Chap­ter 30 opens with a moment of rel­a­tive calm after the rain has final­ly ceased, leav­ing the roof untouched and clean, as if it had been wait­ing for this oppor­tu­ni­ty. Will watch­es the bal­loon above with a sense of grow­ing unease, won­der­ing about its hes­i­ta­tion in the sky. A sense of urgency grips him, as he fears the Witch might soon dis­cov­er their plans, and he knows they must act quick­ly. In the soli­tude of his room, Will begins to think about the tools at his dis­pos­al, specif­i­cal­ly his Boy Scout archery set, and won­ders if he can use it to out­wit the Witch. He doesn’t want her to be able to report back and expose their secre­tive actions. Qui­et­ly, he grabs his bow and quiver, silent­ly open­ing the win­dow to com­mu­ni­cate with the Witch through his thoughts, believ­ing that even though she can’t read minds, she may still sense his emo­tions and the excite­ment brew­ing with­in him.

As the clock strikes four in the morn­ing, Will’s resolve strength­ens. He calls out, con­fi­dent­ly chal­leng­ing the Witch and claim­ing that their roof is clean and ready. The words leave his mouth with increas­ing cer­tain­ty as the wind shifts beneath the bal­loon, and he feels an unde­ni­able pull to act. With adren­a­line surg­ing, Will rush­es out­side, deter­mined to con­front the strange force that looms above. His heart races as he sprints toward the aban­doned Red­man house, its silence cre­at­ing an omi­nous back­drop for what lies ahead. When he opens the door, dark­ness greets him, yet he steps inside, unwa­ver­ing. Will climbs the decay­ing stairs to the roof, know­ing he must act quick­ly. There, he hides his archery sup­plies behind a chim­ney, always keep­ing one eye on the approach­ing bal­loon, as his ten­sion mounts.

The Witch, now acute­ly aware of Will’s pres­ence, hov­ers just out of sight, sens­ing some­thing unusu­al but unable to pin­point his exact loca­tion. As she moves errat­i­cal­ly, cir­cling the bal­loon, frus­tra­tion and sus­pi­cion grow with­in her, mak­ing her increas­ing­ly unpre­dictable. Will, how­ev­er, remains calm, his mind sharp as he uses his wits to mis­lead her. With each inhala­tion and exha­la­tion of the Witch’s, he feels the weight of the moment build­ing. Her pres­ence inten­si­fies the air around them, and Will takes a deci­sive step for­ward, dar­ing her to approach him. This dan­ger­ous game of prox­im­i­ty height­ens the ten­sion, push­ing Will to take his stand, as he pre­pares to use his bow for defense. The moment is elec­tric, charged with antic­i­pa­tion, as Will’s resolve hard­ens, and he feels the pulse of both fear and deter­mi­na­tion in his veins.

Just as Will draws his bow, dis­as­ter strikes. The string snaps, break­ing his care­ful­ly exe­cut­ed plan and leav­ing him exposed in the face of the Witch’s dark pow­er. The Witch, sens­ing that vic­to­ry is with­in her grasp, exhales a sigh of relief, unaware of the pow­er that Will is about to unleash. In a final, des­per­ate effort, Will grabs an arrow­head and flings it with all his strength at the bal­loon. The arrow­head rips through the fab­ric of the bal­loon, releas­ing a vio­lent burst of air and col­or that sends a shock­wave through the sur­round­ing area. The sud­den erup­tion knocks Will off bal­ance, caus­ing him to lose his grip and fall toward the ground below. How­ev­er, the fall is soft­ened by a near­by tree, break­ing his descent and leav­ing him hang­ing by the branch­es. From his pre­car­i­ous posi­tion, Will watch­es as the bal­loon spi­rals upward, the Witch’s dis­tant cries echo­ing into the night, sig­nal­ing her retreat.

Sus­pend­ed in the tree, Will’s heart pounds in his chest as he gath­ers him­self, grate­ful to be alive. The chaos of the balloon’s retreat slow­ly fades into the dis­tance, and the sur­round­ing world grows eeri­ly qui­et. Will takes a moment to col­lect his thoughts, his body still shak­ing from the adren­a­line of the con­fronta­tion. The night has shift­ed from one of fear to one of tri­umph, and the silence offers him a chance to regroup. Once steady, he climbs down care­ful­ly from the tree, his mind rac­ing with thoughts of the Witch’s retreat and what it means for him and his future. Stand­ing on the ground, Will reflects on how nar­row­ly he escaped, feel­ing both the weight of the night’s events and the fleet­ing sense of vic­to­ry. Despite the relief, he knows the bat­tle is not over, and that the Witch will sure­ly return, but for now, he has sur­vived. The expe­ri­ence has left him shak­en but deter­mined, know­ing that what­ev­er comes next, he is ready to face it.