Hex

Fletcher is still missing the following morning. The Grants’ neighbors, Pete and Mary VanderMeer, arrive to offer comfort. Robert Grim also appears, reporting that no cameras captured Fletcher escaping. Steve shows him and Pete that the kennel was likely opened from the outside, not accidentally left open.

Steve, Pete, and Grim search the woods on Mount Misery, where they find a fairy ring of poisonous death cap mushrooms; Pete says that his mother told him fairy rings indicated the presence of witches and that he had to walk past them with his eyes closed. Steven questions when Katherine last “caused trouble” for the town, and Grim recounts the 1887 Eliza Hoffman case that led to the founding of HEX. Eliza, a young girl, disappeared in the woods, and soon afterward, the local creek ran with blood. Because Eliza’s parents were prominent industrialists before their move to Black Spring, news of some of the occurrences in the town leaked to the press, leading to the establishment of HEX. As Grim finishes this story, the men find Fletcher’s body hanging from a tree; Grim remarks that it looks like a suicide.