The Gates notes; chapters 28 to 33 and my closing thoughts

Chapter 28; In Which Nurd Makes a New Friend and Meets Some Old Acquaintances
Nurd is starting to realise the massive predicament his is in and he has the common sense to be more than a little afraid and quite concerned that he may end up being target practise.

only one being was inclined to go around summoning brigands and murderers from the grave, which suggested to Nurd that a personal appearance by the Great Malevolence was imminent.

As he quite rightly points out, being immortal means you can be punished & made to suffer for a heck of a long time! ’tis enough to give Nurd pause for thought and re-think his own plans to take over the Earth. After all, it does not bode well for a persons physical or mental well-being to start a fight doomed to failure. Best to just circumvent the issue if at all possible.

His plan, if you could call it that, was to find the portal and sneak back through it to Hell…

The Gates notes; chapters 25 to 27

Chapter 25; In Which Bishop Bernard the Bad Makes His Presence Felt, and the Dead Rise from Their Graves, but Only the Nasty Ones

For the first time since his dad had left, Samuel was starting to feel that, if necessary, he could look after both his mother and himself

I’m glad for Samuel, but I suppose circumstances have left him with little choice and really, his mom would be wise to understand that she has a better man in her life – Samuel, who is coping extremely well given the circumstances. It’s all hands on deck with bug spray and cricket bats at the ready!

As for Reverend Ussher and Mr. Berkeley, sounds like the vicar and verger have got their hands full and it isn’t going to go away fast.
Why, oh why, did they have to go and lock themselves inside the church!

The Gates notes; chapters 23 to 24

(Finally typed up!)

Chapter 23; In Which We Learn That One Should Be Careful About Accepting Anything That Is Offered for Nothing
Meet Gath & Shan, two lesser demons who may be related a to a Minotaur, judging from their descriptions.
Meet Melody Prossett, who is human and dressed up as a lovely & somewhat “leggy” fairy complete with a cardboard wand. Not a very appropriate costume for Halloween, but then she is currently employed to dish out free vouchers for the latest brew of alcoholic grog to be tried out on an unsuspecting public. She’s described as very lovely, very sweet, far too helpful for anyone’s good and not too bright at all.

…she was by no means the brightest bulb in the box. In fact, even a box of very dark bulbs buried in a windowless coal shed might have given Melody some competition in the brightness stakes.

The Gates notes; chapters 21 to 22

Chapter 21; In Which the Verger Is Assaulted, and a Very Unpleasant Person Comes Back to Life
In which the church built by Bishop Bernard the Bad slowly comes back to life-ish.
I’ve no doubt the vicar and verger are disconcerted, but if gargoyles started hopping off the church with the aim of learning to fly – let me just say that I’d be off, running at breakneck speed away from the building. I might even break a world record or two in my earnest bid to get away. Now if the aforementioned gargoyles then went and tried to chew on my foot, I really don’t think I’d just stand there and let it. If I hadn’t already vacated the area, there would be much stomping & kicking, also known in local parts in the U.K. as “getting the boot in”.

The Gates notes; chapters 18 to 20

Chapter 18; In Which the Portal Opens Wide
Dr. Planck has been sent by the scientists at CERN to figure out how Samuel had come across such interesting information. The description of the rotten egg smell and the drawing of the portal seem to have especially peaked their interest. Hence Dr. Planck is now discussing Samuel and the occupants of No. 666 with a worried Mrs. Johnson.
Let’s hope this tea ‘n chat prompts Mrs. Johnson’s memory as well. Danger is fast approaching.

Looks like the demons are getting twitchy too, not-Mrs. Renfield in particular is looking to advance her position.