Boone brings Robert to the kitchen and presents the job as a privilege because kitchen boys eat better than field hands, but he also warns that stealing food leads to the Funhouse. As Robert listens, he senses old murders in the room and feels flashes of pain from past victims. At the sinks, Robert meets two boys his age, Redbone and Blue, who quietly teach him the work, warn him about Cleo, and explain that boys who fail in the kitchen are sent to the fields.

While washing dishes, Robert learns more about his new companions. Blue says he came from the Bahamas and is supposedly waiting for family to claim him, while Redbone says he was sent away for stealing a neighbor’s car and may still be leased out even after his sentence ends. The boys also warn Robert about Mr. Crutcher, who now brutalizes boys if the dishes are not cleaned properly. Then Robert sees a white boy in kitchen clothes that Redbone and Blue cannot see; when Robert tells the apparition it is not real, the boy turns away and reveals a butcher’s knife buried in his back before vanishing through the wall.

Robert nearly faints, but Blue gets him water and Redbone treats the haunting as something ordinary. During the dinner rush, Robert sneaks scraps from dirty plates and then finally eats with Redbone, Blue, Troy, and Eddie after the other boys. The meal briefly gives Robert hope that he can survive by keeping his head down, going to school, working in the kitchen, and staying close to his new friends.

That fragile hope weakens when Robert asks whether Warden Haddock really intends to give him twenty lashes. Redbone and Blue confirm that Haddock means it and explain that beatings happen in the Funhouse. When Robert asks about escape, Blue says runaways are usually betrayed, whipped even harder if caught, or buried in Boot Hill; Redbone adds that he helped bury a boy named Garrick there. Cleo appears to be watching their table, and Robert leaves dinner even more frightened.

After cleanup, Blue leaves early, and Redbone and Troy lure Robert into the large freezer to show him the hanging sides of beef. In the fog and cold, Robert first mistakes one carcass for a frozen man on a hook. Then the freezer door slams and locks from the outside, trapping the three boys inside. Robert fears they will freeze to death or be attacked by the stabbed ghost, but the culprit turns out to be Blue, who opens the door after teasing them. Shaken, Robert hurries out, resolves not to ignore his instincts again, and looks back to make sure the kitchen ghost is not following him.