Okay, so what if Cas(sandra) is the daughter of the HOAP? When MC gets transported through the portal he has no idea that he's really just crossing the street. Cassie's bedroom is all witchy/gothy but there's no way her mom would allow any of that to be visible from outside because HOA, so even though the windows are covered with black velvet (or whatever) drapes that totally obscure the outside, between those and the glass there are nice acceptable lace curtains. One of them could even be peeking out a bit when he gets summoned. He's got a sharp eye for detail, but doesn't know what details are important so it can come to him later that something he noticed inside matches something he saw outside. Also ties Cassie into the whole thing. To do this I need to ditch the car ride to known destination/unknown location when he's Bound and Compelled. He'll need to go back to the original haunted house and take another Portal trip, hand over the phone, and be Banished Back to Whence He Came (next door). This actually provides a better opportunity for Cassie to screw up her protective pentacle as she thinks it's unnecessary now. Maybe she starts vacuuming, breaks the protective pentacle, gets distracted or called away while the transport pentacle is still active, and the Bad Imps get through. MC is thinking his part is done in this, just trying to figure out how to deal with a new phone bill for a phone he doesn't even have, then he sees the AMBER alert for Cassie and feels duty bound.... I still need a motive for the Imps Next Door to kidnap her to Hell. Progress.
Extortion, not blackmail. MCP kidnaps MC's on again / off again boyfriend as leverage. I really am just using this as a notepad now, but thanks for reading
Just got a major problem unstuck with help from one of my....what's the letter before "alpha"? Anyway, I was looking for ways to put pressure on my MC and something that was suggested pointed me in the perfect direction.
Got some major help here: https://www.writingforums.org/threads/a-priest-seeking-redemption-solved.168968/#post-1906653 And I just realized in keeping with my personal theme of what seems real is fake and what seems fake is real, what's the one main characteristic of tent-revival scammers and megachurch pastors other than their lust for money? Faith healing. So what if MCP actually has the gift of healing, but he's also a conniving, self-serving, evil bastard? Story is set in modern-day reality but magic is possible, only however under certain very rare conditions. My MC died and went to hell, that gave him his connection. Cas(sandra) is a twin but one was stillborn, thus connected to the other world. MCP? Seventh son of a seventh son is pretty rare, I can use that. And MC has all that nerve damage on his left side. MCP could offer to put him on staff at the Church (that's pretty much a given at this point) if he plays ball, threaten SCP if he doesn't, and, as a taste, heal some part of him. Like, his thumb and forefinger. Proof of concept, so to speak, and a constant temptation to give in and work for MCP (throughout several books, if I can finish one ) I'm thinking myself into a corner that I'm going to need to write myself out of soon, and that's a good feeling.
Sixteen hundred words in the last couple days. In a single scene! Is this what it feels like to write a chapter?
