Chapter 29: "Inside"

Climax City. It looked every bit like those spooky villain hideouts you always see on TV. A perpetual dark cloud loomed above, casting long shadows on the entire place. Even the buildings had this jagged uncomfortable feel to it.
"Now this is strange," U said. "Everything's the same as I can remember, but those papers littering the streets...they seem to be gone."
"Perhaps," murmured Toby. "It has something to do with the death of the Archiver."
I nodded in agreement.
Then without warning, a red patch materialised before our eyes. It quickly took form, spelling out "FOLLOW".
Unsure whether to heed, I looked at the other two. "Well, guess we don't have much of a choice."
It took us down a winding street, snaking in and out of dim paths expertly. An almost deafening silence hung in the air, lessened only by our plodding footsteps.
Was that a face a saw in a window of the house? I quickly looked away, not exactly keen on getting scared out of my wits.
"Pst! We're here."
Wow. We'd come to a huge book-looking structure fastened by gigantic straps, no less than twenty feet tall. The cover was intricately designed with all kinds of fancy illustrations only an extremely gifted artist could've conjured up. "Look at that," I whispered in awe.
"Um...so what do we do now?" Everyone appeared just as clueless.
Like smoke from a dying fire the red letters began fading away. It seeped into the pages of the big "book", making it quiver a little. Slowly this quivering grew more intense till the book was downright shaking violently.
Pop! A latch opened, followed by another. Three more at the bottom burst as a strong wind picked up. The cover creaked and groaned, then with a thunderous BOOM! It was open.
A passage on the first page caught my eye. "My, my, here are we at last. Let us see...three of you, three of them, all creations of mine. Shall we, gentlemen?"
The next page flipped open to reveal...
"Moby! Telly! Melly! What happened to you guys?"
Three chillingly real pictures of them in shackles glared back at us. So utterly real they could only be real.