A Violent Visit

Chapter 3: A Violent Visit


It is an admirable trait to put oneself in harm's way for friends or family, and even more so for a stranger, but it is rarely a sensible one. In this case, it might have been a more sensible move if Violet had a sword, or even a knife, but all she was carrying was a simple wooden stake, and while that is an efficacious weapon against vampires, it rarely helps with large, leather-skinned creatures like the ones she faced now.

The other girls in the alley were calling out to each other, co-ordinating attacks and making teasing comments. Violet noticed that they all worked together well, as if they had been doing so for a while, and also that they all seemed to be extremely strong and fast, like herself. One girl grabbed the arm of a creature- Violet guessed that they were demons, but she knew that it rarely pays to make assumptions- and flung it towards two other girls, who moved in with swords to cut off its head. All three grinned at each other and headed for the next creature.

Violet told herself not to get distracted during a battle, and instead stabbed the nearest monster with her stake, but it did more to annoy than harm the creature. It back-handed her into a wall, and her ears rang for a moment. She found herself pulled to her feet by a young woman a few years older than herself, with long brown hair, wearing a pair of leather pants and a tight red shirt.

“What were you thinking?” The young woman scowled at her. “I told you all to bring silver weapons!” She growled, which startled Violet, and shoved a knife in her hand. “Idiot baby Slayers thinking they can kill anything with a stake!” She turned suddenly, and yelled at some of the other girls. “Nancy! Duck!” A girl Klaus' age, in a frilly, pale blue shirt, dropped to the ground just as the monster she was fighting sneezed at her. This was no delicate, lady-like sneeze, as Violet or Sunny might produce, but rather a dramatic expulsion of thick mucus. The blue-shirted girl and the one she had been fighting next to both shuddered and made faces before wading back into battle, while the girl in the leather pants was already taking on another foe.

Violet was confused, but she had never let that stop her before, and neither did it this time. She threw herself back at the creature she had been fighting, and this time her stabs did it quite a bit of damage. It roared and tried to shake her off, but she clung to its back and stabbed again and again, until it went to its knees and fell over sideways. Violet jumped free of it, and turned to see no one standing but the other girls. They were all grinning and cheering, and she couldn't help but grin too.

The girl who had talked to her now clapped her hands and got everyone's attention. “Alright, guys! Dump these bodies in the river, and Volunteer Fyarl Duty is over for tonight. Rona, could you coordinate, and make sure everyone gets home?” She looked around and made a face. “Oh, and would someone get Ashley to the infirmary and get her un-petrified? And no stupid poses, ladies. Just get her there safely.” There was a chorus of agreement, and most of them started picking up monster bodies, while two propped a third against the wall. This unfortunate young lady was covered in a tantalizing film of greenish mucus. The girl in the leather pants turned to Violet with another scowl. “Now, what did I tell you all... Wait. I don't recognize you.”

Violet knew that proper care of one's tools was very important if one wanted to continue using them for years to come, and so she carefully cleaned the knife on her pant leg before handing it back. “Hello. I'm Violet Baudelaire. Are those demons?” She heard the clearing of a familiar throat behind her, and waved him over. “This is Klaus.”

The brunette with the revealing clothes relaxed into a smile as she took her knife back. “Faith. Nice to meet you two. Good knife etiquette.” The look on her face changed to puzzlement as she looked between the Baudelaire siblings. “We weren't told-”

Klaus stepped towards one of the demon corpses and crouched down to get a better look, not even realizing he was interrupting Faith in his quest for knowledge. “Are these Fyarl demons? I read about that paralyzing mucus.”

Faith rolled her eyes, shook her head, and sighed. “Didn't come out here terribly prepared, did you? Were you sent directly out from the Head Office, or did you talk to Willow?”

It was Violet's turn to be puzzled now. “Head Office? We weren't sent by anyone. We live seven blocks away.”

Klaus stood and turned to examine Faith. “What was that knife you gave her? And did you say 'Slayers'? The book said there was only ever one...”

Violet and Klaus watched as several expressions chased themselves across Faith's face. “You have no idea. You weren't sent. You live in this neighborhood.” She turned a little and yelled up at the sky. “Willow! You missed one! Right in our back pocket, too!” She turned back to the Baudelaires and smiled. “At least you know a little bit. You guys might want to come back with me, I'm not really the best at explaining this stuff. Or I can have someone meet you somewhere public, if you're worried about your safety.”

Violet could feel something from Faith, a slight trembling of her instincts, that told her the girl was not quite human, but somehow this did not detract from her trustworthiness. Violet glanced at her brother, to be sure he felt the same, but she was already nodding her agreement. “We'll come back with you. Back where?”

Faith now grinned, an expression which lit her face, very nearly as if a stage spotlight had suddenly been trained on it. “Local HQ. My very own branch office.” She lost her smile a bit as she raised an eyebrow. “That was easy. You got anyone you gotta call, let 'em know where you're going?”

Klaus was actually getting more nervous about Faith's intentions as she offered more and more. In his rather extensive experience, the foes who tried the hardest to reassure you were generally the most dangerous. However, this woman did not in any way resemble Count Olaf, nor did the girls who had been fighting look like Olaf's menacing minions. He was not ready to relax his guard, but he was willing to go where she led, for now. He shrugged, pretending to be casual. “They're not expecting us back at any particular time. How far are we going?”

“Not that far. A mile or so.” Faith turned and walked off, clearly expecting them to follow. Violet walked along next to her, but Klaus stayed a couple of steps behind, watching Faith for signs that she was signaling to a hidden ally or triggering a trap. Faith looked over her shoulder at him, and he thought she knew what he was doing, but she directed her comment at the oldest Baudelaire. “You seem to know what you're doing. You been patrolling much?”

Violet shook her head. “Actually, tonight was my first night out. I've been having these dreams, but I hadn't acted on them before. I fought a group of what I think were vampires, and then I felt those... they are called 'Fyarl', yes?”

Faith nodded a little, looking impressed. “Fyarl, yeah. Foot soldiers. We've kind of got an infestation. As for the others, if they turned to dust when ya killed 'em, they were vamps. You knew how to fight just from your dreams?”

Violet shrugged. She was reluctant to discuss her complex history with someone she hardly knew, but she had to admit her fighting skills might be a bit incongruous, a word which here means 'not fitting in with how young she looked'. “I've fought before. And Klaus helped me get ready today.”

Faith now looked back at Klaus, who was seemingly paying more attention to the streets they walked along than to the two talking just ahead of him. “So he's not your Watcher, then? What is he, your boyfriend?”

Violet shook her head with a fond smile. “My brother. What's a Watcher?”

Faith smiled, just a little. “Someone who watches out for us. They're the ones who do the research, help us train, all that good stuff.”

Violet couldn't help a proper smile. “We do most of the research together, and I was thinking of building a machine that would help me be a better sword fighter. But Klaus does watch out for me, just like I watch out for him.”

Faith's mouth widened into a large smile. “You already do research. I think y'all are gonna fit in well. You, ah...” Her face became serious. “You're not talkin' 'bout parents.”

Violet sighed, knowing that she would be getting this question for years to come, in one form or another, and not liking the answer any more than she had the first time she gave it. “Our parents are dead. We've been on our own.” A part of her felt as though she was pretending Sunny and Beatrice did not exist, but a larger part knew that, for their own protection, it was better that she not discuss them with people she had just met, nice as Faith might be.

Faith put a hand on Violet's shoulder, a gesture which people have used for centuries to show sympathy and try to give comfort. Violet knew the history of the gesture, but it still made her feel a little better. “Hey, I know the feeling. I been taking care of myself for years. But these girls, this group, they're like the best family you could choose.” She turned and walked backwards so she could talk to Klaus. “You said you did some reading, had a book? What's that all about?”

Klaus blinked a little in surprise as he was pulled out of his thoughts. This young woman was unlike anyone he had ever met, but he found he liked her. “We're still building up the family library. I got a package with one extra book, and when I first read it, I thought it was notes for a novel. But when Violet told me about her dreams, I started to believe it.”

Faith grinned briefly, though she watched Klaus carefully. “Excellent. And you thought it would be a good idea to come out with her tonight?”

Klaus straightened his shoulders. “I wasn't going to let her go out on her own. Besides, it's always easier to understand something when you see it in action than when you just read the information from a book.”

Faith nodded in approval. “Y'all are gonna fit in great.” She stopped in front of one of the larger houses on the block, from which Violet could hear female voices arguing. Faith grinned and opened the door. The argument crescendoed, a word which here means 'grew in volume until someone screamed and threw something breakable', then turned into laughter and cheers. Faith ignored all of it. “Now, rule number one... Well, we'll get to that. Rule two: Never invite anyone in. Vampires can't get into the house unless someone who lives there invites them, so don't risk it. Rule three...”

“Is this the one I missed?” A young woman, about the same age as Faith, but with hair the color of a good sunset, walked into the hall from a door farther along. “And who else did you bring?”

“Will, this is Violet and Klaus. Guys, this is Willow, she's gonna explain all this.” Faith smirked at Willow, who looked up at the ceiling as if asking it for help. “I'm gonna eat a pizza and debrief the team.”

“Only one? Musta been a slow patrol.” Willow smiled at Faith, and the Baudelaires could tell that the two girls were as close as sisters, the kind of siblings that have had a normal, uneventful life, and can therefore tease each other without worry. Klaus relaxed a bit, since the villains of his life, and even the adults who had tried to be helpful, did not seem to have the ability to loosen up, to joke and tease and smirk at each other. Faith frowned and squinted a little at Willow, who frowned back, then nodded and turned to the Baudelaire orphans. “Let's go sit in the library.”

Klaus and Violet both examined the hall they found themselves in. This was an older style of house; they could tell by the long, narrow central hall, with doors off either side, presumably into parlors and dining rooms and the like. The walls were hung with paintings, photographs, and various swords and axes, which did little to reassure either Baudelaire, but Willow's last word caught Klaus' attention. “Library? What sort of library?”

Willow gave him a smile that showed that she knew very well the love of books that had filled Klaus for as long as he could remember. “Best library in the world. Well, I mean, we don't have a lot of novels or best-sellers or anything, but for tedious research into obscure supernatural creatures, it can't be beat.” She opened a door partway down the hall, into a large room positively stuffed with bookshelves, which were in turn stuffed with tomes large and small, as well as a selection of bottles, jars, vials, and animal bones. It was the sort of place that might usually give the Baudelaire siblings a qualm, a word which here means 'second thoughts about their safety', but Willow's chatter was so cheerful that they were cheered along with it. “Now, Faith says you know a little bit already, so why don't we start there.”