Chap­ter 199 of All the Col­ors of the Dark begins with a fran­tic and deeply anx­ious Saint, who quick­ly real­izes that Char­lotte is miss­ing. The town is thrown into a state of urgency as Saint imme­di­ate­ly wakes Michaels and two aux­il­iaries, accom­pa­nied by Sam­my, to alert the com­mu­ni­ty about the sit­u­a­tion. The weight of her grow­ing anx­i­ety is pal­pa­ble, and she is remind­ed of sim­i­lar feel­ings she expe­ri­enced two decades ago, as she races through the streets of Mon­ta Clare. The day’s fad­ing light only height­ens her sense of urgency, and as she moves from St. Raphael’s to Mon­ta Clare High, every minute that slips away feels like an eter­ni­ty. After her ini­tial search, Saint returns home, only to find Nor­ma wait­ing on the porch. Norma’s pres­ence inten­si­fies Saint’s fear, fur­ther under­scor­ing the grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion and Charlotte’s poten­tial dan­ger. This encounter deep­ens the anx­i­ety that has already gripped Saint, who is now painful­ly aware that the sit­u­a­tion is dire.

Deter­mined not to stop, Saint relent­less­ly con­tin­ues her search, vis­it­ing var­i­ous hous­es to gath­er any rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion. Her focus is pri­mar­i­ly on indi­vid­u­als that Char­lotte had men­tioned in pass­ing, hop­ing to unearth any clue that might lead to Charlotte’s where­abouts. As she moves from house to house, she is struck by the real­iza­tion that she does­n’t know as much about Char­lot­te’s life as she had once thought. This lack of knowl­edge caus­es a gnaw­ing feel­ing of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, and it dawns on her that the past trau­mas, espe­cial­ly those tied to fig­ures like Patch and Misty, still cast long shad­ows over their present lives. Saint nav­i­gates through the woods, her flash­light cut­ting through the grow­ing dark­ness, all the while feel­ing the weight of her gun in her hand. It serves as a sym­bol of her past expe­ri­ence and a nec­es­sary tool for pro­tec­tion as she faces the unknown dan­gers ahead. The ten­sion in the air builds as she press­es on, her only goal being to find Char­lotte before time runs out.

The search even­tu­al­ly leads Saint to the Mad House, a place filled with mem­o­ries and uncer­tain­ty. When she finds Char­lotte sit­ting qui­et­ly in her father’s chair, star­ing intent­ly at the tele­vi­sion, a mix­ture of relief and frus­tra­tion floods Saint’s heart. While Charlotte’s pres­ence brings the com­fort of know­ing she’s safe, her calm demeanor in the midst of chaos is unset­tling. As Saint approach­es, she can’t help but feel the weight of the moment—the girl who has been at the cen­ter of her fears is now sit­ting, seem­ing­ly unaf­fect­ed by the emo­tion­al tur­moil that has been unleashed. On the tele­vi­sion, a seg­ment plays that shows a poignant moment between Char­lotte and her father from two years ago. The scene, inti­mate and raw, shines a light on their com­pli­cat­ed his­to­ry. The mood shifts dra­mat­i­cal­ly when a woman from Arling­ton rec­og­nizes a paint­ing in a gallery and, upon see­ing Charlotte’s face, decides to report her as miss­ing. This unex­pect­ed con­nec­tion between the past and present forces Saint to rethink every­thing she knew about Char­lotte, and the sense of famil­iar­i­ty she once had with the girl becomes frac­tured by this new infor­ma­tion.

As Saint kneels beside Char­lotte, she begins to notice the sub­tle shift in her emo­tions. For the first time, Charlotte’s sto­ic exte­ri­or cracks, reveal­ing the depth of the pain and tur­moil she has been car­ry­ing. The moment is cru­cial, sig­nal­ing a turn­ing point in their rela­tion­ship, as the emo­tion­al walls that have kept Char­lotte dis­tant from Saint begin to crum­ble. The con­ver­sa­tion between them reveals lay­ers of hid­den truths that have been buried, offer­ing Saint new insights into Charlotte’s com­plex life. How­ev­er, as the emo­tion­al moment unfolds, the door swings open to reveal Sam­my, who brings dev­as­tat­ing news about Charlotte’s grand­moth­er. This announce­ment cuts through the grow­ing under­stand­ing between Saint and Char­lotte, cast­ing a shad­ow over their moment of con­nec­tion. The news fills the air with a sense of help­less­ness, as it becomes clear that the obsta­cles they face are far from over. The chap­ter clos­es on this note of uncer­tain­ty and fore­bod­ing, leav­ing read­ers to pon­der what’s next in this web of rela­tion­ships, trau­ma, and unre­solved con­flicts. This chap­ter, through its explo­ration of grief, famil­ial bonds, and the painful process of con­fronting the past, high­lights the emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ty of the char­ac­ters and the depth of their strug­gle to rec­on­cile their present with their his­to­ries. The inter­twin­ing of Saint’s search for Char­lotte and the dis­turb­ing rev­e­la­tion about her grand­moth­er deep­ens the nar­ra­tive, empha­siz­ing the themes of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, the weight of unre­solved emo­tions, and the inex­orable pull of the past.