It is after 10:30, and Danny and Ralphie’s parents are frightened. They are about to go out searching for the boys when Danny stumbles home, dazed and disheveled. He tells his parents he and Ralphie had seen something scary, then something bad happened, and Danny doesn’t remember more. Days of searching turn up no sign of the missing boy. Ben helps in the search for three days when he returns to the boardinghouse and finds Susan there. Standing on the porch with her, Ben looks up at the Marsten House. Susan wants to tell him that she loves him, but not while he is looking up at the house.

Straker telephones Larry Crockett and tells him that he has some deliveries he wants Crockett to handle for him—several boxes to be delivered to the antiques store at the former laundromat and one to be taken directly to the Marsten House.

Royal Snow and Hank Peters pick up the delivery from the dock in Portland. The warehouse is full of the sound of rats. The biggest box is the one slated for delivery to the Marsten House, and something shifts inside when they lift it. There is something about that box that they particularly dislike.