Annie emails Demon in December to say the baby is breech and delivery may be scheduled soon. Demon calls, drops his hesitation about returning home, and agrees to come; Annie also mentions a big school event honoring Coach Winfield. Demon feels conflicted: Coach helped him, but Lee County and the stadium are packed with triggers and people who could pull him back toward drugs. Even so, Demon tells Dr. Andresen he is going, and she believes he is unlikely to relapse.

The solo drive back through familiar towns and landmarks floods Demon with memories of foster homes, humiliation, and violence, and he chain-smokes to cope. He passes the shuttered pill mill tied to Dr. Watts and thinks about how the opioid tide is turning through federal charges and lawsuits, while people on the ground still suffer with little recovery support. When Demon reaches Annie’s house, he finds a note saying Annie has gone to the hospital for a possible false alarm; unsettled and without a plan, Demon calls June, who offers him a room.

Feeling unsafe being idle, Demon spends the day driving and stopping at places heavy with history, then ends up at the trail to Devil’s Bathtub, partly to force himself to hate Lee County enough to stay away. Instead, the hike is unexpectedly calm: winter witch hazel, bees, birds, and the blue pool make the place feel untouched by his usual mines. At the pool he encounters an Australian family with two small children; he talks with them, shows the kids leaf boats and sassafras twigs, and hikes out with them, aching afterward not to be alone.

Demon eats a rushed breakfast with June between her shifts. June updates him on the oxy lawsuits she helped start and on how long she expects to be cleaning up the damage, with many kids growing up without families. She also shares local news: Ruby’s grief group, Mrs. Peggot holding on with family support, Maggot and Mariah staying clean, and Emmy living in recovery housing in Asheville while working and doing a sober dance group. June warns that Emmy is homesick but cannot safely return to Lee County, then asks gently whether Emmy ever hurt Demon; Demon admits Emmy was his first love disaster but says he survived.

Later Demon goes to Murder Valley to see his grandmother, Miss Betsy, and Mr. Dick, who welcome him warmly and admire his grown-up height and his car. Demon helps around the house, and over dinner learns that Angus has been telling them about his online work and his book project, giving it a respectable framing. Miss Betsy and Mr. Dick also praise Angus’s awards and plans to become a counselor; when Demon presses, Miss Betsy implies Angus has “set her cap” for a particular man. Alone in his old bed, Demon wrestles with jealousy and grief, then decides he must let Angus go so he can face the next step: going to see Coach.