Chap­ter 36 of All the Col­ors of the Dark takes read­ers through an unset­tling expe­ri­ence as Saint nav­i­gates through a space that feels both suf­fo­cat­ing and omi­nous. The room she enters is filled with pho­tographs of girls, includ­ing Misty, hung from chick­en wire, each one seem­ing­ly frozen in moments of nor­mal­cy meant for their fam­i­lies. How­ev­er, the pho­tos bear unset­tling markings—each has a rough cir­cle above the sub­jec­t’s head, resem­bling a halo, which sends a chill through Saint. As she walks through this dis­turb­ing gallery, she becomes increas­ing­ly aware of the sur­veil­lance around her, evi­denced by a bank of mon­i­tors show­ing grainy footage of dif­fer­ent loca­tions inside the house and the sur­round­ing woods. The final image reveals a fig­ure in a bunker, ampli­fy­ing the feel­ing that she is being watched, trapped, and per­haps even manip­u­lat­ed. The weight of this real­iza­tion set­tles on her as she begins to ques­tion whether escape is even pos­si­ble, sur­round­ed by such vig­i­lant obser­va­tion.

As the ten­sion builds, the lights sud­den­ly go out, and the room is plunged into dark­ness. Saint, now enveloped in a heavy silence, whis­pers her fears aloud, her voice bare­ly audi­ble as she express­es the deep sense of dan­ger that sur­rounds her. The chem­i­cal scent in the air inten­si­fies, mak­ing it hard­er to breathe, and she strug­gles to main­tain her com­po­sure. In a des­per­ate attempt to find a sense of con­trol, Saint lights a match, but before she can take any action, a gun­shot rings out, fol­lowed by eerie laugh­ter that indi­cates she is being hunt­ed. The feel­ing of being pur­sued grows unbear­able as every sound around her becomes mag­ni­fied. In a rush of pan­ic, she crash­es into shelves, the match falling from her hand, but she instinc­tive­ly runs toward a set of stairs lead­ing into a tun­nel, hop­ing it will lead her to safe­ty. Upon reach­ing the liv­ing room, she hes­i­tates at anoth­er door, con­tem­plat­ing whether to take the risk of open­ing it. She debates whether Patch might be able to help or whether she’s walk­ing into a trap, but the uncer­tain­ty only adds to the mount­ing pres­sure.

The stakes rise even fur­ther as Saint takes a bold step into the unknown, descend­ing deep­er into the dark­ness. The smell of damp earth fills her nos­trils, ampli­fy­ing the sense of iso­la­tion and dan­ger that sur­rounds her. When she stum­bles upon a light switch, her heart races, hop­ing it will pro­vide a moment of clar­i­ty. The light flick­ers on, briefly illu­mi­nat­ing a dis­turb­ing sight—dozens of tanks con­tain­ing wild snakes, includ­ing ven­omous cop­per­heads and mas­sas­auga rat­tlesnakes. The brief glimpse of these dan­ger­ous crea­tures sets her nerves on edge, and before she can ful­ly process the sight, the light cuts out, plung­ing her back into pitch-black dark­ness. In the total absence of light, her fear inten­si­fies, know­ing that Eli Aaron is some­where close by, still hunt­ing her. Each sound she hears echoes in the dark­ness, and when a sec­ond gun­shot rings out, she is forced to the ground, her body wracked with pan­ic. Crawl­ing through the suf­fo­cat­ing dark, she feels as if the weight of the world is press­ing down on her. With each labored breath, she clos­es her eyes, hop­ing for a moment of peace, but instead, she is con­sumed by fear, pray­ing silent­ly for the night­mare to end.

This chap­ter expert­ly builds sus­pense, using dark­ness and silence as tools to height­en the feel­ing of dread and dan­ger. As Saint faces this over­whelm­ing sit­u­a­tion, she expe­ri­ences a cock­tail of emotions—fear, pan­ic, and the des­per­a­tion to escape. Her sur­round­ings, filled with threats both vis­i­ble and unseen, push her to the brink of exhaus­tion and despair. As she strug­gles to find safe­ty, the loom­ing pres­ence of Eli Aaron becomes an ever-present reminder that she is not in con­trol of her fate. Yet, despite the over­whelm­ing ter­ror, there is a flick­er of resilience with­in Saint. Even in her dark­est moments, she keeps mov­ing for­ward, guid­ed by the slim hope that she can sur­vive this and find her way out. This chap­ter sets the stage for a greater con­flict, with Saint’s fight for sur­vival becom­ing more des­per­ate and urgent. Her inter­nal strug­gle, com­bined with the phys­i­cal dan­gers she faces, cre­ates an emo­tion­al­ly charged atmos­phere, one that leaves the read­er on edge, eager­ly antic­i­pat­ing the next turn in the sto­ry.