*Disclaimer: I do not own the Sisters Grimm*
"…And they all lived happily ever after," Granny Relda said as she closed the book of fairytales she had been reading to her granddaughters, Sabrina and Daphne. Sabrina quickly looked up from the book she had been reading and hid it in between her legs. Sabrina hated when her grandmother insisted that they read a children's book to help with a case. They were completely unrealistic stories that had been twisted by some delusional person that were supposed to help kids under the age of six to not look under their beds for monsters and go to sleep. They were not supposed to be tools to help solve a murder mystery.
Sabrina Grimm had been through many crazy things in her life, but nothing was as crazy as what had happened nearly seven years ago, when her mother and father had been kidnapped from their apartment in New York City, and Sabrina was convinced that her parents were gone, and that they weren't coming back. The police eventually took Sabrina and her little sister, Daphne, to an orphanage, considering that they had no living relatives to go to. They were sent to foster home after foster home, each of which they escaped within days of getting there. Most of the people that had taken Sabrina and Daphne in were psychopaths or hit men that used them as slaves, punching bags for their children, and once, beehive keepers for a honey farm. After a year and a half of running away and then being sent to another outrageous and/or dangerous home, the girls got sent to their grandmother's house. The problem? Their grandmother was supposed to be dead.
To make matters worse, Granny Relda, as they were told to call the old woman who claimed to be the girl's relative, started talking about fairytale characters and mythological creatures as if she knew them. Sabrina was absolutely sure that the crazy old woman had not taken her medication, and she was a world-class nutcase. But soon after, of course, a giant somehow managed to find and take the woman, and Sabrina had to believe her then. When Granny Relda was back, Sabrina and Daphne were thrown straight into the family business; detective work. But it wasn't normal detective work. The Grimms were fairytale detectives.
Soon the Grimm sisters were going all over town, solving mysteries for the inhabitants that lived there; the fairytale creatures themselves. Prince Charming was the mayor, Snow White was a teacher at the elementary school, the sheriff and his deputies were the Three-Little Pigs, and many other "Everafters", as they called themselves, lived among the humans and tried to live normal lives. It couldn't have gotten any weirder than that. But, of course, it did.
Sabrina and Daphne soon find out that their parents were indeed kidnapped, but not by a mere human. The Scarlet Hand, an evil society that was based on getting rid of the Grimms, had kidnapped them instead. The Grimm girls had found their parents, but they were under a deep sleeping spell, one even more powerful than the ones that Briar rose and Snow White had been under. It had been almost five years since they had found their parents, and still, they were no closer to waking them up.
Now, the girls were still solving mysteries in the small town of Ferryport Landing with their grandmother and their Uncle Jacob. Sabrina was a senior in high school, and Daphne, now a freshman, was still her peppy, abnormally happy self. Nothing had really changed about the Grimm sisters since they had gotten here. Well, there may be a couple things.
"Granny, do you think that maybe the Nutcracker stole the Mouse King's crown? After all, he did in the book," Daphne cried out. Her eyes grew wide with excitement.
Granny cocked her head. "I never did think about that, Daphne," she said smiling. "I'll go down to Clara's ballet studio tomorrow and ask if she's seen anything weird going on with him lately." Daphne bit into her palm, obviously thrilled. Daphne positively loved having fairytale characters living just down the street, but Sabrina, not so much. To tell the truth, she would much rather be back in New York hiding out in her parent's old abandoned apartment, even though other people probably lived in it now.
Daphne looked over at Sabrina. "Whatcha doin'?" she asked suspiciously. Daphne saw the book that was under Sabrina, and rolled her eyes.
"Same as you," Sabrina lied. "Trying to figure out who stole the Mouse King's precious little crown."
Daphne sighed, and went down the hall to go find Red, who was her best friend in the world. Red was actually Red Riding Hood, a psychotic Everafter that, before Granny Relda cured her, had tried to kill Sabrina and kidnap her grandmother. For those reasons, Sabrina wasn't quite comfortable having Red in the house yet.
Granny Relda got up from her big brown armchair, set the gigantic book of fairytales down on the coffee table, and started to go downstairs. "I think I'm going to go start dinner," she sighed. Sabrina frowned. Granny Relda did not make the best food in the world. In fact, she wasn't quite sure where her grandmother had gotten the blue macaroni and cheese they had had for dinner the night before, or the green chicken they were supposed to have tonight. At least, Sabrina thought it was chicken.
Sabrina got up from the floor, where she had been sitting and listening to Granny Relda read the Nutcracker to them for the last hour and a half. Her legs were stiff, and her back ached from trying to read a book that was actually appropriate for a sixteen, soon to be seventeen year old without letting Granny know, which wasn't very hard considering that the elderly woman was so caught up in the story she didn't notice anything outside of her imagination. She walked down the hall to her newly added room, closed the door, and immediately collapsed on her bed. Sabrina closed her eyes, hoping for just a moment's silence. Unfortunately, she never got it.
All of a sudden, something thick, cold, and liquid splashed onto Sabrina's face. She quickly opened her eyes and sat up, looking at the floor-length mirror in front of her. There was blue paint splattered all over her.
"PUUUCK!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. Sabrina opened her door, almost ripping it off of its hinges, looking for the no-good stinkpot of a pixie. Ever since that horrible, ungrateful, savage little beast moved in with the Grimms, Sabrina's life had been turned upside-down. She had pranks pulled on her every day, rude remarks and insults thrown at her from every direction, and once or twice, Puck had saved her life. Okay, maybe it had been a little more than once or twice, but Puck made up for it with his tricks.
Sabrina stomped downstairs, where she smelled rotten eggs and sour cream that had expired weeks before. Dinner must be ready, she thought. Sure enough, the green chicken was on the table, covered with a pink substance that looked a little like jelly, but had bubbles inside of it. She was seriously scared to know how in the world Granny Relda had gotten the ingredients for this dinner.
"Sabrina," Granny Relda said, still at the stove. 'Would you be a dear and go get Daphne and Red for- good heavens, child; what happened?" Granny Relda had turned around, and saw her now bright-blue face. Perfect.
"That." Sabrina pointed to the blonde-headed boy that was chowing down on something that looked like a dinner roll, but had little legs around the perimeter of whatever it was.
"Nice face, Grimm," Puck said while he was chewing his food. Sabrina flashed him a dirty look, and turned back to Granny.
"Can I go see Maddox and see if he has anything to get this off of me?" Sabrina sweetly asked her grandmother.
"Of course, libeling," Granny Relda replied. She gave Sabrina the large set of keys that she kept at all times, then turned to Puck. "As for you, young man…"
Sabrina didn't stay around to hear the rest. She walked up the stairs with a smug look on her face. She heard Puck groan, and ran up the stairs faster, then ran into the first room she saw, and slammed the door.
"Hey 'Brina," a mirror said behind her. Sabrina turned around and saw Maddox, a tall, lean, balding man in the reflection. "Why so blue?"
Sabrina smiled sarcastically. The new mirror was always taking Puck's side. She missed Mirror, even though he was a completely insane freak that tried to take over her grandmother and tried to kill their entire family. They kind of had to get rid of him after that.
"Very funny, Maddox," she replied. She put her hands on her hips. "Do you have anything that can get this paint off as soon as possible?"
Maddox smiled sweetly. "Sure thing." Sabrina handed him the keys through the mirror, then sat down on the floor. "Be back in a jiffy," the giant man said, and then disappeared down the Hall of Wonders. Moments later, he returned with a bottle that read: PAINT ELIXIR. Maddox handed it to Sabrina. "Just rinse off with this, and you should be good as new. You know, I had a feeling Puck would do this soon. He's running out of good pranks to pull on you."
Sabrina smiled. "Thanks, Maddox," she said, and then ran off to the bathroom, where she quickly showered with the elixir. Maddox was right; the paint did come right off. But it made Sabrina paler than she already was. Great.
She stepped out of the shower and dried off, then put her robe around her. Sabrina ran to her room and got changed into a sweatshirt and flannel pants. She immediately ran downstairs to the kitchen table, where Red, Daphne, Mr. Canis, Puck, and Granny Relda sat, eating the repulsive food Granny Relda had made. She sat down at her regular seat between Daphne and Puck, and rolled her food around with her fork.
When no one was looking, Sabrina called over the family's two hundred pound Great Dane, Elvis, and gave him some of her food. She then put the plate on the table and asked to be excused. Puck gave Sabrina a dirty look, obviously knowing that Sabrina hadn't eaten. Sabrina ignored him and went upstairs, grabbing some of the family journals along the way.
Sabrina went inside her room and closed the door. She quickly glanced at the journals she had gotten. Rapuzel's True Story, How the Elves Made the Shoes, Snow White and Rose Red, and The Twelve Dancing Princesses: How Their Shoes Really Got Worn Out. These were some that Sabrina hadn't read yet, surprisingly. The Grimm house contained at least three zillion books, and even though Sabrina spent most of the time reading to find a cure for her parents' sleeping spell, she could never read all the books in the house.
About fifteen minutes later, Sabrina's stomach grumbled. She realized that she hadn't eaten in a while, and decided that it was time to pick up her phone again. She dug through her bag, throwing folders, notebooks, journals, her iPod, and several other items around her room. After several minutes of this, Sabrina gave up, and went to her last resort.
She tiptoed down the hallway to the very last room and knocked on the door. The door opened almost immediately.
"Looking for this, Grimm?" Puck asked as he held up her phone. He smiled as though he saw this coming. He quickly ran off to the lagoon, and Sabrina scowled.
"Puck, give me my phone!" Sabrina screamed. She ran after him, and caught up to him quickly, but his wings came out of his back almost instantly, and he flew up to a height where he knew she couldn't reach him.
"Try to get it, Grimm!" Puck taunted. He kept going lower, then when Sabrina could reach him, he'd go right back up, then back down, and so on.
"Puck, I swear, when you get down here, I'm gonna- "
"You're gonna what?" Puck landed on the top of the lagoon, his wings disappeared, and he crossed his arms. He knew Sabrina couldn't hurt him. At least, not when he was up on top of the bridge that went over the lagoon.
"Puck, I want my phone!" Sabrina yelled. Then, she got an absolutely brilliant idea. She crossed her arms. "Fine! If you won't come down, I'll just come up!"
Sabrina rubbed her hands together and started to climb up the side of the bridge. Boy, it was slippery.
Puck looked down at her nervously. "I wouldn't do that, Grimm," he warned. Sabrina rolled her eyes.
"Aw, look who's afraid of the Big Bad Grimm." Sabrina was halfway there. "Really, give me my phone now, or I'm gonna get it when I come up there."
Puck started to back away from the edge. "I'm serious, Grimm. You need to get off that. Now."
Sabrina got to the top, and just barely put her chin over the interestingly colored rocks. "Stop being such a baby, Puck," she sighed. "I'm perfectly fi-"
But Sabrina never got to finish, because at that very moment, she was flown back to the front of the room, and landed on Puck's trampoline with a loud thud.
Sabrina looked up at the ceiling, and saw Puck floating over her, his wings back out. "I told you so," he teased. Sabrina frowned.
Puck held out his hand and helped her up, then handed Sabrina her phone. "Ordering in again, Grimm?" Puck asked politely. Although the way he was smiling, Sabrina thought, got rid of whatever made her think he was polite.
"How'd you know?" Sabrina asked. She really was curious to know. She never thought that Puck really cared about her, considering the absurd amount of pranks he had pulled on her the past couple of days.
Puck rolled his eyes, and sat down on the edge of the trampoline next to Sabrina. "You never eat anymore. I mean, soon, it could get serious. Besides, the old lady's food isn't that bad." Sabrina and Puck started laughing almost immediately after he said it.
Sabrina flipped open her phone, and dialed the number for the Blue Plate Special. "You want anything?" Sabrina asked Puck. "Farrah does home-delivery now. She sneaks it through the window."
Puck laughed. "Yeah, umm, I'll have a burger and some fries." He thought for a minute. "Oh! And some blueberry cobbler."
Sabrina was confused. "I thought you said you were allergic to blueberries?"
Puck rolled his eyes. "Grimm, I say a lot of things. That doesn't necessarily mean that they're true."
Sabrina rolled her eyes and pressed talk. Moments later, she was ordering, and just minutes after that, Farrah was sneaking through Puck's door.
"Sabrina, next time, at least tell me you're gonna be in here before I have to go searching for you!" Farrah said as she walked in with a bag of greasy, carb-filled food. Oh well, she thought. I'll eat a salad tomorrow. Maybe. She handed the bag to Puck and turned to Sabrina. Sabrina dug in her pockets for money, then handed a crisp twenty-dollar bill to Farrah. "Thanks hun!" she said, as she slipped out the door and shrunk down to the size of a fly, so she could fit through Sabrina's window.
"So, you do this a lot?" Puck asked Sabrina. He got out his burger and fries, and stuffed the burger into his mouth.
"Daily," Sabrina replied. She started eating some of her greasy, ever-so fattening fries. She stared at Puck in disgust. "You eat like a pig."
"Whazzatzupostuma?" Puck swallowed. Sabrina rolled her eyes.
"Exactly." Sabrina quickly finished as quickly as she possibly could, leaving Puck more than half of her burger, and left to go to her room.
"Where're you going, ugly?" Puck asked, following her. He then stuffed the rest of Sabrina's burger into his mouth.
"To finish Mr. Brown's paper on the French Revolution," Sabrina answered. Puck's eyes widened. Sabrina groaned. "You forgot, didn't you?" Puck nodded. Sabrina quickly ran out the door, but looked behind her shoulder before it was completely closed. "Good luck! It's due tomorrow." Then she slammed the door.
Sabrina heard Puck groan, and grinned with satisfaction. Puck may be the most annoying thing on the planet, but she absolutely loved getting revenge on him.
She quickly got to her room and closed the door, then went to her desk and started rereading her report for the third time, looking for mistakes. She had to bring up her history grade; otherwise it would be the end of her freedom for the rest of her junior year, even though there was only a month or so left. She still had student elections, prom, volleyball tryouts, not to mention her Everafter classes and training she got from some of the more experienced Everafters. She needed all of that, not to mention a couple more things.
At about midnight, Sabrina decided that her report would have to be good enough, and she went to bed.
. . .
It was last period, and Sabrina's friends were starting to get on her nerves. All they were talking about was the junior prom, and how excited they were for it. Sabrina didn't even want to go, but of course, her friends insisted. They kept suggesting dates, and then they would talk about their own dates, then their dresses and hair and makeup and shoes. To be honest, Sabrina thought prom was just something that stores made up so people would go out and spend thousands of dollars on limos, dresses/tuxedoes, and plenty of other things she thought was pointless.
Sabrina looked from her group of friends up at the clock, wondering when this torture would be over. At that very moment, almost like magic, the bell rang. Sabrina bolted up from her seat and got her stuff together.
"Why are you so excited to leave us, Sabrina?" Sabrina's best friend, Amanda asked. "Going to meet Robin again?" Amanda giggled, along with the rest of her followers.
Sabrina rolled her eyes. Amanda was human, therefore, she didn't know about Everafters. And she definitely didn't know that Robin, aka, Puck, was the Grimm girls' bodyguard.
"Robin just gives me a ride home," Sabrina replied as she headed for the door that lead into the hallway. Amanda and her friends followed her.
Amanda squeezed through the crowded hallway and finally found Sabrina, who was silently hoping she wouldn't be found. "That's not what I heard!" Amanda squealed. "Someone told me that a couple of days ago, Robin's car parked at your house and didn't leave for the next five hours!"
Sabrina was puzzled. Who had been following them home? There were never any cars that followed them home; Puck made sure of that. He had finally put his bomb-building skills to use and made a smoke-filled bomb every day, then dropping it out his window when they were almost all the way home so no one could see behind him. Amanda had to be making this up, right?
"Mandy, it really isn't that big of a deal." Sabrina was now outside, hoping that Amanda wouldn't follow her. But of course, her dream was crushed when she heard the soft pitter-patter of little designer sneakers behind her. "Robin was just helping me with my science project." Sure, that excuse could work for now.
"Whatever, Sabrina." Amanda rolled her eyes. She walked off to the gym, where she had cheerleading practice. To be honest, Sabrina was glad to be rid of Amanda and her little minions.
Sabrina walked quickly to Puck's usual parking space, not wanting to be asked to prom again by some obnoxious athlete. Thirty-three guys who were mainly football, basketball, or baseball players had already asked her. Sabrina didn't want to sound vain, but she thought she was pretty. Of course, she would never be as pretty as her mother, who was the envy of many girls when she was Sabrina's age.
As Sabrina got closer to the car, she heard a roar of laughter get louder and louder. When she finally got up there, she saw Puck leaning against the driver's side door of the car, surrounded by his many friends and admirers. Puck may not have been the captain of the football team or the class president, but he was incredibly popular, and was, according to Amanda and the rest of the cheerleading squad, the hottest guy in school. That made Sabrina want to throw up.
"Hey Grimm!" Puck called from the center of the crowd. The enormous group broke up, leaving a path for Sabrina to get to the car. "Ready to go?"
Sabrina nodded. She walked over to the passenger's seat, opened the door, and sat down. Puck said goodbye to his friends and sat down in the driver's seat. Once his friends were out of sight, he immediately took a pencil from Sabrina's hand and snapped it in half.
"Well, someone got up on the wrong side of the trampoline," Sabrina teased. Puck frowned even more, which made Sabrina laugh. "I'm kidding, sorry. What's the matter?"
Puck sighed as he almost swerved off the road. He must have been really ticked off because he never did that. "You remember that James guy, right?" Puck asked her. Sabrina nodded. How could she forget? He had hit on her every day for the past year, and it was starting to get rather annoying.
Puck sighed again, and honked at Rip van Winkle's taxi in front of them. Sabrina had been right; Puck was really ticked off. "He wanted to ask you to the Junior Prom."
Sabrina's eyes widened. James was definitely cute, and he was without a doubt sweet, but he was a player. Not the type of person Sabrina would go to something as special and memorable as the prom with. Why was Puck so worried?
"Why do you care who I go with?" Sabrina asked. She really was confused. Puck never cared; why start now?
Puck sighed yet again. "Grimm, as much as I hate to admit it, you're like a little sister who's three thousand, nine hundred ninety or so years younger than me. Like any good big brother, I'm a little protective of my sister. And the old lady would never let me live if something happened to you."
Puck was right for once. He was like a big brother to Sabrina, but he wasn't at the same time. They had a complicated relationship.
A couple seconds later, Sabrina decided to add something. "I'm probably not gonna go, anyway." Puck grunted something she couldn't understand, but ignored it.
The two drove along in silence for a little while, the sound of an annoying rapper the only thing Sabrina could hear. She looked out the window and thought about her life in Ferryport Landing. Sure she didn't exactly trust some of the Everafters, and maybe most of the inhabitants of the town wanted her dead, but she still loved it there. After five and a half years of living there, Sabrina still wasn't quite used to the town.
All of the sudden, the volume of the radio got louder, and the channel changed to some rapper that got on Sabrina's last nerve. "Puck!" she yelled over the music.
"What, ugly?" Puck yelled back. "I can't hear you over the music!"
Sabrina groaned loudly. "Puck, this is my car; turn the music down!" Sabrina hit Puck's shoulder much harder than necessary.
"But I'm driving, which means that I get to decide!"
"Do not!"
"Do too!"
"Do not!"
"Do too!"
"Do not!"
"Do TOO!" Puck accidently spit in Sabrina's face. That made Sabrina angrier than she already was.
Sabrina groaned. "Ugh, PUCK! You are such an idiot! You're going to get us both killed! You know how? That stupid music is going to get you distracted, and you're going to run into the river and we'll both drown, and it'll be all you're fault! At my funeral, I'm going to have Daphne say, 'This was all Puck's fault', because it is! And then, when-"
"Uhh, Grimm," Puck whispered. The car came to a stop.
"-and of course, we'll be dead. Again! And now you stopped because… umm… wait, why did you stop?"
Puck pointed to the scene in front of them, not even blinking. Sabrina could plainly see that his face was full of shock and fear. There were a bunch off fallen trees in the road that were covered in a weird black substance that smelled like sour milk and mustard (but that obviously wasn't it because of the color). This alone would've scared Sabrina if she hadn't seen what was on the trunk of the tree farthest to the left.
There was a scarlet red handprint.
Crap, Sabrina thought. This can't be good.