★ 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕲𝖎𝖗𝖑 𝖂𝖍𝖔 𝖁𝖔𝖑𝖚𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖊𝖗𝖊𝖉 ★ (𝓐𝓼𝓸𝓾𝓮)

The Hospitable Hotel 2

The next day, Nadia woke up at the crack of dawn. She rubbed the sleep away from her eyes and walked to the conjoined bathroom. The bathroom was quite huge with an enormous mirror and a white tiled floor. There was a shower and even a hot tub.

Staring at her reflection in the mirror, she almost gasped seeing her hair messy and tangled. Her skin and lips looked dry and she had dark circles under her eyes. She looked like a corpse.

 Noticing a toothbrush placed on the sick, she quickly brushed her teeth and hopped in the shower. As the water cleaned off the sweat, she couldn't help but wonder how her sister was doing or where they were. Wherever they were she hoped they were safe. Wrapping a towel around her body, she noticed some clothes were placed on the sink. Taking the red sweater and blank pants, she quickly put them on. She found a hairbrush in one of the cabinets in the bathroom and quickly brushed her tangled hair.

She quietly walked down to the common room to see Quigley (who had also freshened up) staring at the ashes in the fireplace transfixed.

"Quigley?" The brunette called as he quickly snapped out of it and looked at her. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, of course," Quigley nodded. "I am just wondering in what part of the sky my siblings would be flying?"

"Well..." Nadia trailed as she took a seat next to Quigley. "Anywhere they are, at least they are safe." The children sat in silence for a moment gathering their thoughts.

"I'm wondering," Nadia started. "Where on earth is my sister and the Baudelaires?" Quigley hummed as he looked at the ashes. "I hope they are safe," He said at last.

"Children," Jaquelyn said as she entered the room and the children quickly snapped their heads towards her.  "I believe now is the time to get your questions answered." She gestured for them to follow her. The children followed and quickly burst out their questions.

"What enemies were you referring to?"

"Are they still a threat?"

"Why is this town deserted?"

"One at a time children," Jaquely said taking them to a library. The library was huge, with books everywhere. The shelves were tall and filled with books of all kinds. There was a shelf that was shaped like an eye. The VFD symbol.

"This town was made shortly after one of our founder's families was burned in their home. The founder was scared and wanted to live a peaceful life. He wanted to live in hiding. All of the founders built houses and made a house for him to live in. After some time more fires happened and more people wanted to live in hiding, scared of our enemies." Jaquelyn said.

"But I thought our volunteers were brave people," Nadia said perplexed.

Jaquelyn smiled sadly. "As brave as you may be, if you see your family burned in front of you, that bravery may disappear like a flame blown out by the wind." She paused for a moment looking solemnly at the children. "It was not the only reason why this town was built. A mole in our organization and he rattled as out to our enemies. Our enemies knew all of our volunteer's names-"

"But why would it be a threat?" Nadia interrupted.

"Because, before our organisation was more of secret detectives. All our best agents were people who would find information about criminal gangs, so it was important that none of our enemies know who our agents were. So this town was built in secret so they had someplace to hide," Jaquelyn said. 

A loud ringing noise was heard and Jaquelyn looked at the children. "Stay here, I'll come in a moment." She exited the library. The children shared confused looks not knowing what to think.