“What is this all about?” Daphne asked her sister.
Sabrina didn’t have a clue but she was feeling the first inkling of panic. Most of the doors near the portal were filled with useful weapons the family used frequently, but farther down, in the direction the marionettes were heading, there were terrible things—things that should not be freed.
“We have to stop this,” Sabrina cried, but it was too late. Just as she said the words a door opened and out stomped a huge blue ox. It was as big as a Winnebago and had horns on either side of its head. It stomped its front leg angrily and lowered its head toward the girls.
“It’s Paul Bunyan’s ox,” Sabrina said. She had read the plaque for its room many times and then looked up the story. She’d seen Paul Bunyan. He was huge, and Babe was even bigger.
“That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” Puck said.
“How cool is it going to be when it kills us?” Sabrina said.
“Considerably less cool,” Puck replied. The three children turned to run. They heard a bellow and felt the floor beneath them roll and rock. Babe the Blue Ox was about to stomp them to death. They ran back through the portal and leaped to one side as the creature crashed into the real world. The mirror seemed to increase in size to allow the monstrous animal through. Unfortunately, Granny’s house didn’t have the same magical ability and the animal caused an incredible amount of damage. It knocked through the wall that looked out on the lawn and ripped off part of the roof with one of its huge horns. The confined space seemed to make it panic and it whipped its huge head around, causing even more destruction. When it stomped its feet the floor beneath it collapsed. The ox fell with it into the living room. The children stood on a thin ledge of what had once been the bedroom floor, looking down into the gaping pit. Sabrina saw her family standing by the front door, looking up at them.
“It appears we have a problem, Relda,” Mr. Canis said.
“Open the front door,” Granny said, and the old man did as he was told. The front door morphed like the mirror to allow the ox though and it stomped out onto the front lawn. Unfortunately, that was not the end of the chaos. A giant three-headed dog tumbled out of the mirror and immediately fell through the hole in the floor.
Puck flew over to where Sabrina was standing. “There’s something you don’t see every day.”
The dog was followed by a wave of bizarre beasties, monsters, and nefarious-looking people. Snakes with heads on both ends of their bodies slithered out and into the hole. People that looked like zombies, vampires, and werewolves from horror movies did the same. There was a seven-foot albino man with stringy muscles and pink eyes. There were pirates, wizards, witches, and unearthly creatures that looked like they were from other planets. They came in wave after wave after wave as if being pushed forward by an even bigger crowd behind them. Creatures made from ice and fire, a man surrounded by his own tornado, and a headless knight sitting atop a black horse. All the children could do was watch the macabre parade as it went by. Each creature fell into the pit then stumbled outside to freedom.
When the last of the creatures had come through and a few peaceful seconds had passed, the children carefully edged toward the magic mirror.
“Kids, just stay where you are,” Henry said. “I’ll get a ladder and help you down.”
“We have to check on Mirror,” Daphne said.
“It’s not safe,” Veronica said.
“He’s our friend, Mom,” Sabrina said. “He’s part of our family. We’ll be careful.”
The children headed into the reflection. Once inside the Hall of Wonders, Sabrina realized that every door was flung open wide. The marionettes were nowhere to be seen and neither was Mirror.
“Mirror!” Sabrina shouted, but the little man did not respond.
“We can’t go room to room looking for him. It would take forever,” Daphne said.
“If he’s alive he’s probably at the other end of the hall. The trolley isn’t here,” Sabrina said.
Puck’s wings expanded and flapped briskly. He grabbed the girls by the back of their pajamas and hoisted them into the air. Then he flew down the hallway so fast the open doors along the way slammed shut. In no time at all he came to rest outside the closed door to the Room of Reflections.
Sabrina pushed the heavy door open and looked inside, but he wasn’t there. The room was empty except for the mirrors hanging on the wall.
“Maybe one of the monsters ate him,” Daphne whimpered.
“That would be awesome,” Puck said.
Sabrina flashed him an angry look.
“Awesome in a terrible, heartbreakingly tragic kind of way,” Puck continued.
In a panic, Sabrina spun back around, determined to search every room until they found their friend. As she dashed out of the Room of Reflections she heard something clicking. It sounded like an army of little wooden feet. She stopped in her tracks.
“Do you hear that?” she asked the others.