Family Comes First- ASOUE

Chapter 40: Signaling for Assistance

*Violet's POV*

Thwack!

The leeches hit the side of the boat again and went to prepare for another attack. "Yadec!" Sunny exclaimed, pointing to a small crack in the bottom of the boat. It was about the length of a pencil and the thickness of a hair, and it looked like it was frowning at us as it slowly dribbled in water.

"We are going to need to sail much, much faster or this boat will be in pieces in no time!" Klaus said.

"But sailing relies on wind!" I said. "We can't make the wind go any faster!"

"Please don't throw me overboard!!!" Aunt Josephine shouted, clinging to the mast of the boat.

"Nobody's gonna throw you overboard!" I shouted back. I stood up and grabbed two oars. "Klaus, Josephine, take these and row. If we can get out of their territory maybe we'll be lucky enough that they leave us alone."

The leeches hit the boat again, and looked at the crack. It had widened and was letting in more water than before. I grabbed a nearby bucket and shoved it in Duncan's direction. "Keep an eye on that puddle. Use this to dump water out if it starts flooding in here." I commanded. He nodded and kept a focused stare at the crack, waiting to start scooping up as much water as possible and dumping it back into the lake.

"Violet!!" Klaus called. I looked over at him and the leeches had eaten away at his oar. I looked across from him and Aunt Josephine's had been chewed up too. "Rowing isn't gonna work!"

"Rowing wouldn't have helped anyways," I said, sighing. "We're sinking and we need help."

"How are we gonna get help in the middle of a lake at four in the morning??" Isadora screamed.

"We're going to need to signal for help," I answered, taking my ribbon out of my pocket. I closed my eyes and tied my hair up, but it was hard to focus with my aunt screaming like a banshee.

"That's right, darling!!! Close your eyes! That's what I do when I'm afraid. It always makes me feel better to block out the fear!! Let's all close our eyes-"

"The only thing Violet's trying to block out is your screaming!" Duncan said to her.

"This is how she concentrates!" Klaus added.

I thought a little more. "Fire alarms." I muttered.

"What?"

"Fire alarms. They're an excellent way to signal for assistance. We need noise and light!"

The leeches were attacking from both sides and it made the boat rock even harder. "We need to start a fire!!" I shouted over the squealing of the leeches and the screaming of Aunt Josephine.

"Won't that get us in more trouble??" Klaus asked.

I didn't answer, instead I was trying to think out my plan and make myself understand it better. We'd need something dry to start the fire with, but everything was wet from the storm... Not everything, I realized. "Aunt Josephine, I need your scarf!"

"No!! I need it to protect my neck!"

"I don't have time to argue with you! I'm trying to save each of our lives!"

"The expression is 'saving all of our lives', not 'saving each of our-'"

I cut her off by grabbing the scarf and pulling it off her myself. "Sit. Down." I said impatiently. She meekly went to a seat and tried to be calm, seeing we'd prefer it if she wasn't constantly screaming. I grabbed a fishing pole and knotted up the scarf onto it. "Set this on fire." I said, shoving it in Klaus' direction.

"How do you expect me to do that!?"

Isadora sat next to him. "What about the scientific principle of the divergence and refraction of light?"

"Izzie, that's genius!" Klaus praised. "Violet, you know when horrible people use a magnifying glass to burn ants?"

"Theoretically, if we can catch enough light from the lighthouse beam, we should be able to start a fire."

Isadora pulled the spyglass out of her pocket and opened it, aiming it at the scarf. "The angle's wrong." She said. "It won't work."

"The light just needs to refract off something else to reach us."

"There is nothing else, we're all alone!"

"I've got it!" Klaus said. He took off his glasses and handed them to me. "Angle the light towards the spyglass." He added, squinting to try to see what we were doing. I moved his glasses around in the air, trying to get a beam to go through. I got it into just the right position and the light passed through the spyglass. A small flame turned into a big one in a matter of seconds.

"Thank you, guys," I said, holding the fire carefully. "Duncan, new plan. Hit the bucket with the oar to make a ton of noise."

"You got it," he said, sitting down and hitting the bucket. I climbed he mast to wave around the fire and started screaming for help.

"Save us!!!!" The others added.

"Mayday!"

"Help!"

"Please save us!!!"

Another boat came into view: it was the Fickle Ferry. Thank god we would be saved! The ferry pulled up beside us and Aunt Josephine darted up the steps.

"We're saved!!!" She exclaimed. "We're saaavvveed!!!"

We climbed up the steps too, watching in despair as the boat sank completely, being devoured by the leeches. "Oh my goodness! What a relief!" Aunt Josephine panted. "Oh! We don't know how to thank you." She said to the man leaning on the railing, turned away from us. My smile faded as I realized who had saved us.

The man turned around, grinning evilly. His one eye shined brightly in a way I only knew one person's eyes did. It was Captain Sham.

Lucky us...