The Passageway

***The Passageway*** is an original graphic novel and the second published *Boneyard Orchard Mythos* story.

## Publication history

*The Passageway* was not meant to be the first major story of *The Bone Orchard Mythos*, but when Lemire couldn't get the original story to work, Sorrentino encouraged him to write something else. The resulting script for *The Passageway* came together in about a week in the summer of 2021. Lemire felt he wrote *The Passageway* from his gut, with the sinkhole reflecting his feelings of instability from the global pandemic. Since the protagonist had to cross a threshold into a new world, it felt like the perfect introduction to this new world for readers.

Things from Another World had an exclusive variant cover by Sorrentino, with a limited print run of 300 copies.

### Solicitation blurb

> From the acclaimed creative team behind GIDEON FALLS and PRIMORDIAL comes the first book in a bold and ambitious new shared horror universe! When a geologist is sent to a remote lighthouse to investigate strange phenomena, he finds a seemingly endless pit in the rocks. What lurks within—and how will he escape its pull?
> THE PASSAGEWAY is the first book in the new BONE ORCHARD MYTHOS from LEMIRE & SORRENTINO! This universe will feature self-contained graphic novels and limited series about the horrors lurking within the Bone Orchard, just waiting to be discovered.
>
>

## Plot

### Cast

John ReedSal YandleDougie Yandle
* John Reed: A geologist working for the Canadian Geological Society
* Sally "Sal" Yandle: The lighthouse keeper
* Douglas "Dougie" Yandle: A fisherman and brother of Sal
* John's mother

### Synopsis

In the prologue, John remembers a dream about his mother where her eyes are missing.

Dougie brings John to a small island with a lighthouse on it. On the way, John confesses to having a fear of the sea. When they arrive at the island, John is introduced to the lighthouse keeper, Sal. She takes John to the sinkhole he was sent to investigate. When he arrives at the sinkhole, John is distracted by circling birds above, reminded of when his mother drowned when he was a boy. As John prepares a drone, Sal mentions that she hasn't been to the mainland in twenty-five years. When John sends the drone down the sinkhole, he sees a face through the drones camera, immediately followed by a horde of birds flying out of the hole. When John is unable to reconnect to the drone, he decides to stop for the day and continue work tomorrow.

    Over dinner, John learns that Sal and Dougie are siblings, and that they had both once been on the island before Sal took up the post as lighthouse keeper. After, John is led to the bedroom. John is worried he's depriving Sal of her bed, but she mentions she only sleeps in the lighthouse. That night, John dreams of finding his mother's eyeless corpse. He finds her eyes, and pushes them into his own eye sockets.

John wakes from his nightmare. He looks out his window and sees a naked Sal wandering around the island, muttering to herself.

In the morning, John goes looking for Sal in the lighthouse. He finds a photograph of a woman with two children, a boy and a girl. Up by the light, he finds a mattress, but no sign of Sal. When he emerges from the lighthouse, he finds Sal waiting for him, annoyed that he had entered the lighthouse. John sets out to the sinkhole to resume his work, but he is attacked by Sal, who throws him into the sinkhole.

John survives the fall, but his leg is injured. Then he falls again, though the ground and a horde of birds and lands in what appears to be an underground temple. An enormous hooded statue with four arms and a skeleton face begins to bleed. The blood rises all around John rapidly. He sees a menacing naked woman (possibly Sal and Dougie's mother) before he is submerged in blood.

John emerges in the ocean not far from the lighthouse's island. He swims back to the island to confront Sal. As they fight, he asks her what she's doing at the sinkhole, to which Sal replies that she's "trying to fix the light." John asks her what took his mother's eyes, which is answered with "You did," but it is not Sal that replies, but Dougie as he hacks into John's back with an ax. Dougie takes another swing at John, but misses and hits Sal, who falls into the sinkhole. For a moment, Dougie stands at the edge of the sinkhole, saying he doesn't want to go yet, then he finds his resolve and jumps in after his sister.

As John lies dying by the sinkhole, he opens his right hand, which was somehow clasping his toy boat from the day his mother died. With the last of his strength, John drags himself away from the sinkhole to a cliff face, and drops into the ocean. Underwater, he is reunited with his mother, who smiles at him and caresses his cheek.

## Cover gallery

*The Passageway*
Cover by Andrea Sorrentino*The Passageway*
TFAW variant cover by Andrea Sorrentino
## Mythos connections

* John walks through a doorway bearing an inscription that references *Ten Thousand Black Feathers*:
> *Beyond the veil of the Dusk*
> *Lies the Lord of Death*
> *Sleeping under ten thousand black feathers*
>
>
* There is a statue that resembles the Crow King from the *Ten Thousand Black Feathers* covers
* There is a structure with faces like the mask in *Shadow Eater*

## Trivia

* The lock screen of John's phone is the cover of Lemire and Sorrentino's *Primordial* #3

## References

1. ↑ BONE ORCHARD: THE PASSAGEWAY OGN HC
2. ↑ Book Couples Counseling Podcast: Jeff Lemire & Andrea Sorrentino on *The Bone Orchard Mythos*
3. ↑ *The Bone Orchard Mythos: The Passageway* (Andrea Sorrentino TFAW exclusive variant cover)