short stories #2

eyes shut ; klaus and isadora

"Isadora? What on Earth are you doing out here?"

Isadora didn't flinch, or move at all really as Klaus came out into the storm and sat beside her. The rain continued to fall around her as she stared blankly off into space, sitting on the rickety fire escape of the apartment the Baudelaires and Quagmires shared.

It was about a year since the island. The Quagmires had washed up on shore one day - the day the Baudelaires were leaving. They didn't talk about what happened with The Great Unknown, and their friends didn't press them.

"Isa?" Klaus asked timidly, rain running down his glasses and making them almost slip off the bridge of his nose. And that's when he noticed she was crying.

"It was so- so dark," she whispered, barely audible above the pounding rain. "Quigley grabbed onto me before we hit the water, but Duncan- he almost died, Klaus. I couldn't have-" she paused, staring down at her hands before her sobs became uncontrollable. "What- what if I couldn't have saved him? What if-"

Klaus wasn't too keen on affection, just looking at Isadora made his brain break. But still, he pulled her close and tried to block out the rain. Her shaking subsided a little, and she sighed.

"You're safe. That thing can't get you. I'm here." He racked his brain to remember a poem Isadora had read aloud to him way back at Prufrock Prep, when they were bored with Mrs. Bass's lessons.

"Isa...?" he asked.

"Yes?" she answered, her voice muffled.

"Shouldn't we go back inside?"

"Oh, yes, we probably should." She loosened the hug a bit and grinned up at Klaus, pushing his glasses back up his nose. They held each other's gaze for a second.

Then her lips touched his. And he didn't care that the rain was soaking them to the bone. Isadora was safe, that's all that mat-

CRACK.

Klaus jolted awake in his bed. He could hear the storm outside.

It was a dream.

He had to remind himself that.

Isadora had died, along with Duncan and Quigley, a long time ago. The Great Unknown took them. He was never going to see her again.

CRACK.

knock, knock, knock.

He sat up. Was someone knocking at the door?

knock, knock, knock.

He stood up, slipping his glasses on from his bedside table.

He opened the door of his bedroom and walked out into the hallway, where Violet was standing, blurry eyed. She tilted her head at Klaus.

"Who could it be at this hour?" She whispered, and she closed her door behind her as to not disturb the sleeping Sunny who shared the room with her. The elder Baudelaires walked towards the front door of their apartment. Near the door, Violet picked up the knife she kept near it, and held it out in front of her. The sixteen year old girl didn't want to open the door. What if Esmé had found them again? So many things could go wrong if she opened the door. She paused, her hand centimeters from the knob.

Knock, knock, knock.

She opened the door slowly. Klaus gasped.

"Quagmires?"