Chap­ter 236 begins with the pro­tag­o­nist absorb­ing the qui­et majesty of the South­ern land­scape, where the dim moon­light casts a sil­ver sheen over the ter­rain. As his car glides along the road, the scenery tran­si­tions from rows of white-columned Greek revival homes to fields dot­ted with run­down barns and skele­tal trees. The still­ness is inter­rupt­ed only by the crunch of tires on grav­el, yet it offers him a pecu­liar comfort—a momen­tary illu­sion of safe­ty as the town of Grace Falls looms ahead like some­thing dreamt up in oil paint and for­got­ten mem­o­ries. There’s a calm­ness to the way the forest­ed ridges cra­dle the small com­mu­ni­ty, almost as if time itself has paused to hold its breath.

The sight stirs some­thing deep with­in him—nostalgia wrapped in unease. He pass­es a stretch of farm­land, its soil cracked and stub­born, yet it mir­rors the resilience of those who have tend­ed it for gen­er­a­tions. Far off, the shad­owy sil­hou­ette of the Cum­ber­land Plateau stretch­es across the hori­zon, dis­solv­ing into the night like a mem­o­ry fad­ing from view. Though he has been run­ning, his pur­pose feels sharp­ened now. This town, silent under the watch of stars, car­ries the weight of answers he’s been chas­ing for years.

Need­ing to act on impulse and infor­ma­tion, he finds an old phone booth sit­ting just beyond a closed gas sta­tion. Its glass pan­els are streaked with dirt, and the hand­set smells faint­ly of met­al and dust, but he doesn’t hes­i­tate. Fish­ing a few coins from his pock­et, he dials a num­ber etched per­ma­nent­ly into his mem­o­ry. Char­lotte answers after the first ring, her voice bare­ly audi­ble, shroud­ed in ten­sion. She doesn’t greet him with warmth but with wor­ry, her whis­per like sta­t­ic. “Why did you run?” she asks soft­ly.

The ques­tion cuts through him. He answers not with an apol­o­gy, but with cer­tain­ty: “I think I found her.” The words hang in the air between them, elec­tric with mean­ing. For a moment, silence stretch­es, before Char­lotte responds—her voice frag­ile yet sharp, warn­ing him that the police are active­ly look­ing for him and that news of his escape has spread like wild­fire. The weight of her con­cern is real, ground­ed in the con­se­quences of what he’s done and what he’s walk­ing into.

He tells her about Grace Falls, describ­ing it like a place paint­ed in broad, for­giv­ing strokes—picturesque and haunt­ing at once. Its beau­ty feels sur­re­al, but it’s also a place that stirs some­thing inside him: a famil­iar­i­ty he can’t explain. He isn’t run­ning from the law or hid­ing from his past anymore—he is chas­ing a truth he believes is buried in this town’s roots. There’s a hope in his voice that Char­lotte hears but doesn’t ful­ly share. She urges him to be cau­tious, but there’s an edge to her tone, like she already knows what he’s will­ing to sac­ri­fice to uncov­er what lies beneath Grace Falls’ paint­ed sur­face.

The call con­tin­ues, but some­thing shifts. He hears a muf­fled voice in the background—Saint’s, perhaps—and it trig­gers a moment of unease. He tight­ens his grip on the receiv­er, press­ing it clos­er, try­ing to deci­pher the words, but Charlotte’s voice fal­ters. She begins to say some­thing urgent—something that might have changed everything—but the line cuts off. All that’s left is the hol­low buzz of a lost con­nec­tion.

For a few moments, he just stands there, the receiv­er still against his ear. The sound of the dial tone grows loud­er in his mind, match­ing the pulse in his chest. He slow­ly places the hand­set back in its cra­dle, over­come by a famil­iar empti­ness. The booth, once a life­line, now feels like a glass cage. Out­side, the wind picks up, car­ry­ing the scent of pine and a faint elec­tric ten­sion that sig­nals an approach­ing storm.

Alone again, he returns to the car, but he does­n’t start the engine right away. He stares at the road ahead—dark, nar­row, and wind­ing toward the unknown. Despite the silence, despite the risk, there’s clar­i­ty in his pur­pose. Something—or someone—is wait­ing in Grace Falls, and he’s no longer afraid of what he might find.