Our Bright & Zip­py Kel­lan, the chap­ter begins with the pro­tag­o­nist arriv­ing in Thun­der Bay, where they are greet­ed by an over­whelm­ing feel­ing of hunger. Drawn to a live­ly mar­ket by the shim­mer­ing waters of a lake, they begin to scan the food stalls, tempt­ed by the scent of grilled chick­en waft­ing through the air. How­ev­er, when they try to pay for the meal using U.S. dol­lars, they are quick­ly remind­ed that they are now in Cana­da, and a cur­ren­cy exchange is required. Faced with this unex­pect­ed chal­lenge, the pro­tag­o­nist grows increas­ing­ly anx­ious, real­iz­ing they only have U.S. funds and no way to get Cana­di­an mon­ey. After some fran­tic think­ing, they remem­ber that their ampli­fi­er, which they had kept on board their boat, could be sold to solve this prob­lem. Eager to resolve the sit­u­a­tion, the pro­tag­o­nist heads to a local pawn­shop, where they meet a skep­ti­cal bro­ker who doubts the amplifier’s val­ue. Just as the nar­ra­tor begins to lose hope, the bro­ker sur­pris­es them by pulling out an Epi­phone hol­low-body gui­tar, offer­ing them a glimpse of a pos­si­ble solu­tion. Intrigued by the guitar’s crafts­man­ship and the broker’s musi­cal abil­i­ty, the pro­tag­o­nist agrees to trade their ampli­fi­er, secur­ing enough Cana­di­an cur­ren­cy to return to the mar­ket and final­ly enjoy the chick­en.

With the chick­en devoured and addi­tion­al pro­vi­sions in hand, the nar­ra­tor feels a tem­po­rary relief, but the sense of unease lingers. The weath­er begins to change as omi­nous clouds gath­er on the hori­zon, sig­nal­ing a storm that threat­ens to dis­rupt their calm. As they move through the town, the pro­tag­o­nist reflects on a past encounter with a woman at a ser­vice sta­tion, whose cryp­tic words about a town called Gold have stayed with them. She had men­tioned the mys­te­ri­ous dis­ap­pear­ance of the town, and the nar­ra­tor won­ders if the town’s van­ish­ing was relat­ed to some­thing far more sin­is­ter. While nav­i­gat­ing the town, they stum­ble upon a bul­letin board filled with miss­ing per­sons reports, and their heart sinks when they see Kellan’s name dis­played on one of the posters. The poster, read­ing “Our Bright & Zip­py Kel­lan,” brings an unset­tling real­iza­tion to the fore­front, leav­ing the pro­tag­o­nist con­flict­ed and anx­ious about what this means for their jour­ney. The dis­cov­ery fills them with a sense of dread, unsure whether Kel­lan is tru­ly lost or if some­thing dark­er is at play.

The nar­ra­tive takes a dra­mat­ic turn when the pro­tag­o­nist, now filled with a sense of urgency, buys a phone and dials the num­ber list­ed on the miss­ing per­sons poster. The call con­nects them to Wer­ryck, a man from Kellan’s past, and the con­ver­sa­tion quick­ly turns tense. Wer­ryck tries to jus­ti­fy his actions sur­round­ing Kellan’s dis­ap­pear­ance, but the pro­tag­o­nist can­not shake the feel­ing that some­thing is off. Wer­ryck speaks in a way that attempts to down­play the grav­i­ty of Kellan’s involve­ment in trou­bling cir­cum­stances, and his words only add to the ambi­gu­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion. The ten­sion height­ens when Wer­ryck reveals that Kel­lan was involved with a sub­stance called Wil­low, which is sup­posed to have ther­a­peu­tic ben­e­fits but car­ries dan­ger­ous under­tones. The protagonist’s feel­ings towards Kel­lan become increas­ing­ly com­plex, caught between loy­al­ty and doubt. Werryck’s offer to pro­vide more infor­ma­tion about Kel­lan in exchange for help only deep­ens the mys­tery and sets the pro­tag­o­nist on a path filled with dif­fi­cult choic­es. The chap­ter con­cludes with the pro­tag­o­nist caught in a web of moral con­flict, won­der­ing if they can trust Wer­ryck and whether they can nav­i­gate this dan­ger­ous sit­u­a­tion while still try­ing to pro­tect Kel­lan. The uncer­tain future looms large as the pro­tag­o­nist grap­ples with what comes next in the tan­gled nar­ra­tive sur­round­ing Kellan’s fate.