House of Hollow

With broken ribs, Iris hobbles to Agnes, whose body is bent and broken, “flowers teeming from her eye sockets, vines growing from her mouth, lichen covering her” in death (205). Tyler is battered and cries with Iris when she admits she lost Grey and Vivi. They cremate Agnes’s tree, like one would a body. Tyler encourages Iris to find the Halfway, since she’s been there before (at age seven), but she doesn’t think she’s a planner or leader like Grey. She considers dying as a method of transportation, so Tyler could drown her in a tub and then revive her. He denies her idea, so they strategize. Grey never talked to Tyler about her past in depth, but Iris suddenly realizes they can return to the beginning.

The door from which the Hollow girls originally vanished is close by, so Iris and Tyler gather supplies and walk there. Iris recognizes the street, but her memories are fleeting. She and Tyler struggle to find the door, until the latter researches online threads about the sisters’ mystery, some of which discuss freestanding doors leading to new places. However, the door in question is gone, as the building was repaired.