The grimmnasium doors swung open just as you all ran past.

Daring: Quick! Come inside!

The sound of breaking glass raged behind them. The Raven-raven soared through the open doorway of the Grimmnasium after the hutling. Cedar was about to follow but was struck from the side.

A folding chair pounced on top of her, folding and unfolding its seat menacingly. About to kick the thing off, Cedar felt herself pale (for real) at the sight behind the chair.

A tornado of mirror glass the size of a mature oak tree rounded the corner and spun down the hall. It was beautiful, the way the light reflected off each individual piece of sharpened glass, and Cedar found herself wondering what colors of paint she’d use to create the scene on canvas.

You grabbed the chair and threw it off of her. Instead of going after you, it charged the storm. And was instantly shredded to bits.

Lizzie shook her fist at the disintegrated chair.

Lizzie: That will teach you to unceremoniously tackle the personal acquaintance of a royal heir to Wond....

Y/N: Come on!

You grabbed the girls and began pulling Cedar and Lizzie inside the Grimmnasium. Glass shards began pelting the metal doors just as Daring slammed them shut.

He turned to the girls with a brilliant smile, leaning against the door casually as if not one bit worried about the screaming shardstorm pelting the other side of the door.

Daring: Good afternoon, ladies. Y/N. A pleasure to save you.

Lizzie rolled her eyes.

Cedar: Can it get through that door?

Daring gave the door a hard slap.

Daring: Dwarven metal. Tough stuff.

Y/N: Hiding in the Grimmnasium. Good thinking.

You suddenly wanted to gag. Did you just compliment Daring Charming? Was it the end of the world?

Cedar was shivering from her noncreaky toes to her soft shoulders, her new, real body confused by new, real bruises forming from that rogue chair attack. She found herself wondering if maybe there was a way to bypass being regular skin or wood, and get turned into dwarven metal instead.

Daring: But I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure, enchanting lady.

Daring kissed the back of Cedar’s hand. She felt the warmth of his lips, and mother-goosebumps scattered across her arm.

Daring: New here? I’m Daring Charming, but the girls just call me Prince Daring Charming.

He winked.

Lizzie rolled her eyes again. Cedar wanted to roll her eyes, too. After all, she’d never been one to bat her eyelashes at Daring or sigh whenever he slew dragons or lifted heavy objects or buttered his bread in muscle-flexing, manly motions.

Still, she’d never felt the needle-thin tap dance of mother-goosebumps across real skin. She’d never experienced this warm, pleasant rumble in her belly and dizzy, tingling confusion in her head. If a simple kiss on the hand from Daring Charming could produce such sensations, what would her whole life be like now that she was real? Maybe she didn’t want to be wood, or dwarven metal. Despite pain and fear, realness had some charming perks.

Y/N: That’s Cedar, you gooseberry brain. She changed.

Daring: She’s not the only one.

The Grimmnasium was a huge open room with glossy hardwood floors, bleachers, a basketball court in the center, and a running track around the edges. Today it seemed darker than normal, and unfamiliar, un-sporty objects cluttered everywhere.

Lizzie: What a mess.

Lizzie began adjusting her black gloves as if longing to get to work.

Daring: Hunter, Dexter, and I were practicing tower-climbing when the changes started. So we gathered all the students we could find to take refuge here. Rescuing those in distress, that’s what I do.

He winked at Cedar again.

Daring began pointing out inanimate objects that had been their classmates: a pair of crystalline shoes that had been Ashlynn Ella, a hair tie that was once Poppy. As his arm extended, Cedar noticed a light sheen of gray fur covering Daring’s skin.

Lizzie: You’ve aged a great deal since I saw you last, Charming.

Daring: Gray before your time, though perhaps not yet strangled by an octopus.

Daring looked at the backs of his hands and laughed nervously.

Daring: Yeah. Everyone was fine when we came in here. I mean, Hunter had leaves for hair, and a rose was blooming behind Briar’s ear, but…then things got worse.

Y/N: What about Ruby? Have you seen my sister?

Daring looked at you with a strange expression. Then, he placed a gentle hand on your shoulder. He motioned for you to follow.

He then pointed at a pair of silver shoes.

Daring: She changed about three minutes before you all showed up. I'm sorry.

Cedar noticed a small tree growing out of the floor. There was an ax tangled in its leaves, and its branches arched protectively over the crystal shoes. Behind it, a pink rosebush grew up one wall.

Cedar: Oh, no.

Kitty: At least Ashlynn wasn’t turned into hot cinders.

Kitty was testing a shoe’s size with her own foot.

Kitty: That would be very awkward for flammable Huntsman the Tree here.

A golden lock and a large brass egg lying by Cedar’s feet were surely Blondie and Humphrey. Cedar could sense a blister forming on her foot, but the rest of the students seemed to have changed in the opposite direction from her, less real, less human.

A wolf cub with bright red fur dashed across the Grimmnasium and rubbed her head against your ankles.

Y/N: Cerise?

The cub wagged her tail and ran off.

An enormous black-and-white-checkered cygnet shedding loose feathers and squawking had to be Duchess.

A sleigh bell with fairy wings awkwardly flitted past Cedar, clanging mournfully.

Cedar: Faybelle?

The lights in the Grimmnasium began to flash. Once, twice, three times.

Then every mirror in the room flickered, and Milton Grimm’s face appeared in them.

Mr. Grimm: Students! I am using our emergency broadcast system to broadcast a state of emergency. Ever After High has been infected with a wild magic. Madam Baba Yaga has conducted a magical analysis and believes the cause is… is… well, is quite distressing, so please prepare yourselves. We believe the Jabberwock has returned.

Cedar gasped. The inanimate objects in the room rustled. The Raven-raven squawked and flapped around in circles.

Y/N: Come on! You couldn't have just told us that earlier?! You old son of a....

Mr. Grimm: Baba Yaga is even now preparing a magical barrier that will completely enclose the school grounds in order to contain the Jabberwock’s infection. If you are still able, please exit the grounds immediately. In fifteen minutes, the barrier will go up, and anyone inside the school will be quarantined until we resolve the issue. Thank you.

Daring: Quarantined?

Kitty: He means trapped.

You noticed that her hair gaining a bit more volume than usual. Her constant smile seemed absolutely terrified.

Kitty: They’re going to trap us in here! Till they contain the…the infection.

Cedar: Wait… the Jabberwock’s infection? That beast is what’s changing everything in here? So…is it in the school, too?

Kitty squeaked and popped out of sight.

The image of a clock replaced Grimm’s face. One hand pointed at the number three, and the second hand of the clock began to spin backward.

Lizzie: Off with our heads!

Daring drew his sword and then paused.

Daring: Wait. What?

You pushed his sword down.

Lizzie cleared her throat.

Lizzie: I mean, let’s move! We’ve got to get out of here! Everyone, grab as many students as you can and run!

Daring nodded, sheathed his sword, and promptly disappeared.

Lizzie: Enough disappearing! I have had it with the sudden disappearing!

Kitty: Again, not disappeared.

She reappeared next to you and nodded downward.

A furry creature the height of Lizzie’s knee stood with paws on hips, its sharp teeth bright white as if recently bleached. It was the cutest little beastie Cedar had ever seen, with wide eyes and tiny horns, wearing perfectly tailored mini-replicas of Daring’s clothing. It let out a squeaky roar.

Y/N: Wait, how does that make sense? Isn't everyone changing to objects that coincide with their personalities or something? Why did he turn into a little beast..........oh. Oh! Oh my Hex!

Lizzie: Right. Daring-beastie, can you carry Blondie?

Daring: <Rrryes>

The little beast growled, and scampered over to the golden lock.

Cedar picked up the Holly lock and examined the Briar rosebush to see if there was any way to safely uproot it. She glanced at the countdown clock.

One minute had already passed. She blinked and looked again. The second hand on the clock was spinning faster and faster.

Cedar: We’re not going to make it!

Maddie: The hutling can carry us. It’s a good runner, and I’m sure it wants to get out, too.

The hutling bobbed its roof, and its front door swung open.

Lizzie flung the Faybelle bell into the hut with a clang and clambered through the door. You snatched up the silver slippers and gently stuffed them into your jacket pocket.

Kitty clomped closer, wearing the Ashlynn shoes.

Kitty: Tell me how going in there doesn’t count as that thing eating us.

Maddie: Hutling is nice!

Maddie dropped Earl Grey onto her hat and pocketing the Humphrey egg before hoisting herself through the door.

Maddie: It only eats wood and things like that.

Cedar instinctively cringed, but then remembered she wasn’t wooden anymore.

Cedar: Here are Poppy and Cerise. But what about the others?… Hunter and Briar…

The clock hand spun faster, filling the room with a buzzing sound. You couldn't just leave your friends behind. Not like this. You managed to get most students inside, but you needed to make a choice. Risk getting everyone stuck in here, or make a sacrifice.

Y/N: A tree and a rosebush won’t fit in here.

You grabbed Cedar’s arm and pulled her into the hut, the door slamming shut behind her.

The inside looked exactly like that of a small one-room cottage, complete with a tiny couch and chair, table, and fireplace, so cramped even Maddie couldn’t stand upright. You crouch-ran to one of the tiny windows.

The Daring beastie was standing protectively in front of the Briar rosebush. He was gesturing frantically.

Y/N: I felt like I was forgetting something.

You could leave him behind. Maybe it'll knock him down a few pegs. But, he also went out of his way to try and get everyone to safety. And he was actually considerate when he showed you Ruby.

You groaned.

Y/N: Daring is still out there!

The window she was looking through swung open even as the hut began to run. The little Daring monster closed one eye as if aiming, pulled back his arm, and hurled the golden lock straight through the open window, missing you by an inch. The window slammed shut, and you caught a glimpse of a fuzzy Daring giving her a thumbs-up before the hutling ran out of the Grimmnasium at top speed.

Lizzie: Run, hut-beast! Take us beyond the grounds of Ever After High!

Just then, the timer thundered through the school, sounding like a cuckoo clock in a great deal of pain.

CUCKOO! CUCKOOOO! CUCKOOOOOOOO!

Cedar: No way that was fifteen minutes!

Lizzie: Bah. Outside the school, it might have been. Sometimes in Wonderland, time moves sideways.

Cedar: No, no, we have to get out!

The hutling had pushed its way past the broken chairs outside the Grimmnasium door and was jogging through the corridor. There was a loud frizzle and a hiss, and through the window you could see the sky outside turn a deep yellow, the color of Baba Yaga’s magic. The magic barrier was up.

Y/N: We’re trapped. We need to…to…get help! Find some teachers or adults, perhaps a helpful woodsman or fairy godmother, maybe a wise old crone who turns out to be a good witch after we share some bread with her.....

Cedar: We don’t have any bread.

Lizzie: I have a butter knife!

Cedar: You know what I mean!

Her heart was pounding, her skin felt thin as paper, and she couldn’t seem to catch her breath. You kneeled down next to her and tried to help.

Y/N: In the stories, the brave young girls with pure hearts always get help from some wise adult person, and we need to find that wise adult person immediately!

Kitty peered out a window.

Kitty: Calm down, freaker-hosen. This doesn’t look like any story I’ve read before.

Cedar was freaking out. Old Cedar might get sad and quiet and lonely, but shout frantically at her friends? Maybe changing into a real girl had made her loopy.

Lizzie: We must help ourselves. I am the daughter of the Queen of Hearts. I will simply rule this unruly land and squeeze it into my control. It’s already half Wonderland. Perhaps all it needs is a monarch.

Y/N: Uh, no. No that's not what this needs right now. We still have an entire Jabberwocky out there.

Cedar detected a slight quaver in your voice. You were always in control, wasn’t she? Always sure you could be in control, anyway, even if you weren’t. Cedar took several deep breaths. This whole breathing thing was new to her, but she was finding that doing it deep and slow was much more calming than shallow and fast.

Cedar: They have to let us out.

She pulled her MirrorPhone from her pocket to call the headmaster or her father.

Cedar: No! It says ‘out of area.’ I always get a signal in the school. How can it be out of area?

Kitty: Our areas have slipped and nipped. Everything is upside down and sideways, except what’s inside out. There may also be a cherry on top.

Cedar: You guys have to fix this! Everyone changed but you. The Jabberwock is trying to magic Ever After into Wonderland, but you’re already Wonderlandian, so its magic doesn’t affect you, right? You’re immune?

Maddie: It has changed us a little. I mean, don’t you all feel a little more… reasonable?

Cedar: Being more reasonable is a good thing.

Cedar continued tapping at her MirrorPhone just in case it would suddenly work.

Lizzie: Flesh puppet.

Lizzie began straightening the small curtains on the window that had allowed the Blondie lock entrance.

Lizzie: We are inside a cottage walking around on chicken legs. What use is reason right now? Besides, Y/N isn't Wonderlandian yet here he is while his sister is a pair of shoes.

Y/N: Hey!

Everyone looked at you. She was right. You seemed to be completely immune to whatever magic was happening. You just sighed.

Y/N: My ring makes it so that magic doesn't affect me. If I take it off, it could be trouble.

Lizzie bustled about nervously, tidying up the cottage, setting Faybelle upright, straightening chairs. It was like she was playing house. It didn’t seem to matter to her that nothing made sense, only that it was out of order.

Cedar: You’re always talking about order. So put it in order!

Cedar pointed at the window. Several winged cheeses flew by.

Lizzie glared at Cedar icily and opened her mouth to surely express the certain knowledge that A FOX PLUGGED THE FENCE.

Maddie stopped stOCK-STILL. A QUILL SPILLED ILL TRILLS.

Maddie: Oh, no.

Kitty: Not good.

A FROG SQUIRRELED TWICE AND BACKED UP.

Y/N: What’s not good? What’s wrong now?

Lizzie: Nothing, surely. Right? Keep the hutling moving.

But worry striPED ALONG THE RIVER.

Maddie: Narrator? You’re just teasing us with the jibber and jabber, right?

It was clear that something was indeed GALUMPHING, but with a certain SPECIFIC SOCK, THERE WOULD BE A DOG.

Maddie: The narration has gone wonky.

Maddie saNDWICHED.

Maddie: Maybe the Jabberwock’s magic affects everyone, even our Narrator! Um, Narrator? Narrator, are you okay?

Please don’t interrupt, Maddie. Everything is happening so rapidly I need complete concentration to observe and describe the FIDDLE-PIE-MY, OH

THERE SHE GOES, WEEEE!

Maddie: The, uh, the fiddle-pie-my? Narrator, do you speak Riddlish? Hat-tastic! But I couldn’t quite translate it. What was that second part again?

I’m not speaking Riddlish. What I’m trying to say is this is a situation of UTMOST ROAST BEEF, and if I don’t CACKLE TACKLE FINGER IN

MY EYE, KNOCKS AT THE DOOR, A CHICKEN IN DISGUISE?

Maddie: While the idea of “utmost roast beef” seems perfectly lovely, and I am hextremely fond of the odd thing, the oddness in your speaking is making me a little nervous.

Oh dear. Maddie, something is wrong with me. I can hear it now. I’m trying to tell the story, but HUMPTY LUMPTY OATMEAL WITH RAISINS! Oh no! I’m SPICY BUTTERED NOODLES! I’m LOBSTER SAUCE!

Maddie: No! Narrator, the magic just can’t change you, too! If you can’t tell the story, then it stops right here, skipping over the climax and resolution straight to The End, and Raven’s still a raven and Apple’s still an apple and Ever After High is jabberwocked forever after with no hope of undoing the doneness! Please, Narrator, you have to keep narrating! Please!

SPINACH BETWEEN MY TOES!

Maddie: Narrator?

SAND IN THE SANDWICH, MY, WHAT A CRUNCHY LUNCH!

Maddie: Okay. It’s going to be okay. I am the daughter of the Mad Hatter. I must put on my thinking cap and figure this out. Let’s see, I’m sure I have a thinking cap in my Hat of Many Things… ah-ha! Here it is, hiding under Apple-apple. Well, the cap fits a little snug, but it’ll do. So think. No matter what, the story must go on. I read that in the Narration hextbook I borrowed from the library. And in order for a story to go on, it must have a Narrator. So if our Narrator is unable to fulfill the narration duties, we simply find an alternate Narrator. Someone who is untouched by the mystery-making magic. Which would mean a Wonderlandian. Perhaps someone who understands the basics of narration because she has been eavesdropping on Narrators her whole life. But… who could that be?

SQUIGGLE THE TIMES!

Y/N: Maddie, who are you talking to right now? Is it the Narrator? Can she tell us what's going on or how to fix it?

MONKEY AND APPLES!

Maddie: I don’t know what you’re saying! You’re not speaking Riddlish, and you’re not speaking a riddle. Help me, Narrator, please! Who can narrate us through this story?

A DANCE OF SPOONS, STIRRING CLOUDS OF MILK.

Maddie: I wish I could figure out what you’re saying. But with this tiny thinking cap on, all I can think about is the tightness around my brow. I wish I could figure out what you’re saying. But with this tiny thinking cap on, all I can think about is the tightness around my brow.

DANCING IN THE RIVER OF STARS

Maddie: And that makes me think of my own head. And that makes me think of me. Me. Me?

Kitty; Yes, already! You! There’s no one else!

Maddie: Really, Kitty? You think I should narrate the story? That seems like a hero’s job, something Raven or Apple would do to save the day. But I’m a Hatter. I have read about different types of characters in a narration book, and I’m clearly the quirky best friend or the comic relief. I’m the helper, not the doer. I’m definitely not the hero!

CINDERS AND ELEPHANT PIE. CINDERS AND ELEPHANT PIE!

Maddie: Okay. Okay. I’m the Narrator!

Y/N: What?

Cedar: Maddie? What in the timbersticks is going on?

Maddie: Uncertain how to proceed, Madeline Hatter began to speak, she said.

Y/N: Um, Maddie, what are you talking about?”

Maddie: All of her still human friends were staring at her like Madeline had just eaten an entire gooseberry pie with her nose, she said.

Cedar: Did Maddie get hit on the head?

Lizzie: I don’t think so, but I am always willing to give head-bonking a try. Fetch me a flamingo!

Maddie: Maddie shook her head to clear cobwebs and tried to figure out this narration thing without talking, um, she said.… I mean, Maddie said. Wait. Am I supposed to say that out loud?

Cedar: I’m confused.

Y/N; You aren’t the only one.

Maddie: Oh dear, I’m really making a mess of this.

Kitty: Wait! Do that. That was more like how the Narrator does it.

Cedar: This is truly troubling.

She began to look around nervously.

Kitty: That, too!

Kitty was getting unusually excited.

Kitty: Exactly! You noticed that I’m unusually excited, and you narrated that information. Wait… how did you do that? I can’t normally hear your thoughts?

Maddie: I’m trying out something new. I’m not just thinking about what’s going on, I’m narrating it. It’s different from talking and different from normal thinking. It’s thinking out loud.

Kitty: But how? That’s amazing, I wonder if, no, I don’t wonder anything. I am Kitty Cheshire and I do not get involved. What’s the matter with me? Shutting up now, cat’s got my tongue and all that.

Lizzie: What in the blighted name of bunnies is going on? Tell me at once!

Maddie: The Narrator is sick.

Y/N: Sick? How can a bodiless thing one barely believes exists be sick?

Lizzie: And why do we apparently care?

Maddie: The Jabberwock’s magic is transforming our Narrator, too.

Y/N: Without a Narrator, the story would end.

Cedar's eyebrows raised up high as if trying to make room for all the thoughts filling her head.

Cedar: We would stay here, trapped inside a school that is all hexed up, being hunted by furniture, Raven and Apple and Cerise and all our friends transformed. Forever after.

The red-haired wolf cub nuzzled your ankle.

Kitty: She’s keeping the story going.

Kitty nodded at me. Er, nodding at Maddie.

Kitty: She’s trying to take over for the Narrator.

You picked up Cerise and held her like a baby.

Y/N: Is that even possible?

Lizzie; Well, today is indeed a day of absurdicy and idiotity. But it is only right that the post be taken over by someone from our noble homeland. Carry on, Maddie. I will allow it.

You shrugged. Might as well go with the ride for now, Ozzie.

Cedar: Okay, first priority, we need to figure out what to do now.

Y/N: What do you think, Lizzie? Should we try to find a way out of the school, or would that damage the magical barrier that’s keeping the Jabberwock in? Should we just keep hiding inside the hutling till the faculty gets rid of the Jabberwock?

At the mention of the Jabberwock, Kitty’s face went big-eyed and wince-y.

Lizzie: Kitty Cheshire!

Lizzie declared her plan all loud and grand-like.

Lizzie: Disappear your way out of the school, beyond the magic barrier, and find Headmaster Grimm.

Kitty’s nose went wrinkle-winkly, and she opened her mouth as if she would hiss. But instead, she shrugged and disappeared as Lizzie had suggested. Or ordered. Or something.

Kitty reappeared again a minute later, her Cheshire grin still grinning but not in a happy-making way. Now she did hiss.

Kitty: I can’t. I’m trapped by the barrier, too. I do not like being trapped.

Y/N: Maddie, what do you think?

But Maddie had a hard time thinking about the problem and the solving.

Maddie was too busy fretting, and fretting was a thing Maddie was not very good at, having had very little practice.

HIGGLEDY-PIGGLEDY PUDDING OF RYE, KISS THE BOOK AND NEVER CRY.

Maddie: Oh! I think the not-me-Narrator is trying to give us a clue.

Maddie repeated the higgledy-and-cry bit. Kitty and Lizzie both nodded as if she’d just said something very un-boring, but Cedar rubbed her new, real eyes and shook her new, real head, worried that these Wonderlandians were as touched by the muddling magic as Daring-beastie and Raven-raven.

You just sighed. This was going to be a whole thing. You just wondered if you could find some way to bring everyone back.

Wait, how do I… that is, how did Maddie know what Cedar and you were thinking and feeling? Maddie never had before, not unless she overheard the Narrator gabbing about it.

KISS THE BOOK.

Maddie had a library book in her backpack. She pulled it out: A Narrative History of the Grand Craft of Narration, by Narrators Anonymous. She scanned the first chapter, “Narration Basics.”

Lizzie: We’ll just sit here while you read a book, then.

Maddie: According to the book, Narrators have splendid, magicky insight into characters’ thoughts and motivations. This insight usually only comes after years of training, but some Narrators have so much desire to storytell, their skills come more quickly. Tea-riffic! Ooh, and did you know that the Narration Board writes down all of Ever After’s narrated stories? The Narration Board prints them and sends them to libraries and bookstores. Real people far, far away might actually read what I narrate here! So hexciting!

Y/N: What people? How?

Maddie: I don’t know, but our conversation is probably being written down right now. And in fact, in the slippy-slinky way of time, somewhere in the Lands and Otherlands, someone could be reading it at this very moment.

You suddenly blushed when you looked down at the wolf cub. Was every little thing being written? Even that moment between Cerise and you in the woods?

Kitty: You and Cerise had a moment?

The girls all turned to you. You just blushed even deeper which I, uh, Maddie found utterly adorable.

Y/N: N-No. Just, get back to the Narrator thing.

Maddie leaned forward, squinting, and for the barest second, the world of cottages and castles and forests and magic parted, and she spied, far, far away and yet as close as her nose, someone holding the story she was narrating.

A reader. (That’s you.) Maddie winked. (Go ahead and wink back.) Maddie caught her breath. The story she was helping to tell had the power to connect characters and readers. This narration thing was as delightful as a bag of goldyfish!

Seemingly by its own power, the narration book flipped to another page near the back.

Maddie: Oh, to become a real Narrator, even just a temporary one, I’m supposed to take the Narrator’s Oath. Okey-dokey, here I go.

She cleared her throat.

Maddie: ‘I, your name here, hereby take...’

Y/N: I don’t think you actually say ‘your name here.’ You probably say your actual name.

Maddie: Oh! Well, that doesn’t make much sense, but all right. ‘I, Madeline Hatter, hereby take the sacred Oath of Narration. I swear to: only speak the truth; follow the story wherever it may lead; observe all that happens but report only the most important and interesting parts; honor the characters in both their greatness and their mistakes; serve only the story and the reader and no other, be it king or queen or baker or candlestick maker; and never, ever, ever, ever, ever interfere with the story. Ever. If I so do my best, may this story be recorded and printed and zipped and zapped into hands and eyes and ears and minds and hearts everywhere, and may it no longer be my story but belong to each reader who drinks it in, to make them bigger or smaller as needed; to fill in those tiny holes and smooth over the rough places; to make them sigh and laugh and dream and wonder; to pass a lonely afternoon or enliven a dull evening; to in every regard do just what a story is supposed to do, which is become whatever each reader needs most at that moment. And for this noble mission I pledge my skills and shortcomings, my talents and my weaknesses, until The End.

Maddie exhaled. Everything was so quiet you could hear the cottage breathing. That was a very long passage. Maddie wondered how many people just skimmed past it.

Cedar: Did the oath work? Are you officially our Narrator? Can the story go on?

Maddie: I think so. I feel less worried, but we won’t know if it worked till the story is over.

And in the meantime, I’ll keep narrating the story! Oh wait, a Narrator isn’t supposed to say “I.” That rule was in Chapter One. But in my experience, they do sometimes say ahem.

So, ahem. The girls sat in the walking cottage and argued about what to do next. You simply sat on the couch with the pup, formerly Cerise, and watched. You knew getting involved would only give you more headaches.

Cedar: It doesn’t seem fair.

The Raven-raven alighted on her head.

Cedar: Some got so changed they can’t speak anymore while I got what I’ve always wanted.

Maddie: I suspect the Blue-Haired Fairy laid deep magic on you, Cedar. Maybe you were preprogrammed to change into a real girl, and so when the Jabberwock magic touched you, instead of turning into a plank of cedarwood or something, it triggered your change magic. You became real.

Y/N: Maddie, you are really smart.

Maddie: Am I? I wonder if that’s new, or if I’ve always been smart.

Lizzie: You’ve always been smart, Maddie.

She seemed to realize she’d spoken that aloud, cleared her throat.

Lizzie: But I, too, am quite bright! Exceptionally so! More than most!

Y/N: If the Jabberwock is turning Ever After into Wonderland, why aren’t you guys excited?

Kitty: That isn’t Wonderland.

Kitty pointed out the window, where giant pumpkins with wheels were ramming into each other.

Kitty: You said it, Cedar. It’s out of order. All messed up.

Outside the window, one of the pumpkins cracked apart with the impact, spilling seeds onto the ground, which were then gobbled up by a crazed legion of red paper envelopes.

Lizzie: It’s not Wonderlandish at all.

She paused, afraid to admit there was something wrong that she couldn’t just rule into submission. But sad truth pressed up into her throat, and she let the words out.

Lizzie: Ever After cannot be transformed into Wonderland, not even by magic. The Jabberwock tries, but it comes out wrong, a hybrid of two places, being neither. A monster making monsters.

Y/N: Its magic is tearing things from the names they were and turning everything mad.

Cedar looked confuse-boggled, but Maddie’s mind was Narrator-sharp, and so she tried to explain.

Maddie: Madness is life, but the unpredictable parts of life. See, a person is alive and so might do anything. A chair is not, so you know what it’s going to do: just sit there.

Maddie pointed to one of the school chairs outside, barking at the hutling.

Maddie: Now that that chair is alive, it’s no longer predictable. It might do anything, just like a person. The school and everything in it are turning mad. Nothing does what you expect. It’s all unpredictable. It’s all mad.

Kitty: But not the right sort of madness.

Lizzie pressed her fingers against the windowpane.

Lizzie: In Wonderland, a chair knows it is a chair. But things touched by the Jabberwock madness no longer know what they are. It’s royally disappointing, like being promised hot tea and getting swamp juice in your teacup.

Y/N: Wow. That, actually makes sense. I think I get it.

Of course you did. You're one of the smartest people Maddie knows. Always so wise and so careful with your words. It was like they were a weapon or a tool. So, seeing you like this, was a bit weird to her. You always had such a control on situations like this.

Why didn't you have control now?

Cedar: The Jabberwock’s magic is forcing things to be what they are not. That is the wrong kind of madness.

And so is this whole Royal and Rebel dilemma, Cedar thought.

The Raven-raven hopped onto Cedar’s knee, and she petted the bird’s wings, so black they glimmered with a sheen of purple. Headmaster Grimm’s trying to force Raven to be evil was like the Jabberwock’s forcing chairs to walk around and roar.

Perhaps Royals were the people who would do the things they were supposed to do in their stories anyway. But Rebels wouldn’t naturally do what their destinies tried to force them to do. And forced destinies could wreak as much havoc as a Jabberwock.

It was suddenly so clear to Cedar! She decided she should explain her insight to Headmaster Grimm. If she ever saw him again.

The chair herd had grown larger. They began clacking folding seats, stomping steel-tipped legs, and flinging one another at the hutling’s door. The hutling baaaaked and braaaaked and darted about. The room swayed.

Y/N: This much madness is dangerous.

You ended up sliding into a wall.

Lizzie: I wonder if Alice felt like we do now when she fell down the rabbit hole.

Kitty began quoting a well-known Wonderland poem: Down she goes, like a blown nose to expose what is under is not the ground and once she arrives she finds that she’s found.

Maddie: Since Wonderland is often found down, maybe things get madder the lower you go, and the school will become less mad the higher we climb.

Y/N: We’d still be trapped here by the magical barrier, but at least it might be less dangerous.

Lizzie: Up, hut-beast! I command you to take us up!

Cedar crouched by the fireplace and whispered into the chimney.

Cedar: Hutling? We’re hoping the top of the school might be safer than down here with clacking and stampeding chairs.

She stroked its fuzzy wallpaper like the neck of a frisky horse.

Cedar: Could you carry us up? Please?

The cottage began to run. Cedar gripped the mantel, trying to stay on her soft, little feet as the cottage swayed and bounced. The floor tilted back as the hutling started up the stairs. Kitty slipped, rolling back and hitting the wall.

She dissolved and reappeared beside Cedar.

Kitty: I’m bored. This is taking forever.

She put her hands beneath the curtains and began to tickle. The hutling howled, the whole cottage rumbling.

Y/N: Stop bugging it.

Kitty disappeared and reappeared at the other window, her feet on the sill, pulling the curtains as if they were the reins on a galloping horse.

Kitty: Yee-ha!

She had her mischievous smile.

The hutling rumbled again. The walls squeezed in as if the cottage were tightening up its middle, and you all squished together. Kitty’s face was pressed into your cheek, and Maddie’s head was in Lizzie’s armpit. The hutling opened its door and the back wall spasmed forward, effectively spitting the you all out. They landed on the stairs.

Lizzie: Pick us back up!

The hutling shut its door and ran away, its chicken-feet toenails tapping on the stone steps.

Cedar: Wait! The Raven-raven! And the Apple-apple! And all the other people-things!

Lizzie: Bah. They’re safer in there.

You folded your arms.

Y/N: Kitty, why did you....

Kitty: I am not reasonable!

Kitty was smiling but not meaning it.

Kitty: I refuse to be turned reasonable by that horribific monster’s magic. I am a Cheshire. I am chaos! But this kind of chaos, I don’t…I don’t know what to...

She turned red in the face and disappeared.

Lizzie: Kitty Cheshire!

Lizzie shouted at the air.

Lizzie: I order you to be chaotic again!

Smile first, Kitty reappeared.

Kitty: Thanks, Lizzie.

From the darkness down the corridor, you heard slow clopping like the sound a twelve-burner stove would make if it could walk. Then a hideous, scratchy voice whispered.

???: I. Eat. Wiggly. Things.

Cedar screamed. She took the stairs three at a time, running higher and higher, you all followed. Well, Kitty never ran, but when you reached the top of the stairs, Kitty appeared there, terror in her smiling eyes.

The scratchy whisper echoed up from the floor below.

???: Wiggly? Things?

And Cedar kept running. Her new legs ached, her thighs trembling, but she didn’t stop climbing stairs until suddenly she was going down.

Cedar: Eek! How did that happen?

Cedar reversed to go back up, passing you.

Cedar: Come on, we’ve got to go up.

Kitty: We are going up.

Lizzie: Close your eyes at once! You are being tricked by reality.

You closed your eyes. Lizzie took your hand. And you started running back up the stairs. When you peeked, you appeared to be going down, so you shut your eyes again and felt rather than saw the climb.

You only stopped when you reached the highest tower of the school. It was wobbling as if made of rubber.

Cedar clutched the empty frame of the window, its panes curiously missing. Outside, the huge yellow dome of the magical barrier crackled and fizzed as insects flew into it. Through the yellowness she spotted the Troll Bridge and, beyond, the rooftops of Book End.

Maddie rummaged through her Hat of Many Things. So helpful, really, wearing a Hat of Many Things. She wondered why everyone didn’t have one.

Then she scolded herself for wondering about something that didn’t matter to the current story. That’s simply not what Narrators do! Hocus focus, Maddie.

Ahem.

From her hat, she pulled out two telescopes, holding one to each eye.

Maddie: There’s Dad! He’s on the roof of the Tea Shoppe. He sees me. Dad! Dad!

Maddie shouted, waving.

Maddie: Oh, good. He’s got the flags.

Y/N: Flags?

Maddie: Yes, to spell out messages from far away. Doesn’t everyone have a flag language with their father?

Everyone looked at you. You just sighed. Your father was no longer in the land of the living. Neither were your other siblings. I'm sorry, Ozzie. Everything I, uh, the Narrator looks into your head, she sees a lot of sadness. And a lot of anger. So much rage and despair.

I never knew. I'm so sorry.

Ahem. Back to the story.

Maddie: Okay, he’s signaling with the flags. I’ll translate. ‘If the Jabberwock magic reaches Book End, everything ends. Because our story will literally become the book end and the book will end without a resolution.’ Oh nose!

Lizzie grabbed one of the telescopes and put it to her eye.

Lizzie: No way he said all that so fast. Wait… oh!… You’re right, Maddie.

She handed the telescope back to Maddie.

Lizzie: Your dad can really move flags.

Cedar: Our story ends? That can’t be right.

Cedar started to say, but then, really, what was right at the moment? She’d just spotted the glass panes that were missing from the windows. They were slowly crawling across the tower wall, rippling like transparent caterpillars.

Maddie: Cedar, could you stop noticing things for a minute?

Cedar: Sorry.

Maddie: Thanks. Okay, he says the Jabberwock can’t complete the transformation of Ever After into its version of Wonderland without Wonderland things to squeeze. Things of Wonderland are full of Wonder, and Wonder powers its magic. At least I think that’s what he’s saying. He’s speaking Riddlish. With flags.

Y/N: So, wait…The Jabberwock needs to collect Wonderland things and use them like batteries for its magic? Wonderland things like…like you guys?

Kitty and Lizzie backed away from the window, and the tippy tower slid them farther. They bumped together, Kitty’s pale purple locks tangled in Lizzie’s gold crown.

Lizzie: Off… with her head.

But she sounded more like she was saying, I’m so scared at the moment I may start beheading butter people.

Kitty snickered.

Lizzie: What?

Kitty: Nothing. Narration joke.

Maddie: Dad is warning us to stay away from the Jabberwock. If it captures the three of us, it would have enough power to make its mad transformation permanent.

Y/N: Yeah, I’d planned to avoid it. But where is it?

Kitty, her smile gone stiff, whispered through her teeth.

Kitty: Right. There.

You whirled around.

Through another window, you could see the Jabberwock hanging on the side of a tower, gripping the stones with long white claws. It was as large as a full-size dragon armored with gray scales, but its feet and antennaed head were ragged with unexpected fur. Its snakelike neck and toothy head were stretched forward, its milky white, seemingly blind eyes staring at something in the distance. Toward Book End.

It screeched and beat its huge leathery wings, lifting off the tower and taking flight.

Maddie: It sees Dad! It will squeeze him for Wonder and then he’ll be Wonder-less and we’ve got to stop it!

Cedar: Baba Yaga’s magic barrier will stop it.

The Jabberwock threw itself at the transparent yellow dome, with an explosion of flares and sparks. The beast shrieked but seemed more angry than hurt. It attacked the barrier again and again and again.

The yellow of the magic began to dim, like egg yolks bleeding into the whites. The barrier was weakening. And the Mad Hatter was on the other side. Maddie’s Dad. No, not Dad!

Maddie: No! Leave him alone!

The long, thin neck snaked around, the gruesome face of the Jabberwock pointed at their tower.

It shrieked, beating its wings straight for them.

Run, said the Narrator.

Maddie: Run.

You ran.

You were only halfway down the first flight of stairs when the tower shook with the impact of the Jabberwock.

The stone steps underneath your feet suddenly felt softer, almost gelatinous. You slipped but kept running on the stairs in the same direction, though sometimes you felt that you were going up, not down. You heard the Jabberwock shriek, and the tower trembled and hummed and seemed a breath away from crumbling.

Cedar’s new heart was pounding hard against her ribs, like a bird flinging itself against a window, trying to escape. She began to cry but couldn’t marvel at the newness and wonder of cold wetness sliding down her soft cheeks.

Instead, tears felt like losing control, like the ground no longer under her shoes, like hurting and not being sure if she’d ever feel okay again. She stumbled into the soft floor and began to slowly sink. Maddie grabbed her hands and started to pull, but Cedar wondered if it was too late.

She whispered the truth aloud.

Cedar: Maybe everything is easier when you’re made of wood.

No, she told herself. No! She’d been waiting her entire life to be real. She was not going to let the fear of a Jabberwock steal that away.

Maddie: That’s right! You are not made of wood, you are made of Wood. You are Cedar Wood!

Cedar: I am Cedar Wood.

Cedar pulled herself out of the sinking floor and ran faster. No more waiting. Now she was who she’d always wanted to be. And whatever happened next, she’d make this chance count.

But as you ran, you looked down at your ring. They would need more time to escape. To find a way to stop this all.

And you could help.

Maddie: Not a chance, Ozzie! Wait until later in the story.

Y/N: What? What are you even talking about?

Maddie: Keep that ring on your finger!

You raised your hands, showing her that you wouldn't be doing anything. You wondered how she even knew how you were going to do something, but you then remembered that in addition to her being smart, cute, wonderful, and glorious, she was also the new Narrator!

The Beginning Is Just The End.....