Baudelaires and a White

Chapter Thirteen

The next day, Rowan woke up at six in the morning to the sound of footsteps in his room. He panicked, remembering that he had forgotten to lock his bedroom door, but was relieved to see the figure of Monty approaching him instead.

"Good morning." Rowan whispered.

"Morning." Monty whispered back. "As Stephano has finally decided to get some sleep," he gestured outside Rowan's bedroom where Count Olaf was sleeping, still holding his knife.

An idea suddenly popped into Rowan's head.

"Should we take the knife off of him?" he asked.

"No, he'll only get suspicious," said Monty. "But I do hope that Count Olaf gets torn apart by wild animals one day. Wouldn't that be satisfying?"

Rowan chuckled. "It definitely would. Why did you wake me up? Are the others up?"

"Ah, you go to Klaus's room and ask him to go to the kitchen. I'll wake up Violet and Sunny. I need to tell you four something."

Rowan nodded and hopped off of his bed.

Five minutes later, Violet, Klaus, Sunny, Rowan, and Monty were sitting around the kitchen table. Monty had locked the door.

"Children," he said in a quiet voice. "How would you like to go to Peru?"

"Peru?" repeated Violet.

"Bear?" asked Sunny, which meant, 'Why are we suddenly travelling to Peru?'.

"Firstly, we need to get rid of Stephano." He pointed to the ceiling. The children laughed. "And secondly, I heard that there is a rare species of snake in Peru that I would desperately love to see. Are you in?"

"Naturally." chuckled Klaus.

"Of course!" exclaimed Violet.

"We'd love to go to Peru with you." Rowan added.

"Esmay!" gurgled Sunny, which meant, 'I'm in!'.

Monty shushed them, and then held his hand up to make sure the children did not speak. "Footsteps." he uttered at last. "Right, get busy making breakfast. Pretend to talk about the movie we're going to see tomorrow. We might actually see a movie, before you-know-what."

"Okay." The children nodded, and Monty quickly unlocked the door.

"I can't wait to go to the movies tomorrow." Violet said.

"Yes, me neither. What movie are we seeing, Monty?" asked Klaus, taking some bread and putting it in the toaster.

Monty pulled out a slip of paper, looked at it, then put it back in his pocket. "Zombies in the Snow." he said.

"I've never heard of that film." Rowan said, giving five pieces of bacon to Monty to start cooking. "Do you think it will be good?"

"I'm sure it will." said Monty, beginning to cook.

"Excuse me." the children heard a voice and knew at once who it was. "I just need to - this won't - there."

He opened the door and stepped inside. "Good morning."

"Ah, Stephano!" Monty greeted.

"Hello, Stephano." Violet, Klaus, and Rowan chorused awkwardly.

"We were just discussing going to the movies tomorrow. Don't you think that sounds good?" Monty explained.

"Ah, yes, the movies. I love movies." Count Olaf said unconvincingly. "What movie are we seeing?"

"Zombies in the Snow." replied Monty.

"Ah, yes, Gustav." Count Olaf muttered quietly.

"Gustav?" Violet repeated.

"Isn't that the name of Monty's old assistant?" Klaus asked, adjusting his glasses.

"What?" Count Olaf said awkwardly. "I said, uh, 'ah, yes, great film.'."

"Oh, Stephano." Monty tried to look disappointed. "Have you seen the film before?"

"No, I have seen the, uh, preview, uh, what's it called. The track... trailing... trailer! That's it, I have seen the trailer."

"Stephano. The film doesn't have a trailer." Monty countered.

"Ah, well, yes, I... Ha! Silly me. Anyway, Stephano has unfinished business. Goodbye." Count Olaf left and went back upstairs.

"That was odd." Rowan said at last, saying what everyone was thinking.

"Gigi." Sunny added, which meant, 'And suspicious.'.

"Why did Count Olaf say the name of your old assistant?" asked Violet.

"Well, Gustav told me, five weeks before he resigned, that he was going to make a film and call it Zombies in the Snow, so I suppose this is what he made. I saw it advertised when I went out to get supplies, and I knew that I had to go."