Family Comes First- ASOUE

Chapter 22: Poor Monty

*Isadora's POV*

When I woke up in the morning, I could instantly feel something was off. Usually we could hear Uncle Monty out and about, making breakfast or maybe cleaning. I couldn't hear him at all. "Violet?" I called over to her bed.

"Hm?" I heard her mumble.

"Shouldn't Uncle Monty have come to wake us up by now?"

"He's probably busy making last minute preparations."

"Do you think he's making breakfast?"

"We're probably getting breakfast sandwiches from a fast food place to save time. Come on, let's get dressed."

As Violet woke up more, though, I could tell she had a similar feeling of something being off. There's not a word for that feeling, but if there was we would have used it. We met the boys and Sunny out in the hallway and they all seemed to be worried like us.

"Where's Monty?" Klaus asked.

"That's the question of the morning," I replied. "Uncle Monty?!" I called out.

"Monty??"

We quickly climbed down the stairs and found the reptile room door wide open, which would have been normal if we had heard Monty talking to the reptiles. Instead of hearing speaking though, we heard lots of distressed hissing, croaking, growling, etcetera.

We looked around for him in the doorway, and I sighed in relief. "He must've been up super late and fell asleep in his chair," I suggested, pointing towards the head of curly black hair sticking up from behind Uncle Monty's desk chair. I dragged the others to go wake him up, but once we saw him we all gasped. I clamped my hand over my mouth. He looked surprised, and his rosy cheeks were very very pale, and there were two little holes on his cheek, his veins around it prominently discolored.

"Uncle Monty..." Klaus said softly. Duncan squeezed my shoulder and I turned away, hugging my brother tightly. He wrapped his arms around me protectively, but I could tell his eyes were fixated on the horrific sight in front of him. "Howie?" Sunny asked hoarsely, as if the question was stuck in her little throat.

"We know exactly how this happened." Violet answered in a shaky voice.

"My, my, my, my, my..." We heard from the doorway. I looked back and Stephano was there smirking evilly at us. "What a terrible accident. Whoever discovers this will be very upset."

"You-" Violet tried to speak, but her rage-filled words were caught in her throat. "You-..."

"Of course, after they discover Montgomery Montgomery is dead, they'll wonder what became of those repulsive orphans he had lying around, the house. But they'll be long gone. Speaking of which, it's time to leave. The Prospero sails at five o'clock and I'd like to be the first passenger on board so I can have a bottle of wine before lunch."

"You bastard!! How could you do this to him?!" Klaus shouted. "How could you murder him!?"

"Why, Klaus," Stephano said, getting closer to Uncle Monty's body, "I'm surprised! A smarty-pants boy like you ought to be able to figure out that jolly old Uncle Monty died from a snakebite, not a murder. Although... I'm sure he put up quite a fight against that snake..." He added, rubbing his arm like it was sore. "Look at the teeth marks on his cheek. Look at his cold, pale face... Look at his unblinking eyes-"

"Stop it!!!" Violet interrupted. "Stop talking like that!!"

He rolled his eyes. "I guess you're right. There's no time for chitchat when we have a ship to catch!"

"We wouldn't go to the end of the driveway with you, you son of a bitch, much less international waters!! We're staying here until the police arrive!"