The Sisters Grimm: Book Eight: The Inside Story by Michael Buckley, Peter Ferguson

onto a high branch. A moment later he morphed back to his true form.
    “We’ll be safe here,” Puck said as they eyed the sea of cattle below.
    “Are you sure?” Daphne said. “Look!”
    From within the stampede, Sabrina spotted a herd of creatures altogether unlike the cows. These were small, pink, and fast, with little legs and arms to scurry along the ground.
    “Revisers!” Sabrina cried.
    Everything that got in the way of the revisers was quickly devoured and vanished. In fact, the very jungle was disappearing—every inch was being replaced with an empty, white void.
    “I vote that we get out of here!” Daphne shouted.
    “I second that,” Sabrina said.
    Puck’s wings unfolded and he grabbed the girls. Soon the trio was zipping along the tree line, high above the hungry monsters, but Sabrina felt far from safe. The entire world was vanishing, not just the trees and animals—even the night sky was being devoured. Each of the little pink creatures was an eating machine, chomping on the cattle, the trees, the ground, everything. The Editor’s words echoed in her mind.
    Leave now or my revisers will devour you .
    Daphne’s eyes were wide with fear. “They’re very fast.”
    “Don’t worry. I’m faster!” Puck shouted. “Besides, would I let something happen to my fiancée and my future sister-in-law? While we’re on the subject, I was hoping we could discuss our wedding cake. I’d like to go traditional—you know, something stuffed with wild boar and drizzled with spider icing. What do you think, honey? Oh, and when do you want to go and look at engagement rings?”
    Sabrina wondered if it would be better to shake herself loose and die on the jungle floor rather than take more of the stinky boy’s teasing. “You keep flapping your mouth, fairy, and I’m going to engage my fist to your lip.”
    Just then, Puck’s body jerked to a sudden stop. All three of the children fell like stones. They landed hard on the ground and lay there for a moment, groaning in pain. Sharp agony raced along Sabrina’s hip and another pain ached in her right shoulder.
    “I didn’t see that branch,” Puck said.
    “Branch? It felt like a truck to me,” Daphne said as she crawled to her feet.
    Sabrina sat up, nursing her wounds. She was sure her whole left side would be black-and-blue in the morning. “We have to keep moving.”
    The three helped one another up and began to stagger forward. There was no path to follow and the exposed roots and heavy brush did not make walking easy. Before long, Sabrina could hear the hungry, chattering teeth of the Editor’s pets behind her. She turned and spotted one darting in the undergrowth several yards behind them.
    How could she have chased after Mirror into this crazy book? She had signed their death warrant because she had made another dumb mistake . . .
    “There’s the door!” Daphne shouted.
    Sabrina peered into the brush. Something white was standing in the bushes up ahead—something that didn’t belong there. Daphne was right! There was a door, but could they reach it before the revisers devoured them? She dug deep into herself and found the energy to run harder and faster. Her determination to save her family and herself made the pain in her hips and legs vanish.
    Before she knew it, she was turning the knob and opening the door. Daphne and Puck tumbled through and Sabrina started to follow. Before she could, a reviser clamped down on her loincloth. It growled and tore at the cloth. Sabrina could feel its incredible strength as it pulled her back with its teeth, and she fell to the ground. It dragged her away along the ground toward the hungry jaws of the rest of its pack. She kicked at the creature, pounding it with her feet, but nothing could stop it.
    She was sure she was about to die when the creature let go of her loincloth and was lifted off the ground. It squirmed and cried as if in the hold of a viselike grip, but there was no one there holding it up.