alex wanderer pitch document

ALEX WANDERER Every night I tell myself

I am the cosmos, I am the wind But that don’t get you back again

-Chris Bell

Story Title: Alex Wanderer - “The Long Shadow” Color or B/W: Color Format: Prestige Book Mini-Series or Original Graphic Novel Category/Genre: “The Goonies” meets Stephen King/ Supernatural Thriller/ Adolescent Coming-of-Age Setup: “The Long Shadow” is the first part of a larger tale called Alex Wanderer. This first story tells of how Alex Morning and his sister Midge discover an object of great power, uncover the mystery of their dead mother and, ultimately, deliver themselves from the secret cult that seeks to do them harm. Setting: It’s fall, 1990. The story takes place in a fictional town situated against the Watchung Mountains in New Jersey, not too far from New York City. It’s an old town with roots going back to the Revolution. Story Theme: Loyalty, trust and love in the face of danger. Series Theme: What would you do if you, and you alone, could save the world? Power reveals a person’s true character. The search for a home that was lost.

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“Alex Wanderer” Copyright © by Keith Kopnicki [email protected] 347.443.5584

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ALEX WANDERER Short Plot Synopsis

Six years ago Jessica Morning took her own life. She left behind two children, Alex and Midge, and

a husband, Bill. A community mourned, a family struggled to cope and life went on… At story’s open we find the Morning family living in the long shadow of tragedy. Bill is wasting away under the weight of a terrible secret. He ignores his son and belittles and emotionally abuses his daughter. With no mother and a father who hates her, Midge (9) has developed “selective mutism,” a condition whereby the afflicted person cuts herself off from the world, and only speaks to Alex (12). Alex soldiers on and does his best to shield and protect his sister from his father’s abusive onslaughts. The Morning house makes for an interesting battlefield. Alex and Midge create their own world in the upstairs of the house, separate from their father. The downstairs belongs to Bill. To venture down there is to risk an encounter with him. The attic, secured by a padlocked trap door, is a mysterious no-man’s land. What lies up there, Alex and Midge can only wonder… On Halloween night Alex and his new crush, Dana Holloway, spy their teachers being lead by a mysterious man with a glowing talisman in a strange cult-like ceremony. They are discovered and barely escape capture. Midge, while trick-or-treating, encounters a creature made of shadow in the woods behind their house but her father, Bill, makes a deal with it: give him something he desperately desires and it can have his children. Shadows invade the Morning house and Alex, Midge and Dana retreat to the attic where they are able to defeat the creatures only when they find and unlock the power of a glowing talisman hidden for them by their mother. Alex enters a dream world inside the talisman, called a godstone, and learns his father and the cult members kidnapped his mother in an effort to force her to relinquish the godstone years before. It seems she may be alive after all. After thwarting attempts by their teachers at school to take the godstone Alex and Midge hide out in Dana’s basement. Alex witnesses Dana’s father on the verge of sexually abusing her, attacks him and, yet again, flees with his sister. Hiding in an old abandoned village in the woods they return to their house to get food and run into a man claiming to have been away for many years and and calling himself, “their Uncle Joe.” Alex recognizes the man as one of his mother’s kidnappers from his vision-dream and they retreat to the forest. Alex and Midge spy on the cult in the woods as they try to summon Shadows from a cave. They are caught but Alex uses the godstone to free them. Before boldly killing his teacher, he learns his mother is alive and being held in the cult’s main church in New York City. Their father Bill emerges from the cave but Midge summons the power of the godstone for the first time herself and takes revenge on her father-tormentor, killing him. The two siblings, now killers, enter the cave and together seal a portal to another dimension stopping the Shadows from crossing over. Uncle Joe digs up Jessica Morning’s grave and finds it empty. He heads into New York seeking answers. Alex and Midge travel to the church in New York where they confront the cult leader, the mysterious man with the beard, Magnus Von Bergen. Alex and Magnus enter a battle of godstones and, with Alex on the verge of defeat, Uncle Joe intervenes on his behalf and kills Magnus. They find their mother but are too late, she’s dead. Strange Beings descend on the church and reclaim Magnus’ godstone. Uncle Joe, a former prisoner of these creatures, begs they be left alone and the Beings vanish leaving Alex with his godstone. Uncle Joe, Alex and Midge drive west to start a new life as Alex informs Joe he knows he took part in his mother’s kidnapping. Joe, to his shame, admits it and begins to tell the children the story behind the cult, their parents and the mystery of the godstone and the Beings.

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ALEX WANDERER All those who wander are not lost.

-J.R.R. Tolkien Detailed Plot Summary: Chapter or Issue #1 Jessica Morning puts the finishing touches on a sculpture depicting a beautiful yet tortured woman. Echo & The Bunnymen’s prophetic “The Killing Moon” plays from a record player and fills the attic studio. But that is the past and this… … Is the present. It’s 1990. Under a full moon we meet a twelve-year-old Alex Morning as he rides his bike down a mountain road. Out of the corner of his eye he spots a flurry of shooting stars (“Are they UFO’s?” he wonders…). He’s on his way to talk to the only person in the world who will listen about a father who doesn’t care for him, a mother who left him and a sister who depends on him. He goes to a statue of his hero, George Washington. But first he must navigate his bike down a steep path (the kids call it Devil’s Spine) that runs next to a cliff. It’s a true test of courage. Alex returns home and discovers his father Bill Morning, much to his disappointment, conscious. He slips upstairs undetected – safe, for now. He finds his little nine-year-old sister Midge into hour seven of a “Legend of Zelda” marathon. She suffers from “selective mutism” and refuses to talk to anyone but her brother. Alex gets on her for spending too much time in a fantasy world and not enough in the real world. She berates him for talking to statues. From downstairs, their father calls them to dinner and things suddenly get frightfully real. A truce is declared and Alex leads his scared sister by the hand down the steps to face their father. At the dinner table their father is calm and all seems fine but soon his mood begins to change drastically – sadness, anger, remorse – and like a diabolical surgeon he proceeds to slice and cut at Midge with a verbal assault that leaves her devastated and in tears. He accuses her of causing her mother’s suicide and all Alex can do is console her and tell her their father is losing his mind. The next day Alex sits in history class sketching a drawing of Osiris as his ancient teacher Mr. Grumley lectures the class on ancient Egypt. Alex discovers he has an admirer in his impossibly cute classmate Dana Holloway who throws him several looks from across the room. As Alex leaves class Mr. Grumley whispers something strange to him – “The words are ancient but I make them my own.” Just a little bit scared Alex exits the classroom quickly but his sketch falls from his binder to the floor. Grumley picks it up and studies it. After school Alex rides his bike down the main street and stops to check out the display window of a magic shop. It’s Halloween season so the window is full of an assortment of scary costumes. The shop’s owner, Guy Finkel (“The Fink” to local kids), adjusts one of them and stares with beady eyes down at Alex. Dana sneaks up behind Alex and scares him. The two flirt awkwardly until Dana surprises Alex by remembering they used to play together when they were very little. She’s brave enough to ask about Alex’s dead mother and Alex insists she’s not dead just missing. She walks on and Alex is pretty sure he’s in love.


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That night at home Alex stands at the top of the stairs gazing up at the padlocked trapdoor to the attic. He wonders, “What could possibly be up there?” Alex finds Midge asleep again in front of the television, “Legend of Zelda” on the screen. He covers her with a blanket. Later that same night he lies under the covers of his bed and sketches a picture of his mother’s face and then Dana’s. Before he can finish he drifts off to sleep. Alex dreams. The family sits around the dinner table just as before but things are different now. This is some sort of alternate future, one where Alex’s mother is still alive and everything is all right. The dream turns to a nightmare when Midge becomes sick and Bill informs them that he’s poisoned her. Alex rushes her to the bathroom in a panicked effort to save her but when he gets there he finds his mother’s reflection staring back at him in the mirror. His mother pulls back the skin of her face revealing a terrible demon like creature that breaks through the glass and climbs into the bathroom. As Alex tries to protect his sister from the demon Bill appears in the doorway flashing an evil grin. Midge dreams. She stands in the woods behind her house. Her father beckons her to join him deeper in the forest. She runs from him back towards the house but the faster she runs the closer her father gets. As she falls to the ground she looks up at the attic window and sees a young woman (We know her as the woman from the first scene of the story. This is Jessica Morning, her mother) waving to her. Alex wakes, leaps from bed and goes to his sister only to find her in the same spot sleeping soundly. He creeps into the bathroom and gently pokes the mirror with his finger. Just as he does this his sister appears behind him; her reflection in the mirror scares him half to death. She tells him about her dream and Alex scolds her for holding onto the hope that their mother might be alive even though, privately, he hasn’t given up himself. When Midge asks about his dream he refuses to tell her. They talk about their father’s worsening state of mind and, after some prodding, Midge manages to get her brother to agree to find a way into the attic so they can finally uncover its mysteries. Later, during the darkest hour, as Alex and Midge sleep, their father lies in bed and looks out of his window. He mutters the words – “I’ve done all you’ve asked, now leave me alone.” Does he talk to himself? Someone? Something? We are not sure. Issue or Chapter #2 Mr. Grumley, the history teacher, worships at a strange alter covered in exotic runes. He attempts to summon something from another dimension but fails. As he wallows in self-pity a dark creature made only of shadow appears to him. He cowers beneath it ready to do its bidding. But that is the past and this… … Is the present. It’s been about a month since Alex and Dana had their fateful meeting in front of the magic shop and it’s apparent they’ve become closer during that time. The two walk down a crowded school hallway as Alex summons enough courage to ask Dana to the Halloween dance that night. She says yes. He asks – “As friends or as a couple?” She makes fun of him for being so weird. At recess Midge sits at the base of a big old tree watching the other kids play kickball. Over her shoulder her teacher, Ms. Schell, stands watch. She interrogates Midge about her refusal to speak and then reveals that her mother was a student of hers as well. Hoping to have found an opening Ms. Schell inquires if Midge’s mother ever, “gave her something special. Something to cherish?” Midge answers with silence.


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Later that day in the teacher’s lounge Ms. Schell and Mr. Grumley, an odd pairing indeed, quarrel. They discuss their progress, or lack thereof, with the Morning children who seem to have something of great importance they covet. A mysterious man named Magnus is referred to in a reverent tone. Schell suggests they go to the Morning house themselves and take what they want but Grumley counters by insisting that is Bill Morning’s domain. They both express their quickly vanishing patience but resolve to do as they are told and await further orders from Magnus. After school Alex and Midge hide behind a couch in their house and spy on their unconscious father who lies on his back, one eye open, a spilled bottle of pills next to his hand. “He looks like Smaug,” Alex observes as they sneak away upstairs to examine the locked attic door. As they stare up at the door they wonder what lies beyond until Alex announces they’ll have to find out some other time – “I’ve got a dance to get to.” Midge, feeling betrayed, explodes at her brother. It is Halloween after all and he promised to take her “trickertreating.” Alex apologizes and reminds her that she’s a big girl now. Midge does her best to hide that she’s deeply hurt. Alex implores his little sister to be careful and not do anything dumb. “Like what?” she responds, “Forget a costume to the Halloween dance?” It seems Alex has overlooked a crucial detail. Later that evening Alex leans against a bike rack outside school. He wears blue jeans, a white thermal shirt and a brown vest. At his side in a holster rests a trusty blaster. Han Solo. As he frets to himself over Dana’s lateness he begins to panic and doubt his reasons for ever thinking she liked him in the first place. Just as he’s convinced himself he’s the biggest loser in the world Dana shows up – dressed as Princess Leia to boot. “I hope you’re ready to dance!” she exclaims as she drags him towards the school. Yet another detail Alex has managed to overlook – dancing. Gulp. Back at the Morning house Midge kicks her imagination into full gear. Dressed as an American Indian, she applies face paint and completes her transformation from little girl to last warrior-princess of the Lene Lenape. She’s now ready to embark on a quest to hunt down the bane of her people, the Black Unicorn. But first she must gather candy for strength. Inside the school dance Dana and Alex have trouble talking. Their nerves have the best of them. Alex beats himself up again as Dana talks to her friends. Just as Alex is wishing he could just teleport himself to anywhere but the dance, Dana leads him by the hand to the dance floor. With his hands on her hips and her arms on his shoulders the two sway to a slow song and share their first kiss. Warrior-princess Midge moves from house to house never saying a word, only extending her pillow sack and collecting candy. Satisfied with her pull she descends into the forest to pursue her imaginary prey. Alex and Dana leave the dance and explore the dark, empty halls and classrooms of the school. They talk about how many students have come before them, how they sat in these very chairs and then wonder where they are now. Four bullies dressed up as Guns N’ Roses confront them, a scuffle breaks out, and Dana and Alex are on the run, out the door of the school and into the night. Midge bounds through the forest, closing in on her imaginary prey the black unicorn. Just as she’s about to make the kill she stumbles upon an old Revolutionary War-era graveyard deep in the forest. Then a voice calls out to her from the dark - “Morning.” A ghost-like body emerges from the shadows and descends on Midge. She flees the graveyard and runs, as fast as she can, through the forest. This is definitely not part of her imaginary game.


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Gasping for breath, Alex and Dana stop at the old town church and cemetery. Alex tells Dana his mother isn’t really missing and that this is the place where she is buried. His version of the story is just a dumb way for him to keep hope alive that she’ll come home some day. He also reveals where she died; they found her body at the base of Devil’s Spine (Alex rode his bike and fell there at the beginning of the story). While talking they spy Midge’s teacher Ms. Schell walk into the church basement. Against all good judgment they decide to investigate. The two creep down a long, dark hallway towards an open door. Inside the room is a most disturbing scene. Mr. Grumley, Ms. Schell, the police chief Horace Grandly and the creepy magic store owner Finkel all lay prone on the ground surrounded by strange occult like ornaments and candles. They worship a red haired and bearded man in a dark cloak – Magnus Von Bergen. Grumley spots them as the man with the red beard towers over Alex and Dana. Hanging around his neck is a small talisman. Alex and Dana barely escape the church basement. From the forest, Midge stumbles into the Morning backyard, face cut and clothes torn. From a hiding spot in the dark of the yard Bill Morning watches his daughter enter the house and then disappears into the forest himself. Alex, Dana and Midge rendezvous upstairs in the house and decide, on this Halloween, there is safety in numbers. They trade stories and resolve to wait out the night together. Deep in the forest Bill Morning kneels before the shadow creature. This dark being asks Bill for one thing - “Give me your children.” With tears streaming down his face, Bill agrees. Issue or Chapter #3 A younger Alex (No older than six) hides in the shadows of a stairwell. In the living room below, with the Beatle’s ‘Two of Us’ playing on a record player, Bill and Jessica Morning dance together, wine glasses in hand. Jessica passes out on the couch and Bill stands over her looking at her face. But that is the past and this… … Is the present. Alex wakes in his bed, Dana lying asleep next to him. Something’s not right. Where’s Midge? He finds her in the adjacent room. She stares out an open window while twisting tendrils of inky black darkness creep through into the house. “I touched it, it’s cold like the ocean,” she says. Alex slams the window shut. Red eyes are spotted in the dark beyond. Alex investigates the rest of the house and finds all the windows and doors to the house wide open. At the back door of the house Alex comes face to face with a pack of Shadows. Upstairs, Dana and Midge discover the lock on the attic door is, without any rational explanation, hanging open. A light emanates from behind the door… Alex retreats upstairs only to find Midge and Dana nowhere to be found. The attic trapdoor, however, is open. With the Shadows moving through the house and closing fast he has no choice but to climb into the attic. After stumbling through the darkness of the attic Alex sees a light in the distance. He moves towards it and finds Midge and Dana. But that is not all he finds. The light’s source is a small sculpture (the very one from the first scene of the story) in the corner of the room. Something from inside it glows fiercely. Midge declares, “Mom made it,” and then breaks it into a hundred pieces on the floor. Amidst the shattered bits is what can only be described as a talisman, one just like the bearded man in the cloak had at the church, only bigger. Alex touches it and, with the Shadows encircling them, a


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magnificent light explodes from the talisman and fills the house. The Shadows are vanquished. With the talisman in hand, Alex passes out and reawakens in the dream world of the talisman. While there he encounters a small glowing orb, much like a snow globe. Inside the glowing orb he watches a scene from his past. He sees the younger Alex hiding in the stairwell. He sees his parents dancing. He watches his mother fall to the couch. His father makes a phone call. Men come and lift her body. Two of the men he knows – Grumley and Finkel – but the third he does not recognize. His father asks, “When will she come back?” to which the mysterious man snaps, “It’s too late for that now.” Alex wakes up with these memories, like broken fragments of glass, fresh in his mind and tears streaming down his face. He tells Midge and Dana that the talisman is called a godstone. When they ask him how he knows this he explains that it told him. Alex searches the house for his father and the answers behind his strange vision but Bill is gone. Alex keeps the disturbing revelations of his vision-dream from Midge and Dana. The three then decide the one place they’ll be safe is school. Nobody will dare try to hurt them there. With dawn breaking Alex, Dana and Midge ride their bikes off to school. Issue or Chapter #4 Alex, Midge and Dana enter what now looks to them like an imposing and fortress-like school building. Alex is hit by a wave of fatigue. The godstone both gives and takes it seems. He gathers his strength and then the three are separated for the first time since they came together the night before. Midge goes to her classroom and Alex and Dana prepare to face Grumley. Before she leaves, Alex tells Midge not to leave her classmates, it’s too dangerous. Alex and Dana enter Grumley’s class. They’re late. All eyes are on them. Alex absorbs Grumley’s piercing gaze. He delivers a special written message in a test booklet to Grumley and then flees the room. Dana can only watch. We find Alex in the bathroom, on his knees in a stall. He vomits into a toilet. As Alex tries to pull himself together a visitor enters the bathroom. It’s Finkel! He pulls a knife on Alex, traps him in the stall and rummages through his pockets looking for the godstone. Instead, he finds a 20-sided die, the kind you use in Dungeons & Dragons. He casts it aside and demands to know where the godstone is. After a struggle Alex eludes capture and escapes the bathroom grabbing the 20-sided die along the way. He looks down at it again but now the die is gone and the godstone has returned. It seems the godstone can protect itself. Alex finds Dana and they make for Midge and yet another escape. Ms. Schell watches over Midge and her classmates. Behind Midge, leaning against a wall and seemingly standing guard over her as well, is a scientific model of a skeleton. The class phone rings and Schell answers it – someone would like to see Midge Morning. Midge spies Alex and Dana outside the classroom window and when Schell turns around she finds only an empty chair and an open window. Alex, Midge and Dana find sanctuary in the basement of Dana’s house. For the first time Dana takes charge for an exhausted Alex. She tells them they can stay here for the night, her parents won’t find them. Midge plays “Zelda” and discovers Death Mountain while Alex divulges to Dana some of the godstone’s secrets he’s been keeping. With Midge pretending to be asleep, but really spying, Dana and Alex share their second kiss.


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Late at night, locked away in a house that time forgot, Grumley and Schell discuss Alex’s special message. In a test booklet they read Alex’s scrawled words: I KNOW. The phone rings and a different sort of message is delivered to them. It is their master, the bearded man in the cloak: Magnus Von Bergen. Alex awakes in the middle of the night and finds himself compelled (by the godstone?) to go up through the Holloway house to find Dana. Against all common sense he leaves their basement-hiding place and wanders through the house wondering what it must be like to have Dana’s perfect family life. Finally he finds himself at the front of a long hallway. He knows now the godstone compels him forward and he cannot resist. He opens the door at the end of the hallway. Dana lies in her bed; her father leans over her and touches her. Something terrible and unnatural is happening here. Cold rage fills Alex. He summons (or is summoned by?) the power of the godstone and, as if by telekinetic power, throws Dana’s father across the room. He crashes into a wall and falls to the floor like a broken doll. Dana bursts into tears. The two look each other in the eye, a thousand words pass between them in that moment, and then Alex vanishes into thin air. He’s teleported. In the basement Alex appears and wakes Midge and the two of them prepare to, yet again, escape. Alex takes his sister’s hands in his and tells her to close her eyes. They’re about to go a long way in a very short time. Alex has learned a new trick. Issue or Chapter #5 Locked away in a dark room Jessica Morning lays on a cot. While still beautiful, the years of captivity have taken their toll. Shadows swirl above and, like ghostly sentinels, watch over her. Magnus Von Bergen appears and asks if tonight will be the night she tells him where she’s hidden the godstone. He promises to reunite her with her children but, defiant, she refuses him. As Magnus does every night he signals to the Shadows above to descend. But rather than scream, this time Jessica hisses at him – “My children will come for you!” But that is the past and this… … Is the present. Alex and Midge teleport to an old 19th century town deep in the woods behind their home. Everyone calls it the Abandoned Village. To Alex it is the only place left to hide. After some time, and running low on food and luck, Alex and Midge decide to return to their house for supplies. Quick in, quick out. At least, that’s the plan. Alex and Midge sneak into their house but are surprised when they find a man they have never seen before sitting at their kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee. He smiles at them and introduces himself as, “’Yer Uncle Joe.” Alex and Midge stare at him until he asks them where their mother and father are. Obviously, he’s been out of the picture for a while. Alex asks if he’s really their uncle then where has he been all these years to which Joe replies – “If I told you I was living with spacemen would you believe me? By the way, what year is it?” Then it hits Alex like a bolt of lightning between the eyes – This is the mysterious third man from his vision-dream. Terrified, he and Midge flee the house and run into the woods. Alex and Midge return to the old house in the woods and cry each other to sleep. Alex wakes in the middle of the night, shivering, and unable to find Midge. Some teenage kids enter the house downstairs. As they take swigs of booze they swap ghost stories about the woods and one kid brings up the death of Alex’s mother. As he tells it she threw herself from the cliff by Devil’s Spine. Alex shakes with fear and rage - so


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does the house. The teenagers take off and Alex finds Midge hiding downstairs. He screams at her and tells her to never leave him again. With tears streaming down her face Midge tells her brother she was only going to the bathroom. Alex and Midge reach their breaking point. Fearing for his sister’s health and safety Alex resolves to give up. The two of them walk into the woods in the direction of a road. Once there, they’ll hail the first car they see. But before they get there they find themselves in the shadow of Devil’s Spine and then they spot a light deep in the forest… Under a full moon, Uncle Joe stands in front of Jessica Morning’s grave. Alex and Midge hide on a ridge of rocks and look down towards, what the local kids call, Hell’s Hole. It’s a cave that sits at the base of Devil’s Spine. In front of the cave are Grumley, Schell, Grandly and other townspeople, all dressed up in strange occult garb, dancing around a fire. They beckon and motion towards the mouth of the cave. Finkel sneaks up on Alex and Midge and captures them. Grumley takes the godstone from Alex and then the darkness in the mouth of the cave stirs. A Shadow emerges from the cave and reaches out to touch Midge. Even though he does not possess it Alex calls on the godstone and the Shadow is destroyed. He turns on Grumley, recovers the godstone and levitates him over the edge of a deep ravine. Grumley begs Alex not to kill him and tells him he can find his mother at the Church of the Enlightened Soul in New York City. Alex drops Grumley into the ravine as the cult members flee into the woods. Midge stares at her brother in shock at what he has just done. Their father emerges from the cave now and pleads with Alex to stop all the killing and madness. Just as Alex is about to be swayed by his father’s duplicitous words his sister grabs his arm and seizes control of the godstone’s power. Speaking to her father for the first time in year’s she utters a defiant - “No” - as her father is consumed in a white fire. He burns until he’s nothing more than a pile of ash on the ground, quickly blown away by the wind. Alex and Midge, with the power of the godstone flowing through them, enter the cave. There they find a portal to some other world. Staring back at them through the portal are hundreds of Shadows. Hand in hand Alex and Midge call on the power of the godstone. There is a flash of brilliant light and the portal is gone, replaced by a graffiti covered cave wall. Uncle Joe, shovel in hand, digs up Jessica’s grave. He opens the casket and finds… a skeleton dressed in a gown along with several sandbags. Rocked to his knees by this revelation Joe crawls closer to examine Jessica’s remains. He discovers the skeleton is a fake. A tag on it reads – “Property of Board of Education.” He smashes the skeleton into pieces as a single word escapes his lips – “Magnus.” Joe drives a car over a bridge. A sign reads: “Holland Tunnel, New York City.” Alex and Midge board a train bound for New York. Issue or Chapter #6 Alex and Midge arrive at Penn Station, New York in the middle of the night. They make their way through drunks and bums to a cab where Alex uses the power of the godstone to convince the driver to take them to the Church of the Enlightened Soul in the city’s Lower East Side. They get out of the cab and enter the church. Uncle Joe checks in at a seedy hotel across the street from the church and then retires to his room where he nervously smokes a cigarette. Past encounters with Magnus Von Bergen and memories of Bill and Jessica fly through his mind. He spots Alex and Midge as they enter the church across the street. No time for careful plans now.


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Alex and Midge walk deeper into the church. The whole rotten place is filled with drug addicts, runaways and lost souls, all under the control of Shadows who swirl about the rooms and halls. But no person or thing seeks to stop Alex or Midge. They continue on into the church as the godstone speaks to Alex, urging him on, helping him. Alex and Midge descend deeper into the church and finally come face to face with their mother. She tells Alex to give her the godstone and through it they both can live forever. Something deep in his soul warns him and Alex sees through the trap. Magnus is using his own godstone to disguise himself as Jessica. He’s been waiting for them. Magnus goes on the offensive immediately, his godstone glowing fiercely. If Alex gives him his godstone he can be reunited with his mother, Magnus explains. It’s easy. It’s what he really came here to do. Alex calls him a liar and Magnus slaps him. Abandoned by the power of the godstone, Alex cowers in the corner of the room, crying and shivering. Alex has lost and Magnus moves in to take the godstone from him and worse. Uncle Joe charges into the room and looks Magnus square in the eye, then knocks him into a pit filled with other tormented captives. The poor souls turn on their evil jailer and make short work of him. Joe cradles Alex in his arms. Where is Midge? Midge walks up a dark stairway. At the top she enters a room and finds her mother. She goes to her bedside and shares with her the last remaining moments of her life. Alex and Joe enter the room. They are too late. In desperation Alex tries to resurrect his mother through the power of the godstone but he fails. It can give great power but it cannot bring the living back from the dead. Shadow creatures swoop in to scavenge her body and soul but Alex holds up the godstone and the blinding light emanating from it scatters them. But it also reveals they are not alone in the room. A dozen tall, thin gray-eyed “beings” wearing cloaks with deep cowls stand before them. One of them holds Magnus’ godstone in its hand. Joe steps forward and speaks, “Please, this time, let me stay.” The beings step back into the shadows and vanish leaving Alex, Midge and Joe alone with Jessica. Alex looks at Joe and whispers, “You weren’t lying about spacemen.” Dana Holloway sits in history class and listens to a substitute teacher talk about dealing with the recent deaths in the town. She turns around and looks at Alex’s empty seat. Dana rides her bike up to Alex’s house. She sits down on the front steps and stares at the ‘For Sale/Sold’ sign on the front yard then picks up an ignored newspaper. Across the front page screams a headline – “SMALL TOWN MURDER & MYSTERY.” Joe drives a car through a desert under a star-filled-sky. Alex sits next to him, his sister sleeping in the backseat. Alex, holding up the godstone and examining it, reveals that he knows Joe was there when his mother was taken. Joe responds, “Alex, let me tell you about me, your mother, your father and that… thing. Sit back and settle in, it’s going to be a long ride and an even longer story.” In the back seat, ever the little spy, Midge’s eyes open and ears perk as she takes it all in.

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THE SAGA OF ALEX WANDERER The future is uncertain but the end is always near.

-Jim Morrison

Series Two – “Tell Me Your Secrets” A prequel. The story of how Alex Morning’s parents, Bill and Jessica, his Uncle Joe and others like Magnus Von Bergen, Mr. Grumley and Ms. Schell found the godstone and started down a path of self-destruction. Series Three – “Destroys My Days, Haunts My Nights” Now a teenager and living in North Dakota with his sister and uncle, Alex Morning is forced to confront the true and awesome power of the mysterious godstone he’s tried so hard to forget. It’s more than a magical talisman; it’s the key to a massive and powerful spaceship-fortress buried beneath the badlands of his new home. Series Four – “The Dying of the Light” As Alex Morning fulfills his full and frightening potential the Shadows invade. With humanity’s fate on the line and his moment of destiny at hand Alex is dealt the second great tragedy of his life - The death of his sister. Series Five – “The End of Forever” Devastated by his sister’s death Alex exiles himself deep inside his fortress-ship, abandoning all of humanity to the Shadow hordes. With the war seemingly lost Alex returns at last to save humankind from certain destruction. But when the Shadows retreat to their dimension the mysterious “Beings” arrive and foretell of their ancient enemy’s plans to “turn off” our universe. Series Six – “Where Stars Are Born” Allied now with the mysterious “Beings” who prophesized his coming, Alex joins other wielders of godstones and, together in their mighty fortress-ships, they travel to the alternate dimension/universe of the Shadows to force a final battle. As the saga ends the origin of the human race and the godstones is revealed and Alex descends into an eons old nebula, the mythologized birthplace of all life, hoping to reunite with his long lost mother and sister.

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