Broken - Isadora Quagmire

Chapter Forty One - Them

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

Duncan walked forward at started shouting at Count Olaf again. I looked around the surroundings; the mountain was pristine and white, so innocent. But the tracks from the van 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 shouted as I put Sunny down.

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 collect firewood with the freaks"

"But what about Sunny?" I asked

"She is going to stay here, call it... motivation for you to return" 

Me and Duncan said goodbye to Sunny and told her to be careful and stay safe. Then we saw Hugo, Kevin and Colette walk away from Count Olaf's troupe who were shouting at them "Not like us! Not like us!"

"Oh Isadora, Duncan" said Hugo when Duncan and I caught up to them.

"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 said.

"Come back soon!" I heard Esme shout.

"Come on, Isadora" said Duncan. "The sooner we go, the sooner we get back"

Kevin was the person out of the five of us that was actually good at chopping down trees. Hugo wasn't strong enough. Colette was shivering so much because of what she was wearing. I had a broken arm. Then Duncan, I would never say that my brother is bad at anything but he is terrible at chopping wood. He did try though. 

Hugo and Colette sat down on a log while I carried the pieces of wood that Kevin and Duncan, but not really Duncan, were cutting up. When Kevin came and sat down beside his friends, I went to find Duncan. 

"Hey" he said. "Just helping with the wood, you know, because I'm so strong"

I chuckled. "How are you doing?"

"Better than before. I realised that there are other things going on that we need to focus on"

"Yea, like protecting Sunny and making sure she's okay. I may have maybe, maybe, slightly had feelings for Klaus but she knew him her entire life"

"Same with Violet"

"And we know what it's like to lose a-"

A scream shook through the forest. Then another. Then another. 

"Colette! Hugo! Kevin!" Duncan and I shouted as we made our way back to them.

Duncan screamed again when he saw the bloody bodies

"Well, well, well"

"What do we have here?"

I turned around. It was them.