Mirror frowned and looked genuinely hurt. “Very well, Sabrina. I know you’re angry, but I hope you won’t judge me too harshly. I’m only after what everyone on this planet wants—happiness. I’m not expecting you to understand but try to imagine what my life must be like. I was put into this world—born, you might say—by a cold, uncaring woman who treated me like property.
“For generations I have waited hand and foot on others. I can’t say that your current family is not kind, Sabrina, but my owners have not always been so sweet. I have been in the company of mad men, lunatics, or people who simply ignored me. As good as you have been to me, you are only a temporary creature on this planet. You will die someday, and who will own me then? A tyrant? A monster? Who knows? Well, I won’t do it any longer. I’m going to have my freedom. I’m going to walk out of this dreaded mirror. I’m going to get my happy ending and your brother is the key. He will lend me his body. I will become a human boy and grow into a human man.”
“Why?” Sabrina asked. “You have plenty of followers in your Scarlet Hand. Why not take one of them?”
“Because they’re Everafters,” Mirror said. “If I took one of their bodies I’d still be a prisoner in Ferryport Landing. Why would I trade one prison for another? If I take the body of a human I can walk out of this town with the magical weapons stored inside this hall. It will be easy work for me to conquer this world. It will be very nice to have others serving me.”
“But you don’t have to do this. You just said that this book would let you change your story,” Daphne said. “Why not go in and make sure you have freedom? Why steal our brother’s life?”
“Sadly, in all the stories collected in this book, the story of my glorious birth has never been documented. There is no story for me to step into and alter. Thus, I have had to come up with another solution. I believe there is someone who can help me in these pages.”
Mirror scooped up the baby boy from the floor and then stepped toward the book.
“You can’t go in there,” Sabrina said. “You can’t leave the Hall of Wonders.”
“I’m not leaving the Hall of Wonders,” Mirror said with a sly grin. “The book will be here the whole time.”
Mirror placed his hand on one of the pages and he and the child vanished.
“We have to go after them,” Sabrina said.
“We’re not going in there,” Puck said.
“Yeah, I think this is one of those times we should wait for an adult’s help,” Daphne said.
“We can’t wait,” Sabrina said, stepping up to the book. “They’re at the other end of the hall without a trolley. What if Mirror gets lucky and lands in the story he wants? He could be stealing our baby brother’s body as we speak. We’ve got to stop him now.”
Daphne reached out a hand and Sabrina took it. They both turned to Puck.
“Are you coming?” Daphne asked.
Puck scowled and took the little girl’s hand. “Every time I try to get out of the hero business you two pull me back in!”
Sabrina put her hand on one of the book’s pages. There was an odd sensation, like being flushed down a toilet, and then everything went black.
When the lights came on, Sabrina looked around. She was lying on the floor of a wooden farmhouse. Her sister was sitting on a bed, wearing a little yellow dress, and Puck was nowhere to be found.
“Where are we?” Daphne said, helping her sister to her feet.
“Inside the book, I guess,” Sabrina replied. “Where’s Puck?”
Daphne shrugged. “Maybe he didn’t make it. Maybe he’s back in the Hall of Wonders.”
Outside they could hear a commotion, including a lot of singing. Sabrina went to the door and swung it open. There was a sea of little people dressed entirely in green on the lawn. Sabrina recognized them as Munchkins, but that wasn’t what shocked her. Right outside the door was a road made entirely of yellow bricks. She and Daphne stepped outside and were greeted like heroes. The Munchkins lifted them onto their tiny shoulders and cheered.
“What do they think we did?” Daphne said.
“You killed the Wicked Witch of the East,” one of the Munchkins cried. “You saved us all.”
Sabrina turned back to the house and saw the horrible truth—a pair of legs was sticking out from beneath it and they were wearing a pair of shiny silver shoes with a remarkable red tint to them. She suddenly realized they hadn’t just entered a story. They had entered one of the most famous stories ever told.
“Daphne, I don’t think we’re in Ferryport Landing anymore.”
Michael Buckley is the New York Times bestselling author of the Sisters Grimm and NERDS series. He has also written and developed television shows for many networks. Michael lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, Alison, and his son, Finn.