In Chap­ter 253 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” the sto­ry begins with Patch help­ing Saint out into the day­light, where storm clouds begin to dis­si­pate, reveal­ing a blue hori­zon. Saint col­laps­es to her knees, over­whelmed by the after­math of recent events, retch­ing and cough­ing as Patch com­forts her. In a moment of emo­tion­al tur­moil, she accus­es him, “You killed him,” strug­gling to process the con­se­quences of their actions.

As Saint gath­ers her­self, mem­o­ries flood her mind, par­tic­u­lar­ly of Char­lotte and their shared past. While pick­ing up a gun from the ground, she per­ceives Patch’s smile through her tears. Hold­ing the gun at his chest, she notices his steady gaze, which reflects both vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and resolve. In a poignant moment, Patch rais­es his hands in sur­ren­der, an act that near­ly breaks her heart. Sain­t’s thoughts drift towards a house that brings back mem­o­ries of their town and the hope tied to it.

“Tell me it was her, Patch,” she implores, and he affirms that it was, sig­nal­ing the end of her long search. They share a deeply emo­tion­al con­ver­sa­tion about tak­ing care of Grace, who waits in the barn, and Char­lotte, Sain­t’s daugh­ter. Saint firm­ly believes this is a cru­cial time, declar­ing that they’re com­ing for him, to which Patch responds, “I think they’re already here.”

As sirens sound in the dis­tance, momen­tum shifts towards Patch’s inevitable return to prison for his crimes. Reflect­ing on Patch’s escape, Saint acknowl­edges the heart and courage that fueled his desire to right wrongs, hint­ing at some­one pow­er­ful pos­si­bly behind the scenes.

When asked about regrets, Patch states there are “too few to men­tion.” This moment of shared inti­ma­cy cul­mi­nates in a tight embrace, under­scor­ing the deep bond between them. The chap­ter clos­es with the ris­ing sirens and a haunt­ing image of a rain­bow break­ing through the clouds, sym­bol­iz­ing a frag­ile con­nec­tion pre­served in the face of impend­ing sep­a­ra­tion. In that moment, Saint gains insight into the pro­found nature of love, under­stand­ing its sig­nif­i­cance far bet­ter than before.