The Grimm Curse (Once Upon A Time Is Now)

by Stephen Carpenter

  “What do we do now?” I whispered. “We can’t just knock on the door at five o’clock in the morning. What if we’re wrong? What if this isn’t the right place?”

  Madeleine bit her lip, thinking.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  The Slaughter Of The Calf

  Kara struggled against the chains that bound her ankles and wrists behind her. She was hog-tied, dangling from the chains that hung from the ceiling of the dungeon, her head on a chopping block, her mouth tightly gagged. She glanced over at Rick, who was strung up just like her, his head on a second block, a few feet away.

  The horrible thing had hauled them up with her snake-arms and strung them up with hardly a struggle, given the immense strength of the numerous snakes that were growing from the beastly witch, growing longer and stronger by the minute. The Gorgon’s reptile eyes had grown back—regenerating the way some reptiles can regenerate their limbs. Kara watched the Gorgon in the firelight from the massive oven, as it sharpened an axe on a grinding wheel a few feet away.

  Both Kara and Rick were out of their minds with fear, unable to think, unable to scream or move, unable to do anything but whimper in the heat from the oven, their tears mingling with the sweat pouring down their faces as they wondered what in the name of God has happened to us?

  Then the Gorgon finished sharpening the axe and approached Kara, who looked up at the thing, terror swelling inside her until she felt she might burst from sheer, brute fear.

  The Gorgon stood over Kara, then rested the axe against the chopping block and sent out a slithering little snake that plucked a hair from Kara’s head.

  “Ow!” Kara cried out, her voice muffled by the gag. “You BITCH!”

  “Now, now,” said the thing, through its dripping jaws. “Such an ugly word from such a pretty young thing.” The Gorgon looked down at Kara’s TRUE LOVE WAITS bracelet. “And an INNOCENT one at that!” the creature hissed with laughter.

  Then the Gorgon held up the axe with one strong snake-arm, and split Kara’s single, plucked, golden hair on the gleaming blade of the axe.

  “Perfect,” the Gorgon purred.

  And then the thing wrapped both thick snake-arms around the axe handle and raised it over her head to slaughter the foul little calf—

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  The Final Encounter

  “Ring it,” Madeleine said.

  We were standing on the front porch, having decided to ring the bell.

  “And what if no one answers?” I said.

  “Kick the door down.”

  “I’m not kicking any doors down,” I said.

  “Ring it,” she said.

  I reached out my hand…and rang the doorbell.

  *

  The bell rang loudly in the dungeon just as the Gorgon brought the axe down with tremendous force—but the ring distracted the Gorgon, and the axe blade missed Kara’s neck by an inch—just close enough to sever the gag covering Kara’s mouth and scratch her cheek.

  Kara SCREAMED.

  *

  I heard the scream and, before I could think twice, I stepped back and kicked the door as hard as I could. It burst open and I ran inside, the mirror in my hand, with Madeleine right behind me. We heard a second, louder scream, and followed the sound to a stairway leading down. We rushed down the curving stairway and I could feel tremendous heat from something below—but before we could reach the end of the stairs, an enormous snake shot up around the curving stairs at us. I heard the slithering hiss before the snake reached us and I dodged it at the last second.

  But Madeleine hadn’t heard it, and the snake whipped around her and whisked her away, down the stairs, right past me, in the blink of an eye.

  I charged down the stairs into what I can only describe as hell—the roaring fire, the roar of the Gorgon, the screams of Madeleine and Kara—whose head was on a chopping block, as was Rick’s, nearby.

  The Gorgon roared at me, holding Madeleine aloft.

  I charged at the thing, holding the mirror out before me. The Gorgon caught a glimpse of itself in the mirror and its eyes began to sizzle before it turned away. It sent another giant snake-arm out at me, but I held up the mirror and the snake whipped around in pain, its flesh burning with foul smoke, bubbling blisters pushing up its leathery scales. The Gorgon roared even louder, then flung Madeleine toward the well. For a horrifying second I thought Madeleine had gone down the well, but I saw that she had grabbed the rocky rim of the well and held on with one hand as the rest of her dangled over the deep drop.

  That one second when I was distracted gave the Gorgon enough time to send its other snake-arm toward me. The thick snake whipped around my hand, which was holding the mirror, and with a SNAP and a shock of PAIN my hand was crushed and the snake pulled away the mirror and flung it to the stone floor of the dungeon, where it smashed to pieces.

  The Gorgon’s roar turned into a kind of awful laughter and I leapt out of the way as its one remaining snake-arm shot toward me once again. I dodged it and landed near Kara and crawled behind the large chopping block, grabbing the axe on the way. The snake shot around the chopping block and grabbed my arm holding the axe. I grabbed the axe in my other hand and, with one quick, strong blow, I severed the head off of the giant snake.

  The Gorgon HOWLED and gray-green fluid squirted from the headless snake as it flailed around wildly like a loose fire hose. I stood up and chopped at the chains binding Kara, keeping one eye on the writhing, screaming Gorgon. The chains were heavy and it took several hard blows with my one good hand to finally break through them and Kara was freed.

  Kara dived under the huge cutting table and I looked over and saw the Gorgon advancing slowly, cautiously toward me, backlit by the roaring fire in the enormous oven behind it. The Gorgon’s snake-arms were slowly regenerating, as were the Gorgon’s eyes. I began chopping at Rick’s chains and, just as he was freed, the snakes had fully regenerated and they shot at me once more. I hit the floor, dodging their first attack—the Gorgon’s eyes weren’t fully regenerated yet, so the snakes missed me by inches. I crawled over to the well and took Madeleine’s hand and tried with my one good hand to pull her up to safety when I felt both snakes whip around my ankles and yank me to the floor and I dropped Madeleine and she tumbled down into the well with a scream which ended abruptly with a horrible thump on the floor of the well below.

  I reached for the axe, but the snakes began to drag me back—back toward the Gorgon, toward the oven. I looked over at Rick and Kara, who were cowering under the cutting table.

  “The axe!” I shouted to them.

  Rick scrambled out from under the table and grabbed the axe and swung with all his might at the snake arms that were dragging me closer to the Gorgon.

  But Rick’s blows bounced off of the snakes with no effect. He hacked away at them, but the blade didn’t even leave a scratch.

  Why the hell could I chop through them but Rick couldn’t—? I thought as I was dragged helplessly past the table and within arm’s length of the putrid-smelling Gorgon—

  And then I remembered.

  “Rick!” I shouted. “Only a virgin—only a virgin can kill it!”

  Rick stared at me like I was crazy, then quickly dodged under the table and handed the axe to Kara.

  Kara looked at Rick and shook her head. “I can’t do it, either,” she said.

  For God’s sake, am I the only one here who—??

  I grabbed the leg of the heavy cutting table as the snakes pulled me toward the Gorgon, who stood before the blazing oven, laughing its awful roaring laugh.

  “I guess true love doesn’t wait after all!” the beast cackled. “Goodbye, Grimm...”

  The snakes, having fully regenerated, were pulling me toward the Gorgon with such force that I thought I might be ripped in half. My hand holding the table leg was sweating and slippery from the snake-slime and I was losing my grip.

  And so that’s exactly what I did—

  I let go.

  I let go o
f the table leg and the Gorgon suddenly staggered backwards, into the door of the oven.

  Howling, roaring, snakes flailing, the Gorgon had stumbled halfway into the oven and the snakes released my ankles and I jumped up—

  “BURN!” I yelled at the Gorgon, in a voice I hardly recognized as my own, and I shoved the wretched, boiling, stinking monster into the blazing oven and slammed the door.

  I will spare you the sights and sounds and smells of what followed. Believe me, you don’t want to know.

  But the Gorgon was soon gone.

  All gone.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  I Am The Huntsman

  I found Madeleine’s phone and called her mom. A blur of police, ambulances, and firefighters (who pulled Madeleine up from the well) came and went. Madeleine was hurt pretty bad, but she is up and around at the hospital now, and complaining already about wanting to go home. But having your mom as your nurse is about as much fun as having your mom as your teacher.

  I spent three nights in the hospital, after they reset the bones in my hand. It’s getting stronger, and I am finally typing this last chapter with both hands. They tell me it will heal up fine, eventually.

  I made sure I was at Madeleine’s bedside when she woke up. She had an arm and a leg in traction and they were pumping all kinds of drugs into her, but I waited. And when she opened her eyes and looked at me, I said, simply, “She’s gone.” And Madeleine understood. Then she closed her eyes and slept for a full day.

  On the next day, I brought her a copy of The Woodland News, which had a photograph of Rachel Eaton under the headline “SERIAL KILLER SLAIN.” I read the story to Madeleine, all about how Sheriff Cord had pieced together the “evidence” to prove Rachel Eaton had killed the Peyton twins, and about how they discovered us poor, helpless kids in her dungeon. The part about how she wound up in the oven was a little vague, but Sheriff Cord assured the public that there would be an inquest, which he would gladly hold publicly for all to witness…

  “And for him to get his picture in the paper,” Madeleine said, as I finished reading the article.

  “Kara came by yesterday,” I said. “When you were asleep. She didn’t remember anything.”

  “The victims never remember,” Madeleine said. “Only the Huntsman and his apprentice.”

  I took her hand.

  “Thanks,” I said. “For believing in me.”

  “I didn’t,” she said, with a small, sly smile. “But what choice did I have?”

  We sat there for a moment like that, not saying anything. A nurse came and brought some juice and some food, and then left.

  “But you did it,” Madeleine said.

  “Yeah,” I smiled. “I guess I did.”

  “You know this is just the beginning,” she said.

  “I know,” I said.

  “So you’re staying,” she said it like a statement, not a question.

  “What choice do I have?” I said, and she smiled again. There was something about her smile, the way the corners of her mouth turned down, not up…something about it just kind of got to me. Then, just as her eyelids got heavy and she started to drift off, I leaned over and kissed her cheek.

  “Welcome home, Jacob,” she murmured in my ear.

  *

  I finished reading the will last night. The last part I read was titled The Provenance Of The Special Huntsman. It read:

  In the event that the last living Grimm descendent does not fully execute the Vow of Initiation, he may grow to gain full powers granted unto him as a result of actions of extreme courage and valor. Such a Huntsman may, eventually, exceed the powers of those who are Initiated. Such Huntsmen will bear a special burden, however, in that they must summon their own courage to bring their powers to bear. Their advantage will be that they have earned their powers, rather than having them granted unto them. Their powers will therefore become their own, and they may ultimately master them to the utmost ability of the finest and strongest Huntsmen of all, but only as long as their valor, courage, and strength of character will sustain them.

  I memorized this part of the will, and I will never forget it. I will defend it to my death.

  *

  Jenna has agreed to become my legal guardian, and I will technically be living at her house, with Madeleine, at least until I’m eighteen. But I spend most of my time at Eustace’s house—my house, now. I will start school at Woodland High next week, and I am already a kind of minor celebrity. People recognize me on the street, and they treat me with kindness—and more than a little curiosity. I suspect it’s always been that way for we Grimms.

  When I cleaned up the house and had the windows replaced in the dining room, some workers discovered a letter that Eustace had written to me on the night of his death. I took it with me one late afternoon as the workers were cleaning up, and I sat on the steps of the bandstand at the center of the town square and read it:

  My Beloved Jacob,

  It breaks my heart to write you this letter, just as it broke my heart to send you away after your parents were gone. The spell that was placed on our family centuries ago is a sword with two edges: we were able to see and recognize the creatures that bedevil the birthplace of the last living Grimm descendent in each generation—in our case, Woodland.

  But the other edge of the sword is that we Grimms bear the terrible, lonely responsibility of protecting the innocents around us. My fondest hope was that I could find a way to end this curse, and that you and I could be reunited.

  But I failed. And now that you know your destiny, you know the truth about your family, and you will learn more as you take up the sword your fathers carried. Trust what you feel, and your greatest fears will become your greatest strengths.

  Love,

  Your Uncle Eustace.

  *

  I sat on the bandstand steps for a long time after finishing the letter. I watched a raven fly overhead and, as it grew dark, I saw a fox dart quickly around the trunk of a tree at the edge of the square. The fox sat up and looked at me for a long moment, and I held its gaze until it disappeared into the shadows.

  I had the feeling I would see him again.