★ 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕲𝖎𝖗𝖑 𝖂𝖍𝖔 𝖁𝖔𝖑𝖚𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖊𝖗𝖊𝖉 ★ (𝓐𝓼𝓸𝓾𝓮)

The Passageway Paths 2

The brunette slowly made her way to the tunnel. As she finally located where the trapdoor would be she heard a voice. Quickly running and hiding away from view, she heard a familiar voice exclaim.

"Why would there be a secret passage here? Do you think Jerome knows?" It was most definitely Klaus's voice! Doing a little victory dance, she quickly came into view.

"I bet Esmé does--" Violet stared wide-eyed at Nadia, "Nadia!" She exclaimed.

"What?" Klaus asked looking at his sister perplexed. "Violet this tremendous amount of stress must have messed with your head. Esmé is who we were..." Klaus trailed before following his sister's eyes. He blinked and quick as a flash Violet had already dashed forward and was hugging Nadia as if holding on to her lifeline.

"Violet," Nadia beamed brighter than the sun. 

"I thought I would never see you again," Violet said with a bright smile.

"I am not that easy to get rid of." Nadia joked as Sunny tried to hug Nadia. The brunette smiled and picked Sunny in her arms.

Klaus adjusted his glasses and blinked repeatedly to check if Nadia was a hallucination or actually there. He then hugged Nadia gently. The feelings that were associated with the hug felt different. Before, Klaus and Nadia would have shared blushes and butterflies in their stomachs, but now it felt more like a brother-sister hug. At that moment, Klaus realized that Nadia may have been his first love, but his heart was stolen by a beautiful poet and intelligent Quagmire. Isadora.

"What happened why are you all here?' Nadia gestured around the tunnels.

"Well," Viole began to explain. The Baudelaires had gone to meet their new guardian who they were told were very fashionable.  The Baudelaires found out that Count Olaf is already inside and he was pretending to be Gunther, a foreigner, while in hiding from a citywide manhunt. The Squalors did not believe them when they claimed Gunther was Count Olaf. Esmé took the Baudelaires to Cafe Salmonella to have a long lunch. Olaf tried and succeeded in getting them to switch locations and head over to the Herring Houdini, his own makeshift restaurant where he planned on drugging the Squalors to kidnap the children.

The Baudelaires had managed to escape lunch and head back to the penthouse to join the search. They arrive at the penthouse floor and check out the second elevator that Klaus became suspicious of. What they find instead of an elevator is just a long dark shaft.

Nadia blinked processing all the new information. "So that's why you are here?"

"Yes," Violet nodded. "Why would there be a secret passage here?"

Nadia kept quiet not knowing what to say. 

"What do you think Esmé meant..."

"Look." Violet interrupt as she saw a ladder. The children had been walking without realizing it. Violet opened a small latch and a bunch of ashes appeared behind it

"Ashes?" Klaus voiced. Nadia squinted and she saw something move. She widened her eyes as Violet shut the latch quickly.

"That was Olaf," Violet said sharing a look with Klaus.

"Are you sure?" Nadia asked.

"You saw the tattoo. Who else could it be?" Violet asked.

"Maybe the Quagmires are up there," Klaus suggested. Violet nodded and she went to open the latch again. She went up and into the area. Nadia held Sunny for Klaus so he could climb up. After passing Sunny to Klaus, Nadia climbed up. Nadia was greeted with ashy ruins of a  destroyed home. The look on the Baudelaires faces made Nadia feel a little uneasy.

"What?" Klaus was the first one to break the silence.

"How?" Violet asked.

"Is this..." Nadia trailed looking at the ashes.

"It's our home," Violet said.