The Subordinate Sequel | Chapter 8

                                    

                                          
"Does anybody know how to get to Briny Beach?" Isadora asked. 
                          
"I'm afraid not," Duncan said. 
                          
"Me neither," I sighed.
                          
"If only Jacques were still alive, then we'd have our own personal taxi driver," Quigley murmured. 
                          
"You were close with him, weren't you?" Isadora comforted. 
                          
"Very," Quigley replied sadly. My heart skipped a beat. 
                          
"Who died?" I asked, alarmed. 
                          
"My friend Jacques, he was apart of the VFD with me. Boy, we have a lot more to tell you," replied Quigley. 
                          
"Tell me everything, I want to know," I demanded. Things were starting to become very odd and I was a bit frightened. 
                          
"Let's wait until we meet up with the Baudelaires, they own most of the story," Quigley told me. 
                          
"Fine," I reasoned.
                          
We kept walking on the long, twisty road. We started off eating our snacks but soon lost our appetite due to the horrible stench that came soon after. After what felt like hours, we came across a map of a very large chunk of the land. The words were very small, to cram in all of the places on the map. Eventually, we found Briny Beach, and we weren't too far from it. It was about a mile away from where the map told us we were. 
                          
"How are we possibly going to memorize this map?" I asked.
                          
Quigley unfolded a piece of paper from his back pocket. He began to sketch out the map free-hand, highlighting the path that we would take to the beach. 
                          
"Whoa!" I exclaimed, "You're really talented." 
                          
"Thank you," Quigley stated, with a slight tint of red on his cheeks. "It's my dream to be a cartographer someday," 
                          
"It's an awfully worthwhile dream," I pointed out. He was incredulously talented at map-making.
                          
When Quigley was done drawing we continued on our journey with a plan. 
                          
"We're finally going to see them again," Isadora said, tearing up. 
                          
"I thought we'd never see them again," Duncan added. 
                          
"Never in a million years did I think we'd all get to be in the same place together," I laughed, "I'm excited to meet them too!" 
                          
"Oh, Elle, it's going to be wonderful! Thank you for everything you've done for us!" Isadora bubbled. 
                          
"Oh, it's nothing," I blushed, "Just what friends are for." 
                          
"What did you say?" Duncan coaxed. 
                          
"It's just what friends are for," I repeated suspiciously.
                          
"It's funny that you say that, my parents taught us that same thing when we were kids, the Baudelaires learned the same thing," Duncan continued. 
                          


                          
"How curious," I said.
                          
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We partied the rest of the way to Briny Beach. We were all so excited. There were so many reasons to be happy. We jumped all around practically ran the whole way without getting tired. I was happy to finally have friends by my side and I was even more happy to be making even more friends soon. My siblings had been my only friends my whole childhood, meaning I hadn't really a friend since I was six years old. After my brothers and sister had left, my other sister had stopped talking to me as well. She was even more devastated about my siblings leaving than anyone else. My parents had soon after sent her to boarding school to make new friends and distract herself. 
                          
After I had met the triplets, my whole life was changed for the better. The time went by rather quickly and before we knew it we were standing in front of a small beach. The beach was not as pretty as we had been picturing, the sand was gray instead of the beautiful white you find on most beaches and the beach itself was pretty dirty. We looked around, taking in all of our surroundings. 
                          
That's when we spotted them. We all immediately bolted towards each other. Isadora, Duncan, and Quigley and the Baudelaire siblings attacked each other with hugs. I stood back, watching, letting them enjoy the moment. Quigley and Duncan both stared awkwardly at each other when they both ran and tried to hug the oldest girl at the same time. Isadora noticed me standing back, feeling excluded, and introduced me. 
                          
"We have someone we'd like to introduce you to," she began, "This is Elle. If anyone deserves credit for this reunion, it's her," Isadora said. 
                          
"Nice to meet you, Elle. I'm Violet Baudelaire and these are my siblings Klaus and Sunny," Violet introduces. 
                          
"I almost forgot, we have someone to introduce to you, too! This is Beatrice Snicket, she was left in our care," Violet continued. 
                          
Do you know that feeling that you get when you almost fall out of a chair, but you catch yourself and you're left with the lingering feeling of fear and confusion in your chest? At that instant, that was all I could feel. Beatrice Snicket. That was the only thing that I could hear at that moment and it stuck in my brain like bees on honey.
                          
THEY FINALLY REUNITED YESSSS IM SO HAPPY YEEHAW