Wyn­ton stum­bles alone through the dark night, weighed down by the emo­tion­al and phys­i­cal scars of his past. Stripped of home, dreams, and friend­ships, he’s haunt­ed by mem­o­ries of a bru­tal assault at the hands of a man named Bri­an Fuck­mutt. As the night weighs heav­i­ly on him, thoughts of his father, Theo Fall, drift through his mind, remind­ing him of the days when they used to dis­cuss jazz music. He drowns in a haze of alco­hol and pain, retreat­ing into frag­ment­ed visions of his broth­er Miles, whom he imag­ines to be the source of his suf­fer­ing. The com­plex­i­ty of Wynton’s inter­nal bat­tle is clear, as he fights to rec­on­cile the trau­ma of his past with the over­whelm­ing emo­tions he expe­ri­ences in the present.

In his ine­bri­at­ed state, Wyn­ton attempts to find solace in his vio­lin, but instead of music, tears flood his eyes as painful mem­o­ries from his mid­dle school orches­tra days resur­face. He strug­gles with his inter­nal con­flict, feel­ing as though a “poi­son-per­son” haunts him, affect­ing his thoughts and peace of mind. Over­come with dis­ori­en­ta­tion, Wyn­ton yearns for an escape, but his sense of self is too shat­tered to find clar­i­ty. Just as he feels lost in this sea of sor­row and self-doubt, a mys­te­ri­ous fig­ure appears: a girl with vibrant, curly hair who speaks to him in a deep, sooth­ing voice. Intrigued and com­fort­ed by her pres­ence, Wyn­ton begins to hope that maybe, just maybe, she holds the answers he’s des­per­ate­ly seek­ing.

The girl intro­duces her­self as Cas­sidy, and Wyn­ton quick­ly grows cap­ti­vat­ed by her kind­ness and her sooth­ing pres­ence. He believes her to be an angel sent by Dizzy, a mutu­al friend, to guide him out of his despair. Cas­sidy offers him an escape from his mis­ery, urg­ing him to leave the road behind and promis­es to take him home. Wyn­ton, feel­ing an emo­tion­al con­nec­tion that he has longed for, con­fess­es his love for her, con­vinced that he is expe­ri­enc­ing a pro­found moment of awak­en­ing. As they share laugh­ter and rem­i­nisce, Wyn­ton feels lighter, as if the weight of his past has been momen­tar­i­ly lift­ed. Cassidy’s charm and warmth envel­op him, mak­ing the dark night feel less lone­ly, fill­ing him with hope and a renewed sense of life.

In that fleet­ing moment, the night trans­forms around them, filled with beau­ty and music, as if the world itself had shift­ed to grant him peace. Wyn­ton, who has lived through so much pain and loss, expe­ri­ences a rare sense of joy, know­ing that he is con­nect­ed to some­one in a way he has not felt in years. Cas­sidy reveals that she has returned for him, ignit­ing a sense of roman­tic hope with­in Wyn­ton that tem­porar­i­ly push­es away the shad­ow of despair he had been trapped in for so long. Their con­nec­tion grows deep­er, and for a brief, shin­ing moment, they share a dance as if the world had stopped mov­ing. The joy of that dance makes him feel like he’s redis­cov­ered a part of him­self, a hope he thought he’d lost for­ev­er.

But as quick­ly as it had begun, their moment of con­nec­tion is shat­tered. A car sud­den­ly appears, and Cassidy’s voice call­ing out to Wyn­ton fills the air, urg­ing him to step back. His world falls into dark­ness, and the brief moment of hap­pi­ness he expe­ri­enced slips away, replaced by the over­whelm­ing uncer­tain­ty and despair he has strug­gled with all along. This chap­ter encap­su­lates Wynton’s inter­nal con­flict, his des­per­ate yearn­ing for love and human con­nec­tion, and his frag­ile hope that heal­ing could come from such a trau­mat­ic expe­ri­ence, even as his jour­ney teeters on the edge of despair. The fleet­ing moments of con­nec­tion remind Wyn­ton of the pos­si­bil­i­ty of change, even in the face of over­whelm­ing dark­ness.