𝐔𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 | 𝐊𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐬 𝐁𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐗 𝐅𝐞𝐦!𝐎𝐂

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟒 - Hurricane Herman

Veronica and Klaus managed to take certain notes from the note that Aunt Josephine left them. Veronica noticed that she was trying to tell the children something and Klaus caught on as well. Violet and Sunny came back, rid of hives and dressed in new clothes. "You were right, Klaus. A baking soda bath did wonder for our hives. How's your swollen tongue?" Violet asked. Veronica giggled at Sunny looking relaxed in the armchair. Sunny gave an adorable smile back at her. "My tongue is improving. As for our research, see for yourself." Klaus said, showing Violet what they had found out. "What is all this?" Violet questioned, overlooking all the books across the desk as well as the note. "It's Aunt Josephine's note. Look, I-T-apostrophe-S." Klaus pointed out. "I remember. Aunt Josephine wrote 'it's' as in 'it is', when she meant 'its' as in 'belonging to it'." Violet responded. "Yes, but she did it to grab our attention, look at the second sentence. It says, "My heart is as cold as Ike.' but I remember Aunt Josephine saying that she liked to think of her husband someplace hot." Veronica added on. "Right, so 'as cold as ice' would make a lot more sense." Violet said, as she was now beginning to catch on. "These aren't grammatical mistakes at all." Klaus said. "They're a message. Aunt Josephine said she and Ike developed secret codes. C for 'ice' instead of 'Ike.' U for 'unbearable' instead of 'inbearable.' R-D..."

"L-E-D. That brings us to Curdled Cave." Veronica finished. "But why would her last words be about some cave?" Klaus questioned, a bit confused as to why Aunt Josephine would refer to the cave across the lake. "Maybe they're not her last words. What if she only wants people to think that she's dead?" Violet suggested. "People who don't care about grammatical errors." Veronica nodded, agreeing with her. "People like Count Olaf." She said. "That's right, what if she's alive and wants us to know where she's hiding?" Violet said. "This makes sense! She's trying to tell us that she's hiding in Curdled Cave!" Veronica exclaimed, before she ran over to the map of Lake Lachrymose and pulled it down, Klaus and Violet running over to join her. "How are we gonna get to Curdled Cave?" Klaus asked Veronica. "Well, here, look at the dotted line. It looks like the Fickle Ferry goes to the Lavender Lighthouse, which is right next to the cave." Violet replied, pointing to the map. "I saw the schedule when we arrived at Damocles Dock. The Fickle Ferry leaves every seventeen minutes." Klaus added. "Well then, let's gather everything we might need." Veronica said, and that's when a bolt of lightning struck Aunt Josephine's house. The room began to tilt towards the lake and it began to make the library fly out of the broken part of the window.

Veronica held onto the door where Sunny was biting onto its doorknob, Violet holding onto the map while Klaus wasn't able to hold onto anything and he slid down towards the window. The room began to come back up, the girls getting themselves out of the titling room. Klaus got up and began to run up to join them when the room fell back again, sending him sliding to the window. "Klaus!" Veronica screamed in fear. The room was titled even further and it caused Klaus to fly out the window, but holding onto the carpet tightly as to not fall into the ocean. The three girls could only watch in fear and hold a hope that the boy would come back up. However, with some luck, the wind blew forcefully towards the fallen part of the home and sent Klaus back into the room, running into the girls and tumbling onto the floor with them. The four laid down for a couple of seconds, before standing back up, which is when unfortunately for them that the house started to crumble. Their eyes widened in fear and they began to run for their lives toward the front door; Veronica pulling Klaus by his hand tightly and Violet holding onto Sunny for dear life. They had made it out luckily and as they turned around, the rickety house had completely fallen into the depths of water below. The hurricane approached more, with the welcome of thunder and the harsh downpour of water. Veronica bit her lip to hold her tears back as she knew that the one answer she had to finally learn of her family altogether was now drowned by the sharp waves. All she had was these small notes to remember them by.  

Now in case you weren't aware, dear readers, when tourist season arrives to Lake Lachrymose, the Fickle Ferry brings visitors from all over the globe to enjoy it's warm sunshine, the fresh air and it's famous smoked mackerel. The ferry leaves every seventeen minutes to the Lavender Lighthouse, where tourists can venture to Curdled Cave or be basked in the lighthouse's pale purple glow but that's only when the weather is warm. However, during the off-season, Lake Lachrymose has very few visitors which is why the ferry company has added two words to the bottom of their schedule in fine print. 

"Weather permitting?!"

"What does that mean?" Violet questioned. "It means the Fickle Ferry isn't running at all." Klaus responded with a slight of annoyance in his voice. "Then how are we gonna get to Curdled Cave?" Sunny turned to a port and pointed towards the boats as she babbled, "Pirate style." Veronica chuckled under her breath, patting Sunny's shoulder. The four devised their plan as they approached the boats. "So, we're gonna steal a sailboat, sail across Lake Lachrymose in the middle of Hurricane Herman." Veronica summarised before she sat in the boat, placing Sunny on the bench next to her. Violet took four raincoats off the pegs; each painted in red, yellow, blue and purple. Veronica was handed the purple raincoat, Klaus with blue, Sunny assisted with the yellow and Violet took the red one. "We're borrowing it, we'll bring it back." Violet said. "And if it's destroyed by this storm?" Veronica questioned with concern as she held tightly onto her raincoat. Klaus only gave a reassuring hand on her shoulder with a warm smile, which she returned even though she was freaking out on the inside. 

Let's just say, the ride there was nothing towards pleasant. We could say that it was full of sharp turns from sharp rocks, avoiding whirlpools and to try and spot the bask of purple from a lighthouse. Luckily, for the Baudelaires and Veronica, all storms break. The storming rain had eventually come to calm along with the waves. Sunny had spotted the bask of purple from the Lavender Lighthouse, with a toothy smile. "Huh, guess it's in the name." Veronica chuckled. "This view is actually really pretty." She said to the three. "Yeah, really pretty." Klaus replied, staring straight at Veronica. "I guess we got used to looking at it through Aunt Josephine's eyes." Violet stated. Veronica took Sunny onto her lap as the boat began to sail closer towards the cave, taking out her notebook just to re-read the small information on her family. Her mother and father, her uncle, her cousins. There were some tiny bits of water on the paper, smudging the ink but it wasn't enough to erase it which gave her relief. "Did you manage to find anything to these answers you keep speaking on?" Violet asked as she spotted Veronica's relieved face. Veronica looked up at her, and nodded. "I did, but I don't want to share yet. Not until I gain more, but it was just stupid of me to leave it there." The inventor only replied with how she did what she had to do, in order to not be in any more danger than she already was.  

The comforting moment was put to a stop as wailing sounds could be heard, the closer they got to the cave. "Why is there a 'For Sale' sign? Who would want to live somewhere that barely contains anything?" Veronica questioned. "What is that sound?" Violet raised an eyebrow. "Maybe it's just the wind." The writer shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe you're right, I read that when wind passes through small spaces, like caves. It can make strange noises, it's nothing to be afraid of." Klaus added but Violet said of how she was afraid anyway, him agreeing.

"Man up." Sunny babbled. "And woman up." Veronica said with an eyebrow raise at the youngest Baudelaire, who gave a sweet smile.

(A/N: I'm so sorry, I haven't been updating at all lately! I've mostly been busy, I'm close to maybe starting college and have been trying to focus more on my books. I've mostly also been doing other projects but I'm planning into trying to get back into writing the best I can!)