People said that he was possessed, that the Vexley spirits had taken him over, or that he had become something quite different. But he kept going, thinking he was close to getting the truth. The book informed him about veils and worlds and the Umbral Fold, a place that only a few people can see. There, it stated, was the reality about life, where nightmares come from, and the people who make everyone feel hopeless. Lionel thought he could enter this realm and come back with knowledge that would last forever via a ritual called the Midnight Gate. The ceremony was finished one night as a storm hit.

He used blood-ink from Vexley to draw the circle, put bone wax candles at the four cardinal points, and uttered the prayer as thunder broke like a heavenly curse. The air exploded as he said the last sentence. The silence was heavy like a tomb, and suddenly the room became black. It wasn't the darkness of night; it was the absence of all light, like the end of existence. The door opened. The study's walls peeled down like paper, revealing a bottomless pit of whirling ash and ghostly limbs writhing in pain. A figure came out of it, neither alive nor dead, wearing a robe made of interwoven shadows. Its face was a dark nothingness. It spoke in a voice that made Lionel's bones shake.

It didn't use words, but feelings of loss, pain, fear, and betrayal. It gave him information, but it came with a cost that Lionel hadn't thought about. To view the Umbral Fold, you have to give up your thoughts. To live in it, one must never go back. But Lionel, who was so thirsty for the truth, said yes. He went ahead, and the gate closed behind him. Days went by. Then weeks went by. Once again, Blackwood Hall was quiet. Until the dreams started. First, the kids spoke of a guy with no face standing at the foot of their beds. Then, to the ancient people, who heard Lionel's voice on the wind, crying out for forgiveness.