Demon plans a careful second date with Dori after the football season ends, trying not to mix their time together with heavy drug use. On Saturday afternoon, Maggot calls with urgent news: Mr. Peg is dying. June arrives in her medical work clothes, insists Demon come immediately, and grills him about knee surgery and whether he is off painkillers. Demon also learns Maggot has been staying with June, while Emmy is suddenly absent and in conflict with June.

At the Peggot home, the crowded, subdued atmosphere makes it clear this is not a normal family gathering. Demon finds Maggot by the creek, where their joking turns into Maggot breaking down in grief and anger. Maggot admits his last exchange with Mr. Peg was a blowup, leaving him split between regret and defiance; he cannot bring himself to go upstairs and say goodbye. Mr. Peg dies that night, and Demon realizes too late he might have helped Maggot face that final moment.

A few days later Demon attends Mr. Peg’s funeral with Dori, who drives her father’s Impala and shares more about her mother’s death in a crash. The packed country church and the minister’s personal stories about Mr. Peg’s life contrast sharply with Demon’s memory of his own mother’s funeral, where he felt her life was dismissed and unfinished. Holding Dori’s hand, Demon feels a decisive desire to be protective and to build something lasting with her.

After the burial, the gathering moves to the funeral home’s fellowship hall because of the crowd and the winter weather. Demon is shaken to learn another funeral is happening upstairs for Collins—Aidan—his former teammate, dead before eighteen. Demon searches out Mrs. Peggot to offer support and is struck by her quiet, hollowed-out grief; she clutches Demon’s hand as if holding on is all she has left.

During the meal, Emmy finally appears and immediately rejects June’s attempt to pull her in, then disappears again. Outside, Demon and Maggot hear a violent fight and find Rose Dartell and Emmy tangled in a hair-pulling brawl; Demon hauls Rose off while Emmy staggers away bloodied and furious. Maggot then tells Demon the deeper fallout: Emmy broke up with Hammer Kelly because she has been seen with Fast Forward, the older boy Demon once introduced into their circle, leaving Demon sick with guilt and distrust over what he enabled.