𝓑𝓮𝓽𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓷 𝓝𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰 - ₐₛₒᵤₑ [𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐔𝐄𝐃]

♖ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗖𝗼𝗱𝗲

The rest of the afternoon was eventful, to say the least. The kids had to keep watch on Count Olaf who, disguised as 'Stephano', kept dropping things on Monty's head and then pretended it was another unfortunate accident.

After a very awkward dinner, where Count Olaf repeatedly tried to come up with excuses not to go to the movies with the orphans and the herpetologist - really, how did he think that "staying up to read about poisonous venoms" was a good justification for not going? -, they were finally in the car.

Upon letting the children enter the backseat and 'Stephano' sat on the passenger side, Monty closed the door, circling the car. Meanwhile, Count Olaf took the opportunity to grab his knife from inside his jacket, displaying it as a subtle threat.

"We don't know what you're up to but we will find out," Violet affirmed, her hold on her sister - who was sitting on her lap - tightening ever so slightly in protection. Klaus, sitting beside her, had a scowl on his face.

Alice noticed the boy's hands were intertwined, his knuckles white from the tight grip caused by his anger, so she placed a hand on top of his. He shot her a smile, thankful, before his face turned to Count Olaf once more.

"If anything happens to my sisters or me, or Alice for that matter, you'll never get your hands on the Baudelaire fortune. Nor the Everleigh's money." Klaus spoke through gritted teeth.

"If I wanted to harm you, orphan, your blood would be streaming out of this car already." Count Olaf boldly stated, still playing with the knife. "No, I won't harm a hair on any of your heads... At least, not on purpose. But accidents happen all the time, don't they?"

Alice felt her hand being squeezed by a larger, warmed one, and she looked down to see that Klaus had dropped his other hand so he could hold hers upon noticing how tense she was due to Stephano's threat. 

Finally, Monty entered the car on the driver's side, completely oblivious to the prior conversation. Count Olaf slipped his Stephano accent back on, pretending to have been telling a funny story to the children, and they drove off into the night.

⋅ ❴ ⋈ ❵ ⋅

Going to the movies with Monty wasn't exactly what the orphans expected it would be. Instead of a fun, carefree night, they were stuck splitting their attention between the strange classic movie they were watching, Zombies in the Snow, and keeping an eye both on Monty and Count Olaf, who were both acting extremely suspiciously.

While acting that way was normal for the wicked count, they had never witnessed their uncle doing such a strange activity as watching a movie through what appeared to be a spyglass.

Klaus was the first to notice this, of course; being sat right next to Monty, he couldn't help but wonder why his spyglass looked so familiar. 

Meanwhile, Alice, who was sitting next to Count Olaf, looked at the silver screen, her brows furrowed in confusion as she tried to determine where exactly she had seen those actors before. 

Gustav Sebald and Jacqueline Scieszka... While the first name didn't ring a bell, the second did. And then she remembered; she had indeed seen Jacqueline before. 

Her name was spelled a little differently, but Alice had no doubt it was her. Jacquelyn, Mr. Poe's assistant, and also the first person to defend them during Count Olaf's scheme to marry Violet.

But why exactly was she acting in an old movie? From what the kids understood, she wasn't that old to have been able to play a role in such a movie. 

Violet seemed to be having the same epiphany because she leaned toward her brother and whispered. "Klaus, haven't we seen that actress before?"