Tim Kitteridge was questioning Jonas Cox about the man who was found in the swamp, but Jonas kept on saying that he didn’t even know who he George Coulton was. When Tim mentioned The Dark Man, Jonas’ eyes narrowed and his lips curled but he still kept saying that he didn’t know whom he was talking about. Tim knew he knew something. Tim kept thinking in his head why he even bothered to take this case because he would never have enough evidence about anything because no one wanted to cooperate, so he started to give up. Tim told Judd to bring Jonas back to his boat. When Jonas was in the squad car with Judd, Jonas told Judd that he was in big trouble for helping Tim find him and that maybe The Dark Man would turn Jonas against Judd just like he did to George and that Jonas would rip the life out of Judd. Judd was frozen stiff by the words and he stood there watching Jonas disappear into the swamp.
Warren Phillips went into Amelie’s room and told her that she could go home soon, but she demanded that she wasn’t going home until she got her baby back. Warren tried to explain again that her baby had died but she just wouldn’t believe it not after the dream she had. Warren told Jolene to get him fifty milligrams of Thorazine to put Amelie to sleep. Amelie put the pill in her mouth and gulped it down with a glass of water, when she shut her eyes Warren and Jolene left the room. Warren went out to lunch. Amelie got up and flushed the pill down the toilet. Amelie escaped her room through the window and she was off to look for her baby whom she knew was still alive.
When Barbara was finished with Kelly’s hair, she loved it, it made her skin look healthier and her eyes look bluer, but her clothes and jewelry were all wrong so she asked Barbara if she would go with her shopping, she said yes and then Barbara began to think that, that’s how Sharon would have looked like, if she’d lived and that’s how old she’d be. Even after Kelly left she still kept thinking about it and she couldn’t stop.
Lavinia Carter was a young lady who watched all of the Dark Mans babies until they were old enough to go back to the swamp, in a house in Villejeune. Her voice had been taking away from The Dark Man during a ceremony at the swamp. Clarey and The Dark Man told her that she was the most special child of all the children. As she was feeding one of the babies she heard footsteps, she knew those footsteps only from The Dark Man. Warren Phillips walked in to the room; Lavinia was the only one who saw who The Dark Man was behind that dark mask. He went there to collect the faintly brown but viscous liquid that was dripping into a collecting bottle on the rack from Amelie’s baby. He looked at the eight empty cribs, too many babies had been born dead in the swamp and more fathers are coming to the emergency room with their wives lately, they always watch their baby. He went downstairs into his lab to filter the fluid. When he went to Clarey’s house, she told him about what had happened to Jonas and then he knew that’s whom he was going to punish. Judd was going to be punished in the worst possible way.
Kelly went to Phil Stubbs tour headquarters where Michael worked and she waited by his motorcycle until he finished work he barely recognized her with her new hairdo. They went somewhere alone to talk about what had happened the night before and they both had a red mark on their chest, they both told each other that had been adopted and maybe the reason why they so at home the night before when they were in the swamp was because maybe they were swamp rats before they were adopted, they knew something was wrong.
When Michael got home after being out that night with Kelly, he had to tell his father the truth of where he had been and his father demanded that he never see her again and then Barbara told her husband that he is the only one that hasn’t met her yet and yet he only knows she’s bad news by the stories he’s heard but Barbara, Jenny and Michael know her personally and they all think she is a really nice girl. Craig then agreed he’d have a barbecue at his place and he’ll invite the Andersons over. That night Kelly had a bad dream about the old man again reaching out for her, her grandfather came to wake her and that night she couldn’t get back to bed.
That Saturday evening at the Sheffield’s barbecue, Barbara and Mary started talking and they told each other that Michael was adopted after Barbara lost her first child when it was born and that Mary could not produce any children so they adopted Kelly. Craig, Ted and Carl were drinking beer in the living room. The kids were out back playing croquet. Craig admitted to his wife that it was a good idea to have then over and Kelly was a nice girl after all. When Mary and Barbara were watching the kids play croquet, Mary told Barbara that for a split second Kelly looked like her, and the time when Barbara was doing Kelly’s hair came back to her and Jenny said that Kelly looked like their cousin Tisha (Barbara’s sisters daughter) then Barbara asked Mary where Kelly came from and Mary said she was sorry for putting that kind of thought in her head and that it was just a startling coincidence.
Judd Duval was at his house paranoid that one of the children would come to his home and kill him after what Jonas had said. He kept hearing sounds and seeing things. When he looked in the mirror his face looked gray and pasty, even in the bright light, and his eyes seemed to have sunken deep within their sockets, around his neck were wattles of loose flesh, his knuckles were swollen and his skin was blotched with liver spots. This couldn’t be happening to him he had just got his shot a few days ago and he was fine so he called Warren Phillips. Warren told him that he gave him something else because of what he did to Jonas and the only way that he’ll give him the shot is if he finds a new means of getting more of substance because there is a shortage in it, he rested for the night and in the morning he find a new source for Warren Phillips.
Jenny was sleeping on the couch, when Barbara told her to go to bed but she wanted to wait up for Michael and Kelly to get back from Arlette’s cafe but they were already a half an hour late to get back. Mary, Ted and Carl went home to Mary told Barbara to call her as soon as they got back. Jenny went to bed. Michael and Kelly tried to make sense of what had happened that night but they couldn’t figure anything out. When they realized that they were late to get home they rushed out of the cafe but they bumped into Buddy Hawkins and his girlfriend Melanie Whalen and a bunch of their friends who were all known for going down to the park, blasting some tunes and getting drunk, Craig told his son to stay away from them. Melanie told everyone that, that was Kelly the crazy one who tried to kill herself and Michael got mad and started a fight with Buddy they were all arrested and Buddy and his friends were charged for possession of alcohol. Ted and Craig went down to the police station. Ted took Michael home because some of those kids were his clients. After Ted dropped Michael off he started to yell at Kelly and he accidentally let out a “sometimes I think you are-“ and she knew what he was about to say and she got really angry and stormed out of the car and ran off through the swamp marshes. He ran after her but before he could catch up with her she was gone and know where to be found. He got back in the car and drove home.
When he got home he told his wife what had happened, she started to cry and told that he should have waited to get home before he started to yell at her and she started to cry. Carl called Tim Kitteridge and told him to gather up a search party to find Kelly. Barbara, Jenny, Craig and Michael went to the Andersons house. Jenny, Barbara and Mary stayed back at the house while Ted, Carl, Michael, Craig, Tim and five other guys went out to look for Kelly. Judd hid his boat within a tangle of reeds and mangrove so if the search party passed his house they’d think that he was out looking for Kelly. He couldn’t let anyone see the way he looked.
Michael took off by himself to look for Kelly because he knew the swamp better than any one of them and in his mind he knew where she could have gone.
Kelly kept yelling out, “someone help me” but know one heard her. Kelly tripped over a root while running from a bunch of mosquitoes who were biting her and she hurt her ankle, then all of a sudden she saw a water moccasin coming towards her and she knew that she had to stay still or else or it would attack her then their was an alligator who tried to get her but ripped the back of her shirt instead and someone from behind her shot the alligator in the mouth and through the head. The person grabbed her and told her that the alligator was dead he took her in to a rowboat but she had blacked out.
Tim Kitteridge and Marty Templar signaled everyone to come back to the dock. They decided that they were going to continue to look for Kelly in the morning because it was almost impossible to find someone in the swamp at all and it was even worse at night. Ted said that he would keep looking and when Craig noticed that Michael didn’t come back yet he figured that he was lost too and that he would continue to look too and everyone else agreed to help but Tim and Marty said that they would go get more people to join the search party and they’d continue in the morning.
Michael felt a sudden closeness to Kelly now because when he heard the shotgun he followed the sound. He saw the alligator and saw the muddy piece of cloth in its mouth and he knew that Kelly had been there and he knew that someone else had been there too and that it was probably a swamp rat, so he started to search in the heart of the swamp.
Tim and Marty went to the Andersons house and told Barbara that Michael had been lost to now and that Kelly hasn’t been found yet and that they were going to build another search party to continue with in the morning because by the morning the search party now would be tired. Jenny went downstairs when she heard her mother yell No! When Tim had told her about Michael but she was put back to sleep by her mother. When Barbara left the room Jenny got up and continued to listen to their conversation and she heard her mother say “Maybe Jenny and I should have went to look for he”, by the sound of that Jenny got dressed and escaped off the balcony to go look for Kelly.
When Kelly had awaken in the boat, she had recognized the boy it had been the boy that she tried to follow in the swamp, the first night she went out when she was in Villejeune. He told her that he always knew where she was and that there are a lot of people looking for her. The boy was Jonas. When they passed Amelie’s house she was on her porch and then she got in a boat and followed them.
Jenny was walking down a paved path calling out “Kelly”. Then she saw Judd’s house she knew he lived there because he father took her there to show her that their wasn’t a witch living there it was a police man and that she could go there if she ever has a problem. She went there and knocked on the door and yelled out his name. He didn’t answer for a long time and when he did he took her inside, tied her hands and ankles with nylon ties and put a dishtowel for a gag. She was struggling to get away but could not succeed. He put her in the trunk of his car and drove to Warren’s house. When Judd told Warren whom he had got at first he thought that he was crazy but then he gave in because they did need more of the fluid. Warren gave Judd the needle and he already started to look and feel younger, Warren told him to get some rest. Jenny was fast asleep from the hypodermic needle she was given.
Jonas and Kelly arrived at Clarey’s house and soon after them Michael had arrived. Clarey told them practically everything. She told them that Michael was the son of the Dark Man and that Kelly was stolen from her mother and brought her to Clarey before she was even a day old, then taken away from her again to be given away so that she could grow up away from the swamp to see how she’d turn out. She told them that he takes your soul. She told them that he must be stopped.
Amelie was listening from outside and now she knew that her baby hadn’t died at all, hers and everyone else’s, but she didn’t know who to tell.
It was almost four in the morning when Michael went to his fathers boat with Kelly. Tears flooded his eyes, they were fine and he called everyone back in. Finally they could all go home. When they all got to the Anderson’s house, Kelly told her story of how she had survived the snake but she didn’t tell them about the alligator and Clarey’s house. When the Sheffield’s were ready to go home Barbara went upstairs to get Jenny but she wasn’t there.
Warren woke up Judd and when he woke up he was all better. Warren told Judd that Jenny was upstairs in the bathroom and that he was going to use his radio in his car to tell the hospital that you found Jenny in the canal and your bringing her in. “You killed her?” was his response. He went upstairs was Jenny’s body lying in the tub of ice. Warren told Judd to tell Jolene to call him to come down to the hospital after you have called her. Judd got in his car and drove as fast has he could to the canal.
Jolene called Warren and told him that Judd had just called and said that he found Jenny’s body in the canal and said the he said that she was dead. He hung up immediately, got dressed and hurried to the hospital.
The phone rang at the Anderson’s house. Mary answered the phone, it was Tim, and he told her that he had just received a call from Judd saying that he’s found Jenny, they found her in one of the canals and that they were bringing her to the hospital. Craig, Ted and Carl were already on there way to look for Jenny, Michael was going to get them but Barbara said no and Kelly offered to go get them and tell them what had happened. Mary drove Barbara and Michael to the clinic. When they got there Barbara went in to see Jenny and Judd Duval told Michael that he had found her in the canal right by his place while he was on the way to work. Michael saw something in his eyes that was wrong and Michael knew he was lying. Barbara went into the room, started to cry and reached out to touch her daughters face. Warren told her that when they brought her to the hospital she had no chance of surviving because she had already been in the canal for at least an hour. Barbara was in denial for a bit and then she told Warren to leave her alone, so that she could be alone with her until Craig comes. When Craig came with Ted, Carl, and Kelly, Craig went into the room, his eyes fixed on his daughter and he heard his wife murmur “It’s my fault. It’s my fault”, Craig told her not to say that because it wasn’t her fault and that it was an accident. They started to sob together and Barbara told Craig to take her home. When they all left Warren told Jolene to call Orrin Hatfield to come and write a coroner’s report and to call Fred Childress to send a hearse. Since Orrin was a swamp rat he knew that he didn’t really have to a real autopsy because Warren told him that they all needed her thymus to stave off the aging process, if she doesn’t die before they get her to Fred Childress’s funeral home.
As Jenny was sleeping she had a nightmare of a man, so old he seemed barely alive at all. His hair, only a few thin wisps, hung limply from his scalp, which was covered with bleeding sores. His eyes pale blue, shot through with reddish veins, fixed greedily on her, and when his lips curled back in an evil smile, she could see his rotting teeth, worn nearly away, crumbling from his gums. In her dream he was reaching for her, with his claw like fingers ending in jagged, torn nails, touching the skin of her face. She woke up and yelled NO! But she couldn’t get up because her arms were strapped to the bed. She looked around the room and she saw other babies. She had begged Warren to let her see her parents, but he told her that she was sick and that if she saw them they’d get sick too. Every time when Jenny would wake up from her sleep she’d feel more and more empty all the time, she wondered if she was dying. Warren told Jenny that he was putting something in the IV to help her to sleep without dreaming that horrible dream, after he finished attaching the morphine vial to the Iv, and turned the valve that switched the feeder tube from the glucose solution to the narcotic and told her to go to bed. Each day he’d drained a little more of the priceless fluid from her thymus. Stolen her youth to prolong his own. Stolen her soul to stave of his own mortality.