Subject Zero (Book 1)

Chapter 19: Subject One

Monday, December 3, 1984
8:10p.m.
The Snicket Household

Third Person's POV
The kids all looked at each other, neither of them knowing how to respond to Naomi's question.

     "Uh... This is our friend, um... Zoe!" Norman awkwardly replied. "She's new at school... And, uh, we've all been here for, like, five minutes."

Naomi gave this confused expression. "What? No, you haven't. I would've heard you walk down the stairs-"

     "Okay, if you wanna know the truth, we were playing duck-duck-goose outside. But it's true, we came in here a few minutes ago," Alio casually said.

     "...Is your friend's nose bleeding?" asked Naomi, looking at Zero, who quickly wiped the blood from her nose.

Anne uncomfortably asks, "Didn't you see her hit her nose when we all fell onto the floor?"

     "No, or else I wouldn't have asked... And why'd you put up a fort? It's pretty cool in here. There's food and everything."

Norman looked at Zero, then Jesper replies to Naomi's question, "We were bored, so we put up the fort before we played duck-duck-goose outside."

     "Yeah, don't judge," commented Alio, still just laying on the floor.

Naomi slowly stood up. "...Okay, then." She crawled out of the tent and ran up the stairs.

Norman got up and sat down on the couch. "What the heck."

Anne sat crisscross and asks, "Zero, what were those things?"

Zero looked at her and shrugged. "They looked like a part of Liam."

     "...Was that really Klaus?" Norman quietly asked. "I mean, it had to be, right?"

"It wasn't him... It can't be," Rei had a sad look on her face.

     "I wanna go home, but I don't wanna get up. But can we talk about this tomorrow?" Alio glumly said.

Jesper calmly says, "I don't think I'll be able to sleep."

Norman stood up. "I don't think any of us will. You guys wanna talk upstairs? I'm sure my parents are taking care of my baby sister, and Naomi probably went to her room. If my parents come down, Zero could, uh, teleport to the basement or turn invisible, or something."

The kids all looked at each other, and Alio sighed as he sat up.

Anne stood up, helped Rei up, then the others stood up, too.

     "How long were we walking?" asked Rei. "It feels like it was hours."

"That's because it was. We left at, what, 6:30? The clock says it's 8:10..." Anne pointed out, walking up the stairs, followed by Norman and Zero. Jesper was making sure Rei got up the stairs okay, and Alio was following them.

When they went to the second floor, they didn't see Naomi anywhere, so they went to the living room.

Alio just plopped onto the couch, Anne sat in the La-Z-Boy chair, Norman sat on the arm of the couch, Rei and Zero sat on the floor next to each other, and Jesper curled up at the right foot of the couch.