In this emo­tion­al­ly charged chap­ter, Charles Hal­loway rush­es to his son Will and his friend Jim Night­shade, who lie on the ground in a seem­ing­ly life­less state. Ini­tial­ly, Will reacts with despair, believ­ing Jim to be dead. Charles, how­ev­er, insists there might be hope, urg­ing Will to avoid giv­ing in to grief. He explains that their ene­mies, rep­re­sent­ed by Mr. Dark, feed off sor­row and despair. Fueled by des­per­a­tion, Charles smacks Will, prompt­ing him to rise and fight instead of wal­low­ing in grief, moti­vat­ing him with the rec­ol­lec­tion of the ear­li­er con­fronta­tion with the mag­i­cal enti­ties.

In a pow­er­ful mono­logue, Charles empha­sizes the val­ue of joy and laugh­ter, insist­ing that such emo­tions repel the dark forces. He recounts an encounter with the Witch, assert­ing that a smile can be more potent than tears, stir­ring Will toward action. Will, feel­ing hope­less, is com­mand­ed to sing, jump, or do any­thing that would defy their ene­mies, lead­ing him to ini­tial­ly resist but ulti­mate­ly join his father’s spir­it­ed antics.

As they engage in a play­ful song togeth­er, Will grad­u­al­ly shakes off his sor­row. The play­ful atmos­phere esca­lates, trans­form­ing their fear into joy as Charles dances and prompts Will to join. Dur­ing this tumul­tuous move­ment, Jim appears to awak­en, trig­ger­ing a wave of laugh­ter from both boys as they exu­ber­ant­ly pull him into their cel­e­bra­tion.

In the after­math, they laugh and dance, ener­gized by the revival of their friend. The trio, now embold­ened by the light­ness of their spir­its, real­izes they have recap­tured joy and life in the face of over­whelm­ing despair. They share ten­der moments, reas­sured by their bond and the shared expe­ri­ence of over­com­ing dark­ness togeth­er. Charles, appre­ci­at­ed as a hero by Will, empha­sizes that while they’ve won this bat­tle, the fight against dark­ness will con­tin­ue, and they must be vig­i­lant. The chap­ter con­cludes with a sense of renewed hope and friend­ship as they move for­ward, leav­ing the past behind and look­ing toward a brighter future.

Wait­ing ai