Chapter 13 Summary and Analysis

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

At lunch the next day, Mallory heads to the Maxwells' basement and searches through unpacked shipping cartons. In the third box she finds a state-of-the-art baby monitor—an HD camera with infrared night vision and a receiver screen about the size of a paperback book. She stashes it in a shoebox and carries it upstairs, where Teddy asks what she was doing. She deflects and gets him his ravioli.

While Teddy eats, Mallory sneaks up to his bedroom to hide the camera. The device is bulky and needs to be plugged in, so she buries it in Teddy's mountain of stuffed animals, positioning the lens between Snoopy and Winnie-the-Pooh. She kisses the cross around her neck and hopes Teddy won't notice.

Back in the kitchen, Teddy is chatty, complaining about an upcoming barbershop trip—he wants to grow his hair long like the Cowardly Lion—but Mallory barely listens, too nervous about what she's about to witness.

When Teddy goes upstairs for Quiet Time, Mallory hurries to the den and plugs in the receiver. The audio and video are crystal clear since Teddy's bedroom is directly above. She can see his bed and most of the floor. Teddy enters the frame, grabs his sketchbook and pencil case, and leaps onto his bed. He arranges a row of pencils, sharpens one, and prepares to draw.

Then the feed begins to malfunction. The video sputters, freezes, and skips frames. A soft voice whispers a greeting, followed by static. Teddy looks up toward the door, addressing someone outside the frame, saying he's getting the pencils ready for drawing. He whispers warnings to be careful and gentle. The static grows louder, filling the room, and the video shows Teddy sprawled on his mattress, convulsing, his bed thumping against the ceiling.

Mallory runs upstairs. The doorknob won't turn—the door is locked, or something is holding it closed. She bangs, kicks, and throws her shoulder against it, hurting herself. Lying on the floor, she peers through the half-inch gap beneath the door and is hit by a toxic blast of concentrated ammonia that makes her cough, gag, and cry.

As she recovers, she hears the doorknob mechanism click. She opens the door and is hit again by the stench—concentrated urine suspended in the air. Teddy seems oblivious. He's sitting on his bed, drawing rapidly with a pencil in his right hand, slashing thick black lines. He doesn't respond to her shouting. When she touches his shoulder, he looks up with eyes completely white, pupils rolled back into his head, his hand still moving. His skin is hot, his muscles clenched with strange strength—nothing like his usual loose, rag-doll body.

Then his eyes snap back into place. He blinks and asks, confused, what's happening. He drops the pencil, denies drawing, and insists he doesn't know who the girl in the pictures is. He says Anya isn't real, that sometimes he dreams they're drawing together, but when he wakes up there are never any pictures. He flings the sketch pad across the room.

Mallory realizes what's happening: Anya must be removing the pictures from the bedroom before Teddy wakes up, so he never has to see them. Her arrival has interrupted their usual process. Teddy bursts into tears, and Mallory pulls him into her arms. His body is soft and loose again. He places his right hand in hers, and she sees his tiny fingers smudged with pencil marks.

And then the final realization: she knows for a fact that Teddy is left-handed.

Key Events

Mallory finds a state-of-the-art baby monitor in the Maxwells' basement and hides it in Teddy's bedroom among his stuffed animals.
During Quiet Time, the video feed sputters and freezes; a soft voice speaks and Teddy responds to someone outside the frame.
The feed shows Teddy convulsing on his mattress.
Mallory finds the bedroom door locked (or held closed) and is struck by a toxic ammonia smell from beneath the door.
The door unlocks; inside, Teddy is drawing rapidly with his eyes rolled back into his head.
Teddy denies drawing the pictures, insisting Anya isn't real and that they only dream drawing together.
Mallory realizes Anya must remove the pictures before Teddy wakes.
Mallory notices Teddy's fingers are smudged with pencil marks—and knows he is left-handed, though he was drawing with his right hand.

Character Development

Mallory shows growing resolve and investigative instinct. She takes the initiative to set up surveillance, carefully concealing the camera and waiting for evidence. Her fear is palpable—she's nervous before Quiet Time, panics when the feed glitches, and physically hurts herself trying to reach Teddy. Yet she also shows compassion, calming Teddy down and holding him when he breaks down, even as she's terrified by what she's witnessed.

Teddy is revealed to be in a dissociative state during his drawing episodes. He's unaware of what he's doing, his eyes rolled back, his body convulsing, drawing without seeing. When he comes to, he genuinely doesn't remember or understand what happened. His denial—insisting Anya isn't real and that the pictures only exist in dreams—shows a child trying to rationalize something impossible. His body language shifts dramatically between the episodes: loose and floppy normally, but clenched and powerful during the drawing state.

Anya remains unseen but her presence is strongly implied. The voice Teddy speaks to, the static that breathes, the locked door, and the ammonia smell all suggest an entity actively manipulating the environment. Mallory's realization that Anya removes the pictures before Teddy wakes suggests a deliberate, protective or controlling behavior.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Surveillance and hidden observation: The baby monitor is the chapter's central device. Mallory's attempt to observe Teddy's behavior directly parallels the reader's own position—watching events unfold without being able to intervene. The glitching, sputtering feed suggests that whatever is happening resists observation.

Supernatural possession and loss of bodily autonomy: Teddy's convulsions, rolled-back eyes, and clenched muscles during the drawing episodes suggest his body is being controlled by something else. He draws without seeing, his hand moving independently of his conscious will.

Dissociative drawing states and dream-reality blurring: Teddy's description of dreaming the drawings with Anya blurs the line between sleep and waking. He believes the pictures only exist in dreams, yet they appear in reality—a violation of his understanding of how the world works.

Toxic atmosphere: The concentrated ammonia smell that hits Mallory like pepper spray is a physical manifestation of the wrongness in the room. It's a sensory marker of the supernatural presence, something that affects the body even before the mind can process it.

Hidden truths revealed: The chapter's final revelation—that Teddy is left-handed but was drawing with his right hand—is a quiet but devastating clue. It confirms that the drawings are not Teddy's own work, that something else is guiding his hand.

Why This Chapter Matters

This is the first chapter where Mallory directly observes the supernatural phenomenon in real time. The baby monitor footage provides concrete evidence that something is happening in Teddy's bedroom during Quiet Time—something that speaks to him, convulses his body, and draws through him. The locked door, the ammonia smell, and the rolled-back eyes all point to an external force at work.

The left-handed reveal is the chapter's most significant clue. Teddy is drawing with his right hand, but Mallory knows he's a lefty. This means the drawings are not Teddy's—they're being produced by something else using his body. It's the first hard evidence that the pictures have a supernatural origin, and it sets up the central mystery of the novel: who or what is Anya, and what does she want?

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Mallory decide to use a baby monitor to observe Teddy during Quiet Time?

Mallory realizes that to understand where the pictures are coming from, she needs to see where they're coming from. She knows the drawings appear during Quiet Time, so she sets up surveillance in Teddy's bedroom to catch the moment of creation. The monitor gives her a direct view of the room and the bed, the two places where Teddy is most likely to sit and draw.

2. What evidence in this chapter suggests that Teddy is not in control of his own body during the drawing episodes?

Multiple details point to external control. Teddy's eyes roll back into his head while his hand keeps moving, drawing without seeing. His body convulses on the mattress, and his muscles are clenched with unusual strength—a stark contrast to his normally loose, floppy body. He's oblivious to Mallory's shouting and doesn't respond until his eyes snap back into place. Most tellingly, he's drawing with his right hand, but Mallory knows he's left-handed.

3. What does Mallory conclude about Anya's role in the drawing process, and what evidence supports this conclusion?

Mallory concludes that Anya must be removing the pictures from the bedroom before Teddy wakes up, so he never has to see them. This is supported by Teddy's own words: he says he dreams of drawing with Anya, but when he wakes up there are never any pictures. The fact that Mallory found pictures on the floor and in progress on the sketch pad suggests she interrupted the usual process—Anya hadn't yet removed them.