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“Look – she’s waking up!”
Violet’s head was spinning as she came to. Her vision was blotchy and blurry, images swimming before her eyes in an inky lake of nothingness, as sharp, electric stars whizzed around in her skull. She groaned and lifted a hand to her forehead, wincing at the jolt of buckling pain that shot through her spine and behind her eyes at the movement.
“Is she hurt?”
“She just fell from the ceiling, genius. Of course she’s hurt.”
Voices echoed deafeningly around her, making her suddenly alert in her hazy consciousness. She blinked desperately through the blackness.
“Who’s there?” she asked quickly, voice hoarse and croaky. No one responded. Violet grew more and more disgruntled, but swallowed down the fear setting in. If she had learnt anything from her… eventful life, she knew that panic helped no one. She slowly forced her searing body up onto her elbows as she squinted around her.
The blurry outlines of figures slowly came to view. She rubbed finally at her eyes and blinked.
Five figures loomed over her. She gulped as she shuffled back slightly, dazed pain giving way for survival instincts to kick in.
“What is going on?” she asked the girl nearest to her – a freckled redhead with small, hazel eyes and a thin, fox-like face. The girl opened her mouth as if to say something, but no sound came out. She just stared at Violet, seemingly at a loss for words. One of the taller boys stood behind her scoffed and knelt beside her.
“Are you alright?” he asked in a slightly nasally voice, running his had through his perfect, slicked back hair as he frowned at her. Violet pinched the bridge of her nose. Her head was killing her and she didn’t have time for this. She needed to know where she was.
“I’m fine,” she said, unable to keep the slightly impatient nip from her voice. “Where am I? Who are you?”
“Oh, I am Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg,” the redhead declared, suddenly finding her ability to speak again as she put a hand to her chest importantly. The boy from before elbowed her and shot her a scowl.
“She doesn’t need a full introduction.”
“She literally asked for one, Noel!” the girl – Ocean – snapped.
Violet looked around to the other three people. One chubby, worried looking girl with bunches hovering nervously beside her, a tall boy with brown curls and a concerned glare as he stood to the side with his arms crossed, and another boy next to him with lighter hair, eyes darting anxiously from her to something a little way away, and back to her again. Violet’s brow furrowed and she followed his gaze.
Her eyes landed on Klaus, lying on his back, eyes closed, a couple metres away. She gasped and forgot about the pain in her body altogether as she scrambled to crawl to him.
“Klaus. Klaus, can you hear me?” she asked pointedly, pressing her fingers below his jaw and feeling for a pulse when he didn’t respond. She sagged with relief for a moment as she felt the blood pulsing faintly under her fingers. She quickly reached for his glasses lying on their side behind him and placed them on his nose for when he woke up.
Turning back to the five people, all just still staring at her as if she were a ghost, a new thought came to mind.
“My little sister. Is she here?” she said all too quickly, a sharpness to her tone.
“The baby?” the tall curly haired boy said. He looked over his shoulder and pointed to something behind him. “Doll has it.”
Violet forced herself to her feet and stumbled on her wobbly legs as she caught her balance. She darted around the group. Her eyes fell on Sunny, alive and smiling happily, and she felt like she could breathe again. Then she saw who she was sat in the lap of, and felt her stomach drop.
A girl in that same plaid uniform dress as the other two held Violet’s baby sister in her arms, poking curiously at her as Sunny giggled and reached for her fingers. But the girl’s head— her head wasn’t right. Maybe Violet was still hallucinating or seeing things from… falling from the ceiling? Is that what that kid had said?
But she wasted no time in rushing to the girl and briskly snatching Sunny away, holding her close as she backed away from the airy gaze of big, black eyes and porcelain cheeks. A small trickle of blood was running down the girl’s disjointed neck, and Violet quickly turned away before she could decide if she was crazy or not, to face the rest of them.
“Look, where are we?” she asked, images of the Carnival they had found themselves in before flashing through her mind. If Count Olaf was here too, they could still be in trouble. “Has anyone else been here while I was asleep?”
The nervous-looking boy shook his head.
“Just you three,” Ocean said as she stood up. “You kind of just appeared out of nowhere and fell from up there.” Violet glanced up at the high, distant ceiling and grimaced. It was a miracle a fall like that hadn’t killed them in the first place. She felt Sunny tug at her collar and looked down at her as she babbled. Violet listened and nodded, before hesitating and finally sighing.
“Okay,” she said, raising her head to look at the group and walking toward them again. “Sunny says you have all been nice to her. So, thank you for looking after my sister.” She bowed her head.
The tall one frowned and leaned down to the boy beside him. “How she understand baby language?”
“I am Violet Boudelaire,” she continued, ignoring him. “This is my sister, Sunny. And that is our brother, Klaus.”
She strode back over to him and knelt down beside him, placing Sunny down in the crook of his arm. Ocean seemed to jump to action and swiftly followed after her.
“Well, I am Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg,” she said again, matter-of-factly. Violet turned to follow her finger as she pointed to each of the others in turn. The girl with bunches was called Constance, the tall one, Mischa, the one beside him, Ricky, and the boy with neat hair was called Noel.
“Um, and that’s Jane,” she finished, pointing at the unnerving girl who was still sat cross legged across the vast room, staring blankly at her. Violet felt a shiver run down her spine.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you all,” she said instead, dipping her head politely. “But we really must go. Does anyone have any water I could use to wake Klaus up?”
No one spoke. Violet looked at them all, confusion simmering as they awkwardly looked away or shuffled from foot to foot.
“What?”
“Um… I— I don’t think,” Constance stammered, fiddling furiously with her skirt. “You’re the first people we’ve seen in here for… for a long time. I don’t think you can… really—”
“There’s no way out of here,” Noel finished bluntly for her, standing and placing a hand on Constance's shoulder. Violet blinked. That was impossible. There had to be a way out; what did that even mean? What was this place? It just looked like a warehouse with a bunch of broken carnival stuff littering every corner – they were still at the carnival, right? Maybe this was like a huge storage unit?
Violet’s head began to pound again and she squeezed her eyes shut. On impulse, she reached for her ribbon. She had to think hard. There must be a way out – if it was a simple case of a locked door, she could have that fixed in no time.
“Can someone show me where the exit is please?” she said rigidly as she brought her ribbon up to her hair. Ocean shrugged incredulously.
“There is no exit. We just said, there’s no way out of here.”
Violet shook her head, refusing to believe it.
“Violet, if we had found a way out of here, we would have been gone a long time ago,” Ricky said plainly, walking forward. He gingerly reached out and lowered her hands from her head. Violet watched the ribbon fall from her hand and flutter to the floor. Then she looked at him – smiling awkwardly at her, a touch of sympathetic sadness shimmering in his eye.
“But… But where are we?” she asked, voice small as dread began rising putridly in her gut.
Ricky winced as he looked down. There was a thick silence that hung densely over the room; it seemed to stretch for an eternity.
“We’re dead.”