J. Smoke - The Reptile Room

Chapter FOUR

 "It's afternoon," said Klaus, "and your not Stephano. You are Count Olaf."

"Perhaps one of you may carry my suitcases into my room," the man said, ignoring what Klaus had said. "The ride along that smelly road was unpleasant, and Stephano is very tired."

"If anyone deserved to travel along Lousy Lane, that would be you," Violet said. "We refuse to help you with your luggage, because we won't let in this house."

Violet tried to close the door, but Count Olaf pulled out a sharp knife and struck it in the door to stop it from closing. "I see you haven't changed children," he said. and pulled the knife from the door, and stepped into the house. The Baudelaires took several steps backward, and Olaf took several step forward. 47 steps later, the children found themselves in the hallway leading to the Reptile Room.

"Hello, Violet. I see you stubborn as ever. Klaus, you are continuing to wear those idiotic spectacles. And Sunny, she has nine toes instead of ten," Count Olaf said in his regular voice.

"You haven't changed either, Count Olaf," said Klaus. "But I don't know what you are talking about. Sunny always has ten toes."

"Well I seem to recalled, a man named Stephano was so confused of being called Count Olaf, so confused, he accidentally dropped his knife, severing one of Sunny's toes," the villainous man remarked."I hope you remember this line, Baudelaire's, but accidents happen all the time."

"I don't know what are you talking about," Violet asked, "but we'll address you as Stephano, though we know who you really are."

"I'm just happy we get to spend this very moment together," said Stephano. "You're all alone, after all, your parents' days are done." Stephano tapped his knife onto one of the photographs on the wall.

"How do you know they're in that picture?" asked Klaus, looking at the photo of the piano.

"They're inside the piano," said Stephano, "I took that picture."

To the Baudelaire's luck, the screeching iguana clock struck 1:00 pm, and made a startling noise that frightened Stephano, who jumped at the noise. The Baudelaire's knew this was their chance, and ran to the door leading to the Reptile Room. But Stephano wasn't going to let them go. He threw his knife—swinging in the air—at the children. Klaus closed the door just in the nick of time, and the children were safe.

"Blasted furnaces of hell!!!" Stephano shouted, and began banging on the door. "Open this door!"

"How did he find us?" Klaus asked all worried.

"That's the wrong question," Violet replied. "Where do we go?"

"Tick!" Sunny said, which meant, "we could escape on the next train?"

"I have a present for you children," hissed Stephano from behind the door."It's quite sharp!"

"I don't know how he found us, but that is a risky thing to do," Klaus answered. "Count Olaf—I mean Stephano could find us again. Maybe his goons are surrounding the house as we speak!"

"We could try calling Mr. Poe," Violet said.

"But he's probably more concerned about paperwork than our safety," said Klaus. "Also, the telephone is in the parlor, so we can't reach it."

"Looks like we'll have to wait for Uncle Monty to come home," said Violet, out of options, "then we'll tell him about Stephano."

And so the three children sat down, and waited. They tried reading books to kill time, but they still had a lot of worries on their minds. When Klaus first laid eyes on Stephano, it was like his side cheek where he had once a bruise, was throbbing again. When Sunny laid eyes on Stephano, she felt her stomach drop like she was going down an elevator, or sitting in a bird cage from a high position. And when Violet had laid eyes on Stephano, she felt like her stomach had dropped too, like when she was forced to marry Count Olaf.

After thirty minutes of Stephano yelling at the children from behind the door, he left them be. Finally at 2:15, Violet could see a jeep coming up the driveway, and in front of the house.

"He's here," Violet said.

"Good!" Sunny shrieked, which meant along the lines of, "lets go tell Uncle Monty about Stephano before he reaches him first!"

But just as the Baudelaire's got out of their seats, and rushed to the door, Klaus caught a glimpse of Dr. Stephano exiting the house and walking up to greet Uncle Monty.

"We're too late," he said, and the children stopped.

"Let's hope Uncle Monty can see through his disguise," Violet said. And she and her siblings peered out window.

Now reader, I'm sorry to say that Monty won't be able to see through Count Olaf's disguise. Instead, he would be lied to by Stephano, saying he's from the Scientific Society Seeking to Soothe Stress and Suffering. Stephano will also lie about having to run up and down the hallways three times a day with knife for exercise, hiding that he was trying to harm the Baudelaire's.

"Hello, you must be Stephano," said Uncle Monty as he shook Stephano's hand.

"Yes I am," said Stephano. "I'm defiantly a scientist. In fact, I'm from the Scientific Society Seeking to Soothe Stress and Suffering."

"Well it says so on your name tag," said Uncle Monty. "But the organization you come from has a really long name, how can it be shortened?"

"SSSSSS," Stephano said. "Now you try."

"SSSSSS," hissed Monty.

"Bravo, you already got it down," said Stephano. "Anyway, I just want to let you know the children aren't very comfortable with me, they think I was chasing them with a knife, though I was exercising. My strict daily routine is to run up and down the hallway three times with a knife."

"I absolutely understand you," said Uncle Monty. "Are the children okay?"

"Absolutely!" said Stephano.

"Can you find an open room?" asked Monty.

"Of course," said Stephano.

"Good," said Uncle Monty. "Because living quarters are slowly getting tight, now that the children moved in."

"Not for long," said Stephano.

"What did you say?" asked Uncle Monty.

"Err...Never mind," was all the sly villain could say.

Once they entered the house Monty offered to carry Stephano's suitcases to whatever room he chose, but Stephano said he'd do it himself.

At that moment, the Buadelaires ran up to Uncle Monty.

"Hello, bambini," said Uncle Monty.

"Uncle Monty," said Violet, "there's something important we need to tell you, it's about Stephano."

"That he was chasing you with a knife. Why he was only exercising!" Monty replied. "He's under a strict route to run up and down the hallway three times with a knife, I find this very odd."

"He wasn't exercising," said Klaus, and was about to add that Stephano threw his knife at them, but Stephano stepped toward Violet and quietly, he'd out his knife, threading to harm her.

"Whatever Stephano was doing, I don't believe he was trying to harm you," said Uncle Monty.

"But—" Klaus began.

"Can you and your sisters please bring down the canoe, it should be on top of the jeep," asked Monty.

Sighing heavily, the three children exited the house and walked up to the jeep.

"I hope you have a nice stay," Uncle Monty said to Stephano a he watched the man walk up the stairs with his suitcases. "Are those boots your wearing iguana skin?"

"I really love reptiles," Stephano replied, and made it to the top of the staircase.