Hi all! Once again, I vanished for months at a time, and once again I apologize. These past few months were filled with a lot of tough changes, so it was hard to put aside the time to write. But now that I've adjusted a little, I think I'll be able to put more time into writing this. I do have the next few chapters written, so I'll try to update more often.

Many thanks to all the reviewers, you guys really inspire me to keep writing and working hard! To those of you who reviewed and asked for more to the last chapter, I added on a section in this chapter that finishes off that portion. I hope that you enjoy it! To adictd2faerietales, who anonymously reviewed, I know Michael Buckley on facebook only, and have corresponded with him a few times. I don't know him very well though, sorry!

To libaka, you are the greatest beta ever, and your support over the past few months has meant so much to me. Thanks always for helping me and encouraging me. You're the best! :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Sisters Grimm, but I like to wander around in their world and play with their story. So far they don't seem to mind. :)

This chapter is split into 2 parts: one is the second half of Chapter 30, the other is Chapter 31, Competition. Enjoy!

Chapter 30.5 Epilogue of Chapter 30

Red gently patted Sabrina's hair, smoothing it away from the girl's face. Sabrina gave no sign that she had felt the girl, and simply curled up tighter in a ball and pushed her face further into the protection of her arms. Red sighed, and leaned against Sabrina, offering comfort in the only way she could, before picking up the children's story she'd been reading before the blonde girl came storming down the Hall of Mirrors. She peered around the corner of the alcove, noting that no one seemed to be coming, so Sabrina could have some privacy.

She turned a page, absently fixed her hood so it didn't slip off, and smiled to herself when she felt Sabrina shift and lean back. She would give Sabrina all the time she needed before asking her to talk. Red continued reading about the mice and woodland creatures protecting their castle against the invading rats, and waited.

Ten minutes later, Red glanced up when she heard footsteps coming towards them. She bit her lip when she saw Canis nearing their hiding place. He looked down at her, then over at Sabrina. Red started when Canis suddenly knelt, and placed a hand on Sabrina's shoulder. The girl lifted her head just enough to see him, then launched herself into his arms.

Red moved over as Canis settled himself next to her, Sabrina huddled on his lap. Canis rubbed Sabrina's back as Sabrina finally let out a sound- a soft, heart-broken sob. Red reached out and took Sabrina's hand, Canis shifting an arm to hug her too.

The two of them listened as Sabrina spoke. "I don't get it. Why doesn't she see how lucky she is? He's just waiting for her! But he might not wait forever! She's just kidding herself. She goes on and on about how she's an independent woman, but part of loving someone is leaning on them, and letting them help you when you need it."

Sabrina pushed herself up, scowling at Canis. "And besides that! Her whole thing about not being able to protect herself is stupid! When I was learning about being attacked in school, I was told that even if you practice a hundred times and think about it a lot, you will always freeze when you get attacked for the first time! It's human nature, you simply can't see how this is happening to you. This is the only time Snow has needed to be helped. She's always helped out Charming before, and protected him. What's so wrong about being the one who needs help for once?" Her eyes were pleading, asking Canis to explain why.

Canis sighed, and brushed back some of Sabrina's hair. "I don't know."

Sabrina blinked at him. "That's it? No jewels of wisdom?" Red giggled, surprised by the turnaround in Sabrina's behavior.

The man shrugged. "Not this time. Why don't you tell me what you think? And why did this come up?"

Red and Canis listened as Sabrina explained how she overheard Snow talking, and saw how it hurt Charming. Canis nodded absently, then spoke up. "Seems like you have some pretty good insight to this. You've got to understand, Sabrina, that in a way most Everafters are less developed emotionally than humans. We don't move forward or put ourselves at risk, because we've got forever. Humans, on the other hand, seem to have a better knack for simply reacting to emotions and taking risks, probably because their lives are so short."

Red piped up. "What do you mean?" She shrank back when Canis and Sabrina looked at her, then relaxed when Canis patted her head, tugging her hood back up.

"Well, I guess humans see it as they only have that one life, so they might as well live it." Canis smiled down at Sabrina. "Everafters are good at waiting and existing, not going out and living."

Sabrina asked, "What's going to happen to you though? You're not the Big Bad Wolf anymore, so are you human?"

Canis shrugged. "I don't think so. I may age a bit faster, but I think I'll live for a long time. But," He looked at Red, "I don't think I'm going to be content just existing anymore. I want to go out and really live my life. I've spent too long being afraid to do anything because of the Wolf. Now that I've got control, and the Wolf's gone, I want to enjoy myself."

The man suddenly lifted Sabrina, placing her next to Red. The girls smiled at each other. Canis may no longer be the Wolf, but he was still plenty strong. Canis, staring down the hall, continued. "But in order to live, we'll have to defeat the Scarlet Hand. Red, would you be willing to try again to retrieve your memories?" Red nodded, drooping slightly. "Sabrina, we need to be unified." Sabrina sighed.

"Oh, alright. I'll go apologize to her, even if she doesn't deserve it." Canis smiled down at her.

"That's my girl." Sabrina blinked up at him, then beamed. Red took her hand, and the two girls followed Canis down the hall.

When they left the Hall, a fly took off from the wall. It spun, and suddenly grew into a boy with wings. Puck landed, thinking. He gazed down the Hall, then fidgeted and sat down in the alcove. He almost wished he had a Canis to explain everything to him, or walk him through it like Sabrina did.

It was hard. Sabrina had gotten so angry at Snow, then took off. After watching Charming walk away, Snow gazing desperately after him, Puck had followed Sabrina's trail. Snow seemed to be realizing something painful, and while Sabrina's speech was pretty powerful, Puck wasn't sure what was so amazing about it.

Canis's words had hit home, though. Puck scratched idly at an itch, as he thought about Canis' claim that Everafters hadn't learned to live, while humans had. That didn't seem entirely true. After all, Puck made sure to go out and enjoy himself every day. It wasn't like he sat around waiting for something to happen. Canis was just weird.

Puck jumped when he heard a clattering from down the Hall, and leaned out cautiously. He saw Daphne talking to Briar, trying to teach her how to use the flying carpet. Briar's gentle voice drifted down the Hall.

"I know it's important to learn, but it's just so different from anything I've done before. Are you sure it's necessary?"

Daphne nodded firmly. "Yes, I'm sure. But hey, no worries, Sabrina and I have gone through things different from anything we've done before, and we survived. You'll manage, and besides, Uncle Jake'll love being able to go on a magic carpet ride with you! Isn't that romantic?" Briar blushed, protesting daintily.

Puck scooted further into the alcove. Maybe that's what Canis meant? The Everafters were still so unwilling to try anything new. It was taking longer than it should've to train the new recruits, since many of them didn't even want to fight, they just wanted to do as they always had. The Scarlet Hand had gotten in the way of many shop owners, so they had packed up and tried to go somewhere else to do the same thing. The Everafters had no intention of changing, they intended to go on as they always had for as long as they could.

The boy winced as he thought of his own response to his future. It might not have been the best of ideas to blame Sabrina. She probably wasn't too happy either, since she didn't much like him. Puck sat up. But, she hadn't blamed him, had she? She'd just accepted what would happen to her and moved on. She'd adjusted. Puck had immediately pinwheeled backwards and attacked her. He'd pushed her away. He'd acted as if her changing to fit into her new life hadn't mattered. She didn't want to change either, but she'd accepted it, and returned to the camp and taken on the role of message bringer and started running small errands for people.

Sabrina was trying to grow and change to fit the world around her. Puck was just following everyone and trying to go about as he always had. How much could he have done around the camp if he wasn't so focused on getting back at Sabrina? Puck thought about the pegasi he was feeding all that gross stuff to. He'd be causing trouble for everyone, not just Sabrina. He might even be hurting the flying horses permanently. Was this big a prank really necessary, especially at this time?

He wondered if this was even a prank anymore, or if it was turning into something more malicious. Covering someone in pegasi poop was pretty disgusting, but actively trying to make her life miserable whenever the chance comes around may be a bit crueler than necessary.

The boy shifted into a fly, and skirted past Daphne and Briar. Pranks could come later. He had some pegasi's stomachs to fix.

Chapter 31: Competition

Bella watched carefully as her enemy walked up the stairs into the school. She counted down in her head, then at the perfectly calculated time given to her by her daddy, she stepped out, grabbed the girl, and dragged her away.

Bella mentally thanked her daddy for giving her the role of the nice, pretty friend when Sabrina spun around, fist raised. The beautiful girl remembered how yesterday Natalie had been socked in the face. Turns out this Grimm girl had teeth. Literally, Bella winced to herself, remembering how the night before Sabrina had nearly broken through Bella's froggy skin.

She braced herself and said cheerfully, "You need some serious help." The girl ushered Sabrina over to the mirror and set to work. "How did you get your hair this way?" 'And why?' Bella wondered.

Sabrina's face went a little red. "It's a long story." Bella raised an eyebrow and continued working. She genuinely wondered what in the world had happened to Sabrina to mess up her hair this much. The strands of hair in her fingers were soft and seemed to be fairly easy to care for. 'Maybe she washed it too much?' Bella thought to herself.

As she tugged at Sabrina's hair and sprayed it, Bella watched the girl in the mirror. It was pity Sabrina wasn't weak and easy to manipulate, she thought absently. Where's the fun in tricking someone if you can't rip their heart out afterwards? Sabrina was like a cat. It took more than a little milk to make her less likely to scratch you later. 'Oh well,' Bella shrugged to herself. At least she could satisfy herself with the thought that she'd spared the stupid, ugly, little human for now. Daddy said that Bella could take care of Sabrina in the end. Bella felt almost sorry for Sabrina: Natalie and Toby were too dumb to think of anything more torturous than being killed. Bella knew that hurting Sabrina's heart and mind first, then her body, could make the torture even more fun.

When she finished pulling Sabrina's frizzy hair into a ponytail, Bella handed the girl the brush and hairspray. She'd only burn them later if Sabrina gave them back. Bella said kindly, putting aside her murderous thoughts and focusing on cultivating her nice girl image, "It'll hold until lunch. After that, well, we may have to call in a professional."

Any thoughts about her superiority to this stupid human jolted to a stop when Bella looked at Sabrina's face. Her smile transformed her from the angry adolescent that Bella knew her daddy was taking power from into someone completely different. Someone real, not just a pathetic short-lived human.

Struggling to keep a hold of the conversation, Bella responded to Sabrina, mentioning something that she would remember later as being about science class. When Sabrina laughed, Bella joined in numbly, then used the bell ringing as an excuse to flee. She noticed vaguely that Sabrina knew that Grumpner had been killed, but was too busy hurrying away to answer her.

Bella slipped into the crowded classroom, nodding slightly to Natalie and Toby. Sabrina would be a few minutes behind. The pretty girl turned her face away from the other students and bit her lip. What was wrong with her? She was supposed to be gleeful right now, happy that she'd started to worm her way into stupid Grimm's heart. It would sting the girl that much more to know that the only person interested in getting to know her absolutely despised her. It was only yesterday that Bella had happily tried to kill the Grimms! Bella scrunched her eyes shut and shook her head.

Nothing was wrong. Sabrina Grimm was her prey. Frogs don't spring like beasts and spiders. They wait, perfectly silent and still, until their prey thinks that they're safe. And then frogs strike. Bella had already begun to make Sabrina relax around her, she just had to wait until the last possible moment to rip her to pieces.

But it wasn't just a game anymore. Bella opened her eyes wearily, and noticed Sabrina in the room, glancing around. When they made eye contact, Bella gave Sabrina thumbs up. Sabrina smiled, but clearly was trying to figure out why no one was sad about Grumpner. Bella looked down at her hands, clenched so tightly that her knuckles were a pale white. As white as Grumpner had been when he'd realized Toby was going to kill him. She forced herself to unclench her fingers and shakily smooth her skirt.

Daddy said that they would have to go further than they'd ever had to before. Bella had been raised to believe that she was powerful and perfect, and that anyone in her way deserved to be destroyed. That humans deserved to be eaten, and that they were little more than flies.

The blonde, pretty, popular girl glanced back at Sabrina Grimm, who now stared down at her desk, thinking carefully about something.

Bella turned back to her desk, ignoring Natalie and Toby's glances. Humans were supposed to be flies. They weren't supposed to be anything more. But Bella wondered if maybe Sabrina Grimm could be something more.

Ever since daddy talked to Hamelin, and learned about Sabrina, he had focused more and more on how to control her. He barely spoke to his children anymore, except to instruct them on what to say and do in order to get to the girl.

Bella figured that in a way Sabrina was competition. Natalie and Toby wanted daddy back, so they were perfectly content taking their anger out on Sabrina. But, Bella wondered, what was better? The girl thought carefully. She'd noticed that Toby and Natalie rarely fought with each other, but fights inevitably started up around daddy. She'd always thought that it was just them wanting attention, but seeing the way Sabrina flared up so much whenever she was in school made her wonder.

Daddy loved them, right? He always talked about how their parents didn't want them and left them. Bella shifted uneasily as she felt herself taking a traitorous path. She knew daddy needed rage to eat. Weren't kids really easy to manipulate? Were she and her siblings just food for him?

Bella didn't like feeling like she was a fly, going about its business until suddenly it was snapped up. Was this what she was competing for?

That's Competition! I hope you liked it, it was a little darker than I usually do, but I feel like maybe Bella would've had second thoughts, even though she was basically a murderer by the end of book two. And all dialogue in Competition is taken from the second book!

Please R&R, and have a great day!

Tam