"Nothing personal, Ichy, but destiny awaits," he said. He grabbed an end of the carpet and pulled it roughly, causing Crane to spin away like a top. After several rotations, the skinny man collapsed to the floor, overcome by dizziness. Jack set the carpet on the floor and stepped onto it.
"All right, ladies," he said as he extended his hand to help the girls onto the rug. Elvis rushed to join them and stood like a guard between the girls and Jack.
"Carpet, up," Sabrina said, and it rose a few feet and then sank slowly back down like a balloon with a hole in it.
"Why aren't we going up?" Sabrina cried.
"We must be too heavy!" Jack groaned. "Can we lose the hound?"
Elvis answered him with a threatening snarl.
"Very well. Carpet, take us to the Grimm house!"
Though it was weighed down, the carpet didn't lack any of its speed. It zipped along, three feet off the floor, down the hallway, through the main room, and out the front door of the police station. It sailed across the parking lot and made a left into the street, causing a pickup truck to screech to a stop. As they passed, the girls waved a friendly "sorry" gesture to the bewildered driver.
"That was almost too easy," Jack said. But no sooner had he puffed out his chest than the sound of a police siren wailed in their ears. A moment later, a police car turned the corner and raced in the group's direction. Ichabod Crane was behind the wheel.
"Tenacious, isn't he?" Jack said.
"Tenacious?" Daphne asked.
"It means persistent," Sabrina said.
"And what does persistent mean?" Daphne asked.
"It means he's not going to give up."
"And I wouldn't have it any other way," Jack assured them. "Carpet, faster!"
Close behind, Crane turned on his squad car's flashing lights.
"Is this the best idea?" Sabrina shouted, holding on to an end of the carpet as they sailed between cars and ran through a red light. "We're attracting a lot of attention!"
"It's about time this little burg saw some action!" Jack cried out happily. "Ferryport Landing, you haven't seen anything yet!"
Sabrina heard a horrible crunching sound behind them and turned back to see what could have made such a loud noise. What she saw stole the breath from her lungs. The road behind them began to rise, like a massive wave rolling in from the ocean. It was followed by another horrible crunching sound.
"What's happening?" she cried as she watched parked cars get tossed aside like toys.
"We're in luck, ladies," Jack said. "We've already found our giant."
Suddenly, a giant foot planted itself in the middle of
Main Street
. The impact caused windows in nearby businesses to shatter. The ground exploded and a gas main underneath the street burst, shooting flames high into the air.
"What do we do?" Daphne said.
"We have two choices. Stand and fight and die a horrible, messy death, or run," Jack said.
"Carpet, get us out of here!" Sabrina shouted, and the little rug jumped in speed.
Unfortunately, the giant was not discouraged by how fast the group was making its getaway. A single stride put the monster right behind them, even when the rug increased its speed again. And with every step the big monster took, the pavement crumbled beneath him. Electrical wires snapped, spraying sparks everywhere. The few drivers on the road at that early hour lost control of their cars and crashed into buildings. Jack turned to see the chaos and a broad grin came to his face.
"Finally, this is getting interesting." He laughed.
The carpet took a sharp left turn and Sabrina felt lucky that she hadn't tumbled off, when she noticed that Daphne was no longer sitting next to her. In fact, Daphne was hanging from the back of the carpet, holding on desperately with both hands.
"Jack!" Sabrina cried. The spiky-haired "legend" reached down and grabbed the little girl by the back of her sweatshirt and pulled her onto the carpet.
"Blimey! This is better than a roller coaster." Jack laughed as he sat the girl safely on the carpet.
Daphne hugged her sister. It was the first time Sabrina had ever felt her sister shake from fear. She didn't like it.
"We're going to get ourselves killed," she shouted as the carpet narrowly missed being crushed by a delivery truck filled with chickens.
"Nonsense, we can't die like this. We're immortal," Jack replied.
"You're immortal, we're not. We have to get off this road," Sabrina demanded.
"I see. Must be quite a pain to be human, but the carpet picks the route." Just then an eighteen-wheeler pulled directly into their path and stopped.
"CARPET, UP!" everyone shouted. The carpet slowly rose, sputtering as if it were the little train that couldn't.
"We're not going to make it!" Sabrina shouted.
"Lie down flat," Jack commanded.
"You can't mean what I think you mean!"
Jack nodded, and the two girls reluctantly lay on their backs.