Chap­ter 29 begins with Will abrupt­ly wak­ing from a brief sleep, gripped by the trou­bling real­iza­tion that Jim’s light­ning rod is miss­ing. Pan­ic sets in as he calls out for Jim, only to find that Jim had removed the light­ning rod, seem­ing­ly for his own amuse­ment, dar­ing the storm that looms out­side. This sud­den aware­ness inten­si­fies Will’s anx­i­ety, as he wor­ries about the exposed roof and the pos­si­ble dan­ger it might bring. But their fear is soon com­pound­ed by a strange sight—a bal­loon float­ing silent­ly above them. This pecu­liar phe­nom­e­non adds an eerie qual­i­ty to the scene, as it drifts grace­ful­ly, unbid­den, and almost oth­er­world­ly. Its still­ness con­trasts with the brew­ing chaos out­side, ampli­fy­ing the unease the boys are already feel­ing. The bal­loon becomes an omi­nous sym­bol of what might be yet to come, an unset­tling har­bin­ger in the dark­en­ing sky.

Drawn by a shared sense of dread and curios­i­ty, the boys peer out of their win­dow, cap­ti­vat­ed by the bal­loon’s strange move­ment through the sky. It moves with an unnat­ur­al grace, its silence adding to its eerie pres­ence. As they watch in won­der, the atmos­phere around them shifts; the tem­per­a­ture drops sharply, and an omi­nous ten­sion builds. The balloon’s descent toward them seems delib­er­ate, as if it’s being guid­ed by some unseen force. The boys’ sens­es are height­ened, their nerves buzzing with both excite­ment and fear as the air thick­ens with an unspo­ken warn­ing. This sur­re­al moment leaves them frozen, unsure whether to stay hid­den or con­front what­ev­er dark pres­ence is descend­ing upon them. The balloon’s unset­tling approach rein­forces the sense that some­thing far beyond their con­trol is unfold­ing right before their eyes.

Sud­den­ly, the fig­ure of the Dust Witch emerges from the bal­loon, cast­ing a shad­ow over the boys. Her eerie pres­ence strikes fear into their hearts, as they real­ize the full extent of her super­nat­ur­al abil­i­ties. Despite being blind, she seems attuned to every vibra­tion in the world around her, search­ing for souls to trap. Her uncan­ny sen­si­tiv­i­ty makes the boys feel vul­ner­a­ble, as if she is read­ing their every thought, every emo­tion, even from afar. The witch’s abil­i­ty to sense their very essence only deep­ens their ter­ror, rein­forc­ing the fear that she is some­how already aware of them and their loca­tion. Her con­nec­tion to the world around her, and the way she manip­u­lates the atmos­phere, makes it clear that they are in imme­di­ate dan­ger. The boys feel an unde­ni­able pull toward her, even though they have no way of under­stand­ing her true inten­tions.

As the pan­ic grows, Jim has a fright­en­ing real­iza­tion: the Dust Witch knows where they live. This under­stand­ing spurs both boys into action, and they fran­ti­cal­ly begin to strate­gize how they can pro­tect them­selves from the loom­ing threat. The bal­loon starts to rise, but a strange, unset­tling feel­ing remains in the air as the Witch’s pres­ence marks their home with a strange sil­ver trail. This unnat­ur­al mark can be seen from miles away, sig­nal­ing that they are now in her sights. Will quick­ly for­mu­lates a plan to fight back, decid­ing that the best course of action is to remove the sil­ver paint left by the bal­loon. They have to act fast, before the Witch can return and use her pow­ers against them. The boys are dri­ven by a sense of urgency, work­ing togeth­er to wash away the mark from their roof before the morn­ing arrives.

In a flur­ry of activ­i­ty, Will grabs a gar­den hose, empow­er­ing them with the means to erase the omi­nous sil­ver trail. As they scrub the roof, the first light of dawn begins to break, but their anx­i­ety grows with each pass­ing minute. They fear the return of the Dust Witch and her bal­loon, know­ing that time is run­ning out. Amid their fran­tic efforts, Jim express­es regret over his deci­sion to take down the light­ning rod, but Will, ever the prac­ti­cal one, reminds him that stay­ing busy is the best way to avoid draw­ing the Witch’s atten­tion. Their joint effort builds a tense but deter­mined atmos­phere as they race against the clock, dri­ven by fear and the desire to pro­tect their home. This race to scrub away the Witch’s mark under­scores the boys’ resilience and their com­mit­ment to each oth­er in the face of an insur­mount­able threat. As they work togeth­er, they must also con­front the loom­ing ques­tion: will they suc­ceed in eras­ing the mark before it’s too late?