The Everafter War (27 page)

“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.