I Feel Like A Monster

Chapter 25

-Woodlands; Business Office (Evening)-

Bigby and Garry both entered the office, after a trip to the Cut Above and the Lucky Pawn. When they stepped in, they weren't surprised to see Bluebeard arguing with Snow White, while Maria stood by her side, but they were both shocked to see Mr. Toad in the Office as well.

"I don't care who killed the prostitutes!" They heard Bluebeard say to Snow, "If Crane was helping himself to the community coffers, it means his money was in my pocket! And you just let him go!"

"I don't know what you heard but it didn't happen like that." Snow said to him.

"Are you denying the facts?" Bluebeard said.

"She's denying me a chance to get a word in!" Mr. Toad said, "Now Miss White I--"

Mr. Toad was cut off by Bufkin when he said, "Sheriff Bigby and Garry have returned."

They turned and saw Bigby and Garry with their own eyes. "Garry! Mr. Wolf!" Maria said running over to them. "Ah, there's the old wrecking ball himself." Mr. Toad couldn't help but say.

Snow got up from where she sat and walked over to them, "Thank God you're both back." She said.

"We're not done here!" Bluebeard said.

"You're going to have to wait!" Snow said to Bigby with a stern look.

"Please, just give us a moment." Maria said.

Bigby got out the mirror shard from his pocket and showed it to Snow and Maria, "Look what we found."

Both Snow and her daughter were speechless at this, but at the same time, they were relieved to see the shard in the hands of Bigby. "Seems you're dog wants a biscuit." Bluebeard said breaking the silence.

"Ah come on, seriously dude?" Garry said to Bluebeard with a look, "You completely killed the moment!"

Snow turned to Bufkin, "Bufkin get this piece in the mirror immediately!"

"With pleasure Miss White!" Bufkin said, flying over to them. Bigby handed the mirror shard to him and he flew over to the Mirror.

"Oh thank goodness." Maria couldn't help but say, "Everything is going back in the right direction."

"Good work you two." Snow said, "You both were gone the whole day, what did you manage to uncover?"

"Well, we managed to get a lot of information, but... You're not gonna like it." Garry told her honestly.

"What do you mean?" Snow asked him.

Bigby had explained, "This whole thing... It reaches in a lot further than we previously thought. The Crooked Man's got something on everybody. It wasn't just Beauty with the loans and Beast working with him. His goon, the Jersey Devil is putting the squeeze on all kinds of Fables down at the Lucky Pawn. Not only that, he's got other Fables enslaved at the butcher's shop, making black market magic."

Maria's eyes widened in horror, while Snow's eyes widened in shock. "Oh my god..." Maria said.

"This is worse than we could have imagined..." Snow said.

"That's exactly what I said when I saw it." Garry said.

"Don't worry, it's over now." Bigby said, "Because now we've got the Mirror. And once that's fixed, we got him. That's how Crane did it. And that's how we're gonna do it."

"And when we find the Crooked Man, we'll find Shadow too!" Garry said with enthusiasm.

Bufkin soon came back. "Bigby! Garry!" Bufkin said, "I could use your assistance. Would you both join me at the Mirror?"