Chap­ter 24 begins with Will and Jim anx­ious­ly wait­ing at an iso­lat­ed gas sta­tion after a trau­mat­ic inci­dent. They had just end­ed a tense phone call, and now, they were faced with the chaos of the sit­u­a­tion around them. Torn between whether to flee or con­front the reper­cus­sions of their involve­ment with Mr. Cooger, they strug­gle with the unknown. Will’s mind races with thoughts of the elder­ly man, who, after their dis­turb­ing encounter, might be near death. The sirens of approach­ing emer­gency vehi­cles grow loud­er, inten­si­fy­ing their sense of dread as they won­der if Mr. Cooger, if alive, will come after them.

As the police arrive, the boys stum­ble down a dark­ened mid­way, over­whelmed by guilt and fear. They can’t shake the feel­ing that they need to find Mr. Cooger, con­vinced by Jim that the man might still be alive. When they final­ly reach the mer­ry-go-round, a sur­re­al mix­ture of eerie sounds and flick­er­ing lights sur­rounds them, height­en­ing their fear. They begin to real­ize the full scope of their actions and are drawn toward the Freak Tent, hop­ing to find some answers. As they enter, they sense some­thing deeply unset­tling, know­ing that this tent holds the key to under­stand­ing the hor­rors they have wit­nessed.

Inside the Freak Tent, the boys encounter a chill­ing atmos­phere, where shad­owy fig­ures and grotesque beings fill the space. These bizarre crea­tures mir­ror the dis­ar­ray and con­fu­sion in the boys’ minds, adding to their grow­ing unease. Jim’s heart­beat quick­ens as they spot Mr. Dark, the Illus­trat­ed Man, in the cen­ter of the room, tat­too­ing his own skin with dis­turb­ing designs. This hor­ri­fy­ing scene only deep­ens their real­iza­tion that they are caught in some­thing far dark­er than they could have imag­ined. The strange and twist­ed beings with­in the tent serve as a stark reminder that they are in a world where the lines between the ordi­nary and the macabre are blurred.

The most shock­ing moment comes when they dis­cov­er Mr. Cooger strapped to the Elec­tric Chair, seem­ing­ly life­less. To their hor­ror, they real­ize that Mr. Cooger had been part of a staged act, pre­tend­ing to be dead all along. The boys, con­fused and ter­ri­fied, are con­front­ed with the unnerv­ing real­iza­tion that their fears had been manip­u­lat­ed for per­for­mance. As Mr. Dark pre­pares to revive Mr. Cooger with a dan­ger­ous demon­stra­tion, the ten­sion height­ens. The boys and the audi­ence are drawn into the spec­ta­cle, wit­ness­ing some­thing that seems to defy the nat­ur­al order of life and death. The crowd’s fas­ci­na­tion adds to the sense of dread, as they are about to wit­ness some­thing far beyond their under­stand­ing.

In the midst of the grow­ing ten­sion, Will protests against the revival of Mr. Cooger, feel­ing a deep unease. His voice is drowned out as Mr. Dark acti­vates the machine, and blue elec­tric­i­ty surges through Mr. Cooger’s body, rean­i­mat­ing him in a ter­ri­fy­ing dis­play. The force of the elec­tric cur­rent sends shock­waves through the room, and the boys are left stunned as Mr. Cooger’s life­less form is brought back to life. The shock­ing event marks a turn­ing point for Will and Jim, as they are now ful­ly aware of the twist­ed real­i­ty they have entered. They are trapped in a world where the bound­aries between life and death are no longer clear, and they are pow­er­less to stop the forces at play.

As the chaos unfolds, the boys are left to con­tend with the con­se­quences of their actions and the hor­ror they have wit­nessed. The sur­re­al nature of the car­ni­val, once a place of joy and won­der, has revealed its true, hor­ri­fy­ing nature. Will and Jim’s under­stand­ing of real­i­ty has been shat­tered, and they now face a night­mare that they can nei­ther explain nor escape. As they try to process what has just hap­pened, the ter­ror they feel only deep­ens, know­ing that they are irrev­o­ca­bly entan­gled in this strange, dark world. The chap­ter ends with the boys flee­ing in fear, haunt­ed by the chill­ing events they have just expe­ri­enced, aware that the ter­ror they’ve wit­nessed is just the begin­ning of some­thing much worse.