"Where's my sister?" Sabrina demanded.
"They've got everyone-your sister, your grandmother, Canis, Charming, the sheriff, Snow, Puck, and my son-at the end of the tunnel. I managed to send you off into the mine to dig, and so far they haven't noticed."
"How long have I been down here?"
"Six hours."
"Six hours! They could all be dead."
"This is the soonest I could get to you," Hamelin said. "They've been watching me, but now that they've tunneled so close to the barrier, they don't seem to care that I ran off."
"Oh, I wouldn't say we don't care," a voice from behind them said.
Sabrina heard the sound of ripping flesh and Hamelin fell to the ground. The frog-girl was behind him, holding a bloody knife.
"You're coming with me," she hissed, grabbing Sabrina roughly by the arm.
Sabrina swung her shovel and hit the monster in the head so hard the frog-girl fell to the ground and moaned. Sabrina rushed to help Hamelin.
"Wendell," Hamelin said, as blood pooled beneath him. "You have to find him and get him out of here."
"I'll come back for you," Sabrina said, and rushed into the nearest tunnel with her only weapon-the shovel-slung over her shoulder.
She scampered forward, stumbled over jagged rocks, and accidentally kicked over some abandoned tools. Dust lifted into the air and filled her lungs, choking her and making it that much harder to concentrate on where she was going. Each step was a challenge to her balance and, unfortunately, her path was a complicated, twisting, turning maze. Every few yards, she would spot a child she recognized from school. Each was glassy-eyed, staggering through the tunnels, hauling buckets of broken stones. None of them seemed to notice Sabrina pass them, even when she stopped and begged for directions. They were still under the piper's spell.
At last she spotted a faint light in the distance. As she came closer to it, the tunnel widened dramatically, revealing an enormous room carved out of the Ferryport Landing bedrock. She paused at the mouth of the room, doing her best to calm her breathing and listen for any movement. Hearing nothing, she lifted the heavy shovel off her shoulder and entered, swinging the weapon in the air in case anyone was about to ambush her. But she was alone. Only a few old buckets and a couple of tools littered the floor. There were no exits other than the way she had come. The tunnel was a dead end.
She raced back the other way, passing more of the zombie-faced, filth-covered kids. Ishould head in the direction they're coming from, Sabrina realized.
She darted down the tunnel, fighting the crowds of children. At one point, Natalie and the frog-girl came lumbering down the tunnel after her, but Sabrina stepped into the line of children, and being as filthy as they were, went unseen by the monsters. The tunnels went on and on. Some led to massive rooms, while others narrowed so that there was hardly room for two children to stand side by side, but eventually Sabrina found what appeared to be the end of the dig.
The room was high and wide and filled with boxes of dynamite and mining tools. A few flaming torches illuminated the room, but there were still deep shadows along the walls that Sabrina could not see into. Anyone could be hiding in one. She knew she was vulnerable.
"I've come for my family," she shouted into the cave. Her voice echoed off the stone walls and bounced around her ears.
Suddenly, something hit Sabrina squarely in the back. Unable to keep her footing, she tumbled over a sharp rock and fell hard onto her shoulder. Searing pain swam through her veins, followed by a dull, throbbing numbness. She tried to scamper to her feet, but her arm hung loosely at her side-it was broken. She cried out more in frustration than pain. But she grew quiet when she heard an odd clicking and hissing sound, followed by a disturbed laugh.
Using her good arm, she picked up the shovel that had slipped from her hand when she'd fallen and swung it around, doing her best to make it seem as if she had not been seriously injured. She walked in small circles, scanning the room for the source of the noise.
A long, spindly leg struck out from the shadows, narrowly missing her head. It slammed against the wall behind her, pulverizing stone into dust. Sabrina lifted the heavy shovel and swung wildly at the hairy leg, sinking its sharp edge deep into the monster's flesh. Shrieks of agony echoed through the cavern.
"I'm not going to be easy to kill," she threatened, hoping her voice sounded more confident to the monster than it did to her own ears.
"Kill you? This is a party!" the voice replied. One of the torches was snatched off the wall. It rose high into the air, shining its light on the ceiling. There, suspended in mounds of thick, horrible spiderweb, were her family and friends. "And you're the guest of honor."
Daphne, Granny Relda, Puck, Mr. Canis, Snow White, Sheriff Hamstead, and Mayor Charming hung above, with only their heads free of the sticky threads. Their mouths were covered as well, but Sabrina could hear Daphne's choked cries and Hamstead's angry groans and knew they were alive.
The spider monster slowly crawled out of the shadows and walked along the ceiling. It was gigantic and as Sabrina stared up at it, she realized that it wasn't simply a giant spider. The lower body was spider-like, but the upper body had the chest, head, and arms of a boy. Even with the two huge pincers that jutted from his mouth and clicked excitedly, she could tell it was Toby.
"Surprised?" Toby laughed.
"Not really," Sabrina admitted. "The bad guy is usually the ugly, giggling idiot.”
"Then, I've got a surprise for you," a voice said from behind her. Sabrina spun around and found Natalie standing there. Sabrina noticed her front tooth was now missing. Then someone else stepped out of the shadows, someone who made Sabrina's heart ache-it was her only potential friend in the entire school-Bella. The blond girl put her arm around Natalie's shoulders and smirked.
"You're one of them, aren't you?" Sabrina said sadly. "Why did you pretend to be my friend?"
"Duh! She's evil," Toby said. He and the girls burst into laughter.
"You killed Mr. Grumpner," Sabrina gasped.
"Yes, I did," Toby said. "He was just too nosy and way too heavy with the homework."
"Don't forget Charlie," Bella said, patting Natalie on the back. "They just kept getting in the way of our father's plans."
Suddenly, the girl leaped into the air, higher than any human being could possibly leap. Even more startling, Bella's hands and feet stuck to the roof of the cave and her body started to change. Her skin looked as if it were filling with water. Dark spots rose to the surface on her hands and legs. Her eyes bugged out to disgusting proportions and migrated to the top of her head. Her shoes exploded off her feet, revealing long, green webbed toes. Within minutes, she had transformed into the frog-girl that had attacked the family and Principal Hamelin. Like a streak of lighting, a long, slippery tongue shot out of her mouth, latched onto Sabrina's shovel, and yanked it out of her hand.
When Sabrina turned, she saw Natalie had already made her transformation into the hairy animal she truly was.
"Rumpelstiltskin is insane," Sabrina said. "When he cracks a hole in the barrier, these tunnels will collapse and kill everyone in them. All the kids will die."
"Actually, the children are already outside, trying to figure out what has happened to them," a new voice said. Mr. Sheepshank emerged from the shadows.
"Mr. Sheepshank!" Sabrina cried. "You have to get out of here. They're going to blow this place sky high!"
"Duh, Sabrina," Toby the spider clicked. "You're even dumber than you seem in class."
"Hush, Toby," the counselor said. He turned to Sabrina. "They're not going to do anything of the sort. I'm going to do it."