Demon returns to treatment and learns that staying away from drugs is an ongoing daily choice, not a single act of bravery. He compares getting clean to caring for a sick person: uncomfortable, repetitive, and full of forced kindness, but possible if he keeps deciding to endure it.

After finishing “detox-and-therapy boot camp,” Demon takes properly dosed Suboxone and moves into a Knoxville sober living home. He builds a second routine at the Halley Library, noticing how much time sobriety creates and how easily “triggers” can ambush him. Demon thinks about his mother’s sobriety chips and worries about Maggot’s chances; Maggot ultimately ends up in juvenile detention for two years, then gets out and lives with Mariah in Bristol, with his future uncertain.

Demon’s stability in “hard-knocksville” rests on three housemates: Viking, Gizmo, and Chartrain. Viking and Gizmo are rural Kentuckians like Demon, unsettled by city life and its constant sirens and avoidance. Chartrain, a Knoxville native, becomes their guide, teaching them to “save the juice” by not spending emotional energy on strangers and daily chaos, a mental practice Demon adopts to stay steady.

Chartrain also inspires Demon through example: a former star athlete who chose the Army, returned from Afghanistan without his legs, and still dominates wheelchair basketball. Demon learns more about the hidden damage people carry—Gizmo’s guilt from a deadly crash, Viking’s oxy-related hearing loss and longing to hear his baby say “Daddy,” and Chartrain’s accumulated grief alongside disability—reshaping Demon’s sense of what can still be lost and endured.

Demon works at Walmart, moving up to produce because his injured knee limits heavier labor, and he observes the stark realities of city poverty. Through email conversations with Tommy, Demon tries to understand the difference between a “land economy” back home and a “money economy” in the city, realizing how much community exchange—unlocked doors, shared food, informal help—formed his idea of security. Their Red Neck strip is paused with Pinkie’s grace (a contract clause Annie included), while Demon’s library time includes flirtation with a librarian named Lyra, and Tommy admits he is still trying to figure out what it all means.