Duncan Quagmire and Violet Baudelaire: A Reunion

Chapter 7 - Duncan Quagmire

That night was a long one.
At about half past ten, Duncan and Isadora changed into their night clothes. Duncan had a plain green shirt and navy blue shorts whilst Isadora wore a purple shirt and another pair of navy blue shorts. The sky outside was pitch black except the occasional twinkle of a distant star. Fewer clouds passed in the night compared to the day time which Isadora pointed out.
Duncan gave her his attention but replied shortly completely at another topic. "I wonder if the Baudelaire's have met the Hadley's yet."
"Yes probably, and hopefully Count Olaf hasn't caught up yet."
"But he must have! Violet, Klaus and Sunny's new guardian was all over the Daily Punctulio! He knows where they are and he, Esmé and his stupid theatrical group are going to catch up with them." Isadora straightened her back, and said, "I know but we aren't far. We are only on this ship for like two and a half days and we are going straight to them."
Isadora's plan echoed in Duncan's head as they both closed their eyes. Duncan dreamt. He and his family, mom, dad, Isadora, Quigley, and him were in the living room. They were laughing about some joke that Quigley made while playing a board game on the floor. His parents were smiling broadly at his two other siblings and him. Time paused, until Isadora coughed. A burning smell made it's way to the living room and both of their parents stood up at once. "Stay here," his dad said, fear filling his brown eyes. Both Duncan's parents went towards the burning smell. Suddenly a shout came, his mom's shout. "Go! To the emergency exit!" Isadora held both Duncan and Quigley's hand and the triplets ran out of the living room, down the corridor, and at the end of the corridor was a small chute. Duncan opened the door hastily and Isadora jumped in, he jumped in, but at that second, he heard Quigley shout "Mom! Dad!" Duncan turned his head around and had a fleeting glance where he saw Quigley running back down the corridor towards the fire. "No!" Duncan's scream revertebrated through the metal chute. Once he got to the bottom, he heard hurried footsteps. Hurried footsteps? That wasn't part of his memory.
Duncan woke up. He heard quick and rushed footsteps going down the corridor, over his pounding heart. This dream always kept coming back to him ever since his brother and parents death. He rolled over to face Isadora who was still sleeping soundly. "Izzy. Wake up!" Duncan whispered while prodding her shoulder. She woke in an instant, "Wait, what happened?" Isadora muttered, sitting upright.
"I heard rushed footsteps, going that way," Duncan pointed to the left, "someone was obviously in a hurry."
"So what?"
"So, I want to found out why the person was in such a hurry." Isadora looked at Duncan with a look of disbelief. "This might mean something, please just come with me." Duncan said again, ignoring Isadora's tired face.
"Fine, but if we haven't found anything, I won't speak to you all day tomorrow. I'm just so tired." So both of them got out of their bed covers and crept quietly to the door. Duncan felt Isadora wince as he turned the door knob which made a quiet but high pitched squeak. He carefully held the door open as Isadora inched past the door and into the corridor. Duncan slowly closed the door, trying not to make any sounds. Once that troubling task was done, they looked down the dark corridor.
Duncan knew roughly which way the footsteps went and so he started edging down the corridor, Isadora tailing behind him. Making sure to walk on his toes, Duncan felt the walls so he was going into the right direction. Once they made a turn left, Isadora whispered, "Are you sure we are going the right way?"
"Shhh, you're too loud, and I know this is, trust me," Duncan whispered over his shoulder, even though he was as loud as Isadora. They continued down the corridor until Duncan stopped, he heard hushed whispering. They went through an arch and into a large room which luxurious couches and armchairs were spaced in. Light shone underneath a door at the end of the big, dark living room.
Duncan and Isadora went behind a couch farthest away from the bright room. Duncan turned to his sister, and whispered quietly, "Plan: there is that couch right next to that door, we hide behind it and listen to whoever is in the room." Isadora nodded, or Duncan guessed she did by the movement of her head, it was so dark in the room.
As they crept around the large room and closer to the door, voices were louder.
"But captain, they would probably run off when we get to the City!" A deep, more rough voice growled in the room.
In reply, a woman's voice, Jemma Farley's voice replied, "Well, we would have to take considerable measures to stop that from happening. Anyways, I am personally going to take them to the Hadley's."
"But why do they have such interest with the Hadley's, why do they need to go there?" The man asked.
"Because the two Quagmire's friends, the Baudelaire's are living there currently and they, for some reason feel the need to save their friends. Trying to be like the heroes or something."
"Quagmires, wait, weren't their parents part of the V.F.D? Aren't they dead?"
"Yes, obviously they are dead George! Do you think the Quagmire parents would let their precious children be boarding a ship owned by a stranger they have never seen before!"
"So the only reason you let them be on this ship is because you want to find out more about the V.F.D?"
"I need to find out more about this organisation and relating back to this question, no, they are here because of another reason."
"What is that reason?"
"Why would I tell you? You would go and talk about it with all of the crew."
"What! I wouldn't. I..." at that moment, Duncan accidentally hit his knee on the polished wooden floor. It came out as a "thud" and he felt Isadora's hand grab his as she got to her feet and quietly pulled her to the couch that they hid behind first.
Duncan heard footsteps coming closer to the door. He did not dare looking over the couch as he knew that "George" was standing by the door. George stood there for a second, observing the dark room. "Who's there!" He called out, not caring about waking the others up. Duncan took the risk by peeping his head from the side of the couch and he saw the silhouette of George, large, and muscular standing by the door. George didn't see him because the room was so dark but Duncan saw George turning around to face Jemma who was in the room. "Don't worry captain, it was probably Forest."
The moment he turned around, Duncan seized Isadora's arm and they both quickly crept out of the room, through the arch and down both corridors until they were safely back into their rooms. "You have to talk to me tomorrow Isadora, because that information was definitely worth it."