The Threshold

The Threshold

Original Cover

## Blurb

**Evil Enters Through Darkest Doorways**

It's been less than a month since Alastair Stone discovered a monstrous supernatural conspiracy to take over our world one mind at a time.

The battle in San Francisco struck a major blow—but it didn't eliminate the threat.

Not even close.

Where do the Evil come from? How did they get here? What do they want?

As Stone and his friends dig deeper into these questions, they make a shocking discovery about the nature of the Evil—and what happened to open the door from their dimension to ours.

Pursued by ruthless enemies and aided by unlikely allies, they begin a desperate cross-country race from the wilds of West Virginia to the dark neon wonderland of Las Vegas.

Only they have a chance to stop the Evil at its source before it’s too late.

But is Stone willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to do it?

## Plot

Mage Eleanor Pearsall is gruesomely murdered in her rural little Vermont village. When Alastair Stone is notified, he’s quite upset. Eleanor had been a friend, and one of the nicest, ‘whitest’ mages he knew. He can’t imagine who would want to kill her. He tells Verity and Jason he will be going to the funeral, which is in a few days. The trio had finished their monitoring of Gordon Lucas’ Evil (see The Forgotten), as it has just ‘died’. So, Stone is free to go, and Verity and Jason ask to tag along, in support. Jason’s not thrilled about going via portal, but Verity is excited to try it for the first time.

### Pause here a moment WARNING, Possible Spoilers Ahead

The moment they step through the portal at A Passage to India, Verity begins screaming in terror. Alastair scoops her up and runs her back through to Sunnyvale, Jason right behind, as the dark Overworld creatures immediately home in on Verity. After calming down, Verity said she felt as if something were trying to get into her head, her brain, to kill her. Stone decides to go on alone, but Verity stubbornly insists on trying again. She asks Stone to knock her out so they can bring her through, and he reluctantly agrees. Verity makes it through to Lowell, MA, successfully, but still with vivid, terrifying nightmares.

In a rented car, the trio travel to Woodwich, VT, Eleanor’s tiny village. In checking out the village, they spot Forgotten ‘bad place’ symbols on the store where Eleanor was killed, and ‘good place’ symbols on a bar. They learn the story of how Eleanor died, and that one of the killers suicided while the other was in custody and being evaluated for mental illness. Both security guards, it was suspected they’d been high. A homeless man in the village – one of the Forgotten – fills in more information, but they find it odd he knows nothing about the Evil. In fact, they can’t think of a reason why the Evil would be in such a calm, crime-free area, much less target a very nice white mage.

After Jason wangles them an interview with the remaining killer, Dwight, they’re even more perplexed. The other man had said to Eleanor as she died, ‘aren’t you sorry you didn’t join us’. Back home with more questions than answer, the trio split up. Stone finds a more acceptable home than the suburban tract home he’d rented, while Jason and Verity find an apartment, then head back down to Ventura to pack up Jason’s things and visit their friend, Stan Lopez. Once Jason lets Stone know they’ll be back in a day, Stone goes to take the portal at A Passage to India to pick up a few things, and finds Marta worried that David hadn’t been back or checked in all day. He promises to help track him down if David’s not back when he returns.

Unfortunately, David had not reappeared when he got back to Sunnyvale. He was discussing the problem with Marta when a phone call interrupted – David has been killed in a car crash. Stone accompanies her to the police, handles IDing the body, then leaves her in the hands of friends. When Jason and Verity return, they find a very drunk and morose Stone. He seems sure the Evil were involved. After dropping off their belongings and the rental trick, the return to find a somewhat revived Stone. They show him a newspaper article – the kid who had driven David off the road was a DMW ganger.

After a regroup, Stone is sober and tells them another mage has been killed, as well. It seems the Evil are after mages, and Jason warns Stone he is a prime target. At David’s funeral, Marta offers Jason a job, and they all spot a DMW biker leaving the cemetery – where several mages are present.

Verity reaches her 18th birthday and, after a meal together and some gifts, the trio separate – Stone to BART home, and the Thayers to a concert Jason had gotten tickets to. Stone is attacked on the train by three Evil-possessed. He’s wounded, but manages to defeat the three attackers. Once he reaches the station, he puts a warning note on Jason’s car and, once home, leaves him a voice message to come over immediately, then passes out. Jason and Verity wake Stone in the wee hours, alarmed by the blood and demanding answers. Jason patches Stone up while he tells them about the attack.

Unable to make any headway with the Evil, Stone switches to researching why Verity reacts so badly to the portal. He and Jason take Verity back into the portal, heavily shielded from the creatures there, so he can take mental readings of what she experiences. He theorizes that her Forgotten powers are what cause her reaction, and suspects it would be even worse if she weren’t blocked. Stone concludes he could only confirm by taking another Forgotten into the portal.

Meeting with the Forgotten, the trio find them understandably reluctant to help. Lissy, though, is surprisingly adamant that she wants to go to the ‘pretty place’ and help the ‘Magic Man’. Spacey as she is, Stone isn’t in favor of her participating, but she’s insistent.

At the portal, Stone tells Jason to hold onto Lissy and not let go, no matter what. He takes her other arm and step through. Lissy instantly begins screaming that the Evil are there, everywhere. She breaks free and runs past Stone’s shield and further into the Overworld, where the dark beings swarm her and begin tearing her apart. Stone tries to haul her back with telekinesis but Jason has started toward Lissy – and away from where he can power Stone’s magic. Jason sees that she’s already too far gone and manhandles Stone back through the portal, though he’s still desperately, manically trying to get to her. His shield was failing, and Jason knew they’d be dead, too, otherwise.

Jason tells Verity what happened, because Stone is near-catatonic in shock. Eventually, they do have to leave the restaurant, so Stone, more composed, drives them back to the Forgotten’s camp to tell them about Lissy’s death. Hector flies into a rage and knocks Stone unconscious. The others are angry, sad, upset, but they know Stone never intended any harm. Lamar heals Stone, and the three return him to his house, where he’s planning to get blind drunk. He doesn’t, though, telling Jason he doesn’t deserve to forget what happened.

The next day, the three are at Stone’s place, making small talk, pondering why Lissy reacted as she did, screaming about the Evil. Jason makes an offhand comment that the only way the Overworld beings could be related to the Evil was if something happened five years prior to let them out. Stone goes suddenly rigid, staring, then announces he has to go…and leaves. Jason and Verity, mystified, go about their day. Stone reappears at the restaurant and tells Jason to meet him and Verity at his place as soon as he can get away.

Stone finally fills them in that he’d had a colleague who’d been researching temporary portals some years back – she’d been drunk and pillow-talked. He’d gone back to England briefly and determined that she’d disappeared, along with three others, about five years ago. He’s hoping her research might shed light on whether they had managed to open a temporary portal, botched it somehow (he posits it’s in a flux state, opening and closing), and let the Evil leak through from the Overworld. He goes to visit Daphne’s mother, Nancy, to ask if Daphne had left any of her research behind. Her mother, pretty much resigned that her daughter must be dead and will never return, says she hasn’t seen anything like what Alastair is looking for. He, Jason and Verity conclude that they’ve done all they can for now, with no way to find the temporary portal if one was created. Stone is bitter and angry at being unable to do anything, and even swears.

Jason and Verity leave Stone alone for a few days, then are unable to contact him – he refuses to answer the phone and is never home when they go by. Verity gets temporary work at A Passage to India, and she and Jason track down the Forgotten for a visit. They find out that they’d had a little goodbye for Lissy, and that Hector had left and never returned.

After their visit, they actually find Stone at home, and in a considerably better mood. He’d been home for a visit, run some errands, and even replaced the van with a stylish BMW. They go out for dinner and, on returning, find Stone has received a letter from Daphne that her mother had forgotten about – she’d been supposed to give it to him if anything happened to Daphne, but simply couldn’t admit that something had.

The letter informs Stone that Daphne saved her notebooks in a storage locker – a key is included – and she wants Stone to have them in case something happened. She’s cryptic, referencing a date they had so he’ll remember it and know where the locker is. When Jason and Verity ask where to, Stone tells them, Virginia.

They travel mundanely, flying into Dulles and driving down to Woodbridge to grab a motel. Then they head to the storage building where, with only a bit of searching, they find Daphne’s notes on Project Aperture. Before they can leave, they’re set on by a group of homeless – some Forgotten – who want to rob them and rape Verity. Jason seems to enjoy wading in and laying about with his fists, while Stone and Verity use telekinesis to toss them around a bit. Afterward, Stone hurries them back to the motel and disappears into his room with the notebooks.

Alastair wakes the Thayers at four am to reveal that there not one, but two temporary portals – one in West Virginia and one near Las Vegas. He suspects the two-portal setup is what caused issues. Stone tells the two he wants to be on the road by six, to Jason’s dismay.

The early part of their trip is uneventful, but it begins snowing, then getting dark, and they’ve gotten into a rural, wooded area. Suddenly Stone has to break and swerve to avoid deer running across the road, and they end up in a ditch. No one is hurt badly, but they’re banged up, it’s cold, and they’re in the middle of nowhere with a broken car. They begin walking. Just as Verity is getting very concerned about Jason’s limp, a pickup arrives, and the driver, Lester, offers a ride.

They’re on their way to Morgantown, when Verity. Spots a sign for Harmony Farm, with a Forgotten ‘good place’ symbol as its logo. Lester says it’s a kind of hippie commune, and Stone insists they need to go there. Lester agrees – it’s nearby - and they arrive and are greeted by Rainey Sykes, who understands when Stone asks if he’s Forgotten, though they consider themselves Gifted. Rainey takes them into his place, after Stone thanks and pays Lester. There, they meet Joshua and Prudence – their ‘leaders’ – and Stone gives a fairly brief explanation of why they’re here, and that they want to shut down the Evil – what these people call the Darkness.  A nearby town, Decker’s Gap, is full of the Dark-tainted, according to the Harmony leaders.

Still needing to know where the portal might be, Stone calls Nancy Weldon, and learns that Neil – Daphne’s colleague and lover – was from Decker’s Gap, and used to play in Gorley Cave. He sets out to prepare for when they can hike to the cave – Jason was injured in the accident and needs time to recover – by ordering supplies from Mme Huan and diving into research on Daphne’s journals. Jason insists Stone come up for air on Christmas Eve and join the Harmony folks for a celebration.

Stone surprises everyone when he’s called up to the stage after the meal to join the band on guitar. He even surprises himself by picking it back up so quickly after years of not playing. Then, Joshua, who is very sensitive to the Evil, goes into seizures. Stone concludes that the portal has opened, and tells everyone to get ready to head to Decker’s Gap.

Once they leave their vehicles and hike the last bit to the town, the group splits – the Harmony people to keep watch on the town, while Stone, Jason and Verity hike up to the cave. One person is guarding the cave entrance, and Stone takes him out quietly. Once inside, they find a sickly-looking portal in an interior chamber, roiling and spitting out an Evil every few minutes. Stone tells Verity to keep watch, and Jason to focus and keep him powered up, when suddenly they’re ambushed by two mages and a man with a gun. Stone’s group is rendered unconscious immediately.

On awakening, Stone given ultimatum by Richard - help them stabilize the portal, or his friends dies horribly. He's allowed to see that Jason and Verity are alive, for now. When he goes to join the Evil mages, Kelby and Byron, and they’re snotty, he sets them straight as to who has the brains. He plans plans to sabotage the portal and is sure he can deceive them. Verity uses invisibility on herself and Jason, and they escape, knowing Evil were planning some 'event' starring them.

Stone overhears they’d escaped. He tells the Evil mages they’re ready to go up to the portal, and to get Verity and Jason - he wants to make sure they’re still alive. The Evil get uncomfortable, but send one guy to supposedly get them. Outside, Verity and Jason verify Stone is in the church, then go to the portal cave and hide.

Stone is escorted to the cave, but demands to see his friends; he's told they’re coming, Jason and Verity get the drop on them, but now the portal is destabilizing, and could explode. Stone gets to work setting up a circle, then announces he’s realized how to stop it – he has to go through to set the final crystal – a possibly suicidal act. After many arguments and the conclusion that there is no choice, Jason fires up his battery for Stone as they hear sounds of fighting outside. Stone enters the portal just Richard runs in to stop them, but Verity manages to evict his Evil after Jason clobbers him. The loose Evil possesses Jason and tells him to kill Verity, but Jason is able to resist and evict it himself. Suddenly, Stone reappears, torn up, bloody, staring like a madman, saying they have to run, the portal will blow.

Sykes arrives and tells them they’ve got the Evil on the run, for now. Jason grabs Stone, Verity grabs his notes and they all flee. They get partway down the mountain when the portal blows.

Jason  wakes up in hospital. Verity fills him in: several Harmony folks are dead, including Joshua, who dropped when the portal blew. Stone is still unconscious, but Drs. don’t know why. Verity says he looked mad when he came back through the portal. Two days later Jason  is released, on crutches, but Stone is still unconscious. TV news reports the cave was demolished along with most of Decker’s Gap. Zachary arrives and heals the injured, including Jason. They ask him to see to Stone, but when they arrive at the hospital Stone has checked himself out and vanished. He left a note saying he had to get away for a while, especially knowing that this wasn’t over with the Evil.

On their way home, Verity and Jason  discuss him getting possessed, and how he was able to not only be possessed – probably because it was a stronger one – but also able to evict it himself, in rage because it wanted him to kill his sister. They know the portal in Vegas will be harder, the Evill will know they’re coming, and they’ll need help. But not until Stone returns.

The New Year passes and Jason  and Verity get back to normal, though Jason  is doing as much research on Vegas as possible, including horrific deaths, of which there are many, but hushed in the press. They visit the Forgotten, discuss the ‘dark’ Forgotten they met in Virginia. Lamar and Marilee maintain there are good and bad people of all kinds. Then they break the news that Hector went bad, and was eventually killed by the Evil.

They visit Mme Huan almost three weeks after Stone’s disappearance, and she tells them Stone is well, physically, though seemed deeply disturbed. She says if anyone can work through whatever trauma he endured, he can. They drive home to find Stone waiting for them in the parking lot.

He tells them he’d been home, then traveling a bit. What he saw on the other side of the portal was the Evil’s home dimension – not the Overworld (they just patrol that for food). It was an experience he’s having difficulty dealing with and won’t discuss in detail. More weeks pass and Stone seems to mostly settle back to normal, but they can tell he’s not. Worse, time is ticking on the Evil portal in Vegas.

They prod Stone one night and he reacts badly. What’s required to close the Vegas portal is basically suicide. Would you do it, he asks Jason, who says yes. Stone snarks he’s a good little Boy Scout. He asks them to leave.

Verity, unable to contain the anxiety anymore, goes to Mme Huan and unburdens herself, pouring out the whole story, from her mental illness to Stone’s experience inside the Evil portal, as well as Stone fearing the insanity there so much, he may not be able to close the Vegas portal. Mme Huan makes vague assurances, telling Verity to leave the burden with her.

A few days later, Stone asks them over and confronts Verity on spilling to Mme Huan. She tells him she was worried about him, and… He is angry with her, but admits his resulting long talk with Mme Huan helped him sort some things out. Her going behind his back will have repercussions, but she’s still his apprentice, and she and Jason should be ready to leave for Vegas in the morning.

They arrive in Vegas and tour the Strip on foot. In the Mirage, Verity gets very twitchy, and says it feels like something’s pushing to enter her head. Later, they see a Forgotten man preaching on a streetcorner, who is very physically hustled off by police. Finished with their tour, they head back to their hotel to sleep, trying to acclimate to night life, and regroup late the next day to tour downtown.

Walking Fremont Street the next night, they marvel that they’re not seeing Forgotten anywhere. At one point, Jason spots a touristy guy watching them intently. Once he notices Jason’s seen him, he moves off. The group decides to go back and change hotels, hoping it doesn’t mean the Vegas portal has opened and the Evil in the area are now aware and looking for them. As they check out, the clerk gives Stone a message from Mme Huan saying he should find a person named Scotty at a place called Nemo’s.

The dive is off the downtown area, in an increasingly dark and seedy area. Inside, they ask for Scotty and, while the bartender goes to get him, Jason uses the Men’s room, where he spots a Forgotten 'bad place’ symbol. Jason rushes back out and tells them they have to leave, now, just as four people burst in, two carrying guns. They flee out the back, and are nearly shot by a shooter on a roof. They run through an alley to another street, where Verity is wounded by ricochet shrapnel. Stone makes them invisible and they run again, only to see more Evil coming. Stone loses the invisibility spell, spent, and one of their pursuers spots them. Verity slams him into a wall and turns to run, only to run into a low railing, going over and down, out of sight.

They find themselves in one of the flood control tunnels, filthy and reeking of sewage. But the Evil are waiting above, so they go on, speculating on the message and whether Mme Huan is OK. In the tunnels, they find a Forgotten group, but these are harder than the ones in the Bay Area, more like a gang, and want nothing to do with their plan to close the portal, because they figure that just leaves a lot of stranded, pissed-off Evil to be after them. They lead the trio to a place aboveground where they can call a cab to get back to their car but, when they get to the lot, the BMW is gone. Just then, a black stretch limousine pulls up.

A man in an expensive suit and sunglasses, holding a gun, tells them his employer wants to speak with them – he calls them by name. He says when the interview is finished, Stone’s BMW will be returned. Seeing no choice, they get into the car, still reeking of sewage. After a brief drive in the fully blacked-out car, they arrive in an empty unground garage and are taken to an elevator and told it will take them to the ‘employer’.

They arrive in an incredibly luxurious but spare apartment with full views of Vegas, all the way out to the desert. They meet the enigmatic Trevor Harrison, who reveals that he knows Stone and Verity are mages, that he is also a mage, and quietly demands to know why they are in Vegas. Stone tells him he should know, given his position, assuming he’s the local Evil leader. His confusion, though, redirects Stone’s assumptions, and he asks about the Evil. Harrison doesn’t recognize the reference except in general. Stone begins to fill him in on the Evil and the Forgotten, the portals…everything.

Harrison says he won’t get directly involved, but he does say the entire Vegas underworld has mobilized to find Stone & Co., and he will protect them by offering them a heavily warded suite in the Obsidian – where they are now.

Harrison gives the trio illusion-generating coins as disguises, and tickets to the magic show in the hotel and they attend, and meet the magician, Shane Tarkasian and his assisstant, Tasha (aka Tammy) backstage. His show is mystifying, but he appears to be completely mundane. As they continue to waiting to see if Harrison can turn up info, Jason and Verity research the library, looking for possible portal sites or info on Daphne’s colleague, Arthur. He was from Vegas, and also disappeared at the same time as the others. Meanwhile Stone continues through Daphne’s notes, looking for a way to close the portal that won’t kill him. A week passes with no more progress.

Jason finally talks Alastair into leaving the suite and his studies long enough to see Tarkasian’s show again, maybe play closer attention and see if he’s a mage. Outside the auditorium, they’re told the early show is cancelled. Stone calls Nakamura and finds out Tarkasian has disappeared. Harrison arrives, just as a woman tells the show boss that she has to leave immediately – her son’s field trip bus, sponsored by the Obsidian, is an hour overdue. Before Harrison can disappear again, Stone asks if Tarkasian is ‘more’ than he seems. Harrison confirms that he is.

The trio are leaving when Verity makes a comment about the missing magician and missing bus that stops Stone in his tracks. Highly agitated, he finds Nakamura and demands to see Harrison. He thinks the two are related; that the magician/mage is going to ash a busload of children to power and stabilize the local portal. Nakamura heads away to find something to use to track the children while Harrison takes them to a place they can use for a ritual, then leaves to arrange for transportation.

Using the woman’s son’s baseball glove, they track him to an area 50 miles away, in featureless desert. Harrison, having returned during the ritual, takes them to his office where he has a satellite map of the area, showing a small, remote decommissioned Air Force base. Jason insists that’s it – Arthur was an Air Force brat, his father an Air Force colonel. He may have visited the base. Stone consults first his own ley line map, then a better one Harrison produces, and confirms a ley line runs through the base, making magic more potent there.

They head out in, of all things, a helicopter. As they get close, the pilot shuts down the lights, and Harrison shields the rotors’ noise. He also shields them from view after they land and head out on foot, sending the pilot away to wait. When they arrive, Harrison goes ahead and, without hesitation kills all the patrolling guards with magic. Jason goes ballistic, and Stone reminds Harrison they were only supposed to kill if absolutely necessary. After a brief argument during which it’s apparent Harrison wouldn’t spare the children either, if it came to it, Stone concedes that they are at war, that the portal must be destroyed at any cost, and they may not have the luxury of mercy – the greater good prevails. Jason, incensed that the kids could be killed, vows to prevent it – to stop Harrison if necessary.

They locate the door to the hangar in the side of the mountain and Harrison unlocks it. Nakamura suddenly shoots him, and takes aim at Verity. Jason knocks the gun up as Verity expels the Evil, and Nakamura collapses. Harrison is gravely wounded, perhaps mortally. Verity and Stone, using power from Jason, do enough healing to stabilize him. Leaving Harrison unconscious and Nakamura bound, they enter the hall into the hangar.

They see that the magicians are keeping the kids distracted, and they also appear drugged. The teachers and bus driver – Evil – are patrolling the room. The kids have already been magically linked, the portal is active, and they appear ready for the final steps to stabilize it. They’re spotted, and chaos ensues; Verity is able to evict a couple of the Evil, Tarkasian is wounded, Stone is tossed across the room and Jason and Verity are held up in the air – Tasha is also a mage, and much more powerful than Tarkasian. She also willingly let the Evil possess her, sick of being the ‘beautiful assistant’ who actually enhanced his magic.

Stone recovers and blasts Tasha, but she ashes one of the teachers and shoots flame at him. Dodging, he’s still wounded. Jason is finally able to get to Stone, who uses him to power a blast that kills Tasha. Her Evil exits and, rather than try to possess anyone, flees.

Alastair dismantles the circle, and the kids fall unconscious, Jason and Verity take them out to the hall while Stone resets. Once he’s ready, with the final crystal that needs to be placed inside the portal, they all pause. Stone is subdued, nearly emotionless, but he assures Jason this portal is less volatile, and they should have time to get the children away.

Harrison, dying, barely mobile, interrupts and insists on taking the crystal through. Stone has a revelation, a way to shut the portal down safely. He and Harrison manage it, but of course the dying man is stranded on the Evil’s side.

With some very creative management and cleanup, persuasion and coercion, they manage to get all the survivors back to Las Vegas. As the trio drive back home, Jason asks about Harrison. Stone regretfully assures him the man could not have survived and, even if he had, without the portal there was no way back for him. Stone says, despite it all, he’ll sleep better than he has in months. Then Jason reminds him that the Evil on this side of the portal – including the powerful one evicted from Tasha – are still here.

Two months later Stone receives a couriered package, a notebook dated two days prior – from Harrison. Not only is he alive, and back, but he’s handed Stone the beginnings of understanding how that’s possible.