Haunting Adeline

Zade watches Mark at Satan’s Affair as Mark stares at a girl dressed as a broken doll. When the girl runs into the haunted house that Adeline and Daya are going toward, Zade sees Mark greet Adeline and Daya, introducing them to his associates. After Adeline and Daya go into the house, Zade runs up and greets Mark. Zade enters the house, looking for Adeline and Daya. He goes to the exit, and the girl dressed as a broken doll stops him, accusing him of preying on women. Zade is amused that the girl has misidentified him as the predator in the house, and he fights her off.

Once Zade gets away from the girl, he finds himself in a hallway near Mark’s group. The group talks about how they will kidnap Adeline and Daya, with Mark saying that Zade is not a threat to them. Zade confronts the group, but he is interrupted by the entrance of the girl in the broken doll costume.

Adeline and Daya finish their tour of the haunted houses without incident, and Daya insists on taking a break before heading home. Adeline decides to go through the house of mirrors before the fair closes, and she leaves Daya on a bench outside. Inside the house, mirrors line the walls at odd angles, and Adeline walks slowly, focusing on the floor, with her arms held out around her to avoid walking into the mirrors. She gets lost quickly, and Zade begins taunting her, appearing in a mirror nearby. He tells her to run, and she does, but she quickly runs out of breath and gives up. Zade appears behind her, and they embrace, but Adeline stops him, saying that she does not want to have sex with him. Zade tells her that he loves her, and she is convinced that he is being honest, then agrees to have sex with him.

Adeline and Zade have sex in the house of mirrors. Adeline notes that Zade is covered with tattoos and scars, and, though she still has mixed feelings about having sex with her abuser, she enjoys their time together. At one point, she pretends to run away from him so that he will chase her. After the two have had sex, Adeline remembers Daya and receives a phone call from her. Daya is worried about Adeline, and Zade helps Adeline find her way out of the house. When they part ways, Zade kisses Adeline, and Adeline says that it is the last time she will let him touch her. Noticing that it has been two hours since she initially went into the house of mirrors, Adeline rushes to Daya’s car, and Daya immediately notices that Adeline had sex.

The chapter ends with a diary entry dated March 2, 1946, in which Gigi recounts telling Ronaldo that she wants to divorce John. She insists that Ronaldo needs to quit his job to provide a safe life for her and Sera, and Ronaldo says that he cannot leave his boss. He also implies that John is also tied to Ronaldo’s boss, which confuses Gigi. Gigi asserts that she will be a single mother if she needs to.

Zade revisits the girl in the broken doll costume, and the two form a temporary alliance. When she and Zade ran into Mark and his associates, they knocked out the four men and stored them in another building at the fair. Now that the fair is closed, Zade and the girl return to the building to torture and kill the four men. The girl’s name is Sibby, and she implies that there are other people in the house with her that will protect her if they need to. She immediately kills Robert, one of Mark’s associates, which disturbs Zade greatly.

Torturing Mark, Zade gets a confession regarding the ritual that the ouroboros cult performs. The cult is called the Society, and it seems that this Society runs the government from the shadows, using the blood ritual to gain power from cosmic deities called the Eternal Rebirth. Mark confesses that the Society had already targeted Adeline before he met her, and Zade is furious and worried that Adeline might be kidnapped. Mark tells Zade the names or codenames of the people in the Society that he knows, and he also reveals the location of their current base of operations, Savior’s club. However, Mark tells Zade that killing members of the Society will force them to relocate, but Mark does not know where they will relocate to. Though Mark tries to negotiate for his life, Zade tortures and kills him.

Zade recounts what happened after he killed Mark, as Sibby takes the fall, claiming she has five henchmen working for her. Zade outruns the police in his vehicle, and he is confident that the murders will not be tracked to him. Now, Zade is planning to infiltrate Savior’s, the gentlemen’s club that Mark named as the base of the Society’s rituals. Jay is watching Adeline in the meantime, and he says that Daya has been Adeline’s only visitor.

Entering Savior’s, Zade notes that everything is red, and the women working in the club are clearly abused. He meets with Daniel Boveri, a lawyer for the president of the United States, and the two discuss Mark’s death, with Zade emphasizing the five henchmen to draw suspicion away from himself. Dan implies that Zade is not yet a member of the club, noting that Zade will have to take part in the blood ritual though he does not provide details. Zade shows Dan a picture of a girl he saved from trafficking years ago, claiming to Dan that Zade kidnapped her to imply that Zade is already involved in child trafficking. Dan is amused, and he tells Zade that the next initiation ritual is in one week. Zade asks if the ritual is safe, and Dan claims that, though a video of the ritual was leaked, they have since caught and removed the spy who posted it.

Adeline sees a news report on the deaths of the four senators, recognizing Mark and his associates. The news claims that Sibby tortured and killed all four men, but Adeline knows that Zade was involved, as well. Zade shows up outside Adeline’s window, and she moves to call the police. Zade stops her, and, even though Adeline tells him to stop, he begins sexually assaulting her. Adeline breaks free, running into the woods, but Zade catches her. He tells her that the four men deserved to die, and the morals imposed on her by society are unjust. In Zade’s mind, he does what he feels is right, ignoring the common morals of society, and he encourages Adeline to do the same. Though Adeline is persuaded by this argument, she still insists that she does not want to have sex with Zade, and she claims that, though she physically enjoys the sex, now, she will grow to hate Zade and the idea of having sex with him.

In the forest, Zade forces Adeline to masturbate while he watches. Afterward, he gets Adeline to confess that she would prefer if they had sex, and they have sex against a tree. Then, Zade pulls Adeline to her car, and they have consensual sex in the vehicle, with Adeline becoming a willing participant. Though Adeline tells Zade that she feels trapped, both in the car and in their situation, Zade claims that he is Adeline’s “sanctuary,” painting them as deities and equals. Zade tells Adeline that she will be in love with him after having sex with him on this occasion, and Adeline internally admits that she is in love with him already.

The chapter ends with a diary entry dated April 3, 1946, in which Gigi says that “he” has lost his mind, though it is unclear whether she is referring to Ronaldo or John. She says that she told him that she wants a divorce, and he became enraged with jealousy. In the entry, Gigi repeats that she is scared three times.