Broken - Isadora Quagmire

Chapter Forty Five - Headquarters

"Why did you do that?" I shouted.

"Issy, you have to be quiet. If you keep your voice raised like that, they'll find us"

"Quigley. Don't call me that"

"What?"

I walked away from him and sat beside Duncan.

"What are you thinking?" I asked.

"I honestly have no idea, my head feels like it's about to explode"

"I feel the same. If Quigley and the Baudelaires didn't grab us before, do you think-"

"Maybe. The Man and the Woman have praised her too much, she's terrifying, way more than before. I don't know if I'll ever want to leave this cave, what if they catch us and-"

"I know"

We sat in silence. Until Quigley came up to us, he was about to sit in-between us but realised that we had started sitting together now. Before the fire, Duncan and I would always sit with a space in-between us for Quigely, we had gotten used to it through our childhood and it just happened. But after being shoved into cars or vans, squashed together and surrounded by horrible villains, it came natural that we huddled together. Quigley sat in front of us instead.

"I'm so glad we're together again"

"How?" Duncan asked. "How did you get out? How come you didn't come for us?"

"You don't think I tried? I tried everyday to get back to my family. Once I found out that you were at Prufrock Preparatory School, I set out looking for you. I went to the school, I went to Dark Avenue, the village of V.F.D., Heimlich Hospital, Caligari Carnival. I hid in a group of Snow Scouts to make my way to the headquarters with hopes that you two would be there"

"We're glad you found us Quigley" I said. "We really are but we've been through so much since we last saw you, it's just hard"

"I understand, Issy"

I was about to speak when Duncan stood up and took off his school blazer.

"I'm going to go to sleep, I can't remember last time I had a good night sleep, maybe this morning could be the night"

"Duncan. You aren't making any sense" said Quigley.

Duncan lay on the ground beside the fire that Violet had made and put his blazer around him, like a sort of blanket.

I took my blazer off too and stood up, hoping to get some sleep.

"Wait. Where did those bruises come from?"

"It's nothing, Quigley"

"Issy. Did they hurt you? I know you fell but-"

"It's nothing and nobody calls me that anymore"

He walked up to me and pulled me closer to him wrapping his arms around me. I felt like he had never left, it was the best feeling I'd ever felt, even if it only lasted a second. I took a deep breath before pulling away.

"Wake me up when you think it's safe to leave" I said.

Quigley woke me and Duncan up sometime later and told us the easiest way to go somewhere would be to go to the headquarters through the Vernacularly Fastened Door that we could get to by climbing up the Vertical Flame Diversion which is a chimney that has footholes chiselled into one of its sides. I was ready to try and climb up, sure it would hurt but it was fine. Although, because everyone always treats me like a baby, they all decided it would be better to walk up to headquarters instead of climbing.