Chap­ter II unfolds on July 29, 2014, a seem­ing­ly ordi­nary day in New York City, but one that holds a heavy sig­nif­i­cance for Addie. It marks three cen­turies since the piv­otal moment in her life when she made a fate­ful choice—a deci­sion that turned her wed­ding day into the day she lost every­thing except her free­dom. The fate­ful day she invoked the dark­ness in the woods, lead­ing to the pact that altered the course of her exis­tence. As the morn­ing breaks, with Hen­ry mov­ing around the kitchen and the peace­ful sky out­side, Addie’s mind is far from calm. Despite the nor­mal­cy of the day, she is unset­tled by a deep sense of dread, as if an invis­i­ble force is clos­ing in. There’s an unshak­able feel­ing of dan­ger, and her instinct urges her to dis­tance her­self from Hen­ry, know­ing that if “he” finds them togeth­er, there could be dev­as­tat­ing con­se­quences.

Hen­ry, com­plete­ly unaware of the emo­tion­al bur­den weigh­ing on Addie, tries to light­en the mood. In an attempt to acknowl­edge this impor­tant milestone—three hun­dred years of life—he brings her a donut with three can­dles, each rep­re­sent­ing a cen­tu­ry of her exis­tence. Addie, how­ev­er, is hes­i­tant to embrace the cel­e­bra­tion, fear­ing that draw­ing atten­tion to this day might bring unwant­ed com­pli­ca­tions. She strug­gles with the temp­ta­tion to cel­e­brate and the dread of what it might bring. Henry’s infec­tious opti­mism, how­ev­er, per­suades her to join him in mak­ing the day mem­o­rable, con­vinc­ing her to take part in a sim­ple beach day. For a brief moment, the weight of her past seems to fade as they swim in the ocean, lounge on the sand, and indulge in tacos and mar­gar­i­tas. These small, joy­ful moments with Hen­ry offer her a fleet­ing sense of peace and a tem­po­rary escape from the bur­den of her long and tumul­tuous life. It’s a reminder of the joys that can still be found, even amidst the dark­ness that fol­lows her every step.

Yet, even in the midst of this tem­po­rary reprieve, Addie’s sense of unease lingers, brought on by the sud­den sight of a small wood­en ring. This ring is more than just a trin­ket; it is a con­stant reminder of her pact with the dark­ness and the price she has paid for the free­doms she now pos­sess­es. The ring has always been a sym­bol of her past, a teth­er to a time when her life was irrev­o­ca­bly changed. As Addie tries to remain in the moment, enjoy­ing the sun and sand with Hen­ry, the pres­ence of the ring forces her to con­front the real­i­ty that her past is nev­er tru­ly behind her. Even in the joy of the present, the shad­ow of her pact with the dark­ness looms over her, remind­ing her that, no mat­ter how far she tries to run, the con­se­quences of that deci­sion con­tin­ue to fol­low her. The care­free beach day, full of light and laugh­ter, can­not erase the weight of the ring, and its pres­ence is a con­stant mark­er of the life she is unable to ful­ly escape.

The chap­ter delves deep­er into Addie’s inter­nal conflict—her desire to remain present, to embrace the moments of joy that come her way, while also grap­pling with the inescapable ties to her past. This is no ordi­nary life; the dark­ness, the pact, and the con­se­quences are ever-present, lin­ger­ing in the back­ground of her every inter­ac­tion. Addie’s strug­gle is not just about her phys­i­cal sur­vival or her abil­i­ty to live in the world; it’s about com­ing to terms with the inter­nal bat­tle between what she desires and what she is bound to. Her rela­tion­ship with Hen­ry rep­re­sents a moment of nor­mal­cy, some­thing rare and pre­cious in her oth­er­wise extra­or­di­nary life. But it also rep­re­sents a con­stant threat of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, as the dark­ness that gov­erns her life would not hes­i­tate to destroy this con­nec­tion if it meant pro­tect­ing its hold over her.

As Addie reflects on her long life and the choic­es she made, we see the deep emo­tion­al toll of liv­ing with a super­nat­ur­al pact that affects every rela­tion­ship, every moment, every choice she makes. The beau­ty of a beach day with Hen­ry, while momen­tar­i­ly sooth­ing, also high­lights the pro­found con­trast between her desires for con­nec­tion and the real­i­ty of her exis­tence. Her life has been defined by the weight of her pact, a pact that has iso­lat­ed her from the world in ways that are dif­fi­cult to ful­ly com­pre­hend. Even the joy of spend­ing a day with some­one she cares for is over­shad­owed by the knowl­edge that the dark­ness is nev­er far behind. This chap­ter illu­mi­nates the con­stant ten­sion Addie faces: her long­ing for con­nec­tion, her strug­gle with the ram­i­fi­ca­tions of her past, and the over­whelm­ing sense that no mat­ter how much time pass­es, the dark­ness will always be a part of her exis­tence. Despite the fleet­ing joy of the present, she is remind­ed that her pact with the dark­ness has shaped her life in ways that are inescapable, and it will con­tin­ue to cast its shad­ow over every aspect of her being.