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Submission Synopsis
Crossing Realms
by Mark E. Boone
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Length:
97,438
Genre:
Fantasy
Sentence:
Redemption and retribution drive an earthbound angel to thwart Satan’s
plot to usurp the earthly realm.
Blurb:
Now here’s a cast of characters: A disgruntled, former F.B.I agent
turned cantankerous, scotch-swilling gumshoe, his deceased friend’s widow
– a warrior monk, a Jewish boy – and the unlikeliest of pairings, an
underworld demoness plagued with life-defining issues and a beleaguered,
earthbound angel on the arduous path to heavenly redemption.
Bound as one, the misfits find themselves in a perilous struggle against
nuances of good and evil to thwart Satan’s boldest, most ruthless plan yet
to usurp the world of men in the 20th Century.
Synopsis:
In the beginning…
In lieu of the Second Battle for Heaven – as a defensive move to protect
Earth - Archangel Michael crosses over into the fledgling world of men
bearing a gift of heavenly magnitude; a box-like vessel with extraordinary
powers. One man witnesses the crossing; a Mesopotamian sheepherder and
believer named Dryhus. Terrified, Dryhus turns to run away but Michael
beckons him to stay. The archangel calls upon Dryhus and his sons and
grandsons to keep the Loculus safe from demons and men until a time far in
the future when another of God’s messengers would claim the vessel and use
it to save the world of men. Constructed of desert sand and celestial
energy, the Loculus is given the ability to ensnare all magic, good or
bad, within its modest bounds. Michael determined that without sorcery and
black magic, Satan’s surreptitious plan to lay claim to the world of men
was sure to fail.
In the autumn of 1968, a shroud of mysterious occurrences blankets the
Washington D.C area.
Chapter 1 introduces two F.B.I. agents dispatched to a rural area outside
of Alexandria, Virginia to investigate reports of Satanists practicing
nightly sacrificial rituals in the woods. The agents’ intrusion into the
dark, shadowy world of demonic synergy is the last time anyone hears from
either one of them. The assistant director dispatches more agents - among
them, Special Agent Jack Campbell - to go and check out the site of the
dual disappearance. Agent Campbell arrives first on the scene. Jack
Campbell - with an extensive background in theology, and close ties to a
secret order of warrior monks in the Scottish Highlands, places a phone
call before he leaves for Alexandria to his best friend, mentor and former
partner, Milo Brodie. Brodie is a crack criminal-profiler - disgruntled
with the bureau - turned cantankerous, Scotch-swilling private eye. Jack
asks his old friend for help on another case involving the grisly slaying
of a U.S. Senator. They decide to meet later at a local coffee shop to
discuss the case. After inspecting the agent’s car on the side of the
road, Jack makes the decision to go into the woods to find his peers,
sensing they may be in danger. He discovers horrendous carnage, the bodies
of the two agents and those of two children used in rituals kidnapped from
a nearby farm. Farther on, he finds an old horse-driven carnival wagon
hidden in the same area as the killings. The wagon wore the lettering
‘Leonard the Magnificent’ on the sides. Jack also finds an ancient book of
apocryphal text in the wagon and while skimming through it by flashlight
finds a stunning connection to his other case. Upon leaving the scene, a
large flock of ravens attacks him. Battered and bloody, Jack barely makes
it back to his car. On the way back home, Jack calls the assistant
director and informs him of the murders but doesn’t tell him about the
book he found. He decided to find out more about it before disclosing its
existence to his superiors. Five blocks from his house, a demon attacks
and kills Jack. The demon’s name was Leonard the Sorcerer, one of the
original Fallen Ones, and Satan’s proxy on Earth. Leonard shreds the book
and evidence file Jack had on him at the time.
***
Milo Brodie wakes up in a fog with a spilt drink in his hand, remembering
bits and pieces of a phone call from his friend Jack. He showers, dresses,
has a drink for the road, grabs a newspaper, and then calls a taxi to take
him to the coffee shop. Brodie reads about the senator’s murder and an
eyewitness account of his murderer, a large man wearing a dark overcoat.
In front of four witnesses, the tall man murders the senator with his bare
hands, slashing open his body, disemboweling him. Both Brodie and the cab
driver see a tall man in an overcoat acting strangely, lumbering down the
street stopping cars and tossing pedestrians out of his way. Brodie
watches him go into a jewelry store, orders the cabbie to stop, gets out
and follows the man into the store. Once inside, he finds no trace of the
perpetrator but finds the body of an old man he assumes is the shop owner.
Absent a pulse or heartbeat, Brodie investigates the remainder of the
store. In a storeroom, instead of stores and supplies he finds an
extensive library and many antiques. Busy looking around, Brodie’s
surprised by a voice behind him. He turns around to face a demon, one of
Leonard’s cronies named Marbus. Marbus, a lower-order demon, knows he is
no match for the firepower of Brodie’s .45, and after scaring the bejesus
out of the frightened man, disappears into thin air. The demon starts a
fire in the building next door before disappearing for good, leaving
Brodie to search for potential victims. Tired, sooty and in dire need of a
drink, Brodie sits down on a curb across the street from the fire. He pays
no attention to the bustling firefighters and onlookers all around him;
instead, he sits there entranced by the fire and sees an ominous face
appear in the flames, it’s the demon. Brodie walks away tired confused and
very much in need of a drink.
***
Chapter 4 introduces Father Gavin Dalry, who belongs to the same secret
order of warrior monks as Jack did, and Amidus, an angel of the original
Heavenly Host, unjustly banished to Earth by Archangel Michael. While
performing his duty to translate ancient scripture, the monk discovers
text previously unknown, describing Satan’s plot to infiltrate the earthly
realm with his hordes of demons. He also discovers knowledge of the Holy
Vessel left on Earth by the Archangel, Michael. The only problem is; no
one on Earth knows its whereabouts. To introduce the story of Amidus, I
must first return to the past, far into the past, back to the year, 100
B.C.
(Note: I disbursed the following narrative throughout the book. I
aggregated salient parts here for purposes of explanation. It is essential
to the story.)
In the beginning… the real beginning
God created the angels. Of the very first order, Michael, Gabriel,
Raphael, Satan, Ophaniel and Amidus spent eons at the foot of the Throne
of God learning His Word and training for their appointed tasks to manage
the Universe in His Name. Once training was finished, they were given
grand status, Michael and Gabriel as Seraphim the highest order, the
managers of Heaven, and Raphael, Satan, Ophaniel and Amidus as Cherubim
the second highest order, the guardians of affairs of Earth and men, God’s
newest creations. God bore many thousands of other angels to populate
lower orders and serve both the Seraphim and Cherubim.
Satan became disgruntled with his work as guardian of men. He convinced
lower order angels that God preferred the men to His first creations. He
plans an uprising to usurp more power in Heaven but meets resistance in
the awesome forms of Michael and Gabriel. The Battle for Heaven commences
and Satan and the Fallen Ones were soundly defeated. Michael passes
judgment on Satan and his followers, casting them into the Lake of Fire
until the day of Final Judgment.
Before pronouncement of sentences, Satan tricks Amidus into staying silent
about what he knows concerning the origin of the uprising thereby
loosening Satan’s chains enough to where limited access to Earth is
possible. In exchange for his silence, Satan promises Amidus he will
abandon his scheme of crossing over into the earthly realm with his band
of Fallen Ones to claim Earth as his prize. Meanwhile, in direct
contradiction to his word, Satan sends one of his generals, Leonard the
Sorcerer and a number of his legions to Earth to begin wreaking havoc,
creating chaos to soften Earth's defenses against the dark realm, chaos
set to culminate in the 20th Century. Michael summons Amidus to stand in
judgment without advocate and banishes him to Earth, where he is to have
no contact with men or angels. The angel grows bitter and for eons hardens
his heart to prayer. He lives in a cave in the desert not a living soul in
his vicinity. At the same time, Michael forms a number of Orders of
Warrior Monks on Earth in hopes of thwarting any plots of dark insurgence
into the earthly realm, but Satan sends Baphomet to Earth to thwart the
monks, putting doubts in the minds of King Philip the Sixth of France and
Pope Clement the Fifth in Rome.
Persecuted, hunted, imprisoned and killed by forces of darkness, Michael's
dwindling army of monks, theologians and priests now exist as a single
Order. This lone order of Earth's defenders spread around the world, some
living in a small, clandestine group deep in the Scottish Highlands and a
few others led normal lives across Europe and beyond. Some of the monks
became involved in premier global intelligence and law enforcement
agencies.
One of these latter-day, clandestine warriors, Jack Campbell discovers
evidence of Satan's dark plans for Earth, in particular, a proposed
crossing over into the earthly realm of one-third of the Fallen Ones in
1968; a turbulent year in which chaos and unrest is rampant on Earth. The
agent manages to contact his brother, a fellow warrior in Scotland and
informs him of his evidence of Satan's malevolent plans right before he's
violently murdered. Jack also informs his wife, Claire, through evidence
left at their house. Claire knew about her husband’s membership in the
Order but he swore her to secrecy. Jack’s death and a series of other
grisly murders prompt Claire - always the impetuous one - to enlist the
aid of Milo Brodie. The pair opens an investigation of their own to thwart
Satan’s plans, and seek retribution for Jack's murder.
***
Enter Delipitore. (A demoness subjugated to the sorcerer) Interned beneath
Leonard's Lair, the demoness awaits orders to participate in the crossing.
In the meantime, the sorcerer uses her for menial tasks and his demeaning,
twisted assignations. Summoned to Leonard's chambers one day, while
traversing the network of subterranean tunnels beneath Leonard's dark
lair, Delipitore becomes unwittingly embroiled in an overthrow of the
sorcerer’s throne initiated by a pair of lower order demons named Marbus
and Malphus. She escapes in the ensuing chaos only to find herself a
stranger in a strange world, confused, lonely and unsure of her purpose
for existence. Delipitore always harbored regrets for joining in Satan's
fall from God's Grace but the path to redemption always escaped her. After
her timely escape, she searches for clues to her destiny. Little did she
know, her search paralleled that of another lost soul searching for his
own destiny and redemption, the earthbound angel? Unable to ascend to
Heaven because of obvious past misdeeds, Delipitore senses the aura of
another angelic presence on Earth and seeks him out hoping to somehow
redeem herself and find likened company. Meanwhile, Leonard survives the
takeover attempt but inadvertently lets the dissenters escape. The
sorcerer puts a bounty on the heads of the dissenters including Delipitore,
and continues with his plans to disrupt Earth.
***
Archangel Michael appears in visage to Amidus and offers him a chance for
redemption but Amidus bitterly shuns him for wrongly banishing him from
Heaven. By Order of God, Michael is to stay out of earthly affairs and
remain in Heaven to protect it from dark influence. He is unable to find
any angelic assistance on Earth and must rely on fate and his human
warrior monks to thwart Satin's crossing.
***
Father Thomas Campbell (Jack's brother) enlists another of his brethren,
Father Gavin Dalry, who he finds out also discovered evidence of Satan's
plot through hidden language in the ancient Holy Scriptures and the
apocryphal, to accompany him to Washington D.C. The priests meet with
Claire and Milo Brodie. The four unlikely participants combine forces and
resources to battle Leonard's minions and Satan's nefarious plot.
Meanwhile, through perseverance, Amidus is finally able to regain most of
his celestial abilities by prayer, meditation and interpretation of coded
hidden scripture. Amidus opens his heart, realizes his redemption in the
Eyes of God is possible, and strives to find the path.
***
By sheer chance, (or so they think) Amidus meets Delipitore and even
though divided by past choices and deeds, the unlikely pair grow closer in
spirit and become one in purpose. Together, they decide to expose and
thwart Satan's plans, return the dark prince and his minions to the bowels
of Hell, and redeem themselves in the Eyes of God, thereby regaining
ascension. Through great deliberation and studying of the Scriptures,
Delipitore and Amidus discover the only way to defeat Leonard's army is
through the world of men. However, there is a steep price for their
redemption and the freedom of humanity. They join forces with the Order,
Claire and Milo Brodie to stave off Leonard's evil until they can locate
the Loculus. However, a number of obstacles stand in their way. First,
they must find the human - a Jewish boy - given the Loculus for
safekeeping. Second, once they do, the plan is to figure out the formula
to unlock the vessel. Third, once the loculus is unleashed - stripped of
all powers - they must protect the earthlings while surviving the
onslaught of evil until the purging of magic extends to the farthest
corners of Earth.
Unfortunately, the collective, would-be savers of
humanity encounter a setback none of them expected; the demon Marbus
absconds with the holy vessel leaving them without a clue as to how they
should proceed; and little hope of succeeding in their mission. To make
things worse, Claire finds out she’s pregnant. With child, she discovers
magical powers, which prompts Father Dalry’s memory. He puts it all
together and discovers from obscure scripture that the Loculus will not
save the Earth. The vessel is a diversion. The rest was vague. The baby is
born. With the mission now infinitely more confusing, faith, resolve and
sense of purpose all tested to the limit in every participant. Not all of
them will survive the test. Meanwhile, Claire unexpectedly finds herself
growing closer to Milo Brodie. The feelings are reciprocal but both resist
temptation because of Milo’s lifelong friendship with Jack. However,
through ministering, Amidus convinces them to follow their hearts.
***
Two couples - one earth-born and one bore in Heaven - meet one more time
on the cliffs overlooking the Sea of Hebrides in Scotland to reminisce
about their harrowing adventure, celebrate their victory. They part for
the very last time. Amidus and Delipitore together find peace in God’s
keeping but left with a decision between ascension and staying on Earth as
guardians. Milo and Claire learn to follow their destiny together, knowing
in their hearts that it was what Jack would have wanted.
Biography
“Born in a log cabin in the dead of winter…” (Oops, this is real life!
Ok, so it was a split-level, redwood ranch house in Western Pennsylvania
with a big “B” on the chimney. And ‘twas springtime…)
Growing up in the blue-collar dynasty of the United States in the late
sixties and seventies oftentimes left a lot to the imagination. No
ambivalence at all – everything cut and dried, forty-hour workweek,
vacation two weeks a year – but at least it left open vast room for
growth. It did not take long before high aspirations and a bit o’ itchy
ambition swept over me and at the ripe old age of eighteen, I set my
sights on the golden state – making it my home for the next four years.
An avid reader and wannabe author, I spent my free time writing short
stories, poetry and articles on current events, occasionally submitting to
local and national periodicals and achieving modest success at best.
Stints in the world of mass employment, including machine-tool-technician,
horticulturist, swamper (on an oilrig), security guard and even
bartending/bouncing took up most of my time, and I never acted on my
highest aspiration of all, novelist, until well after my spontaneous,
solo, six-month, cross-country adventure, and a lot of reflection.
Eventually, I settled in Florida, worked at Mickey’s World for a few years
– writing mostly for an audience of one (myself) until I decided to
further my penning skills – enrolling in creative writing courses in
Central Florida while at the same time establishing a home-based business
on the Sun Coast. Feeling secure, I now have the time to do what I always
wanted to do…. (Write, write and write some more!) |
