Insomnia

Ralph threatens to walk away from the bald doctors. The doctors placate him by promising to explain Atropos’s motivations and the reasons behind Ralph and Lois’s experience of hyper-reality.

Typically, the Purpose doctors and Atropos avoid interacting with each other, allowing their constants to exist in the world in natural measures. Atropos, however, severed the balloon-string of someone whose death will have significant repercussions on all of existence. This necessitates Ralph and Lois’s intervention, as only human beings can counteract Atropos’s actions.

Ralph guesses that the person they are referring to is Ed Deepneau. The doctors confirm that Ed’s death was originally “undesignated” to both Random and Purpose before Atropos marked him. They claim not to know the deeper reasons for Ed’s importance, as this knowledge is limited to beings that exist on even higher spheres of existence. Those entities were the ones who selected Ralph and Lois to resist Atropos. At their instruction, the bald doctors affected Ralph and Lois’s auras, causing them to experience insomnia and thus perceive hyper-reality. Ralph asks about the Crimson King Ed spoke of. Clotho and Lachesis imply that the Crimson King is a higher-plane entity and that Ed fell under its influence when Atropos marked him.

Clotho advises Lois to stay away from both Atropos and Ed, as it would endanger her life. Lois asks if Atropos and Ed are threats to Ralph’s life as well, a question that causes them to realize that the doctors are omitting facts from their explanation. The doctors confirm that it would be counterproductive for Atropos to harm Ralph, as Ralph’s life has shifted away from Purpose to Random because of his interference. They also indicate that Ed has left Derry, which would make it difficult for them to fulfill their task, should they choose to intercept him.

Ralph and Lois ask about their abilities and the energy required to deploy them. The doctors explain that it is safe to draw from the auras of others, as humanity’s total energy output far exceeds the amounts required for Ralph and Lois’s abilities.

Finally, Ralph and Lois ask about their objective. The doctors show them that a large death-bag hangs over Derry, which Ralph and Lois tie to Susan Day’s visit. Ed’s plan will result not only in Susan Day’s death, but in the deaths of over 2,000 people. With only 14 hours left until Susan Day’s speech is set to begin, Clotho tells them that Ed is planning to bomb the event venue. To stop him, Ralph and Lois must reach out to the event organizers and cancel the rally.

Ralph and Lois return to the human plane of reality. As they descend from the hospital roof, they pass by the doctors’ lounge, where a television is broadcasting a news interview with Dan Dalton. Dalton asserts his pro-life position before the interviewer asks him if The Friends of Life are planning to incite violence at the Susan Day rally. Dalton distances the group from Ed and his collaborators, denouncing their violent methods.

After Dalton walks off, the interviewer indicates that they failed to secure time with Gretchen, who is at High Ridge to finish preparations for the rally. Ralph and Lois decide they must find her, though neither of them knows High Ridge’s exact location.

Ralph and Lois bump into Trigger Vachon, who is working at the hospital parking tollbooth. Trigger struggles to remember something that he is supposed to tell Ralph about the day they encountered Ed outside the airport, but fails to recall it.

Ralph and Lois proceed to WomanCare and ask the receptionist how to reach Gretchen. When the receptionist declines to give them information, Lois reaches out for the receptionist, affecting her aura to change her mind. Lois assures the receptionist that they mean Gretchen no harm, so the receptionist gives them directions to the house.

On their way back to the car, Ralph and Lois are intercepted by Trigger, who remembers that the ideograms embroidered on Ed’s scarf were not Chinese, but Japanese. He recognized them from the Second World War and asked his brother’s help to decipher their meaning: “KAMIKAZE.”

Based on clues provided by the bald doctors, Lois deduces that Ed plans to crash a bomb-filled airplane into the Civic Center. When Ralph saw him exiting the airport through the service gate, Ed had been coming from flying lessons.

Ralph and Lois stop at the Derry Diner for breakfast. Ralph speculates that Atropos weaponized Ed’s entrenched belief in the pro-life movement, giving him the scarf and convincing him to enact his plan against Derry’s pro-choice supporters. He points out that while they instinctively can’t allow Ed to kill that many people, he and Lois don’t really know the Purpose’s true motivations for recruiting them. He elaborates that hundreds of people die in various disasters every year, which means that a potential tragedy like the Civic Center bombing doesn’t really mean much to the Purpose. He points out that the bald doctors purposefully spent so much time explaining the nature of their world to limit Ralph and Lois’s opportunities to ask about the purpose of their mission. Lois suggests Ralph should let his worries about the gaps in his knowledge go. Ralph finds this difficult because it is in his nature.

The waitress who serves their food is wearing an anti-abortion button. She confirms that she will join The Friends of Life protest as she staunchly believes that abortion is “murder.” She tells Ralph and Lois that she has involved herself in activist efforts for years, and that the thing that irritates her most about the pro-choice proponents are their liberal attitudes on adjacent topics like gun control and capital punishment. Though she does not condone violence, she believes that Susan Day deserves to be struck down by God. Ralph fixates on the waitress’s aura and sees that she has liver problems.

After eating, Lois wonders about calling Leydecker. Ralph advises against it, since they have little evidence to compel Leydecker to action. The waitress returns with their check and apologizes for pontificating to them. When she leaves, Ralph writes a note advising the waitress to consult her doctor for liver issues instead of going to the protest. Lois draws from the waitress’s aura for details to boost the note’s credibility, and adds a line about a baby the waitress had given up for adoption. She later advises Ralph that he needs to absorb aural energy soon. Exhausted, Ralph fights off visions of the creatures before they set out for High Ridge.

Ralph and Lois stop at a Dunkin’ Donuts for coffee. They encounter two teens whose vulgar behavior provokes Ralph into drawing from their auras.

On the road, Ralph and Lois chat about Dorrance, believing that he is either aware of, or involved with, the higher planes of existence, but acting separately from the bald doctors. Several police cars rush past them toward a large deathbag on the horizon. They hasten the drive, worrying that there is trouble at High Ridge.

The car breaks down before they can reach the house. They walk the rest of the way and find the police, led by Leydecker, engaged in a gun battle with Sandra McKay, Frank Felton, and Charlie Pickering, who have taken High Ridge hostage and set it ablaze to kill their prisoners inside. By the time Ralph and Lois arrive at the house, McKay and Felton are already dead. Pickering remains inside as the house continues to burn. He keeps the police at bay, shooting at them until the fire can prevent them from safely entering the house. Ralph uses an aura blast to throw Pickering’s aim off, which saves Leydecker’s life.

Lois calls Ralph’s attention to Helen calling for help from one of the house’s low windows. She, the other women, and their children are trapped in the cellar. Ralph realizes that Pickering is being protected by the Random, which prevents the police from killing him even at point-blank range. Ralph pulls Lois toward High Ridge so that they can stop Pickering.

Ralph and Lois ascend to a higher plane to breach the house unseen and untouched by the fire. Once inside, they see that Gretchen and a pregnant woman have been shot dead. As Pickering mocks the women, Ralph steps forward to neutralize him, assuring Lois that he won’t kill Pickering. He returns to the human plane and disarms Pickering.

Enraged by the hypocrisy of Pickering killing a pregnant woman, Ralph nearly shoots Pickering with his own rifle. Lois reappears before Ralph to stop him, arguing that they must not stoop to Pickering’s level. Instead of shooting Pickering, Ralph reaches out and brings him to the highest plane of existence he can reach before shooting back down to the human plane. The effort leaves Pickering in a catatonic state.

Ralph and Lois return to the higher plane to avoid getting hurt in the burning house. Lois is briefly terrified by Ralph’s action, but understands that Pickering deserved his fate. They descend into the cellar where Helen and the other hostages are trapped and rematerialize before them. Lois uses her abilities to break off the lock that McKay placed on the cellar bulkhead, allowing the hostages to escape through the back of the house. They attract Leydecker’s attention, informing him that Pickering is unconscious and that the hostages are coming to the police.

Ralph informs Helen that Gretchen died, and Helen grieves. Helen describes how the assault began, pointing out the car the attackers used to reach High Ridge. Ralph realizes that the assault succeeded only because the women saw McKay driving the car and assumed she meant them no harm. Ralph asks if there is a chance that the assault will force the cancellation of the Susan Day rally. Helen strongly resists the idea, stressing that to resign themselves now would allow the other side to win.

Dorrance suddenly appears, inviting Ralph and Lois to escape with him. He leads them through a garden, alluding to the higher levels of existence when they ask how he reached them. Lois and Ralph marvel at the brilliance of Dorrance’s aura, which make them think he isn’t human. Dorrance brings them to a car, where Joe Wyzer is waiting.

Wyzer explains that Dorrance enlisted him as a driver without explaining where they were going. They drive back toward the Derry Civic Center. Dorrance remains evasive along the way. However, he volunteers that the four of them, along with Helen, Natalie, Bill, Faye, and Trigger, are bound to each other by the Purpose, forming a group known as a “ka-tet.”

Ralph recalls the bald doctors’ warning not to approach Atropos or Ed for fear of the Crimson King’s intervention. He and Lois acknowledge, however, that it is now impossible to cancel the Susan Day rally in the wake of the attack on High Ridge. Based on Helen’s reaction to the idea, the pro-choice movement will likely be galvanized to proceed in honor of their dead. Ralph speculates that Susan Day herself has no choice but to participate, either seeing an opportunity to push the movement forward or the risk that walking away poses to her credibility.

Ralph and Lois are dropped off at the Civic Center. Ralph tries one more time to ask Dorrance about the reasons behind their mission. Dorrance evades the question, only replying that the Purpose and the Random are deeply invested in what Ralph and Lois are about to do. Lois resolves to be motivated by the 2,000 lives at stake. Privately, Ralph is motivated by his grudge against Atropos.

Lois then asks why the doctors sent them to High Ridge, only for them to return to the Civic Center. Dorrance explains that the doctors might not have known the reasons for sending Ralph and Lois to High Ridge, but they fulfilled their mission there anyway according to the Purpose’s designs. He rules out that the mission had to do with saving the women, which only frustrates Lois further. Dorrance then instructs them to recover Wyzer’s comb.

Ralph and Lois roam through the crowd and are terrified by the massive deathbag that hangs around the Civic Center. They encounter news reporter Connie Chung and realize that she and her news crew are filled with melancholy, a symptom of being in the deathbag. The deathbag is semi-sentient and parasitic, feeding on everyone’s auras. Prolonged exposure to the deathbag gradually weakens Ralph and Lois. They draw from other people’s auras to revitalize themselves, but inadvertently open their perception to giant insects roaming the entire venue. The bugs do not pose any immediate threat to the rally attendees, though some of them latch unseen onto human bodies.

There is no sign of Atropos nearby. Lois loudly asks Connie Chung for an autograph to draw people’s attention away from the Civic Center. Ralph uses the distraction to get closer and sees the residue left by passing auras at the venue entrance. Briefly ascending into a higher plane, he filters out the human auras and locates Atropos’s trail. He and Lois follow it away from the Civic Center.