In the chap­ter titled “未知,” we wit­ness the ten­sion-filled atmos­phere in Ned’s Night Spot, where Charles Hal­loway sits, fatigued from sleep­less­ness and over­think­ing, absorb­ing the eerie qui­etude that fol­lows a near­by parade. His dis­com­fort ris­es when he sens­es unusu­al hap­pen­ings out­side, and he hes­i­tates to pay for his cof­fee. The door swings open, reveal­ing a stranger with a tat­tooed hand adorned with an eye on each fin­ger. This unset­tling fig­ure cap­tures Hal­loway’s atten­tion, lead­ing him to wit­ness a parade of shad­ows, notably a skele­tal fig­ure known as Mr. Skull, who plays a chill­ing xylo­phone in the street below.

As Hal­loway process­es this pecu­liar scene, a boy’s inno­cent call brings atten­tion to the emerg­ing char­ac­ter of the Dwarf, marked by his jin­gle bells and torn per­sona, reflect­ing a lost soul search­ing for some­thing incom­pre­hen­si­ble. The Dwar­f’s gaze meets that of the young boy, which fills Will and his friend Jim with dread. They instinc­tive­ly try to ren­der them­selves invis­i­ble, fear­ing the impli­ca­tions of the Dwarf’s pres­ence. Amidst this anx­i­ety, Will’s father unknow­ing­ly approach­es dan­ger while buy­ing a cig­ar, which even­tu­al­ly draws him clos­er to the unset­tling events tran­spir­ing beneath him.

A con­ver­sa­tion unfolds between Charles Hal­loway and the Illus­trat­ed Man, char­ac­ter­ized by eerie exchanges regard­ing two boys who have seem­ing­ly been cho­sen as spe­cial guests for the Cooger-Dark Com­bined Shows. Amid hints of recog­ni­tion, Will’s heart races as his father fails to con­strain the emerg­ing truth. The father remains unaware of the immi­nent per­il the boys face, espe­cial­ly when the Illus­trat­ed Man reveals that their faces are tat­tooed in his palms.

The ten­sion esca­lates when Mr. Dark lash­es at Mr. Halloway’s uncer­tain­ty, demand­ing infor­ma­tion about Will and Jim. In a moment fraught with dan­ger, Jim braces him­self as Will grap­ples with the rev­e­la­tion that their names have been exposed. The cli­mat­ic scene sees Mr. Dark’s strug­gle to con­ceal a sin­is­ter intent, reveal­ing a shock­ing depth of manip­u­la­tion and fear con­nect­ed to the car­ni­val. The chap­ter con­cludes with a ral­ly­ing plea from Hal­loway, urg­ing the boys to remain hid­den until night­fall while he devis­es a plan to con­front the lurk­ing dread they’ve encoun­tered.

Wait­ing ai

Wait­ing ai