Violet, unlike a very large percentage of children in this dark, depressing world, was a child that, once awake, stayed awake, no matter what happened. But this time, the fact that she was awake did her no good, as she was blindfolded. And of course, as most captors are, hers where relatively smart, so the blindfold was pitch black.

     The color black has many meanings. For example, it is a very degrading term for people with dark skin. But I believe the definition that we are looking for is, "Of the darkest color, the opposite of white, due to the absence of or complete absorption of light."

     And that was just it: She couldn't see a thing. And Violet's other senses were pretty much useless. There was tape over her mouth, so she could not use her sense of taste. Her nose was filled with the scent of leather, which meant that they were likely in a car, but that information didn't answer where they were headed. Her hands were tied, in a very uncomfortable position. The knot, she realized grudgingly, was a very tight Devil's Tongue.

     The only thing helpful about her state was that it was very easy to pretend to be asleep. And Violet had done that quite a few times. For one, when she stayed up way past her bedtime, which she did quite a lot, planning inventions, she would always pretend to be asleep whenever her parents came to make sure she was asleep. I, for one, have found it quite easy to pass unnoticed by pretending to be asleep.

     And, thankfully, her captors thought she was still asleep too, for they were talking quite loudly to each other.

     "And you say these plans nearly worked?" Esme said, in a voice that Violet figured that revealed she was doubtful.

     "Yes!" The Hook-Handed man said in his raspy voice, "But this time it's foolproof, because we know which one she is."

     "If this doesn't work, Fernald, I swear I'll wring your neck till you're-" A woman snarled. Violet didn't recognize her voice, but she thought it was Colette. But the next voice that spoke not only proved her wrong but also made her more fearful.

     "And once this is over, we get the girl?" Colette's voice rang out.

     "For the last time," Esme said, both exasperated and smug, "We will all decide together, thought I count double because I made this possible."

     "But that's not fair!" Another familiar voice called out: it was Ernest Denouement.

     "Yeah!" Hugo said, "There are five of us and six of you!"

     "How are there six of me?" Esme said scathingly, "I said I count five, not six, imbecile!"

     "But Carmelita always agrees with you!" Hugo tried. Esme snapped her fingers.

     The next Violet heard was a smack of a fist on the face that was most likely Hugo's.

     "Thank you, Regan," Esme said, and Violet could just see the smirk on her face. But Violet has winced when she heard the noise, and she held her breath for the next few moments to see if anyone had noticed. But nothing happened. Next thing she knew, her wrists were being tugged at.

     "Man, this knot is tight!" Ernest said, still pulling on the bindings, "What knot is this again?"

     "The Devil's Tongue," Hugo said proudly, "I invented it myself." That just irked Violet.

     "No you-" She started to say, but realizing her mistake, her eyes widened. And those were the eyes that stared into those of the woman who was most likely Regan.

     "Well, well! Our little Snow White has finally awaken from her enchanted sleep!" She said, and Violet could hear her voice clearly for the first time. And it suited her to the extreme. It made her seem like she owned the world, was born into royalty, and that she knew so much more than she did. In short, it was full of self-reassurance, and (if possible) it was more haughty than Esme Squalor's. The van had stopped moving for a while.

     And her appearance said almost the exact same thing. Her eyes were icy blue, and her glare made it seem like she could peer into her soul. Her bright red hair was up to her wrists, ending at a slight curl. But Violet didn't have much time to examine one of her captors.

      "What were you saying, orphan?" She asked sharply, though it was more of a statement than question. "Were you saying that Hugo here didn't invent the Devil's Tongue? Too bad, missy!" And with that she ripped the tape off of Violet's mouth, causing her to shriek slightly. It was this moment that Violet wished she could sit back and reassure herself that it was all a dream. She tried to pinch herself, before remembering she was tied up. Colette had come back with Regan, but had been silent until that moment.

     "Trying to pinch yourself?" Colette snickered, "Let me help with that!" And she gave Violet a 'Wicked Pinch' as its victims call it. Violet shrieked again and tried to wriggle the other way, only to be blocked by something-or someone- in her way.

     "Ah, I see you've met Mr. Caliban," Regan said. Violet focused on the man's posture, and realized he resembled his daughter.

     "Now, after that marvelous introduction," Regan purred, "We are going to ask you some questions, and you had better know the answers, or else- let's just say I'm a professional gymnast and martial artist."

     "If I were her, I would answer. Wouldn't you, sis?" Colette said, smiling.

     "I certainly would. Now, where is the sugar bowl?" Regan said, cracking her knuckles.

     "I don't-" Was all Violet could say before she collapsed as Regan's fist hit her.

***

     Meanwhile, back at Eleanora's house, Klaus was pacing the kitchen floor. No one had bothered to eat anything, as they knew their stomachs would reject it, so the fragrance of orange juice and pancake batter still lingered in the air.

     "How could we have let this happen?" Klaus heard Quigley say from the other room. His voice was muffled, as his hands covered his face. He had not moved from the position he had fell into when he came in, and he had said only three phrases over and over:

     "How could we have let this happen?"

     "How could I have let this happen?"

     "What will they do to her?"

     And no matter how much the others reassured him, he would not move or say anything else.

     All of a sudden, Klaus felt a tug at his pant leg. He looked down to see Beatrice there.

     "Kla? Where Vi?" She asked quietly.

     "Not here," Klaus said sadly, "Come on, it's time for your nap. He bent down and picked his adopted daughter up. But just before he started to climb the stairs, she squirmed out of his grasp and began crawling as fast as she could down the hallway.

     "Qui!" The one year old called again and again, pulling on his shoelace. "Qui!" She continued to say his name until he removed his hands from his face.

     "What?" He snapped, his face red from crying.

     "Cybo, Vi ro!" Beatrice said, and everyone looked to Sunny for a translation. Sunny smiled, tears in her eyes, as she said:

     "Don't cry, Violet is with us." Sunny frowned as Quigley put his head back in his hands.

     I have found an example of how a child's insistence can turn out for the better, and it comes in the form of an old folk tale called "The Emperor's New Clothes." In this tale, a very dull and witless king is tricked by two swindlers. They convince him he is wearing a magic suit of clothes that only the wisest can see, and this king parades around in nothing but his underwear until a young child shouts and insists that the witless and dull king has nothing on at all, causing the king to be embarrassed, and the two swindlers to either be hung or escape the country, depending on what kind of library your local library is.

     "She is, indeed," Fiona said, pointing to something on the ground. There was an envelope on the ground with a purple ribbon. Isadora walked over and gingerly lifted up the ribbon, as if her touch may have ruined it.

     "Violet's," She said sadly. Klaus had followed her, and picked up the envelope. He ripped it open, took one look at it's contents, and rushed towards the library.

***

     Sunny had only seen Klaus run as fast as he just had a few times in her life: The first, a children's marathon, (And he vowed to never run track in high school after that) and the rest were towards a library. Sunny gave him a minute or two before following.

     Sunny had not yet been inside the library, having brought some books back from the two island. And what she saw was jaw-dropping.

     The library was probably the height of the two stories the house had, and two and a half of the walls were filled to the brim with bookcases, and on the bookcases were thousands and thousands of books. One corner held very comfortable looking Chintz armchairs, almost hidden away by two of the shelves. In the center were two long tables accompanied by chairs. In order to reach some of the books, you had to use a sliding ladder. Klaus was about halfway up one of the walls, arms laden with books.

     "Klaus!" Sunny called up to him, startling him out of his slight trance. "Need any help?"

     "Sure! Can you catch some of these?" He asked, and he began tossing them to her gently, as he went higher and higher on the ladder. Finally, he slowly but steadily came back down the ladder with a huge book that read in big thick letters: THESAURUS. Klaus paused, shifting his weight, and staggered over to the table with it. He then went back over to the shelf and grabbed a dictionary. Klaus turned back to Sunny and asked,

     "Can you get the Quagmires, Beatrice, and Fiona while I get out the Atlas?" Sunny nodded and ran down the hallway to where Quigley still sat with his head in his hands. His sibling were on opposite sides of him, trying to convince him to talk.

     "Fiona, Isadora, Quigley, Duncan, me and Klaus need your help in the library!" The girls and Duncan immediately stood up, but Quigley still didn't move.

     "We're gonna figure out where Violet is!" Sunny said in a sing-song voice. Quigley stood up and left for the library without a word. When everyone else had reached the library, Sunny read the poem aloud, only pausing to sound out words.

"Twas astute, our plan long ago.

But, without further ado,

We countenance you to our play!

The Implausible Amalgamation, oh yay!

We hope you materialize and see

How Cormac and his bride were meant to be!

She's eighteen now, grown up so quickly.

But if you are dissimilar to us, and do not act as quickly

The wretched starlet, Loreta Vi' Dieboula

May just metamorphose into one of us!

It's would be a stigma if this palatial decrepit time

Shall perhaps cusp at the flip of a dime.

The farce, this occasion, is penned by the original

And absolutely fabulous Lauren Dewp'Peuct

And Geode Lorrtwo, marvelous dual relations.

We won't tell you where,

As we know you probably have already been there!"

     "That makes no sense..." Fiona said, "I don't know what half of these words mean!"

     "I only know a few," Klaus admitted, "Implausible means marvelous, penned means written by, astute means brilliant, wretched means poor, and dual relations means twins."

     "We'll all work on it," Duncan said to no one in particular. BUt everyone silently agreed and went to work. Quigley studied the new maps of the town, Isadora was studying the poetry rhythm with Beatrice and Sunny, and Fiona, Klaus, and Duncan were each figuring out some of the words, trying to make sense out of the poem.

     "Ingenious. What a simple plan," Quigley muttered.

     "What?" Isadora asked excitedly, "Ow! Beatrice, please stop pulling on my hair!"

     "I think I've got part of the poem..." Quigley said, looking at it once again. "Klaus, can you name Olaf's schemes?"

     And so, Klaus rattled them off:

     "Marry Violet, whisk us off to Peru, forge a document saying we were to be adopted by him, make us flunk out of school so he could adopt us- oops, and before that, cause us to be kicked out of Lucky Smells Lumbermill and be adopted by him- trap us, arrest two, smuggle out one, kill Violet," (Quigley shuddered) "And take one of us, kill me and Violet and wait till Sunny was of age, pretty much the same thing next time, choke two of us with the Medusoid Mycelium and wait till the other was of age, and escape with us in a boat," As he finished reciting it, he felt as light as a feather, as if telling someone of the Baudelaire's troubles freed him of gloom.

     "And the poetry-" Isadora said covering her mouth.

     "We've got it!" Quigley and Isadora said at the same time, "Or at least, part of it, anyways!"

     "I think I've got part of it too!" Duncan shouted.

     "Well?" Klaus asked.

     "Well, obviously, the names of the authors are anagrams, and so is the 'wretched starlet''s name." Duncan said. "The latter is an anagram for Violet Baudelaire, and I recognize one of the authors' names: Regan Duperow-"

     "Regan?" Isadora shrieked, "Not- not her! You're not telling me that she- no!"

     "Yes, it's our Regan," Duncan said sadly.

     "She- she- she wouldn't!" Isadora shrieked louder this time. Duncan, wincing showed her the book he had supposedly found the information in. Klaus hurried forward to read the book too:

     Regan Marie Duperow was a fully-fledged member of VFD, active all of the time. She was also one of most promising writer and poet in the world. But her loyalty was abruptly questioned when she rejoined her twin sister, Colette, who has recently been found guilty of many crimes. But even before that, two and a half years ago, Regan was found guilty (And was put in prison, only to escape two weeks later) of burning down the Quagmire family mansion singlehandedly.

     Isadora looked as if she was about to be sick.

     "I- I don't believe it," she said hollowly.

     "What's the big deal?" Fiona asked, confused. She had not read the book yet.

     Isadora's voice changed in an instant.

     "Wow. I thought you actually cared," She said acidly, "Sorry, must have forgotten that you were raised at sea. What was it- your philosophy? 'He or she who are raised at sea don't have a soul'? I must have also forgotten how uneducated you are. You must have missed the lessons on how to," She slowed down, "Un-der-stand," She pointed to her head, "When someone is upset!" Isadora finished by making a sad face.

     Most girls Klaus had met would have burst into tears instinctively.

     But not Fiona.

     Her gaze locked into Isadora's, and she said,

     "What? Oh, I'm sorry, I can't tell why you're upset? Is it because you weren't raised better? Realized you have a bad attitude? Figured out you'll never be the one Klaus wants to date? Or is it just your time of the month?"

     With one last scathing look at Fiona, Isadora wrenched open the door and disappeared through it.

     Klaus thought he heard a sob before it slammed.  

A/N: I know! I know! Okay? I haven't updated in forever. I had two B+'s on my midterm report, so I've been grounded! I only just convinced my mom to let me have my laptop back for an hour or so! Please read the next chapter for a CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT!!!