What's the Vorpal blade?
Sabrina wondered, but Wilhelm never mentioned it again. Sabrina searched the other journals and found no other references to the Jabberwockies or the blade, except in two entries by her great-great-great-grandfather Spaulding Grimm.
*
March 9th,
When the Lilliputians came to me with the news, I hoped it was just more of their usual mischief, but they were right -- a Jabberwocky is roaming the forest. From what father told me, the monsters had all been killed during the voyage from Europe. Could one of the monsters have attached itself to the bottom of the ship and survived the rest of the trip? The magic mirror has informed me that the beasts hibernate for great periods of time, so it could have hidden in the woods without any of us finding it. It's also possible that someone brought another one over from Wonderland, but who? Like my grandfather, I have turned to the Black Knight. I gave him the Vorpal blade and my prayers. March 10th, 1909 The Black Knight has betrayed me. Instead of hunting the Jabberwocky, he used the Vorpal blade in a way I never thought possible. He cut a hole in the magical barrier that surrounds the town! He's escaped into the world of humans. I blame myself for trusting the knight; his history is filled with double dealings. But there were no other volunteers. I found the sword lying nearby and have it again in my possession, though it will do me little good. There's no one brave enough in this town to go after the monster, and no one I trust with the blade. Baba Yaga has offered her help. She claims she can entrap the monster with the same spell she and my grandfather cast on the town. Once the beast is captured, I'll find a way to destroy the blade. If the rest of the Everafters were to find out that it can cut through the barrier, there would be chaos in the streets. Perhaps the Blue Fairy can be of some assistance.
*
Sabrina closed the journal and looked over at the clock on the wall. She'd been working for nearly three hours and sleep was finally creeping up on her. The only other thing she had discovered was strange but unhelpful--some of the pages in her father's journals had been ripped out, a great many of them in fact, at the end of his writings.
Her eyes fluttered. She wondered if closing them for a moment or two might help.
No sooner had she rested her head on the dining room table and closed her eyes when someone said, "Time to wake up." Sabrina bolted upright in her chair and glanced around the dining room. Sitting at the end of the table was the girl in the red cloak. The Jabberwocky was seated next to her, breathing so heavily Sabrina could feel his breath from across the room. The two intruders were hovering over a filthy tea set laid out on the table. The little girl poured a thick, stringy substance into two cups and set one in front of the monster. Its teeth gnashed and a rope of drool fell out of its mouth.
"Have some tea," the little girl said to Sabrina. She poured a third cup and slid it across the table. Whatever was in it was bubbling and black.
"How did you get in here?" Sabrina asked.
The little girl in red giggled.
Suddenly, Henry and Veronica materialized in the seats next to Sabrina. They looked terrified and worried. "Sabrina, you have to save us," her father said. "You're our only hope," her mother cried. "But I'm just a little girl," Sabrina protested. Just then the shrill cry of an unhappy infant filled the room.
"You've woken the baby!" the little girl wailed.
The Jabberwocky tossed the table aside, sending the tea set smashing to the floor. The creature leaped forward and wrapped its huge talons around Sabrina's neck.
And then Sabrina woke up. The Jabberwocky, the girl in red, and her mom and dad were gone. She sat silently for a moment struggling to calm her breathing.
She glanced down at the journals in front of her, noticing that her grandfather's journal was flipped open. There was something very small written at the bottom of one of the pages and Sabrina had to strain to read it.
*
Ferryport Landing Asylum Patient List --
The Mad Hatter -- diagnosis: schizophrenia Chicken Little -- diagnosis:panic attacks Hansel -- diagnosis:eating disorder (outpatient) The White Rabbit -- diagnosis: OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder, outpatient) The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe -- diagnosis:exhaustion (outpatient)
Ichabod Crane -- diagnosis: night terrors (outpatient)
Little Red Riding Hood -- diagnosis:psychosis with delusions and hallucinations, homicidal tendencies
*
Sabrina's heart rose up into her throat when she saw the last name on the list. The little girl in the red cloak who had taken her parents was Little Red Riding Hood! Now that it was right in front of her, she felt stupid.
How could I not figure that out?