Broken

Chapter XXI

"I am on top of the world Esme!" I heard Count Olaf shout as he exited his car "Literally and figuratively at my peak"

"What do we do?" Duncan said

"I don't know, there is practically nowhere to go and nobody's left to save us"

We stepped out of the car and looked around the surroundings; the mountain was pristine and white, so innocent. But the tracks from Count Olaf's car had turned parts of it into a disgusting-looking mess.

"If the surviving Baudelaire parent is at V.F.D. headquarters, then burning it down will solve all of our problems" said Count Olaf

"We will stop you!" Duncan and I said as Sunny babbled along with us.

He laughed. "You'll never stop us. We are going to stay here the night and then burn down the headquarters in the morning. You two" he looked at me and Duncan "are going to put up tents for me and my troupe and the baby can set her tent up herself"

"But what about us?" Duncan asked

"Where are we supposed to sleep?" I continued

Count Olaf ignored us and moved on to ordering his troupe around. "And you lot get the freaks out of the trunk" He then looked at us again "Get the tents!" he shouted. "is that a sleigh?"

Me and Duncan had got the tents out of the car and given Sunny a small one to put up for herself when we saw Hugo, Kevin and Colette walk away from Count Olaf's troupe who were shouting at them 'Not like us! Not like us!'

"Kevin! Hugo! Colette! Wait!" I shouted

"Oh Isadora, Duncan" said Hugo

"We're so sorry about what just happened, but I'm sure you understand that we had to do that so we could prove ourselves to Count Olaf" Colette said

"No, we don't understand" Duncan said

"Well, we're sorry and that's the most important thing"

"The most important thing is that people died" I said

"Look, we're sorry Quagmires, and we hope that one day you can forgive us, but for now we have to stay with Count Olaf, it's the only way that we'll survive" Kevin expressed walking away with his friends.

"Get to work orphans!" I heard Count Olaf shout

"Come on, Isadora" said Duncan.

When the tents were finally put up and it was all finished, Count Olaf was teaching an acting lesson to his troupe and Esme was locking Sunny in a 'baby jail' made of bricks of ice.

"Oh, so you are done then?" Esme asked "took you long enough, yet it still doesn't look good"

"That's because we had never set up a tent before today" Duncan said

"Well it still isn't good enough, if I am expected to sleep in a tent, it must at least look somewhat presentable and this looks like a mess, a complete mess"

"What are we supposed to do Esme?"

"You aren't supposed to be here, orphans aren't in, if it were up to me, you twins and the baby brat would be off this mountain in an instant" she snarled "now follow me, my fabulous boyfriend told me, I can decide how we're going to keep you from running away this time, you escaped the hospital break room by picking the lock, Duncan untied Isadora when we strapped her to a chair with hospital bandages, you escaped when we handcuffed you to the desk in me and my in boyfriend's tent at Caligari Carnival and you escaped when we taped your hands together as we pushed your annoying librarian volunteer into a pit of lions, you then escaped the car which we should have locked, so what next? Rope. We have rope, which is honestly all I could think of because you two twins are so infuriating that we've had to resort to rope which isn't in at all. So before I completely lose my sanity, sit down on that bench, so I can tie you two up then go to see my very in boyfriend and so we can plan burning down V.F.D. Headquarters to then kill every single one of your annoying, goody-goody volunteers and finally find MY sugar bowl"