The Acrimonious Addendum (completed)

Chapter Fifteen

Sunny POV:
I'm half awake, dozing in the hazy afternoon sun, when I smell something that's not the salty sea air. It's a smell I know very well, one that brings back many unpleasant memories, and as I stumble through the wreckage, the old aphorism is playing on loop in my head. Where there's smoke there's fire. When I reach the source of the smoke my heart sinks into my feet. Several fingers of flame are jumping around the wreck of the Hotel Denouement, but not near the already burned upper floors. Instead, the flames are near the ground almost... under it. "The sub- basement library!" I exclaim, just as two mysterious figures appear, one from the wreckage and one behind me, clapping a hand over my mouth. "Don't scream." The figure whispers in a harsh voice. In that moment I have three choices- one, to scream and face the consequences, two, to not scream and be left at the mercy of these strangers or three- to revert back to what I've done since I was an infant, so I bite the hand. Hard. The figure lets go and curses loudly. At that moment Violet walks up to me, rubbing her bleary eyes. "Sunny, what are you-" she stops at the sight of the figures. "Violet Baudelaire," one of them sneers, "I should have known that you would be here. You three were never apart if you could help it."
"And they're not alone," Duncan says, walking protectively up to Violet. " Whoever you are, we can take you!" I hadn't noticed him arriving, but now I see Quigley, Klaus, Izzy and even little Beatrice trailing behind him. The figure that I bit laughs mockingly, still rubbing his hand. "Young love, how sweet. I'm in a good mood, maybe I'll keep you two alive till last so you can hear each other's screaming!" Just as I start to say, "Stay away from my OTP!" a voice pipes up from behind Violet.
"If you're going to kill us anyway, could you do us the favor of answering a few questions? It's not like we can tell them to anyone." Beatrice sounds polite, conversational even- Duncan would be proud.  The two figures exchange a look. "Fine. Three questions, that's it, then it's bye bye birdie." The one figure says.
"Fair enough. Firstly, why are you coming after us now?"
The figure that I bit scoffs. "Isn't it obvious? You miserable orphans are all of age now. There are two fortunes that are right in our clutches and we don't even have to keep any of you alive to get them."
Beatrice considers this for a few seconds before asking her next question. I'm not sure what she's trying to do, if she has a plan or is just stalling the inevitable, but whatever it is it is interesting to get some answers. "How did you find us?"
"It was practically child's play! We simply found down the name Baudelaire in the phone book and traced the address. When you started running away we followed you to Prufrock and got a friend to take you to the mountain."
"I knew it! No decent person would ever read the poetry of Edgar Guest unless heald at gunpoint!" Klaus exclaimed. The figure gives him a quizzical look and continues. "As I was saying, this was supposed to end in that damn mountain but there were... complications. Anyway, it doesn't matter now, because in a second it will all be over!"
"Wait, wait!" Beatrice cries hurriedly. "We still have one question left!" She takes a deep breath and looks dead at the cloaked figure. "Why were you looking for Lemony Snicket in the Village of Fowl Devotees?"
"Isn't it what any parent would do for their child?" I'm startled by the sound of a low voice from behind the rubble.
"Lemony, is that you?"
"Hello, mother and father."

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A/N:
I have resurfaced! Returned to the realm of the living from the depths of my hobbit hole!
Sorry about the cringey cliffhanger lol I haven't done this in a while 😬😬 but stay tuned because there's some good (read: cheesy and/or fluffy) stuff headed your way!
That's all for now, folks!
xxx Jess