saudade - Klaus Baudelaire x Fem! reader

Chapter Four

The footsteps got closer. Closer. Louder. Louder. Closer. And then they stopped.

I sat there, looking at the door in anticipation. I heard a switch being flicked and saw a little bit of light streaming into the cupboard in between the doors. It was silent for a moment. Then, there was a grunt. The light went away and the footsteps got further away. I heard the stair creak. I peeked outside of the cupboards and then got out before helping Klaus.

"That was close," he whispered.

"We should hurry back up to our room," I replied.

T I M E S K I P

I woke up in the hammock next to Klaus' the next morning. I sat up and sighed.

It was tragic that the Baudelaires had to stay in such a horrible place. I hoped that somehow they could find a way out of here.

Klaus sat up soon after, rubbing his eyes and yawning. He reached over to the windowsill and grabbed his glasses off of it. Well, tried to. In doing so, he reached too far and fell off of his hammock.

I shook my head and smiled. I got out of my own and grabbed his glasses and handed them to him. He put them on and I reached my hand out to help him up.

"You okay?" I inquired.

"Yes, I'm fine," he responded, "Did I wake you up?"

"No, I was already up for a few minutes before you got up."

"Oh, good."

Then, Sunny and Violet woke up and walked over to us.

"What's going on?" Violet asked, confused.

"Klaus fell out of his hammock," I replied with a small laugh.

She let out a small laugh before saying, "Maybe we could go into town today and talk to Mr. Poe and visit Justice Strauss' library afterward. Would you like to come with us, y/n?"

"If Count Olaf will let me," I replied with a shrug.

"We could always ask him," Klaus chimed in.

"Let's go then," said Violet.

We got downstairs, where Olaf was eating breakfast. He looked up menacingly.

"What do you want?" he snapped.

"We were thinking of going into town today to talk to Mr. Poe," Violet answered.

"Whatever. That idiotic banker won't believe a word you say. Take y/n with you," he responded before muttering, "she's grown too much for anyone to recognize her anyway."

"Pardon?"

"GO!"

I jumped and ran, the Baudelaires following suit in a less alarmed pace behind me. By the time we reached the front door, I had calmed down and was behind the Baudelaires. Violet opened the door and we stepped outside. I closed the door behind us and looked around.

The only place outside I had ever been allowed to go was in the backyard, which was very different from the street in front of me. The backyard was messy, dark, and dull. However, past the front yard, it was bright and colorful. I was excited to see what lay beyond the street, if so little away from Olaf's house was this beautiful.

But, at the same time, I felt a creeping feeling of nervousness and dread. I had never been in the outside world. I didn't know how it worked. I didn't know how to act. I didn't know what to do or where to go in the case that I got separated from the Baudelaires. Sure, I had read plenty about the outside world in books. But what if it was different? Count Olaf hadn't bought books in a while. What if things had changed?

What if, what if. These types of questions kept flooding into my mind as fast and easily as bitter sugar dissolving in tea. There were so many things that could go wrong, and I didn't know what to do.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by Violet saying "Alright, let's get going."

She walked forward with Sunny in her arms and Klaus following.

Calm down y/n, I thought, just stick with the Baudelaires and you'll be fine.

I then walked forward and fell into step behind them. As we crossed the line between Count Olaf's yard and the sidewalk, I could've sworn that it wasn't such an extreme cold and became more of a cool. It wasn't warm or cold, but the breeze added a small touch of refreshing but not uncomfortable amount of cold. It also seemed that the air was fresher. Or maybe my mind was just playing tricks on me.

We got to Mulctuary Money Management and went inside. We stepped up to the front desk, where there was a woman who looked like a stereotypical secretary, with glasses, a cardigan, and all.

"Do you have an appointment?" she asked in a hoarse voice.

"We're here to see Mr. Poe," Violet replied.

"Have a seat."

We walked over to a bench in the corner and sat down. I was on the far left side, next to Klaus.

"Do you really think he'll believe us?" he asked.

"You have a mark on your cheek to prove it, how could he not?" Violet reminded him.

He nodded and looked over at me.

"I agree with Violet," I said quietly.

He smiled and grabbed my hand. I laced my fingers through his and blushed. We sat there, staring into each other's eyes for an indeterminable amount of time before the secretary returned.

"He's ready for you," she said.

We followed her back to Mr. Poe's office, where we passed by what looked to be another secretary. Maybe the first woman wasn't a secretary and just managed appointments and handled the money flowing in and out of the bank.

As we stepped into Mr. Poe's office, he looked up at us and spoke. "What brings you here, children?"

"Count Olaf is a madman. We can't stay with him," Klaus explained.

"He struck Klaus across the face. See his bruise?" Violet added.

"I'm sorry you don't have a good first impression of him," Mr. Poe replied.

"He only provided us with one bed!" argued Klaus.

"He makes us do a great many difficult chores," spoke Violet.

"Beziudeh," added Sunny. I was starting to get a grasp of her talking, I believed she said he was a lush.

Then, the phone rang. Mr. Poe momentarily excused himself from the conversation before coming back. The rest of the conversation consisted of Mr. Poe ignoring us and explaining why we had to stay with him.

We then left the bank having accomplished nothing before treading sadly down the sidewalk back to Justice Strauss' house.