back to the portal of the ForeverBeyond             A novel by Peter Lancett               The moon will take you home...

You'll need to be at home for this one...

                                Your safe home

                                            Your secure home

Nothing can reach you here, can it?    No harm can come, when the doors and windows are shut and locked tight...   No, of course not... and anyway, who would ever want do do YOU harm?   You're not a bad person, are you? not really...

Then I suppose the people at 10050 Cielo Drive, Benedict Canyon, L.A., would have thought that on the night of August 9th, 1969... if they'd had a mind to... of course, it's hard to imagine that they think much of anything at all nowadays since they're all dead...

So do you really feel safe in your home?.. REALLY safe?..  Try this when you are home alone... at night...  If you can, watch a movie that has been known to scare you... let it get you in the mood so to speak...   after it's finished, put some music on... not too loud, but loud enough so that you can hear it all through the house...

This is easy, isn't it?..  what's the problem?, you might ask...  well now, what you have to do is turn off the lights... yes, that's right, ALL of them, all around the house... the music should still be playing, but the house should be in total darkness...  you can carry ONE candle with you if you feel you must...  take yourself off to the bathroom now...  if you have a bath, run the bath - in the darkness  and - take off your clothes and get into the tub...  if you only have a shower, then take a shower... a long shower...   with the curtain drawn or the glass doors shut...  be sure that the music is still playing loud through the house...

You can do this can't you?.. piece of cake, isn't it?..  Ha ha ha ha ha - well certainly it is from your vantage point as you read this... try it for real...  with darkness all-pervasive and the music just loud enough so that if there WAS someone in the house with you, you'd never hear any noises they might make as they crept towards where you are most vulnerable, there in the bath tub or shower stall, with the thoughts of that recently-watched scary picture at the front of your mind and who knows what terror tugging at the deepest thoughts?.. starting to see how this might work yet? 

Work on generating the fear...  think of what might be in the house with you... look towards the bathroom door, which you should have pulled to, without properly shutting it... will there be someone standing behind that door, just waiting for you?.. some grinning maniac?.. you'll be desperate to put the lights on now... but even if you do, you'll know it's not over... you'll still have to open that door, and the music is still playing, so strain though your senses might to tell you something cheery, you can't really be sure that you're alone, and you feel that you are not alone and it could be anyone or anyTHING behind that door... and dare you open it?.. you feel chills ripple through you at the thought... and god help you if you've reached this point and still been strong enough  to leave the lights off...

Pull open the bathroom door... and if you survive and there's no-one or nothing behind it, breathe a sigh of relief... for a moment... for you've got to check out the rest of the house... naked and vulnerable, carrying no weapon... and in total darkness with the music still playing and not knowing what might be behind EVERY door or waiting just around EVERY corner... keep bearing this in mind, dwell on it more and more as you slowly pace through your SAFE, SECURE, COMFORTING home... Don't believe in ghosts?.. are you SURE?..  what might glide before you?.. Don't believe in maniac slashers?.. Ha ha ha ha ha - get real!!! READ THE PAPERS!!!  It could be in there with you... anything, or anyone... the music's been playing... someone stealthy could have got in...

Managed to inspect every room in the house?.. in the dark?.. oh bravo, bravo... but don't turn the lights on, not just yet... now go put that frightening movie on again, or another equally frightening if you wish... and turn up the sound so that it can be heard through the house... now go to bed... in the dark... and if you are able to, sleep...

If you don't manage to complete this exercise, then repeat it, every couple of weeks or so until you can... or until your nerves and your sanity give up on you... it will be one or the other, we can assure you...

Completed it?.. O, then you truly are possessed of a heart of steel... and you are ready for the real challenges that will shape and strengthen your soul... or shatter it forever... we will observe with interest to see which it will be...

If you truly feel yourself to have a heart of steel and feel ready for the challenges that you must face, then follow this path, o heart-of-steel....

but what's that?... you do not feel so resolute?... a wise instinct is guiding you...follow this path first...