The Sisters Grimm: The Problem Child

The Sisters Grimm: The Problem Child — page 1 — 1 Five Days Earlier Sabrina opened her eyes and saw a monster hunched over her It was nearly fifteen feet tall with scaly skin two black leathery wings and a massive serpentine tail that lashed back and forth Its feet and hands were enormous nearly as big as its body and its head at the end of a long snakelike neck was nothing but teeth thousands of jagged fangs gnashing in her face A drop of saliva dripped from the creature’s mouth and landed on her forehead It was as hot as molten lava JABBERWOCKY the monster roared Too afraid to move Sabrina closed her eyes and did the only thing she could She prayed Please Please Please Let this be a bad dream After a few moments she slowly lifted one eyelid Unfortunately the monster was still there Fudge Sabrina whispered Well good morning a boy’s voice called from somewhere in the room Sabrina knew its owner Puck Did we wake you So sorry Could you get this thing off of me asked Sabrina It’s gonna cost you What I figure if I’m going to have to save your butt every time you get into trouble I might as well be paid for it The going rate for this kind of job is seven million dollars Puck said Where am I going to get seven million dollars I’m eleven years old And I want all your desserts for the next six months Puck added The monster roared in Sabrina’s face A long purple tongue darted out of the beast’s mouth and roughly licked her face Fine Sabrina cried

The Sisters Grimm: The Problem Child — page 2 — Puck leaped into the air flipping like an Olympic gymnast and clung to a dusty light fixture hanging from the ceiling above Gathering momentum he swung down feet-first into the monster’s horrible face The creature stumbled back and roared Using its face as a springboard the nimble boy flipped again and landed on his feet with his hands on his hips He turned to Sabrina and winked then pulled her to her feet Did you see that landing Grimm I want to make sure you get your money’s worth Sabrina scowled How long was I unconscious she asked Her head was still pounding from the smack the beast had given her when she stepped through the portal Long enough for me to get old big-and-ugly here pretty angry Puck said as the brute recovered and charged at the children at an impossible speed Two enormous wings popped out of Puck’s back and flapped wildly Before Sabrina knew it he had snatched the back of her coat and was pulling her into the air narrowly avoiding the beast’s attack The Jabberwocky crashed through the wall behind them I’ve got the big one Puck said as he set Sabrina back down on the floor You take the little one Sabrina followed his gaze In the far corner of the room was a small child wearing a long red cloak that hung to her ankles She sat on a dirty hospital cot next to the unconscious bodies of two adults Henry and Veronica Grimm Sabrina’s parents How Sabrina had gotten into this particular situation was a long and almost unbelievable story It had started a year and a half ago when her mother and father mysteriously disappeared The only clue the police found was a bloodred handprint pressed onto the dashboard of their abandoned car With nothing else to go on and no next-of-kin to step in as guardians Sabrina and her little sister Daphne were forced into foster care where things went from bad to worse The girls were bounced from one foster home to the next each filled with certifiable lunatics who used the girls as maids gardeners and once a couple of amateur roofers By the time their long-lost grandmother finally tracked them down Sabrina didn’t think she could ever trust anyone again Granny Relda didn’t make it easy either They hadn’t been in the old woman’s house ten minutes before she started telling incredible stories about the girls being the last living descendants of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm also known as the Brothers Grimm Jacob and Wilhelm’s book of fairy tales she claimed wasn’t a collection of bedtime stories but the case files of their detective work investigating unusual crimes Granny Relda claimed that their new hometown Ferryport Landing was filled to the brim with characters straight from fairy tales who now called themselves Everafters and lived side by side with the normal inhabitants of the town albeit in magical disguises to hide their true identities To Sabrina Granny’s stories sounded like the silly ravings of a woman who might have forgotten to get her prescriptions filled but there was a dark side to her story as well These Everafters didn’t just live in the town they were trapped there Jacob and Wilhelm had put a spell on the town to prevent the Everafters from leaving and waging

The Sisters Grimm: The Problem Child — page 3 — war on humans The spell could be broken only when the last member of the Grimm family died or abandoned the town Sabrina warned her sister that the old woman’s stories were nonsense but when Relda was kidnapped by a two-hundred-foot-tall giant Sabrina could no longer deny the truth Luckily the girls found a way to rescue their grandmother and ever since they had found themselves knee-deep in the family responsibility of being fairy-tale detectives solving the town’s weirdest crimes and going head-to-head with some of its most dangerous residents As they solved one mystery after another the girls started to uncover a disturbing pattern Every bad guy they faced was a member of a shadowy group known as the Scarlet Hand whose mark was a bloodred handprint just like the one the police had found in Sabrina and Daphne’s parents car Sabrina knew one day she would come face-to-face with the group’s leader and her parents kidnapper and now as she stared at the strange little girl in the red cloak she was shocked She’d never thought the person behind all her misery would be a child Sabrina clenched her fists ready to fight her parents captor only to have a pain shoot through her left arm that nearly knocked her to the floor It was broken She shook off the agony and fixed her eyes once more on the child The little girl was no older than Daphne but her face was that of a twisted rage-filled adult barely containing the insanity behind her eyes Sabrina had seen a man with that expression on the news once The police had arrested him for strangling five people Get away from my parents Sabrina demanded as she grabbed the little girl’s cloak in her good hand This is my mommy and daddy the little girl shrieked as she jerked away I have a baby brother and a kitty too When I get my grandma and my puppy then we can all be a family and play house The girl raised her hand It was covered in what Sabrina hoped was red paint She turned and pressed it against the wall leaving an all-too-familiar scarlet print There were more just like it on the walls floors ceilings and windows I don’t need a sister the girl continued But you can stay and play with my kitty She pointed at the monster which was swatting at Puck with its enormous clawed hands The fairy boy leaped out of the way barely dodging the kitty’s lightning-fast strikes It whipped its tail at Puck missed then sent a filing cabinet careening across the room The drawers swung open and hundreds of yellowing documents spilled out C’mon ugly you can do better than that Puck crowed just before the Jabberwocky caught him with its long tail and sent him flailing across the room He crashed against a wall and tumbled to the floor but quickly sprang to his feet and snatched up the little wooden sword he kept in his belt With a thrust he bonked the beast on the snout Sabrina turned back to the little girl Who are you she asked

The Sisters Grimm: The Problem Child — page 4 — You don’t want to play do you the girl said as a frown cracked her face She reached into her pocket and removed a small silver ring slipped it onto her finger and held out her hand A crimson light engulfed her and Sabrina’s sleeping parents Kitty we need to find a new playhouse Burn this one down The monster opened its enormous mouth and a burst of flame shot out The folding blinds on the dingy windows ignited and flames crept up the walls turning the weathered wallpaper to ash The beast blasted another wall and then another sending sparks and cinders in all directions Within seconds the entire room was on fire Who are you Sabrina screamed Tell my grandma and my puppy that I’ll see them soon Then we can play the demented child said in a singsong voice The world seemed to stretch as if someone were pulling on the corners of Sabrina’s vision and in a blink the strange child vanished into thin air taking Sabrina’s parents with her No Sabrina cried rushing to the empty bed as flames ate at the walls around her It wasn’t long before everything was devoured by fire and smoke A terrible groan came from above and a huge section of the ceiling collapsed right on top of the beast The two children staggered back from the pile of smoldering debris Puck grabbed Sabrina and dragged her toward an exit as parts of the ceiling rained down around them I think this party is over he said Wait Sabrina shouted There could be a clue here to where she took my parents Any clue is kindling now Puck replied pulling her down a hallway We can’t go If you get killed the old lady will never let me hear the end of it They passed by open rooms with doors torn off their hinges Each was full of hospital beds rusty metal carts and more sheets of yellowing paper scattered on the floor In every room she saw more of the horrible red handprints What is this place Sabrina wondered The children rushed on through the choking black smoke until they found a door that led outside Puck forced it open and a blast of icy wind nearly knocked them down Snow blew into their faces temporarily blinding them We’re in the mountains I think he shouted Can you fly us out of here Sabrina asked The wind is too strong Puck said wrapping his arm around her and guiding her through the snowdrifts They’d barely taken a dozen steps when the wall surrounding the building exploded behind them sending brick and mortar flying in every direction Through the gaping hole stepped the massive scaly foot of the Jabberwocky Its head followed whipping around on its long neck as its fiery eyes searched for the children When it spotted them it let out a roar that sent snow tumbling from nearby trees

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