When Sabrina woke, she was in a hospital room with a clunky plaster cast on her broken arm. Her little sister, Daphne, sat on the edge of her bed, busily scribbling GET WELL SOON! on the cast with a black marker.
Daphne had been through a lot in the last year and a half-both of them had. The orphanage, the insane foster families, their nasty caseworker, giants, monsters, and mayhem. Through it all, Sabrina had protected her sister the best she could, growing up fast so that Daphne wouldn't have to. It was worth it to keep the ever-present smile on her little sister's face.
"Hey, monkey," Sabrina said.
Daphne screamed with joy and hugged her sister tightly.
"Are you OK?" Sabrina asked.
"I'm fine," Daphne said, kissing her sister on each cheek.
"And Granny Relda?"
"She's good. She went to get a cup of coffee. She'll be right back."
Daphne took a step back, crossed her arms, and forced a disapproving scowl onto her face.
"You're grounded!" she said.
"What?" Despite her tears, Sabrina had to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing.
"You heard me. You're grounded."
"What for?"
"For being a jerk," Daphne said. "Mayor Charming gave us the Little Match Girl's matches. We were supposed to make a wish and step through the portal to save Mom and Dad together. But you ran off all willy-nilly by yourself without even knowing what you were getting into. You're lucky you weren't killed."
It was obvious that Daphne had rehearsed her lecture many times, but the little girl's sweet face and goofy overalls made it hard to take her seriously.
"This is super-serious stuff," Daphne said, noticing the grin on Sabrina's face. "This isn't funny. I'm really mad. Every time something important is happening, you run off on your own and leave me behind. I'm part of this family, too, you know."
"Daphne, I was worried you'd get hurt. You're only seven years old."
"I'm tough," she said, stomping her foot.
"Mr. Canis?" Sabrina asked, dreading the answer.
Daphne's eyes welled with tears, and Sabrina knew the old man was dead. She hugged her sister tightly, both to comfort her and to prevent the little girl from seeing her own tears. Mr. Canis was her grandmother's best friend, despite the fact that he was also the Big Bad Wolf. When Rumpelstiltskin had tried to blow a hole in the magical barrier enclosing the town, her family stopped him. Canis was caught in an explosion that destroyed her elementary school, but Sabrina had hoped he had somehow survived.
"It's going to be OK," she said.
Daphne wiped her face, then grimaced. "There's something else I need to tell you."
Sabrina's heart sank into her belly. Was someone else hurt? Had someone else died trying to save the town?
"I sort of accidentally left my marker lying around when I went to the bathroom, and Puck came in, and-"
"What did Puck do?"
Daphne closed her eyes and bit her lip. "I just want you to know it wasn't my fault," the little girl continued. "When Granny told him there was no way in the world you could pay him seven million dollars for saving your life…well, he got real angry. Did you really agree to that?"
"What did he do?"
"Don't panic, OK? Granny says it will come off eventually," Daphne whispered.
Sabrina eyed the black marker in Daphne's hand, and a bubble of fear rose in her throat. She stumbled out of bed and rushed to the bathroom in the far corner of the room. Once inside, she flicked on the light, looked into the mirror, and screamed. A thick mustache ending in fancy curlicues was drawn above her lips. On her chin was a devilish goatee, and on her forehead were the words CAPTAIN DOODIEFACE. She looked like a deranged eleven-year-old pirate. Sabrina turned on the faucet and snatched a washcloth off the rack. Once it was good and lathered with soap, she scrubbed her face until her skin was red and raw. She rinsed the suds off to see her progress and screamed again. Puck's graffiti was still there.
"He is so dead!" she shrieked.
"You're panicking. Don't panic," said Daphne as she stepped sheepishly into the bathroom.
"Where is that little troll?" Sabrina cried as she stomped back into the room. Puck had pulled some pretty terrible pranks in the past-tarantulas in her bed, a boa constrictor in the shower, and even Krazy Glue on her toothbrush-but this was the worst.
"If he's smart, he's hiding from the terrible wrath of Sabrina Grimm," an elderly voice said from across the room. The girls turned and found Granny Relda standing in the doorway. She was an old woman in a sky-blue dress and a matching hat with a sunflower appliqué on it. She rushed to Sabrina and wrapped her up in her arms, and Sabrina's anger dissolved. She was so happy to see the old woman that everything else lost its importance, even Puck's face graffiti.
"I saw Mom and Dad," Sabrina said. "They were in some kind of building on top of Mount Taurus. It looked kind of like a hospital. There was a little girl in a red cloak and a monster as big as a truck. Puck says it's called a Jabberwocky."
"Creepy!" Daphne cried.
"They looked fine, Granny. They were sleeping. We tried to rescue them, but the Jabberwocky set the place on fire, and then the little girl used some kind of magic ring and vanished. The place looked abandoned, but there were red handprints all over the walls. Granny, I think she's the leader of the Scarlet Hand. We should go up there right away. We might find some clues!"
"Sabrina, you've been in the hospital for two days," Granny Relda said in her light German accent.
Two days! Sabrina felt a sob rising in her throat.
"You were exhausted from the fight with Rumpelstiltskin and the broken arm," Granny said. "Your body needed a rest."
"Then we have to go up there now," Sabrina cried.
"I doubt there is anything left of the asylum," the old woman said.
"What's an asylum?" Daphne asked.
"It's a prison for crazy people," Sabrina said.
"No, it's a hospital for people struggling with mental illnesses," Granny said. "We can talk about all this later. Right now, it's time to take you home."
"But-"
Just then a nurse entered the room carrying a bouquet of exotic flowers. "Oh, look, our patient is awake," she said, "in time to receive some flowers. These just arrived."
She set the flowers on the table, and Sabrina pulled a little card off the side of the pot and read the inscription. GET WELL SOON. LOVE, JAKE.
Granny's face tightened for a moment, but then she smiled. "Must have been sent to the wrong room. Let's go, girls. We have a ride waiting for us downstairs."
Snow White was beautiful, charming, sweet, funny, and intelligent. The only thing she wasn't was subtle. She couldn't stop staring at Sabrina's mustache and goatee in the rearview mirror. After catching the woman's gaze for the hundredth time, Sabrina finally blurted out that she was the victim of another one of Puck's pranks.
Ms. White laughed so hard she snorted. "Boys will be boys," she said as she steered her car down the old country roads of Ferry-port Landing. "They can be pretty immature when they're young, but they get a little better as they get older."
"Puck is over four thousand years old, Ms. White," Sabrina grumbled. "I think the odds of him getting more mature are pretty slim."
"You're probably right." The woman sighed, sharing a knowing smile with Granny Relda. "Billy is nearly five hundred, and most of the time he doesn't act a day over seven."
"So, are you two a couple now?" Daphne cooed. She hung on the back of the front seat to hear all the gossip.
Ms. White's cheeks flushed bright red. "We're just talking."
Granny Relda smiled. "I've heard the mayor has sent you flowers every day."
"Relda, you gossip! Who told you that?" Snow White demanded.
"Oh, a little bird," Granny replied.
Sabrina rolled her eyes. In a town like Ferryport Landing, filled with magical creatures, there was a good chance that an actual little bird had told her.
"When you two get married, can I be your flower girl?" Daphne begged.
Now Ms. White rolled her eyes. "I'll make you a deal, Daphne. If the mayor and I ever get married, you can be the flower girl. But you might be a very old woman. We're taking things very slowly-and besides, Billy is very busy with the election."
"Election?" Sabrina asked.
"The mayoral election," Ms. White explained. "We have one every four years-though it seems like a bit of a waste of money these days. No one ever runs against Billy."
Soon, the teacher steered her car into the Grimm family's driveway and parked. Everyone got out and said their good-byes.
"Snow, thank you so much for the ride," Granny Relda said.
"My pleasure, Relda. If you need anything, just give me a ring. Until the school is rebuilt, all I've got to keep me busy is the self-defense class. Which reminds me," she said, turning to Daphne, "will I be seeing my star pupil again this Friday?"
The little girl bowed to her, the way people do in martial arts films.
"Yes, sensei," she said.
"Have you been practicing your warrior face?"
The little girl clenched her hands into claws, squinted her eyes, and contorted her mouth so that she looked like she was very angry, though her overalls with a kitten sewn on the front made it all a little comical.
"Very intimidating," Snow White said. She wished Sabrina a speedy recovery before getting back in her car and driving away.
"What was all that sensei stuff?" Sabrina asked her little sister.
"Granny thought it was a good idea to keep me busy while you were in the hospital. She signed me up for Ms. White's Bad Apples self-defense class at the community center. I've only gone once, but she says I'm fierce. She's been teaching me how to do a warrior face. It lets an attacker know that you mean business," Daphne explained.
"It looked like you wanted to let the attacker know you're constipated," Sabrina said.
"What does constipated mean?" Daphne asked.
Sabrina leaned over, cupped her hand around her sister's ear, and whispered the definition to her.
The little girl stepped back and crinkled up her nose. "You're gross."
Granny dug in her handbag for her key ring. It had hundreds of keys on it, which she quickly sorted through to find the ones that fit the dozen locks on the front door. When she was finished with the keys, she knocked three times on the door and said, "We're home." The last magical lock slid open, and the family hurried inside the house and out of the cold.
Daphne helped Sabrina out of her coat and boots. With her broken arm in its clunky cast, she realized there were a few things she wouldn't be able to do on her own. She didn't like being dependent. Having Daphne take care of her made her feel like a baby. Still, there was something she could do to help everyone, and she couldn't wait to get started. She made a beeline for the enormous bookshelves in the living room. They housed the family's collection of journals-clothbound records of everything every Grimm had experienced since Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm had arrived in the town more than two hundred years earlier. Sabrina was sure there would be something in them about a little girl in red and her pet monster. But before she could grab a single volume, her grandmother stepped in her way.
"Uh-uh. No detective work today. You're going straight to bed and getting some rest."
"Rest? I've been asleep for two days," Sabrina complained. "I can rest when Mom and Dad are safe at home."
The old woman shook her head. "Upstairs," she said.
Sabrina scowled and stomped up the steps to her room. Granny Relda and Daphne followed and helped her out of her clothes. The whole experience was humiliating. Sabrina couldn't even put on her own pajamas without help. Climbing into bed was equally difficult, and when her grandmother laid heavy quilts on her, she knew that getting out again was going to be a real challenge.
"Reading one of the journals might make me sleepy," Sabrina said as her grandmother added another blanket to the mountain of down quilts.
Granny ignored her. "Are you warm enough?"
"Yes! You could bake a turkey under here," the girl said, struggling to free herself.
Elvis peeked around the doorjamb.
"Elvis!" Sabrina called. "Come here, boy! Help me escape!"
The family's two-hundred-pound Great Dane let out a soft whine. Despite his imposing figure and a face that said "I can eat you in one bite," the dog had a sensitive, loving nature. He was incredibly playful and affectionate with the girls, and normally he would have leaped onto the bed and covered Sabrina in happy kisses. There was something wrong.
"What's with him?" Sabrina asked.
"He's pouting," Granny Relda said stiffly.
"Pouting? Why?"
"Young man, get in here and say hello," Granny insisted.
Elvis snorted and reluctantly stepped out from behind the door. He was wearing a green vest, white booties, a saggy red Santa hat with furry white trim, and a long white beard under his chin. When he was in full view, he dropped his head and whined.
"What did you do to him?" Sabrina asked.
"It's his holiday outfit," Daphne said.
Elvis whined.
"You poor pathetic boy," Sabrina said.
"I think he looks very handsome. He's my handsome little Christmas baby."
"He's one miserable baby," Sabrina said, laughing.
"I've been working on that costume for days!" Granny exclaimed. Elvis dropped his head and whined again.
"OK," Granny said, surrendering. "Take it off him."
Elvis ran around in circles, happily knocking Daphne to the floor as she tried to remove his vest and hat. He gave her a slobbery lick on the face when she succeeded in removing his white beard. She handed it to Sabrina. "You want this? It'll hide the goatee."
Sabrina frowned and shrank down so that the covers were just beneath her nose. "Puck is so dead."
"Your sister's bunking with me tonight, so you've got the room all to yourself," Granny said.
"What about Mom and Dad?"
"Your parents are fine. You said yourself that they looked as if they had been sleeping the whole time. For now, I don't believe confronting the girl and her Jabberwocky is wise."
Sabrina couldn't believe her ears. Granny Relda was turning down a mystery, and one that involved her own flesh and blood.
"You and your sister don't need to be snooping with that thing running around," Granny said, seemingly reading Sabrina's mind. "Promise me you will not go back, Sabrina."
"I don't understand why you won't even go up there," Sabrina said.
"Promise me," the old woman demanded.
"She promises," Daphne said. "We won't go up there."
Satisfied, Granny led Daphne and Elvis into the hallway. When she reached the doorway, she turned, flipped off the light, and stood in the darkness watching Sabrina.
"Mom and Dad need us," Sabrina said, feeling her anger rise in her throat.
"I can't lose you, liebling," the old woman said quietly before she closed the door. "I've already lost too many."
Sabrina lay in bed for hours brooding. Was her grandmother really going to ignore everything Sabrina had discovered? She'd seen her mother and father. She knew what their kidnapper looked like. She'd found the location of their kidnapper. Why wasn't Granny Relda jumping into action?
The answer, whatever it was, didn't matter. Henry and Veronica were with a lunatic and a monster. They needed to be rescued. Sabrina would have to do it on her own.
It felt like hours before Sabrina wiggled free of her blanket cocoon. The only upside of all the effort was that by the time she got downstairs she was confident everyone was asleep.
She tiptoed through the house, avoiding creaky floorboards and squeaky doors. Being in the foster care system had taught her how to sneak; she could creep past someone without them ever knowing. Once in the living room, she reached over and flipped on a table lamp. Elvis was lying on the couch, a place he knew very well he was not supposed to be. He cocked his head with a guilty look.
"If you don't say anything, I won't say anything," Sabrina whispered. The big dog seemed OK with the deal. He plopped his huge noggin back down on a cushion and promptly fell asleep.
The bookshelves held the family journals, but they were also the home of the largest collection of fairy-tale stories and studies Sabrina had ever seen. It included such volumes as The Seven People You Meet in Oz, Cheap Eats in Wonderland, and a heavy one called The Paul Bunyan Diet. Granny wasn't much of a housekeeper, so the library spilled onto the floors and into the other rooms. Some books held up wobbly tables; others had literally been swept under the rug. Sabrina had once found a book inside the toilet tank. She reached over and scooped up as many family journals as her good arm would hold, then crossed into the dining room and placed them on the table. She eased into a chair and sat down to read. Someone in this family has to know something about the girl in the red cloak and her Jabberwocky.
She found her first reference to the monster in her great-great-great-great-grandfather Wilhelm's logs during his crossing of the Atlantic. He and his brother had brought the Everafters to America to help them escape persecution, and from his entries, Sabrina could see it hadn't been an easy voyage.
July 17th, 1805
I'm contemplating turning back. The voyage is already fraught with disaster. Crossing the Atlantic with a ship full of fairy-tale creatures is a difficult enough task, but things got out of hand today when the Jabberwockies got loose and ran amok. I curse myself for putting so much stock in the Queen of Hearts's demands. She insisted the beasts could be domesticated, but the woman is a fool. The trouble began only fifteen leagues out from shore. There were ten of the beasts, and together they killed a dozen human seamen before Lancelot and Robin Hood drove them into the hold of the ship. The Black Knight went down with the Vorpal blade and killed nine of them. We managed to get one back into its cage, but the damage is done. We tossed the dead things overboard. If the sharks can tolerate the meat, they're welcome to it.
"What's the Vorpal blade?" Sabrina whispered to herself, but there wasn't another mention of it in the logs. Sabrina searched the other journals but found nothing, except in two entries by her great-great-grandfather Spaulding Grimm.
March 9th, 1929
When the Lilliputians came to me with the news, I hoped it was just more of their usual mischief, but they were right-the Jabberwocky has escaped and is roaming the forest. The magic mirror has informed me that the beasts hibernate for great periods of time, and with winter coming we might be saved from too much carnage, but finding the creature will prove difficult. Like my grandfather, I have turned to the Black Knight. The man seems to lack fear. I gave him the Vorpal blade and my prayers.
March 11th, 1929
The Black Knight has betrayed me. Instead of hunting and killing the Jabberwocky, he used the Vorpal blade to cut a hole in the magical barrier that surrounds the town! I was a fool! I should have known the blade could cut through anything, but my desperate desire to find the monster blinded me to the consequences, and to his history of double dealings. The knight has escaped into the world of humans, but for some reason he left the sword behind. I found it lying nearby, thank heaven! It's the only thing that can kill a Jabberwocky, but it will do me little good. There is no one in this town brave enough to go after the monster, and no one I trust with the blade. I fear I will have to turn to Baba Yaga for assistance. Who knows what price she'll ask for, but it will have to be paid. The monster must be caged and the sword destroyed-the Blue Fairy will help, I'm sure. I can't let something this powerful exist.
Sabrina closed the journal and looked at the clock on the wall. After three hours of reading, sleep was creeping up on her. She wondered if closing her eyes for a moment or two might help. She rested her head on the dining room table, but a minute later someone said, "Time to wake up." Sabrina bolted upright in her chair and glanced around the dining room. Sitting at the opposite end of the table was the girl in the red cloak. The Jabberwocky was seated next to her, breathing so heavily that Sabrina could feel it from across the room. The two intruders hovered over a filthy tea set laid out on the table. The little girl poured a thick, stringy substance into two cups and set one in front of the monster. Its teeth gnashed, and a rope of drool fell out of its mouth.
"We're having a tea party," the little girl said to Sabrina. She poured a third cup and slid it across the table. Whatever was in it was bubbling and black.
"How did you get in here?" Sabrina choked out. Fear was crawling up her throat.
The little girl in red giggled. The sound echoed around the room.
Suddenly, Henry and Veronica materialized into empty seats. They looked terrified.
"Sabrina, you have to save us," her father said.
"You're our only hope," her mother cried.
"I'm trying," Sabrina said.
"They don't belong to you anymore," the girl in red said. "I found them. They're mine."
The Jabberwocky tossed the table aside, sending the tea set smashing to the floor. It leaped forward and wrapped its huge talons around Sabrina's neck.
And then Sabrina woke up. Her mom and dad, the Jabberwocky, and the girl in red were gone. She sat silently for a moment, struggling to catch her breath. She glanced down at the journals in front of her, noticing that her grandfather's journal was flipped open. There was something very small written at the bottom of one of the pages. She strained to read it.
Ferryport Landing Asylum Patient List-1955
The Mad Hatter-diagnosis: schizophrenia
Chicken Little-diagnosis: panic attacks
Hansel-diagnosis: severe eating disorder
The White Rabbit-diagnosis: obsessive-compulsive disorder
The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe-diagnosis: exhaustion
Ichabod Crane-diagnosis: night terrors
Little Red Riding Hood-diagnosis: psychosis with delusions and hallucinations, homicidal tendencies
Sabrina's heart rose up into her throat. The little girl in the red cloak was Little Red Riding Hood! Now that it was right in front of her, she felt stupid. How did I not figure that out? But how could she have? She'd read the story. Little Red Riding Hood was a sweet girl, a victim! She wasn't evil. Why would she kidnap Henry and Veronica Grimm? Why would she be involved with the Scarlet Hand?
Sabrina leaped from her chair and hurried through the house, back up the steps, and down the hall to Granny's room. She did her best to open the door without causing it to creak and found her sister sound asleep next to their grandmother. Sabrina rushed to her side and gently shook the little girl awake.
"What's wrong?" Daphne whispered as she rubbed the sleep from the corners of her eyes.
"You were mad at me for not including you, right?" Sabrina said.
Her little sister nodded.
"Then get up. We've got work to do."