The Forgotten

The Forgotten

Original Cover

## Blurb

**Evil Hides in Plain Sight**

A disturbed child.

A horrific act.

A monstrous supernatural conspiracy.

All over the Bay Area, ordinary people with no history of violence are committing bizarre, brutal crimes. Others are disappearing without a trace. The only thing the cases have in common is they have nothing in common.

Alastair Stone has no idea what kind of rabbit hole he's falling down.

Joining forces with a young man searching for his runaway sister, Stone discovers a network of odd homeless people, a series of strange symbols, and an insidious enemy pulling the strings behind the scenes.

What do you do when you discover an extradimensional plot threatening the safety of the entire world—but you can't reveal it because literally anyone on Earth could be involved?

## Plot

Stone is called in to interview a young girl who'd murdered her mother, by the girl's aunt. She apparently hoped the girl had been possessed. Stone found nothing of the kind, but was disturbed by the girl's description, that she felt like she was watching from inside a robut, and by her aura, which had flickered with something odd. Unable to put her out of his mind, he researches the recent papers and finds other cases of random murders by otherwise ordinary people, as well as a strange mass murder of homeless people that inexplicably got little press. His curiosity piqued, he decides to check out the crime scenes, as well as bargain with Stefan Kolinsky to see if he can dig up more information.

## Quotes and One-liners

My crazy sister’s a magic bum, my new friend is a mage who moonlights as a college professor and travels by teleport gateway...What's next, talking cats? Jason

He visits the bar behind which one murder had happened, finds a witness and gets his story and is pointed to the murder site. He finds odd grafitti - which he'd been noting for two years - and then is attacked by a mage in a gang called DMW (Dead Men Walking). The guy is an amateur, so Stone schools him and gets away.

Meanwhile Verity, in a halfway house for the mentally ill, is beginning to think things aren't on the up and up. She calls her estranged brother and leaves a message, but Jason is away and doesn't get it for two days. Most of the information Kolinsky turns up for Stone is useless, but he recognizes Verity's name - he knew her mother. Verity's disappeared, and Stone figures he should at least check it out on behalf of her late mother.

Jason eventually gets Verity's panicked message, and plans on going the halfway house and demanding to see her. The next day, he goes there and is told Verity left two days prior. The doctor - Delancie - in charge says he hadn't known she was missing, himself - he'd been out of town. An orderly named Charles lets Jason see her room, and slips him a note asking to meet him that night. While waiting, Jason does some research at the library and notes the recent string of bizarre murders, like Stone had. He also meets a group of homeless, and asks them to keep an eye out for his sister.

That night he meets Charles and he tells him Verity was terrified, that something is very wrong at New Horizons. They leave on Jason's Harley to go where Charles sent her to hide, and are nearly run off the road and killed by Dead Men Walking gangers. Meanwhile, Stone goes to New Horizons and is told by a boy she'd left, allegedly. And that someone else had been looking for her, too. He says to find Charles, that he was Verity’s friend. Stone finds Charles' address, but he isn't home. So, he steals one of his shoes to do a tracking ritual.

Jason and Charles go to his friend's house, to find police there - his friend is dead and another woman taken to the hospital - no sign or word of Verity. They go to the hospital hoping to question the survivor. She tells them to go to a fruit packing warehouse and look for a particular symbol to ID it. They find it, and go inside, but it seems deserted. Bikers suddenly arrive and Jason and Charles try to flee, but the DMW bikers blow up Jason's hog. One kills Charles from a distance, also killing a kid he had with him in the process - ashing him for power. Jason has no idea what the hell is going on but Stone, having found the site, disrupts the bikers with a blast of magic, yells for Jason to get into the car, and they get away. At Stone's place, he explains magic to Jason, finally getting him to mostly believe. He omits that he knew his mother, for now.

They decide to speak to the homeless at the library again. They don't know Verity, but they do know the Susanna person she is with, but not her whereabouts. One named Frank, the Scribbler, gives Stone a drawing that, while it looks incomprehensible, seems to represent Susanna. Two cops arrive to roust the homeless from the library, and they're threatening and nasty, and ask about a murder suspect they're looking for , who matches Jason's description. Both Stone and Jason are amazed that the cops can't see them, sitting right there - someone was masking them. They all leave,

Stone and Jason heading back to Stone's place to do a ritual with Frank's paper. Stone says he can feel Susanna, but she's blocking him somehow and he can't locate her. Jason has a hunch, and calls Lt. Arrelli, who has Verity's case - there's no indication Jason is wanted at all - the two cops were fakes. Stymied for leads, Stone asks if Jason has anything of Verity's he can do a ritual with. Since Jason probably shouldn't be seen at New Horizons, Stone decides to try.

Alastair charms and tricks his way in, getting a teddy bear from Verity's room. He needs more supplies though, and has a meeting so the ritual will have to wait. He does take Jason car shopping, though, so he won't be stranded while Stone's busy. Stone goes for his meeting, and Jason searches the paper for a job. The phone rings, and Sgt. Yansky is looking for him, to come to a junkyard to identify a body they think is Verity.  On his way there, he suddenly realizes cops would never have a loved one come to a crime scene - they'd wait until the body was at the morgue. He goes anyway, and sneaks in through the back, wary of an ambush. A freaky boy appears and tells him 'they' are waiting for him, and he should leave, then disappears.

Fully weirded out, Jason retreats and heads back to Stone's. He tries to nap while Stone readies the ritual, but can't, so he goes to the kitchen for a drink, to find Mrs. Olivera tinkering under the range. She says she'd dropped something but found it. Down in the basement, Stone says he's nearly ready, and wishes he'd thought to grab a drink. Back up in the kitchen, Jason realizes it was odd that Mrs. Olivera was under the stove if she'd found what she dropped. He investigates, finds a bomb, and barely gets Stone out before it goes off.

Later, in a rented house a friend of Stone's set him up with, Jason spots a brief article in the paper saying Mrs. Olivera died in a one-car crash. Stone decides they need to go to his Surrey house for a book in order to find Verity, now that they have nothing for tracking. He's dubious about taking Jason through a portal, but is also sure the man would do something foolish if left behind while Stone traveled. They take the portal in A Passage to India, and Jason begins to panic, attracting the dark entities that live there. They make it, barely, at a dead run. Once at the Surrey house, Aubrey settles them in with drinks and food, and Alastair is about to excuse himself to get his book when Jason says he can't make the portal trip again. He's near panic, but Stone assures him that, now that he understands the problem, he can block the creatures from Jason's mind and get them back safely. Once they do get back, Jason asks what Stone meant when he told Jason to assume at the moment that Stone didn't know him. Stone admits he knew his mother. It was when he was an apprentice, and shortly before she died. Once he processes that, Stone says something about hoboes, triggering Jason to remember reading about Hobo Code, and that the odd symbols they'd been finding looked a lot like it.

They gather supplies and Stone calls in a favor and gets a remote ballet studio in which to do a summoning. Then he fills Jason in that he plans to call a spirit, with Jason's blood, and while Stone is sure he can control it, there is a great deal of danger. Jason agrees to go along, though, for Verity.

The spirit Stone summons shows him a vision of where Verity is, then tries overpower Stone and break free. Stone contains and banishes it, and Jason is scared half to death by the occurrence. Following the spirit's information, they head to a park near the Guadelupe River, where DMW ambush them - the spirit made a deal with them. Stone is stabbed, and Jason surrounded, when the Forgotten arrive, somehow driving the gang off. Jason blacks out, to wake later to find Stone is being tended, and his siter, Verity, is one of the Forgotten.

Jason and Verity catch up, telling each other how they ended up in this place and time. Verity's been staying with the Forgotten because one of them (they all have different abilities) can block her madness. They are pursued and harassed, though, by what she calls 'the Evil' - entities that possess others. They also reason out that she's the one who made DMW leave, by banishing the Evil inhabiting the leader, since she did something similar at New Horizons, when she found a staffer killing a boy. Adding Stone to the conversation - one of the Forgotten, Lamar, healed him - they conclude that the Evil have a hierarchy, possess people in power when they can, can possess mages (almost unheard of), and may be able to reproduce. Also, that their presence seems to coincide with Verity's illness, the Forgotten's powers, and the general rise in crime and violence.

Stone thinks he can block Verity's madness more permanently, and he also wants to learn more about the Evil and, hopefully, how to get rid of them. Verity, as a key to banishing them, is a target now, as it's assumed strong banished Evil who survive can remember what happened while inside their last body - like the New Horizons staffer (lesser Evil theoretically dissipate and die).

Later, Stone, Jason and Verity are at a diner discussing how to block Verity's issues when Jason makes an offhand comment that it would be easier if she were a mage. Stone freezes, staring at Verity - the daughter of a female mage. It means that, if true and she is a mage, Verity can learn to block her own mental issues. Though, if not he can still block them for her. He examines her once they're home, and finds that yes, she is a mage, with high potential. Jason asks if he might be, as well, but Stone kindly says no, he would have seen it when he blocked Jason's mind from panicking the second time through the portal. Stone also blocks Verity's issues, though says it was harder than he thought, because something is trying to get onto her head - not Evil, but possibly something existent in the world that she is somehow susceptible to.

Stone outlines their next steps, but first, they need to find a more permanent place to live. He goes off to make calls while Jason and Verity chat. Jason assures V that Stone (who she considers old) won’t hit on her, and she clears up for Jason that she’s bisexual, but leans more toward girls. Stone does find a monthly rental that will work, and promised he wouldn’t blow it up. Verity, not knowing about that, demands answers, and Jason explains about Mrs. Olivera. He and Stone arrive at the same conclusion – she’d been possessed by the Evil.

They move to the new rental – a boring suburban ranch – and Stone rents an equally boring tan minivan. They take care of getting magic supplies, clothes for Verity and the like, and stop for sandwiches, getting enough to take to the Forgotten’s new location. The plan is for the Forgotten to try to pin down who/where the Evil leader is.

Trying to flesh out their plan, they brainstorm places the Evil might frequent to get their fear fix. Verity points out a haunted house/maze event, and Jason agrees, some of the fear there is real, and in quantity. They decide the fairground where it is held will be their hunting ground for a low-level Evil to capture and study. They meet with the Forgotten and Lissy, who detects Evil, and Susanna, who keeps Lissy calm, agree to help.

They find a young man who seems to be hanging around outside the haunted house, getting off on the emotion inside. They successfully kidnap him, and Verity, after some trouble, is able to evict the Evil from him. They return the unconscious boy to where he’d been, then return to the Forgotten. The next step is for the Forgotten to put the word out to find a high-level Evil, while Stone builds a trap for it so he can study it, hopefully finding a way to destroy them or send them back to wherever they came from.

Once the trap is ready, they head back to the Forgotten, but no news has come back yet. That’s when Marilee goes trance-like and produces a flyer for a goth/BDSM club in San Francisco. Stone and crew decide to go there, and Verity helps them find suitable goth clothes.

At the club itself, there are numerous Forgotten ‘danger’ symbols. Verity’s comfort level with the place dismays Jason, but she’s able to get the location of the BDSM dungeon level from one of the clubgoers. After learning far more of BDSM practices than they cared for, they spot two DMW gangers. They follow them through a hidden door, letting the gangers get far ahead. As they explore, trying to find the Evil, the DMW gangers go by again, cluing Stone’s group into where they’d gone. The three go the way the gangers came from, finding themselves in a storm sewer first, then an abandoned theater. Muffled sounds lead them to a door, behind which there is moaning and screaming. Jason and Verity hide while Stone opens the door.

Inside are dead bodies, body parts, DMW gangers, and several captives in cages. They free the captives and lock up the DMW gangers they had to assault to get in. One of the captives tells them a famous local philanthropist, Gordon Lucas, comes often to watch the torture, and he’s here now, someplace. He is the Big Evil they’ve been looking for. Voices approach, sounding alarmed. Stone gives one of the captives – a Forgotten man – a charged crystal that will obscure them and tell them all to hide under the stage where Jason and Verity had hidden.

A running fight ensues, and Stone separates from the group to deal with some of the gangers, while Jason and Verity fight their way – Verity vanquishing several Evil along the way - to the offices where they think Lucas is. As more gangers appear, Jason is injured. Stone appears, engaged in a firefight with DMW gangers, and he’s eventually dropped by a blast of energy from a DMW Evil mage. A voice yells to grab Stone, he wants him alive, and the gangers pick him up and take off upstairs with him.

Jason and Verity fight their way up to where Stone’s been taken, finding the Evil cage Stone had devised along the way – Jason thinks Stone is still alive and dropped it on purpose. They burst into the office where Stone is on the floor, bound and groggy, and a portal is shimmering nearby. The Evil mage is about to kill Alastair, and Lucas is screaming for him to kill Verity. The mage tries to kill Jason and fails, and Jason pushes him through the temporary portal hanging in the air.

The portal, now unstable because its maker has been destroyed, is building up to blow. Lucas says he can survive it – his Evil can – but Stone says no, it’ll kill them both. Lucas tells him he knows too little, then goes for Verity, whose power is too dangerous and needs to be removed. She puts all she has into it, and manages to evict his Evil, which hovers in the room, looking for a host. Stone manages to trap it, and they start to flee, seeing that some candles have started a fire, not to mention the destabilizing portal. Verity stops them to get Lucas out with them, now that he’s no longer Evil, but Lucas – horrified by what he’s done – suicides. Then the mad dash to exit the building begins.

They reunite with the freed captives and are about to flee when more DMW gangers arrive. The fire begins to rage as they fight. Most of the captives are killed. A DMW ganger throws an incendiary that takes them out, but also cuts off all escape except a set of doors chained shut. Stone is weak, unable to get them open, but Jason demands he take energy from him. Stone doesn’t want to – he’ll go black and Jason will likely be seriously drained, perhaps die. But Jason insists, and Stone uses Jason’s energy to blow the doors open – they and the last homeless Forgotten man escape. The theater building implodes, collapsing in on itself.

After, Stone hosts a steak dinner for the Forgotten, but he’s preoccupied. Jason gets him alone, and Stone tells him that drawing power from him like he had should have killed Jason, but it didn’t. He’s like a battery. Then Jason remembers that the Evil mage tried to ash him, and wasn’t able to. Stone does a small experiment, and the upshot is that Jason can power spells without ill effect. Stone then asks if Jason will stay and try to help banish the Evil. Verity interrupts and asks Stone to apprentice her. He agrees, and Jason knows he’s all in, no matter what.