How It All Goes Down
- Back at the coffee shop, Sophie wonders what that disgusting smell is.
- Apparently, she has been working at the Coffee Cup for the summer, and her brother Josh is working at the bookshop across the street. They turned 15 last December and started saving money to buy their own car.
- We also learn that Bernice, who owns the shop, won't be back for an hour, which leaves plenty of time for shenanigans.
- To keep the stench of rotten eggs at bay, Sophie breathes in the aromatic teas and coffees from the shop. Apparently, she has always loved identifying particular aromas and scents.
- As she sniffs and sniffs, Perry Fleming, the wife of Nick Fleming, enters the shop, and Sophie mentions the gross stench in the air, which is now mixed with peppermint.
- A worried-looking Perry says: "oh no… not now… not here."
- What now? What here?
- The two see the bookshop door crash open and one of the men in overcoats is thrown out to the street.
- The dude's skin is melting. Yep, melting.
- Perry refers to the melting man as a Golem, or Man of Clay.
- A bewildered Sophie merely watches as the man dries up in the street. Lovely.
- Perry runs to the bookshop, and having remembered that her brother Josh is in there, Sophie follows suit. Her bro could be in danger.
- It's total pandemonium in the bookshop. The gray man greets Perry by calling her Perenelle, and she responds by calling him Dee.
- Dee tells her that he has come for "the Book." Dude, it's a bookshop: could you be a little more specific?
- As Perry tells him that "we" are the guardians of the book, a silver mist surrounds her, much to Sophie's shock.
- In the meantime, we learn that Nick Fleming and Josh saw Perry and Sophie rush into the bookshop just as they were opening the door of the dry cleaners. Uh oh.
- Nick grabs a small square of cloth hanging around his neck and takes out a small book bound in copper-colored metal.
- They arrive at the bookshop just in time to watch a Golem touch Perry and explode.
- Dee hurls a tiny crystal ball onto the floor, which creates a blindingly bright explosion that smells like burning hair and fumes of diesel.
- This book is just chock full of stinky stenches.
- Josh sees Dee snatch the book, so he knocks him down.
- But Dee grabs it again, despite Sophie's attempt to whack the man away from her brother with a broom.
- Dee makes the broom in Sophie's hand shatter. He tells her she's lucky he didn't do the same to her, and leaves the bookshop with his Golems, who cart Perry away, too.
- Seriously, folks: what in the world is going on?