It was another quiet night of solitude in the city, street lamps giving off an eerie glow on each side of the cemented sidewalk. The evening was already late, with the sky even more starless, and the moon looking even lonelier than before.

Silhouettes of parked cars shadowed the streets, and only a few people were left walking on the sidewalk with quiet, fast paces. It seems like everyone was oddly dressed up for the night, people in bulky sweaters and coats, their hats sitting low in the brim of their foreheads that no one could see the expressions on their visages.

Lemony Snicket himself, was in a dark beige bulky sweater, his ivy cap hung low on his head as he placed his both hands on his sweaters' pockets. He was walking in brisk steps in the dark pathway, not even daring to look at any of the people that briefly passed him.

As he turned around a corner, he came upon a little place known as the Black Cat Coffee, with its familiar black cat logo engraved on top of the entrance. Lemony entered the place without a hint of hesitation or pause, hands still in his pockets.

"Ellington Feint," he said to the girl sitting on a small, round seat that faced the counter; with a small, dim light hanging on the ceiling. Even with her back turned, he knew right away with her long, black hair as dark as the evening's sky, that it was nonetheless, Ellington Feint.

"Good evening Lemony Snicket," Ellington responded in a soft voice as she turned around to face him. Upon glancing at her face, it seemed almost to Lemony that Ellington had not changed.

The girl he had once fallen for still had the green, emerald eyes, and eyebrows that were full of curiosity, looking like small question marks. It fit Ellington Feint perfectly in his opinion, for she was one big question mark herself.

Lemony did not move from where he was standing, and instead, pulled out a Black Cat Coffee paper bag, big enough to be placed by something as big as a milk bottle. "Where is it?" He asked quietly as he looked into her green irises, whilst placing the paper bag on top of the counter that Ellington was leaning on.

"With her." Ellington replied with a small shrug as she rested her elbows on the counter.

"And where is she?" He asked once again, looking around the whole place. Black Cat Coffee was dark, empty, and abandoned, just as much as Ellington Feint was abandoned by her father, just as much as Lemony Snicket abandoned the man and woman he had known as his parents when he was a thirteen-year-old boy, and just as much as the Baudelaire children were abandoned when their parents perished in a fire. But that was three different stories to be told some other time.

"How should I know, she's your apprentice. Better teach her the value of punctuality." The woman before him said. And just as he was about to open his mouth as a reply, there was a soft, shutting of a door that echoed throughout the whole place.

Lemony Snicket and Ellington Feint turned their heads towards the back kitchen of the Black Cat Coffee, where a soft, tapping of leather shoes could be heard. The person who had entered was walking right towards them.

"You're late." Lemony Snicket stated in a matter-of-fact tone, as Ellington leaned even more at the counter, surveying the whole scene with a sly smirk.

"Better late than never, Mr. Snicket." A voice said from behind the dark shadows. And just in time, a teenage girl who looked about fourteen years old, stepped out of the dark. She had hair as dark as Ellington Feint's, except it wasn't as long and as straight as hers. Her hair was in soft waves, like what Stain'd-by-the-Sea's ocean must have looked like before, hidden beneath a dark, purple fedora. The girl was wearing a white button-up, collared blouse, and a skirt as black as her own hair.

She was a young and witty girl that had dark brown eyes, and skin the light shade of hazel nuts. And although she lacked a bit of confidence, her sharp remarks filled up those characteristics in which she was empty of.

"She's learned from me." Ellington said slyly with a tone that suggests that she could be a much better chaperone to an apprentice-volunteer, much better than Lemony.

"Indeed she has." Lemony muttered shortly in a dry voice. "Now, would you kindly hand it over Eynne." He said gently and stuck out his palm.

Without any further disagreement, the girl handed over an unusual object, almost the size of a milk bottle. It was made out of dark, shiny wood, and it gleamed through the darkness, shaped as if it were a question mark -- just like Ellington's eyebrows.

It was the statue of the Bombinating Beast.

Lemony then placed his fingers beneath the statue of the mythical creature, feeling his fingertips underneath to look for the slight slit on its bottom, where his important papers. When he felt the slit, he gently pulled out thin sheets of paper. The three of them then looked at the documents in his hands, the ones that were once hidden inside the Bombinating Beast.

"Has my editor edited it yet?" He asked the young girl, whilst staring at the papers in his hands.

"Yes, and it's soon to be published on the fourth of this month." The girl replied as she twirled a fountain pen in-between her delicate fingers.

Lemony then tilted his cap with a nod, before returning the documents inside the statue. After he had made sure the papers were safe and well-hidden, he grabbed the Black Cat Coffee paper bag and placed the statue of the Bombinating Beast inside.

"Very well," he said and turned his back. "I'll see you soon once again Ellington Feint. For now, my apprentice and I shall have to go."

"Until next time," Ellington said and waved a solemn goodbye to the two.

Lemony Snicket and the girl he called as Eynne, stepped outside of the Black Cat Coffee and indulged the cold breeze of the night. "You did well for your first task, Eynne Jhelle Lee. Now, let's pay a short visit to another fellow volunteer, shall we?" He asked as he glanced at his apprentice, who only gave a slight nod before she followed her chaperone through the now empty streets of the city, entering a green roadster that was once in the ownership of S. Theodora Markson, Snicket's late chaperone.