Leilani Squalor- the cities sixth most important financial advisor's daughter

Part 12

"Why did we ever leave the city?" I sigh, stretching across the sofa as the hench people listen, "I had everything. I had food whenever I wanted, I had access to everything I could ever want. I had the most in clothes, hairstyles, food. Now, I have nothing, other than a troupe of people to command because they work for my mum's boyfriend. You know, we might be running after nothing. I don't know how you put up with Olaf. He isn't the worst, but I currently feel like I'm being followed by a mass murderer, which is weird, because I'm actually on a murderers side."
"This feels like a first world issue," The hench person of no immediate gender says. I turn to face them, and snap, "I come first in everything I do. Or, I used to, when I still did shows. But alas, now I'm lonely."
Pathetically, I crumple into a ball, and mum walks into the tent. She looks at us all, and slowly backs straight back out the tent, which is fair enough for her. I look at my necklace, which is the eye symbol. It feels like it follows us everywhere. As a matter of fact, every time I see the symbol, the Badelaires seem to appear not too long after. I sit up, and click my fingers. A glass of water is handed to me, and I take a sip of it, coughing afterwards. I gasp, "Madame Lulu's ring that goes the whole way up her fingers? You all know it?"
The troupe all nod, and I demand, "I want it. You can all get it for me, right? If not, I might have to go get Olaf, and that would be fun for nobody."
The troupe all silently get up and leave the tent, leaving me alone. Alone like always. It's rubbish, actually. I keep thinking that, and I should focus on more important things. Olaf's voice crackles over the intercom, "Showtime at last!"
I race to backstage, where mum has her hands all over Olaf. He pulls away, and I listen to his little speech. Mum followed him out, so now I'm just stuck with the 'freaks'. He seems to be going on a bit of a rant, and I'm a little bit worried that mum is going to be put in danger. I step out of the backstage area, and gasp just as Olaf reveals his plan. A pack of starving lions. Olaf laughs, "Lions are carnivorous. That means they eat meat. These lions have not been fed at all, and tomorrow, we will randomly select one freak to feed to them. We will watch as the lions rip them to bloody shreds."

You can tell a lot about a person based on how the react to the news they'll be given an opportunity to watch people eat lions. I watch Olaf later that evening as he does vocal exercises. Take the heckler for an example. He seemed overly pleased. All of the freaks seemed truly horrified, probably because they were going to risk getting eaten to lions. I'm a little worried actually. Again, I don't want the not orphans to die. Violet, Klaus and Sunny don't deserve it. I mean, neither do the other freaks. Actually, this is possibly the worst idea. The hospital was bad, but this is a little worse. At least Violet was unconscious. Mum saunters into the tent, smiling widely. I ask her what she has done, and she squeals, "I've done something so clever, Leilani! We are all going to get what we want."
"What do we want?" I ask. Mum strokes my hair, and explains, "Whoever is chosen is going to throw Madame Lulu into the lion pit! They think we are going to let whoever does join the troupe, and I may or may not be thinking about it. If they are willing to murder someone for us, I think we should. Olaf, darling?"
I look over at Olaf, who looks horrified. He shakes his head, and says, "We are not letting more people into our troupe. We hardly have enough room in the car. And also, we want the Badelaires in the lion pit. Not Madame Lulu."
"You didn't let me have a sugar bowl," Mum stomps her foot, "Let me have this, please baby."
I look between them, scoffing, "Or, we don't murder anyone?"
"I already said Leilani, you don't have to watch," Mum shakes her head, "It'll be a good day, and then we can leave rich again."

I shake my head again, burying my face in mum's shoulder. She strokes my hair as she continues, "I'll tell you what is really sad. The fact that Madame Lulu thinks her accent fools anyone. Oh god, how I hate it! Thank goodness it'll be over soon."
"Don't thank goodness," Olaf lifts mum to her feet, "Thank me. I'm the one who burned down the hospital."
"You're also the one that got us into this mess," I sigh, "Olaf, have you ever thought that maybe, you should have settled down with one of your first loves, got a nice home, had two children, sent them to school and grown old. Maybe adopting three orphans and being the second worst thing to happen to them was a bad idea."
"The second worst?" The Hench person of no immediate gender asks. I didn't realise they had appeared again, since they're pretty quiet for such a tall person. They ask, "What was the worst thing?"
Even Olaf is in disbelief as he says, "So, lets explain this slowly, see where we went wrong. The Badelaires are orphans. Are you following me?"
They nod.
"And I met them after a crushing life event. Still following this?"
They nod.
"That life event was an awful thing for them. Following?"
They nod.
"I have followed them round, ruining their life even more. Following still?"
They nod.
"That awful life event, do you remember me talking about it just now?"
They nod.
"What was that life event?"
The Hench person thinks, before asking, "Was it meeting that banker?"
"It was their parents dying?" I scoff. The Hench person says, "Ohhh, i forgot they weren't born orphans."