Austin comes over, and he helps Clio paint. Afterwards, they order Thai food and have sex. Later, when she’s alone, Clio goes into the garage and immediately smells “death.” She sees that the sticky mouse traps her father scattered are lined up down the center of the space, and each one is covered in mouse parts: Headless bodies, tails, feet, bodiless heads, and so on. It’s upsetting, even more so because there is no blood. Clio takes this as evidence of an infestation.

James comes over, and Clio shows him her progress. He finds a note that Austin left for her and gathers that she’s having a sexual relationship with him. Clio is reminded of how much James wants her to “settle down” and be “normal” (132).

Leda is annoyed by how often Clio has asked James for help. When Clio describes the mice she found, Leda accuses her of reading Alexandra’s book. Clio denies it, but she wonders how Leda could know about the priest and the dead mouse if she hasn’t read it. When Clio asks what Leda isn’t telling her, Leda’s voice gets squeaky when she reminds Clio that Clio is supposed to be rehabbing the house alone.

When they discuss one of Leda’s “selfish” colleagues, Clio says she doesn’t see the problem with a woman being a little selfish. Suddenly, she remembers her mother’s response to James’s discovery that Father Bernard came to the house. She remarked on society’s tendency to label women as “selfish” when they want to do something other than take care of a husband and kids. Alexandra told Clio that a man calling her “selfish” is a good sign that she’s doing something right.

Now, Clio can’t tell if reading the book is helping her recall actual memories or influencing the ones she has. She hears a dragging noise, then something falls. She finds the jar of peanut butter on the floor and remembers her mother’s story about peanut butter. Clio realizes that the more she attributes things to “the demon or whatever,” the more real it will seem (137). She hears the dragging noise again and then laughter as the lights flicker off. A moment later, they come back on, but the silence is ominous. Clio goes back to reading.

Alexandra writes that she felt stupid for thinking a man would help her, especially a man who believes that sin originated with Eve. The text says that Alexandra called Helen, who was sympathetic, because she had no other friends after the divorce. Her annotation says this is mostly true, but neither did Alexandra want to fit in with her cookie-baking, Tupperware-party neighbors. In the main text, Alexandra writes that she was alone, and whatever was in the house was glad. Then, Father Bernard called. To Clio, she admits that she still had one friend and that she fudged the timing of the priest’s phone call to give the chapter a “punchy” end.

Alexandra’s text states that Father Bernard arrived early one morning, before she took the girls to school. He quickly ascertained that the entity didn’t want him there. Neither did the girls, and Alexandra notes that Clio never did worry about being perceived as rude.

The priest explored the home on his own until there was a crash; then he asked Alexandra to go outside. He told her the house was likely possessed by a demon, a revelation that terrified and relieved her. Father Bernard told her to hire an outside investigative team to confirm this. Clio remembers the priest and the drawing she was doing while he was present. She falls asleep.

When she wakes up, Clio sees the four cans of White Claw she drank the night before, as well as a new doodle. She wrote the words “Leave Me Alone” in her sketchpad. Now, she prepares to meet with contractors to get estimates to fix an electrical issue. After those meetings, she opens Alexandra’s book again. Alexandra writes that she started taking the girls to church, which frustrated Leda and Daphne. The house began to smell rancid, and the girls complained.

One day, James confronted her about taking the girls to church, screaming and frightening her with his anger. He called Alexandra “selfish” and said she’d be hearing from his lawyer. In her notes, Alexandra writes that her published version of this confrontation was generous—James was actually much harsher in reality. Clio finds her open sketchpad. Next to her words, “Leave me alone,” she sees a new doodle: A smiley face and the word “no.”

Austin arrives, and Clio asks if he has any marijuana. They go back to his house, and she meets his mother, Dawn. When Dawn says that Clio looks like Alex, Clio asks what Dawn thought of her mother. Dawn finally admits that she was probably the last person to see Alex alive. She seemed disoriented, and her speech was slurred. Dawn thinks she might have been drunk. When Dawn asked if Alex was alright, Alex said something about how “our demons” always get us in the end. Shortly after that, Austin and Clio leave.

Clio and Austin smoke a joint in Austin’s car, then go to the local diner. Clio considers telling Austin that Alexandra may have been right about the house, but she decides not to in case he doesn’t believe her. She invites him to sleep over, and his presence is comforting.

During the night, she hears the door creak and realizes something is in the room. She feels breath on her face, and when she opens her eyes, she sees two big, pale eyes looking at her. She falls out of bed and smacks her face on the floor. Austin is concerned, but she says she had a bad dream. She sees movement, a shadowy shape like a snake that moves underneath the paint on the wall; it glides around the corner into the hallway. It’s a small bed, and Austin says they could go back to his place because he has a queen, so they go there.

Austin goes to work, but Clio stays in bed. Later, she checks her phone and sees a new conversation in her group chat about one friend, a fellow influencer, who has a new deal with a loungewear brand. Clio congratulates her with emojis, then checks the more exclusive group chat that doesn’t include this friend. Clio, Veronica, and Hannah call the deal a “disaster” because the clothes fall apart in the wash.

Clio snoops around Austin’s room, his computer, and his drawers. Finding nothing offensive, she walks home, playing with her snake charm. She thinks about how stoned she got last night and how often her mother was inebriated, and she decides to stop self-medicating.

When she gets home, she finds several sheets torn out of her sketchpad. Each has the word “hello” on it, and they are scattered all over the stairs. She finds one sheet with a different message: It has another smiley face and asks, simply, “Remember?” She knows the haunting is real. Clio packs her bag and calls a car to take her to the train station.

Clio avoids her family for two weeks, but she must attend James and Amy’s Memorial Day barbecue. She’s only been back to the house twice since the sketchpad incident, both times with Austin present. Clio has ordered another copy of her mother’s book so she can read the second half.

At the barbecue, Clio tells Amy that she knows Amy and James got together before he was divorced; this makes Amy nervous. Amy gets more flustered and tries to deny it, but Clio realizes it must be true or Amy wouldn’t have gotten upset. The more Clio thinks about this, the angrier she gets about James lying. Eventually, she goes up to her bedroom to be alone.

Leda comes up to tell Clio to return to the party. When Clio follows her, she sees the light in James’s study is on; she goes in. When she opens his desk drawer, she finds the other half of Alexandra’s book. She storms outside with it, and he takes it from her, asking where she got it. He says that Alexandra was “out of her mind” and that conflict is what she wanted (176). Clio knows he’s wrong, and she accuses him of cheating. James looks at Clio with contempt, saying that she sounds just like her mother. She tells him she wants the truth, and he says she won’t find it in the book. He throws the paperback in the firepit.

Tommy drives Clio back to Edgewood after the fight that followed James’s burning of her book. He offers to listen, but Clio feels that no one takes her seriously.

Inside, Clio sits on the couch and says “hello,” which elicits a low rumble of laughter. She reflects on how unique the suffering is that one experiences as a result of paranormal activity, how it doesn’t inspire empathy from others, but rather derision. The house shakes with laughter again. She tells the demon that she can leave whenever she wants, so if it wants her to stay, it must “play nice.” Clio gets up and heads to the kitchen but hears scraping. She looks around to find that something has just scratched a huge frowny face into the wall by the fireplace.

Clio goes to Austin’s and initiates sex. The next morning, Clio remembers her dream: Her parents were fighting. Alexandra asked how she failed to live up to James’s standards, and he said something about it being her job to wash the dishes. He accused her of doing nothing all day. Now, when Austin is nice to her, she considers what he would do if she pushed him the way Alexandra pushed James.