Broken - Isadora Quagmire

Chapter Twenty Three - Stale Bread

The first thing you read contains a clue,
An initial way to speak to you.

Inside these letters, the eye will see.
Nearby are your friends and the V.F.D.

I gave Duncan the couplets and he attached them to a crow's foot. After many, many hours, the bird opened up to reveal Count Olaf and Esme. They took us out of Foul Fountain and marched us back into the county jail. We were about to go up the stairs, following Count Olaf, when I saw her.

"Olivia?" I said. I ran up to the jail cell, Duncan too.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I went looking for you triplets after you were kidnapped from Prufrock Preparatory School, that's when I met Jacques Snicket and I-"

"Nobody cares!" said Esme.

"All that matters is that you two are okay"

"But Olivia-"

"No buts. Come along orphans"

"We don't want to go anywhere with you" Duncan said.

"If you want any food or water, you will come with us now" said Count Olaf.

My hands were trembling, I didn't want to be locked back in Foul Fountain. It was dark and cold and made my legs hurt. I was terrified. I wanted to stay with Olivia. I wanted to be reunited with Klaus          and his sisters. I wanted Quigley, Mother, Father and my aunts to be alive. I wanted to see Liam and Valerie. I still want most of these things.

"The triplets are obviously scared, Olaf. We don't need a repeat of what happened to the Lyons children" said a man in the other cell.

Count Olaf walked down the stairs and made his way to the jail cell that the man was locked in. "Last time I made a mistake, Jacques Snicket". Count Olaf looked at me and Duncan. "I won't make those mistakes again" he spat, grabbing Duncan and I then almost throwing us up the stairs and slamming to the police chiefs office behind Esme. He placed a loaf of bread and a glass of dusty water on the table.

"We can't eat this" I said.

"Nobody could eat this" said my brother.

"Orphans are very ungrateful, aren't they dear?"

"I couldn't agree more, Esme"

"What about the Baudelaires, are they okay?"

"Worried?" Esme asked. Count Olaf had left a while ago.

"Of course we are"

"Well, their new guardian is a town that doesn't care about them. They have to do all the chores while looking for their two helpless friends. They live in a small house with a bird infestation alongside a man who cannot say a word without passing out. Plus, we're after them. Although, they are better off than others"

"Others?"

"The two of you, of course. If you keep disobeying us and running away, one of you may get hurt"

"Are you threatening us?"

"Yes, I am. Though, it's not just the two of you, the Lyons children-"

"Are you twins going to eat or not?" Count Olaf shouted from down the stairs.

"The bread is stale" I said.

"And the water is full of dust?

"Then you can stop bothering me" Esme started to walk away "Come on!"

Duncan and I walked down the stairs, Esme behind us.

"Fourteen months!" said Jacques. "They still have nightmares!"

"Quagmires!" said Olivia. She threw something and Duncan caught it.

"What was that?" asked Count Olaf.

Duncan unwrapped the piece of paper. "Couplets" he said.

"Couplets?"

"Yes, one of my sister's couplets"

"One of mine?"

"Yes" he winked.

"I can't be bothered. Take them away" said Count Olaf.

The hook-handed man gripped onto me and my brother's shoulders while Esme pulled down the beak of Foul Fountain.

"What does it really say?" I asked.

"It's about V.F.D."

"What about it?"

"It's meaning..."

"Volunteer Fire Department" we both read.