Chapter 8 Summary: The Night Has 1000 Screams

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

⚠️ This chapter contains major character deaths, graphic violence, and a significant supernatural reveal. If you haven't finished the book, proceed with caution.

Summary

The chapter opens with Jade and Banner moving through the woods toward the sound of multiple chainsaws. They discuss Jo Ellen's departure—she left after the boats were sabotaged, saying she could swim across the lake. Banner reveals that someone kicked the bottom out of everything that floats, and they both suspect the Angel of Indian Lake may be responsible. Jade also presses Banner about whether he thought she was the one dressing up to scare people away, a theory he half-admits to.

They reach the fire mitigation crew, a group of about sixteen people with chainsaws and axes. Banner tries to get them to leave, but before they can, a chainsaw accident occurs: two saws touch in the middle of a trunk, and one kicks out, catching student Alex high on his right shoulder. The chainsaw carves down into him, and Jade rushes to hold him as he dies in her arms. She is pulled back to memories of Melanie Hardy's death four years prior. Alex's dad, who tackled the other saw operator, is speared through the chest by a tree splinter, along with the man he was tackling. Both die.

Jade grieves, hitting Banner's chest, then tells him to claim he shot the killer and it ran away. The crew gathers, and Jade recognizes faces but resists naming them. Then she spots a figure with a golden pickaxe—a man in a county-brown cowboy hat. It's her father, Tab Daniels, resurrected. The golden pickaxe grants life to whoever touches it in Ezekiel's Cold Box. Tab's neck wound from Jade's machete is still visible, a ragged rip on his throat, and Jade realizes this is his weakness.

Tab kills several crew members: Jocelyn Cates (after she throws an axe at him for her son), Red Flannel (axe to the throat), Tall Boots (pickaxe through the midsection), and Hardhat (pickaxe through the chest). Banner shoots Tab multiple times, but the bullets have no effect. Tab kills Banner with the pickaxe—Banner's tongue turns golden, suggesting the pickaxe's power has marked him.

The scene shifts to a recorded conversation from June 21, 2023 at 2:12am. Jade is at Glen Ridge Cemetery with Bethany Manx, near Grady