Demon counts down to summer as a kind of freedom from school, even though it only means more hours at Golly’s dump operation. He reflects on how he used to try at school but now feels detached and ashamed, enduring constant scrutiny and humiliation while adults lecture him about “potential” he no longer believes in.

At Golly’s, time is measured by filling roll-off dumpsters with the “trash of the trash,” a cycle that feels like proof nothing improves. Demon works full time with Ghost and Swap-Out, getting rides with Ghost when he shows up, smoking weed with Swap-Out, and occasionally shooting at bottles and aerosol cans. After hours, Demon helps Mr. Golly—who explains his real name is Mr. Ghali—and listens to stories about growing up in an Indian dump, which become a rare kind of companionship.

Demon’s case situation worsens: Miss Barks is gone, and his new caseworker “Baggy Eyes” barely checks on him, accepting Mrs. McCobb’s lies that Demon is outside playing. Meanwhile the McCobbs’ car is repossessed, Mr. McCobb loses his job, and the house fills with relentless fighting over desperate plans, including moving to Ohio to live with Mrs. McCobb’s parents.

When the landlord threatens eviction, the McCobbs secretly use Demon’s earned cash to pay back rent. Demon explodes, breaks things, and takes back what remains of his money, hiding it in a peanut-butter jar and insisting they ask if they want help. Afterward Demon is still worried, watching Mr. McCobb shrink into drinking and self-pity while trying to bond with Demon and offering bleak “two cents” life advice about spending less than you earn.

As the McCobbs commit to leaving for Ohio before school starts, Baggy still cannot tell Demon where he will be placed, only that Creaky/Crickson has lost fostering privileges and DSS is hunting homes for “kids that resist permanent placement.” Demon, feeling cornered and rootless, forms a risky plan using the jar of money he has saved from weeks of work.

On the morning the McCobbs load a U-Haul, Demon packs his backpack, gives his few toys to Brayley, says goodbye with small gifts, and leaves without a real farewell to the adults. He works a strange final shift, then—when the Peggots do not pick him up because he lied—Demon gets his week’s pay early from Mr. Golly, buys portable food on the McCobbs’ tab, and walks to Highway 23 to hitchhike. Within minutes, a muddy man in a rusted El Camino picks him up, and Demon says he is headed to Tennessee—to a place called Murder Valley.