Late at night, Boone and Crutcher drag Robert, Redbone, and Blue into the hall and accuse them of talking about running away at dinner. Robert tries to explain that he was only asking questions, but Boone beats him with a ruler and warns that even speaking about escape is forbidden. Redbone quickly takes the blame and frames the conversation as his own foolish storytelling, while Blue panics and cries. Boone lets Blue return to bed, but he orders Robert and Redbone to the Funhouse so they will learn what happens to boys who even think about running.

Boone and Crutcher load Robert and Redbone into the back of a state truck. Redbone tells Robert to be quiet and explains that he protected Blue because Blue could not survive what is coming, while Redbone believes Robert can endure it too. Soon an older chained boy is thrown into the truck with them, cursing and resisting, which deepens Robert’s fear about where they are being taken.

At the far end of the campus, Robert sees the Funhouse: a small white building where boys from both the white and Negro sides are whipped. The sight of terrified white boys waiting outside and a stumbling boy led away bleeding shows Robert that the place exists to terrorize everyone, though segregation is still enforced. Crutcher makes Robert and Redbone wait behind the building, describes how several men hold a boy down while another beats him, and tells Robert that he knew Robert’s father from the mill. An older boy is taken inside first and whipped for thirty-five lashes, and Robert listens in horror as the blows and screams continue.

Redbone chooses to go before Robert because waiting is worse. After the older boy is dragged away, Redbone is taken into the Funhouse and his screams begin almost immediately. Left alone with his terror, Robert begs for his mother’s help. Then he feels a strange ping through the metal chair and senses her ghostly presence comforting him. Her reassurance does not stop the violence, but it steadies Robert enough to cling to the idea that this suffering is only one moment and not the whole of his life.