pusillanimous- Violet Baudelaire x fem! reader

Chapter Eight

Quick Author's Note: Thank you guys so much for 4k reads! I'm so grateful for all of you guys and the support you're giving me. I'm glad you're all enjoying the story.

The boat landed softly on the sand heading into the Curdled Cave and I got out, helping the Baudelaires. We walked into the cave, and all of a sudden, the howling winds became much more human.

I ran toward the noise as I called out, "Miss Josephine?"

I tapped her on the shoulder and she turned around, screeching at me. I backed up, alarmed as the Baudelaires caught up with me.

"You figured it out!" she stood up. "I knew you could figure it out! I knew you'd decode my message."

"Klaus really did it," Violet said awkwardly.

"y/n knew how to work the sailboat," said Klaus, avoiding attention.

"Sunny spotted the lighthouse," I spoke.

"Well, I'm so glad to see all of you," Josephine panted. "Just let me catch my breath and I'll help you bring in your things."

"Miss Josephine, what things?"

"Your luggage, of course. I hope you brought food, I'm out."

"We... didn't bring any food..." said Klaus.

"No food? How in the world did you expect to live with me in this cave if you didn't bring any food?" Josephine inquired.

"We didn't come here to live with you," Violet spoke sternly.

"Then why did you come?"

I sighed. I really was worried for her mental health. She always refused to seek help because she was afraid of many kinds of people, including therapists and real estate agents.

Sunny garbled some nonsense. I figured she was saying something like "Here we go again." I couldn't blame her.

"Whatever word that was, Sunny, it was grammatically incorrect," Josephine addressed her.

"Why did you leave us in the care of Captain Sham? My mother passed away right after you decided to fake your death and all four of us were almost sent off to live with him, and now you want us to live in a cave with you?!" I exclaimed in anger, tears coming to my eyes.

"He forced me to!" Josephine continued to explain what had happened on her date, how he had exposed his true identity to her and threatened to drown her if she didn't write out a will leaving us in his care. She explained how she had left the message and tricked everyone into thinking she had jumped out of the window.

"Why didn't you take us with you? Why would you leave us all alone by ourselves? Why didn't you protect us from Count Olaf?" Violet demanded.

"Violet," Josephine replied empathetically, leaning toward her. She paused for a moment before finishing her sentence. "It is not grammatically correct to say 'leave us all alone by ourselves.' You can say 'leave us all alone' or 'leave us by ourselves,' but not both."

I had had enough of this. I wasn't going to sit here while Count Olaf got closer and closer to finding us and doing something horrible. I walked closer to Josephine and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Josephine." I looked her in the eyes as I spoke. "We can't stay here. Curdled Cave is for sale."

"So what?"

"So, before long, certain people will be coming to look at it. And some of those people," I raised my eyebrows and tilted her chin to make eye contact with me, "will be real estate agents."
...

We were on the boat, headed back to town when Josephine began panicking. I ignored her at first, assuming it was one of her regular freak-outs and there wasn't much to be worried about. She repeatedly said "Uh-oh," and it wasn't long before Violet was annoyed with her.

"Aunt Josephine, I really do wish you'd stop saying that," she stated. "Hurricane Herman is over, the sailboat is working just fine, and we'll be back to Damocles Dock by morning. We're as safe as can possibly be expected."

Klaus showed Josephine the photo he had found in the safe in the library to distract her.

"Lucky Smells Lumber Mill!" Josephine exclaimed. I smiled. It had been a while since I'd seen her so happy. "I remember that day so well. Your mother had just wrestled one of our enemies to the ground when she turned to me and said-" she looked into the water. "Uh-oh."

"What?" asked Klaus.

"Uh-oh, and I mean it this time."

"What's wrong?" Violet inquired.

"We are now entering the territory of the Lachrymose Leeches!"

I rolled my eyes as she began to rant about Ike. "We'll be alright, Miss Josephine. You know the leeches are usually harmless," I spoke.

"Unless you have recently eaten."

"Miss Josephine, the last thing we ate were some peppermints at The Anxious Clown during brunch and it's almost morning now." I furrowed my eyebrows, hoping she wouldn't say what I thought she might.

"You didn't recently eat anything, did you, Josephine?" asked Violet.

"...Banana. I ate a banana just before you arrived!"

"Uh-oh..." Violet and I spoke in unison.

"Well, we ourselves aren't in the water and I doubt they'd attack a sailboat. Hurricane Herman may have even driven them out of the territory," Klaus comforted her, then looked over the side of the boat. "Uh-oh..."

A swarm of leeches rushed to our boat, staying for just a bit before running away.

"See? We're perfectly safe," said Violet.

The leeches then came back, popping up through the boat.

"Uh-oh," Sunny garbled.

"We're going to need to sail much, much faster," Klaus sat next to me to help me sail.

"Sailing relies on wind, we can't make the wind go faster," I replied.

"Don't throw me overboard, I'm too frightened!" Josephine panicked.

"Nobody's going to throw you overboard," I assured her.

"This boat is sinking, we need help. All we have to do is send a signal," Violet said as she tied her hair up.

Klaus and Josephine bickered a bit before Violet opened her eyes and spoke.