In Chap­ter 184 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” the nar­ra­tive unfolds with Sam­my vis­it­ing Char­lotte and Saint, reveal­ing a large brass and leather case he presents to Char­lotte. Inside lies a vin­tage shot­gun from Boss and Co., Lon­don, dat­ing back to 1912, which alleged­ly was used in a mur­der­ous inci­dent over gam­bling debts. Char­lotte, enchant­ed by the shot­gun’s beau­ty, express­es her grat­i­tude, assert­ing its poten­tial as a means to ward off unwant­ed suit­ors, while teas­ing­ly acknowl­edg­ing its abil­i­ty to attract dif­fer­ent ones. Patch adds a humor­ous remark about arrest­ing those drawn in, spark­ing play­ful ban­ter among the trio.

Short­ly after, Saint pre­pares to return to Kansas, embark­ing on an eighty-mile dri­ve with Char­lotte, who ani­mat­ed­ly dis­cuss­es a par­ty and a boy named Dal­las, whom Patch has already formed a neg­a­tive opin­ion of. Char­lot­te’s com­pet­i­tive streak emerges; she con­tem­plates her roman­tic poten­tial with Dal­las, stat­ing his cur­rent rela­tion­ships won’t be fruit­ful, humor­ous­ly con­sid­er­ing that her new shot­gun could change her luck.

The chap­ter tran­si­tions to a poignant moment at Misty’s grave, where Patch leaves Char­lotte with her moth­er, under­scor­ing the emo­tion­al under­cur­rents of their fam­i­ly dynam­ic. Fol­low­ing this, they vis­it the Culpep­per Zoo, where Char­lotte rev­els in the expe­ri­ence, mark­ing their route and engag­ing with the ani­mals. Patch observes her with affec­tion, his daugh­ter serv­ing as his anchor in a tur­bu­lent world.

How­ev­er, as they explore the rep­tile house, Patch begins to feel an unset­tling phys­i­cal reac­tion, rem­i­nis­cent of anx­i­ety or stress. Despite attempt­ing to main­tain com­po­sure for Char­lot­te’s sake, he strug­gles against tight­en­ing mus­cles and a rac­ing pulse. The imagery shifts to his mem­o­ries of Grace, as he grap­ples with over­whelm­ing emo­tions. The chap­ter con­cludes on a haunt­ing note, with Saint hear­ing his daugh­ter’s call on her birth­day, leav­ing read­ers with an unset­tling sense of impend­ing tur­moil amidst fam­i­ly warmth.