The Sisters Grimm: Book Eight: The Inside Story (9 page)

Sabrina nodded. Something had grabbed that reviser in
The Jungle Book
—something she could not see.

“The invisible thing that killed my reviser will do the same to you if it gets a chance. Stay inside the events of the story,” the Editor said. His face was grave with worry.

On the other side of the door, Sabrina found herself sitting in a milky fog. As she turned to look around, the fog danced and swirled. There was so much of the stuff that she could barely see her hand in front of her, but it was quiet and the fog was beautiful so she took a moment to calm her nerves.

When her breathing slowed and her heart stopped threatening to pound out of her chest, she stood up and looked at her new surroundings. She had never seen anything like it. The fog was thick and came up to her kneecaps. It glided around with the slightest movement or breath. There was nothing else but crystal blue sky as far as she could see. The ground beneath her was strange as well. It felt spongy, like she was standing on a giant slice of angel food cake.

“Uh, are we in heaven?” Daphne said, sitting up in the fog.

“No chance,” Puck answered. “I highly doubt they would let me in.”

They got to their feet and joined Sabrina, bouncing on the mushy ground beneath them.

“It’s like we’re walking around on someone’s belly,” Puck said.

Knowing Puck’s joke was completely possible, Sabrina snatched her sister’s hand and pulled her to her side. “Stay close.”

Daphne shrugged. “It’s more like I’m walking on the moon. This is one small step for man, one giant leap for Daphne.”

“Cool it!” Sabrina said. “The less attention we draw to ourselves, the better off we’ll be.”

The little girl jumped one last time and came down with a jingle. “Ouch!”

“What happened?”

“I just landed on something,” she said. Daphne reached down into the fog and pulled up the end of a heavy burlap sack tied with twine. She untied it, dipped her hands inside, and pulled out a fistful of gold coins.

“We’re rich!” Puck said. “I say if we have to be stuck in this book, we should at least get to keep the treasure we find. We’ll use it for our wedding reception, dear.”

Sabrina turned pink and struggled to come up with a suitable insult.

Puck bent over and farted, then scratched his rear. “I’m no detective, but I’m sure that bag is a clue.”

“And all this fog?” Daphne added. “Does any of this sound familiar?”

Just then, there was an enormous crash and the ground shifted, and all three of them toppled over like bowling pins.

“What was that?” Puck cried, but his words were drowned by another monstrous thud and shake.

“I don’t think we should stick around to find out,” Sabrina said.

As they helped one another up, an angry bellow filled their ears. It sounded almost human, only it was louder than anything the children had ever heard. The hair on Sabrina’s arms stood at attention and shivers raced along her spine.

“OK, we can relax,” Puck said. A grin spread across his face.

“Relax? What about all that noise?” Daphne asked.

“You didn’t hear what he said?” Puck said.

“He? All I heard was a roar,” Sabrina said.

“Nope, those were words.”

“Well, what did he say?” Sabrina said just as another thud rocked the ground. This time the children managed to keep their balance, but just barely.

“He said, ‘Fe, fi, fo, fum.’”

Fear rose up in Sabrina’s throat like a bad shrimp. She knew what kind of monsters said “fe, fi, fo, fum.” Giants! She’d met about a hundred of them her second day in Ferryport Landing. And she and her family had nearly been killed.

“We’re not standing in fog,” Daphne said. “We’re standing on a cloud.”

“
Run!
” Sabrina shouted, and they all took off at a sprint just as a shoe the size of a battleship came crashing down. If the children had stayed just one second longer, they would have been squished into paste by the creature’s heel.

Sabrina scanned the horizon and spotted the top of an enormous beanstalk breaking through the clouds. She recalled the famous tale of Jack, who traded the family’s cow for magic beans that grew into a giant beanstalk overnight. “There!” she said, steering the group across the challenging terrain.

“Who’s that?” Daphne said, pointing toward the mutated plant.

Sabrina strained her eyes and saw a lone figure making his way down the beanstalk. He couldn’t have been taller than three feet high and wore bright blue overalls. He also had a pointy nose and a terrible overbite. “Pinocchio!” she cried.

The little boy must have heard her, as he redoubled his efforts to escape. Sabrina took a deep breath and ran faster than she ever had before. The boy had betrayed her and her family. They had taken him into their lives, protected him, given him a home and a community, but the whole time he had been working for Mirror and the Scarlet Hand.

When the children reached the beanstalk, Sabrina could no longer see her target. He had climbed down the enormous plant, which sunk into the misty clouds below. Sabrina grabbed on to a thick leaf and was surprised to find it so sticky. She realized that was a good thing—perhaps it would save them all from slipping or taking a foolish step out into nothingness. She lowered herself to the next leaf, then the next. Daphne followed, then Puck, and soon the three were steadily descending from the giant’s realm and into the open air. Far below there was a tiny cottage on an overgrown farm, but staring at it made Sabrina’s belly turn inside out. She had never been afraid of heights, but then again she had never been up that high.

“Don’t look down!” she cried.

“Then how are we going to see
them
?” Daphne said as she pointed down the beanstalk. Crawling up toward them at amazing speed were six wooden marionettes, each carved by a brilliant hand to look like members of Sabrina’s family: Granny Relda, Dad, Mom, Uncle Jake, Daphne, and Sabrina. They leaped from leaf to leaf like monkeys. When they reached the children, they attacked viciously with little hands and feet. Despite their size, their punches and pinches were painful and persistent. One lucky shot to Sabrina’s right eye left her momentarily dazed and blinded, but she managed to hold on to the giant leaf. With her free hand, she grabbed at the one that looked like her and flung it off the vine. It fell silently past its comrades, who watched and shrieked. They began to retreat, but not before the one that looked like Uncle Jake stomped down hard on Daphne’s fingers. She lost her grasp on the branch, and like the marionette, fell into the open blue sky and plummeted toward the ground.

4

efore Sabrina could scream, Puck let go of the beanstalk and dropped like a skydiver. Sabrina watched him, her heart pounding. She didn’t breathe until she spotted his pink insect wings expanding and fluttering in the wind. He was too far away for her to see if he’d caught Daphne. She closed her eyes tight and prayed.

“Here’s the piglet,” Puck said. Sabrina opened her eyes to find him hovering in front of her. Daphne was wrapped around the boy fairy like a baby monkey, clearly terrified. Her complexion was slightly green and Puck struggled to free himself before Daphne’s stomach rebooted itself. Sabrina snatched her away from him and held her like she might never let her go.

“You have to be more careful,” Sabrina scolded.

“I will,” Daphne whimpered.

Just then, an enormous boot came down and dug into the beanstalk just above them. Its heel was smeared with the bodies of unfortunate animals and what looked like a few human skeletons. A horrible, rotting funk wafted into Sabrina’s nose, but as much as she would have liked to pinch off the stink, she needed both hands to hang on to Daphne and the violently shaking beanstalk.

“I smell the blood of an Englishman!” the giant bellowed.

“No! You don’t! We’re from the Upper East Side of Manhattan!” Sabrina cried, scampering down the vine as fast as she could. “Puck, take Daphne again. Get her out of here.”

Before Puck could help, the giant’s big hand scooped the sisters up into its tight, sweaty grip and raised them so that they were eye to eye with his horrid, ruddy face. A tangle of overgrown hairs sprouted from his nose, and each of his broken teeth was a different shade of brown. A cloud of putrid air blasted out of his mouth that rivaled the smell of his boot.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got everything under control,” Puck said as he flew casually over to the giant’s ear. He shouted something to the big brute that the girls could not hear. They were too busy screaming and praying. A moment later, Puck fluttered back down to them. “Allow me to introduce you to my assistant.”

“What are you talking about?” Sabrina whimpered.

“I just recruited some help. Try to keep up, ugly,” Puck said.

The giant reared its head and grunted at Puck.

“Not you!” Puck shouted, then pointed to Sabrina. “She’s the ugly one.”

The giant squinted at Sabrina and nodded.

“He’s on our side,” Puck continued.

“Friends!” the giant roared. Then, with a sudden jerk, the giant climbed down the rest of the beanstalk with ease. In no time at all, the children and their enormous sidekick were on the ground, though the giant still held them tightly ten feet off the ground.

The girls peered up at him suspiciously, unsure whether to trust Puck or kick their way down and run for their lives. Neither seemed a safe bet.

“He’s really going to help us stop Pinocchio?” Sabrina asked.

Puck pointed across the farm. Pinocchio and his tiny helpers were bolting toward the forest not far away. “Hey, big guy, you see that boy running across the field?”

The giant grunted.

“That’s the guy who stole your stuff. He’s Jack.”

The giant growled and took off across the farm, stomping on the little house beneath the beanstalk in his eagerness. Puck flew alongside his new recruit.

“You told him that Pinocchio is Jack?” Sabrina asked.

Puck nodded. “Better than telling him
you’re
Jack.”

Sabrina looked down at her clothes and saw she was wearing well-worn wool pants, a filthy shirt, and a cap. The Book had turned her into Jack.