Demon packs the same afternoon, realizing he owns little beyond clothes, notebooks, and art supplies. He throws away his football trophies and keeps a leather shaving case that holds his pills, once Mr. Peggot’s and later Maggot’s. Demon wakes Maggot to say he is leaving; Maggot, groggy and sardonic, asks where Demon is going, and Demon admits he has no plan—only that he cannot stay, because the Peggots’ kindness makes him feel indebted and furious at his own inability to repay it.

Driving away, Demon is shocked by how intense his rage feels. He speeds through familiar places, hating the landscape and everything it represents, using motion to stay ahead of grief and guilt. When his energy crashes, Demon stops to inventory his stash and takes pills to relieve the pressure in his chest, then continues west, unable to think of anywhere he would be happy—or even able to stand—without concluding that this emptiness points toward death.

Half-distracted, Demon finds himself beyond Ewing near the long white cliffs that have long fed his fantasies of jumping—of testing whether he would fall or fly. He pulls into a deserted lot by a trail marked for Sand Cave and White Rocks, leaves his keys in the car, and starts hiking. As he climbs, Demon’s thoughts spiral through his growing list of dead and endangered: Dori, Fast Forward, Hammer, and the looming fear of Maggot going to prison and dying there, with Mariah left shattered outside.

On the trail, Demon notices he is not just emotionally numb but physically dulled—barely sensing heat, cold, or taste. Thirst eventually breaks through, and he drinks from a creek despite the risk. A hummingbird hovering near orange flowers pulls his attention into the present, and the memory of touch-me-nots brings on a vivid sense of Mr. Peggot being nearby; Demon apologizes, hears a reply in his mind, and keeps moving with the feeling that sensing and color are returning.

As daylight fades, Demon accepts he will not reach the cliffs and pushes on to Sand Cave, a large, cool shelter marked by other people’s leftover debris. Sitting in the cave mouth, he watches the sunset and thinks of Angus—how much he wants to talk to her, how she is leaving for college, and how she would tell him to trust the road even when he insists life is a “dumpster fire.” Hungry, thirsty, and frightened through the night, Demon resolves that if he makes it to morning he will go to June and tell her he is ready to accept help and “fly.”