As they drive back to Lisey’s home, Lisey tells Amanda about her plan to kill Dooley and put his body in Boo’ya Moon. They reflect on how Scott knew long ago that they would both need help someday and that they would be able to provide it for each other.

Lisey stops at the Castle Rock State Park. When she pulls over, Amanda gets out of the car in her clothes from the hospital, and with no shoes on. She walks through the grass, then stops to look out over the lake. In the distance, they can see the storm coming as the thunder begins. Lisey tells Amanda that she is glad she’s alive, then Amanda responds that she is, too. They then both begin to dance, laughing and yelling to each other over the sound of the thunder.

Back in the car, as rain and hail start to fall, Amanda calls Darla on her cell phone. She tells them that she recovered when she heard Lisey calling to her, and now they are in Derry at the hospital to run some tests. While they feel guilty about sending Darla to the wrong place, they both agree that they can’t risk her coming to Lisey’s home while Dooley is there.

After, Lisey calls Greenlawn. She is nervous to talk to Dr. Alberness. She thinks of a moment with Scott from the past, where he was getting pestered by his editor to change something unbelievable in his story. In response, Scott insisted that life is often unbelievable. Lisey channels his confidence as she talks to Dr. Alberness, explaining that Amanda woke up, then they simply decided to leave. He questions how they got through the guarded door, but Lisey insists that it was open and no one stopped them. He asks to talk to Amanda, who assures him that she is fine by reciting facts about herself. He seems pacified but insists that they return the next day for testing.

Lisey and Amanda go to Amanda’s house so that she can get clothes. On her door is a note from her ex-boyfriend, which Amanda dismisses by rubbing it on her behind, causing Lisey to laugh uncontrollably and forget about Dooley briefly. Amanda then gives Lisey a gun, and Lisey wonders if she could really use it to kill Dooley.

As they wait for 8:00, Lisey and Amanda sort through Scott’s things in his office. A voice in her head tells her that there is still something she is missing. She realizes that it is Amanda’s voice, and she remembers what Amanda said sitting by the pool before she became coherent: Scott had told Amanda years ago, “[s]omething about a story. Your story. Lisey’s story” (416). Lisey then begins to wonder how much of this Scott planned. She thinks back to his death, which occurred in Bowling Green, where he was reading from his latest story. After, he collapsed in the hallway, then was taken for heart surgery. Lisey was at home when the doctor called. After giving permission for the surgery, Lisey got on a plane and flew there. She is transported back to the moment she arrived at the hospital.

In the flashback, as Lisey makes her way through the hospital, she has an overwhelming sense of déjà vu from the hospital in Nashville. The nurses call Dr. Jantzen, who takes her to Scott’s room. On the way, he explains that they performed a thoracotomy to relieve the built-up fluid and trapped air in Scott’s lungs. Dr. Meade, the head of the English Department, claimed that Scott had an extreme cough and fever leading up to the speech. Later, Dr. Meade tells Lisey that, right after speaking, Scott told him to call Lisey to come to Bowling Green as he “may have eaten the wrong thing after sunset” (426).

Lisey realizes that they are in the Isolation Unit. Dr. Jantzen washes his hands and puts on a gown, mask, and gloves, then instructs Lisey to do the same. He tells her that he has a strange form of pneumonia or the Bird Flu and that they can’t figure out how to treat it.

Lisey goes into Scott’s room. He asks for ice, sending Dr. Jantzen out of the room. Lisey goes to Scott’s bed and begs him to go to Boo’ya Moon and heal himself at the pool. As Scott struggles to talk, he explains that he can’t get to the pool. He already tried, but the long boy is lying across the path, sleeping. He visited Boo’ya Moon on the plane and ate some berries, as he has done many times in the past, but it must have been too late in the day. He assures Lisey that she saved him many times from “the dark,” then dies.

In the present, Lisey contemplates what killed Scott, whether it was something he got from the berries, the air, a bug, or something else entirely—and whether she could’ve gotten the same thing. She cries at Scott’s desk. A moment later, Lisey sees the light on the phone turn on. She knows that Dooley cut the line and has finally arrived.

Lisey calls Amanda to Scott’s study. She stands in the doorway as the lights go out, while Lisey stands by the desk. Dooley calls to them from the bottom of the stairs. He tells them that he is wearing a pair of goggles and can see them in the dark. He orders Amanda to drop the gun. Lisey interrupts him. She begins taunting him, comparing him to Cole, which enrages him. He charges at her and slams into her, shoving her back into the desk. Lisey embraces him. She hears Amanda fire a gunshot into the air, then charge and jump on Dooley’s back. Lisey grabs Dooley, kisses him, and releases the second gulp of pool water into his mouth. She pulls all three of them into Boo’ya Moon.

Initially, Dooley is shocked by the sight of Boo’ya Moon. Lisey explains that she is finally giving him a glimpse into Scott’s life and that he should be honored. He threatens to kill her, causing Amanda to attack him. Dooley quickly knocks her down, then Lisey begins goading Dooley. She angers him so that he chases her. After a few steps, he trips, then falls onto Paul’s grave marker. He stands up, then pulls the cross out of his arm. Lisey yells to him again, then runs. As she enters Fairy Forest, she notes that it is already beginning to get dark.

Lisey runs through the forest. She can feel Dooley running right behind her. She nearly falls and forces herself to run faster. When Dooley trips behind her and yells out, Lisey knows that he has woken up the long boy. She feels its thoughts, which contain the dark things of her past like Scott’s dying words and her dead grandmother; she thinks, “[a]ll the bad-gunky, in other words” (448). She then spots the silver shovel, abandoned by a tree, and picks it up. Lisey turns just as Dooley reaches her and hits him with the shovel. He falls off the path and into the trees, yelling as he does so.

Lisey feels movement beside her. The long boy then emerges. It is massive, its head taller than the trees, with dark, endless eyes. She knows that, in that moment, she will never be able to forget about it. She knows she will be haunted by it, as Scott was for his entire life. She hears its mouth consuming Dooley and sees his blood spray, then turns and runs for Sweetheart Hill.

Lisey finds Amanda on the hill. Amanda is distraught at the sound of Dooley screaming, and Lisey wonders if she will ever be able to get that or the long boy out of her mind. She forces herself to think of the study, instructing Amanda to do the same. After a moment, they return.

Lisey and Amanda go back to the house. As Lisey is about to make hot chocolate, Amanda tells her that she should clean up the study in case the police show up. Amanda is adamant that she can’t go back there yet.

In the study, Lisey picks up the gun and Dooley’s belongings. She looks briefly at the stack of magazines and periodicals against the wall. She decides that she won’t give them to Woodbody but will donate them to a different college. She feels at peace in the study for the first time since Scott’s death.

Back in the house, Amanda tells her the plan that she came up with. They are going to go to their old family farm, which they still own but where no one lives. They will tell Darla and Cantata that Amanda insisted on going there. They sent their sisters to Derry because they were afraid that they would try to stop them from going or take her back to Greenlawn. Lisey is satisfied with the story. On the way, they stop at a bridge and throw the gun in with Dooley’s belongings.