Hex

Mathers arrives at Griselda’s home with three officers to arrest Jaydon. They force their way in, beat Jaydon, and drag him away as Mathers informs him of the charges: violating the Emergency Decree by stoning Katherine and thus risking the town’s safety. Mathers then grabs Griselda by the breast and extorts her, using his knowledge of her secret offerings to force her resignation from the Town Council and demand that she stay away from the witch.

On Sunday, Griselda calls Grim, learning that Jaydon, who is 19, will be tried as an adult. He and the other boys are currently in Doodletown awaiting trial. She begs Grim not to hurt Jaydon, telling him about the beating. Meanwhile, news of the stoning spreads, and the town’s panic erupts into rage. A mob burns down the Şayer family’s house. Griselda becomes a pariah, and men smash her butchery’s display cases. She closes her shop, fearing for her safety and recognizing a collective “insanity” in the community that she attributes to it being “irreversibly bewitched.”

On Tuesday evening, residents gather in Memorial Hall for a public trial. Steve, Jocelyn, and Tyler attend, sitting with the VanderMeer family. Councilman Mathers opens the proceedings with a prayer and a summary of the stoning and its consequences. HEX staffer Adrian Chass then presents the video of the stoning, which whips the crowd into a frenzy. Tyler and his friend, Lawrence VanderMeer, are publicly praised for reporting the crime; Steve can sense Tyler’s intense guilt and discomfort.

Mathers declares that the boys are conclusively guilty and proceeds to the sentencing: Citing the 1848 Emergency Decree, Mathers sentences Jaydon, Justin, and Burak to a public flogging and detention. Jaydon will receive more lashes because he is of age. Robert Grim protests the punishment, which he says is “not what [they] agreed to” (249), but is dismissed; Mathers says that they will settle the matter democratically, and another town elder speaks in favor of the sentence. Jocelyn prevents Steve from voicing his own opposition, worried that doing so will endanger Matt and Tyler, so only the boys’ parents and a few others speak in favor of clemency. An initial show of hands is inconclusive, but when the town switches to anonymous ballots, the public resoundingly confirms the flogging, 1,332 to 617. Mathers schedules the punishment for Thursday, ordering all citizens to attend. As Steve looks around, the crowd’s mood shifts: “They looked like people who knew they had done something dreadful, something irreversible…and something they could easily live with” (254).

The town prepares for the flogging; the garage owner charged with carrying out the sentence practices enthusiastically with the whip. Before dawn on Thursday, the town is sealed off, and crowds gather at a scaffold. Jaydon, Justin, and Burak are paraded forward amid jeers and thrown objects; they are then stripped to the waist and secured to an A-frame.

As the hooded executioner begins the flogging, Katherine appears on a nearby balcony. The entire crowd experiences a vision of her sewn eye opening as she laughs. Believing that she orchestrated the event, the townspeople stampede in panic, but the executioner continues until the full count of lashes is delivered. The unconscious boys are taken away for medical treatment. By nine o’clock in the morning, the scaffold is dismantled and the street is cleaned, erasing all evidence of the event.

In the weeks following the flogging, Tyler struggles with trauma and guilt, while his brother Matt has nightmares. Grim returns Tyler’s electronics, warning him that he is being watched. Tyler suspects that Grim found out about Tyler’s website, Open Your Eyes, but kept it concealed. To cheer their children, Steve and Jocelyn give them early Christmas presents, and Tyler recognizes the new MacBook he receives as a sign of trust. Slowly, the family and town seem to be recovering.

However, when Jaydon and the others return from Doodletown, where they were sent following the flogging, Tyler sees a “broken” Jaydon in town and is shaken. That night, Tyler breaks down in his father’s arms in what will be their last embrace. Later, an intruder enters Tyler’s bedroom and repeatedly plays Katherine’s whispers into his ear as he sleeps.

On Friday, Steve sits on the floor beside Tyler’s bed; he is in shock as he recalls the afternoon’s events. He and Jocelyn returned home after Christmas shopping and went upstairs, where they discovered a terrible scene. In one room, Matt had sealed his eyes shut with adhesive and consumed poisonous death cap mushrooms that were growing in a fairy ring on his floor. In his own room, Tyler was dead, having hanged himself. Standing behind his body was Katherine. In the present, the memory overwhelms Steve, and he screams as Pete pulls him from the room. Meanwhile, Jocelyn is at the hospital with Matt, who has survived but may lose his sight.

The narrative returns to the moments immediately after Jocelyn and Steve return home. When Grim arrives at the Grant home, he sees Katherine with Tyler’s body and takes control. He forbids Dr. Stanton from taking Matt to an outside hospital, forcing the doctor to treat the boy secretly until they can report his actions alongside Tyler’s suicide; otherwise, the hospital might suspect parental abuse. However, they cannot report Tyler’s death until Katherine is gone. After Grim and Warren Castillo fail to move Katherine with brooms, Jocelyn rushes upstairs. She smashes a teapot of hot tea in the witch’s face, causing Katherine to vanish.

Grim then briefs Steve on how to handle outside police inquiries as Jocelyn follows Matt to the hospital. He also asks Steve whether Tyler might have somehow provoked Katherine, but Steve denies knowing anything. Grim then walks to HEX headquarters, disturbed by the day’s events. He reviews surveillance footage but finds no evidence of anything amiss at the time Tyler must have died, nor after Matt arrived home. Suddenly, Katherine appears inside the control room, corners Grim, and whispers into his ear.

The next day, Matt wakes from his coma but is catatonic. At a nearby inn, Steve lies to his father-in-law, Milford Hampton, to conceal Katherine’s existence after Jocelyn mentions her. Milford questions whether Tyler might have caused Matt’s injuries; Steve says he doesn’t know but privately rages against the accusation. When doctors ask for permission to use Tyler’s cornea for a transplant that could save Matt’s sight, Steve and Jocelyn agree. Later, while making funeral arrangements, Steve insists that Tyler be buried in Black Spring. He rejects cremation, needing to keep his son’s body close.

On Tuesday, Tyler’s viewing is held at The Quiet Man tavern. Tyler’s girlfriend, Laurie, arrives, but Steve is unable to offer her any explanations. The atmosphere is tense. Outsiders mingle with fearful townspeople, who perform superstitious gestures and keep their distance, believing Tyler is cursed. A medicated Jocelyn is overwhelmed by condolences.

Griselda arrives and expresses her sympathy to Steve. She remarks that Tyler had wanted to help Katherine and was “on her side” (300). Her words, combined with town lore and the memory of Fletcher barking, trigger a realization for Steve.