The kids close in on Amanda and Josh, confirming what Ray told them—that the town invites a new family every year to get new blood. Just before the kids descend, a frantic Mr. Dawes knocks on the door, making the ghost kids disappear. Mr. Dawes was at the same party as the kids’ parents when the guests formed a circle around them to attack. The three adults got away, and Mr. Dawes came to find the kids after dropping their parents off in the cemetery amphitheater.

Returning to the cemetery, Josh then takes off after the dead dog, tripping and dropping his flashlight. Amanda goes after him, and the kids discover Mr. Dawes’s grave, which means that Mr. Dawes isn’t there to help them because “he [i]s one of them. One of the dead ones” (110).

Mr. Dawes catches up to the kids and captures them. Years ago, Dark Falls was a normal town, but after an industrial accident, a strange gas killed everyone, turning them into the living dead. Josh recovers the flashlight and points it at Mr. Dawes, but the light doesn’t work because it broke in the fall.