Chap­ter 36 begins with the pro­tag­o­nist expe­ri­enc­ing a deep sense of dis­ap­point­ment and unease. What was intend­ed to be a roman­tic evening, rem­i­nis­cent of a cher­ished mem­o­ry with Andrew, quick­ly turns into a soli­tary affair as Andrew is detained by work com­mit­ments, leav­ing her to dine alone. This unex­pect­ed soli­tude quick­ly deep­ens into a nar­ra­tive of iso­la­tion, as the pro­tag­o­nist feels the weight of being alone in a space that, despite its phys­i­cal com­forts, is haunt­ed by the pres­ence of Nina, Andrew’s ex-girl­friend. Her sense of secu­ri­ty is slow­ly erod­ed as Nina’s lin­ger­ing influ­ence seems to per­me­ate every cor­ner of the house, mak­ing it increas­ing­ly dif­fi­cult for the pro­tag­o­nist to feel at peace.

The intru­sion of Nina’s pres­ence is not lim­it­ed to lin­ger­ing scents, despite the protagonist’s metic­u­lous clean­ing efforts; it esca­lates when the pro­tag­o­nist dis­cov­ers a track­ing app hid­den on her phone. The real­iza­tion that she is being watched inten­si­fies her feel­ings of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and betray­al, as the once pri­vate aspects of her life are no longer hers to con­trol. This breach of pri­va­cy is fur­ther com­pound­ed by an omi­nous warn­ing from Enzo, who implies that Nina’s influ­ence and reach extend far beyond the psy­cho­log­i­cal toll she has already inflict­ed. This rev­e­la­tion serves to height­en the pro­tag­o­nist’s fear and anx­i­ety, indi­cat­ing that Nina may pose a real, tan­gi­ble threat that goes beyond her emo­tion­al manip­u­la­tion.

The night takes an even dark­er turn when the pro­tag­o­nist receives an anony­mous phone call from a dis­tort­ed, mechan­i­cal voice threat­en­ing her to stay away from Andrew. The call is unset­tling not just for its hos­til­i­ty but for its anonymi­ty, leav­ing the pro­tag­o­nist shak­en by the real­iza­tion that the threat may be more seri­ous than a mere emo­tion­al tac­tic. This encounter jolts the pro­tag­o­nist into a state of resolve; she decides that she will no longer allow Nina’s ghost­ly influ­ence to con­trol her life. Tak­ing deci­sive action, she plans to change the locks in the house, a sym­bol­ic and phys­i­cal act of reclaim­ing her space and assert­ing her auton­o­my. The locks rep­re­sent a bar­ri­er against the unseen forces that have been invad­ing her sense of safe­ty, mark­ing a turn­ing point where she choos­es empow­er­ment over fear.

Chap­ter 36 weaves a com­plex tapes­try of psy­cho­log­i­cal unrest and the bat­tle for auton­o­my in the face of past trau­ma. The protagonist’s jour­ney through these unset­tling events—feeling watched, manip­u­lat­ed, and threatened—sets the stage for a con­fronta­tion with the lin­ger­ing forces of Nina’s influ­ence. Her deci­sion to take con­trol of her envi­ron­ment by chang­ing the locks sig­ni­fies a pow­er­ful moment of reclaim­ing agency, sym­bol­iz­ing the reclaim­ing of her own life and bound­aries. The sus­pense that builds through­out the chap­ter leads the read­er to antic­i­pate not just the phys­i­cal con­fronta­tion with Nina but also the emo­tion­al jour­ney that will allow the pro­tag­o­nist to free her­self from the shad­ows of the past. The ten­sion between psy­cho­log­i­cal manip­u­la­tion and per­son­al empow­er­ment is a cen­tral theme in this chap­ter, draw­ing atten­tion to how past rela­tion­ships can con­tin­ue to haunt the present and the lengths one must go to in order to break free from their lin­ger­ing effects.

This chap­ter also under­scores the impor­tance of rec­og­niz­ing and con­fronting the often sub­tle ways in which emo­tion­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal abuse can man­i­fest in rela­tion­ships. The protagonist’s real­iza­tion that Nina’s influ­ence is more per­va­sive than she ini­tial­ly thought high­lights the often unseen but pow­er­ful forces at play in tox­ic rela­tion­ships. Tak­ing con­trol of one’s envi­ron­ment and set­ting bound­aries, as sym­bol­ized by chang­ing the locks, is a cru­cial step in regain­ing con­trol and find­ing peace. The chap­ter also serves as a reminder that emo­tion­al secu­ri­ty and auton­o­my are essen­tial for well-being and that, at times, reclaim­ing one’s space requires not just phys­i­cal but emo­tion­al action. It is a pow­er­ful nar­ra­tive about rec­og­niz­ing one’s worth, stand­ing up to past shad­ows, and tak­ing the nec­es­sary steps to pro­tect one­self from fur­ther harm.