DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything!

For a moment, the world felt silent.

I was crying, my long, dark hair covering up my red, puffy face. It was the first glimpse of hope, of sunlight, of happiness that Klaus, Sunny, and I had felt in an extremely long time, our first chance at recovering the wonderful life that we had led not too long ago, a moment where the idea of being normal, fortunate children seemed plausible. Dewey was the reason for this. Dewey had been that glimmer of hope. It was because of Dewey that us Baudelaires believed we had a chance in this cruel, wretched world that hated us so much. And then, just like that, Dewey had been taken from us. The pain was sharp as a triple-edged sword, a moment as treacherous, more treacherous, than Count Olaf himself. Count Olaf did not kill Dewey.

We killed Dewey.

I let the thought sink in. My tears, I felt, would flood the entire hotel. I couldn't let Klaus and Sunny see me like this, although I knew they were just like me. I couldn't hear their tears, but somehow I could. I couldn't see their tears, but somehow I could. It was an accident. It was an accident. It was an accident! I told myself the phrase repeatedly, praying that somehow it would make it alright. It was true, yes. Dewey's death had been an accident. Yet that didn't make the pain feel any more sharp, the treachery feel any more unjust, nor the sadness feel any more unbearable. We had lost so many, why was Dewey's death any different? We had been through so much hardships, so much loss, so much tragedy. Why was the death of Dewey any worse? We'd only known him for, what, a few hours?

Deep down, I knew why it hurt as much as it did. I knew why the pain was so much worse than anything I'd ever felt before. Because me, Klaus, and Sunny believed everything he said. We believed, for a moment, that all our troubles were over, that the woe and pain and difficulties of the world were long gone to us, that for once we would be happy and joyful and get to live our lives as most children our age would, staying up until midnight studying for a last minute test, not flipping the pages through a dull, gigantic tome about marriage laws you were rushingly trying to save your sibling's life. Crying your heart out not because your crush liked someone else, not because you knew that your parents were dead and all your friends were in mortal peril and could die any minute and you may never know for the rest of your life. As I thought this all, I bit down hard on my lip, ready for the blood to fall, ready for the blue of the tears to mix into the grim redness of the blood and turn into a purple, a violet. A violet, a violet that represented me, Violet Baudelaire. Was it so, so, so much to ask for a decent person? Was it so, so, so much to ask for a decent person to live a decent, long-lasting life? Was it so, so, so much to ask for a happy ending to this series of drastic, terrorizing, torturous, unbelievable series of unfortunate events?

Apparently, it was.

"Baudelaires... safe... must... tell... Kit... Lemony... Quagmires... Widdershins... flee." I was more shocked than I had been in my entire life. I had been so, so sure that Dewey Denouement was dead. So, so sure that any chance Klaus, Sunny, and I had at joy was long gone. But there it was, a happy ending. The first happy ending that we'd ever experienced. Dewey Denouement's lips were indeed moving, it was no illusion. And they would go on to move for a wide stretch of time.

"Dewey?" Surprisingly, it was Sunny who was the first to speak. The youngest, the innocentest, the most inexperienced. Yet the bravest. Sunny was the most wonderful sister I could ask for, and the most bold, intelligent little girl to walk the face of Earth. Sunny would always be a ray of sunshine, no matter how gloomy nor damp the skies.

"Baudelaires..." was all Dewey replied, and it gave me a warm feeling in my stomach. Dewey was alive. The resistance was going on strong. The life of VFD would not leave in flames. "Safe," he said, and I looked to Klaus, who looked to Sunny, who looked to me. Dewey Denouement was 100% alive. How? Well, that was still a mystery for the present, but it was a miracle of the past. In fact, we didn't even think of Count Olaf, Esmé Squalor, and Carmelita Spats until they spoke.

"Countie, can you teach me how to spit?" Whined Carmelita, her hands on her hips. "I think that, being the bestestestest ball-playing cowboy superhero soldier pirate the world has ever seen, I think that I deserve it!" she exclaimed, continuing to show obliviousness to me, Klaus, Sunny, and Dewey.

Count Olaf growled, and muttered a terrible word, one that should never be used in front of children. He then scratched his slimy, dirt-covered ear and ferociously shook his head. "I disowned you, you little-" he spoke, in a way that I knew all too well. Jerome Squalor and Justice Strauss backed away, obviously unsure of what could possibly be happening. Would Count Olaf strike? Would the fire-fighting VFD members make it out alive? What was happening?

"No, Olaf," Esmé Squalor interjected in a firm voice. "You will not disown this darling ball-playing cowboy superhero soldier pirate the world has ever seen," she announced to the room. "She, like her fashionable, in adopted mother, quits!" With that, Esmé Gigi Genevive Squalor flipped her hair, grabbed onto the filthy hands of Carmelita Spats, and left in a rather fashionable walk. If she were not so concerned about being 'in,' she might have said some catchphrase for this sudden leaving such as "Esmé out!" or "sayonara," but Esmé Squalor was above such things.

The sudden leaving of Esmé and Carmelita, however, did not make Count Olaf any less terrible a villain. "My stupid former girlfriend assistant may be a terrible henchwoman, and her even iffier adopted daughter an even worse one, doesn't mean that I still don't rule. Hugo, Colette, Kevin, get me ready for court!" Count Olaf announced, a wide, sleazy grin set on his face, one that we Baudelaires knew very well. Somehow, someway, the court was going to go wrong, or it had already went wrong, otherwise Count Olaf would have never given his evil, cruel smile that always was the prequel to our next terribly unfortunate event. Fortunately, however, we'd have Dewey to help us through it, and with luck, maybe this unfortunate event would not turn out to be as unfortunate as it could have turned out.