Running low on gas, Eve stops at a shabby Chevron station and discovers it is cash-only. She scavenges loose change and bills from Charlie’s truck, then goes inside looking disheveled and frightened. While paying, Eve draws the attention of both the suspicious clerk and a highway patrol officer, who immediately notices that Eve is driving in socks and appears unstable.

Back at the pump, Eve anxiously watches the officer inside the store and worries that the impostor Charlie may have reported her. After putting a small amount of gas in the truck, Eve leaves, but the officer soon pulls her over. He questions Eve about sleep, alcohol, drugs, and her destination, clearly suspecting impairment, yet finds no immediate reason to detain her and appears ready to let her go.

The situation changes when the officer’s radio crackles with a partial dispatch that sounds to Eve like a possible report about her. Convinced she is about to be caught before she can reach the house and save Charlie, Eve panics and speeds away. She drives up the mountain in a dissociative blur, choosing flight over caution because she believes returning to the house is more urgent than the risk of arrest.

On the road, Eve nearly strikes a lone girl wandering across a sharp bend. After Eve brakes and spins the truck, the girl behaves in a disturbing, mechanical way, holding her arms out, stepping backward, and then suddenly sprinting toward Eve before veering off into the woods. Shaken, Eve decides the child is not her responsibility and continues driving.

When Eve reaches Heritage Lane, she hesitates as Charlie’s warning to stay away returns to her mind. Even so, Eve commits to going back, drives up to the house, pockets Charlie’s necklace, and approaches on foot through the cold yard. Despite fear and the sense that the place has become alien and dangerous, Eve unlocks the door and steps into the foyer.