A Series Of Different Events

Chapter 23 - I'm sure this tea is poisoned

Violet walked through the empty hallways as inconspicuously as it possibly was, a race against time to find the Meducoid, before the tea cools down and it would be suspicious. She opened each door nervously, her eyes scanning the furniture. Another library, an astronomy room, another kitchen, it was endless. But nothing that looked like it would contain the vial.

Violet sighed. This would take hours. Suddenly, a thought flickered at her minds and she grasped at it. The fabric mask she had around her mouth that day to stop the Mycelium. What if it contained a bit? She felt in the pockets of her robes, and her heart sunk. The spyglass. It wasn't there, and now she had nothing left of Klaus, Sunny and her parents.

A sob choked to her throat, and she clutched her hands, nails digging in. She kept feeling through the pockets, until she felt a silky material. She pulled it out, and there it was, the crumpled up mask. She raised her robes to her mouth, and she unfolded it.

She felt ecstatic, tired exhilaration pushing her heartbeat all while terrified tears threatened to pour out. A small cluster of green was on the mask, the dull green so bright in Violet's eyes, her saviour, her last hope, her murder weapon.

As that thought barreled into her, guilt drowned her, suffocating, trapping her and the tears spilt out, racing down her face.
Was she really going to poison the people who had taken her and her siblings in with care after... after her parents had.. died.

The Firestarters killed her parents. And gaslighted, manipulated her into thinking they saved her, using and blackmailing her against her siblings. With no second thoughts, Violet scraped the Meducoid Mycelium off of the fabric, and watched it drop into the warm tea, fizzing away as it reacted with the bitter ginger flavour.

She looked into the depths of the tea, nothing was off, nothing wrong, and she lowered the robes covering her mouth. The water seemed to have shielded the fungus, and Violet walked out of the kitchen, and towards the Man with a beard but no hair and the Woman with hair but no beard's study.

Each footstep was filled with excited, tingling, dreadful feelings that rushed and crushed around Violet's tired brain, the tea sloshing around the two perfectly ordinary cups. She approached the heavy door, and knocked, three times, and her heartbeat felt like someone was knocking against it aswell.

"Come in," Violet heard the Woman with hair but no beard's parrot-like voice, and she entered. The Man with a beard but no hair smiled as he looked up.
"Violet Baudelaire. How are you? I hope you didn't take it all to heart, we just felt you would be.. safer, down with Adrianna. I am glad you are accepting your role."

He nodded to the tray clutched in her hands and she set it down onto the table. "Yes, sir. I understand." she nodded with her best 'I've-totally-not-poisoned-that-tea' smile, hoping it was reassuring and together. The cruel couple blinked with gratitude, a sign they wanted to be left. Violet quickly stood up, palms sweating. She rubbed them quickly against her robes and started to leave.

She stopped around the corner of the doorway, and her eyes widened as she almost walked straight into Adrianna, who was carrying a tea tray with two cups of ginger tea. "Vi-?!" She started and Violet rushed forwards, putting a hand over Adrianna's mouth. Adrianna's eyes were full of confusion and worry, as she stepped back. She seemed to have got the hint to be quiet and gestured with her hands to Violet.

Suddenly, coughing started. Wheezing, panicked coughing, and voices. Violet's eyes widened and she stepped back into the doorway. Both Firestarters had taken generous sips from the mugs, which were smashed on the floor. She locked eyes with the Man with a beard but no hair's eyes, and through his coughing he seemed to snarl. He stood up, stumbling a bit, and reached into his robes.

He snatched out a little glass vial, with a green fungus in it, and smashed it down onto the ground. Violet's eyes widened further, as Adrianna was panicking behind her, confused and scared. All four of them saw the little green spores seeping out, and Violet didn't want to wait to see the outcome. She grabbed Adrianna's hand, panic rising.

"Run, Adrianna! Let's go! Run!" She cried, and they sprinted. For their lives. This felt like it was happening alot recently.

Falling and stumbling and crying, they literally ran into the exit door, and Violet didn't hesitate to see if it was locked. She kicked it with the heel of her shoe, all her anger and fear and pain jerking out with the movement of the door, which flew open. But as they ran, both of them felt the suffocating lump in the throat, cutting off the ability to breathe, the sensation of the deadliest fungus poisoning you.

"Horseradish, we need horseradish!" Adrianna gasped, and they stopped, before looking back in the hallway. One of the small kitchens was just up a few doors, and they ran back to it, feeling themselves get weaker and weaker. Opening the door, they started scanning the room, opening each cupboard and fridge. There was no horseradish.

"There must be something!" Violet cried as she hurriedly looked through the spices. In a frantic movement, she accidentally knocked a jar of wasabi to the floor. It shattered, a little

Violet and Adrianna tumbled out the door, and they stayed laying on the icy floor, panting. They looked back at the building.
"They.. you.. the fungus.." Adrianna said, tears falling from her eyes and semi freezing onto the cold ground.
Violet didn't reply, her eyes blurring and all the lights having those curious lines pouring from them, sobs rising and peaking , like the waxing and the waning of the Meducoid Mycelium.

"We're free.." she just wept, the guilt and happiness bubbling in her, and Adrianna smiled through the hot tears coursing like little rivers across her skin.
"We are..."

Adrianna stood up and took Violet's hand, before trying to find something in her pockets. Her box of matches. Violet frowned, confused as Adrianna struck a match. She threw it back into the Firestarter's building, where it licked at the wood, and Violet realised what she was doing.

Adrianna laughed as she struck match after match, tears like waterfalls as they monsooned from her eyes, the flames swallowing the walls, creaking and groaning as smoke bellowed from the timbers.

She kept laughing maniacally as the flames engulfed the building, smoke now going up from all around, and Violet sensed the danger.

"Adrianna, come on, let's go!" She said, and Adrianna retreated back to her, grinning. She watched the flames a bit longer, and turned back to Violet.
"Yeah, let's go."

And they started walking slowly from the burning remains of the Firestarters' base, unspoken happiness and guilt and shame and satisfaction with each glance behind their shoulders and at eachother.

The air was chilly, a sharp coldness that shook their bones as they walked. Direction less, but safe, Violet thought. Night fell quickly, stars peeking nervously from the heavy clouds, the moon a pale orb, a fleck of light that illuminated everything with a silver, dull glow.