Slate is a cliffhanger -- a person who tracks down specific books on the skyscraper-like shelves deep within the Library of Doom. Slate boasts that he can find any book, even the one that no Librarian has been able to locate: THE SCRAWLER. To prove his worth, Slate braves the forbidden Black Shelves, a maze so dark and cold that all sound is sucked from the air -- and no words can be spoken. But before Slate can locate the long-lost book, he finds more than he bargained for . . .