At night, Bela sits awake with Ursula and Russ on the couch while the dogs watch the front door and the parents keep their knives ready. Bela drifts in and out of sleep, then wakes to find Ursula and Russ staring up toward the second floor, convinced the presence is upstairs. Although Bela is frightened and does not want to go, Ursula insists they must all go together and that Bela must stay within sight of them.

Ursula, Russ, and Bela move carefully up the stairs, with Kami and Kamael growling below. At the end of the hall, Ursula identifies the storage closet as the source of the presence. Russ cannot get the light to work, Ursula warns the thing to leave Bela alone, and the smell confirms that Other Mommy seems to be inside. Ursula and Russ gather their courage, tell Bela not to run no matter what happens, and prepare to attack.

As Ursula and Russ rush the dark closet with their knives, Other Mommy speaks to them and taunts Bela. Before the attack can land, the doorbell begins ringing repeatedly, the dogs explode into barking, and the moment of violence breaks. When Russ finally gets the light on, the closet is empty. Bela then realizes Other Mommy is in her bedroom instead, showing that the entity has either moved or deceived them.

Shaken and losing momentum, the family backs away from Bela's bedroom and heads downstairs while the doorbell keeps ringing. Russ opens the front door and finds Lois Anthony outside. Ursula and Russ, still armed and terrified, force everyone onto the porch and demand to know why Lois has come so late.

Lois says she has been thinking about failing them and has now learned how to get rid of the thing in the house. She tells Ursula and Russ that knives, commands, and ordinary spiritual methods will not work because the entity will not leave without getting what it wants. When Lois says that what it wants is Bela, Ursula tries to send her away, but Lois presses on and says Bela must be made less appealing and less appetizing to the entity.

Lois asks the family to give her an hour and hear her out somewhere else, arguing that if the presence follows them anyway, they have nothing to lose by listening. Ursula and Russ are exhausted, frightened, and nearly out of options, but they stop rejecting her. Lois then reveals her horrifying conclusion: the thing is drawn to Bela's innocence, and the only way to drive it off is to take that innocence away.