𝙰𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙴𝚗𝚍

Chapter 11

In her memory

----Isadora POV----
It broke Isadora's heart to watch her brother crumble to his knees and sob relentlessly, she had never seen him so destroyed before. Quigley had always been the strong one, the one who held it together. But now here he was, beside himself with uncontrollable emotion.

The Quagmire triplets stayed by the side of the burning building until they could hear the distant ringing of sirens, alerting them that it was time for them to go. Reluctantly the triplets left the ruins of ash and fire, and headed towards the nearest bus stop with the bus route leading to the frozen forest, but not before they heard the sickening wheeze that accompanied the final collapsing of the once tall and proud department store. It was now turned to complete rubble and ash.

Once on the bus the children sat in silence, unable to process what happened, the only noise was the occasional sob either from Duncan or Isadora. Quigley was no longer sobbing but had developed a state of pure silence as he stared blankly at his hands.

Isadora was reminded of a line of poetry she had once read. It had gone something like:
you drew memories in my mind
I could never erase.
you painted colours in my heart
I could never replace.

Eventually Isadora worked up the courage to break the loudest silence she had ever endured.

"So, what now?" Her voice wobbled ever so slightly
"What will we tell Klau-" she started to say before giving in to a loud sob.
"It's okay, Isadora, it's okay," Duncan soothed
"No it's not," Quigley's voice was raw from his cries and his eyes were red from tears.
"Nothing about this is okay!" He snapped
"I'm sorry," Duncan said, withholding his tears which brimmed and threatened to fall.

Duncan was completely and utterly guilt ridden. He blamed himself, although non of the events that had happened were his fault, he blamed himself for not looking after Violet, and he blamed himself for the despair his brother was so lost in.

After a while it was decided that the Quagmires would reach frozen forest and retrieve the locket, they couldn't let Violet die in vain, and then they would figure things out from there.

----Quigley's POV----
Quigley felt empty, like a piece of him was absent. Like something was lost. He of course knew what that lost something was; He had lost Violet.

Whilst Quigley let his misery wash over him he remembered all the beautiful moments he had shared with Violet. Like the time they had first met and she had told him the best news in his life, his siblings were alive. Or the conversations they had shared whilst climbing up the slippery slope together in search of Sunny. And of course the moment when he saw her topple over the railings of the SSHAMH and the feeling that flooded through him once she was safe. Or the time when she had fallen asleep on his chest during the journey to Delilah's Department Store.

Those once happy memories were now stained with sorrow. As if they were broken, but as he thought this he decided that broken things have such sad beauty. And Violet's death had been sad, but beautiful. And it made him sad to know that although the fire she had died in was spectacular, it didn't have an inch on how wonderful Violet had been.

Nothing could ever to live up to her. Never.

~a week later and the Quagmires have just reached the frozen forest (after the bus journey they had hiked for several days through the forest)~

----Isadora's POV----
"That should be it," Isadora said in disbelief as she caught sight of the tall tree, unlike the others that grew in this forest this tree was birch. A single white tree in an ocean of pine.

Isadora walked up to the tree, brushing the snow of the trunk and tracing the patterns of the bark with her finger before scooping a silk bag out of the hollow. She gasped. Tying the bag was a light blue hair ribbon, one that Isadora recognised automatically.

"What is it?" Quigley asked as Isadora dropped the bag in shock. "This belonged to Violet," Isadora muttered but Quigley heard and immediately scooped the bag out of the snow and untied the ribbon, passing the silk bag back to Isadora but keeping the ribbon tightly held in his hand.

Isadora carefully opened the bag to reveal what she hoped to be the locket of clues. But it was empty except from a small slip of paper which read. "We've found what you were looking for, Don't worry it is safe. If you are strong enough to endure. Then look inside the distant cave, but only if your brave," Isadora read the note aloud before turning in a circle to spot the cave.

"There's a cave over there," she whispered

"But is it safe?" Duncan asked cautiously

"There's only one way to find out," Quigley said bravely. Isadora had noticed a change in her brother recently. After he eventually abandoned his depression he had become more reckless. And it worried his siblings.

"Quigley wait-" Isadora began but to only be cut off by Quigley
"No Isadora, we can't have come all this way to not even retrieve the locket. We can't have lost Violet for nothing! We can't have lost her-" but he didn't finish his sentence as a single tear escaped his eyes and a sob bubbled to his lips. But somehow he didn't break down.

Clutching the light blue hair ribbon Quigley marched towards the cave.

"Hello?" Quigley called, his voice cracking from suppressing his tears, "Anyone there?" He stalked further into the cave and then jumped as something moved in the darkness.

Emerging from the shadows was a tall teenage boy, with round glasses, in his arms was a small infant and behind him stood a young girl.

"Klaus!" Quigley exclaimed, and upon hearing that name Isadora rushed into the cave and straight into the arms of Klaus who wobbled managing to hug Isadora back without dropping the infant. "I can't believe-" Isadora began to choke out before she broke down in tears. Klaus awkwardly patted her back whilst she wept and the young girl, who turned out to be Sunny, hugged the Quagmire brothers tightly.

"I can't believe it's you!" Isadora said through her tears, "Oh Klaus, I'm so sorry but Violet-" she sobbed into his chest
"Shush, I know, it's okay," he soothed her "She not dead, she's alive," he informed calmly not realising the impact this had on both of the Quagmire brothers.

"She's alive!" Duncan exclaimed in shock
"How?" Isadora asked, her voice unsure, in the corner of her eye she could see Quigley and the frozen position he was holding. His expression one of sadness, shock and joy all merged into one strange look.

"She survived the fire, but she's still in danger," the urgency in his voice told the Quagmires how desperate Violet's situation was. And however thrilled they had felt to discover her alive was almost replaced with pure dread of what might happen to her. Almost of course refers to the fact that however worried they felt about Violet, they still had a small feeling of joy to discover her alive, however they worried how long her state of living would last.