaf had been hitting her, not just Klaus, but still he ignored her, and then asked her to leave. 

Frustrated, she stormed out of his office and into the bathroom down the hall. She locked the door behind her, took off her sweater, balled it up, held it over her nose and mouth, and screamed. She screamed long and hard and loud, and she was very glad that her sweater was so thick, because it muffled her outraged shrieks and let her express her feelings without alarming anyone who happened to pass by the bathroom. She shouted into the sweater until her voice broke and she physically could not yell anymore, and then she put her jacket back on and splashed her face with cold water before going back to the lobby of the bank to find Klaus and Sunny. 

She knew that they could both tell that her meeting with Mr. Poe had not gone the way she’d hoped it would, as they both hugged her before she could even get a word out. She hugged them back, whispering hoarsely that everything was going to be okay. 

She was wrong. 

Things began to spiral the very next morning. Count Olaf was home, for once, and had made them breakfast. Violet was immediately suspicious, but Olaf took a bite from Sunny’s bowl to show that it wasn’t poisoned, so she and her siblings began to eat. Violet didn’t let her guard down, though. She knew something was off, especially since he sat there and watched them until they finished their bowls. It was only then that he revealed that Mr. Poe had called him, and that he knew that she’d told him everything. 

She expected him to lose his temper, hit her or hit Klaus or do something violent, but he instead invited all three of them to be a part of his next play. “To make you feel a little more at home,” he’d said. 

Violet was taken aback. She hadn’t expected him to do something like that. He was almost being… nice. It felt wrong. She tried to ignore it, tried to believe that maybe he’d realized he shouldn’t be hurting them and was trying to make up for it. When he’d explained that Klaus and Sunny would play background characters, and that he simply wanted to include them in his work, for a split second she almost felt okay with it. 

But then he announced that she would play his bride. 

She almost vomited all over him. 

The alarm bells in her mind went off like crazy. That’s gross. That’s weird. That’s wrong. I don’t like that. I don’t want to do that. That makes me really uncomfortable. 

She tried to talk him out of it, being as polite as she could be, but it was no use. He made it clear that he was the one in charge, and she had to listen to him. And though he didn’t say it aloud, he also made it abundantly clear that he’d hurt her if she refused. He kept touching her face as he talked, and she could feel her breakfast roiling in her stomach and trying to force its way back up her throat. Finally, he let go of her and left the room, and it was then that she realized that she had been digging her fingernails into the palms of her hands, and when she slowly unclenched her fists, she saw that her nails had left cuts on her skin. 

Klaus tried to make light of the situation, hesitantly saying that being in a play might not be so bad. But Violet knew there was something deeper behind it all, and told her brother so. After a moment, he agreed with her, and they decided to go over to Justice Strauss’s library to read up on inheritance law, just to see if they could find anything that might be helpful in figuring out how Olaf planned to steal their fortune by having them be a part of his play. 

However, after hours of reading and not finding anything that seemed useful, Violet once again considered the fact that maybe Count Olaf was just trying to be nice. She still didn’t like him, not one bit, but maybe he was just trying to win their favor, if only to convince them to give him their fortune. Klaus was not quite as convinced, and stayed behind in the library to keep reading as Violet headed into Justice Strauss’s garden to find her and Sunny. Gardening seemed much better than reading big, boring law books anyways. 

However, her time in the garden was rudely interrupted when one of Olaf’s henchmen, a hook-handed man, came storming up to them, shouting that they needed to go back to Olaf’s house, and that they weren’t allowed to return to Justice Strauss’s place until after the play on Friday. 

Justice Strauss, who Count Olaf had also roped into the play, was too starstruck to register that something might be wrong. She urged the Baudelaires to head back to their house and prepare for the play, and not to worry about spending time with her. 

Violet would rather have done anything but return to Olaf’s house, but the hook handed man grabbed her shirt collar in one hook, and Klaus’s sweater sleeve in the other, and then dragged them back across the street and into the horrible house. He ordered them to go to their room, and, not wanting to anger the already terrifying man, Violet quickly obeyed, pulling Klaus along with her to try and make sure he didn’t talk back and get himself in trouble again. However, he seemed scared of the man, too, and ended up running ahead of Violet up the stairs and to their room. 

Klaus acted weird for the rest of the day. He told Violet she could take the bed when night fell, and that he would just sleep on the floor. She tried to tell him that it was fine, that he didn’t need to worry about her, but he quickly changed the subject. He was acting like he was hiding something, and it made Violet a little scared. She hoped that nobody had hurt him. She asked if he was okay, but he just changed the subject again, and she eventually gave up on trying to talk. But she kept her eye on him, just in case he got worse. 

His level of weirdness didn’t change throughout the afternoon and evening, and he still insisted on letting her use the bed that night, so she simply obliged, if only to make him feel better. However, the bed was not much more comfortable than sleeping on the floor was, and she didn’t get any more sleep than she did when she’d fallen asleep propped up against the door. In fact, she felt like she slept even less , and only finally got some rest around three in the morning, when her exhaustion finally overtook her. 

When she woke up, her heart skipped a beat when she noticed Klaus’s sweater sitting in the window sill, but not him. 

She immediately sat up, looking around the room frantically. Where’d he go? 

Sunny was still asleep in the pile of curtains she’d been using as a bed, so Violet stood up and rushed out of the bedroom, hoping Klaus was okay. 

He’s fine, I’m sure he’s fine. He’s probably just in the bathroom or something… 

But when she walked over to their bathroom, the door was wide open and the room was empty. That was when she really started to panic. 

She stood frozen in the hallway, not sure where to start. Olaf’s house was big, and Klaus could have been anywhere in it, vulnerable to the predator that was their guardian. 

However, she thought she heard voices coming from downstairs, so she hurried down the staircase, and found with relief that Klaus was standing in the foyer, looking unharmed. She sighed heavily, stopping and leaning against the railing of the staircase in relief and fatigue. 

But then Klaus noticed that she was there, and he turned to her, and she could see how scared and angry he looked, and all of her panic returned. She stood up straight. “What?” she asked. “What is it? What’s wrong?” 

“Count Olaf plans to marry you for real, ” he seethed, clutching a book to his stomach. 

“What? But he can’t do that, it’s just a play.” 

Klaus explained everything he’d read in the book about nuptial law that he’d apparently stolen from Justice Strauss’s library, and the more he talked, the more sick Violet felt. Count Olaf wanted to force a fourteen year old to marry him? She knew that the man had something wrong with him, but this really just confirmed her fears. 

Her blood ran cold when Count Olaf stepped out of the kitchen, his gray, shiny eyes landing right on her. Terror stricken tears spilled from her eyes before she could stop them, and she grabbed Klaus’s arm, pulling him upstairs with her. “We need to get Sunny and leave, right now. ” 

Klaus stumbled behind her. “Should we talk to Mr. Poe again? We have evidence now.” 

“I-I don’t know.” 

“Well, what about Justice Strauss? If she knows what’s happening, surely-” 

“ I don’t know, Klaus! I don’t know!” she sobbed. “I’m so scared, I don’t know what to do. We’re just gonna leave. That’s all I have right now, okay? We’re gonna leave.” 

She tore into their bedroom, dashing to the pile of curtains that held her little sister. “Sunny? Come here, baby, we gotta go.” She moved back the curtain that served as Sunny’s blanket, expecting to find her sister beneath it, but she was only met with another curtain. She pulled that one back, too, but then there was just the floor. 

She cursed and picked both curtains up, unraveling them but still not finding Sunny. “No… No, no, no!” 

“ Yes, ” the wheezy voice of Count Olaf echoed through the room. “It certainly is strange to find a child missing. And one so small, so helpless. ” 

“Where’s Sunny?” she asked. She was still facing the corner of the room, gripping the curtains so hard her knuckles turned white.  

“But then again, strange things happen every day,” Count Olaf continued, ignoring her question. “In fact, if you two orphans follow me out to the backyard, I think we’ll all see something very unusual.” 

Violet threw the curtains to the floor, pushing past Count Olaf and storming to the back door. She slammed the door open, and it hit the concrete wall of the house. She thought she even heard the wood of the door splinter from the force of which it hit the wall, but she didn’t bother to turn around and look. 

She quickly scanned the backyard, but saw no trace of her baby sister in any of the dead grass or piles of firewood Olaf had forced them to chop. She did, however, catch a glimpse of the axe she’d chopped wood with, and had a brief thought to slice off Olaf’s head with it. It was certainly sharp enough, but she might never find Sunny if she did that. 

She whirled around to face the vile man, who was leaning casually against the newly broken door frame. “ Where is my sister?” she fumed. 

He merely smiled, like her anger was amusing to him, and pointed up. She looked towards the sky, and soon saw exactly where her sister was. She was being dangled out the window of Count Olaf’s tower, locked in a birdcage, with rope around her body and tape over her mouth. 

“Sunny!” Klaus cried. 

Violet was so, so mad that she could do nothing but cry. Hot tears stung her eyes and fell rapidly down her face as she stared up at her little sister, trapped and scared and clearly crying, too. “Let her go! ” she yelled, turning back to Olaf. “Let my sister go!” 

He just shrugged. “Okay. If that’s what you want, I’m perfectly willing to let her go, but surely you must realize how high up she is. That’s a thirty foot tower, and thirty feet is a long way for such a small person to fall, even if she’s in a cage. But, if you insist-” 

“ No! ” Klaus interrupted. “ Don’t! ” 

Violet clenched her fists. “What do you want? What do I have to do for you to let her go?” 

“Just one thing.” He sauntered over to her, his expression neutral but his eyes shining in a horrible way. “It’s quite simple, really. For me to let Sunny go unharmed, all that you have to do, Violet, is marry me.” 

Violet was shaking her head no before he even finished speaking. She started stepping backwards, away from him, but he only moved closer and closer until she bumped into a log behind her. She reached her arm backwards, trying to steady herself, and found that her hand wrapped around the handle of the axe stuck in the log. She, again, thought to grab it and hack it through his scraggly neck, but as much as she wanted him dead, she didn't think she could bring herself to be the one to do it. Still, she kept her grip on the weapon, just in case. 

“Come now,” he said, his voice feigning kindness. He reached out and started to play with her hair, and it made Violet want to bite his hand off. “Would it really be so bad to be my wife?” 

“Yes,” she replied immediately. She moved her head back as much as she could, trying to stay away from his grimy hand. “I would rather die.” 

His smile only widened. “If you refuse, then Sunny will die. So, who will it be? You or her?” 

Violet gulped. She looked to the side, hoping that breaking eye contact with him would trick her mind into thinking he wasn’t quite so close. It didn’t work, because she still felt like throwing up and murdering him, (not necessarily in that order.) 

But… She was the parent now, whether she liked it or not. It was her job to keep her siblings safe, even at her own expense. And, honestly, she was glad to do it. She loved Klaus and she loved Sunny, and she would do anything to keep them from getting hurt. 

“If…” she started slowly, keeping her gaze on anything but Olaf. She briefly caught a glimpse of Klaus, who kept glancing from her to Sunny, tears in his eyes. He was scared. She didn’t want him to be scared. “If you let Sunny go,” she continued, “then I will marry you.” She finally looked back at Olaf. “But only if you promise you will not hurt her.”

He gave her a sinister, slimy grin. “You have my word.” Finally, he stepped away from her, and, finally, she could breathe again. “I will let her go, safely, I promise… After the performance. I don’t want you getting any ideas.” 

Klaus said something, but Violet wasn’t listening. Her focus was solely on Sunny, so high up in the air. Surely the door to the tower would be guarded from the inside, so she couldn’t just go up and save her, but… Who would think to guard the outside? There was no conceivable way for anyone to figure out how to climb thirty feet up the smooth brick that made the tower, grab the baby, and then carry her down safely. 

Unless you were Violet Baudelaire. 

She hadn’t even really noticed she’d done it, but Violet had taken her purple ribbon out of her pocket and tied her hair back with it, the way she did when she needed to think without worrying about her hair getting in her face. Her mind was whirring, thinking of what device would let her get up there to save her sister. 

A plane or small helicopter would be helpful, but too loud. A large magnet could possibly attract the birdcage and pull it to the ground, but that would be just as bad as falling, and the bird cage would most likely be crushed, Sunny along with it. I could build a ladder with all the firewood, but, even with as much wood as is piled up outside, it wouldn’t be enough for a thirty foot ladder, and chopping more wood would make too much noise. But a grappling hook… I’d have to throw it very high to be able to catch it on the ledge of the tower window, but doing so much manual labor for Olaf these past few weeks has done wonders for my arm strength. I could use those curtains and maybe some old blankets or clothes as the rope, and I could bend some kitchen utensils to make the hook part… That could work. 

A slow smile crept across Violet’s face. She had a plan, and she was confident in her ability to make it happen. She was going to save her sister, and then she was going to grab Klaus and they would make a break for it. And all without her having to marry the wretched Count. 

She put her plan into action that very night. She waited until she heard the door of Olaf’s bedroom squeak shut, and then she snuck out of her own room and down into the kitchen. As quietly as she could, she took four forks out of the silverware drawer and turned on one of the burners on the stove.

The flame burst up immediately, and Violet used the fire to heat the ends of the forks and weld them together, oven mitts on her hands to try and protect herself from getting burned. Once the fork ends were all stuck together, she dropped them into the sink that she had filled with cold water, and waited until the metal hardened before she reached in and took her contraption out. It looked dangerous, almost like a throwing star, but she wasn’t quite done with it. 

She began to heat the tops of the forks so she could bend them downwards, to form them into more of a grappling hook shape. The nearly molten metal was so hot that it burned through her mitts and singed her fingers, yet she continued her work. Her hands hurt so badly that she wanted to rip them off of her body, but she had absolutely no time to waste, so she powered through it, and finally bent the last of the forks into the shape she wanted. 

She dropped the thing into the sink again to let it cool, but also thrust her hands, oven mitts and all, into the water. The cold felt good on her burns, but she soon took her hands right back out so she could turn the stove off. By then, her homemade grappling hook had cooled, and she took it out of the sink, not bothering to drain the water before rushing back upstairs. 

She headed into the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind her. She’d stashed curtains and blankets and clothes in there earlier, along with a small knife from the kitchen so she could cut strips of the fabric. She turned on the small light in the bathroom, and, after taking just a second to tighten the ribbon that held her hair back, she sat down on the floor and cut up all the fabric until she had enough to make a rope. She tied each strip together with the devil’s tongue knot, (which was the strongest knot she knew), and finally knotted one end of her rope onto her grappling hook. She gave it a good, hard tug to make sure it was sturdy, and then snuck out to the backyard. 

The night was utterly silent, except for the breeze that rushed by and tousled her hair, and she realized that she, too, would have to be utterly silent. She figured that it wouldn’t be too much of an issue, as grappling hooks aren’t typically a loud tool, but when she first attempted to launch the hook up to the tower window, it hit the stone with a very loud clang! 

She froze up as the grappling hook fell and landed on the ground with a thump! She was sure that someone must have heard it, and that any moment now she’d be caught. She stayed still for over a minute, but no one came outside or leaned out the tower window, so she figured that nobody had noticed. She let out a sigh and picked the hook up again, swinging it as hard as she could and then hurling it up towards the tower. 

It hit the windowsill this time, but didn’t catch onto it, again making noise as it fell. She waited once more for someone to notice her, but it didn’t seem like anyone did. So she resumed her efforts, throwing the grappling hook for a third time. It didn’t catch on the tower, but this time it didn’t fall right to the ground. It fell right on Violet’s shoulder, and the sharp edges of the forks falling with such a velocity sliced through her dress and cut her skin. 

She hissed in agony, taking her hand, (which still throbbed from her burns), and touching her shoulder. Now her arm was throbbing, too, and her shoulder was wet with blood. She knew she must have cut herself deeply, and needed medical help, but Sunny was more important to her than her own pain was. 

She closed her eyes and tried, one more time, to throw the grappling hook up to the tower window. It clanged again, but this time there was no thump of it hitting the ground. She slowly pried her eyes open and looked up, and found with surprise that the hook was actually in the tower window! Cautiously, she grabbed onto her rope and hung her body weight on it, and when the hook didn’t fall, she let out a shocked and hopeful laugh. 

She walked over to the tower, gripping the rope, and carefully began to climb, pressing her feet against the wall to try and steady herself as she ascended. Her hands hurt and her shoulder hurt, and all the pain from her burns and her cut was giving her a headache, but she pushed through it. She was going to save her baby sister, and then she could worry about herself. 

Violet climbed for what seemed like forever, not daring to look down or to the side or even up. She stared directly at her rope or the tower wall, and for the last third of her climb, her eyes were squeezed shut, because she couldn’t bear to look even at her rope anymore. The fabric she had used to make the rope was so flimsy, and if she hadn’t been nearly starving herself the last few weeks in order to keep Klaus and Sunny properly fed, she was sure that her weight would have broken her rope. 

Yet, suddenly she felt metal instead of fabric, and she knew that she’d made it to the top. She opened up her eyes, planning to grab Sunny and then rappel down, but, instead of just an empty window, she was met with the face of the hook-handed man. She gasped, nearly losing her grip on the rope, but before she could even attempt to make a getaway, the man had grabbed her and dragged her through the window, into Count Olaf’s tower room. 

He yelled at her and shoved her into a chair, and then used a walkie talkie on his belt to call Olaf and tell him what she’d done. 

Tattle-tale, she thought, and ripped the sleeve of her dress off to tie it like a bandage around her hurt shoulder. Her whole body was now screaming from the exertion of the climb, but she didn’t acknowledge it. Instead, she glanced over to the window, where her baby sister was still dangling in the birdcage. She caught Sunny’s gaze, and saw that her sweet, baby blue eyes were red, and her chubby little cheeks were stained with tears. Violet gave her the most comforting smile she could muster, and saw that, behind the tape, Sunny was smiling back. 

She wanted so badly to free her from the cage, ropes, and tape, but was afraid that if she moved from her seat, the hook handed man would do something to hurt Sunny. So, she just made a silly face at her little sister, and was glad when Sunny reacted with a muffled giggle. 

Despite the ropes that bound her arms to her body, Violet could see that Sunny’s shoulders had relaxed. She let out the smallest of sighs, relieved that she could at least make the baby feel a little better, even under such horrible circumstances. 

Soon, Klaus was in the room too, as the hook handed man had left to go grab him. Klaus was in his pajamas, and looked tired and confused, like he’d just been woken up. 

The hook handed man told them that they would stay up in the tower room until the play, to make sure they wouldn’t try to escape again, and then he left, locking the door behind him. 

Klaus seemed to be fully awake by then, and when he noticed the blood seeping through the makeshift bandage on Violet’s shoulder, and the red blisters that had formed on her hands from her burns, his eyes widened and he rushed over to her. “Violet? What happened to you?” 

She shook her head. “Nothing, I’m fine.” 

“You’re bleeding. Did Olaf do this?” 

“No. I just hurt myself trying to rescue Sunny.” 

“What in the world did you do to hurt yourself this much?” 

Violet ignored him and stood up. The footsteps outside the door had finally faded away, so she figured it was safe to try and get to Sunny. She hurried to the window and reached out, sticking her hand through the bars of the locked cage and cupping Sunny’s face. “I’m gonna get you out of here, okay, baby?” she whispered. 

Sunny whimpered and leaned into the palm of Violet’s hand. She felt so cold, yet her skin rubbing against Violet’s burns made them sting like crazy. Her brain tried to make her flinch away, but her heart just wouldn’t let her. She rubbed her swollen thumb over Sunny’s cheek, doing the best she could to comfort her. 

“Violet, what happened? ” Klaus asked again, coming to stand beside her. 

She sighed, and knew that he wouldn’t drop the subject until she answered his questions. She explained how she’d gotten her wounds, and how she’d then been captured by the hook handed man. She assured him, again, that she was fine, but he still looked upset. 

“We need to get you some help,” he insisted. 

“From who? Olaf doesn’t care and neither do any of his associates. Look, Klaus, I’m okay. A little sore, sure, but I’m not about to die or anything. I’m in more danger from being trapped up here than I am from a few burns.” 

He sighed. “I guess... Can we get out the way you came in?” 

“The hook handed man gave my grappling hook to Olaf, so not really.” 

“Can you make another one?” 

Violet glanced around the room. It was filled with tons of junk, but none of it would help her make another grappling hook. “Nope.” 

Klaus groaned in frustration and tugged at his hair. “This is horrible! What are we gonna do?” 

“I don’t know. I’m fresh out of plans.” And luck, for that matter. 

“You shouldn’t have to marry Count Olaf. He’s disgusting, and who knows what he’ll do to you once he has our fortune?” 

Violet shrugged. Klaus was right, of course, but she didn’t exactly know what to do about it. For the next few hours, they paced around the tower room, looking through all the junk Olaf had stored up there to try and find anything helpful. Occasionally they’d throw some wild plan out in the open, but they knew that none of their ideas would really work. Every few minutes, they’d stop whatever they were doing to go give Sunny some comfort and encouragement, and after a little while she managed to curl up on the floor of the cage and drift off to a fitful sleep. 

Eventually, Count Olaf came to collect them for the play, threatening to drop Sunny to her death if anything went wrong during the performance. Violet walked over to the still sleeping Sunny one last time, pressing a kiss to her fingers and then pressing her fingers to the baby’s temple, stroking her wispy hair for a moment before Count Olaf grabbed her and dragged her out of the room. 

All too soon, Violet was backstage at the theater, being forced into an ugly, dirty white dress for her “performance.” She had been thinking hard on what to do all night and all day, and she had come up with a crazy idea that just might work. She wanted to ask Justice Strauss about her idea, but Olaf was keeping a close eye on her the whole time, so she didn’t try to approach the judge. 

She prayed that her idea was right and not stupid, and held her breath as Count Olaf forced her onstage. Justice Strauss said her lines as if she was officiating a real marriage, and little did she know, she was. Olaf had a nasty grin on his face the whole time, particularly when he said, “I do,” and signed the wedding certificate. 

Then it was Violet’s turn, and though she wanted to turn around and run far away, she said “I do,” and signed her name on the certificate, but with her left hand, which was her non-dominant one. She knew that she had to sign the certificate “in her own hand” for the wedding to be legal, and she had a hunch that if she, a right-handed person, signed the document in her left hand, then the certificate would be void and, therefore, the marriage not legal. 

As soon as she finished signing the paper, Count Olaf began to laugh loudly and triumphantly, and finally revealed to the audience what he had just done. The audience and Justice Strauss gasped, and Strauss tried to say that the marriage wasn’t legal, but Count Olaf was clever along with being vile. He had had Justice Strauss say exactly what she’d say at a real wedding, and had even obtained an official marriage license from the town hall to use as a “prop” in the play. 

“I’m afraid Count Olaf is right,” Justice Strauss said, through the tears that were falling down her face. “This marriage is legally binding.” 

Violet hoped otherwise, and quickly explained to the audience and the judge what she’d done, by signing the document in her left hand when she was really right handed. She asked Justice Strauss if the marriage was still legally binding, and, after thinking for a long time, Justice Strauss declared that it was not, making the whole audience clap and cheer, and making Count Olaf scowl deeply. 

“In that case,” he said, taking the walkie talkie from his belt, “you will marry me again, and correctly this time, or I will-” 

He was interrupted by Sunny’s voice ringing through the theater as she crawled onstage, the hook handed man following behind her. Violet smiled, and rushed to her baby sister, picking her up and hugging her very tightly, leaving lots of kisses on her little face. 

He was too late, she thought ecstatically. Sunny’s safe now because Olaf was too late. 

Klaus rushed over to them, too, giving both his sisters a hug, just as the crowd began to cry out for Count Olaf’s arrest. Violet thought for a moment that he really was going to be arrested for his crimes, but then the theater suddenly went black. 

She heard a lot of people panicking in the darkness, and she held Sunny a little tighter, as she could not see where Count Olaf or any of his associates were anymore, and did not want her poor baby sister to be taken from her for a third time. She reached down and wrapped one of her arms around Klaus’s shoulders, keeping him close to her because she did not want him to be taken from her, either. 

Out of nowhere, someone grabbed her shoulder, digging their fingernails into her wound. She winced in pain just as a voice hissed in her ear, “I’ll get your fortune if it’s the last thing I do. And when I have it, I’ll kill you and your siblings with my own two hands.” 

Violet let out a little cry of terror, and suddenly the lights flipped back on, but there was no one holding her shoulder anymore. Count Olaf and his associates had all escaped, leaving her standing in the middle of the stage, breathing heavily, clinging to her little siblings as if her life depended on it. 

He’s gone, she thought, horrified. He’s gone but he’ll be back, and he won’t stop until we’re dead… 

Chapter Text

Only after Count Olaf escaped did Mr. Poe realize that Violet had been telling the truth about being in danger from him. Poe finally listened to what she had to say, and was appalled by all they’d gone through. And when he saw the injuries she’d sustained from living with Count Olaf and from trying to rescue Sunny, he immediately rushed her to a hospital. Good thing he did, too, because it turned out that Violet’s shoulder was worse than she’d thought, and Olaf grabbing at her wound and digging his nails into it had agitated it again, causing the sleeve of her dress to be totally soaked with blood by the time a doctor saw her. 

Her cut was cleaned and stitched up, and she was given a soothing lotion for her burns and instructions to ice her bruises every day, and to try to get some rest. The doctor also noticed her signs of malnourishment, and urged her to try to get back into a healthy eating schedule. She’d agreed at the time, but knew that she wasn’t going to do that unless she could make it work in a way that didn’t take any food away from her siblings. She just hoped that their next guardian would take better care of them than the last one had. 

But as Mr. Poe began to drive them down the road to their newest home; a road named Lousy Lane that smelled like spoiled horseradish and cow poop; she didn’t really have high hopes for the situation. That, coupled with the fact that Mr. Poe’s car wasn’t big enough to fit any of their luggage, and left her in her itchy, dirty, bloodied bridal dress, made her stomach drop. She knew she was about to be forced into another situation that left her as the sole caretaker for her brother and sister. 

She wanted to cry so badly. She also wanted a long, hot shower, a fresh change of clothes, and the biggest meal of her life, but she had a feeling she wasn’t going to be allowed any of that; except for maybe the crying part. However, both Klaus and Sunny had fallen asleep on her, and she wasn’t going to wake the poor things up unless absolutely necessary, and, at that moment, crying was not necessary. 

Finally, Mr. Poe pulled into a long, winding driveway, and the view before her made Violet gasp. She had been expecting an old, weathered farmhouse from the looks of the terrain that lead to the place, but the house before her was the complete opposite. The driveway was paved with beautiful, colorful stones, and lined with huge bushes that had been elegantly trimmed into the shape of twisting, slithering snakes. In the middle of the absolutely enormous, round driveway was a graceful marble fountain, bubbling with the clearest, bluest water Violet had ever seen. Beyond that was a gorgeous, three story, white stone house, with a big glass dome clinging to the side that seemed to store lots of little cages. Violet couldn’t see inside the cages, but from the choice of landscaping, she assumed that this guardian must be fond of snakes, and she wasn’t sure how to feel about it. 

Snakes did fascinate her, she would admit, but she didn’t think she really wanted one inside her house. If they were outside, living their own life, leaving her alone, then good. But inside ? Where they could get loose and strangle her in her sleep? The thought was dark and it concerned her, so she tried to stop thinking about it and focus on how surprisingly pretty the property was, a welcome change to the pigsty that was Count Olaf’s residence. 

Mr. Poe parked the car and turned it off, glancing in the rearview mirror at her and her siblings. She was squished in the middle seat, Klaus dozing on her right shoulder and Sunny drooling on her left arm. Poe caught her gaze and gave her a small smile, which she returned. She was still upset with him for not listening to her sooner about Count Olaf, but she was raised with the notion that holding a grudge wouldn’t do anyone any good, so she was trying to at least be polite to him. 

“Ready to meet your new guardian?” Poe asked. 

“I guess so…” she whispered. “Who is our guardian, by the way? You didn’t tell us, yet.” 

“Oh! Of course, it must have slipped my mind. Your new guardian is a fine man and a friend of your parents’. His name is Doctor Montgomery Montgomery, and he’s a world-renowned herpetologist. A herpetologist is someone who studies reptiles, by the way, such as frogs.” 

Violet chuckled softly. Frogs were amphibians, not reptiles, but she didn’t correct Mr. Poe. Klaus would have, if he were awake, and she was glad he was still sleeping. He could be a real brat sometimes, but he was only twelve years old, and not quite self-conscious yet. She’d been a brat at that age, too, so she couldn’t blame or judge him just yet. 

Still, she was his big sister, so she had to bully him a little bit. She jostled her shoulder, trying to wake him up. “Get off me,” she complained. “We’re here.” 

“ Violet… ” he whined, sitting up. “I was sleeping… ” 

“Well, we’re here , so stop sleeping." She dragged out the words with a roll of her eyes. "C’mon, get out of the car.” 

“Aren’t you gonna wake Sunny up?” 

Violet shook her head and gently picked up Sunny, cradling her and being careful not to wake the small girl. “No. She’s just a baby, she needs more sleep than you.” 

“You’re mean,” Klaus grumbled as he climbed out of the car. 

Violet rolled her eyes again and climbed out, too. For the past month and a half, she’d let her mind and body be deeply traumatized just to keep him safe. She was not mean. But she could tell by the tone of his voice that he was just messing with her, and didn’t really think she was being mean. So she scoffed and replied, “Deal with it, loser.” 

“ You’re the loser,” he snapped back. 

“Children, please, stop bickering,” Poe admonished. “Siblings should never fight, it’s not healthy.” 

Violet and Klaus glanced at each other, giving each other looks that said, We’re only joking. He needs to relax. But they stopped “ fighting ,” for Mr. Poe's sake. “Sorry,” they mumbled. 

Mr. Poe nodded, taking a moment to brush off his suit coat before leading the children up to the front door of the house. He knocked on the light oak door, then took a step back. They waited quietly on the front steps, and listened as they heard footsteps rushing up to the front door. Violet held Sunny a little tighter, subtly placing her feet in a position that would make it easy for her to step in front of Klaus, in case she needed to protect him from something. 

Her heart raced and her body flinched as the door was flung open. In the doorway stood a short man with a very squiggly mustache, and a very large smile. “Hello!” his friendly voice bellowed. “Welcome, welcome!” 

Violet relaxed a twinge. At the very least, this man, (whose first name was apparently the same as his last), was a lot less menacing than Count Olaf was when they’d first met him. Still, she was skeptical, and stayed wary as they were invited into the house. 

The inside was just as pretty as the outside, and smelled of coconut. Violet smiled slightly at the scent. She loved coconut. She thought the taste was delightful, and had always felt that coconut shampoos and body washes smelled better on her than anything else did. 

Her eyes roamed the foyer as Dr. Montgomery talked, and she noticed lots of pictures of snakes and other reptiles and amphibians framed on all the walls. There was even a chameleon statue sitting on the end of a curved staircase, and it took her a moment to realize that it was a real chameleon and not a fake one. The sight made her smile again, and she was so distracted by the incredible creature that she nearly didn’t notice it when Dr. Montgomery held his hand out to her for a handshake. Klaus had to nudge her arm to bring her attention to the man, and she blushed, embarrassed, when she finally shook his hand and introduced herself. 

“Sorry,” she said. “I-I’m Violet Baudelaire. And, uh, this is Sunny. She’s sleeping, but-” She glanced down at her baby sister, curled up in her arms, and saw that her eyes were actually open, glancing around in confusion. “Oh, she’s awake! Hey, baby…” She sat Sunny up, balancing her on her hip so she could look around better. She rubbed her tiny arm, holding her hand and giving her small fingers a kiss. “How was your nap?” 

Sunny rubbed her eyes and nodded, babbling to Violet and asking where they were. Violet explained everything and Dr. Montgomery said hello, complimenting Sunny’s teeth when he noticed how sharp they were. He compared them to the fangs of a Gaboon Viper, which apparently had the longest and sharpest fangs of any snake, and the comparison made Sunny give him her toothiest grin. Montgomery laughed heartily at that, and asked to hold Sunny, which the baby agreed to right away. 

It made Violet a little nervous to let anyone besides her or Klaus hold her baby sister, especially after what had happened the last time she let Sunny out of her sight, so she kept a very close watch on the man, ready to pounce if he tried anything she didn’t like. But Dr. Montgomery was very gentle with Sunny, and made sure to support her back and under her legs so she wouldn’t slip and fall. He talked respectfully to her, and even made her giggle a few times. He seemed to be a kind soul, and after a minute or two, Violet’s mind stopped spinning so fast. Dr. Montgomery was actually pretty okay. 

Soon, he was leading them all into the kitchen, still holding Sunny, as he told them exactly why the house smelled so strongly of coconut. He had just finished baking a coconut cream cake, and it was sitting on the kitchen counter, ready to be cut and served to all five of them. 

Violet didn’t think she’d ever wanted anything as badly as she, in that moment, wanted a slice of that cake. Just the sight of it made her mouth water, and her stomach reminded her how hungry she was. Montgomery handed Sunny back to Violet, inviting them all to sit down at the dining room table. Violet took a seat, resting Sunny on her lap. Soon, a small plate with a thick slice of cake was sitting in front of her, and just as soon as everyone else got a piece, she picked up her fork and took a bite. 

It tasted exquisite. The actual cake part was soft and moist, the buttercream was light and sweet, and the coconut flavor ran through it all and mixed with the vanilla flavoring to create a delicious masterpiece. Violet, again, wanted to cry. She hadn’t tasted anything this rich and pleasant in a long time. She ate the first bite quickly, just so her stomach would stop growling, but the rest she savored, letting every forkful melt in her mouth before she swallowed. 

She also gave a bite of cake to Sunny, and she ate it, but didn’t seem too impressed. Dr. Montgomery noticed this and commented on it, and Klaus explained that it was just because Sunny would rather have something crunchy to eat. So Dr. Montgomery gave her a raw carrot instead, which she happily munched on as everyone else ate their cake. 

Despite the fact that she was trying to eat slowly, Violet finished her slice first. She wanted to ask for another. She could have eaten the whole rest of the cake all to herself. She was still so hungry, but she didn’t want to seem greedy, so she instead used her fork to scrape up and eat the rest of the frosting and crumbs off of her plate, until the plate almost looked clean. 

Finally, everyone else seemed done, and Mr. Poe took his leave. Dr. Montgomery turned to Violet and her siblings, and led them each up to their rooms. They had separate bedrooms, and separate beds, plural. Violet thought that she couldn’t have been happier. Her bed looked so snuggly, and big enough that it could actually fit her. Just by looking at it, she could tell she was finally going to be able to sleep through the night again. 

But then Dr. Montgomery showed her the closet in her room, which was filled with fresh, clean clothes that all looked soft and comfortable. That just added to her joy, because she was more than ready to get out of the horrible, soiled, itchy bridal dress she was still wearing. 

He also showed her the bathroom down the hall from her room, which held a very nice looking shower. Klaus and Sunny were still marveling over their own rooms, and they weren’t covered in nearly as much grime as she was, so she quickly called dibs on the bathroom and hopped into the shower. 

The water was nearly boiling hot, and it hurt the burns on her hands, but it felt so good everywhere else that she didn’t care. She stood very still for a very long time, enjoying the water pelting her skin and beginning to rinse away the dirt and blood that caked her body. Already, she was feeling better, safer, and suddenly all the emotions she’d been bottling up so tightly started to decompress and rush up to her brain. Before she could even attempt to push down the lump in her throat, she was sobbing, hugging herself tightly as her shoulders trembled. She leaned against the tiled shower wall and cried out all of the feelings that had been pestering her for so long. 

Crying felt good. Finally being able to release what she was feeling was very therapeutic, as was the hot water relaxing her tense muscles. Eventually, the heat and steam numbed any pain, (physical pain, at least), and though she was still crying a bit, she actually got around to cleaning off. She shampooed her hair at least four times, and washed her body off even more than that. At long last, she truly felt clean, and ended the shower by sitting down on the shower floor, right under the hot water, letting the water pressure wash off any last bits of soap that clung to her. 

She figured that she should probably turn the shower off, so she didn’t waste any more water than she already had, but even after the water was off, she laid on her back on the shower floor for a good, long while. She nearly fell asleep right there, as the stress from the past month had slipped away and left her with nothing but pure exhaustion. She had to force herself to stand up and actually get out of the shower, but found with delight that there was a pile of fluffy bathrobes next to the pile of towels under the sink, so she put a robe on and tied the belt tightly around her waist. She brushed out her hair and cleaned her teeth, then headed back to her room and collapsed on the bed. The bed felt even better than it looked, and, again, she had to force herself to get up and get dressed. 

There were plenty of dresses and other day clothes in the closet, but she decided to put on the warmest pair of pajamas she could find, even though it wasn’t quite nighttime yet. It was close enough for her, and as soon as she was dressed, she curled up under the blanket and took a nap in her new, fresh bed. 

The next few weeks living with Dr. Montgomery were amazing. He was very kind, and never made Violet feel the way Count Olaf did. She wasn’t tense or full of dread anymore. Instead, she found herself smiling and laughing a lot, and though they still had to help with chores, Dr. Montgomery helped too, and didn’t overwhelm them with tasks that were not suited for their age or abilities. 

Soon, Violet and her siblings fell into the habit of calling him Uncle Monty instead of Dr. Montgomery, because they just felt so safe around him. They spent their days with him, going to fun places like movie theaters, and hanging out in the large glass dome Violet had seen upon arriving at his home for the first time. He called it The Reptile Room, and it was full of snakes and lizards and turtles and crocodiles, even a few frogs. All the animals were friendly, particularly a very large, black snake called The Incredibly Deadly Viper. 

The viper was actually not deadly at all, and was probably the kindest creature Violet had ever met. They called him Ink, for short, and Ink loved Sunny. They bonded over the sharpness of their teeth and fondness for biting crunchy things. Because the snake was just so big, it did make her a little nervous when it coiled itself around her baby sister, but Sunny was always at ease with Ink, so Violet tried not to worry too much. 

But Violet thought that probably the best part of it all was the food. Uncle Monty was a great cook, and was constantly whipping up something delicious. For the first couple of days, Violet still only ate very small portions, partially to make sure Klaus and Sunny got enough, and partially because she felt sick if she ate much more than that. But finally her appetite expanded again, and she realized that there was plenty for everyone, so she usually ended up going back for seconds. Little by little, she started to regain the weight she’d lost, and though she wasn’t quite back up to her normal weight, she looked a lot healthier. But she cared less about her appearance and more about how she was feeling . She felt strong again, and less tired all the time, and having a full stomach always increased her mood exponentially. 

Violet was happy. She was really, truly happy. Her mind felt at peace, because the huge burden of being the sole caretaker for her siblings was released. That was Monty’s job, and he was good at it. She never needed to protect Klaus and Sunny from him. She never needed to protect herself from him. She was safe, her siblings were safe, and everything was okay again.

She even almost forgot about Count Olaf. Almost. 

One day, Uncle Monty had run to the store, and left Violet and her siblings at home to take care of the reptiles. They were in the Reptile Room, and were just lounging around and hanging out, as they’d already attended to the needs of the animals. Klaus was curled up in a big armchair, reading a book, and didn’t seem to notice the old tortoise that had crawled over and plopped down by his feet. Sunny was munching on a stick of celery with Ink, and Violet was using a little cat toy to play fetch with a bearded dragon, giggling every time the lizard skittered across the smooth tiled floor. 

The doorbell rang suddenly, catching Violet’s attention. She frowned a little. Surely Uncle Monty wasn’t back yet, he’d only just left for the store a few minutes ago. She stood up and glanced out the clear glass window of the Reptile Room, and just barely caught a glimpse of a taxi backing out of the driveway. 

The doorbell rang again, twice this time, like whoever was at the door was getting impatient. The sound made Klaus look up from his book, blinking dazedly as his focus shifted from whatever he was reading back to reality.

“Who’s at the door?” he asked, his voice a little rough from not speaking for so long.

Violet glanced over her shoulder at him and shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m not sure if we’re supposed to answer the door when Monty’s gone…” 

“No…” Sunny whined, and when Violet looked her way, she saw that Sunny was cowering behind Ink, her little arms wrapped tightly around the snake’s body. Ink looked defensive and alert, clearly sensing Sunny’s worry. 

“Oh, honey, it’s okay,” Violet whispered. She kneeled next to her baby sister and gently patted her head. “Everything’s fine, you don’t need to be scared.” 

Sunny hid her face in Ink’s scales, and the snake curled protectively around her as the doorbell rang yet again, three times in a row. Violet turned and glanced towards the open door of the Reptile Room, into the front entryway. 

“I’ll go check the door, you two stay here,” she said. 

Sunny let out a concerned yelp, and Violet kissed her cheek before standing and heading to the front door. Whoever was outside had started spam pressing the bell, as it had begun to ring every half a second. 

"Okay, okay," Violet mumbled, the annoying noise starting to give her a headache. "Good lord…" 

She stopped in front of the door, going to check the peephole to see who was there but instead finding that the door didn't have one. She paused, her hand on the door knob. Should she still open up even though she couldn't see who it was? 

The person outside started pounding the door in rapid succession, all the while still ringing the doorbell. She frowned. Maybe whoever it was needed help, or was in danger. Concerned, she unlocked the deadbolt and opened the door just a crack to peek outside. 

"Can I help-" she started to say, but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the eyes of the man at the door. 

He was in disguise. He was bald and had a very long beard and huge, round glasses, but none of that mattered. She knew those eyes. They haunted her nightmares, and every time she looked at the scars on her body, she was reminded of those horrible eyes. Those were the eyes of Count Olaf. 

Immediately she tried to slam the door shut, but he jammed his foot between the door and the frame, preventing her from closing it. She pushed on the door with all her might, not caring if she hurt him in the process. Actually, she was rather hoping to break his foot, but even with her regained health, Count Olaf was much stronger and heavier than Violet was. He leaned against the door and it opened, pushing her out of the way despite how hard she fought to keep him out. 

"Now, now, Violet, is this any way to treat a guest?" Count Olaf taunted, grinning sadistically at her. His smile snapped into an angry frown, and he kicked the front door, sending it flying shut, the impact echoing loudly through the foyer and making the floors tremble slightly. The scene reminded her of being back at Olaf’s house, slamming his back door open in a similarly rough and careless way when she was looking for Sunny after he’d kidnapped her. 

The horrible memory combined with the even more horrible reality of her present situation made her lose her breath, and she stumbled backwards, her heart racing in utter terror and shock. What do I do, what do I do? 

"Surprised to see me?" Olaf asked. "I told you I'd be back." He took a slow step towards her, twirling something in his hand. 

Knife, she thought as she looked at what he was holding. Big, big knife. 

It was indeed a big knife. It looked sharp too, sharp enough to do some real damage to her. She didn’t doubt his willingness to use it on her.

"You know, I'm a little disappointed you didn't expect to see me here." Olaf tossed the knife in the air. It flipped over and he caught it by the handle. He kept flipping and catching it as he talked. "I thought surely I was memorable. But if you forgot about me after a few measly weeks, perhaps I wasn't harsh enough with you… Well, that's what second chances are for, right?" This time he caught the knife by its blade. The sharp edge scratched his palm, and a drop of blood slid down the shiny metal as he extended the handle in her direction. He gave her a smile that made her feel queasy as his blood dripped to the carpet beneath him. "Wanna try?" 

Struggling to take in oxygen, Violet shook her head no, backing farther away from the psychopath in her foyer. She turned on her heel and dashed into the Reptile Room, shutting and locking the door as fast as she could. Not quite satisfied with just that, she dragged a heavy armchair up the steps and pushed it against the large metal door, trying to barricade it. 

"Violet?" Klaus's voice drifted faintly into her ears. "Violet, what are you doing?" 

She was still shaking her head no, staring at the door in front of her and backing away from it like it was a rabid animal waiting to pounce on her. She kept moving backwards and tripped on the steps, losing her balance and landing so hard on her back that it knocked the wind out of her. But that didn't really matter, because she had become so panicked that she couldn't breathe well even before she'd fallen over.

"Violet!" Klaus cried. Soon he was kneeling next to her, worry plastered all over his face. "Are you okay? Who was at the door?" 

She simply shook her head again, forcing herself to stand up regardless of the fact that at the moment she felt dizzy from lack of air. She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the back corner of the room, where Sunny and Ink were already hiding behind a couch. He kept asking what was wrong, asking who was there, especially after Olaf started pounding on the outside of the Reptile Room door. Violet didn’t answer him, just grabbed his shoulders and forced him to sit behind the couch, next to Sunny. 

Ignoring her sibling’s cries of confusion, she headed over to Uncle Monty’s desk, grabbing a heavy paper weight and then returning to the barricaded door, sitting down in the armchair that blocked the handle from opening and gripping the weight tightly. It was heavy enough to hurt someone, she was sure, so she kept it in her hand, fighting the black spots filling her vision until her breath finally returned to her. She greedily gasped in air, slumping back against the chair, shutting her eyes for just a moment in relief. The pounding on the door brought her back to reality. 

“Violet! What is happening?” Klaus asked again, his voice trembling. She glanced at him and saw that he was standing up. 

“Just stay where you are,” she replied, shaking her head. “It’s gonna be fine.” 

“What’s gonna be fine? What’s happening? ” 

“Klaus, please just sit down. Stay there, okay? Don’t move.” 

“Why? Tell me, Violet!” 

“Just sit,” she mumbled. “Uncle Monty will be back soon, and it’s all gonna be fine.” 

“Why did you grab the paper weight?” 

She grit her teeth. “Just in case.” 

“Just in case, what? Violet, who is outside? ” 

“It’s Olaf, okay?” she snapped. “It’s Olaf, that’s who! Now, for the love of god, sit down. Do not move from that spot.” 

Klaus gasped. Sunny did too. Even Ink let out a little surprised hiss. 

Finally, though, he sat down, scooting closer to Sunny and the snake, his eyes wide with terror. Violet sighed, wanting to go over and hug her siblings, make them feel better. But she had to stay by the door. She had to keep it shut. She had to keep Olaf out. 

“It’s gonna be fine,” she said again. “It’s all gonna be fine. Just… cover your ears or something. Stay close to each other, alright?” 

No one responded to her, but she could see from the angle she was sitting that they had huddled closer together, squishing themselves farther into the corner of the room. Klaus even dragged the couch closer to them, hiding them better from anyone who might walk in the room. 

Violet stayed sitting in the armchair, bouncing her leg anxiously and squeezing the paperweight like her life depended on it. It very well did. 

Uncle Monty’s alligator joined her on the steps after a moment, as did a few of the larger snakes and lizards of the room, like they knew something was wrong and wanted to help her protect Klaus and Sunny. The smaller reptiles, the ones that looked a little less menacing, made their way to the back of the room with her siblings and Ink. Violet smiled slightly, glad that these animals had come to care about them so much, though they’d only known each other a few weeks. She’d grown quite fond of them, too, and didn’t even flinch when a big yellow snake slithered up the armchair and came to rest around her shoulders. In fact, she leaned into it as it pressed its nose against hers, giggling when its tongue licked her face. 

Soon, the pounding on the door stopped, but Violet stayed where she was, just in case. She told Klaus and Sunny that they could come out of hiding if they wanted, but said that if they heard anything that spooked them, they had to go right back to the corner to stay safe. They came out, but didn’t go any further into the room than past the couch they’d been hiding behind. Klaus sat down on it, soon joined by the big old tortoise again, and Sunny and Ink sat down next to them. Both kids looked terrified, and Violet completely understood why. Count Olaf was horrible, and living with him had been traumatizing for them all. They had thought they were safe again, but now he was in their home, out for revenge, and they were defenseless besides a paperweight. 

About an hour later, Uncle Monty’s car pulled up in the driveway, which settled Violet’s nerves a tiny bit. She wanted to run out of the room and warn him about Olaf, so that Monty could call the police or make him go away. But she was too scared to leave the Reptile Room. She didn’t know where in the house Olaf was, but she was sure he was still brandishing that knife, and she didn’t particularly want to end up on the wrong side of it. 

She got up on her knees in the chair, leaning over the back of it to press her ear to the Reptile Room door. She listened for a while, trying to make out the muffled conversation going on outside. Clearly Monty was now talking to Olaf, but their words seemed so calm, so relaxed. If Violet were out there, she’d be shouting and sobbing, not talking casually. She couldn’t understand what they were saying, but she distinctly heard both men laugh more than once, which confused and frightened her. The talking went quiet after a minute or two, and then there was a soft knock on the Reptile Room door. 

“Baudelaires?” Uncle Monty’s muffled voice called. “Bambini? Are you alright?” 

Hesitantly, Violet stood from the chair, staring at it for a moment before dragging it out of the way to open the door. She kept her grip on the paper weight, her arms trembling and her breathing unsteady. She let the door open a crack, only enough for her to look through and not enough for anyone to jam their foot into. She saw that it was just Monty, and Olaf was nowhere to be seen, so she opened the door all the way to let him in. 

Klaus, holding Sunny, ran up to Monty right away and gave him a big hug, his eyes shut tightly and his glasses pushed askew as he pressed his face against the man’s chest. 

“Hello,” Monty said softly, taking Sunny from Klaus and balancing her with one arm so he could use the other to give her brother a hug. “Everyone okay?” 

“No,” Violet replied. She was still standing by the door, her arms crossed, the paper weight now in the pocket of her dress. She could barely see Monty and her siblings anymore, as her vision was blurring with hot tears. 

“What happened?” he asked. “Stephano said you ran away and locked yourself in here as soon as he came in.” 

Violet blinked her tears away, the confusion returning. “Stephano? Who are you talking about?” 

“My new assistant,” Monty explained, looking just as confused as Violet felt. “The man you ran away from?” 

“N-no, Uncle Monty, that’s not-” 

“Shh, shh, shh.” He shook his head. “No need to worry. I’m sorry if he scared you, but he’s perfectly harmless. The Herpetological Society sent him over for me, to help me with my studies. He’s going to be living here with us, since we have plenty of space.” 

“Uncle Monty, please-” 

“I know, I know. Change can be difficult. Perhaps get to know him before you get upset, though?” 

“No, you don’t understa-” 

“It’s all right , Violet. Now, I’m going to go help Stephano settle in and then I’ll make us all a nice dinner.” Monty let go of Klaus and handed Sunny back to him, starting to leave the room. He eyed the chair still on the steps that Violet had used to block the door. “Put that armchair back, please.”

He walked away, and Violet stood dumbfounded by the door. They were going to have to live with Count Olaf again, and there was nothing she could do about it. Uncle Monty hadn’t even tried to listen to her. She stared blankly into space, her body numb. After a few minutes, she quietly put the big chair back in its place, hardly even noticing when Sunny crawled over to hug her leg. 

Violet spent the following month doing nothing but protecting her siblings. She stayed close to them at all times, while at the same time making sure that she was never more than a few feet away from something sharp and/or heavy that she could use to defend herself with. Count Olaf, or Stephano, as he’d taken to calling himself, was constantly watching all three of them, the greedy, sick glaze of his dead eyes haunting her every waking and sleeping moment. She had to force herself to breathe when he was in the room, because he scared her so badly that her body just wanted to shut down. As nice as shutting down and blocking him out sounded, she had to stay alert to keep Klaus and Sunny safe. 

Uncle Monty didn’t seem to notice anything was wrong, and he simply refused to listen whenever Violet tried to talk to him about his new “assistant.” He just continued on as normal, and it drove Violet close to insanity. She wanted to scream at him, “ Hey! Something’s wrong! We need help!” She even started to shout once, but he cut her off and scolded her for raising her voice at him. Stephano , who was watching from across the room, laughed and taunted her after Monty walked away. 

“Oh, is somebody being ignored?” His face took on a dramatic, mocking pout, and he grabbed her chin with his greasy hand. She hissed in pain, his dirty, overgrown fingernails digging into her face. He grit and bared his yellow teeth at her, digging his nails deeper into her skin. “If you don’t stop trying to rat me out …” He paused, letting out a chuckle, giving her the most vile grin she had ever laid eyes on. “...then one morning you will wake up and find that poor little Sunny has suffocated in her sleep… Too bad nobody was there to roll her over when she got stuck on her pillow.” He finally let go of her face and walked away, going back to pretending like he knew anything about herpetology. 

Violet stayed awake to guard her baby sister’s crib that night. 

She didn’t get a wink of sleep. 

In the morning, Dr. Montgomery announced that they would soon all be going on a trip to Peru, in hopes of catching more reptiles to study and present to The Herpetological Society. He told them they’d be leaving in two weeks, so they’d have to start preparing for the trip right now in order to be ready when the time came. Violet heard him when he told them all this over breakfast, but honestly she didn’t process most of it. She was dead tired, and picking listlessly at her plate of food. Sunny was right next to her, in her highchair, happily munching on a piece of crunchy bacon. Did she even realize that Olaf had yet again threatened her life? Did she know that Violet had, yet again, harmed herself to keep her safe? 

“Vi,” Klaus whispered, nudging her arm. 

She glanced slowly over at him. He had a confused look on his face. “What?” she asked quietly. 

He nodded over at Uncle Monty, who was staring at her expectantly. She glanced around the table and found that everyone was staring at her expectantly. Her siblings and Monty all seemed puzzled, but Olaf had a smug grin on his face. She shook her head, glancing back at Monty. “Huh, what?” 

“Did you hear what I said?” Monty asked, his tone sounding like he had already asked her that question and was now repeating it. 

Violet sighed, shaking her head and holding back tears as a sudden wave of overwhelming sadness filled her mind. “I-I’m sorry…”  

“I asked you if you could round up some empty cages for us to take to Peru. I have a few in the attic that would be perfect for the kinds of reptiles I’m hoping to find.” 

“Oh, yes, I-I can do that,” she said. “Sorry.” 

Uncle Monty stood up, bringing his empty plate to the kitchen sink. “You’ve been so odd lately, Violet…” He shook his head, patting the top of hers as he walked by her and out of the kitchen. 

Olaf stood, too, following Monty. Violet saw him swipe his hand close to Sunny as he walked by, but her brain didn’t process what he’d done until her baby sister let out a startled and upset cry. Glancing over at her, she realized that Olaf had stolen Sunny’s last piece of bacon, and watched in astonishment as he popped the food into his mouth as he left the room. It wasn’t the worst thing he’d ever done, not by a long shot , but it was still rude, and it made Violet angry. Quickly, she gave Sunny two pieces of bacon from off her own plate, pushing the rest of her untouched food towards Klaus, who eagerly accepted it. She didn’t feel very hungry that morning. 

Standing, she went to pour herself a cup of coffee, as she felt so tired from staying up all night that she could’ve fallen asleep on the cold tile floors beneath her. She grabbed the biggest mug she could find and filled it to the brim, choking down the bitter drink in huge gulps, not even bothering to add milk, much less sugar. The taste made her want to gag, but she finished it anyway, needing the caffeine. She set the now empty mug down and found that Klaus was staring at her in shock, his mouth, full of food, hanging wide open. 

“I’m tired, okay?” she said defensively. “And close your mouth, you’re being gross.” 

Klaus quickly swallowed his bite of food. “Well, I’m sorry, but you just chugged a whole mug of black coffee. I know you don’t like sugary drinks, but you could’ve at least added cream or something.” 

Violet sighed and wiped her mouth on her sleeve. “I was up all night. I thought plain coffee would give me more energy.” 

“Well, what were you up all night for?” 

She shrugged, walking over to Sunny, who was kicking her feet and smiling as she ate. Violet smiled too, resting her hand on her baby sister’s head. “I just… couldn’t sleep,” she lied to Klaus. 

Klaus nodded a bit, accepting her answer and going back to his breakfast. Or, rather, her breakfast. Violet kissed Sunny’s forehead and grabbed the dirty dishes Olaf had left on the table, busying herself with filling up the dishwasher as her siblings finished eating. Once they were done, Klaus brought the rest of the dishes over to the sink, then grabbed Sunny, saying that they were going to go see what they could do to help Monty plan for Peru. Knowing that they’d be safe as long as Monty was watching them, she let them go by themselves, and headed up to the attic after she started the dishwasher. 

The attic was dark, dusty, and uninviting. It was filled with cardboard boxes stacked on top of one another, and an old piano sat in one corner. Something about the place made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, but she ignored it, wanting to make sure she completed the task that Uncle Monty had assigned her. She looked through a few boxes until she found one labeled “ Cages ,” and tried to pick it up. It was heavy, so she took a moment to find the best way to get a grip on it. She was just about to lift it when a discordant string of piano keys sounded behind her, making her jump and whirl around. 

Olaf was sitting on top of the piano, staring right at her, his feet on the keys. She frowned, too tired to be scared, and shook her head sternly at him. “You almost made me drop this box on my foot,” she grumbled, going back to trying to lift the box of cages. 

“You were distracted at breakfast today. Almost like you didn’t get any sleep last night.” 

“Yeah? I wonder why, creep. ” 

He went quiet, and Violet’s brain did too, her lack of sleep dulling her senses and not making her suspicious of his silence. She just stood there and stared at the box in front of her for a moment, wondering when the caffeine from the coffee would kick in, when suddenly someone was pulling roughly at her hair. Violet shrieked and tried to get away, but the someone was Count Olaf, and he was still stronger than her. The more she struggled, the more he jerked at her hair, tugging so forcefully that she could feel her hairs being ripped from her scalp. She stopped moving, if only to stop the pain, and held her breath so he wouldn’t get the satisfaction of seeing her cry. 

“Let go of me,” she whispered. 

Another tug at her hair, making her wince. 

“What do you want?” she tried instead. 

That seemed to be the right question. Olaf laughed cruelly, his free hand grabbing her arm and squeezing so tightly her skin went numb. “I want you to give me your fortune.” 

“You can’t have it. I can’t even have it!” 

“In that case, I want you to stop underestimating me. I will kill you if that’s what it takes. But I can do much worse in the meantime.” 

Violet closed her eyes tightly, not wanting to know what he meant by that. She didn’t say a word, and eventually he let go of her, shoving her so roughly as he did that she tripped and fell, her stomach landing right on the edge of the box in front of her. She grunted and sank to the floor, holding her side. Olaf laughed again, but then his footsteps faded away, down the attic steps, and at last she was alone. 

She sat in silence on the attic floor for a long while, staring off into space, crying softly, feeling nauseous. Everything Count Olaf did made her want to puke, and she hated the fact that he kept touching her. It made her want to chop his hands off and feed them to Uncle Monty’s alligator. Eventually she got around to standing and carrying the heavy box of cages down to the reptile room. Klaus and Sunny were already there, coiling up ropes and setting them into a large, leather bag. Klaus noticed her red eyes when she went over to help them, but she brushed it off, lying and saying that being in the dusty attic had kicked up her allergies. 

As soon as Monty dismissed them from their chores, Violet, (after ensuring that Klaus and Sunny were safe and content), went over to Monty to try and warn him about Olaf. 

“Oh, Violet, just who I wanted to see!” he said, stepping over to her and resting his hand on her shoulder. 

“I need to tell you something-” 

“As do I. Well, more I wanted to ask you something…” 

Violet sighed. She really needed to tell him about this. “Uncle Monty-” 

“Are you feeling okay, Violet?” he interrupted. “You seemed distant at breakfast this morning, and you took quite a long time to get the cages from the attic.” 

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. When I was in the attic, Stephano-” 

“Stephano was in this attic with you?” 

“Yes, and he-” 

“Why was he there? Was he trying to get information out of you? You mustn’t tell him anything about my reptiles, especially not Ink. I haven’t unveiled him to the world yet, and if the HS catches wind of his existence, they’ll try to claim the discovery as their own.” 

She shook her head. “The HS?” 

“The Herpetological Society. They didn’t send me an assistant, they sent me a spy. Stephano, if that’s even his real name, is here to spy on me and try to steal the reptiles I’ve discovered.” 

Violet let out a baffled and irritated huff. “ What?” She didn’t understand how Monty could be so far off from the truth. “No, that’s not-” 

“He wasn’t trying to get information from you? He must have been searching for the files I keep of my discoveries.” Monty scoffed and shook his head. “As if I kept those in the attic. They’re somewhere so much more secure. Idiot.” 

“Uncle Monty, please,” Violet whispered. She was choking up now, upset that he wasn’t just letting her talk. Tears began to stream down her face, and she took in a deep breath to try and stop them. “Please, you can’t let him stay here anymore…” 

“Don’t worry, Violet. I’ll make sure he doesn’t learn anything about my snakes and lizards. I’ve been feeding him false information since he got here.” 

“That’s not why he’s-” 

“It’s okay.” Monty swiped his thumb across her cheek. “No need to cry. Why don’t you go get some rest? I’ll work on making us all some lunch, okay?” 

“Uncle Monty-” she whispered. But it was useless. He was already walking away, leaving her alone in the Reptile Room. 

Reluctantly, Violet headed upstairs. She still felt gross from Olaf’s hands being in her hair and on her arm. She headed into the bathroom, turned the water as hot as it would go, then got into the shower and scrubbed her body off so hard that her skin felt raw. She washed herself more thoroughly than she had when she’d first arrived at Monty’s house, but her anxiety that Uncle Monty wouldn’t listen to her, and her horror at what Olaf had threatened to do to her left her with a roiling pit in her stomach. She kept having to get out of the shower every few minutes to throw up in the toilet, her disgust and rage and deep, deep sadness leaving her with nothing but salty tears and vomit. 

The next few weeks went by without any incident. Violet now not only kept her siblings close to her, but she kept all three of them close to Monty, too. She never went anywhere alone anymore, but for the most part, also busied herself with chores and planning for Peru to keep her mind off of the fact that she’d slipped up and let Olaf corner her, alone, in a dark room, with no one around to hear her scream… 

The night before they were supposed to leave, Uncle Monty announced over the dinner table that Stephano would not be joining them on their trip. He claimed that he needed someone to watch the house and care for the reptiles while they were gone, but sent Violet a wink when he was done talking. She took it to mean that he just didn’t want to bring Stephano because he thought he was a spy, which left Violet with a mix of frustration and relief. Frustration that Monty couldn’t see past Count Olaf’s disguise, but relief that she’d get to spend a whole month being thousands of miles away from the horrid Count. 

Stephano was not happy with this arrangement, but Uncle Monty shut him up by saying that, at this point, there was nothing they could do about it. They’d need to take a cruise ship to get to Peru, and Monty had only purchased enough tickets for himself and the Baudelaires. Being that the cruise was set to leave early the next morning, it was simply too late to buy another ticket for Stephano. 

Stephano spent the rest of the evening angrily muttering to himself and making a series of phone calls on the landline phone in the foyer, angrily muttering to whoever was on the other line, as well. 

Violet ignored him, and spent the rest of her evening in the reptile room with Monty and her siblings, all of them curled up on the couches and chairs, sipping hot chocolate as they went over their travel plans again. Monty told them that Ink would be coming along for their journey, to which Sunny responded with a happy shriek and a fit of giggles. Violet, for the first time in weeks, giggled too, holding her baby sister close and kissing her cheek, not even minding when Sunny stole one of the marshmallows out of her mug of hot chocolate. 

Violet went to sleep that night happy and content with the promise that Monty would wake her up in just a few hours to embark on their trip, and she actually slept quite soundly, her dreams for once not plagued with the dread of Count Olaf. Tomorrow, she would be rid of him, and she’d get the mental rest that she well deserved.  

She knew that something was wrong when the sunlight awoke her instead of Monty. Sitting up in her bed, she glanced at her clock and saw that there was only an hour before their ship left. The dock was a two-hour drive away. Anxiety started to hammer in her stomach as she stared at her bedroom door. It was still shut, and the blue sunlight from the foggy morning cast odd shadows against it. 

She got to her feet, the cold wooden floors beneath her making her shiver. Her heart started to pound as she carefully made her way out into the hallway. The house was silent. Too silent. 

Worried for the safety of her family, she quietly crept into Sunny’s room and then Klaus’s. They were both still asleep, and, after watching them for just a moment to make sure they both were still breathing, she headed back into the hallway. Uncle Monty’s bedroom door was wide open, but he was not inside. The bathroom was empty as well, so she started to head downstairs, her hand gripping the staircase railing as she forced her feet to move despite her body’s utter and unshakeable feeling of terror. 

“Uncle Monty?” she called as she walked slowly down the steps. She was met only with the sound of her voice echoing back to her. She called his name again, but got no reply. 

Downstairs, she checked the kitchen and the living room for any signs of Dr. Montgomery, but found nothing but some lizards and snakes. Seeing the reptiles freely roam the house was odd, because normally they were confined to the reptile room, the thick door of the room preventing them from escaping. Suddenly she knew that the reptile room was where she’d find Monty, but every inch of her body was screaming at her not to go look. Monty would never be careless enough to leave open the door of the reptile room overnight, which, from the amount of animals lurking about the house, was what she assumed had happened. 

She could see when she stepped into the foyer that she was right. The door was cracked open enough for the creatures to escape. Monty wouldn’t have let that happen. Which meant that, for some reason, Monty wasn’t in a state where he could physically make sure the door was shut.

Violet’s mind jumped to the worst conclusion as she stood frozen in the foyer. What if Olaf killed him? Is he evil enough to do something like that? She stopped and thought about the hell Olaf had put her through when she lived with him, about all the times he’d threatened the life of her infant sister, about how he’d been planning to marry Violet, and had assaulted her in the attic just a few weeks ago. Yes. Yes, he was evil enough to murder somebody. And, from the utter silence coming from the reptile room, when normally Monty filled the house with his loud talking or singing or just general noise from his bustling around, she had a horrible feeling that Monty was dead. 

She didn’t want to look, but she knew she had to, and so, her body tense and her heart in her throat, she entered the reptile room. 

She spotted Monty right away. He was sitting in a desk chair, his back to her, looking oddly slumped. 

“Uncle Monty?” she called. 

He didn’t reply. He didn’t move. 

She took a step closer. “Uncle Monty, are you okay?” No. He’s not okay. You know he’s not okay. 

He didn’t budge. He didn’t make a sound. She held her breath as she approached and stopped just behind him, listening. His breathing was usually loud and heavy, but now she heard absolutely nothing. 

“You’re scaring me,” she said, her voice trembling. She was still clinging onto the hope that he was alive. Maybe this was all just a big April Fool’s Day prank. 

It’s September, her brain reminded her. 

She sighed, whispering one last time, “Monty?” 

Nothing. 

She stood there for a long moment, steeling herself. Then she stepped slowly around the chair, her hands trembling, until she caught a glimpse of his face. She gasped, her hands flying up to cover her mouth and her eyes shutting tightly. He was dead, that much was certain. His face was pale, his lips blue. His once bright, friendly eyes were now dull and glossed over, and he had what looked like a snake bite on his cheek. His face was frozen in an expression of pure horror, and it was so horrible that, even though she’d only seen it for a second, it was stuck in her mind and didn’t go away even with her eyes shut. 

Violet took in a heavy breath and forced herself to look again. It was still horrible, and there were cold tears streaming steadily down her face, but she examined him, trying to figure out what had happened. 

Besides the obvious puncture wounds on his cheek, (which Violet, after looking at it for a second, realized wasn’t any sort of snake bite and must have come from some kind of weapon), his hands were bruised, as if he’d tried to fight somebody off. Along with that, the way he was slumped in the chair looked less like he’d sat down and more like someone had shoved him into the chair, possibly after he was already dead…

She knew she should keep investigating, but her tears had turned to sobs, and she just couldn’t do it anymore. She couldn’t keep looking at him. Uncle Monty hadn’t been able to protect her from Olaf, but he had been a good guardian, and in the few months she’d lived with him, Violet had grown to love him the way she’d loved her father. Standing there, seeing how scared he looked, seeing the obvious signs that he’d struggled for his life, it hurt her so much that it left physical pain in her chest, like someone had just stabbed her heart. 

Choking on her sobs, her vision blurry with tears, Violet gently brushed her hand against his face, softly closing his eyes for him. She backed away, hugging herself, until she bumped into the wall behind her. She leaned against it, her own eyes closing again, and dug her nails deeply into her arm as she cried. She felt so guilty for his death, though she knew it wasn’t her fault. She wasn’t the one who’d done this to him. But she knew who did. 

“Oh. You poor thing.” His voice echoed through the reptile room. 

Speak of the Devil. She opened her eyes and looked towards the door of the room. Olaf was standing there, leaning against the doorframe, watching her. He clearly wasn’t fazed by the dead man beside her. Standing behind him were Klaus and Sunny, looking tired and confused, gazing past him into the room. Suddenly her grief was overwhelmed by rage, and she pushed herself off the wall, storming over to him. 

“ How could you do this to him?” she seethed, gritting her teeth. “ Why did you kill him?” 

Olaf only grinned at her, and she saw that he had a sick, amused gleam in his eyes. “He worked out who I really was. Someone had tipped him off.” He was twirling something in his hand, and Violet knew without looking that it was his knife. “Such a shame… I didn’t want to have to kill him. If only he’d been left in the dark about me…” 

Violet’s rage had slipped right back into grief. The feeling of being stabbed in the heart was back, and she gripped the edge of Monty’s desk, trying not to fall over, shaking her head frantically. This is my fault, she thought, panicking and struggling to breathe. I tried to tell Monty about Olaf. He figured it out because of me. He’s dead because of me. “N-no…” She sank to her knees, still gripping the desk. 

Olaf had come and stood right in front of her while she was stuck in her mind. He put the blade of his knife beneath her chin and lifted her head, meeting her eyes. He was smiling. He was smiling at her, the sick bastard. “Yes,” he said, and grinned with his yellowed, rotting teeth. 

“Leave her alone!” Klaus cried out. 

Violet could see him begin to rush over, and she tried to get up, to grab him and push him outside before he and Sunny caught a glimpse of Monty, but Olaf pressed the blade more firmly against her skin. He didn’t cut her, but she knew that if she tried to move again, he would. 

“Stop it, Klaus,” she called instead. “I’m… I’m fine.” 

Klaus had paused, just standing and staring, but she could tell that he was still angry. “Get away from my sister!” 

Olaf ignored him and continued on with his monologuing. “But since he’s dead, I’m sure he won’t mind one way or the other if I use his boat ticket and take you children down to Peru, just as planned. I’ve heard the guardianship laws are very lax there.” 

“You’re not taking us anywhere,” Violet growled, her voice rough and strangled from the knife still pressed to her throat. 

Olaf smiled again. “Aren’t I?” He jerked his hand away from her, his blade slicing into her jaw as he moved, making her wince and stumble backwards. Her hand flew up to the cut, and when she pulled away, her fingers were drenched in blood. 

“Violet!” both Sunny and Klaus shrieked in unison. They hurried over to her, despite her shaking her head and saying she was fine. 

“Listen to her,” Olaf bellowed, standing again in the doorway of the room. “She’s fine. Now all of you get up and get in the car.” 

“No!” Klaus yelled. “She’s not fine, she’s bleeding! You’ve cut her! And I am listening to her, because I agree that you are not taking us to Peru!” 

Sunny babbled her agreement, climbing into Violet’s lap and putting her arms protectively around her big sister. Violet pressed her bloody hand firmly to her bloody jaw, using her clean hand to cover Sunny’s eyes. She didn’t need to see the wound and she didn’t need to see Monty. 

“And another… thing…” Klaus started to yell, but his voice trailed off midway through his sentence. He’d been crouching next to Violet, but now he sank down to his knees, one hand on her shoulder and the other covering his mouth, his eyes glued to something behind her. “Oh, God…” 

“Stop looking,” she whispered, knowing he’d seen their dead uncle. 

His eyes welled with tears, his breath hitched, but he continued to stare.

“Stop looking!” she ordered. 

Sunny stirred, trying to free her face from Violet’s hand. She quickly checked that her sister could still breathe, then held her hand tighter over the baby’s eyes. Klaus wasn’t listening to her, only briefly meeting her gaze before looking back at Monty. His eyes were so, so wide and so, so scared that it hurt her heart. 

“Stop it,” she choked, nudging him with her elbow. 

He could only shake his head. 

“Klaus, I’m bleeding,” she tried instead. 

That finally caught his attention, and, clearly swallowing back a sob, he stood and helped her off the floor, taking Sunny from her in one hand and taking her arm in the other, pulling her out of the Reptile Room and into the kitchen. He grabbed a dish towel and held it up to her sliced open jaw. “H-hold it tight,” he stammered. “Gotta stop the bleeding…” He looked around frantically for something, Violet didn’t know what, but whatever it was, his panicked pacing was jostling Sunny so much that her face turned green. 

“Klaus, hey, relax,” Violet said, stepping forward to grab his arm and stop him from moving anymore. She didn’t want to have to clean up baby puke today. She took Sunny from him and gently set her on the counter, but Klaus was off on another tangent. 

“Relax? Did you really just tell me to relax, Violet? How the hell-” 

“Language!” 

“How the hell,” he said louder, “am I supposed to relax? Monty is dead, you’re cut and bleeding, and Count Olaf is trying to kidnap us! Where is he, by the way? You know what, I don’t even care. He could be dead in a ditch right now and I wouldn’t bat an eye.” He had wriggled away from her and was pacing the kitchen again, opening and slamming drawers and cabinets. “In fact, I hope he’s dead in a ditch, and I don’t care if that’s a horrible thing to say, because he’s a horrible person!” 

“Well, now, I am just offended,” Olaf said, stepping into the room, holding a blue plastic box in one hand and a suitcase in the other. He didn’t look very offended, and gave Klaus a sarcastic, tight smile. He tossed the blue box onto the kitchen table and Violet realized it was a first aid kit. Klaus ran over and grabbed it, opening it up immediately. This must have been what he was ransacking the kitchen for. “Patch up that cut and then let’s go,” Olaf continued. “I don’t need your blood all over my car.” 

“Well, then, maybe you shouldn’t have cut her!” Klaus shouted. 

“Stop it,” Violet pleaded quietly. She was starting to feel light headed, and pressed the dish cloth harder to her jaw. 

Olaf suddenly pulled the knife from his pocket and pointed it at Klaus. It was glistening and red, and it made her little brother let out a yelp. He backed up, bumping into her. With her clean hand she wrapped her arm around his shoulders and held him close, glancing behind her to see Sunny was still sitting on the counter, still looking green. Olaf began to speak. 

“Unless you want a matching scar, boy, you will keep quiet and do as I say.” 

Klaus, his voice trembling, replied, “I’m not afraid of you.” This was clearly a lie, and he leaned back, burrowing himself tighter into Violet’s grasp. 

Olaf only smiled. “No? Well I bet dear little Sunny is, and I bet it wouldn’t be too hard to use this ol’ thing on her.” He twirled the knife in his hand, sending droplets of Violet’s blood to the floor. “How long do you think it’d take for such a small creature to bleed out? I bet-” 

“Stop it!” It was Violet’s turn to shout now. “Stop it, we get your point!” She wanted to cry badly, but resorted to holding Klaus so tightly she could hear him wince. “Just… give us a minute, we’ll meet you outside.” 

The count glared at her suspiciously, but eventually walked away, until he was out of sight and anything but out of mind. Violet stood still until she heard the front door slam shut, and then she turned to Klaus, keeping her voice hushed even though she was pretty sure Count Olaf had gone out to start up the car. 

“Listen to me carefully here, okay? Go out into the foyer, grab the phone, call Mr. Poe and then call the police. Don’t spend too much time talking to Poe, he’s an idiot, frankly, and he probably won’t believe anything you say, but tell him anyway. Tell him Olaf is here and in disguise and he killed Monty and he hurt me. Then hang up before he has a chance to doubt you, call the police and tell them the same thing. I’m gonna bandage my cut really fast, then we’re gonna go upstairs and lock ourselves in one of the rooms and hide until help gets here, got it?” 

Klaus’s eyes were wide with anger and watery with tears, but he nodded bravely and headed out to the foyer without questioning her, his hands clenched tightly at his sides. She waited until he left the room, then pulled the towel from her jaw and saw that the fabric, once a light blue, was now totally red with her blood, to all four corners of the cloth. Violet didn’t know much about blood loss, but she could tell that her situation wasn’t good. She threw the towel into the sink, quickly rinsing her bloody hand off as well, then hurriedly opened the first aid kit on the table, grabbing an antiseptic wipe and cleaning off her wound. Whatever was on the wipe stung, and only made her feel even more dizzy than she already did. But she disinfected the cut anyway, refusing to risk getting an infection. Then she grabbed the biggest band-aid she could find, opening it up and hoping it was large enough for the cut. She didn’t actually know how bad it was, but by the time she took the bandage out of the packaging, her jaw was already dripping blood again, down onto her pajama shirt and her hands and the table. 

Sunny shrieked something, and Violet looked over at her, but her head was pounding now as well as spinning, and she couldn’t understand what her baby sister was trying to say. She gripped the back of the chair in front of her, her fingers slick and red. It was getting hard to stand up, her legs wobbling as she stared blankly at Sunny, hearing her wailing and babbling but not having the faintest clue what was upsetting her. 

“What’s the matter, baby?” Violet murmured, her voice going high at the end of her sentence in confusion. 

“Violet!” Klaus called, his footsteps loud enough that she could tell he was running into the room. 

Slowly, she turned and looked at him, blinking hard to try and clear her suddenly blurry vision. 

“Did you hear what I said?” he asked. 

She could just barely manage to whisper, “No…” 

“I said, Olaf cut the phone cord! I-I can’t call anyone for help, not Poe or the police or anyone!” 

Violet nodded slightly, shutting her eyes tightly, finding it hard to bear the pounding in her skull. It was like someone was trapped up there in her brain, trying to ram their way out with a wrecking ball, smashing up against every last inch of her head, hitting one spot and ricocheting into another. “Mhm,” she muttered. “Okay, uh…” 

“Y-you’re still bleeding. Violet, why are you still bleeding?” 

She could only breathe now. Talking was too painful, shaking her head was too painful, thinking was too painful. She gripped the back of the chair even tighter. 

“Violet?” Klaus’s voice was faraway now, too faraway for her to really understand what he was saying.

“What the hell is taking you brats so long?” 

Even in her muddled brain state, the hissing screech of Count Olaf’s voice brought Violet to attention, and she stood up straight, stepping forward to bring Klaus behind her. Even those small movements set the wrecking ball at full force and full speed, but she had to keep her siblings safe. 

Klaus screamed something at Olaf, but Violet wasn’t sure what it was, because the high pitch of his yell made her eardrums feel like they were shattering. The sharp, painful feeling had spread throughout her whole face, and was making its way down her body now. Klaus and Olaf shouted at each other in some kind of argument, and before she realized it, she was being thrown over someone’s shoulder. It took her a long minute to understand that she was now being carried out of the kitchen, out of the house. She looked around frantically for her siblings, and found with relief that Klaus was right in front of her, holding Sunny and a few more kitchen towels. He was holding one of the towels out to her, waving it like he wanted her to take it from him. Weakly, she did, and bunched it up to the cut on her jaw, still lucid enough to comprehend that stopping the bleeding was important. She looked down at Klaus and Sunny again, attempting a comforting smile at the two of them. 

Finally, she thought of something. If Klaus and Sunny are in front of me, following me, and I’m not walking… Who’s carrying me? 

She pondered it for a moment, then realized with a start and a jump of disgust that the only person who could possibly be holding her was Count Olaf. She screamed and tried to push away from him, kicking her legs and hyperventilating. 

“Stop it!” she heard him scold her. Something sharp dug into her waist and she discerned that it must have been his fingernails. 

This only added to her panic, and she started to cry, completely forgetting to keep her composure for the sake of her little siblings. She hit Olaf as hard as she could, dropping the dish towel to the ground in the process. She howled at him to let her go, to stop touching her. Every movement sent waves of pain through her body that were so deep she almost vomited, but she could not give in. She could not pass out or go limp or do anything that might let this horrid man take advantage of her. She was just glad that she was wearing thick pajama pants and not a thin nightgown, like she usually opted for. 

But soon enough, Olaf had tossed her into the backseat of Monty’s jeep. She hit her head on the cupholder, screaming and scrambling away and praying to whoever was out there that Olaf would not climb in the back with her. Someone must have been watching over her, listening to her prayers, because Olaf got into the front seat, and only her siblings joined her in the back. She grabbed Klaus’s shoulders and pulled him in close, hugging him as tight as she could and crying into his greasy hair. He wriggled in her grasp and held a hand up to her face, pressing yet another towel to her bleeding jaw. The car began peeling out of the driveway, jostling the unbuckled children in the backseat.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Klaus whispered. “It’s okay, Vi, calm down. You’ll be okay, I prom-” 

Out of nowhere, they were all thrown forward as the car came to a sudden stop. Violet hit her head again as she slammed into the seat in front of her, and it hurt so badly that she screamed, digging her nails into Klaus’s arm in hopes that he could somehow keep her from being hurled into whatever purgatory was putting her through this much torture and pain. 

“Poe!” a small voice shrilled. 

Violet couldn’t bear to open her eyes and check, but a fit of coughing rang faintly in her ears, and she knew that Sunny was right. Mr. Poe was here! It was going to be okay. Surely he’d be able to see past Olaf’s disguise, right? 

Somehow, Klaus managed to help her out of the backseat of the Jeep so they could explain to Poe what was going on. Violet was dizzy and nauseous and had a throbbing headache so bad that she couldn’t see clearly, but she made herself stand next to Klaus while he talked. She couldn’t understand exactly what he was saying, but she tried hard to focus on his voice, one arm wrapped tightly around his shoulders and the other pressing the dish towel firmly against her bleeding face. 

Next thing she knew, they were moving, and moving caused her headache to pound so roughly against her skull that it made her nose bleed, too. Someone was shrieking in horror as she was guided into the house and allowed to sink into a soft leather couch, but she wasn’t sure if the shrieking was coming from Klaus or Poe. In all likelihood, it was probably a mix of both, and she nearly grabbed the pillows beside her and held them over both Klaus and Mr. Poe’s faces, just so they’d be quiet. Everything was just so loud right now. The sounds weren’t clear or understandable, but they seemed like they were being amplified by the world’s biggest speaker. 

She sat and pondered how big the biggest speaker would have to be, and somehow she ended up thinking back to the time when she was younger and had gone to the county fair with Klaus and her parents. Sunny hadn’t been born yet back then, but at the fair they’d ended up getting to see a contest for the county’s biggest lasagna, and the winner had been a group of dozen nuns who’d managed to cook up a lasagna that was about as big as a queen sized mattress. She giggled a little, remembering how much fun she’d had that day, purely because of that huge lasagna. It was just so comically large that she couldn’t help but admire it, and she still thought about it from time to time, though she must have been only ten years old when she first saw it. 

Suddenly someone was putting something in her hand, and when she looked down, she saw that she was holding a water bottle. She figured that she was probably meant to drink it, and wiped her bloody hand off on her pants to try and open the lid. Only after she did that did she realize that for the past however long she’d been sitting on the couch, someone else had been holding up the dish towel to stop the bleeding for her. She looked briefly to her side, yelping in pain and squeezing her eyes shut tightly when the movement spiked her headache again. Once the pounding calmed down, she let her eyes open and caught a glimpse of Klaus. He was incredibly blurry, even though he couldn’t have been more than a foot away from her, and she reached over to gently pat his leg. Then, very slowly so she didn’t make her head pound again, she turned back to the water bottle, managed to open it, and took a sip. It was so cold and refreshing that she ended up chugging it, sitting there panting for a while afterwards, trying to catch her breath. 

She leaned into the couch cushion behind her, her eyes fluttering shut with pure exhaustion. “I’m just… gonna rest a minute…” she mumbled. She didn’t know how clear her voice had been, or if she’d really spoken at all and not just inside her head, but whatever the case, she drifted off to sleep. 

Much too quickly, someone was shaking her shoulders and telling her to wake up. She whined and nearly started to cry, but when she looked up and saw Klaus standing in front of her, his face red with anger and worry, she quickly made herself wake up. Violet rubbed her eyes, running her hands down her face and realizing that her jaw was now bandaged and had stopped bleeding. Klaus was handing her another water bottle, and she chugged it too. It had a weird, kind of salty flavor to it, and she grimaced after she finished it. 

“What’d you put in this?” she asked. She realized that she could hear her own voice again. It was raspy, maybe from screaming and crying or maybe from dehydration. Either way, the fact that she could hear it at all seemed to be a good sign. 

“A couple of those iron supplements Uncle Monty takes,” Klaus replied. His voice was clear now, too, and no longer being blasted from the world's biggest lasagna. No, wait, world’s biggest speaker. Clearly her brain was not quite functional yet… “I crushed them up and let them dissolve in the water. You lost a lot of blood, Vi.” 

Violet nodded slowly. Her head was still in pain, but the headache had faded from sharp stabbing to a kind of dull pulsing, which was much more manageable. “How long was I asleep?” 

Klaus sighed. He was holding Sunny on his hip, and both of them had changed out of their pajamas into fresh clothes. After observing all this, she noted that her vision was considerably less blurry. “Maybe half an hour? I-I don’t really know, but we need your help.” 

Violet sat up straighter. “Are you okay? What happened?” 

Klaus held Sunny tighter, his face going red again and his jaw clenching. “Olaf has managed to convince Poe that he’s actually Monty’s assistant, and that Monty died because one of his snakes, the Mamba du Mal, got out of its cage, killed him, and then locked itself back up in the cage again.” 

“What? That’s the most ridiculous theory I’ve ever heard.” 

“I tried explaining that to Mr. Poe, but he didn’t listen to me and insisted that I ‘let the adults handle this.’ The man is so infuriating, I just want to slap him across the face.” 

“Hey, don’t say things like that. We can solve our problems without violence.” 

Klaus sighed again and slumped down into the seat next to her. “I know. I’m sorry.” 

“It’s okay.” She patted his leg again and leaned over to kiss the top of Sunny’s head. “Okay, so we just need to figure out how Olaf really killed him then. When I… saw Monty, I noticed that the ‘bite’ mark looked more like a syringe injection, so I guess we just need to find the syringe.”

“True, but how do we know Olaf hasn’t disposed of it already? And to add to this mess, Olaf’s troupe is here too. They’re pretending to be the cops and the coroner, and they’ve thoroughly fooled Poe. They’re all in the kitchen right now, which they’ve locked from the inside.” 

Violet bit her lip, trying to process all this. She reached for her hair ribbon, but realized it was still upstairs in her bedroom, and so settled for tucking her hair behind her ears. “Okay… Well, that might work in our favor. If they’re locked in somewhere, we can sneak outside and go through Olaf’s suitcase. If there’s any evidence pointing him to Monty’s murder, it’ll be in there.” 

“Sounds like a good plan, but Stephano’s suitcase is padlocked. I saw it when we were in the Jeep.” 

Violet stood up, wobbling slightly when the movement sent a rush to her head. Klaus stood quickly after her, grabbing her arm to steady her. 

“I’m okay,” she whispered, though the room was still spinning. 

“M-maybe you should just sit and watch Sunny. Just tell me what you were planning and I can go-” 

“No,” she interrupted him. She took a deep breath to steady herself, and once the blood rush had settled, she shook her head softly. “I have to be the one to do this, in case someone catches me trying to go through Olaf’s bag. I won’t let you take the fall for that.” 

Klaus went quiet. She turned her head to look at him, though the movement made her skull ache. He had that look on his face again, the one he had back at Olaf’s house, when Sunny was dangling from the tower and Violet was about to concede to marrying the count. Anger and worry and this kind of distant expression like he was fighting his mind to stay in the moment and work out the problem and not hide away and block it all out. She waited silently, letting him think, her stomach sinking when he finally spoke. “...But what if he hurts you again?” 

She bit her lip softly. Being hurt by Olaf again was more than likely to happen, but it wasn’t Klaus’s responsibility to worry about that. It was hers, and hers alone. “I’ll be fine,” she promised him, the words feeling like a lie as soon as they left her throat. “For now, you and Sunny go through Uncle Monty’s books in the Reptile Room and see what you can find out about the Mamba du Mal. Maybe you’ll find something that disproves Olaf’s ‘theory.’” 

Klaus glanced towards the Reptile Room’s closed doors hesitantly. “Are you sure…?” 

“Yes. Let me take care of the dangerous part. You’re a better researcher than I am, anyways.” 

He sighed and tightened his grip on Sunny. “I just… I don’t want to lose you like we lost…” His breath caught and he looked down at his feet, hugging Sunny tightly when she leaned sympathetically into him. 

Violet knew what he was going to say. He didn’t want to lose her like they’d lost Mom and Dad. The thought made her sick with grief and rage and so many other emotions she couldn’t even begin to list them. Gently, she rested her hand on his shoulder. “Hey… I promise I will not leave you alone, okay? You’re not going to have to fend for yourself. Not ever. I’m here, and I’ll stay here, but we need to stop Olaf if we ever want a chance at a normal life again.” 

“Things can never be normal without them.” 

She huffed and dropped her hand back to her side. “I know… Just go start researching, alright? I’ll be quick outside.” 

Klaus, albeit reluctantly, agreed, and took Sunny into the Reptile Room with him, leaving Violet alone in the foyer. She took a moment to just stand there, eyes closed, to let her dizziness calm itself. Not so much dizziness from blood loss, though that was likely a factor, but dizziness from the absolutely horrific, yet somehow very real possibility that she could die at Olaf’s hands and then there would be no one to protect Klaus and Sunny. She couldn’t let that happen. She refused to. She resolved herself to stay alive, no matter the toll it may take on her, and once she felt steady enough to walk, she headed outside, shutting the front door softly behind her. Monty’s Jeep was about halfway down the driveway, and was nearly crushed in half where it had rammed into a large bush. She vaguely connected the sight in front of her to the way she’d been slammed against the seat when the car had come to a sudden stop, and something in the back of her mind made her realize that if she could barely remember being in a car crash less than an hour ago, then she really had no business being anywhere but in a hospital. 

Still, she headed down the driveway, out to the car. The gravel beneath her feet was decorated with a heavy trail of red, and it took her a second to figure out that the red was her own blood from when she had been carried outside. Klaus was right. She had lost a lot of it. 

She gulped and walked a little faster, not wanting to look at the gory mess anymore. She hurried to the trunk of the Jeep and tugged it open; thankfully the back half of the car was not as damaged as the front. Olaf’s suitcase was the only one in the back, and she grabbed it by the faux snakeskin handle. Or, at least she hoped it was only faux. She slid it close to her, leaving it resting in the trunk so she could examine the padlock on it. 

“This thing is cheap…” she mumbled, twisting the crappy plastic lock in her hand. It had a metal locking mechanism, and, to its credit, it didn’t snap off when she tugged on it. Still, she knew she’d be able to pick it easily. 

Running as fast as she could without making herself vomit from the exertion, Violet went back inside the house and up the stairs to her bedroom. First, she got her ribbon from her nightstand and messily tied her hair back with it. Then she unplugged her lamp and peeled back the plastic covering the metal prongs on the plug. She tugged the prongs out, taking no safety precautions besides praying she wouldn’t get electrocuted. The prongs were slightly warm but nothing more, and she pocketed them, grabbing a wire hanger from her closet as well and untwisting it. She snapped off a bit of the handle, then wrapped it around and through the prongs in her pocket until she had made herself a lock pick. 

By the time she had run back down the stairs, outside, and to the trunk of the Jeep again, her head was hurting so badly she wanted to cry. The cut on her jaw throbbed, as did every other vein in her body, it seemed like, but she didn’t have the time to let her pain settle down, and so she immediately started to pick the suitcase lock. Her hands were trembling, half from fear and half from how deeply she was hurting, yet she managed to unlock the case, and put the hodge-podge lock pick back into her pocket. 

Count Olaf’s suitcase was full of a variety of unpleasant things, most of which made her sick to her stomach to be touching with her bare hands, but the unpleasant items she was most focused on were exactly the things she needed to prove that he was a murderer. Firstly, a double tipped syringe that matched Uncle Monty’s wounds exactly. Secondly, an empty vial of snake venom with the label “Mamba Du Mal,” in swirly handwriting that was no doubt her uncle’s. Gently, she wrapped both items in a dirty handkerchief she’d found in the suitcase, stuck the small parcel into her pocket, and vowed to burn these pants later because she was sure it was the only way she’d ever be able to disinfect them from whatever nastiness was on the handkerchief. She’d vow to burn her hands, too, but she’d done that once before and it was unpleasant. Maybe a chemical bath, though. 

Violet went back into the house again, walking quickly, and slipped into the Reptile Room, nearly bumping into Klaus as she did, who was on his way out of the room, a book in his hands and a look of epiphany on his face. 

“I figured out a way to prove the Mamba Du Mal’s innocence,” Klaus said as he stumbled slightly backwards from his sister. 

“So did I,” Violet replied, and glanced behind him, her eyes searching for Sunny. She was fine, and was sitting on the couch, curled up with Ink, who was nipping softly at her hand, making Sunny giggle. The sight of a giant snake, which was probably ten times bigger than her baby sister, sinking its teeth into her hand was enough to make Violet’s heart race, though she knew Ink was harmless. However, the fear gave her an idea, and she glanced back at her brother, a smile on her face. “And I know just how we can get Mr. Poe’s attention.” 

A staged snake attack later, and Ink was gently licking the forced tears off Sunny’s cheeks, holding her close as she leaned against him. Her screaming, though clearly fake sounding to her siblings, had grabbed Poe’s attention and got him to come out of the locked kitchen for long enough that Klaus could read him (plus Olaf and all his troupe), a passage from one of Uncle Monty’s books about how the Mamba Du Mal wrapped itself so tightly around its prey that they’d pass out and could be eaten, and then for Violet to explain that Uncle Monty had not been strangled, just “bitten,” or so someone wanted them to believe, hence, the Mamba Du Mal had not escaped its cage, killed Monty, and then locked itself up again. She didn’t comment on the idea that a snake knowing how to lock and unlock a cage was a ridiculous theory in itself, and instead moved onto telling Mr. Poe that Stephano was really Count Olaf, and showed everyone the syringe she’d found in Olaf’s suitcase, plus the vial of venom.

“That suitcase was locked,” Olaf hissed. 

“I picked the lock,” Violet hissed back, too full of rage and adrenaline to remember to be afraid of him.

“You know, Violet,” Mr. Poe began condescendingly. “Nice girls really shouldn’t be going around picking locks.” 

“My sister is a nice girl!” Klaus said before Violet got a chance to speak. “She’s also brilliant, and she just solved a murder , for God’s sake, so why don’t we focus on that and call the police instead of picking on her for doing one impolite thing?” 

At that, Mr. Poe conceded, and told Olaf’s troupe, some of whom were dressed as the police, to arrest Count Olaf at once! 

It wasn’t until they were all outside, hopping into a van and speeding away did he seem to realize they were not, in fact, the police. 

Watching Count Olaf escape after doing something horrible again made Violet nauseous. She held her siblings tight and prayed that, wherever they went next, Olaf would not find them. She didn’t think she could handle seeing that wretched man ever again. 

Something deep in the pit of her stomach told her she’d have to.