sorrows and woes - klaus baudelaire

⮑ vicious viper

NATALIA AWOKE WITH A GASP AS SHE SAW AN IGUANA CRAWLING ACROSS HER FEET. She looked at the window to see that the sun had already risen and that Uncle Monty hadn't woken the orphans up. She looked back at the iguana and furrowed her eyebrows. She wondered how it escaped the Reptile Room. Natalia looked to her other side to see Klaus' arm laying across her waist. She carefully shook him awake, "Klaus."

Klaus groggily awoke, "Yes?"

"Uncle Monty never woke us up."

Klaus abruptly sat up and put on his glasses. He looked at the iguana that crawled from Natalia's feet to his feet. He looked at the ginger in worry before he got out of the bed and woke up Violet.

The three older children looked at each other in fear before they all sprang out of bed and ran down the stairs in search of Dr. Montgomery. Violet called out, "Monty?"

"Uncle Monty?" Natalia shouted.

The three children ran into the Reptile Room and saw that Monty was sitting in his chair by his desk. The orphans looked at each other with an uneasy feeling before slowly walking towards their guardian. They could all tell that something felt very wrong about this scenario.

Natalia gasped and tears welled in her eyes as the children saw Dr. Montgomery dead. His skin had turned a dull gray, his veins had turned black, and one of his eyes turned a light green. Two large marks of a snake bite were located on his cheek.

Natalia let a tear slip as she looked at the corpse. She gasped for air as she buried her head in her hands and sobbed. Dr. Montgomery was the only person who genuinely cared about the children. He loved them, protected them, cared about them. And now he was dead. Gone in the blink of an eye.

"How could this happen?" Klaus asked in despair.

"We know exactly how this happened," Violet answered as tears welled in her eyes.

Natalia picked her head up from her hands and spat in rage, "Count Olaf."

"My, my, my, my, my," a deep voice growled from the doorway. The children looked up to see Stephano, better known as Count Olaf, standing there. "What a terrible accident. Whoever discovers this will be very upset. 'For in that sleep of death what dreams may come.'"

"You murdered him," Klaus spat, his voice trembling.

"Why, Klaus, I'm surprised. A smarty-pants boy like you ought to be able to figure out that jolly old Uncle Monty died from a snakebite, not murder." Count Olaf pointed to the deceased herpetologist, "Look at the teeth marks on his cheek. Look at his cold, waxy face. Look at his unblinking eyes."

"Stop it!" Violet suddenly shouted with tears streaming her down rosy cheeks. "Stop talking like that."

"You're right. There's no time for chitchat. We have a ship to catch and I'd like to board in time to have a bottle of wine before lunch," Count Olaf excitedly smiled as he pulled some tickets out of his sleeve. "Peru. We're going to Peru."