Nuria wakes at daybreak to find Julián Carax alone at Miquel’s desk, absorbed by the typewriter and weighed down by regret. Nuria urges Julián to leave Barcelona with her, but Julián insists he must return to the Aldayas’ house to “make sure,” and refuses to let Nuria keep herself separate from the danger.

They spend the day away from the apartment’s oppressive atmosphere, walking by the sea at La Barceloneta and later riding trams across the city. The outing briefly softens Julián, but Nuria senses he is clinging to Barcelona and to a past that will not release him.

After nightfall they reach the Aldayas’ abandoned mansion on Avenida del Tibidabo and climb in from the back in the rain. Julián breaks the chained padlock by melting the lock with acid, forces the door, and leads Nuria through a stripped, gutted interior lit only by his lighter.

They climb to the servants’ floor and enter what Nuria recognizes as Jacinta Coronado’s old room, where Julián last saw Penélope. The place is emptied and unrecognizable, marked only by dust and dark stains; Julián is shaken and concludes he has returned for nothing, and Nuria tries to guide him back outside.

Near the exit, Julián notices a corridor where every door stands open except one bricked-over opening. Driven by fear and rage, Julián smashes through the bricks until a carved wooden door appears, then descends a hidden stairway into a freezing, marble-walled crypt. By the light of the flame, Nuria and Julián see two tombstones: Penélope Aldaya (1902–1919) and David Aldaya (1919).