Imagination's last hope: The quest to save the unseen world

Chapter 8

The building had big sliding glass doors. It looked like something from the future on the inside. The ceiling was high and had a big chandelier hanging in the middle. There was a big desk right in front of the door. A bunny with huge glasses was sitting behind the desk.

"Aren't rabbits supposed to have perfect eyes?" Rachel whispered to Finnigan. Finnigan didn't hear her. He waved to the receptionist and kept on walking.

In the middle of the room, there was a big glass ball. Finnigan waved his hand in front of the ball, and two doors slid open. Rachel looked at Finnigan getting in. "What is this? It doesn't look safe."

"I promise you it is. Just get in."

Rachel did as Finnigan said. The doors closed, and the ball started going up into the air. They passed the second floor, and she couldn't see what was happening there; it looked like many offices. They got to the third floor, and the ball stopped. Finnigan got out, and Rachel followed him.

The room was split into three smaller rooms. Rachel followed Finnigan into one of them. He pressed with his paw on a screen next to the door.

"Is this some sort of secret room?" Rachel asked.

"No, but it contains classified information."

The doors went open, and Finnigan walked in; Rachel followed him.

The first thing that Rachel noticed was the big screen on the wall. There was a big desk with a few chairs in front of it. A big round table was in the middle of the room, and a few sofas and bean bags were on the side.

A giant pink owl rushed to them. She had shimmering silver feathers all over her chest. The rest of the feathers on her body were all light pink. She wore big round glasses and was much bigger than a regular owl. "Finnigan! Thank goodness you're back. We have to do something about all of this and fast." She looked at Rachel, "is this Rachel?"

"Rachel, this is Hootwiggle; Hootwiggle, this is Rachel," Finnigan said.

Rachel greeted her politely. She grabbed Rachel into a tight hug.

"Rachel darling, you don't understand how glad I am to see you. Sorry for being so rude. We wanted to host a formal welcome party for you, but things are complicated now. Come in, and I'll introduce you to the rest of the team."

Hootwiggle walked over to the big screen; some guardians stood before the screen, and the others sat behind the desk.

"Everybody, this is Rachel, who Finnigan told us about; she will try to help us. This Rachel is Paws, Glimmerwisps one, two, and three, and Mirror-Mira." Rachel said hello to all of them.

Alongside Hootwiggle was Paws, a white dog with blue spots. He was huge and looked like an oversized Great Dane. Next to him was Mirror-Mira; she looked like a normal human being. She had blonde hair and blue eyes and wore casual jeans and a hoodie. Rachel found this really weird since nothing in the world of imagination seemed to be ordinary.

"We can all get to know her later. First, I have to show her what's going on." Hootwiggle pressed a few buttons on the keyboard in front of the screen. Lots of graphs and statistics showed up on the screen.

"This shows the statistics over the past three months compared to now. As you can see, the number of books children read a year decreased by 53%, over half of fewer books read each year. The number of pictures coloured, drawn, or painted decreased by 42%. The rest you can see for yourself. It's supposed to be in the green."

Rachel stepped closer to look at it. Everything has gone from green to red in just over a month. Rachel held her hand over her mouth. She didn't know much about statistics, but judging by the colour, it was horrible.