eliza ( klaus baudelaire )

I - PART VI

VI:.

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"Yes," Count Olaf continued, "it certainly is strange to find a child missing. And one so small, and helpless."

"Where's Sunny?" Violet cried. "What have you done with her?"

Count Olaf continued to speak as if he had not heard Violet. "But then again, one sees strange things every day. In fact, if you two orphans, and your little friend," He sneered. "follow me out to the backyard, I think we will all see something rather unusual."

The Baudelaire children and Eliza didn't say anything, but followed Count Olaf through the house and out the back door. Violet looked around the small, scraggly yard, in which she had not been since she and Klaus had been forced to chop wood. The pile of logs they had made was still lying there untouched, as if Count Olaf had merely made them chop logs for his own amusement, rather than for any purpose. Eliza walked into the yard with apprehension, she didn't want to spill any of her secrets, however she felt as though Count Olaf could get them without asking.

Violet shivered, still in her nightgown, but as she gazed here and there she saw nothing unusual. Eliza continued to keep up her sweet, innocent girl act. What scared her most was the fact Count Olaf could have done anything with Sunny; he was their legal father after all!

"You're not looking in the right place," Count Olaf said. "For children who read so much, you two are remarkably unintelligent."

Eliza looked over in the direction of Count Olaf, but could not meet his eyes. The eyes on his face, that is. She was staring at his feet, and could see the tattooed eye that had been watching the Baudelaire orphans since their troubles had begun. Then her eyes traveled up Count Olaf's lean, shabbily dressed body, and she saw that he was pointing up with one scrawny hand. She followed his gesture and found herself looking at the forbidden tower. It was made of dirty stone, with only one lone window, and just barely visible in the window was what looked like a birdcage.

"Oh no," Klaus and Violet said in sync, in a small, scared voice, and Eliza looked again. It was a birdcage, dangling from the tower window like a flag in the wind, but inside the birdcage she could see a small and frightened Sunny. When Eliza looked closely, she could see there was a large piece of tape across her sister's mouth, and ropes around her body. She was utterly trapped.

Eliza couldn't speak, she couldn't even shriek. What Count Olaf was doing was horrific! No child deserves to be placed in a cage, many feet from the ground.

"Let her go!" Violet said to Count Olaf. "She has done nothing to you! She is an infant!"

"Well, now," Count Olaf said, sitting on a stump. "If you really want me to let her go, I will. But surely even a stupid brat like you might realize that if I let her go-or, more accurately, if I ask my comrade to let her go-poor little Sunny might not survive the fall down to the ground. That's a thirty-foot tower, which is a very long way for a very little person to fall, even when she's inside a cage. But if you insist-"

"No!" Klaus cried. "Don't!"

Eliza could feel the fear biting her insides. She wanted to run. Run home. She wanted to crawl back into the quilted, silk sheets from her kings sized bed in the h-

"Please," she said to Olaf, feeling tears in her eyes. "She's just a baby. We'll do anything, anything, just don't harm her."

"Anything?" Count Olaf asked, his eyebrow rising. He leaned in toward Violet and gazed into her eyes. "Anything? Would you, for instance, consider marrying me during tomorrow night's performance?"

Violet stared at him.

"While you were busy reading books and making accusations," Count Olaf said, "I had one of my quietest, sneakiest assistants skulk into your bedroom and steal little Sunny away. She is perfectly safe, for now. But I consider her to be a stick behind a stubborn mule."

"Our sister is not a stick," Klaus said.

"A stubborn mule," Count Olaf explained, "does not move in the direction its owner wants it to. In that way, it is like you children, who insist on mucking up my plans. Any animal owner will tell you that a stubborn mule will move in the proper direction if there is a carrot in front of it, and a stick behind it. It will move toward the carrot, because it wants the reward of food, and away from the stick, because it does not want the punishment of pain. Likewise, you will do what I say, to avoid the punishment of the loss of your sister, and because you want the reward of surviving this experience. Now, Violet, let me ask you again: will you marry me?"

Violet swallowed, and looked down at Count Olaf's tattoo. She could not bring herself to answer.

"Come now," Count Olaf said, his voice faking-a word which here means "feigning"-kindness. He reached out a hand and stroked Violet's hair. "Would it be so terrible to be my bride, to live in my house for the rest of your life? You're such a lovely girl, after the marriage I wouldn't dispose of you like your brother and sister."

"If you let Sunny go," she said finally, "I will marry you."

Eliza almost stopped breathing. This was it. She had come all the way, made and executed a perfect plan and it would all go to foils. It was supposed to be something everyone could be proud of, her parents included. An anger like never before swooped down on her and her fists clenched.

"I will let Sunny go," Count Olaf answered, "after tomorrow night's performance. In the meantime, she will remain in the tower for safekeeping. And, as a warning, I will tell you that my assistants will stand guard at the door to the tower staircase, in case you were getting any ideas."

"You can't do that!" Eliza spat out, but Count Olaf merely smiled. Eliza mentally face palmed.

"And why not, Eliza?" He smirked.

A new found courage surged through her body. "Because they will get you." She said, her eyes drilling into his.

He strode quickly towards her and grabbed her collar, shoving her next to him. Eliza whimpered slightly at such force.

"And who is they?" Count Olaf snarled.

"I would rather turn myself in, than tell you." She whispered, meeting Klaus' eyes.

Count Olaf just laughed. For a considerably long time. He settled and looked Eliza dead in the eye.

"You see, you already have, Eliza."

AN- thank you all so much for 900 reads!
Xoxo
Cerise