UnEnchanted (12 page)

Mina snatched the magazine from Nan and sat
on it so her friend couldn’t grab it back. “I’m serious, Nan. I’m
in over my head, and I need your help.”

Nan sat up and gave Mina her full attention.
“You’re really serious?”

Mina ran her hands over her head. “Dead
serious.”

“
Like, this isn’t some
trick to try to punk me or anything, right?”

“
No. I wish it were, I
really do, but it’s not.”

“
Okay, I’m listening.
Start from the beginning.” Nan crossed her legs Indian-style and
waited patiently through Mina’s whole tale. She barely fidgeted,
never once interrupted, and even didn’t immediately grab her phone
to tweet the update. “Whoa,” was all she said when Mina was
done.

“
You can say that again,”
Mina mumbled unhappily.

“
Whoa,” Nan repeated, and
ducked as Mina threw a pillow at her. “So you were actually
attacked outside the library? That must have been
awesome.”

“
Nan!” Mina chided. “NO! I
could have been killed.”

“
But you weren’t—Brody
saved you. So if Brody saved your life and all, then why is he in
such a fit?”

“
I’m not sure, but I
probably have something to do with it. He wanted me to go to the
police, but if I did, and my mother found out, that would be the
end of us. She would have shipped us out to Canada before you can
say…‘Canucks.’”

“
So you two fought,” Nan
stated.

“
Yes, we argued, and I
demanded he drop me off. And with a huge bruise on the side of my
cheek, I couldn’t very well go to school.” Mina paced her small
bedroom and kept passing her bedroom mirror to look at the
bruise.

“
So in other words, he
hasn’t called you, spoken to you, or seen you since the attack.”
Nan ticked off the words on her hands. “That definitely explains
why he has been out of sorts. MINA, CALL HIM! Let him know that you
are still alive.”

“
Nan, I can’t.” And Mina
truly felt that she couldn’t. She had burned her bridges, and
burned them badly.

“
Nonsense, all you do is
pick up the phone and say, 'Brody, I’m not dead.'” Nan grabbed her
phone and held it up to Mina’s ear. “Here, you can use my
phone.”

Mina glared at Nan in response.

“
Fine.” Nan put her phone
away. “Since it seems you have a lot to do, maybe we should get
cracking and find this Grimoire or whatever and prepare you to
break the curse.” The way Nan said it made it sound as if Mina was
going on a camping trip and needed to find supplies, instead of
possibly meeting her doom. “But before we do anything else today,
we need to eat!”

“
You just ate,” Mina
said.

Nan made a gagging face. “That is not what I
would call eating. That’s biting the bullet to win a bet. I’m
starved. Let’s grab food first. You owe me.”

After a cheap lunch at one of the Mexican
stalls nearby, the girls walked the rows of small shops in the
various districts.

“
So your dad…?” Nan let
her question trail off. It was too delicate a question to ask
outright.

“
Yeah, my dad was chosen
by the curse before me and was caught in one of the more vicious
tales. He didn’t live through it.” Mina walked a little
slower.

“
Do you remember the
night?”

“
No. I guess I must have
suppressed a lot of those memories, and my mom won’t speak about
it. What I do remember was that my dad was happy, loving, and
carefree until my uncle died. That’s when it all changed. He
changed. He was driven, obsessed with breaking the
curse.”

“
He must have loved you a
lot.”

“
That, or he wanted
revenge for Uncle Jack. I don’t know.” Mina felt at a loss,
confused, and a little angry. “So I HAVE to do this, Nan. I have to
finish the tale and break the curse, because if I don’t, it falls
on Charlie, and I can’t let that happen. I have to protect
Charlie.”

“
Sign me up—where do we
start?” Nan said.

“
Nan, you don’t have to
help. You don’t even have to get involved. I only told you because
I needed your support in case I have more episodes where I can’t go
to school.”

“
You can’t tell me about
this curse and then NOT expect me to help. I’m your friend. I care
about you, and I care about Charlie. It’s a done deal.”

“
Nan?”

“
Don’t you 'Nan' me—I’ve
got two semesters of karate under my belt, a serious case of
attitude, and mace on my keychain. I’m ready to tackle any giants
that come my way. Fe Fi Fo FUM!” When she said “Fum,” Nan did a
karate kick in the air and followed with a chest punch.

“
I think that’s the wrong
story.” Mina laughed.

“
What, there’s no giants?
I was really hoping to tackle some giants.” Nan looked
devastated.

“
From what my mom said,
the tales don’t necessarily fit the Grimm guidelines to a ‘T.’ They
adapt to the modern world. Yes there are giants, but it maybe
instead of a thirty-foot giant, you may find yourself facing a
six-foot-six, 300-pound New York Giant football player.”

“
I’ll take that!” Nan
gushed excitedly. “Bring ’em on.” When she had quit jumping around
on the sidewalk, doing martial arts moves and knocking into
complete strangers, she stood up suddenly and looked at
Mina.

“
Yeah, for some reason the
Story is the driving force behind all of this. We can never
underestimate and never trust the Story.”

“
So what happened on the
tour was a fairy tale story? So cool, which one?” Nan was walking
backward and kept throwing quick glances over her
shoulder.

“
I have an idea, but it
doesn’t make sense.” Mina put her fingers in her jacket pockets.
Shaking her head, Mina decided it was nothing and kept
walking.

“
So how do we go about
finding this book? You said your father found it in the library.
What about your uncle? How did the Grimoire come to your
uncle?”

Mina face turned down in anger. “It never
came to Uncle Jack.”

“
But I thought you said
that it comes to the Grimm descendants and helps them?”

“
I did, but it doesn’t
always decide to help them. It chose not to reveal itself to my
Uncle Jack. It didn’t help him, and now he’s dead.”

“
But, Mina, it came to
your father, and he still died.” Nan put her hand on Mina’s
shoulder and looked into her face. “All we can do is pray that it
chooses to help you.”

Mina nodded her head and took a deep breath.
“I’m just so scared. Nan, what if it doesn’t choose to help me and
I’m stuck trying to fight off more people like the man with the
wolf tattoo alone. I can’t do it. I need its help, and I’m scared
it won’t help me.” Mina sniffled, trying to hold back the
tears.

Nan grabbed her friend in a huge hug. “Mina,
you’re the sweetest, most kind-hearted person I know. The Grimoire
will come to you—how can it not? And if it doesn’t, you’ve got me,
and I’m ten times, no, twenty times more helpful than a book. I
told you not to wear that hideous dress to homecoming, and you
didn’t. I kept you away from that disastrous-looking egg salad at
the buffet, and then everyone else got sick. I even stood up for
you when someone made fun of you for always wearing hoodies.”

“
Someone made fun of me?”
Mina asked. This was the first that she had heard about
that.

“
What matters is that I’m
here for you, and with me on your side, you will always win.” Nan
grinned and put her arm through Mina’s.

Her best friend was right. With Nan’s
gumption and determination, they could face anything. There were
times when Mina felt as if she was kryptonite to anyone who came
near her, except for Nan. Nan was immune to Mina’s bad luck and
seemed to thrive off warding it away. It was almost as if Nan was
her personal good luck charm.

“
Oohh! We have to go in
here and see the puppies!” Nan squealed and forcefully dragged Mina
into Pawpers Pet’s. The door jingled when they walked in, and
immediately Mina was hit by the scent of dog, urine, and bleach, so
strong it nearly knocked her over. She fought the urge to breathe
through the sleeve of her red jacket, knowing it would give Nan a
reason to tease her.

Mina didn’t care for pet stores. She loved
animals, but hated going in and seeing hundreds of caged dogs,
cats, birds, and mice. To her it was the same as walking into a
prison and being asked to pick out a cute inmate to take home and
care for. She sighed and walked over to Nan, who was already
gushing over a playful Pomeranian and American Eskimo puppy.

“
Oh, aren’t you the
cutest? Yes, you are! You’re the sweetest thing since cotton
candy,” Nan was saying. The pups yipped and crawled over each other
in an attempt to lick the glass window where her hand rested.
Before long, a cute red-haired employee spotted Nan’s interest and
offered to bring the puppies to the viewing pen. Nan squealed with
glee. “Did you hear that, Mina? We can hold them and play with
them
.”
By the
time Nan turned back, she was nearly as excited as the puppies in
the kennel. Somehow Mina didn’t want to be stuck in a 4x4 cubicle
with the hyperactive Nan and two pups.

“
Uh, I think I’ll pass
this time. I’m going to check out the rest of the pets.” Mina
backed away from Nan, who was already adrift in her own world. She
got an indifferent look from Greg, who was busy either sizing up
his new customer or trying to score Nan’s number.

Leaving the two of them, Mina walked past
the parakeets and canaries, when a melodic whistle made her stop
and turn in surprise. The canaries were singing. She leaned in
toward the birds slowly to listen to their song, careful to not
startle or interrupt them. They fluttered about their white cage,
seemingly impervious to Mina’s nearness. When the singing stopped,
Mina froze, hoping that they would continue their song, but she
noticed that the canaries weren’t the only birds to stop singing.
All of them stopped making any kind of noise at all. The macaws,
parrots, doves, and parakeets were silent, and stood unmoving in
their cages. Never in her life had Mina walked into a pet store and
heard this kind of silence.

She swallowed nervously and began to back
away from the bird aisle and make her way back toward Nan. The
canaries turned their heads and watched her retreat. Being under
the scrutiny of so many black beady eyes was enough to make anyone
jumpy. “It’s just a coincidence,” Mina chanted to herself. “It’s
just a coincidence.” Mina was so nervous that she stumbled into a
large fake tree stand with a gray macaw. The bird crooked his head
and snapped his beak a few times before it spoke one word.
“Doom.”

Chapter 10

The hair stood up on the back of Mina’s
neck. “Doom, doom, doom,” the parakeets echoed. The silence
disappeared as all of the birds seemed to chirp one word over and
over: "Doom. Doom. Doom." Even the canaries seemed to take up the
banter.

Mina covered her ears and ran down the
aisle, putting as much distance as she could between the bewitched
birds and herself. She didn’t stop running until she was in the
aquatics department.

“
Finally!” Mina muttered.
The sound of the birds dissipated into nothingness among the hums
of the stacked fish tanks. Looking around at the fish tanks, Mina
was relieved. There was nothing here that could talk and spew out
frightening words. The fish, either because they had small brains
or were numb to humans, ignored her presence next to their
tanks.

Mina walked aimlessly, staring at the
different fish and thinking back to what had just happened. Had she
imagined the birds speaking to her? Or was this more of the Story’s
magic trying to take control? There wasn’t any way the canaries
could talk, so maybe she had imagined it.

A thumping noise drew
Mina’s attention toward a shelf of tanks along a side wall. There
wasn’t a tag identifying the species in the tank, but the presence
of logs and moss gave her the idea it was some kind of
amphibian.
Thump, thump.
The noise came again, and Mina leaned closer to
look to see what was making the noise. Something smacked itself
against the glass, causing Mina to scream and step back. She could
clearly see it was a toad, who was not only croaking but throwing
himself against the glass as if trying to break through.

Thump! Thump!
More thumping sounds came from one tank over.
Mina stared in horror as frog after frog came out of hiding and
began to throw itself against the tanks. Eight tanks full of frogs
in various sizes began to shake and move with the vibration of the
frenzied frogs. Even the tree frogs were causing their smaller tank
to shudder the slightest bit.

“
Stop it!” Mina hissed
out. “You will hurt yourself.” She reached forward apprehensively
to push the tank with the large toads farther back on the shelf.
The toads took this as a rally point and began to climb on each
other’s backs as a way to reach the top of the cage and lift the
lid off.

Mina looked around in horror and grabbed a
large aquarium rock to weigh down the lid. The other amphibians
must have gotten the same idea, and began to hop, climb, and
otherwise maneuver to the top of the tank so they could escape
through the lid.