Chapter Text
Kit was in her Madame Lulu disguise waiting for the ferocious lion show to begin with a knot in her stomach and a heaviness in her heart. She barely heard the “Ringmaster” as he hyped the crowd up and when he was carrying on about unfolding the piece of paper fold by fold, she found herself glancing through the slit in the tent every few seconds, hoping to see a flash of yellow and black.
Her worst fear was confirmed when she heard him announce dramatically, “...proves that two heads are better than one! Beverly and Elliot!”
After a lot of commotion and stalling, Madame Lulu had bravely announced that she would take the place of her beloved freaks. The crowd cheered. Esmé looked delighted. Olaf looked sick to his stomach.
Esmé nudged Hugo and gave him a significant look. “Push...her...in,” Esmé said through grit teeth while trying not to break her smile for the crowd. Hugo, Colette, and Kevin faced Lulu. Kit smiled weakly at them and said softly, “You deserve better... never forget that.”
“I can’t do it!” Hugo wailed.
“Me either,” Colette agreed. “Madame Lulu gave us a home and a job when no one else would even look at us.”
“It’s not right,” Kevin added. “If the Ringmaster wants her pushed in so badly, he should do it himself. The lions were his idea to begin with!”
Esmé looked gleeful. “What a truly splendid idea, Kenneth!”
“Kevin,” he corrected.
“Whatever,” Esmé said dismissively. She turned her attention to Olaf, who for reasons unknown to her had turned a sickly shade of green.
“Darling, I’m not sure what you ate, but it’s not agreeing with you,” Esmé supplied. “Now, push the gypsy into the lion pit so we can all go about our day.”
Olaf stood on the long narrow board that was suspended over the lion pit. Kit stood at the far end, her arms outstretched to help her keep her balance. Esmé stood at the other end, on solid ground. Olaf looked back and forth between the two women several times.
“Darling,” Esmé growled, “The crowd is turning into a riot. What are you waiting for? Push her .”
She smiled placatingly at the crowd again and gave her best pageant wave.
Olaf took another few cautious steps toward Madame Lulu.
“Why didn’t you go when I told you to?” He asked her miserably.
“I can’t expect you to understand,” Kit said sadly.
Olaf inched closer. He was standing right in front of her now. Being suspended over an open pit, especially one with starving lions at the bottom, made Olaf go even greener. Like she had nearly nine months ago, Kit reached out and grasped his hand in hers, squeezing reassuringly. It had always helped him steady his fear of heights.
“Do you trust me?” He asked as he searched for her eyes through the thick black veil.
“I used to,” Kit replied woefully.
“Trust me now,” Olaf told her.
Before Kit could ponder his meaning, he seized her by her hips and shoved her up and forward as hard as he could.
As soon as he’d released her, Olaf had spun around on the platform and squeezed his eyes shut, not unlike a child who has come to the scary part of a movie they do not wish to see. “Kit!” He choked out. He felt the strong lurch in his stomach and had he eaten anything in the past twelve hours, he would have vomited. As it was, he simply heaved as he listened for the sounds from the lion pit. But he heard nothing. He slowly turned around, dreading what he might see. Relief flooded him when he saw Kit pushing herself up off the hard ground across the pit.
Esmé had watched the entire spectacle and was presently gritting her teeth so hard she wondering if she might chip a tooth. She shook with furious rage. Unfortunately, now was not the time to deal with her boyfriend’s betrayal, since the entire tent had erupted into pandemonium.
A brunette woman came running into the tent and knelt to help Kit up.
“Olivia!” Kit exclaimed. “You arrived just in time.”
“What on earth happened?!”
“No time to explain. Find the Baudelaires and let’s get out of here!”
As Olivia clutched Kit closely to help her up, she discreetly slipped a specific vessel for disaccharides into one of the many pockets of Madame Lulu’s skirts.
“You’re that school librarian!” Olaf shouted in confusion. “What are you doing here?”
“Boss!” The hook-handed man called. “We gotta go! The girls already lit the roller coaster!”
“Dammit!” Olaf shouted. Everything was unraveling too quickly. He’d wanted Kit to get away from the carnival before his lackeys had lit the fire.
A group of people rushed toward the tent entrance all at the same time, which sadly, knocked Olivia into the lion pit. Kit screamed in anguish.
“No!!! Olivia!”
Kit knew there was nothing she could do to help the librarian. She tried to block the sounds from the lion pit by focusing on the running and screaming tourists. Kit was devastated over Olivia’s fate, but she told herself she would have to grieve later. The Baudelaires needed her now.
She emerged from the tent to see the roller coaster burning. How had so much gone wrong so quickly?
“I told you,” a female voice taunted from behind her. “I told you if you didn’t stay away from him, I didn’t know what I’d do.”
“Esmé Squalor, you fool,” Kit said in her normal voice.
“Wait, what happened to your accent? I knew it was fake!”
Kit was so furious, she yanked the veil and the wig off.
Esmé’s eyes widened in shock. “You! It... It’s been you all this time?”
Kit wasn’t usually a vindictive person, but she needed someone to blame for Olivia’s death and it might as well be the jealous, raving woman in front of her.
“Ohh, my Olaf, spirits will answer your big question soon!” Kit shrieked wildly in her Madame Lulu voice.
“Oh, I will kill you now,” Esmé hissed. “Do you hear me, Snicket? You’re a dead woman. You’ll be united with your dear brothers very soon .”
“You won’t touch me, Squalor. You’re too afraid of messing up your manicure,” Kit fired back.
Esmé was already moving toward the car. “For once in your pathetic life, Snicket, you’re right about one thing!” Esmé pulled something from the trunk and Kit stared at it with disgust.
“Is that a harpoon gun?”
“Esmé!” Olaf called. “We’re leaving!”
“Ohh, not yet we’re not,” Esmé growled quietly. She went to pull the trigger and suddenly realized it wasn’t her harpoon gun at all. It was a tranquilizer gun that Olaf had somehow acquired when he’d gone out to catch the lions. “Oh well, I bet a lion tranquilizer will still kill you.”
Esmé pointed the gun at Kit and pulled the trigger. Kit barely had time to react, diving aside when she realized Esmé wasn’t bluffing. The tranquilizer dart nicked Kit’s arm. It took only a moment for her vision to start swimming. She staggered toward the entrance to the carnival where she knew her brother’s taxi was waiting, but she collapsed after only a few steps.
“Hmm,” Esmé sneered. “That takes care of her !” She threw the dart gun back into the trunk and yelled for the freaks to hurry up and get in the car.
“Except you two,” she said to Beverly and Elliot. “You two ride in the caravan that we’ll tow behind the car.”
Violet craned her neck to see where Kit was, but could see no sign of her.
“What should we do?” Klaus wondered frantically.
“What can we do?” Violet replied. “They have Sunny in the car. We have to go with them.” They climbed into the caravan and lamented the loss of their closest chance for escape and answers yet.
“Where’s the boss?” The hook-handed man called out.
“He’d better hurry up or all my clothes will smell like smoke,” Esmé complained.
Olaf saw the remainder of his troupe climbing into the car. He knelt beside Kit and felt for a pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief when he felt one, strong and steady. Fortunately, the dart had only nicked her. If it had been a direct hit, there had been enough tranquilizer in those darts to bring down a lion.
He scooped her up and hurried to Jacques’s taxi. He guessed that the car was far enough away from the structure of the carnival - she shouldn’t suffer from smoke inhalation. He set her gently inside, where she slumped over onto the bench seat. Something in her pocket made a soft clink! Olaf reached into the skirt pocket and felt his hand close over a familiar ceramic shape. The Sugar Bowl . Olaf laughed aloud. He couldn’t help it. All the running and chasing and it was right here. He glanced back toward the car. Esmé was ordering the new freaks to tie the caravan to the trailer hitch good and tight.
Olaf slipped the sugar bowl back into Kit’s pocket. As he did so, his hand brushed against her pregnant stomach. He laid a gentle hand against it and felt a soft thump against his hand. He didn’t know the first thing about unborn children, but he guessed if the thing was kicking, it was probably unharmed from the tranquilizer.
“I’ll be honest, I hate kids,” he said to her stomach. “But you take care of yourself, you littler… littlest fox. For her.”
He closed the taxi door with a firm slam to ensure she was protected from the blazing inferno.
He returned to his car and climbed into the driver’s seat.
“Where were you, darling?” Esmé asked.
“Oh, I was… setting the fortune telling tent on fire.”
Esmé peered into the side-view mirror at the reflection of the unburnt tent.
“You were?”
Suddenly, smoke rose from the back of the tent and flames creeped up the sides.
“Just took a while to make it around to the front. I started it on that stupid crystal ball table,” Olaf made up on the spot.
“Boss, look, one of the freaks was hiding this map but I took it off them,” the hook-handed man said proudly as he handed the map to Olaf.
“Oh… I haven’t seen one of these in years. Bundle up everyone. We’re going to the mountains.”
“Care to explain why?” Esmé asked.
Olaf pointed to the small brown stain in the Valley of Four Drafts. Underneath the stain was the word “survivor?” written in blue ink.
“Because that ,” Olaf said with a flourish, “is how VFD marked hidden locations on maps. And I bet you… Hooky’s hooks that this is where the VFD headquarters is.”
“But I need my hooks…”
“To the mountains!” Olaf shouted triumphantly as he pulled away from the burning carnival. In the rearview mirror, the famous Hinterland sunset was mixed with smoke and flames… and on the horizon of red and orange, a small yellow taxi sat off to the side.