Chap­ter 223 of All the Col­ors of the Dark brings us to a tense moment between Saint and Char­lotte, as Saint meets her at the main gate, lean­ing against the hood of her cruis­er. The news she brings is urgent and disturbing—Charlotte’s father has escaped from prison that very morn­ing. Charlotte’s reac­tion, or rather her lack of one, speaks vol­umes about the inter­nal con­flict she’s expe­ri­enc­ing. She stands there, calm on the sur­face, wear­ing a sim­ple sum­mer dress with her thick blonde hair styled neat­ly in a Dutch braid. To the bystanders, Charlotte’s poised demeanor almost seems oth­er­world­ly, like an exot­ic crea­ture in the midst of the chaos. But Saint, aware of the grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion, empha­sizes the urgency of their con­ver­sa­tion, warn­ing Char­lotte that if her father appears, the law enforce­ment in the area won’t hes­i­tate to resort to vio­lence with­out try­ing to com­mu­ni­cate first. The real­iza­tion of the threat loom­ing over them quick­ly set­tles in, adding weight to the already emo­tion­al encounter.

The con­ver­sa­tion shifts as Saint and Char­lotte dri­ve through the town, even­tu­al­ly stop­ping near an old rail­road, where they step into the woods for a more pri­vate dis­cus­sion. As they walk, Saint finds her­self reflect­ing on the nature of belief and real­i­ty. She recalls a child­hood mem­o­ry of her belief in San­ta Claus, real­iz­ing how cer­tain truths can be dif­fi­cult to accept. Char­lotte shares her own expe­ri­ence, adding depth to the con­ver­sa­tion by explain­ing how painful truths, even if nec­es­sary, can be incred­i­bly hard to face. This moment reveals the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty in both women, as they process their own emo­tion­al bag­gage and come to terms with the harsh real­i­ties of their lives. The set­ting, with its qui­et beau­ty, serves as a stark con­trast to the ten­sion in their con­ver­sa­tion, and Saint’s inner tur­moil becomes more pal­pa­ble as she grap­ples with the con­flict­ing emo­tions she feels toward Char­lotte.

As the con­ver­sa­tion turns more intro­spec­tive, Saint begins to express her thoughts on the com­plex­i­ties of human nature. She shares her feel­ings about Jim­my Wal­ters, a man who seemed kind on the sur­face but ulti­mate­ly had a dark side. The calm­ness of their sur­round­ings, par­tic­u­lar­ly the sight of a heron near­by, seems to cre­ate a peace­ful con­trast to the emo­tion­al weight of their dis­cus­sion. The seren­i­ty of nature offers a brief moment of solace amid their tur­moil, but Charlotte’s qui­et ges­ture of hold­ing Saint’s hand brings them back to the emo­tion­al core of the con­ver­sa­tion. This sim­ple act of con­nec­tion under­scores the deep bond that has devel­oped between them, espe­cial­ly as they nav­i­gate through the chaos sur­round­ing them. For Saint, the ges­ture trig­gers feel­ings of inad­e­qua­cy, as she strug­gles with her desire to be more than just a friend to Char­lotte. Her inter­nal conflict—wanting to be a source of strength for Char­lotte while also feel­ing iso­lat­ed due to her own past—adds anoth­er lay­er of com­plex­i­ty to their rela­tion­ship.

When the con­ver­sa­tion shifts back to the poten­tial threat posed by Charlotte’s father, Charlotte’s tone becomes one of res­ig­na­tion. She express­es a belief that she is not impor­tant to him and that he will not come for her. This feel­ing of aban­don­ment res­onates deeply with her, as she reflects on the past, specif­i­cal­ly on their first meet­ing. Char­lotte had hoped that this reunion with her father would ful­fill a promise of con­nec­tion, yet it seems more and more unlike­ly. This real­iza­tion adds emo­tion­al depth to Charlotte’s char­ac­ter, high­light­ing her vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and her strug­gle to under­stand her place in her father’s life. The chap­ter del­i­cate­ly explores the inter­twined themes of friend­ship, fear, and the com­plex­i­ties of famil­ial rela­tion­ships. It paints a pic­ture of both vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and resilience, show­ing how the char­ac­ters nav­i­gate their per­son­al strug­gles amid unset­tling cir­cum­stances. Through Char­lotte and Sain­t’s rela­tion­ship, we see how bonds can form even in the most dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tions, and how dif­fi­cult it is to rec­on­cile painful truths with the hope for con­nec­tion.