Home Before Dark

Maggie sees movement outside a window as a figure flees into the woods. She runs into the trees in pursuit with a flashlight and passes through the cemetery to a high wall. She finds a crumbling breach in the wall, which must be where the ghouls enter the property. When she steps through the opening, she sees the back of a yellow cottage. She returns to Baneberry Hall, takes the knife, and searches the house before tearing a page from the Book and putting it in the crack of the front door. She remembers that her father was disappointed when she started the business with Allie, because it meant that she wouldn’t be a writer. Maggie was always friendly with her father until the Book came up—she then grew cold, even though it hurt her to keep him at a distance. She remembers when he began cutting off all media and retreating into his home, where he watched old movies and read books that he loved. Maggie puts a page of the book in every window, takes a valium, and locks herself in her room with the knife.