An Unexpected Interlude at Aunt Josephine's House
Hello! Welcome to the third 'chapter' of my Seven Six Widdershins Family Members AU. Inspired by the Six Baudelaires AU by tumblr user unfortunate-stranger-losers, in this AU, the Book!Widdershins Family and Netflix!Widdershins Family are now combined together to make a family of six. This 'chapter' is as the title gives away, an interlude at Aunt Josephine's house.
While Violet, Klaus, and Sunny aren't the main focus of the AU, they are still important characters to the narrative. They're just having their own canonical misadventures off-screen. That said, this chapter is 100% all on them, because I legit wanted to write this particular part of TWW for the AU due to...reasons, that may or may not be related to a minor subplot of sorts that should come into play by TGG.
“Aunt Josephine! We’re back!” called out Violet, shutting the door close.
The house soon began the shake not long after Violet spoke. However, it wasn’t a violent shake that could send things crashing to the floor, or break windows.
Violet turned to Klaus, who was carrying Sunny in his arms. The two older siblings gave each other the same worrying look. The walk back to the house after grocery shopping (something their Aunt Josephine asked them to do to get them out of the house to be on her date with Count Olaf, under the disguise of Captain Sham) unlike their non-windy walk there, was not just windy, but bringing in grey storm clouds from the distance.
What had the two older Baudelaires worried was not just the incoming storm of Hurricane Herman. It was also the fact that their Aunt Josephine didn’t respond.
“Aunt Jo?” asked Violet, setting the groceries onto the kitchen table.
“Aunt Josephine?” Klaus careful set down Sunny, keeping a firm grip on her tiny hand.
“Ent Jo?” cried Sunny, which was her way of saying, “Aunt Jo?”
There was still no response.
Violet called out once again. “Aunt Jo? Are you here?”
Klaus took a sharp breath in. “Do you think it’s possible that…Count Olaf got to her?”
Violet didn’t response. All she does was stare at the double doors in front of them. The doors led to the other side of the house. And that included their Aunt Josephine’s grammar library, which had a grand wide window overlooking all of Lake Lachrymose.
The Baudelaires didn’t dare to speak as Violet pushed the double door open.
There from the doorway, was the other half of the house. The double doors to the library were open, and there from the distant they saw the wide window, shattered in the middle, as if someone was standing there, and they were pushed out of it.
“Oh no,” said Violet, as she and her siblings approached the broken window. “We’re too late. We came back too late…”
Violet did her best to hold back a sob. However, Violet couldn’t help herself but rub the back of her coat sleeve over her eyes. Sunny stood there, looking upward at Violet, before turning her attention to Klaus.
Klaus was focused on the chains that drew open the metal shutters of the window. There on the chain, was a hand-written note. Klaus tapped Violet’s shoulder, and pointed to the nearby note. The three children walked to the note, and Klaus quickly pulled it off from whatever it kept it attach to the chain itself.
“Violet, Klaus, and Sunny,” read Klaus. “It’s for us. From Aunt Josephine.”
“‘By the time you read this note’,” continued Klaus, “‘my life will be at it's end. My heart is as cold as Ike, and I find life inbearable.’ I-T-apostrophe-S? Inbearable?”
“Go on,” said Violet.
Klaus gave an uncertain look at Violet, but he nodded his head, agreeing to his sister’s order. “‘I know your children may not understand the sad life of a dowadger, or what would have leadled me to this desperate akt.’ …Dowager has one ‘d’, leadled isn’t a word, and act is spell with a ‘c’.”
“Does it matter?” asked Violet. “Keep going.”
“‘As my last will and testament, I leave you in the care of Captain Sham, a kind and honorable men. Please think of me kindly even though I’d done this terrible thing. Your Aunt Josephine.’ Violet, something is funny about this note,” said Klaus. “Funny as in wrong. I-T-apostrophe-S stands for “it is.” She meant to write I-T-S.”
“Why are you focusing on Aunt Jo’s errors?” asked Violet.
“Aunt Josephine told us her greatest joy in life was grammar,” said Klaus. “She cared so much for grammar, there’s no way she would be making all these mistakes.”
“…Unless Count Olaf wrote the note instead,” suggested Violet.
“Do you still have Aunt Josephine’s list of groceries?” asked Klaus.
Violet quickly dug into her coat pocket. She felt the folded-up list of paper, alongside the plastic bag holding the peppermints Mr. Poe gave to them a week ago when dropping them off to Lake Lachrymose, before going back on the ferry to the City.
Violet pulled the letter out, and unfolded it. The two silently read the note and list of groceries together. There they saw how the V in ‘vinegar’ matched the V in ‘Violet’, and that the C in ‘cucumber’ was identical to the C in ‘Captain Sham’.
As Violet and Klaus re-read the note and list once more, they felt their unspoken and shared hope shaking. This was not help by the fact that the house was shaking once again. The more the house shook, the thuds also became stronger.
“It’s in her handwriting,” said Violet at last. “This was Count Olaf’s plan all along. Win her heart, get her alone to write this suicide note, and then push her out the window.”
Violet crumbled the list of groceries, and shoved it into her pocket. Recalling the peppermints, Violet pulled out the bag, and threw it out the shattered window.
There’s no point in keeping them if they’re not going to be useful.
Klaus stared at the window, and then back at the note in his hand.
“It’s…It’s…” Klaus burrowed his brow, and then gasped. “Violet, it’s not a suicide note.”
Klaus then dug into his pants pockets, and pulled out a retractable ball-point pen Uncle Monty let Klaus kept, for Monty had many to spare. Klaus clicked the pen, and underlined the ‘it’s’ on the letter. He then circled the ‘K’ in Ike, and turned to Violet.
“Writing “it’s” was to get our attention. Ike is our first clue. Ike is supposed to be ice.”
Klaus wrote the letter ‘C’ at the bottom of the note. He then did the same with the word inbearable, circling the ‘I’ and wrote down the letter ‘U’ next to the letter C. Klaus repeated this for every error that was written, until he finally got the last mistake of ‘I’d’, writing down the letters of ‘V’ and ‘E’. Then, Klaus heavily underlined the hidden word that was inside the note all along.
CURDLED CAVE
“She’s not dead,” said Klaus, a small smile forming on his lips. “She’s hiding.”
“Curdled Cave…” repeated Violet, smiling herself as well.
Another shake. Another thud. Items are now crashing onto the floor.
Violet and Klaus soon realized after that crash that not once, did they hear their baby sister speak throughout the reading of Aunt Josephine’s note, their comparison of the handwriting, and the reveal of the hidden message. The two gave each other another set of identical freak-out looks as another shake happened, this time sending several books down, which send loose papers all over the place.
“Sunny! Where are you?” shouted Violet, cupping her hands together over her mouth.
Another rumble. Another thud. More crashing was heard. The sound of something tearing apart from the house caught Violet’s attention. She turned her head towards the direction, and widened her eyes from the fear taking over her.
The front door was off its hinges, flying right towards her and Klaus.
Violet hastily grabbed Klaus, pushing himself and herself to the side. The door flew past them and out the window. It’s there a familiar voice caught their attention.
“Ey! Ey!”
The two looked down, and saw Sunny, pointing to the door their Aunt Josephine said was her deceased husband’s Ike private room. Their Aunt Josephine told them that she couldn’t bear to set foot in it, and made sure none of the Baudelaire went inside also.
The strong winds busted the door open, showing the three children the office. Inside there was a small wooden desk with matching chair, and a small window overlooking the desk itself. Clipped onto hanging string, were newspaper articles with headlines black and bold with the darkest ink seen, as well as loose book pages.
Violet quickly picked Sunny up, while Klaus’ curiosity got the better of him. He took a few steps inside Ike’s office, with Violet (and Sunny, being in Violet’s arms) behind him.
Much of the book pages were text, though two pages were full illustrations of a three-legged crow, and a deer-like creature with two sets of antlers. Regarding headlines, one came from a newspaper from Paltryville—the town where a photograph of their parents, their Aunt Josephine, Uncle Monty, and others was taken. The headline talked about an accident regarding the now defunct stream train, The Thistle of the Valley.
The small window in the office soon shattered. The desk opened up, and loose papers went flying. One paper flew right towards Klaus, and the middle Baudelaire child caught it. In his hands was a sketch. It was a hand-drawn sketch of an unknown creature that was curving its body, almost like a question mark.
Klaus lowered his eyes to see the artist’s signature: E.B.W.
“What was Ike investigating?” asked Klaus, focusing all too much on the sketch.
Violet didn’t reply to Klaus. Another shake of the house had Violet turning around, allowing her to focus on all the destruction and chaos surrounding them.
“Klaus,” said Violet loudly, “we got to get out of here!”
“R-right!” Klaus nodded his head, and folded up the sketch, shoving it into his pants pocket, as well as the pen still in his hand.
The Baudelaires were only a few or two away from Ike’s office, when another shake of the house happened. They heard the creaking of the house walls wanting to tear itself off, the groans of the beams below them. The children did their best to pick up the pace, for the wind was much stronger than before, and the floor was now slightly slanted.
Another creak. Another shake. The sudden sound behind the children terrified them. They couldn’t but look back behind them, and saw that Ike’s room and parts of the library fell down into the lake below.
Another thud. The children looked back in front of them, and saw the refrigerator tipped down, and began sliding towards them.
“Come away from the fridge,” said Violet, recalling their Aunt Josephine’s words. “Because if it falls it could crush you flat!”
Violet and Sunny quickly fell to the right side of the slanted room, while Klaus rapidly fell to the left side to dodge it. The three children upon seeing the refrigerator falling into the waters below, stood up, and continued marching on to the entrance of the house.
They marched through everything falling around them, as well as everything detaching themselves from the house. They marched through the light debris flying past their heads that could harm them, if it hit them right. The children marched on over the slanted floor, which keeps on slanting due to the support beams weakening.
One support beam was so weak, the stove —which had broken free from its plug and caught on fire due to a phone wire sparking on it— fell through the door with a heavy splash. The Baudelaires gave each other a sigh of relief.
Relief didn’t last long as they looked forward. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny saw another loose wire heating up the doorknob. The doorknob turned from its black metal color to an orange color that’s seconds aways away from turning red.
“No way,” said Violet.
When the doorknob turns a bright red that’s almost white, the Baudelaires quickly ducked down to the floor. The children refused to look up. They kept themselves low, and they heard the harsh winds over their heads, and whatever debris flying pass them. They kept themselves in this position for minutes, before the winds began the slowly calm down. The wind calmed down to where Violet felt she could finally ask a question.
“It is over?”
Klaus slowly lifted his head up, and saw a fire extinguisher two inches away from his head. He flipped over onto his back, and swallowed the lump forming in his throat.
“Violet, I think you might want to tie your hair up.”
Violet slowly looked up, wondering what Klaus meant by that. Violet once again widened her eyes upon seeing the newest situation they were in.
Despite having survived the worst that Hurricane Herman could throw at them, being stranded on what little remained of their Aunt Josephine’s house was equally worse. Perhaps more so. The creaks and groans of the still standing beams told the Baudelaires that any second now, they could fall to the doom if they don’t act quickly.
Violet looked at Sunny, who was moving her head around quietly, looking around at their surroundings. Feeling certain Sunny would be safe where she was at for the time being, Violet stood up, and she too, observed their surroundings. She kept on her observation as she pulled out her ribbon from her other coat pocket.
Violet quickly tied up her hair, and walked over towards the edge near former front door. Violet looking down at the beams below, and briefly bit the inside of her lower lip. Violet then looked back up, turning her attention to a wall that somehow, wasn’t gone with the wind. The wall had an empty cabinet that once held fancy dishes, but now had an anchor inside it. Near the cabinet was also a few empty metal cannisters that look like they could have held helium for balloons.
“Klaus, bring me the fire extinguisher,” said Violet.
Klaus looked at the fire extinguisher. “Why?”
“Because we need to move this anchor,” continued Violet, point to the edge near the former front door, “over there.”
“…Okay.”
Klaus did as he was told. He helped Violet lower the anchor from the cabinet, onto the fire extinguishers and the other metal cannisters. The two siblings carefully rolled the anchor towards the edge, and stopped right before it could go over.
Klaus looked back down at the beam. “Violet, what is exactly your plan?”
“On the count of three,” replied Violet, “we’re going to break the beam.”
Klaus did a double take from the beam to Violet. “Break it?”
“Yes.”
“That’s the only thing keeping us up.”
“I know.”
Sunny’s voice suddenly ranged out. “Epon!”, which translated to, “Violet, please tell us you tied your hair tight enough.”
“Just trust me.” Violet took a deep breathe in, and then out. “One, two…three!”
Violet and Klaus soon rolled the anchor off, and they saw it falling right onto the beams. The house stood still, before it began tilting back and forth. Klaus quickly ran over to Sunny, and picked her up. Klaus continued to hold Sunny close to his chest, as he and Violet prepared to jump. Violet was even in a jumping stance.
“Hold on, Sunny,” said Klaus, as the house began to tilt back once more
Violet bends her knees, as the house tilt forward once again. “NOW!”
Violet, Klaus, and Sunny —granted, she’s being carried— soon jumped over to the remains of their Aunt Josephine’s front porch. The children turned around just in time to see the house tilting backward, with everything now falling into the lake as last. They stood there in silence, still reeling in the events they went through minutes ago.
Sunny soon spoke up again. “Wohat?”, which translated to, “What do we do now?”
“It’s obvious,” said Klaus. “With the proof we have that Aunt Josephine alive and hiding, we can go to the authorities for help.”
Violet shook her head. “No.”
Klaus and Sunny stared at one another, before staring back at Violet. “No?”
“The authorities don’t listen. They never listen to us,” said Violet. “And that’s because of Olaf. He won’t stop. He’ll never stop. We have to find Aunt Josephine ourselves.”
“But—” Klaus was unable to finished his sentence. The distance sounds of sirens took the children by surprise.
Violet stared at Klaus. “Have you read any books on sailing?”
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PSA: Activity Update
{out of exile} Yeeeeah. This blog has been quiet, I know. I have had a bear of a time getting muse for Nuada back, and now I am sick with a summer cold/throat infection/something, I dunno. I am been sidetracked by my Marvel muses too. I am super active on them right now, so if you like my writing, want to interact more with me, or you like Marvel stuff, go visit them (see below).
I am still working on the Nuada in Silent Hill fanfic, and I'm almost done with the first draft. After it's completed, I will just need to live with it for a bit, do some editing, etc. This is a big part of my writing process, and I won't feel comfortable posting it until I've polished it up a bit. But it's getting there!
As far as rps, though... Nuada has been difficult. If you sent asks to this blog, I have them, and I will get to them as soon as muse returns. =)
To give you all an update and idea on where I stand with rp blogs, here is a current list. I am not listing my inactive/archived blogs, only ones I still plan/hope to write for:
Very Active (If you send me asks or memes I will respond very quickly):
@thiscrimsonsoul (Wanda Maximoff, Marvel)
@notbigondoors (Vision, Marvel)
Active (Still writing them but depends on muse on a given day):
@youmissedone (Carlos, Resident Evil)
@freewillacquired (Matt/Nemesis, Resident Evil)
@mogwaicutiepie (Gizmo, Gremlins)
@armed-and-alxne (Luther, Red Widow)
@after-the-fxll (Aryx, archangel OC)
Still want to write but lack muse:
@fallxnprxnce (Nuada, Hellboy II)
@medjaichieftain (Ardeth Bay, The Mummy/The Mummy Returns)
@ofmiseryandstolenflesh (Adam/The Creature, Frankenstein)
Still want to write but lack activity:
@xleafyheartx (Jix, leadling OC)
@me-protect-you (Leeloo, The Fifth Element)
@strugglingtodream (Fantine, Les Miserables)
@checkxmaster (Kaplan, Resident Evil)
@yeah-i-get-that-a-lot (Luther, Resident Evil)
Thanks for your patience as I navigate my fickle writing brain! I love you guys! XD ♡
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