Chap­ter 35 opens in a tense and haunt­ing atmos­phere with­in Ned’s Night Spot, where Charles Hal­loway, exhaust­ed and sleep­less, sits absorbed in his thoughts. The qui­et that fol­lows a near­by parade feels unnerv­ing­ly still, ampli­fy­ing the unease that hangs in the air. Charles, trou­bled by the weight of his thoughts, reflects on the unset­tling events out­side, notic­ing how the world around him feels slight­ly off, like some­thing is wait­ing to unfold. He hes­i­tates to pay for his cof­fee, his unease grow­ing with every pass­ing moment. As if sum­moned by his grow­ing dis­com­fort, the door sud­den­ly swings open, reveal­ing a stranger with tat­tooed hands—each adorned with an eye on every fin­ger. This pecu­liar fig­ure imme­di­ate­ly grabs Halloway’s atten­tion, and he becomes even more alert as he wit­ness­es a parade of shad­ows. The sight of a skele­tal fig­ure, known as Mr. Skull, play­ing a chill­ing xylo­phone on the street below inten­si­fies the sense of dread that seems to per­me­ate the town.

As Hal­loway watch­es the strange scene unfold, his atten­tion is drawn to the inno­cent call of a boy, which diverts his focus toward the emerg­ing fig­ure of the Dwarf. With a jin­gle bell attached to his attire and a frag­ment­ed per­son­al­i­ty, the Dwarf appears like a lost soul, search­ing for some­thing that can­not be explained. The Dwar­f’s gaze unex­pect­ed­ly locks with that of the young boy, fill­ing Will and Jim with an over­whelm­ing sense of fear and anx­i­ety. Their instincts kick in as they try to hide them­selves, feel­ing the omi­nous weight of the Dwarf’s pres­ence. The feel­ing of dread becomes inescapable, and as they shrink into the shad­ows, the threat feels immi­nent. Mean­while, Will’s father, unknow­ing­ly head­ing into dan­ger, steps out­side to pur­chase a cig­ar, unaware that he is draw­ing clos­er to the source of the ter­ror unfold­ing on the street below. The qui­et, sin­is­ter events around him con­tin­ue to unfold as Hal­loway, still try­ing to make sense of the strange hap­pen­ings, feels the tight­en­ing grip of fear that threat­ens to take hold of every­one involved.

The chap­ter takes a dark­er turn when Charles Hal­loway engages in a con­ver­sa­tion with the Illus­trat­ed Man, whose cryp­tic exchanges reveal more about the sin­is­ter forces at play. The Illus­trat­ed Man speaks of two boys, Will and Jim, who have been select­ed as spe­cial guests for the Cooger-Dark Com­bined Shows, a car­ni­val with dark­er inten­tions. Hal­loway lis­tens intent­ly, his heart rac­ing as the pieces of a dis­turb­ing puz­zle begin to fall into place. The real­iza­tion begins to dawn on him that the boys’ involve­ment with the car­ni­val is far more dan­ger­ous than he had ini­tial­ly sus­pect­ed. As Will’s heart pounds with fear, he watch­es his father unknow­ing­ly stum­ble toward the truth. The dis­cov­ery that the boys’ faces are now etched in the palm of the Illus­trat­ed Man feels like a cru­el con­fir­ma­tion of their entan­gle­ment in the carnival’s web of evil. Hal­loway remains unaware of the extent of the threat, though the pieces of the puz­zle are begin­ning to align, and the chill­ing truth is becom­ing hard­er to ignore.

The ten­sion height­ens when Mr. Dark con­fronts Charles Hal­loway direct­ly, demand­ing infor­ma­tion about Will and Jim. The mali­cious tone of Mr. Dark’s voice sends a shiv­er down Halloway’s spine as he becomes ful­ly aware of the dan­ger now clos­ing in on the boys. In a moment of intense dread, Jim braces for what­ev­er comes next, while Will is filled with an over­whelm­ing sense of ter­ror as their names are revealed. The real­iza­tion that the car­ni­val has been watch­ing them all along is enough to dri­ve fear into their hearts. Mr. Dark’s words are sharp and threat­en­ing, and his sin­is­ter intent becomes more appar­ent with each pass­ing moment. The fear that has been build­ing through­out the chap­ter reach­es its cli­max as the depth of the carnival’s con­trol over the boys is ful­ly real­ized. Mr. Dark’s manip­u­la­tion runs deep, and the truth of his pow­er is now clear. As the chap­ter draws to a close, Charles Hal­loway, des­per­ate to pro­tect the boys, urges them to remain hid­den until night­fall. His mind races as he for­mu­lates a plan to con­front the night­mare that is fast approach­ing, know­ing that the dan­ger they face is far from over. The chap­ter ends with a lin­ger­ing sense of dread, leav­ing read­ers on edge, eager­ly await­ing what will come next in the bat­tle against the encroach­ing dark­ness.