Duncan Quagmire and Violet Baudelaire: A Reunion

Chapter 14 - Violet Baudelaire

Violet and Klaus has formulated the plan and gone over everything until the clock striked two o'clock. The plan was that they would go through the air vent. Klaus figured out that the tubes were like a big corridor, big enough to fit the three Baudelaire's in and would be able to take them throughout the whole house. If they followed the direction from the air vent in their room to the air vent of Count Olaf's room, they could get there without getting caught.
    "Come on Sunny!" Klaus spoke softly. They locked the door so that nobody could barge in when they were out of the room. Violet used the same hair pin she used when opening the vent the day before and opened the air vent that was in the their room. She double checked that she had everything she needed; a map of the house, a flashlight, a toy baseball bat they found in their room and the small silver key that opened the suitcase.
    Once everybody fitted in the air vent, they started crawling down the tube. Klaus, who was in front had the flashlight and a map of the house that the tubing was based off of. Sunny was in the middle and she was able to stand up and walk. Violet was at the back, the key in her pocket and the baseball bat in her hat.
    After carefully navigating through the air vents, Klaus paused. "It's a dead end!" Klaus whispered although his voice echoed throughout the metal walls.
    Violet frowned. "Are you sure? What does it say on the map?" Klaus checked the map again.
    "We should be going up now," he continued and after flashing up, he said, "Wait.... there are two platforms! This is where we are going up now." True to his words, Klaus shone his flashlight on two platforms, both about a meter and a half apart in height. They led up, where they had to go because Count Olaf's room was a floor above. Violet hoisted Klaus up and he reached the first platform and then he pulled Violet and Sunny up. They made it up and again, Violet helped Klaus up the next platform and he pulled the two girls up as well.
    They made their way to an air vent. "Okay, this should be Olaf's room, so the one next would be his office where the suitcase is." Klaus whispered, extra quiet because their mortal enemy was snoring in a room about five meters away.
    The office was exactly like it was a few hours ago, except that rather the room was lit by lights, the room shone from Klaus's flashlight. Violet screwed the bolt back on after the three Baudelaires hopped onto the rug. Klaus took the key from Violet's pocket and made his way to the suitcase that still hasn't moved.
    He inserted the key, hoping it would click, and it did. The suitcase slowly opened and Sunny flashed the light at it. There were two compartments in the suitcase. One side had a pile of paper and the other side layed a small booklet. Duncan picked up the booklet while Violet held up an important looking paper. It was scrawled out in an ink pen that Violet guessed was Count Olaf's. She shone the flashlight at the words and read what it says.

    17.5. —
I have been back to the V.F.D. headquarters shortly after the Baudelaire's scum have escaped my plans. Again. When I got there, it was empty, nobody was there. At first, I thought that nobody would come out because they knew I was here and I knew where their precious base was but it turns out that it was deserted.
    I came back because I got word that Beatrice and Bertrand Baudelaire might be alive and are hiding there so I had to wipe them out. I needed to get my hands on the fortune to set out my final plan. The headquarter was wiped clean, as if V.F.D. has never operated there, but I found this notebook on the main table.
    I am now headed to Prufrock, after the Baudelaire's but also the Quagmire's who have an enormous fortune too. You can write to me when I get there.
    - Olaf. G.

    "Klaus," Violet murmured right after reading the letter, "what's inside that booklet?" The letter was from Olaf to someone, which hasn't been sent. Violet quickly reread the short letter again and Klaus handed her the booklet, in exchange for the letter.
    The booklet this time was an address book. There were names on the booklet. Underneath the names had addresses and phone numbers of the person. She flipped through the entire booklet, names on every page. She didn't know that there were this many volunteers. What more, each of the names and address were written in a different handwriting.
    "So, what do you think?" Violet whispered. She handed the booklet back to her brother. He breathed. "They probably left this back there because if somebody came back, for example, our parents. They would know who to go to and where would they go to. Olaf knew where the headquarters were and so he went there and took this."
    "This was probably how Count Olaf knew where Aunt Josephine and Dr. Montgomery." Violet whispered. Klaus nodded. She added on, "have you checked what all of the other papers are for?"
    "Yeah, they are just copies of this booklet but in the fancy looking papers. We need to get out of here, he might wake up soon."
    Violet closed the suitcase but kept the book. "Okay, fine. Where's Sunny?" Klaus shone the flashlight around the room and stopped by the connecting door between the office and Count Olaf's bedroom. The door was open. She wondered how long it has been open for but her mind focused on bigger questions. Is he awake? Did he see them?
    She held her breath as she inched closer to the door. Her main plan in her head was; get Sunny and get out. Thankfully, Sunny was inside the room but unfortunately, she was prodding Olaf's arm. He was on the bed and snoring loudly. His arm was dangling off the bed and Sunny was pushing it around. "Sunny! Psst!" Violet whispered, her eyes on Olaf the entire time.
    Sunny brought her attention back to her elder sister and she left the bed and came back to the office room. Violet was just about to close the door when she heard Olaf stir. He finally caught wind of the activity outside and took off his sleeping mask.
    Violet pulled Sunny into the room and not caring about making no sound, she grabbed Klaus's arm too and whispered hurriedly, "Olaf is waking up!" Klaus's eyes widened and he ran to the office door leading to the corridor and busted out of there. Violet picked up Sunny and carried her out of the office into the dark corridor. She heard the bedroom door open and slammed the office door shut after her.
    Her head was spinning as she followed Klaus down the corridor, sprinting as fast as she can. She felt Sunny's weight in her arm and stuffed the booklet and folded letter into Sunny's hands. Violet heard running footsteps after her and her breathing became ragged. The Count was surely going to catch up to them. Violet continued running, hoping she would outrun the crazy man chasing her and she would never stop.
    Her feet got into a pattern and she was just concentrating on that, to keep her breathing steady, running in pitch black.... She felt a hand grab her arm from the side and pull her. Violet let out a silent scream, keeping her mouth shut. She expected the hand to be rough, but instead it was soft, just like...
    "Klaus!" Violet whispered. He pulled her into a broom cupboard and silently shut the door while the three, including Sunny was safely inside. Klaus put a finger on his lips and Violet shut her mouth. Outside, she heard loud footsteps increasing and she held her breath, half expecting Olaf to open the cupboard door. But he didn't... The footsteps continued running past them and she breathed out again.
    "What are we going to do now?" Klaus whispered. Sunny started to drift asleep in Violet's arm. She put her head back, "We'll go to sleep here. He can't find us and it is too risky going back to our room cause he can just catch us." Klaus also leaned back and in a few short moments, he was sleeping. Violet put her arm around Sunny, and she too, dozed off.