The Secret Life of Beatrice: A sequel to A Series of Unfortunate Events #13

Chapter 8

AN: There is absolutely no excuse for my terrible behavior. I'm not even sure if you'll accept an apology anymore. I hope you can find it in your hearts to love me again.

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        I woke up the next morning at about 9 o'clock. The annoyingly bright sun was shining in from the windows, past the curtains I had forgotten to close, and directly into my face. I jumped up, bleary eyed and confused, and saw the papers in messy piles on my bed and floor. 

        I quickly began shoving the papers under my mattress, but was interrupted by a loud knock on my door. 

        I panicked and shouted "Give me a second!" I started hiding the papers even faster, wrinkling and folding some of them, but then I heard a voice call back "It's only Sunny!" I stopped my work and breathed a sigh of relief, pushing my hair from my face in an attempt to look somewhat presentable. 

        Without a response from me, Sunny entered my room, somehow knowing the delay was from me hiding her story. When she saw me, she chuckled and put a hand on her hip. 

        "You sure look like you got a lot of sleep." I stuck my tongue out at her and began once again collecting the papers, but this time in a neat pile. 

        "Maybe I would've if not for your story." I grinned as Sunny playfully snatched the pile from my hands. 

        "I didn't tell you to finish it!" she replied. "But seeing that you have, there's something else I have to show you." She motioned for me to follow her and we quietly made our way down the hall to her room. She quickly locked the door behind her and walked into her closet. 

        I watched her with a puzzled look. 

        "Sunny? Did you lose something?"

        "There's just something I have to show you. Come here." I awkwardly walked over to Sunny's closet, not really sure what to expect. As I leaned in the doorway, I saw her pulling a panel off the back of her closet, revealing a small room behind it. 

        Sunny began crawling into it, but turned back around to look at me. "Well, come on." I nervously followed her, crawling down a short hallway before we reached a room with a ceiling high enough to stand in. I was amazed by what I saw. 

        The wooden walls were covered with hundreds of pictures of fires: house fires, fires in restaurants, factory fires, and even a few car fires. Along one wall was a bookshelf packed with old, leather-bound books, some slightly charred. 

        There was a small table and chair tucked in the corner with notebooks piled on top of it. 

        The most noticeable feature were the words "I didn't realize this was a sad occasion" written in black on one wall and, on the wall directly across from it, "The world is quiet here" in red. 

        "Do Violet and Klaus know about this?" I asked quietly, not wanting to disturb the stillness of the room. 

        "They don't; I'm too scared to tell them," Sunny replied, just as quietly. "They're so desperate to forget any of this ever happened, but they don't understand how wrong that is. We can't forget this. If anything, we have to tell more people about it. We have to let them know how much wickedness there is in the world. 

        "See all these fires? They were all started by the same group in different places all over the world. They can make it seem like they were accidents, but you know they're not. All the people that lived in these different houses all belonged to members of V.F.D.; the good ones of course. Don't you think more people should know about this?" 

        "I mean, I guess, but I'm not sure I'm one to say..."

        "But it doesn't really matter because there's only one thing that's going to stop the bad side of V.F.D. and no one knows where it is." Sunny walked over to the table and pulled a photo album from the middle of the pile of books. She flipped to the end and showed me a page with several blurry photos of various people carrying various packages. 

        "The sugar bowl."

      "The sugar bowl?" I paused, slightly confused and concerned by what Sunny was saying. She looked me straight in the eyes and gave me a blank stare. 

        "Listen, Bea, I know you're confused, but I showed you my story; you should know what the sugar bowl is."

        "I know what it is, Sunny," I sighed "But I don't know what's so important about it. What's in it?"

        "That's another thing no one knows," Sunny muttered. "There's so much shrouded in mystery..."

        I was about to ask her another question, but I was interrupted by someone walking up the stairs and towards Sunny's room; it was Violet. 

        "Sunny, can I come in? I need to talk to you about something."