A Series of Unfortunate Events: Valiant and Fortunate Decisions

Count Olaf has been Murdered!

Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire reached the Village of Fowl Devotees in the wee hours of morning, expecting everyone to be asleep. To their surprise, it was quite the opposite.

"What do you think is happening?" Violet asked, pulling a black, satin ribbon out of her hair.

"I don't know," Klaus said, hiding the book he had been reading in his coat.

"Edag!" Sunny exclaimed as she gnashed her very sharp teeth, which probably meant, nothing good, that's for sure!

The trio warily approached the excited mob.

"Ma'am, excuse me, but do you know what has happened?" The eldest asked.

"Count Olaf's been murdered!" She screamed running by.

"Wh- what?" Klaus stuttered.

"Count Olaf's been murdered!" A man in a dressing robe told them, also running by.

"Baudelaires, so good to see you! Count Olaf has been murdered!" Another man said, running by in a black suit.

The siblings realized that it was Mr. Poe.

"Merk," Sunny mumbled, which likely meant, if Mr. Poe thinks this is good, I am worried.

"Mr. Poe, what are you doing here?" Violet wondered.

"I had just arrived back at my office after an interminably long drive when I heard the news! Of course, I immediately turned around. Now come on!"

Mr. Poe continued running madly around the town square with the rest of the crowd. People can sometimes be strange, particularly if something of great import is happening.

At this point, those of you who have heard this story before may believe that I have lied to you in the description, a phrase which here mean you will be remembering this very scene, with a slight difference. You will be expecting the body of Jacques Snicket to appear, while the villagers remain convinced that he is Count Olaf. However, I can assure you that is not what happens in this story.

"Ack," Sunny pointed out, which her siblings undoubtedly understood as, but wasn't Jacques disguised as Count Olaf yesterday?

"Oh no, Sunny's right," her older sister realized.

"All of our work, for nothing," Klaus said bitterly, thinking of his book and the long hours spent awake last night, building a machine for the jailbreak.

"Not to worry, Baudelaires," a quiet voice said behind them.

The three children startled. There was a woman leaning against the wall of the nearest building. Her dark brown hair was flung over he back in a tangled web, and she had replaced her glasses with contact lenses since the last time the Baudelaires saw her. Due to these factors, it took them a minute to recognize her.

"Ms. Caliban! What are you doing here?" They exclaimed simultaneously.

She gave them a weary smile.

"Looking for the Quagmires and answers to all of your troubles. It's a long story for another time. What you need to know now is that this time, "Count Olaf has been murdered" really means that Count Olaf has been murdered."

"How?"

The question came from Klaus.

"Another long story for another safer time and place."

"No. You have to tell us now."

If the children had learned anything over the past few months, it was that if you didn't get answers immediately, the person promising them might be dead before they could share. Klaus was especially adamant on this point.