The Problem Child (The Sisters Grimm, Book 3) (2 page)

Sabrina clenched her hands into 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 barely as old as Daphne, but her face was the twisted, rage-filled mask of an adult, barely holding back the insanity behind it. Sabrina had seen a man with that expression on the news once. The police had just arrested him for killing five people.

"Get away from my parents," Sabrina demanded as she approached the girl and grabbed her 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-cat, 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 the all-too-familiar scarlet print. The handprints were everywhere--on the walls, floors, ceilings, windows, even on Sabrina's parents' clothing.

"I don't need a sister," the girl continued. "But you can stay and play with my kitty-cat."

She pointed at the monster, which was batting at Puck with its enormous clawed hands. The fairy boy was leaping out of the way of the beast's every swipe. He couldn't keep it up for long. The little girl's "kitty" was lightning fast. It whipped its tail at Puck, barely missing him and sending a dusty filing cabinet careening across the room. The drawers belched open and hundreds of yellowing documents spilled out.

Sabrina turned back to the little girl.

"Who are you?" she asked, but the child only smiled and reached into her pocket. She removed a small silver ring and slipped it onto her finger. A crimson light engulfed the little girl and Sabrina's sleeping parents.

"Tell my grandma and my puppy that I'm coming and I'll see them soon. Then we can play," the demented child said in a sing-song voice. She raised her tiny hands and suddenly the monster stopped fighting. It turned to the girl and its ferocious face became calm.

"Kitty, we need to find a new playhouse. Burn this one down." The little girl giggled and then the world seemed to stretch, as if someone were pulling on the corner of Sabrina's vision, and, in a blink, the strange child vanished into thin air, taking Sabrina's parents with her.

"No!"

Sabrina cried and rushed to the empty bed.

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 into ash. The beast blasted another wall and then another, sending sparks and cinders in all directions. Within seconds the entire room was on fire.

"Sabrina, duck!" Puck shouted.

Sabrina did as she was told, just as the monster's molten spray shot out inches above her head. It roared in frustration and smacked Puck with its long tail, sending him flailing across the room where he crashed against a wall and tumbled to the floor. His shirt caught on fire and Sabrina rushed to him, patting out the flames before the boy was burned. Puck crawled to his feet once more and stepped between Sabrina and the monster, which stood over them, jaws dripping. The boy snatched up the little wooden sword he kept in his belt and bonked the beast on the snout. "C'mon, ugly. I'm just getting started."

But before Puck could take another swing at the hulking thing, a terrible groaning sound 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 that now stood where the creature had been. Puck grabbed Sabrina and dragged her to safety as what was left 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 said pulling her down a hallway. "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. Inside, Sabrina saw hospital beds, rusty metal carts, and more sheets of yellowing paper scattered on the floor. Everywhere was the horrible red handprint.

What is this place?

Sabrina wondered.

The children rushed on through the choking, black smoke until they found a door with the word

Exit over it. When Puck forced it open, a blast of icy wind nearly knocked them both down and blew snow in their faces, blinding them. Puck shielded his eyes with his hands and peered between his fingers.

"We're in the mountains, I think," he shouted

"Can you fly us out of here?" Sabrina said.

"The wind is too strong." Puck helped her out the door, wrapping his arm around her and guiding her through the snowdrifts.

They'd barely taken a dozen steps when the wall of the building exploded behind them, sending brick and mortar flying in every direction. Into the gaping hole stepped the massive, scaly foot of the creature. Its head followed, whipping around on the monster's long neck as its fiery eyes searched for the children. When it spotted them it let out a prehistoric roar that sent snow tumbling from nearby trees.

The children raced away, darting into the woods. The leafless trees provided few hiding places and no protection from the brutal wind, which felt like little razor blades cutting Sabrina's face. Their only choice was to keep running. She and Puck scrambled up some rocks to a clearing at the top of a steep hill. It was a dead end. In front of them was a four-hundred-foot drop to the Hudson Valley below. The whole town of Ferryport Landing was laid out before them. If Sabrina hadn't been sure they were going to die, she would have thought the view was rather nice.

"Puck, I…"

The boy turned to her. "I know what you are going to say and I think its an excellent idea. I'll leave you here and save myself."

"That's not what I was going to say at all!" Sabrina shouted. "I was going to ask you if you had any ideas for getting us out of this."

"Grimm, you usually handle the running and crying part."

Sabrina looked down the steep hill. It was covered in snow. "If only we had a sled," she mumbled.

Puck's eyes lit up. He turned around and got down on his hands and knees.

"What are you doing?" Sabrina asked.

"Climb on my back," Puck insisted. "I've got an idea."

Sabrina was all too familiar with Puck's "ideas." They usually ended in a trip to the emergency room, but with the monster lumbering up the rocky hillside behind them, there were few options.

Sabrina sat on the boy's back with a leg on each side of him. "OK, what now?"

"Grab my tusk."

"Grab your what?"

Puck turned his head toward her. His face had transformed into that of a walrus. He had two long tusks protruding from his mouth and a mustache of bristly, thick hair. His nose had shrunk into his oily black face and his eyes were large and brown. Sabrina cringed, but reached around with her good arm and grabbed firmly onto one of his tusks.

"Please don't do this," she whimpered. "This is such a bad idea."

"The only bad ideas are the ones never tried," Puck said as his body began to puff up. Layers of blubber inflated under Sabrina. Puck's shirt disappeared, replaced by a super-slippery skin. "Keep your hands and feet inside the ride until we come to a complete stop," he shouted.

"Here we go!"

Puck leaped forward just as the beast reached the top of the hill. The boy's slick walrus body rocketed down the steep slope toward town. Sabrina held on for dear life.

They zipped between trees and bounced over jutting rocks. Sabrina turned back, confident the monster wouldn't follow them on this desperate flight, only to see it plowing down the hill after them, knocking over trees as if they weren't even there. "JABBERWOCKY!" it screamed.

Puck the walrus raced down the bank of a frozen stream, ramping off a rocky outcropping and soaring into the air. The children fell for what seemed like forever, then hit the ground hard, narrowly missing the spiky branches of an oak tree.

Sabrina turned again to mark the monster's progress. It too used the rocky ramp and sailed into the air. Flapping its wings, it soared higher and higher; then a strong wind knocked it off course and it slammed hard against the mountainside. Moments later, Sabrina lost sight of it completely, though she could still hear it braying in the distance.

"I think we lost it! We're safe!" she cried, just as the ground leveled off. Unfortunately, Puck's slippery body was still zipping along as a four-lane highway of speeding cars appeared in front of them. Unable to stop, Puck skidded into the traffic, spinning several times as he tried to avoid a pickup truck. The startled driver slammed on his breaks. Tires squealed and bumpers crunched. Shrill horns filled the air, but the children still couldn't stop. On the other side of the road was another steep hill. They whipped down it, heading right for a ramshackle old barn. Its doors were wide open, and they slid right in, crashing at last into the far wall of an empty stable.

"Let's do it again!" Puck said, laughing so hard he rolled over on his fat, blubbery side. Giggling, he transformed back into his true form--an annoying eleven-year-old boy.

Sabrina held her sore arm and gazed around at the barn. A few bales of hay sat in the corner and an old plow lay rusting on the ground. Several windows high on the wall were wide open, allowing the snowstorm to blow inside. It was a great place to hide, if they didn't freeze to death in the process.

"Grimm, you look like you fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch," Puck said when his giggling was finished. Sabrina's head hurt too much for her to come up with a snarky comeback. She was exhausted and her arm felt as if it were ready to fall off. Puck must have sensed how desperate she felt, or maybe he just heard her teeth chattering, because he did something so un-Pucklike, Sabrina couldn't believe it. He got up, sat down behind her, and let his enormous fairy wings sprout from his back. Then he wrapped them around her to keep the bitter cold away. It was the first truly nice thing the so-called Trickster King had ever done for her. Instinctively she wanted to tease him for this rare moment of compassion, but she bit her tongue. Knowing Puck, he'd storm off and she'd die an ice cube.

"What was that thing?" Sabrina asked.

"It's called a Jabberwocky," Puck said. "Two tons of teeth, tail, and terror. From what I've heard, they're impossible to kill. But don't worry, Grimm; it's gone. It had its share of the Trickster King for one day."

"We need to get help," Sabrina said, shivering.

"I'm on it," Puck said. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a small wooden flute, and blew a couple high-pitched notes. Within seconds, a swarm of little lights flooded through the open windows and surrounded the children. They looked like fireflies, but Sabrina knew better. They were Puck's pixie servants--or, as he called them, his minions--and they did whatever Puck asked of them, especially if it was mischief. They buzzed around their boy leader and waited for instructions.

"Go get the old lady," Puck said to them, "and bring me something to start a fire."

The pixies buzzed and darted out through the barn windows. Moments later a wave of them returned carrying tree limbs and dead leaves. These they arranged in a pile in front of the children and then zipped away again. Soon, a second swarm returned carrying a single bottle of root beer, which they gently placed in Puck's hands.

"You have served me well, minions," he said unscrewing the top and tossing it into a corner of the barn. He chugged the whole drink and tossed the bottle aside.

"Ahhhh," he said as he wiped his mouth on his sleeve.

"Was that refreshing? I'd hate for you to be thirsty. Maybe you would like a sandwich, too," Sabrina snarled. Puck was always thinking of himself.

"Keep your pants on," the boy said. "Something has to be done to keep you from turning into a Grimmsicle."

He unfolded his wings, stood up, and leaned over the pile of timber. His eyes were watering, apparently from all the gassy soda, and suddenly he opened his mouth wide and belched. The burp was deep and guttural and, much to Sabrina's surprise, accompanied by a fireball that shot out of the boy's mouth and ignited the firewood. Sabrina felt the fire's warmth immediately.

"I didn't know you could do that," she said.

"Oh, I'm full of surprises," the boy said proudly as a rumbling sound came from his belly. "Want to see what I can do out the other end?"

The little pixies buzzed and twittered. To Sabrina it sounded as if they were laughing.

"Uh, no thanks," she said, edging closer to the fire.

"Suit yourself," he said and then turned to his small servants. "I need you to go back to the road and wait for the old lady. Come and get me when she arrives."

The little lights blinked on and off, as if to say they understood, and zipped away. When they were gone, Puck wrapped his huge, fairy wings around Sabrina again.

"I'm sorry we couldn't save your parents," he whispered.

Sabrina wanted to cry. She had been so close to rescuing Henry and Veronica and they had slipped through her fingers. How was she supposed to fight the little girl in the red cloak who obviously had magical abilities and controlled a hulking freak with a zillion teeth? Sabrina was just an ordinary eleven-year-old girl. She was powerless. She looked over her shoulder at Puck. He was a fairy--a creature of pure magic. Puck could turn into all kinds of animals, he could fly, he had pixie servants, and now, apparently, even his obnoxious bad habits were useful. The boy was overflowing with power and it gave him a fearlessness Sabrina envied.