Chap­ter 32 opens with the dawn ush­er­ing in a pow­er­ful storm, its thun­der rever­ber­at­ing through the town and rain falling heav­i­ly on rooftops. Jim and Will, caught in a rest­less sleep, find them­selves haunt­ed by strange dreams, dark and unset­tling. Mean­while, the car­ni­val grounds begin to stir; the sound of the carousel rings out, an eerie, dis­cor­dant melody that seems to only be heard by one per­son in the town—Miss Foley, who quick­ly hur­ries away upon hear­ing it. The stor­m’s inten­si­fy­ing rain becomes a back­drop to the strange hap­pen­ings, set­ting the tone for the grow­ing sense of unease that envelops the town. This omi­nous atmos­phere pulls the char­ac­ters deep­er into the mys­tery, their dreams and sur­round­ings blur­ring the lines between real­i­ty and night­mare.

As the rain pours even hard­er, Jim and Will take refuge in their homes, qui­et­ly dis­cussing the events of the pre­vi­ous night. Dressed in rain gear, Jim steps out into the dis­mal Sun­day morn­ing and begins to make his way toward Will’s house. The weight of their unset­tling thoughts press­es heav­i­ly upon them as they walk togeth­er, reflect­ing on the bizarre occur­rences that have unfold­ed. Break­ing the silence, Jim recounts a par­tic­u­lar­ly dis­turb­ing dream he had, one that involved a long cof­fin in an omi­nous parade, which struck him as dis­turbing­ly real. This moment sparks a brief, dark­ly humor­ous con­ver­sa­tion about bal­loons and funer­als, but it does lit­tle to lift the somber mood between them. Their minds remain fix­at­ed on the dark­er ele­ments of the pre­vi­ous night’s events, and the unset­tling feel­ing lingers as they con­tin­ue walk­ing.

Their walk brings them to an emp­ty lot dom­i­nat­ed by a mas­sive oak tree, where they sud­den­ly hear the sound of a girl cry­ing in the dis­tance. Despite Jim’s ini­tial reluc­tance to approach the source of the cry­ing, Will is com­pelled to inves­ti­gate. The sound of the girl’s weep­ing leads them to dis­cov­er a young girl, drenched in rain, des­per­ate and cling­ing to them for help. Jim, star­tled and uncer­tain, recoils, insist­ing that they do not know the girl, while Will is drawn to her, rec­og­niz­ing the need to assist her. As the girl clings to them, plead­ing for help, it becomes clear that some­thing is grave­ly wrong. The emo­tions of the moment become com­pli­cat­ed by Jim’s skep­ti­cism and Will’s grow­ing empa­thy, cre­at­ing a ten­sion between the two as they stand on the precipice of what could be a much larg­er mys­tery than they ini­tial­ly real­ized.

Will, deter­mined to help, promis­es the girl they will return with assis­tance, despite Jim’s con­tin­ued protests. The girl’s eyes, famil­iar in some way, stir some­thing in Will, and he can’t shake the feel­ing that they have encoun­tered some­thing like this before, pos­si­bly tied to the sin­is­ter car­ni­val. Jim, still doubt­ful, strug­gles with his emo­tions, unsure whether to trust the girl or write her off as anoth­er odd occur­rence in a town already tee­ter­ing on the edge of chaos. As the two dis­cuss their next steps, the sound of the car­ni­val grows loud­er, its music and laugh­ter mix­ing with the omi­nous air sur­round­ing them. They real­ize that Miss Foley is in dan­ger, like­ly tan­gled in the carnival’s web, and the urgency to act becomes even more press­ing. The impend­ing threat of the car­ni­val push­es them for­ward, even as they remain unsure of what they are tru­ly up against.

As the car­ni­val sounds grow near­er, their focus shifts to the need to pro­tect the girl and take action. They scram­ble to fig­ure out how to keep her safe, rush­ing to hide beneath the oak tree where she had been, hop­ing the car­ni­val would not find her first. The boys, feel­ing the weight of their deci­sion, brace for what might come next, know­ing the grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion has esca­lat­ed beyond their con­trol. When they return, the spot under the tree is emp­ty, and their search for the girl turns into a mount­ing sense of dread. The empti­ness of the loca­tion adds to the grow­ing anx­i­ety, leav­ing them unsure of where she has gone and what her fate might be. This mys­tery deep­ens as they retreat fur­ther into the town, hid­ing and wor­ry­ing about what will hap­pen to the girl as the car­ni­val looms ever clos­er. The chap­ter con­cludes on a note of dread, with the boys feel­ing the full weight of the dan­ger now sur­round­ing them.