But how could she? She'd read the story many times. Little Red Riding Hood was one of the good guys. She wasn't evil. She was a victim. Why would she kidnap Henry and Veronica Grimm?
And then it dawned on her. All the rooms she had seen in the abandoned building she and Puck had been transported to had been hospital rooms. It was the Ferryport Landing Asylum.
She leaped from her chair and hurried through the house, back up the steps, and down the hall to Granny's room. She did her best to open the door without causing it to creak and found her sister sound asleep next to their grandmother. Sabrina rushed to her side and gently shook the little girl awake.
"What's wrong?" Daphne whispered as she rubbed the sleep from the corners of her eyes.
"You were mad at me for not including you when I went to get Mom and Dad, right?" Sabrina said.
Her little sister nodded.
"Then get up. We've got some work to do."
Chapter 3
"You promised Granny you wouldn't go back to that place!" Daphne said as the girls rushed down the hallway.
"No, you promised," Sabrina said.
The little girl stepped in front of her sister and crossed her arms defiantly. "I won't let you go!"
"Daphne, I know who kidnapped our parents," Sabrina said. Her sister gasped. "Who?"
"Little Red Riding Hood."
"Nuh-uh!" Daphne cried.
"I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. That hospital where I found Mom and Dad was an insane asylum. Little Red Riding Hood was a patient there. I have to go back. There might be clues that survived the fire that will tell us where the little nutcase took our parents." Sabrina stepped around her sister and continued down the hallway.
Daphne chased after her. "We should wait until morning. Maybe we can convince Granny to take us up there herself," the little girl said.
"We don't need to bother her with this. She is sad about Mr. Canis and needs some time before she can help us do anything. Unfortunately, every minute we wait is another minute Red Riding Hood can take Mom and Dad farther away," Sabrina said. "She's already got a three-day head start on us."
"But--"
"Daphne, listen!" Sabrina interrupted. "I'm bringing Mom and Dad home with or without you. Every ounce of misery we've experienced in the last year and a half could have been avoided if Mom and Dad hadn't been kidnapped. We would never have been in foster care: we'd still be living at home, safe and sound. If we can get our family back, then things will go back to the way they were."
"What about the Jabberwocky thing?"
"I'll deal with that if and when I have to," Sabrina said, trying to sound confident. Her sister's doubtful expression told her the words didn't sound as convincing as she'd hoped.
"Then we have to take Puck with us," Daphne declared.
"No way!" Sabrina said. Her anger at the boy felt almost physical, like it might bubble over inside her body and pour out her ears.
"Yes way," Daphne insisted. "If you're going to make me break a promise to Granny then you're going to have to let him come along."
"Then I'll go on my own," Sabrina snapped.
"And I will scream at the top of my lungs and wake Granny before you get a chance to go."
"You wouldn't."
"Try me!"
Sabrina snarled. "Fine!" she said as she marched to the door at the end of the hall. On it was a crude drawing of a crocodile that read INTRUDERS WILL B EATIN. Ignoring the sign, Sabrina turned the doorknob and dragged her sister into the room.
Puck's room was every little boy's fantasy come to life, but it wasn't exactly a room. In fact, the only thing about it that even remotely resembled a bedroom was the door that led to it from the hallway. Where the ceiling should have been was an open night sky filled with thousands of twinkling stars shining down on a lagoon below. A roller coaster rolled along a track above the water, and an ice cream truck sat parked on the shore. There was a boxing ring set up off to the right, where a kangaroo wearing boxing shorts and gloves slumbered peacefully. Sabrina noticed a new addition to the room, a mechanical bull splattered with eggs. Dozens of cracked shells and empty egg cartons lay below it.
Puck was nowhere in sight, and the only sounds were those of chirping birds and what was probably a chipmunk digging in the brush. Sabrina shouted for the boy but there was no reply.
"Should we look for him?" Daphne asked.
Sabrina shook her head. "The last time we barged in here we wound up in a vat of glue and buttermilk," she said. She was still having trouble getting the gunk out of her hair. "Hey ugly, we need to talk!" she shouted.
"Maybe he's busy," Daphne said.
"Busy doing what? Picking his nose?"
Just then a spotlight illuminated a book lying on the beach by the lagoon.
"Puck, what's going on?" Sabrina said, suspiciously. Puck didn't reply.
"I want to see what it is," Daphne said and she marched to the lagoon and snatched the book off the sand. She flipped it open before Sabrina could stop her.