Broken - Isadora Quagmire

Chapter Sixteen - Lightning

"Do you think we can make it back to the broom closet?" Duncan asked.

"There's a better place" I said, pilling him into the library.

Duncan and I were hiding behind one of the bookshelves in the library when the door creaked open. It honestly felt like there was thunder and lightning  and rain, like in a horror movie when you know something bad is going to happen is going to happen as the villain gets closer and closer. But this is not a horror movie, though it sometimes feels like it, and the hook-handed man distracted Count Olaf, who then left. I felt like I could breathe again. Though, the hook-handed man stayed guarding the door.

"We have to go warm them" Duncan said.

"We can't go anywhere with him guarding the door. The Baudelaires can still pass that test"

Something in the library caught my eye.

"Look" I said

Duncan turned his head and saw it too: The Incomplete History Of Secret Organisations. My brother got it off the shelf and we both sat on the floor as he opened the book to a page with a picture of a very familiar object.

"The spyglass" I said. I got it out of my pocket and followed the instructions on the page. A light shone out of the spyglass once I turned some of the dials in the correct order. Me and my brother chuckled. "Let's do some studying of our own" I smiled.

The pages of the book that we skimmed through were:

· The Spyglass

· Starting Fires: Using The Sun And A Spyglass by Josephine Antwhistle

· V.F.D. Codes

· Ike Antwhistle: V.F.D's Most Nominated Volunteer Of The Month Record Holder

We had just turned to a page about a certain sugar bowl when out of nowhere, the hook-handed man appeared in front of us. I screamed and froze in my place but Duncan ducked as the hook-handed man tried to grab him then quickly closed the book and grabbed my hand. We ran to the back of the library and the hook-handed man followed us. We ran towards the door but the other henchmen, except for the bald man, walked in. We ran across the room and on top of a table. They surrounded the table, shouting that there was nowhere to go, laughing. By now, the library was a mess. Duncan counted to three then we jumped down off the table and out of the door, into Count Olaf, lightning.

"No" I muttered.

Duncan then stamped on one of Count Olaf's feet, making him let us go. We would have immediately ran to the Buadelaires in the Orphan Shack but we saw the bald man coming across the lawn.

"What now?" Duncan asked.

"Follow me" I said.

Up and up and up we went to the bell tower. On our way there, I got a hairpin out of my hair so that when we arrived there I could immediately pick the lock that had been put on the door. When we got there I started picking the lock.

"I may have learnt something from Violet tonight" I said.

The door opened with  a click and I closed it quickly after both Duncan and I had entered. I sat on the floor and Duncan sat down too, putting his arm around me.

"That was close" he said, with a sigh of relief.

"Too close" I said.

He stood up again and looked at the view. "You were right about the view, it makes the school look quite pretty, I never thought that was possible"

"It really is beautiful isn't it, almost as beautiful as sapphires"

Lightning.

I jumped up and ran to Duncan when Count Olaf appeared at the door. "How did you find us?" I asked.

"That's a story  for another time" he stepped forward "until then, I have to get some sleep, and so do you twins, tomorrow is going to be the worst day of your lives". He grabbed my left arm and Duncan's right arm, dragging us out of the bell tower.

I looked back at the carving on the wall: Klaus + Isadora, Forever

"We're not twins" said Duncan. "Our brother Quigley died in a fire"

"That makes you twins"

"No. It doesn't!"

Count Olaf took the book out of my brother's arms and kicked it back into the library. Lightning.