4 SISTERS GRIMM ONCE UPON A CRIME MICHAEL BUCKLEY Pictures by PETER FERGUSON AMULET BOOKS NEW YORK
For my mother Wilma Cuvelier
Get off the streets Sabrina cried There's a monster coming Do you people want to get squashed Daphne shouted but New York City pedestrians were used to ignoring screaming lunatics Daphne turned to Granny Relda with a panicked face They won't listen Granny Relda took the girls by the hand They will Run children children The girls shared a nervous glance as they raced down the sidewalk pushing through the crowd and calling out warnings Soon the family came to an intersection and stopped in their tracks They weren't on the quiet streets of Ferryport Landing anymore this was the big city If they tried to cross against the light a speeding truck or taxi would flatten them for sure While they waited anxiously Sabrina took a quick look back just in time to see the collapse of the entire front of the building they had just fled A huge leg stepped through the rubble and dust With a dreadful crash the gigantic creature freed itself of the store It lifted one of its enormous pointed shoes and kicked a taxicab out of the way sending it slamming into a light pole and then skidding skidding across the intersection where it crashed into a newspaper delivery truck The people on the sidewalk let out a collective scream They're paying attention now Sabrina muttered Panicked pedestrians turned en masse and rushed toward Sabrina and her family Many people were looking back as they ran a young
