A Tale of Wretched Occurrences: The Beginning

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓝𝓲𝓷𝓮

“Sunny must be so frightened.” Klaus stares out your bedroom window.

“We’re all frightened, Klaus,” Violet says softly. “You should get some sleep. You stayed up all last night trying to figure out Count Olaf’s plot. It’s my turn.”

“I didn’t help us.” Klaus sits down on the bed, defeated.

You sit next to him. “Yes you did. We’d still be wondering what Count Olaf is planning if you didn’t.”

Violet sits on Klaus’s other side. “Do you remember when our parents first brought Sunny home?”

“She bit the doorknob off the nursery.” Klaus smiles slightly at the memory.

“I made a promise to Mother and Father that I would always look after you three, and make sure you don’t get into any trouble. Let me keep my promise.”

“I think I have a way to help too.” You go over to the pile of rocks, and reach behind them, where you’ve hidden a script for The Marvelous Marriage. “I found this in the library a few days ago while we were doing chores — I’m pretty sure it’s the only actual reading material that was in there.

“Anyway, it’s not much, but I figured I could read through the script, and figure out how far in the marriage is. That way we know how long we can stall and think of a way to get you out of it.” You turn to Violet as you say the last few words.

“You don’t have to do that,” she says. “Just get some rest. I’ll be fine.”

“Let me help, Violet. I know you want to protect me, but I feel so useless. Just let me do this one thing.”

“Okay,” she finally agrees. “Just make sure you get a little sleep. We’re all going to need to be on guard tomorrow.”

You nod. “Yeah, I will.”

Violet stands up. “I’m going to go down to the kitchen and see if there’s any supplies I can use to rescue Sunny.”

Carefully, she leaves the bedroom and sneaks down to the kitchen.

“Klaus, do you have any extra paper?” you ask.

He pulls out one sheet from his pocket. “This is my last one.”

“That’s enough, thank you.”

You claim the hammock so you’ll be closer to the window, your only source of light, and get to work. Klaus goes to the bed and tries to get comfortable.

“Do you really think you’ll be able to come up with a way to get Violet out of the marriage?” he asks.

“I don’t know,” you admit. “But I’m going to try.”

㊋㊋㊋㊋

The script is long and tedious, and mostly just repeating how amazing and handsome Count Olaf is over and over. That makes you want to chuck it out the window, but you know you can’t. Count Olaf is already mad enough, you don’t want to risk knowing how he’ll react when he learns you’ve stolen a copy of the script.

You try your best to stay awake, but the boring reading material seems to be working against you. Your eyes glaze over every time a character talks about how incredible Count Olaf’s character (whose name is simply Handsome Man) is. You find yourself reading the same sentence over and over. You find yourself reading the same sentence over and over. You find yourself reading the same sentence over and over. You find yourself reading the same sentence over and over.