When Holly awakened from her slumber, she found herself in the back seat of a vehicle and that they were still driving. Her heart fluttered in a panic as she wondered where she was and what had happened to get her here.
The moments that occur when a person cannot remember who they are or where they are after having awoken from sleep, can be particularly frightening and almost sickening. A knot will form in the pit of your stomach, your heart will pound like the authorities at your office door, and your brain will race like the film on a projector as you wonder about the events that led you to this moment of stirring. It is as though you have suffered a bump on the head that caused complete amnesia or being lost in the deepest part of the woods with no way of knowing how to escape. The fear that fills your entire body is not something that is easily forgotten, falling back into the unknown and the uncertainty of whether you will be okay. Even as your mind and memories rapidly catch up to you like the dreadful recap of a streaming series or fast-forwarding of the film to get to a particular moment, that feeling will linger long after your day has begun. However, this is a feeling I've long since attempted to recapture in the years following a great number of tragedies that befell people whom I cared about very much; I have done this in hopes that I would be given temporary release from the memories and guilt I have felt for my role in their misfortunes.
It had taken Holly S. a few moments to remember where she was currently and what had happened the night before. She glanced down at her lap to find the notepad where she had written all her questions and then next to her to find the music sheets which had held a coded message. Like the rapid whirring of a roll of film on a projector, the memories of the past few days come back to her. The appearance of a treacherous villain named Count Olaf, his threats and knowledge of her family, her date with Duncan Quagmire, receiving a strange package, saying goodbye to her friends, decoding said package, jumping into a taxi cab with a man named Thursday Caliban, and then writing down all her questions before sleep took her mind. Her heart raced as she sat up and looked out the window to confirm that these recollections were indeed accurate.
Like the filtering of light in a projector onto a screen, the morning light illuminated the young girl's suspicions and also revealed a very flat landscape, not unlike the backdrop of the horrendous boarding school known as Prufrock Prep, yet it somehow felt a little different... as if almost familiar. For a moment, she had wondered if the driver Mr. Caliban had changed his mind about helping her and was driving her back to the school. If such a thing were to happen, Holly would be completely heartbroken and even more confused because her quest to find the truth about her family and mother's death would have been brought back to the beginning again. Much like her friends, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny being forced to run laps in a circle every night, the young musician would have been getting and going nowhere very quickly or at a specific pace as to avoid becoming exhausted.
However, this thought left her mind when she saw a sign saying:
The Hinterlands: 2 Miles (3.2 kilometres)
Visit Last Chance General Store
(It may be your last chance)
This was a sign that Holly recognized. She had seen it many times before! She sat up, much more attentive when she realized what direction the taxicab was likely heading.
She turned to the driver.
"Mr...Mr. Caliban..."
"Yes, Miss?"
"Are we by any chance heading to the Fidelis Fjords?"
"That is the intended destination," he nodded, keeping his eyes firmly on the road, as was required by law.
YOU ARE READING
Secrets
Hayran KurguWe all have them. The ones we keep and the ones that are kept from us... Wind the clock back to when the Baudelaires were at boarding school. They meet their friends the Quagmires, but what if they met someone else too. Someone who was skilled and h...
