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Summary
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Character Analysis
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Darby heads to the “Nightmare Children” statues and attempts to send her text message to 911, but fails. Her phone battery is at 17 percent. She sneaks over to the van and taps on the window, calling to anyone inside. Just when she is about to leave, convinced she imagined the hand, a little girl’s face appears. She drops her Styrofoam cup of cocoa. Though she knows it is unwise, she uses her shoelace to pull up the lock pin through the van’s window. When she opens the door, the van’s light illuminates. Inside the rest stop, Lars sees the light and panics, peering out the window.
Darby turns off the light quickly. She opens the back of the truck and removes the tape from the girl’s mouth. The girl, Jay, confirms that Lars kidnapped her from her home in San Diego. Darby frets about how she will be later asked to account for everything she is doing by police and attorneys. Jay’s hand is injured from when the kidnapper gave her a “yellow card,” or a nail through the hand. The admission horrifies Darby. She hears footsteps and heavy breathing, signaling Lars’s approach.
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