Prince Charming took advantage of Mr. Seven's heroic speech and newfound popularity and promoted him to general of Charming's army. The little man marched the soldiers through the Hall of Wonders, which took the better part of a day. When they arrived at the portal they continued down the stairs and out the front door. The family watched strangers and friends file past. They wished them well and hoped to see them all again.
Buzzflower and Mallobarb smiled at Sabrina as they left. They thanked her and the family for their kindness after Sleeping Beauty's death.
"Where are you headed?"
"Well, we're told the plan is to take Town Hall but I can't be sure that's where we are truly headed," Buzzflower said.
"Sergeant White says all we need to know is how to fight, not where it's going to happen," Mallobarb added.
Uncle Jake rushed to their side. "Ready, ladies?"
"You can't go. It's too dangerous," Granny cried.
"We'll look after him," Mallobarb said. "He didn't make much of an impression on us at first but he's grown on us."
Uncle Jake grinned.
"This isn't your war," Mr. Canis said as Uncle Jake marched ahead.
"Yes it is," Henry said. "He's a Grimm. This is what we do."
"We might never see him again," Veronica said, fighting back tears.
"We'll see him again," Daphne said. "He's Uncle Jake. He's gravy."
Goldilocks and the three bears were the next ones to file out the door.
"Goldi, are you sure about this?" Granny asked. "There's plenty of room here and the fighting is going to get worse."
Goldilocks shook her head. "I'm done avoiding my responsibilities, Relda. I'm back in Ferryport Landing. It's time to plant some roots and see what sprouts."
Veronica stepped forward. "Goldi, if you're doing this to avoid me and my family…you can't risk your life and limb because you might feel uncomfortable here!"
Goldilocks smiled. "You're an amazing woman, Veronica. I'm not sure you mean what you just said but you said it nonetheless. I doubt I would have done the same."
Soon all of the soldiers were gone and the family was alone. They stood in the front yard surveying their little house and silently thanking their good luck. Somehow they had survived a fleet of fire-breathing dragons, an angry mob, and an army of bloodthirsty villains. They were enjoying the peace and quiet when something massive fell out of the sky and landed in the front yard. The impact was so powerful everyone lost their footing and fell to the ground. When Sabrina got back to her feet, she realized that there was a white dragon with orange stripes on its belly lying dead in the front yard. Puck was standing atop it with his little wooden sword in hand.
"Don't disrespect the sword, Grimm," Puck said.
···
The first order of business was getting the water and electricity turned back on. Puck reattached the severed electricity line on the pole by flying up and carefully reconnecting the cables. Unfortunately, he held the wires a bit too long and for the rest of the day his hair stood straight up on end. Veronica worked her own brand of magic on the water pipes.
With utilities back in working order, they went about opening windows and taking out the rotting garbage that had been sitting in the hot house for five days.
Granny made a huge meal consisting of what appeared to be fried oysters in peanut butter and jelly sauce. Sabrina could barely handle the smell and sat at the table picking at the horrible culinary nightmare. Her father noticed and nudged her under the table.
"I ate her cooking for eighteen years," he whispered. "You get used to it."
"Oh yeah, when?"
"I think it happened around the seventeenth year," Henry said.
The entire table was listening to the conversation and burst into laughter. Only Granny Relda was offended at first, but she quickly joined in and eventually laughed the hardest of all. The rest of meal was filled with jokes and stories. For what seemed like the first time since Sabrina's parents had woken, they weren't fighting. Sabrina looked about the table at her family: Mom, Dad, Granny Relda, Daphne, Puck, Mr. Canis, and Red Riding Hood, and realized this was what she had been hoping for all this time. This moment had been the one she imagined over and over when she would peek into the spare room and see her slumbering parents. If only the whole family had been there-namely Jake and her baby brother. Where was the baby? Was he safe? She looked over to her mother and from her worried expression could see she was wondering the same thing. Somehow they had to find him.
"So, Henry," Puck said as he kicked off his shoes and propped his smelly feet on the kitchen table. "I was wondering what you can tell me about puberty."
Henry turned pale and stammered.
Sabrina wanted to crawl under the table and die.
···
That night, as Sabrina was dressing for bed, Daphne entered the bedroom. She was carrying a pillow that she tossed on the bed.
"Are you back?" Sabrina asked.
"Not by choice," the little girl said. "Granny kicked me out of her room. Just as well-she snores."
"Well, that's the pot calling the kettle black," she muttered. "I missed you."
"I know. Think about that the next time you want to lie and steal from me," her sister said as she crossed the room and opened a drawer in the desk that sat in the corner. From inside she removed a hairbrush.
"I will," Sabrina replied sincerely as her sister crawled up behind her and brushed her hair. "You know, I'm very proud to be your sister."
"Gravy."
Sabrina smiled. "Gravy."
"We have to find him," Daphne said. "We have to stay in Ferryport Landing until he's back with us."
"I know," Sabrina said.
"No grumbling about it, either," the little girl added.
"No promises."
"Hey, where are our marionettes?" Daphne said, glancing at the dresser. "Mine was next to yours and they're both gone."
"Dad threw them out," Sabrina said. "I saw him toss them into the trash bin in the kitchen. After what Pinocchio did I don't think he wanted them around."
"Good," Daphne said. "They were creepy anyway."
"Super creepy. Nothing like a puppet to give you the willies," Sabrina said as she crawled into bed. As she lay there she felt her sister slip her hand into her own, and soon they were both asleep.
Sometime during the night Sabrina woke up. She looked at the clock on the nightstand and saw it was almost three in the morning. She was thirsty, so she padded down the hallway to the bathroom. She flipped on the light and poured some water into a glass. After drinking it she turned to go back to bed-then she spotted the marionette Pinocchio had made of herself sitting in the middle of the hallway. She nearly screamed, but quickly figured that Puck was pulling another prank. Only he would dig through the trash to have some fun at her expense.
"That's hilarious, Puck," she called. "I thought the war was over." She scooped the marionette off the floor and stuffed it into the bathroom trash can. Then she went back to bed.
She hadn't been under the covers longer than ten minutes when she heard someone shuffling across her bedroom floor. She sat up and flipped on the light. There, on her dressing room table, was the marionette.
"Aargh!" she cried, which woke Daphne.
"What's with the light?" Daphne grumbled.
"Puck's having a little fun at three o'clock in the morning," she said. "C'mon."
Sabrina snatched the puppet and walked down the hall with her sister behind her. Together, they pounded on Puck's door until he answered. He wore a pair of footie pajamas with happy cowboys on them. He looked half-asleep and annoyed. "Whatever you're selling I'm not interested."
"What's the big idea?" Daphne said.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Puck said.
Sabrina shook the marionette at Puck. "You keep trying to spook me with this. It's very immature."
"Why would I play with a bunch of girly puppets? Boys don't play with dolls."
"Don't you sleep with a stuffed unicorn?" Daphne said.
Puck stuck his tongue out and slammed the door in her face.
"Stop goofing off, freak boy," Sabrina shouted.
Puck's bedroom door opened again. "You can send your apology to me in writing." Then he slammed the door in their faces once more.
Sabrina tossed the puppet into the hall trash, and together she and Daphne headed back to their room. They complained about having to live with the king of stupid pranks for a while and then drifted off to sleep.
It didn't last. Sabrina wasn't sure what time it was when Daphne shook her awake, but it was still dark outside. She could hear crickets chirping outside her window. The little girl had her hand clamped over Sabrina's mouth and her finger over her own mouth, signaling to Sabrina that they had to be quiet. Then she pointed at the dresser across the room.
Sabrina turned and nearly screamed. The marionette was back, along with the others Pinocchio had made, but they weren't sitting on the dressing table. They were walking around the room under their own power. A few of them had opened the dresser drawers and were rooting through the girls' still-packed suitcases. Another searched in their closet, and others scurried around under their bed.
"Did you know they could do that?" Daphne mouthed the words.
Sabrina shook her head.
"What are they looking for?"
Sabrina shrugged. She turned back and saw her own marionette rummaging through the desk. "I found them," it squeaked, holding up Sabrina's enormous set of keys. The weight of the ring made the creature fall backward onto the floor, but it quickly righted itself.
"Let's go. The boss is waiting," the Granny Relda marionette commanded, and all the others followed her out into the hallway.
"What are they doing?" Daphne whispered.
"I don't know, but I think we better find out," Sabrina said, pulling her sister out of bed. Together they crept into the hallway just in time to watch the marionettes unlock the room that held the magic mirror and hurry inside.
Just then, the bathroom door opened and the girls saw their mother and father inside.
"Did you see that?" Veronica asked.
"You mean the walking, talking marionettes?" Sabrina asked.
"Yeah, we saw them," Daphne said.
"We'll get Mr. Canis and your grandmother," Henry said. "You wake up the fairy."
The girls pounded on Puck's door for what seemed like forever. Finally he opened the door. His stuffed unicorn was under his arm. "You two are really pushing your luck," Puck said. "What could be so important that you have to wake me up not once but twice?"
"The marionettes are alive and stealing the keys to the Hall of Wonders," Sabrina said.
"OK, that counts," he said, tossing his unicorn inside his room and pushing past them and into the spare room.
"We should wait for the others," Sabrina said.
"For a bunch of puppets?" Puck scoffed. "We can take care of this. C'mon!"
The spare room was empty, so Sabrina assumed the creatures had already stepped into the mirror's reflection. She led Puck and Daphne through the mirror. On the other side they found their marionettes as well as a hundred more-all the puppets Pinocchio had carved. The Granny Relda marionette was busy passing out keys from Sabrina's key ring to each of its cohorts.
"If we're quiet we can sneak up on them," Puck said, louder than he should have. His voice echoed off walls and bounced around like a ball. And then all of the marionettes turned their heads toward them. With their strings dangling behind them, they raced down the hallway, unlocking doors as they went.
"What is this all about?" Daphne asked her sister.
Sabrina didn't have a clue but she was feeling the first inkling of panic. Most of the doors near the portal were filled with useful weapons the family used frequently, but farther down, in the direction the marionettes were heading, there were terrible things-things that should not be freed.
"We have to stop this," Sabrina cried, but it was too late. Just as she said the words a door opened and out stomped a huge blue ox. It was as big as a Winnebago and had horns on either side of its head. It stomped its front leg angrily and lowered its head toward the girls.
"It's Paul Bunyan's ox," Sabrina said. She had read the plaque for its room many times and then looked up the story. She'd seen Paul Bunyan. He was huge, and Babe was even bigger.
"That's the coolest thing I've ever seen," Puck said.
"How cool is it going to be when it kills us?" Sabrina said.
"Considerably less cool," Puck replied. The three children turned to run. They heard a bellow and felt the floor beneath them roll and rock. Babe the Blue Ox was about to stomp them to death. They ran back through the portal and leaped to one side as the creature crashed into the real world. The mirror seemed to increase in size to allow the monstrous animal through. Unfortunately, Granny's house didn't have the same magical ability and the animal caused an incredible amount of damage. It knocked through the wall that looked out on the lawn and ripped off part of the roof with one of its huge horns. The confined space seemed to make it panic and it whipped its huge head around, causing even more destruction. When it stomped its feet the floor beneath it collapsed. The ox fell with it into the living room. The children stood on a thin ledge of what had once been the bedroom floor, looking down into the gaping pit. Sabrina saw her family standing by the front door, looking up at them.
"It appears we have a problem, Relda," Mr. Canis said.
"Open the front door," Granny said, and the old man did as he was told. The front door morphed like the mirror to allow the ox though and it stomped out onto the front lawn. Unfortunately, that was not the end of the chaos. A giant three-headed dog tumbled out of the mirror and immediately fell through the hole in the floor.
Puck flew over to where Sabrina was standing. "There's something you don't see every day."
The dog was followed by a wave of bizarre beasties, monsters, and nefarious-looking people. Snakes with heads on both ends of their bodies slithered out and into the hole. People that looked like zombies, vampires, and werewolves from horror movies did the same. There was a seven-foot albino man with stringy muscles and pink eyes. There were pirates, wizards, witches, and unearthly creatures that looked like they were from other planets. They came in wave after wave after wave as if being pushed forward by an even bigger crowd behind them. Creatures made from ice and fire, a man surrounded by his own tornado, and a headless knight sitting atop a black horse. All the children could do was watch the macabre parade as it went by. Each creature fell into the pit then stumbled outside to freedom.
When the last of the creatures had come through and a few peaceful seconds had passed, the children carefully edged toward the magic mirror.
"Kids, just stay where you are," Henry said. "I'll get a ladder and help you down."
"We have to check on Mirror," Daphne said.
"It's not safe," Veronica said.
"He's our friend, Mom," Sabrina said. "He's part of our family. We'll be careful."
The children headed into the reflection. Once inside the Hall of Wonders, Sabrina realized that every door was flung open wide. The marionettes were nowhere to be seen and neither was Mirror.
"Mirror!" Sabrina shouted, but the little man did not respond.
"We can't go room to room looking for him. It would take forever," Daphne said.
"If he's alive he's probably at the other end of the hall. The trolley isn't here," Sabrina said.
Puck's wings expanded and flapped briskly. He grabbed the girls by the back of their pajamas and hoisted them into the air. Then he flew down the hallway so fast the open doors along the way slammed shut. In no time at all he came to rest outside the closed door to the Room of Reflections.
Sabrina pushed the heavy door open and looked inside, but he wasn't there. The room was empty except for the mirrors hanging on the wall.
"Maybe one of the monsters ate him," Daphne whimpered.
"That would be awesome," Puck said.
Sabrina flashed him an angry look.
"Awesome in a terrible, heartbreakingly tragic kind of way," Puck continued.
In a panic, Sabrina spun back around, determined to search every room until they found their friend. As she dashed out of the Room of Reflections she heard something clicking. It sounded like an army of little wooden feet. She stopped in her tracks.
"Do you hear that?" she asked the others.
Both Puck and Daphne nodded.
She turned back toward the Room of Reflections, trying to follow the sound. It was clearly coming from inside the room, which was empty except for the mirrors.
"Where is that coming from?" Daphne said, looking about.
Puck walked around the circular room, listening closely at each mirror. "It's not coming from these."
Sabrina agreed. "It seems to be coming from the door." She studied the open door closely, then wondered if something might be behind it. She pulled it shut, closing them into the room, and that's when she saw it. A passageway!
"What's this?" Daphne asked.
Sabrina shrugged and stepped through the secret door. There she saw Pinocchio, surrounded by his evil marionettes, standing in front of a wall that contained thousands of shards of broken mirrors. They looked like tiny holes in space. None of them had a reflection, but rather, they acted like windows into places all over town and beyond. A quick glance showed her Nottingham's office, Mayor Heart's bedroom, Jack the Giant Killer's empty apartment, even the Wizard of Oz's workroom at Macy's in Manhattan. Sabrina recalled seeing huge full-length mirrors in each of those rooms, and it was clear that this room allowed a person to peer into them. There were faces in some of the broken pieces-the Frog Prince, the Beast, Mayor Heart, and Nottingham himself. They were all waiting, as if expecting some important instructions.
"Have the doors been opened in the Grimm home, Master?" Mayor Heart said from one of the shards.
"You're the Master?" Daphne shouted. Pinocchio turned and Daphne kicked him in the shin. The little boy howled and fell over. His marionettes leaped to his defense, jumping on Daphne's back and punching her. It took all of Sabrina and Puck's effort to free her from the tiny villains.
"You sick, twisted monster," Sabrina seethed at Pinocchio. "Do you know the nightmare you have inflicted on my family? You're a horrible, evil worm."
"I'm not the Master!" Pinocchio shouted.
"Why should we believe you?" Puck said.
"Because I am the Master," a voice said behind them. Sabrina spun around. Mirror was standing in the corner holding a little boy in his arms. A horrible mixture of terror, betrayal, shock, and disgust filled Sabrina's head, sending a wave of mixed signals to every part of her body. One moment she wanted to run-to put as much distance between her and Mirror as possible. The next moment she wanted to snatch him by the collar and shake him in anger until he explained himself.
"No," Daphne whispered.
"You? You're the Master? You're the leader of the Scarlet Hand?" Sabrina said.
Mirror nodded his head slightly. "Yes."
"But you-" Daphne said, trembling.
"But I was your friend? Is that what you were going to say?"
"Yes! I trusted you. We all trusted you!" Sabrina cried.
"Then I'm afraid you've made a terrible mistake," Mirror said.
Sabrina ran at Mirror, but a bolt of lightning stopped her in her tracks. She had witnessed Mirror's magic before, but never had it been intentionally directed at her. She studied the boy in Mirror's hands. He was small, maybe a year and a half old, wearing footie pajamas. He had curly red hair the color of Granny Relda's. He had Sabrina's father's face and her mother's beautiful eyes. "That's my brother. You took him," Sabrina said.
Mirror nodded. "It was unavoidable. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to get my day started. Pinocchio, I believe I have a wish to fulfill."
"Thank you, Master," the boy said, bowing respectfully.
Mirror scooped the baby boy out of the crib again and turned to the children. "I'll be needing your help."
Sabrina shook her head but another blast of lightning told her Mirror wasn't asking-it was an order.
Mirror walked them down the hall until they reached an oak door Sabrina knew at once. It was the room that she had seen with Pinocchio a few days before-the room that had no name and no keyhole.
"One of you has to unlock this door," Mirror said.
"Uh, I don't have a key for this room, and there's no keyhole anyway," Sabrina said.
"You don't need either. You are the key," Mirror said.
"I think Charming is right about you," Daphne said. "You are defective."
"When your family acquired me, this room was created to house your most important possession. Even before there were locks on the doors, there was concern that access to this room could fall into the wrong hands. Thus, this room was given a special lock-one that can only be opened by a Grimm," Mirror explained.
"We won't open it," Sabrina said.
Mirror roughly snatched Sabrina's hand and forced it onto the stone in the center of the door. Her hand fit perfectly into the carved relief and a warm sensation came over her. She heard a chime and then watched the stone sink into the door, triggering a series of internal locks and tumblers, as well as bursts of steam that hissed out of the cracks around the door. The door swung open. Mirror's eyes welled with happy tears and he barged inside, pulling the children behind him. Unlike the other rooms that had wild, fantastical items or impossible creatures inside, this room was completely empty except for a thin wooden stand. On it sat an old book.
Mirror set the baby on the floor and rushed to the stand. He caressed the book's cover lovingly. "The Book of Everafter. After eons of wishing and praying, the power is finally mine."
"Are we supposed to be worried about an old book?" Puck asked.
"You ignorant little rodent! This isn't just an old book. This is the Book of Everafter."
"Sorry, I haven't read it. I'm waiting for the movie," Puck said.
Mirror scowled. "The Book of Everafter is a collection of every fairy tale, folk story, and tall tale ever told. Inside this book are the complete works of the Brothers Grimm, Andersen, Baum, Lang, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Perrault, and a thousand others you've never heard of. Every version of the stories of Snow White, Red Riding Hood, Prince Charming, Dorothy, Alice, Puss in Boots, and every other tale can be found in this book. No one knows where it came from or who wrote all these stories down, but there was magic in his pen. This book is the source of our immortality, our magic weapons, everything-this is what gives us our power. It also allows an Everafter a second chance at a happy ending." He turned to Pinocchio. "Boy, this book will give you the opportunity to right the wrong the Blue Fairy cursed you with so long ago."
"What do I need to do, Master?" the boy asked.
"Open the book and find the story written about you. Find the moment in the story that you would like to change and place your hand on that page. You will be drawn into the story, allowing you to relive it and, if the legend is true, revise it."
"You're saying he can go in and change his own story?" Sabrina said. "That's impossible."
Mirror shook his head in disappointment. "With everything you've seen in this town, I would have thought you would have more of an open mind about the impossible. What this book does, in essence, is turn you into a fictional character that you can then revise. Once you have made your changes you can leave the book and return to the real world. In Pinocchio's case he can step in as a boy and step out a full-grown man if he can manage to change his story to his liking."
Pinocchio rubbed his hands together eagerly. "Let's get started."
The odd little boy opened the book, but instead of opening to a certain page, the book flipped through every page, back and forth, as if it were trapped in a relentless wind. He tried to stop the furious pages but failed.
"I will never be able to find my story if it keeps acting like this," Pinocchio whined.
"An unforeseen wrinkle," Mirror said. "Unfortunately, you're going to have to do it the hard way. Put your hand on a page and it will pull you in. Once there you'll have to move from story to story until you find your own. I've heard there are doors if you can find them."
Pinocchio looked uncertain.
"What if I can't find the door?"
Mirror shrugged. "Perhaps you feel you'd have better luck on your own?"
Pinocchio frowned and turned back to the book. He slipped his hand into the whirling pages, and in a flash he was gone. His marionettes chased after him, plunging into the pages of the book and vanishing.
"What does this have to do with our baby brother?" Sabrina asked.
"He's going to provide me with my happy ending, Starfish."
"Don't call me that," Sabrina yelled.
Mirror frowned and looked genuinely hurt. "Very well, Sabrina. I know you're angry, but I hope you won't judge me too harshly. I'm only after what everyone on this planet wants-happiness. I'm not expecting you to understand but try to imagine what my life must be like. I was put into this world-born, you might say-by a cold, uncaring woman who treated me like property.
"For generations I have waited hand and foot on others. I can't say that your current family is not kind, Sabrina, but my owners have not always been so sweet. I have been in the company of mad men, lunatics, or people who simply ignored me. As good as you have been to me, you are only a temporary creature on this planet. You will die someday, and who will own me then? A tyrant? A monster? Who knows? Well, I won't do it any longer. I'm going to have my freedom. I'm going to walk out of this dreaded mirror. I'm going to get my happy ending and your brother is the key. He will lend me his body. I will become a human boy and grow into a human man."
"Why?" Sabrina asked. "You have plenty of followers in your Scarlet Hand. Why not take one of them?"
"Because they're Everafters," Mirror said. "If I took one of their bodies I'd still be a prisoner in Ferryport Landing. Why would I trade one prison for another? If I take the body of a human I can walk out of this town with the magical weapons stored inside this hall. It will be easy work for me to conquer this world. It will be very nice to have others serving me."
"But you don't have to do this. You just said that this book would let you change your story," Daphne said. "Why not go in and make sure you have freedom? Why steal our brother's life?"
"Sadly, in all the stories collected in this book, the story of my glorious birth has never been documented. There is no story for me to step into and alter. Thus, I have had to come up with another solution. I believe there is someone who can help me in these pages."
Mirror scooped up the baby boy from the floor and then stepped toward the book.
"You can't go in there," Sabrina said. "You can't leave the Hall of Wonders."
"I'm not leaving the Hall of Wonders," Mirror said with a sly grin. "The book will be here the whole time."
Mirror placed his hand on one of the pages and he and the child vanished.
"We have to go after them," Sabrina said.
"We're not going in there," Puck said.
"Yeah, I think this is one of those times we should wait for an adult's help," Daphne said.
"We can't wait," Sabrina said, stepping up to the book. "They're at the other end of the hall without a trolley. What if Mirror gets lucky and lands in the story he wants? He could be stealing our baby brother's body as we speak. We've got to stop him now."
Daphne reached out a hand and Sabrina took it. They both turned to Puck.
"Are you coming?" Daphne asked.
Puck scowled and took the little girl's hand. "Every time I try to get out of the hero business you two pull me back in!"
Sabrina put her hand on one of the book's pages. There was an odd sensation, like being flushed down a toilet, and then everything went black.
···
When the lights came on, Sabrina looked around. She was lying on the floor of a wooden farmhouse. Her sister was sitting on a bed, wearing a little yellow dress, and Puck was nowhere to be found.
"Where are we?" Daphne said, helping her sister to her feet.
"Inside the book, I guess," Sabrina replied. "Where's Puck?"
Daphne shrugged. "Maybe he didn't make it. Maybe he's back in the Hall of Wonders."
Outside they could hear a commotion, including a lot of singing. Sabrina went to the door and swung it open. There was a sea of little people dressed entirely in green on the lawn. Sabrina recognized them as Munchkins, but that wasn't what shocked her. Right outside the door was a road made entirely of yellow bricks. She and Daphne stepped outside and were greeted like heroes. The Munchkins lifted them onto their tiny shoulders and cheered.
"What do they think we did?" Daphne said.
"You killed the Wicked Witch of the East," one of the Munchkins cried. "You saved us all."
Sabrina turned back to the house and saw the horrible truth-a pair of legs was sticking out from beneath it and they were wearing a pair of shiny silver shoes with a remarkable red tint to them. She suddenly realized they hadn't just entered a story. They had entered one of the most famous stories ever told.
"Daphne, I don't think we're in Ferryport Landing anymore."
To be continued in THE SISTERS GRIMM BOOK EIGHT THE INSIDE STORY
聚合中文网 阅读好时光 www.juhezwn.com
小提示:漏章、缺章、错字过多试试导航栏右上角的源