the forgotten story of lily angof ➳ klaus baudelaire ( asoue )

ten ➳ a promise

"SUNNY!" WE YELLED desperately. "Sunny, are you okay?" 

I heard Sunny begin her sentence, but she was cut off by Count Olaf. "I see you've discovered the baby cage."

We continued to yell and scream for her, irrationally hoping our voices would magically help her down. 

"It took you long enough," Olaf continued, inspecting his filthy nails. 

I turned to him and pointed an accusatory finger in his direction. "You," I growled. "You evil little-"

"Lily!" Klaus pulled me back. "It's no use. He enjoys torturing us." He eyed Olaf up and down with a not-particularly-nice glare. 

"But he hung Sunny in a cage from his roof! Aren't you mad?" I shot back. 

"Of course I am," he choked. "She's my sister." 

My face fell at the sight of tears welling in his eyes. "I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry Klaus, that was selfish of me." I felt a pit form in my stomach. How self-centered could I be?

"No, no, Lily," he assured me, steadying himself as well. "There's no use in being upset with each other now. We need to find something to help Sunny," he said, turning to include Violet in our conversation. 

"And we will find something," I said, surprisingly sure of myself for someone who had no idea what was coming next.

"Oh, blah, blah, blah," Olaf mocked. "There will be no scheming about how to get Sunny down. Because if you three don't comply with my plan, I will kill two of you. I only need one of you alive to take your fortune." He smiled maniacally. 

"Don't you need two of us alive to do that?" I piped up.

"What?" I seemed to have caught him off-guard. "What does an orphan know about stealing other orphans' fortunes?"

"Well, we do have two separate fortunes, so you'll have to keep two of us alive." 

"Oh, drat. You're right. I didn't even think about that." Lost in thought, he stroked his out-of-control beard. "Well 'one of you will die' isn't as threatening than 'two of you will die.' Oh, this is an unfortunate situation."

"We'll leave you to figure that out," I said, using this as an opportunity to escape him. I jerked my head to the side as a signal to Violet and Klaus, and they immediately understood.

•••

After hours and hours of mindless chores and brainstorming ways to help Sunny, the three of us were exhausted and without any ideas. 

"What are we going to do?" said Klaus, hopelessly setting himself down on the bed. "It's been all day, and we still don't have any way to help Sunny."

"We'll think of something," Violet assured him. "We just need time."

"We don't have time," Klaus snapped. "And what if what we do doesn't help? Lily and I stayed up all night and we didn't help at all."

"Yes, you did." Violet lowered herself onto the bed and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You just didn't finish the job." 

Klaus remained silent, his eyes trained on the ground. 

"Our parents made me promise that I'd look out for you and Sunny-" then she met my eyes "-and Lily, too. Let me keep my promise." 

Klaus held still for a moment, then nodded. "Ok." 

Violet stood up and reached into her pocket to retrieve her ribbon. She closed her eyes and tied her hair back in an act of deep concentration. When she opened her eyes again, she looked sure of herself and determined. "Get some sleep," she told us. "I'll figure out how to save Sunny." Violet turned on her heel and marched out the door. 

I faced Klaus, who still sat with his head down. "Klaus, are you alright?" I inched toward him, uncertain with how he would react. 

He inhaled deeply, then exhaled an unconvincing, "Yes." 

I took the spot where Violet had been moments before and continued, "Do you actually mean yes?"

He shook his head, "No- yes-" he paused. "No." 

I stayed silent, waiting for him to continue on his own. I didn't want to push him. 

"I just," he paused, seemingly struggling to word his feelings, "I just don't want to lose you three."

I didn't know how to respond to that.

"It's just, with Olaf, he's trying to marry you and Violet. And he has Sunny dangling from the roof in a cage!" He lifted his head to meet my eyes. "I feel like I always took our safety for granted. I took our house for granted, and I- I took our parents for granted." A tear slipped its way down his cheek. "I guess I always thought they'd be here to protect us. And now that they're not here, I just wish I could protect all of you. But I can't."

The silence hung above our heads, heavy with the words just spoken. 

"Klaus, you don't need to protect us. You're just a boy. You don't need to be responsible for everyone's lives." 

"But I have to," he replied. "How else are we going to survive?"

"Klaus, that's too much pressure to put on yourself. The best we can do is try to look out for each other." 

"Can you promise me we'll be alright?" he held my gaze steady. 

No, Klaus. I can't promise that any of us will be alright. But I swallowed my doubts and put on a brave face for him. "We'll all be fine, I promise."