Content Warning: This section of the guide includes depictions of prescription drug addiction.

The Prologue begins with Chloe Davis describing her lifelong fear of monsters. She describes the ominous feelings that haunted her throughout childhood and into adulthood. The only relief she found was in the secure arms of her father. She notes the age of 12 as a turning point that revealed that humans could be monsters too.

Chapter 1 takes place in May 2019. Now an adult, 32-year-old Chloe conducts a therapy session with a teenage client coping with her father’s abandonment with self-harm. Chloe shares her own experiences with abandonment at 12 years old and builds trust with the client.

At the end of her workday as a psychologist, Chloe finalizes the paperwork from the day and fulfills prescriptions for her patients. As she prepares to leave for the day, she receives a phone call from a New York Times reporter named Aaron Jansen who is researching a story about her father and the 20th anniversary of his arrest for the murder of several young girls. Chloe yells at the reporter and hangs up the phone.