Summary: Something Wicked This Way Comes

With­in a petite vil­lage in Illi­nois, two young acquain­tances aged thir­teen, William Hal­loway and James Night­shade, eager­ly await their fast-approach­ing birth­days. Their lives take a puz­zling twist when a fore­cast­er of storms cau­tions them about an impend­ing tem­pest and presents Jim with a light­ning rod. Mean­while, they inves­ti­gate the new­ly arrived end-of-sea­son fair, Cooger & Dark­’s Pan­de­mo­ni­um Shad­ow Show, with a blend of antic­i­pa­tion and apprehension.

They both encounter an odd occur­rence on a sup­pos­ed­ly dys­func­tion­al mer­ry-go-round when Mr. Cooger, one of the fair’s pro­pri­etors, rides it back­ward, trans­form­ing him into a twelve-year-old boy. Intrigued and appalled, the young­sters pur­sue the reju­ve­nat­ed Mr. Cooger, who deceiv­ing­ly intro­duces him­self to their edu­ca­tor, Miss Foley, as her miss­ing nephew. When Jim endeav­ors to ride the enchant­i­ng mer­ry-go-round to change his own age, Will inter­venes, caus­ing the ride to spi­ral out of con­trol, advanc­ing Mr. Cooger’s age to well over a cen­tu­ry. They revis­it lat­er with law enforce­ment, only to dis­cov­er Mr. Cooger van­ished and sub­sti­tut­ed by a fresh act named Mr. Elec­tri­co. Upon encoun­ter­ing a per­turbed young girl, who turns out to be Miss Foley, they are obstruct­ed from reach­ing her by a fair procession.

With the fair crew on the look­out for them, they seek sanc­tu­ary in the vil­lage library where they encounter Will’s pater­nal fig­ure, Charles Hal­loway, who advis­es them to con­front their fears with love. Their hid­ing spot is revealed by Mr. Dark, the Illus­trat­ed Man, who ensnares the boys and tries to halt Charles’s heart uti­liz­ing the Dust Witch’s sor­cery. Charles, how­ev­er, safe­guards him­self by burst­ing into laugh­ter, prompt­ing the Witch to retreat. Undaunt­ed, he pro­ceeds to res­cue his son and Jim. Employ­ing the pow­er of mirth and gai­ety, he out­smarts Mr. Dark, oblit­er­ates the Mir­ror Maze, and van­quish­es the Witch. As Jim is enticed towards the mer­ry-go-round, Charles’s affec­tion trans­mutes the juve­nile ver­sion of Mr. Dark, insti­gat­ing the col­lapse of the car­ni­val. The boys even­tu­al­ly revive Jim, who had slipped into an almost-death­ly stu­por, through their jovial laugh­ter and sweet melodies.

foreword

“Some­thing Malev­o­lent This Way Comes” com­mences amidst Octo­ber, a peri­od described as “an uncom­mon sea­son for boys.” Dur­ing this junc­ture, the rou­tines of school have already set­tled in, and young­sters await Hal­loween eager­ly. Unex­pect­ed­ly, Hal­loween emerges pre­ma­ture­ly, pre­cise­ly on the 24th of Octo­ber, at three a.m. This marks the occa­sion when James Night­shade and his com­pa­tri­ot resid­ing on Oak Street, William Hal­loway, on the verge of turn­ing four­teen, under­go a life-alter­ing experience.

Chapter 1

A mer­chant vend­ing light­ning rods mean­der through Green Town, Illi­nois, with an immi­nent storm loom­ing behind him. He chances upon Jim Night­shade and Will Hal­loway loung­ing on Will’s front lawn. He insists they require a light­ning rod as one of their abodes is like­ly to be tar­get­ed by the encroach­ing tem­pest. Iden­ti­fy­ing him­self as Tom Fury, he asserts his duty is to shield indi­vid­u­als from storm-relat­ed dev­as­ta­tion. His light­ning rods fea­ture dis­tinct sym­bols and inscrip­tions in var­i­ous lan­guages to repulse light­ning. Fury proph­e­sies that Jim’s domi­cile will be struck and urges him to install the rod. After Fury’s depar­ture, Will per­suades Jim that the rod’s secu­ri­ty out­weighs the excite­ment of observ­ing a light­ning strike, an out­look Jim isn’t entire­ly con­vinced by.

Chapter 2

Fol­low­ing sup­per, the lads has­ten to their local library. Jim believes he catch­es a fleet­ing tune, which dis­si­pates almost instant­ly. With­in, Will observes the mature librar­i­an, Charles William Hal­loway, who coin­ci­den­tal­ly is his prog­en­i­tor. Will notices a resem­blance between him and his aging father. Rec­ol­lec­tions flood back of nights when he’d awak­en to dis­cov­er the library illu­mi­nat­ed, indi­cat­ing his father was engrossed in read­ing. Charles rec­om­mends some lit­er­a­ture about dinosaurs for Jim, while Will opts for a selec­tion of adven­ture tales before they exit the library. While jour­ney­ing home­ward, Jim bemoans the delayed storm as he’s eager to wit­ness the light­ning. Yet, Will assuages him, ensur­ing that the storm will undoubt­ed­ly arrive by morn­ing, and they race towards home.

Chapter 3

Charles Hal­loway feels a pro­found rap­port with the boys. He con­tem­plates their unique per­sonas, regard­ing Jim as the one who effort­less­ly cir­cum­vents life’s obsta­cles owing to his intu­itive acu­men. Con­verse­ly, Will, he opines, is more vul­ner­a­ble to life’s blows and often fails to grasp the ratio­nale behind them. Charles envi­sions the impact the boys have on each oth­er, each mold­ing the oth­er’s con­duct. As dusk descends, he vacates the library for the tav­ern, not for him­self, but to rec­ol­lect his youth­ful self. The nar­ra­tive fore­shad­ows the meta­mor­pho­sis of Will and Jim dur­ing an extra­or­di­nary Hal­loween week. Tom Fury, the light­ning rod ven­dor trailed by a storm, fore­casts a light­ning strike on Jim’s abode. While it could be inter­pret­ed as an omi­nous omen, Jim per­ceives it as an exhil­a­rat­ing event, reluc­tant to erect the light­ning rod to sus­tain the thrill. Nev­er­the­less, Will per­suades him to do so. Jim exudes fear­less­ness, pre­pared for any impend­ing events. Charles Hal­loway, Will’s prog­en­i­tor, catch­es his off­spring off guard at the library. Despite his advanced age, he con­nects with the boys and grasps their aspi­ra­tions. Post-library vis­it, Jim demon­strates rest­less­ness for fresh adven­tures and appears dis­in­ter­est­ed in the mun­dane. Nonethe­less, Will assures him that the await­ed storm is approach­ing. A sig­nif­i­cant hint hints that an extra­or­di­nary occur­rence is on the brink of unfolding.

Chapter 4

Will and Jim sprint through the des­o­late town at nine. They encounter Mr. Tet­ley, the tobac­conist, who appears to be lis­ten­ing intent­ly to a dis­tant sound. Depart­ing from Mr. Tet­ley, they chance upon Mr. Croset­ti, the bar­ber, sta­tioned out­side his estab­lish­ment, a teardrop trick­ling down his vis­age. Jest­ing­ly, they inquire whether they per­ceive the same fra­grance he does. The aro­ma of cot­ton can­dy engulfs him, a scent he has­n’t encoun­tered in some time. He reminds them that only car­ni­vals offer cot­ton can­dy. Wip­ing his tears away, he pre­pares to shut­ter his shop. Nonethe­less, Will dis­suades him from switch­ing off the bar­ber’s pole, ensur­ing the mes­mer­iz­ing twirl of its strip will persist.

Chapter 5

Charles Hal­loway exits a tav­ern, spot­ting an indi­vid­ual across the street hum­ming a fes­tive melody. The indi­vid­ual, engrossed in affix­ing posters with­in an emp­ty store, dis­cerns Hal­loway, greets him with a wave, then departs. Hal­loway peers into the store, stum­bling upon sig­nage adver­tis­ing “Cooger & Dark­’s Pan­de­mo­ni­um Shad­ow Show.” With­in, a colos­sal ice block gar­ners atten­tion, pro­claimed by the poster to be the most mag­nif­i­cent woman glob­al­ly. Hal­loway scru­ti­nizes the ice sculp­ture, per­ceiv­ing it as a hol­low imi­ta­tion of a woman. Despite his urge to depart, he remains root­ed to the spot for a while before final­ly mov­ing away.

Chapter 6

Jim paus­es at Hick­o­ry Street, inform­ing Will that he is com­pelled to inves­ti­gate the “The­ater.” They had peeked through a win­dow of the fifth res­i­dence on the street before, observ­ing indi­vid­u­als undress­ing and par­tak­ing in activ­i­ties they could­n’t under­stand. Jim is intrigued by the The­ater, while Will feels uneasy about it. Jim entrusts his books to Will, set­ting off to uncov­er what tran­spires. Will, hold­ing the books, swift­ly heads homeward.

Chapter 7

Jim prompt­ly reunites with Will after dis­cov­er­ing the desert­ed The­ater. A dis­card­ed fly­er lands on Jim, piquing the curios­i­ty of both boys. The fly­er adver­tis­es the upcom­ing show by Cooger and Dark, com­menc­ing the next day, fea­tur­ing pecu­liar attrac­tions. Some of the show­cased anom­alies include a mon­strous Mont­golfi­er, iden­ti­fied by Will as a bal­loon, and an illus­trat­ed man, elu­ci­dat­ed by Jim as more than mere­ly a tat­tooed per­son. The boys deduce that a car­ni­val is approach­ing the town that night. Uncon­scious­ly, they make their way back home, bid each oth­er good­night, and retreat indoors.

Chapter 8

Will’s moth­er relax­es as he gen­tly shuts the door. He observes both his par­ents seat­ed silent­ly. His father’s despon­den­cy and his moth­er’s ela­tion puz­zle him. See­ing his father clutch­ing a car­ni­val fly­er, quick­ly con­ceal­ing it upon Will’s arrival, rais­es ques­tions. Will hears the fly­er being incin­er­at­ed after retire­ment to bed. His father’s sor­row, his aging sen­ti­ments, and his appre­hen­sion about the car­ni­val all become clear to Will. The fact that his father keeps the fly­er hid­den from his moth­er adds to Will’s unease. Pick­ing up a book, which hap­pens to be one of Jim’s pre­his­toric read­ings, Will drifts into slum­ber as he over­hears his father depart­ing for the library. Mr. Croset­ti’s revolv­ing bar­ber pole, with its end­less rib­bon appear­ing and dis­ap­pear­ing, sym­bol­izes exis­tence. Mr. Croset­ti is bewil­dered about the pur­pose and direc­tion of his life. Sim­i­lar to his exis­tence, the bar­ber pole’s rib­bon rotates cease­less­ly but nev­er arrives at a con­clu­sion. Hint­ing at more noc­tur­nal enig­mas, he leaves the bar­ber pole illu­mi­nat­ed after closing.

Chapter 9

Jim Night­shade, with his somber coun­te­nance, is por­trayed as a pro­found, intro­spec­tive lad who has encoun­tered more of life’s facets in his thir­teen years than his friend Will Hal­loway. His moth­er, rem­i­nis­cent of his father who had for­mer­ly mis­treat­ed and aban­doned them, fore­sees Jim fol­low­ing a sim­i­lar path of depar­ture. Jim, deter­mined not to be bound by the tor­ment of rela­tion­ships, con­tem­plates his future. Post his moth­er’s exit, he con­tem­plates dis­rupt­ing things by top­pling the light­ning rod.

Chapter 10

The mer­chant of Thun­der­bolts, strolling along the lane, halts by the vacant store pre­vi­ous­ly vis­it­ed by Charles Hal­loway. Moths col­lide against the win­dow, unveil­ing to him the lady encased in ice with­in. She embod­ies every cap­ti­vat­ing woman from his past. Mulling over the con­se­quences of the ice melt­ing, his touch caus­es the shop’s door to swing open wide. Step­ping inside, the door shuts behind him.

Chapter 11

In the wee hours, the sound of a loco­mo­tive awak­ens Will and Jim from their slum­ber. The haunt­ing melody of a cal­liope fills the atmos­phere. Through binoc­u­lars, both boys con­firm their sus­pi­cion that the noise emanates from the approach­ing car­ni­val. Jim, dri­ven by curios­i­ty, decides to observe the car­ni­val’s set­up, with Will fol­low­ing closely.

Chapter 12

While run­ning, Will reflects on Jim’s pen­chant for action, con­trast­ing it with his own incli­na­tion toward dis­course. The mourn­ful whis­tle of the train brings tears to their eyes. Trail­ing the train to a mead­ow, they spot a bal­loon with a rid­er. A tow­er­ing fig­ure in a dour suit dis­em­barks from the train and sig­nals. Sud­den­ly, indi­vid­u­als com­mence erect­ing struc­tures, their silence unset­tling Will. The moon is veiled by dense clouds, and as the shad­ows dis­si­pate, tents rise and the field emp­ties. Fright­ened, the boys has­tened back home.

Chapter 13

At the library, Charles Hal­loway observes Jim and Will rush­ing past, catch­ing a dis­tant glim­mer from the car­ni­val. His resolve regard­ing vis­it­ing the car­ni­val remains unde­cid­ed. Head­ing home­ward, he pass­es the vacant shop once hous­ing the frozen lady, now only a pud­dle, shards of ice, and strands of hair lin­ger­ing. Despite wit­ness­ing these rem­nants, Charles attempts to dis­re­gard their significance.

Chapter 14

Will notices his father, Charles Hal­loway, repeat­ed­ly mur­mur­ing “three” beneath his breath, prompt­ing him to spec­u­late that his father may also be privy to the car­ni­val’s enig­mas. For Charles, there is a par­tic­u­lar sig­nif­i­cance to 3 a.m. It sig­ni­fies the moment when women and chil­dren slum­ber deeply, while mid­dle-aged men are left wide awake, pon­der­ing their exis­tence. He posits that women embody Time through their capac­i­ty to bear chil­dren and pre­serve their lin­eage. In con­trast, men can only brood over Time, feel­ing a sense of des­o­la­tion. This des­o­la­tion is most pro­found at 3 a.m., pre­cise­ly when the train arrived.

Chapter 15

Embark­ing on an expe­di­tion to the car­ni­val, Will and Jim dis­cov­er it to be sur­pris­ing­ly con­ven­tion­al. They encounter their sev­enth-grade teacher, Miss Foley, in search of her nephew Robert. Dis­re­gard­ing Will’s warn­ing, she ven­tures into the Mir­ror Maze, only to be engulfed by a sud­den dis­ori­en­ta­tion. The boys res­cue her, after which she implores them to locate the lost lit­tle girl with­in the maze. Exit­ing the car­ni­val, Miss Foley returns home, while the boys main­tain a safe dis­tance from the eerie Mir­ror Maze.

Chapter 16

As the sun sets, Will finds Jim cap­ti­vat­ed inside the Mir­ror Maze. Upon extri­cat­ing him, Jim appears dis­ori­ent­ed, rav­ing about the won­der of the maze. Jim insists on revis­it­ing lat­er that night, despite Will’s reluc­tance. Trust­ing in his friend’s back­ing, Jim remains res­olute. While depart­ing, they stum­ble upon a leather bag.

Chapter 17

The boys dis­cern the sack belongs to the light­ning-rod sales­man, puz­zled by its aban­don­ment. Jim con­vinces Will of the neces­si­ty to stay at the car­ni­val to unrav­el this mys­tery, a deci­sion they adhere to even as oth­ers depart for supper.

Chapter 18

Will and Jim inspect a sup­pos­ed­ly mal­func­tion­ing carousel. Despite the cau­tion­ary sign, Jim mounts one of the steeds, spark­ing a fren­zy a voice com­mand­ing him to alight. A gen­tle­man known as Mr. Cooger seizes both lads, but is halt­ed by Mr. Dark, a tall indi­vid­ual adorned in a dis­tinc­tive suit with intri­cate tat­toos embell­ish­ing his skin. He intro­duces him­self as the Illus­trat­ed Man. He engages with the boys, detect­ing Jim’s untruth when he pro­vides a false iden­ti­ty, then releas­es them until the next day. Hasti­ly escap­ing, Jim ascends a tree and sig­nals for Will to do like­wise. Observ­ing from their ele­vat­ed posi­tion, they wit­ness in aston­ish­ment as Mr. Dark ini­ti­ates the carousel. As eerie melodies sound in reverse, the ride com­mences its back­ward motion, caus­ing Mr. Cooger to regress to child­hood until he reach­es the age of twelve. Bewil­dered, the boys descend from the tree and pur­sue the juve­nile Mr. Cooger. The car­ni­val instills dread in Will, a feel­ing not shared by the dar­ing Jim. Despite Miss Foley’s unfa­vor­able encounter with the Mir­ror Maze, Jim is deter­mined to inves­ti­gate it him­self. Not even per­il dis­suades Jim’s adven­tur­ous nature, a con­cern that pre­oc­cu­pies Will. Jim’s resolve to revis­it the car­ni­val at night height­ens Will’s appre­hen­sion. The dis­cov­ery of the light­ning-rod sales­man­’s satchel sig­ni­fies the begin­ning of an even more sin­is­ter phase in their journey.

Chapter 19

Chas­ing the twelve-year-old who is tru­ly Mr. Cooger, Jim and Will find them­selves at Miss Foley’s abode, where Jim leads them indoors. Despite Will’s grow­ing unease about Jim, he fol­lows suit. Miss Foley endeav­ors to intro­duce the boys to her ‘nephew’ Robert, but Will inter­jects with news of Mr. Croset­ti’s demise, infor­ma­tion he gleaned from the bar­ber­shop’s shut­tered sign. Will attempts to guide them out of the house, yet the nephew pro­pos­es they stay for dessert as he and Miss Foley plan a vis­it to the car­ni­val. Against Will’s advice, Jim express­es inter­est, but ulti­mate­ly, they agree to ren­dezvous the fol­low­ing day. Pos­te­ri­or­ly, an agi­tat­ed Will con­fronts Jim regard­ing the carousel music being Chopin’s “Funer­al March” played in reverse. As they depart, they spy the nephew observ­ing from the win­dow, main­tain­ing a casu­al facade as they exit.

Chapter 20

Will and Jim are rep­ri­mand­ed by their par­ents and man­dat­ed to their cham­bers, a fate both share. Rest­less­ly, the boys remain sequestered in their rooms. Charles Hal­loway admon­ish­es his son to exer­cise cau­tion before depart­ing. Fear regard­ing his father gnaws at Will, who endeav­ors to com­mu­ni­cate with Jim. He toss­es mar­bles at Jim’s win­dow to no avail. Star­tled by Jim’s silence, Will set­tles in to wait.

Chapter 21

Typ­i­cal­ly, the boys con­veyed their night­ly plans uti­liz­ing an anti­quat­ed alley­way board­walk. They craft­ed melodies by strik­ing the tim­ber planks, sig­nal­ing their forth­com­ing escapade. Will eager­ly antic­i­pates Jim’s musi­cal cue as hours elapse. Even­tu­al­ly, he dis­cerns a sound and read­ies him­self to unlatch his win­dow. How­ev­er, he observes Jim’s win­dow already ajar and real­izes the melody was a fig­ment of his imag­i­na­tion. Jim departs with­out noti­fy­ing Will, opt­ing to embark solo on his mis­sion. Despite this, Will elects not to allow his com­rade to ven­ture forth unac­com­pa­nied and tails after him. Jim’s jour­ney leads him to Miss Foley’s domicile.

Chapter 22

As Jim retreats, Will con­ceals him­self, con­vers­ing with a shad­owy fig­ure on the sec­ond floor. Jim insists that Will desist to evade Mr. Cooger’s sus­pi­cion, and com­pre­hend­ing Jim’s inten­tion, Will strikes his com­pan­ion. Sub­se­quent­ly, a lad emerges, hurls Miss Foley’s jew­el­ry at them, calls for the author­i­ties, and absconds. Jim gives chase, with Will tail­ing despite rec­og­niz­ing it as Mr. Cooger’s wish. The boys are now per­ceived as pil­fer­ers. After Mr. Cooger’s entrance into Miss Foley’s res­i­dence, Jim’s con­duct becomes sus­pect. Tim­ing their arrival at the house direct­ly after Mr. Cooger jeop­ar­dizes their con­cealed knowl­edge of the carousel. With­in the res­i­dence, sole­ly Will behaves cus­tom­ar­i­ly. Jim is enticed by the car­ni­val and Mr. Cooger, while Miss Foley appears indif­fer­ent to Mr. Croset­ti’s osten­si­ble demise. Will seethes at Jim, sus­pect­ing foul play con­cern­ing Miss Foley’s gen­uine nephew and fret­ting for her well-being. Nonethe­less, Jim dis­re­gards this and is more cap­ti­vat­ed by Mr. Cooger and fur­ther exploits. Charles Hal­loway, mind­ful of his son’s poten­tial per­il, coun­sels pru­dence. Will anx­ious­ly pon­ders his father’s safe­ty and com­pre­hends the grav­i­ty of their predica­ment, a real­iza­tion evad­ing Jim. Sens­ing impend­ing per­il, he endeav­ors to goad Jim into action. When Jim unchar­ac­ter­is­ti­cal­ly remains unre­spon­sive, Will spies his clan­des­tine exit from the abode. Despite under­stand­ing Jim’s desire to ven­ture alone, Will choos­es to shad­ow him sur­rep­ti­tious­ly to ascer­tain his intentions.

Chapter 23

Will pur­sues Jim and the youth­ful Mr. Cooger to the fair. Aware of Mr. Cooger’s intent to age him­self via the carousel, and Jim’s unwill­ing­ness to hin­der him, Will grows increas­ing­ly agi­tat­ed. Observ­ing Mr. Cooger extend his hand to Jim near the carousel, Will springs into action, pre­clud­ing Jim from embark­ing. A scuf­fle ensues as Will endeav­ors to halt the con­trap­tion, cau­tion­ing Jim of the immi­nent dan­ger should Mr. Cooger age. How­ev­er, Jim remains res­olute. Upon Will strik­ing the con­trol switch, a surge of elec­tric­i­ty erupts, caus­ing the mer­ry-go-round to accel­er­ate. The nefar­i­ous youth attempts to dis­mount but fal­ters, injur­ing his cra­ni­um. Will restrains Jim, who weeps at the spec­ta­cle of the swift­ly aging man on the carousel. Despite the illu­mi­nat­ed tents, no one ven­tures out, much to Will’s sur­prise. Sud­den­ly, the con­trol box explodes, cast­ing the car­ni­val into dark­ness and halt­ing the mer­ry-go-round. Draw­ing near the grotesque­ly aged man on the carousel, they find him resem­bling a mum­my. Though alive, Mr. Cooger appears to be well over a cen­tu­ry old. The spec­ta­cle induces nau­sea in Will, prompt­ing the two lads to flee from the grue­some sight posthaste.

Chapter 24

The boys sum­mon the police and para­medics to the car­ni­val, but Mr. Cooger has van­ished. They enter the tent and encounter a Dwarf whom Will rec­og­nizes as the light­ning-rod sales­man. They dis­cov­er Mr. Cooger in an Elec­tric Chair, pre­sent­ed as a new act by Mr. Dark. Despite Will’s objec­tions, Mr. Dark secures Jim’s assent to elec­tri­fy Mr. Cooger. As the elec­tri­cal cur­rents surge, Mr. Cooger revives, seem­ing­ly through the col­lec­tive will of the car­ni­val odd­i­ties. Despite his ini­tial mis­giv­ings, Will finds him­self inad­ver­tent­ly root­ing for Mr. Cooger’s sur­vival. Mr. Elec­tri­co posits that his ‘demise’ was a per­for­mance act, assuag­ing the author­i­ties. Mr. Dark bestows com­pli­men­ta­ry tick­ets upon the boys and inquires about their iden­ti­ties, after which Mr. Elec­tri­co address­es them. The boys seize the tick­ets and hasti­ly retreat to the police vehi­cle. They real­ize the malev­o­lent poten­tial of the mer­ry-go-round. Mr. Dark suc­cess­ful­ly con­vinces the police that the boys are mere­ly fright­ened. Jim unex­pect­ed­ly sup­ports Mr. Dark, unveil­ing an unchart­ed facet of his per­sona. Both boys desire Mr. Cooger’s well-being, albeit for dis­parate motives. Will aspires to redemp­tion, where­as Jim remains enticed by the carousel. Both boys acknowl­edge they are now with­in Mr. Dark­’s purview. Will’s hor­ror at the Dwar­f’s plight — a dimin­ished ver­sion of the light­ning-rod sales­man — instills fear for his safe­ty. Mean­while, Jim, nonethe­less, con­tin­ues unfazed, even after observ­ing the dis­turb­ing meta­mor­pho­sis of Mr. Cooger and the malev­o­lent poten­tial of the car­ni­val. Jim’s long­ing to par­take in the carousel appears more pow­er­ful than his wor­ry for Will’s well-being or his own. He plunges into a haz­ardous cir­cum­stance with­out pon­der­ing the out­comes. On the con­trary, though Will usu­al­ly appears less res­olute than Jim, he has twice restrained Jim and react­ed prompt­ly to halt Mr. Cooger. His skill to con­tem­plate before respond­ing proves advan­ta­geous, aid­ing him in rec­og­niz­ing the per­ils they are up against and the neces­si­ty to safe­guard his com­pan­ion. In con­trast, Jim’s lim­it­ed con­cen­tra­tion only seems to attract fur­ther problems.

Chapter 25

In soli­tude at her abode, Miss Foley pon­ders her sub­se­quent course of action con­cern­ing Will, Jim, and Mr. Cooger — her rel­a­tive. She detects some­thing awry with her rela­tion­ship but is con­vinced every­thing will be fine once she under­takes the ride he pro­posed. She com­pre­hends that dis­card­ing her valu­able jew­els was a maneu­ver to dis­suade the boys from obstruct­ing her use of her carousel pass, which she believes will pro­vide her delight. She is enthu­si­as­tic about ensur­ing they do not thwart her schemes in the days ahead. Con­se­quent­ly, she reach­es out to the library, sum­mon­ing Charles Hal­loway to ren­dezvous with her at the police station.

Chapter 26

While en route, an ambu­lance appren­tice remarks that he thought the elder­ly gen­tle­man had passed away, a state­ment the police dis­miss as a jest. Ren­dered speech­less in the rear of the police vehi­cle, Will and Jim are released near two res­i­dences in prox­im­i­ty to the police sta­tion, yet they abstain from enter­ing either. Observ­ing that Jim retained his com­pli­men­ta­ry ride vouch­ers, Will desires to inform an author­i­ta­tive fig­ure about their pecu­liar encoun­ters, but Jim dis­suades him, argu­ing they lack proof. Jim pro­pos­es that apol­o­giz­ing to Mr. Cooger would suf­fice, star­tling Will, who can­not grasp Jim’s auda­cious­ness and appar­ent dis­re­gard for the dan­ger they are in. The com­pan­ions engage in a heat­ed argu­ment, with Will assert­ing that Jim does not gen­uine­ly wish to mature, a notion Jim does not share. Will cau­tions Jim that he will be desert­ed once Jim grows old­er and express­es relief that the aging con­trap­tion is demol­ished, pro­vok­ing Jim, who bears resent­ment towards Will for the machine’s destruc­tion. Their quar­rel is inter­rupt­ed by near­by voic­es. Miss Foley and Will’s father are con­vers­ing about the recent intru­sion at her res­i­dence. Upon hear­ing this, Will prompt­ly clam­bers through a near­by window.

Chapter 27

Con­vey­ing the boys back to their homes, Mr. Hal­loway ensures Jim will apprise his moth­er of the night’s inci­dents come dawn and set him free. The boys have con­cealed ver­ti­cal pas­sages, craft­ed from iron bars affixed to the vine, lead­ing to their quar­ters. Charles Hal­loway paus­es briefly to pon­der his youth before con­vers­ing with Will. He under­stands his son’s inno­cence but ques­tions why he con­fessed to lar­ce­ny at the police sta­tion. Will dis­clos­es Miss Foley’s pecu­liar yearn­ing for their blame but fails to elu­ci­date every­thing to his father. He assures his father he will reveal the entire tale in a few days.

Chapter 28

Will and his father, Charles Hal­loway, engage in a heart­felt dis­cus­sion out­doors rather than mov­ing inside. Will per­ceives right­eous­ness as a route to joy, a belief his father cor­rects, empha­siz­ing the chal­lenge of uphold­ing moral­i­ty. Despite his matu­ri­ty, Charles acknowl­edges feel­ing less wise than his young son. Despite Will’s warn­ing to steer clear of the car­ni­val, Charles still accom­pa­nies his son in ascend­ing to his cham­ber, the duo shar­ing a light­heart­ed moment before Charles retires to bed. Miss Foley, deeply enthralled by the car­ni­val, can­not divert her thoughts else­where. Despite know­ing of the boys’ inno­cence, she reports them to the author­i­ties, in a bid to keep them at bay while she rel­ish­es the carousel jour­ney. Her fas­ci­na­tion with the car­ni­val remains unyield­ing, even in Mr. Cooger’s absence. This fix­a­tion only deep­ens after Mr. Cooger, mas­querad­ing as her nephew, per­suades her that the carousel ride guar­an­tees ulti­mate hap­pi­ness. Jim shares Miss Foley’s gulli­bil­i­ty, believ­ing that a mere apol­o­gy to Mr. Cooger can rec­ti­fy mat­ters. The car­ni­val preys on such self-delu­sion, ensnar­ing those des­per­ate for con­tent­ment. Will’s com­pan­ion­ship pre­vents Jim from suc­cumb­ing entire­ly to the car­ni­val’s allure, akin to the light­ning-rod mer­chant. Nev­er­the­less, per­suad­ing some­one to dis­re­gard their irra­tional crav­ings is daunt­ing. Will’s endeav­ors to dis­suade Jim from his impulse to mature swift­ly prove futile, as Jim, much like Miss Foley, needs to inde­pen­dent­ly dis­cern that what they seek from the car­ni­val may not align with their true desires.

Chapter 29

Awak­en­ing abrupt­ly from a brief hour’s slum­ber, Will is jolt­ed by Jim’s absence of the light­ning rod. Sens­ing a pres­ence out­doors, he resolves to inves­ti­gate. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, he and Jim observe a bal­loon hov­er­ing above them from their respec­tive win­dows. Swift­ly deduc­ing that the bal­loon is on a recon­nais­sance mis­sion to locate them, they dis­cern the Dust Witch in the bal­loon’s gon­do­la. They com­pre­hend that the Witch, com­posed of wax but unde­ni­ably alive, pos­sess­es the abil­i­ty to detect indi­vid­u­als and their essence despite her visu­al impair­ment. She leaves a con­spic­u­ous sil­ver streak on Jim’s abode before depart­ing. Will tra­vers­es the clothes­line pole to Jim’s side, and they ven­ture onto the rooftop, spot­ting the mark. Prompt­ly, Will retrieves a hose, and they efface the sil­ver line. Will pon­ders thwart­ing the Witch per­ma­nent­ly so that the car­ni­val adver­saries won’t be able to iden­ti­fy them. Jim rues remov­ing the light­ning rod, but Will remains sanguine.

Chapter 30 & 31

After tidy­ing the rooftop, the boys retreat to their rooms. Will devis­es a strat­a­gem, employ­ing his Boy Scout archery set to entice the Witch back. He com­pre­hends that she pos­sess­es a pen­chant for excite­ment and emo­tions, even though she lacks tele­path­ic abil­i­ties. Men­tal­ly taunt­ing the Witch about out­wit­ting her, when he sens­es her approach, he guides her to an aban­doned dwelling. They clam­ber onto the roof, with the Witch in close pur­suit. As the wind alters the bal­loon’s posi­tion, Will frets that she has dis­cerned his ploy. Bait­ing the Witch by expos­ing his back to the bal­loon, he beck­ons for an attack. In the eleventh hour, he piv­ots and seizes his bow. As he draws the arrow, the bow frac­tures. He pro­pels the arrow towards the bal­loon and clutch­es it onto its gon­do­la. The arrow pierces the bal­loon, caus­ing it to deflate grad­u­al­ly. Slip­ping from the bas­ket, Will descends off the roof, and a tree breaks his fall. Observ­ing from the tree, he wit­ness­es the witch careen uncon­trol­lably in the deflat­ing bal­loon. In the ensu­ing chap­ter, no oth­er sig­nif­i­cant events unfold.

Chapter 32

Through­out a rainy morn­ing, the carousel melody from the car­ni­val cap­ti­vates sole­ly Miss Foley. Jim shares an intrigu­ing dream with Will, resem­bling Will’s recent escapades, but their dia­logue halts abrupt­ly upon spot­ting a dis­tressed young girl. Despite Jim’s trep­i­da­tion, they approach her. Rec­og­niz­ing her alarm, they pledge to assist.verifying Miss Foley’s absence from her res­i­dence, they con­clude that the young lady is their edu­ca­tor, altered. As the mer­ry-go-round melody flips, it val­i­dates the con­trap­tion’s restora­tion. Their plan is to retrieve the maid­en, but the ongo­ing pro­ces­sion of the fair dis­rupts their endeav­or. After the dis­play pass­es by, the maid­en is nowhere to be seen. Will and Jim com­mence their resis­tance against the mali­cious fair. The fair’s inhab­i­tants’ lack of aware­ness regard­ing them offers a slight advan­tage. Will out­smart­ed the Sor­cer­ess, the sole indi­vid­ual capa­ble of sens­ing them. He clev­er­ly maneu­vered her skills to his ben­e­fit, instill­ing hope as he thwart­ed her from mark­ing Jim’s abode and any future endeav­ors. Will’s brav­ery through­out their tribu­la­tion and his dar­ing encounter with the Sor­cer­ess illus­trate his capac­i­ty to act autonomous­ly from Jim. His proac­tive stand against the Sor­cer­ess devi­ates from his usu­al con­duct, show­cas­ing how their cir­cum­stances have spurred a meta­mor­pho­sis in him, mak­ing him more akin to Jim. Despite real­iz­ing the grave per­il they face and the imper­a­tive to act, Jim remains fix­at­ed on his objec­tive of rid­ing the carousel.

Chapter 33

Respond­ing to a phone call, Charles Hal­loway hears from his son, Will, appris­ing him of the poten­tial­i­ty that he and his com­pan­ion Jim might not return home that evening. Charles is tasked with relay­ing this infor­ma­tion to both their moth­ers. When Charles inquires about the details, Will, hes­i­tant to embroil his father in the affair, sim­ply entreats him for good for­tune. After the cal­l’s ter­mi­na­tion, Charles Hal­loway exudes his good wish­es into the silent receiv­er before step­ping into the radi­ant day.

Chapter 34

Con­cealed beneath the met­al grid close to the wood­en Chero­kee fig­urine out­side the Unit­ed Cig­ar Store, Jim and Will lie in antic­i­pa­tion. The pro­ces­sion halts in front of the store, and Mr. Dark sig­nals his pecu­liar com­pan­ions to comb the vicin­i­ty for their tar­gets. A young child of five inad­ver­tent­ly drops his gum into the grid and gazes inside, star­tled by the scene before him, he cries out for his mother.

Chapter 35

Charles Hal­loway is at Ned’s Night Spot, savor­ing cof­fee. As Mr. Dark enters, a young boy cap­tures the Dwar­f’s atten­tion, who then gazes at the child and into the grille. Will observes that only a frag­ment of Mr. Fury per­sists. The Dwarf pro­gress­es after briefly scan­ning their vicin­i­ty. Charles shares a glance with the Illus­trat­ed Man. Mr. Dark seeks two boys but Hal­loway dis­creet­ly departs. Jim is eager to call out to Will’s father, yet Will advis­es patience. Hal­loway pur­chas­es a cig­ar from Unit­ed Cig­ar Store, and the band inad­ver­tent­ly drops near Will, unveil­ing their con­ceal­ment. As Hal­loway demands an expla­na­tion, Mr. Dark exits the Night Spot, advanc­ing toward him. The boys implore Hal­loway to dis­re­gard their pres­ence. Mr. Dark acquaints Hal­loway with two boys cho­sen as fair guests. He exhibits tat­toos of Jim and Will on his palms. Hal­loway dis­cerns the Illus­trat­ed Man rec­og­nizes the boys but acts pre­ma­ture­ly in prob­ing about them. Hal­loway mis­guides about their iden­ti­ties, pro­vok­ing Mr. Dark­’s wrath. The boys expe­ri­ence unease as their tat­tooed like­ness­es are engulfed in Mr. Dark­’s fists. Mr. Dark labels Hal­loway a deceiv­er, cog­nizant of their true names, yet unaware of their sur­names. Hal­loway pro­fess­es igno­rance. All seems tran­quil until the Dust Witch mate­ri­al­izes, per­ceiv­ing the boys. How­ev­er, Hal­loway thwarts her by blow­ing cig­ar smoke in her direc­tion. She departs, wheez­ing, along with Mr. Dark. Nev­er­the­less, Mr. Dark returns, inquir­ing about Hal­loway’s iden­ti­ty. Post know­ing his name and work­place, Mr. Dark issues a threat to vis­it him. Hal­loway instructs the boys to hide and ren­dezvous at the library at seven.

Chapter 36

The Dwarf abrupt­ly com­pre­hends that Charles Hal­loway sight­ed the con­cealed boys and has­tens to alert Mr. Dark. The Illus­trat­ed Man scur­ries back to the loca­tion, only to dis­cov­er it vacant. Charles Hal­loway, Will’s father, has joined the fray. Despite his son’s silence on the phone, he ven­tured forth to locate Will and Jim, uncov­er­ing them just before Mr. Dark­’s arrival. He stead­fast­ly with­stands the Illus­trat­ed Man’s coer­cion, declin­ing to divulge any details about the boys, fur­ther enrag­ing Mr. Dark. Charles Hal­loway unveils his iden­ti­ty and work­place to Mr. Dark, invit­ing per­il. He has opt­ed to com­bat, inter­twin­ing the boys’ des­tiny with his own. The bat­tle lines are drawn, and Will and Jim now have an ally instead of striv­ing alone. The approach to resist the fair by Charles Hal­loway remains ambigu­ous. As a grown-up, he’s bet­ter equipped to com­bat than the boys, yet they are out­num­bered and fac­ing a potent malev­o­lent force. At the library, he aspires to strate­gize, rely­ing sole­ly on his acu­men. How­ev­er, he has sur­vived one encounter already. His astute uti­liza­tion of the cig­ar to thwart the Sor­cer­ess was effi­ca­cious, and luck may be on his side. Had the cig­ar band not dropped at Will’s feet, he would­n’t have uncov­ered the boys’ hide­out. Charles Hal­loway, despite his intel­lect and abil­i­ty to sense the malev­o­lence of the fair akin to Will, remains uncer­tain about how he’ll aid the boys in bat­tle, yet he is res­olute in his deter­mi­na­tion to assist. His spir­it of adven­ture bur­geons, poised to sup­port his son and his son’s com­rade in their haz­ardous odyssey.

Chapter 37

Charles Hal­loway is entrenched in the library, enveloped by a pletho­ra of lit­er­ary works. He has silent­ly observed the day’s events — ini­tial­ly the pro­ces­sion, and sub­se­quent­ly, the fair. He has kept the moth­ers of the boys unaware of the unfold­ing devel­op­ments. The remain­der of his day is spent immersed in books and intro­spec­tion, striv­ing to deci­pher the sit­u­a­tion. Yet, he appre­hends that a loom­ing omi­nous event neces­si­tates his confrontation.

Chapter 38

In his trep­i­da­tion, Will per­ceives the library as a poten­tial men­ace, pon­der­ing if his father has been adverse­ly impact­ed. Jim, in his impetu­ous­ness, pounds on the door, soon joined by Will. On open­ing the door, their father ush­ers them inside. They divulge their hide­out locale for the day, and he insists on a detailed account of their expe­ri­ences. Upon hear­ing, Mr. Hal­loway asserts his belief in their nar­ra­tive. He unveils his dis­cov­er­ies that the sin­is­ter fair oper­at­ed by Cooger and Dark has been recur­ring every two or three decades since 1846, as per the ear­li­est record. It dawns on them that the same malev­o­lent fig­ures have been orga­niz­ing the fair for myr­i­ad years. Shar­ing snip­pets of his life, Charles Hal­loway affirms his readi­ness to sup­port the boys in their plight.

Chapter 39

Mr. Hal­loway enlight­ens the boys about the fair’s oper­a­tion. It thrives on the despair of iso­lat­ed, vul­ner­a­ble indi­vid­u­als. Nev­er­the­less, a glim­mer of hope exists as Mr. Dark exhib­it­ed fear ear­li­er towards Mr. Hal­loway at the Cig­ar Store. Charles Hal­loway expli­cates how love and cama­raderie are the out­comes of human­i­ty’s pro­gres­sion from self-cen­tered­ness, urg­ing the boys to wield love as their weapon. He stress­es that aware­ness and shared caus­es lead to love. Fur­nish­ing insight into their foes, he describes how they seem to promise every­thing but actu­al­ly only take and offer noth­ing. He pro­pos­es that these adver­saries have pos­si­bly been around for cen­turies, feed­ing on the pain, fear, and sad­ness of oth­ers. Charles Hal­loway is men­tal­ly ready for the loom­ing threats, despite the unknown risks. Like Will, he is reflec­tive and is now prompt­ed to take action. He is con­scious of the ancient and dread­ful forces of the car­ni­val, which thrive on the vul­ner­a­ble and despair­ing. He holds belief in the poten­cy of love and their com­bined strength to over­come their ene­mies. To coun­ter­act the neg­a­tiv­i­ty-feed­ing car­ni­val, they must embody love. Nonethe­less, their under­stand­ing of the car­ni­val is lim­it­ed. They are uncer­tain about its age or meth­ods. Despite the absence of a def­i­nite plan, they are aware that Mr. Dark­’s arrival is approach­ing, and they must get ready. The con­ver­sa­tion with Charles Hal­loway alone has embold­ened the boys, rein­stat­ing their brav­ery and reduc­ing their fear. This brav­ery will be cru­cial in resist­ing Mr. Dark­’s influ­ence. The quest to defeat the car­ni­val goes beyond per­son­al moti­va­tions for Mr. Hal­loway and the boys. Despite the immi­nent dan­ger, they rec­og­nize that their strug­gle sym­bol­izes the clash between good and evil, where good must tri­umph. Their vic­to­ry could offer a fresh start to despon­dent indi­vid­u­als, like Miss Foley and Mr. Fury. With the col­lapse of the car­ni­val, these indi­vid­u­als might dis­cov­er oth­er ways to com­bat despair. The boys and Mr. Hal­loway must emerge vic­to­ri­ous to pre­vent future suffering.

Chapter 40

Inter­ro­gat­ed by Jim about the soul-acquir­ing actions of the car­ni­val, Mr. Hal­loway clar­i­fies that they do not need to pur­chase souls as peo­ple will­ing­ly sur­ren­der them. He explains that the car­ni­val thrives on the self-inflict­ed tor­ments that indi­vid­u­als impose on each oth­er. The car­ni­val’s manip­u­la­tive strate­gies revolve around peo­ple’s fear of Noth­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly Death, which is their potent weapon for con­trol­ling indi­vid­u­als. They com­pel peo­ple to con­front their fear of death, lead­ing them to make des­per­ate choic­es, such as using the carousel. How­ev­er, this carousel only alters phys­i­cal age, leav­ing one’s mind unaf­fect­ed and caus­ing an emo­tion­al detach­ment from loved ones of dif­fer­ent ages, often result­ing in insan­i­ty. After shar­ing this insight, Charles Hal­loway shifts the con­ver­sa­tion towards plan­ning their assault on the car­ni­val. How­ev­er, their strate­giz­ing is inter­rupt­ed as the front door swings open, prompt­ing Mr. Hal­loway to instruct Will and Jim to hide.

Chapter 41

Mr. Dark enters, ques­tion­ing Charles Hal­loway about the where­abouts of the boys. He observes Mr. Hal­loway han­dling books and omi­nous­ly warns him about the Witch’s abil­i­ty to stop his heart, mim­ic­k­ing a nat­ur­al demise. He mocks Mr. Hal­loway for hold­ing a Bible and non­cha­lant­ly lights a cig­a­rette in defi­ance of the “No Smok­ing” sign. Mr. Dark then derides the idea that any book could harm him while teas­ing Charles with the prospect of using the carousel to shed some years. As he prowls the cor­ri­dors in search of the boys, he leaves a breath­less, heavy-heart­ed Charles behind, assur­ing him that aid for his heart will be dispatched.

Chapter 42

Mr. Dark strives to locate the con­cealed boys, try­ing to entice Jim with the allure of a carousel ride. He alleges that they trans­formed Will’s moth­er into a grotesque, elder­ly woman using the carousel, which fright­ens Will, result­ing in his silent weep­ing. The sound reveals their hid­ing place to Mr. Dark, despite his father’s hope of remain­ing unde­tect­ed. Charles Hal­loway artic­u­lates his com­pre­hen­sion of the car­ni­val’s func­tion­ing as a reflec­tion of human con­duct. He con­veys that Mr. Dark exploits the harm we inflict on one anoth­er, not caus­ing it but using it for sin­is­ter pur­pos­es. If peo­ple ceased caus­ing pain to each oth­er, the car­ni­val would lose its pow­er. He draws par­al­lels between the car­ni­val’s prop­a­ga­tion of suf­fer­ing for plea­sure and the ten­den­cy of unhap­py indi­vid­u­als to derive solace from the mis­ery of oth­ers, indi­cat­ing that every­one has the poten­tial to become a Mr. Dark. Despite the chal­lenge of being good, most peo­ple do not turn as malev­o­lent as Mr. Dark, find­ing hap­pi­ness through oth­er means. Nev­er­the­less, the car­ni­val strips vis­i­tors of their capac­i­ty to find joy in any­thing oth­er than caus­ing pain, trans­form­ing them into car­ni­val-like beings and mag­ni­fy­ing an inher­ent human trait. Hop­ing for an end to the pain inflict­ed by humans may seem ide­al­is­tic, but the notion that love and kind­ness bring more joy than harm sug­gests that there will always be adver­saries to the car­ni­val and its kind. It is vital to find a peace­ful method to counter these forces, as respond­ing with vio­lence only per­pet­u­ates the cycle of harm. Charles Hal­loway presents love as this alter­na­tive weapon. Love, through empa­thy and shared expe­ri­ences, can act as a non-aggres­sive resis­tance and a uni­fy­ing strength. If human­i­ty were unit­ed by a com­mon love, the car­ni­val would lose its foun­da­tion. Iso­la­tion and despair are essen­tial for the car­ni­val to suc­ceed, as evi­denced by Jim’s resis­tance to the car­ni­val’s allure due to Will’s pres­ence. Shared love and empa­thy can pre­vent indi­vid­u­als from falling into the car­ni­val’s snare, as demon­strat­ed by Jim’s res­cue through his friend’s love.

Chapter 43

Seiz­ing Will and Jim, Mr. Dark cap­tures Charles Hal­loway, injures his hand, and leaves him defense­less on the floor. He drags the boys around before abrupt­ly let­ting them drop. He then seeks to illus­trate the unpre­dictabil­i­ty of life using the scene out­side the win­dow, where Jim’s moth­er and Will’s moth­er, return­ing from church, fail to notice their sons. Despite Mr. Dark­’s readi­ness to allow them access to the library, the women remain obliv­i­ous. He trans­ports the boys to the entrance where the Witch enchants them to hin­der their use of their sens­es. He instructs her to ren­der Charles Hal­loway uncon­scious, then departs from the library with the boys and two of his henchmen.

Chapter 44

Over­whelmed by the pain from his injured hand, Mr. Hal­loway is pow­er­less to resist when the Witch tries to end his life. He requests her to alle­vi­ate his suf­fer­ing swift­ly, to which she sug­gests halt­ing his heart. Fol­low­ing her advice, he grad­u­al­ly slows his heart­beat until he is near­ly uncon­scious. Just before suc­cumb­ing, he casts a final glance around him and bursts into laugh­ter. This unex­pect­ed reac­tion dis­ori­ents the Witch, as Charles can­not con­tain his mirth, find­ing amuse­ment in her attempts to sedate him. His laugh­ter injures the Witch, caus­ing her to retreat in agony and flee the scene. Man­ag­ing to sti­fle his laugh­ter, Charles grasps the sig­nif­i­cance of his tri­umph but is cog­nizant that fur­ther tri­als await. With a tri­umphant grin, he dash­es into the darkness.

Chapter 45

Mr. Dark strolls along­side the boys, direct­ing them to greet Mr. Tet­ley with a smile. The boys are under his influ­ence, only capa­ble of act­ing as he dic­tates. The Illus­trat­ed Man promis­es Jim a carousel ride and a poten­tial alliance if Mr. Cooger fails. He also plans to trans­form Will into an infant for the Dwarf. Instruct­ed of Mr. Dark, the young lads dis­play a show for a pass­ing offi­cer and then car­ry on towards the fair. Charles Hal­loway employs chuck­les to coun­ter­act the sor­cer­ess’s con­trol, embody­ing Brad­bury’s sto­ry­telling hope­ful­ness. Hal­loway dis­cov­ers amuse­ment in his impend­ing end and the witch’s ridicu­lous­ness, laugh­ing uproar­i­ous­ly at the cir­cum­stance. Brad­bury uti­lizes mirth as a counter to malev­o­lence, which thrives on ter­ror. Laugh­ter defies fear, ren­der­ing chal­leng­ing sit­u­a­tions more man­age­able. Laugh­ter acts as a reac­tion to cir­cum­stances so non­sen­si­cal that they’re humor­ous. Hal­loway’s response to the witch epit­o­mizes this. Even in adver­si­ty, jovi­al­i­ty can offer a type of recu­per­a­tion. Despite hard­ships, laugh­ter sym­bol­izes hope for brighter days. With­out hope for progress, laugh­ter would cease to exist. Laugh­ter becomes a weapon against malev­o­lence, under­cut­ting the sor­row that malev­o­lence thrives on. It sym­bol­izes hope for forth­com­ing joy, some­thing malev­o­lence strug­gles to grasp. Hal­loway’s unin­hib­it­ed laugh­ter fac­ing the Witch serves as an acknowl­edg­ment of human­i­ty’s capac­i­ty for delight and a res­olute rejec­tion of her domin­ion over him. Laugh­ter acts as a recall of the hap­pi­ness beyond the reach of the witch. Laugh­ter sug­gests innate good­ness, an affir­ma­tion of hope amidst afflic­tion. Malev­o­lence is defense­less against laugh­ter as it sig­ni­fies hap­pi­ness and hope, which are anti­thet­i­cal to what true malev­o­lence would ever desire.

Chapter 46

Mr. Dark guides Jim and Will into the fair while being pur­sued by Charles Hal­loway, with the wound­ed Witch trail­ing behind. The Illus­trat­ed Man con­ceals the boys among wax fig­ures close to the con­clu­sion of the Mir­ror Maze and sum­mons a crowd for the ulti­mate pre­sen­ta­tion. As hun­dreds assem­ble, the Bul­let Trick is pre­sent­ed by Mr. Dark, show­cas­ing the Witch as the “bul­let-catch­er.” Despite her reluc­tance, Mr. Dark insists on pro­ceed­ing. Upon inform­ing him of Charles Hal­loway’s sur­vival, he becomes furi­ous. Despite her plea to stop the act, he inflicts pain by pinch­ing her image on his arm. Request­ing a vol­un­teer to fire the gun, he con­tem­plates dis­con­tin­u­ing the act when no one steps for­ward. How­ev­er, to his amaze­ment, a vol­un­teer appears — none oth­er than Charles Halloway.

Chapter 47

Hal­loway steps onto the stage amid the crowd’s gaze, uncer­tain of his inten­tions but res­olute to move for­ward. He declines Mr. Dark­’s hand­shake and asserts his abil­i­ty to oper­ate a rifle sin­gle­hand­ed­ly despite an injury. Mr. Dark toss­es him a rifle, antic­i­pat­ing his fail­ure, yet Hal­loway deft­ly catch­es it, gar­ner­ing the crowd’s applause and their dis­ap­proval of Mr. Dark­’s dis­cour­tesy. Sud­den­ly, Hal­loway express­es his need for a boy’s aid, sum­mon­ing his son, Will, who is lost with­in the crowd. After reit­er­at­ing his request, the crowd joins in until Mr. Dark and the Witch unwill­ing­ly con­cede. Will emerges from the edge of the Mir­ror Maze, still under a spell. Mr. Dark is per­plexed by Hal­loway’s tac­tics, unaware that Hal­loway is impro­vis­ing on the spot. Hal­loway acquires a bul­let from Mr. Dark, engraves a cres­cent moon on it, and demon­strates to the crowd that it remains in the rifle post Mr. Dark­’s load­ing and han­dover. Know­ing the wax replace­ment that will dis­solve upon fir­ing, he pro­ceeds to inscribe the same sym­bol on the new bul­let. Mr. Dark tries to dom­i­nate Will through his por­trait, only to be hin­dered by the calm­ing pres­ence of Will’s father and the crowd. Hal­loway sig­nals to the Witch that he has marked the bul­let with his smile before pulling the trigger.

Chapter 48

Upon the Witch’s imme­di­ate demise, Mr. Dark pro­claims the con­clu­sion of the spec­ta­cle and orders the lights to be dimmed. Mean­while, Will and Charles set off to retrieve Jim from the Mir­ror Maze. Hear­ing their approach, Jim nav­i­gates his way out while his father’s reflec­tions rever­ber­ate along the mir­rored walls of the maze.

Chapter 49

In the eerie Mir­ror Maze, Charles Hal­loway is near­ly engulfed until Will dis­rupts the unset­tling reflec­tions with a lit match. How­ev­er, Charles swats it away. Will then lights his final match and pro­fess­es his love for his father irre­spec­tive of his age, trig­ger­ing a sequence of events. Charles, wit­ness­ing the affec­tion in his son’s eyes, responds with laugh­ter res­onat­ing through the maze, rem­i­nis­cent of his encounter with the Witch. Charles learns to com­bat the car­ni­val, not through a cal­cu­lat­ed plan but instinc­tive­ly. His defens­es are sim­ple yet potent. He resists the allure of the car­ni­val, har­bor­ing no long­ing for a dif­fer­ent exis­tence. Unfazed by the car­ni­val’s entice­ment, he can now con­front it through his inner con­tent­ment. His laugh­ter, even imprint­ed on a bul­let that nev­er reached the Witch, proves suf­fi­cient to oblit­er­ate her. He reas­sures Will, despite Mr. Dark­’s endeav­or to harm the boy by squeez­ing his tat­too. Charles no longer dreads the poten­tial harm of malev­o­lence. Devoid of this fear, Mr. Dark­’s min­ions are pow­er­less against him. Charles acts on impulse, fueled by the cer­tain­ty of har­bor­ing no fear of his foe. He believes his love for Will sur­pass­es any dom­i­nance Mr. Dark­’s tat­toos or the Witch’s enchant­ments may hold. Mr. Dark, lack­ing any pow­er except phys­i­cal coer­cion, is left with no option but to flee.

Chapter 50

Charles Hal­loway, through his laugh­ter embody­ing his accep­tance of all life, razes the entire­ty of the Mir­ror Maze. He and Will then embark on find­ing Jim, guid­ed by the carousel’s melody and the moon’s glow. Hal­loway clar­i­fies to Will that locat­ing Jim and con­fronting Mr. Cooger and Mr. Dark takes precedence.

Chapter 51

As Will and his father, Charles Hal­loway, has­ten towards the mer­ry-go-round, they notice the park’s anom­alies observ­ing from the shad­ows. Will is per­plexed by their inac­tion, but Charles believes they’re intim­i­dat­ed fol­low­ing the witch’s down­fall. The duo encoun­ters a clus­ter of these pecu­liar fig­ures trans­port­ing Mr. Elec­tri­co to the ride for his trans­for­ma­tion back into Mr. Cooger. Charles shouts, caus­ing the group to dis­perse. Sud­den­ly, a col­lec­tive exha­la­tion sweeps through the anom­alies and a cloud of dust envelops Charles and Will, reveal­ing the dust to be the rem­nants of Mr. Cooger. The group aban­doned the chair, and the elder­ly man dis­in­te­grat­ed. Will con­tem­plates why they aban­doned the chair and spots Jim posi­tioned between them and the ride. Jim draws near to the ride, and Will rush­es to stop him. How­ev­er, Jim clutch­es a post and swings around the mer­ry-go-round, his hand trail­ing behind. Will endeav­ors to grab his friend but fails, prepar­ing to make anoth­er attempt when Jim swirls around again. He calls out Jim’s name, jolt­ing him from his rever­ie. When Jim returns, Will seizes his hand but Jim refus­es to let go. Jim drags Will with him, aging Will’s hand as the rest of him races beside the ride. Both boys grap­ple to release the oth­er, cul­mi­nat­ing in Will tum­bling onto the carousel. They make half a rev­o­lu­tion before Will, still clutch­ing Jim’s hand, man­ages to break free. Jim yells, clutch­ing onto both his friend and the ride, before col­laps­ing inert to the ground.

Chapter 52

When a young man accus­es the inked gen­tle­man of tail­ing him, Charles Hal­loway directs Will to assist their per­haps uncon­scious com­rade, Jim. Pur­su­ing the lad, Charles dis­cov­ers he is actu­al­ly a youth named Mr. Dark, adorned in tat­toos. Despite Mr. Dark­’s claim of invin­ci­bil­i­ty, Charles refutes it by inflict­ing tor­ment upon him via a sim­ple embrace. Inquir­ing about Jim’s state, Charles is met with silence, and soon Mr. Dark col­laps­es, life­less. Through­out the tale, the mer­ry-go-round embod­ies Jim’s inner strug­gle regard­ing his sense of self. Yearn­ing for adult­hood at thir­teen, he is enticed by the carousel’s offer of instant matu­ri­ty. Despite Will’s reminders of the plea­sures of child­hood, Jim can­not resist the attrac­tion. Opt­ing to remain on the ride leads to a cri­sis, near­ly tear­ing him asun­der. Despite wit­ness­ing the malev­o­lence of the car­ni­val, Jim’s thirst for grow­ing up sur­pass­es his cau­tion. Ulti­mate­ly, Will must make a piv­otal choice for Jim, under­scor­ing the neces­si­ty of inter­ven­tion when we are unable to resolve our own dilem­mas. Charles con­quers Mr. Dark by demon­strat­ing love and empa­thy, con­cepts unfa­mil­iar to an indi­vid­ual steeped in cen­turies of wicked­ness. This act erad­i­cates him, much like the Witch’s demise. Their inabil­i­ty to embrace joy sig­ni­fies their dread of human kind­ness. There­fore, affec­tion and opti­mism prove to be potent weapons against malev­o­lence. Even though good­ness may not always pre­vail, it remains our most robust defense in the per­pet­u­al bat­tle against malevolence.

Chapter 53

Fol­low­ing Mr. Dark­’s pass­ing, Charles Hal­loway wit­ness­es the tat­toos on the young lad’s skin van­ish as Will endeav­ors to revive him. The abnor­mal­i­ties of the car­ni­val seem­ing­ly gain clar­i­ty for the first time and scat­ter in var­i­ous direc­tions. As they depart, the car­ni­val tents begin to crum­ble. Short­ly there­after, the car­ni­val becomes desert­ed, left in ruins, while Jim remains life­less and silent.

Chapter 54

Will mis­tak­en­ly assumes his com­pan­ion Jim to be deceased, yet Charles Hal­loway dis­putes this notion. He reproach­es Will for his tears, high­light­ing that such sor­row is what their adver­saries desire. Charles insists on com­bat­ing the sit­u­a­tion with mirth and light­heart­ed­ness. Even­tu­al­ly, Will man­ages to con­trol his emo­tions and joins his father in song and laugh­ter. Amidst their rev­el­ry, Jim shows signs of life. To their sur­prise, Jim appears unaware of his brush with death. Amid their new­found hap­pi­ness, they opt to delay inform­ing him. They engage in more singing and danc­ing before Jim inquires about the cir­cum­stances. Fol­low­ing an emo­tion­al reunion with Jim, Will express­es admi­ra­tion for his father. When asked about the return of their foes, Charles affirms that they will face fur­ther chal­lenges, pos­si­bly in diverse guis­es. They pon­der the carousel’s allure but also acknowl­edge the per­il of its addic­tive nature. Charles then endeav­ors to dis­man­tle it, after which they haste home­ward togeth­er. With Mr. Dark­’s malev­o­lence extin­guished, his reign of fear with­ers away. The car­ni­val odd­i­ties, once under Mr. Dark­’s sway, find them­selves freed. Stripped of their men­ac­ing aura, they no longer pose a sig­nif­i­cant threat. Though capa­ble of wicked acts, they are no longer fat­ed for per­pet­u­al destruc­tion. The tat­toos emblem­at­ic of Mr. Dark­’s dom­i­nance fade, under­scor­ing the impact one indi­vid­u­al’s influ­ence can wield over oth­ers. Peo­ple’s sus­cep­ti­bil­i­ty to per­sua­sion under­scores the impor­tance of mutu­al vig­i­lance. It is through laugh­ter and joy that Will and Charles save Jim from the brink of death. Remind­ing him of life’s beau­ty, they heal him with the poten­cy of hap­pi­ness and laugh­ter — a mag­ic often­times dis­re­gard­ed in dai­ly life. Jim’s revival serves as a poignant reminder of laugh­ter’s recu­per­a­tive abil­i­ties. Through­out their ordeal, mag­ic seemed sole­ly a tool of mal­ice, yet their expe­ri­ence reveals the pres­ence of benev­o­lent mag­ic as well. Jim learns that the true mag­ic of exis­tence lies in being a lad, unre­strict­ed to laugh, run, and rev­el in life’s pleasures.