A Series of Fortunate Events

Chapter 1

To Beatrice:

You were a sunshine, now you are a shadow

Have you ever woken up early in the morning? This is a rhetorical question, which here means "everyone has woken up early at some point of their life, so the answer is obvious". And even though everyone has woken up early, many people who live in a big city might not have experienced the feeling I'm about to describe. It happens when you open a window to a beautiful nature landscape, and fresh air blows into your face, with beams of light coming into your room. Your lungs fill up with fresh air like a balloon, and you feel that something big awaits you.  Well this is exactly what Baudelaire's felt while preparing for their departure.

"Klaus, can you check if we packed up absolutely everything we will need?" asked Violet, entering  the house they resided in for the past year.

"I have went through everything for 3 times yesterday," assured her Klaus "What else could we possibly need?"

"Yeah, you're right... I guess I'm just worried."

Klaus stood up from his bed and walked over to Violet.

"I'm worried too, it is a big step for us." he said while hugging her. This helped her relax a bit.

"I think I will get some sleep before we depart. Sleeping in a boat doesn't sound very fun to me." yawned Violet. She walked to her room and collapsed on the bed. After a minute she was already peacefully sleeping.

Klaus went to walk around the island. He really did get attached to it after a year of living here. On the other side, it got dull and he wanted to escape this place as soon as possible. He started thinking about what they will do when they arrive on land. Are they still criminals? Will they have to attend Prufrock Prep? Are there more VFD members trying to help them? Is anyone still after their fortune?

All these questions were filling up his thoughts. He tried a cool trick his mother showed him a week before the fire. When you are filling up with thoughts, imagine that your mind is like a blackboard, and you just erase them. This helped.

Klaus started to think about the friends they made - the Quagmire's. He wondered where could they be. Maybe they returned to Prufrock Prep. He tried to think about his friend Duncan, but his mind kept returning to another sibling - Isadora.

He accepted his feelings a long time ago. However, he never confessed because he was scared that she didn't feel the same way. Now, he might never even get the chance.

The sun was setting already. They planed to depart tomorrow on sunrise. Klaus went to bed, feeling a bit anxious about what laid ahead of them.

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The sun rose up, peeking through the curtains. This woke up Violet. She developed a habit to wake up at sunrise since they didn't have an alarm clock. She was still a bit sleepy when she walked into Klaus's room to see that he was still sleeping.

"Wake up!" said Violet loudly to wake Klaus up.

"5 more minutes" said Klaus, visibly asleep.

Violet didn't back off. After around more minutes, Klaus finally woke up.

"Is it sunrise already?" mumbled Klaus "You never woke me up before"

"Well now I do, because we need to leave right now" said Violet.

"I was so tired yesterday that I didn't... " tried answering Klaus.

Klaus started getting ready. They kept all their bags in his rooms, so he decided to go through them one last time. There were five bags in total. The first two were food and different stuff from their journey. For example, a VFD spyglass, The Incomplete History of Secret Organizations, their school uniform. In the second bag they kept food. It was just things they could find on the island, like apples, mangos and other fruits and vegetables.

The other three bags were their personal stuff. Klaus had a bunch of books in his bag, including his parents' diary. Violet had some gears, bolts and other useful things an inventor might need. Sunny, who discovered a talent in cooking, had a clay bowl and a small knife.

Violet entered the room.

"Klaus, help me transport these bags onto the boat"

Klaus and Violet picked up the bags from his room and headed in the direction of the boat. Sunny and Beatrice were already waiting for them there. Since Beatrice was much closer to Sunny's age than her other two siblings, Sunny befriended her on the first day on the island. Sunny seemed to get along rather well with small children.

The bags were on the boat, and Klaus with Violet were almost ready to push in the boat, and sail away from this island forever. They both looked around the place they called home for the last year.

"Are you ready?" asked Violet, with a wide smile on her face.

"More than ever," confidently replied Klaus.

They pushed the boat into the sea and quickly hopped onto it.

"Off we go!" said Sunny. Her vocabulary increased a lot during this time on the island.

Klaus was looking on the island that was moving away from them. He now just realized that he is one step closer to finding Isado... the Quagmire triplets. He did know it before, but it only felt real now. For the first time in quite a while, he felt hope for a bright future. He looked over at Violet and wondered what she was thinking about.

Surprisingly, Violet had the same feeling of hope as her brother. The realization that they may reunite with their friends. She was really excited to see the triplets again. She didn't know when this would happen, but she knew it would.

Out of all the triplets, she was mostly thinking about Quigley. She remembered all the moments with him. Even though she wouldn't tell anyone, she was in love with him. All right, maybe she would tell Isadora, she is her best friend after all.

The island disappeared from sight.

"So Klaus..." started Violet.

"What?" he was a bit frustrated that she interrupted his daydream about meeting Isadora.

"What... will we actually do after we arrive at the city?" she asked.

"I think it would be better if we think about it when we arrive" he responded, now perfectly calm.

"What do you mean?! We should have a plan" Violet didn't expect this answer.

"Didn't you notice that every time that we have a plan, everything goes against it?"

"I mean, you do have a point" had to admit Violet.

"I think the best decision right now would be to sleep. I don't think the journey will be very interesting" said Klaus.

"I will wake you up in case something happens" assured him Sunny.

Violet and Klaus decided that if Sunny was watching out if anything happened, it couldn't hurt sleeping a bit.

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After a few hours, the siblings woke up to Sunny saying something to them.

"I see land"

Violet was the first one to stand up.

"Well this is just incredible"

"What's wrong?" asked Klaus, while fully waking up and looking for his glasses.

"Nothing... It's just, we arrived at Briny Beach"