Following a clue, Maggie Holt uncovers a hidden passage, leading her to a shocking realization about Baneberry Hall's secrets. Meanwhile, Ewan Holt's account in House of Horrors takes a dark turn as he believes he's communicating with spirits, leading to a disturbing discovery about Indigo Garson's portrait. As Maggie confronts the truth, a dangerous chase ensues, culminating in a fall and a letter that shatters everything she thought she knew.
Chapter 21: The Secret Passage and the Snake
Maggie follows the clue from the loose floorboard to the ivy-covered back wall, where she discovers a hidden door. This leads to a narrow, cobweb-filled staircase ascending to the second floor, ending at the back of the armoire in her own bedroom. The discovery is profound, suggesting someone could have entered the house undetected, both recently and twenty-five years ago. The chilling implication dawns on her: it wasn't a supernatural entity like "Mister Shadow" visiting her as a child, but a real person. This reframes her entire understanding of her family's story, suggesting the threat was human all along.
The narrative shifts to Ewan Holt's account from House of Horrors, dated July 14. Ewan describes a twenty-hour vigil in the kitchen, waiting for a sign from the spirits. He is sleep-deprived and on the verge of madness, surrounded by what he perceives as supernatural sounds. Finally, the servant bells begin to chime, spelling out "HELLO" and "EWAN." Ewan communicates with the spirit he believes to be Curtis Carver, asking for help to stop the malevolent ghost of William Garson.
Curtis's spirit communicates that William Garson did not kill his daughter, Indigo Garson. When Ewan asks what to look at for the truth, the bells spell out "HER PORTRAIT." Rushing to the Indigo Room, Ewan examines Indigo's painting and notices that the white rabbit she holds seems painted differently. Scraping at a chip in the paint, he discovers another layer underneath. Using a putty knife, he carefully removes the overpainting of the rabbit, revealing a snake. The realization that Indigo, not her father, was the true predator overwhelms Ewan, and he collapses from exhaustion.
Chapter 22: The Boy from Town
Back in the present, Maggie resolves to seal the secret passage and leave Baneberry Hall for good. She calls Dane Hibbets and asks for his help moving the armoire, deliberately omitting the full scope of the job so he won't refuse. While waiting, she goes to the third-floor study to return the Polaroids and her father's book. She finds House of Horrors mysteriously open to a chapter describing the day the kitchen ceiling was patched. A specific passage catches her eye: Ewan mentions that the handyman, Walt Hibbs, "brought a boy from town to help."
This detail sparks a realization in Maggie. This boy could have known Petra Ditmer and been the one to hide her body, knowing about the hole in the floor. She grabs a Polaroid taken that day, which she had previously assumed showed her father in the background. Using a magnifying glass from the desk, she examines the image more closely. The "boy from town" is partially visible, wearing a black T-shirt with the Rolling Stones logo—the same vintage shirt Dane was wearing when they met at the motel. The truth hits her just as Dane appears in the study doorway, saying, "I can explain."
Chapter 23: The Chase and the Fall
Dane enters the study and admits that he knew Petra. He explains they had a "summer fling" while he was staying with his grandparents. Maggie, holding the incriminating Polaroid, immediately accuses him of her murder. Dane denies it, but his demeanor becomes threatening when Maggie says she'll call the police, fearing a return to jail. He lunges for her phone, and a desperate chase begins.
Maggie shoves Dane into a bookshelf and flees down the stairs, with Dane in close pursuit. Realizing she can't make it out the front door in time, she makes a split-second decision and veers into the parlor, leading him toward the Indigo Room. She uses her intimate knowledge of the house's current state as a weapon. The room is dark, and the hole in the floor where Petra's body was found is nearly invisible. Maggie leaps over the gap and spins around to face Dane. Unaware of the hazard, Dane continues charging forward and plunges through the floor, his fall ending with a sickening thud in the kitchen below.
Chapter 24: The Letter
Emergency services descend on Baneberry Hall. Dane is taken away in an ambulance, alive but injured, and presumably on his way to jail. Chief Alcott apologizes to Maggie for ever suspecting her father. As the police leave, another car arrives. It is Maggie's mother, Jess Holt, who has flown in from France. Jess is furious with Maggie for returning to the house and stirring up the past.
Inside, Jess insists they go to the kitchen, avoiding the main floor. There, Maggie recounts her discoveries, culminating in her belief that Dane killed Petra. Jess listens with a look of weary devastation. She tells Maggie she shouldn't have dug into the past and hands her a large envelope. Inside is a letter from Ewan, addressed "To Maggie." The letter reveals the novel's central, shattering truth: House of Horrors is a complete fabrication. Ewan and Jess didn't flee a haunted house; they fled because they believed five-year-old Maggie had accidentally killed Petra Ditmer by pushing her down the stairs. To protect her from a ruined life, Ewan hid Petra's body under the floorboards and invented the entire ghost story as an elaborate, "invisible" reason to abandon the house and cover up the crime.
Chapter 25: The Killer
Maggie is shattered by her father's letter. She accuses her mother of lying, but Jess tearfully insists they did what they thought was best for their child. The revelation that her parents saw her as a killer and built her life upon this monstrous secret is too much for Maggie to bear. Her grief and shock curdle into rage. When Jess tries to comfort her, Maggie slaps her and screams for her to get out of the house. Heartbroken, Jess leaves.
Alone, Maggie is consumed by the new, horrifying identity her father's letter has given her: she is a killer. The weight of this "truth" is physically crushing. She crawls up the stairs to her bedroom and collapses onto the bed, wishing for oblivion. As she lies there, the doors to the armoire creak open. A figure emerges, but it is not the "Mister Shadow" of her childhood imagination. It is "Miss Pennyface," who steps into the light and reveals herself to be Marta Carver. Marta looks at Maggie and says, "Hello, Maggie. It’s been a long time since we’ve met like this."
Key Events
- Maggie discovers a secret passage leading from outside directly into her bedroom armoire.
- In House of Horrors, Ewan uncovers a painted-over snake in Indigo Garson's portrait, recasting her as the story's villain.
- Maggie identifies a teenage Dane Hibbets in an old Polaroid, confirming he was at the house and knew Petra Ditmer.
- After a chase, Maggie tricks Dane into falling through the hole in the Indigo Room floor.
- Jess Holt arrives and gives Maggie a letter from Ewan revealing the book is a lie created to cover up the fact that they believed Maggie killed Petra.
- Marta Carver appears in Maggie's room, revealing herself as the real "Miss Pennyface."
Character Development
These chapters bring significant changes for the main characters:
- Maggie Holt: Her entire identity is demolished. She begins by confirming her skepticism of the supernatural, only to be confronted with a far worse reality. The revelation that her parents believed she was a killer forces her to re-evaluate her entire life, her memories, and her relationship with them. Her quest for truth ends with a horrifying, albeit incorrect, answer about herself.
- Ewan Holt: Through his letter, Ewan is transformed from a potentially fame-hungry author of a ghost story into a tragic figure. His actions are re-framed as those of a desperate father making an impossible choice to protect his child. The letter reveals his deep love for Maggie and the immense guilt that haunted him for the rest of his life.
- Jess Holt: Her years of emotional distance and anger are finally explained. She has been a co-conspirator in a massive deception, a secret that destroyed her marriage and her bond with Maggie. Her arrival shows she is still fiercely protective, willing to fly across the world to manage the fallout.
- Dane Hibbets: Dane is revealed to be a classic red herring. His suspicious behavior stemmed not from guilt over murder, but from a desire to hide his teenage summer fling with Petra. He is a victim of circumstance, his past making him the perfect scapegoat.
- Marta Carver: Marta's character shifts dramatically from a peripheral, grieving neighbor to a central and sinister figure. Her reveal as "Miss Pennyface"—the person who secretly entered Maggie's room for years—positions her as the true, human horror at the heart of the story.
Themes & Symbols
Themes
- Truth vs. Fiction and the Unreliability of Narrative: This theme explodes in these chapters. The entire narrative of House of Horrors is exposed as an elaborate fiction designed to conceal a terrible secret. Maggie's own memories are shown to be incomplete, and the "truth" she uncovers in her father's letter is itself another layer of misinterpretation. The story powerfully argues that narratives, whether in books or in families, are constructed and can be profoundly deceiving.
- Family Secrets and Their Consequences: The devastating impact of the Holt family's secret is laid bare. The decision to cover up what they believed Maggie did led to the disintegration of their family, Ewan's lifelong guilt, Jess's emotional isolation, and Maggie's confused and haunted upbringing. The secret festered for twenty-five years, causing more profound damage than the truth might have.
- The Past Haunting the Present: The "haunting" of Baneberry Hall is revealed to be literal, not supernatural. The actions of the past—the cover-up, Marta's secret visits—directly dictate the events of the present. The house is not haunted by ghosts, but by the inescapable consequences of human choices.
Symbols
- The Secret Passage/Armoire: This symbolizes the hidden truths and repressed memories that lie just beneath the surface of the family's story. What appears to be a solid, secure boundary (the bedroom wall) contains a hidden entrance, allowing the secrets of the past (in the form of Marta) to invade the present.
- The Snake: Within the fictional narrative of House of Horrors, the snake hidden beneath the painting of the rabbit symbolizes deception and concealed evil. It marks Indigo as the true villain. This mirrors the larger deception of the book itself, where a story of supernatural horror conceals a real-world crime.
- Ewan's Letter: The letter functions as a physical manifestation of the hidden truth. It is the key that unlocks the central mystery, but it also represents the final, devastating lie of the story—the misinterpretation of Maggie's role in Petra's death.
Significance
These chapters represent the novel's narrative fulcrum, containing the primary plot twist that redefines the entire story. The reveal in Chapter 24 shifts the book's genre, transforming it from a story about a potentially real haunting into a psychological thriller centered on family trauma, guilt, and a decades-old cover-up. Every event that came before is cast in a new light, and the motivations of every main character are completely upended. The supernatural horror is exposed as a lie, replaced by the much more tangible horror of human action and deception. The final cliffhanger—the appearance of Marta Carver as Miss Pennyface—sets the stage for the final confrontation, moving the threat from a psychological burden to an immediate, physical danger.
Key Quotes
"You did, Maggie... You killed her."
This line from Ewan's letter is devastating in its simplicity. It encapsulates the false "truth" that Maggie's parents have carried for twenty-five years and the horrific burden they have placed upon her. The words attack Maggie's core identity, suggesting she is a killer and that her entire life has been built on a lie.
"Hello, Maggie. It’s been a long time since we’ve met like this."
Marta Carver's chilling greeting marks a shift from psychological horror to immediate physical danger. The line confirms that the "ghosts" of Maggie's childhood were real people all along, and that Marta has been secretly observing and manipulating Maggie for years. It sets the stage for a final confrontation, where the true nature of the haunting will be revealed.
Analysis
Riley Sager's use of the book-within-a-book structure reaches its brilliant culmination in this section. The narrative of House of Horrors has been building a complex supernatural mythology, which is systematically and shockingly dismantled by Ewan's letter. This structural choice allows Sager to execute a masterful misdirection; the reader, like Maggie, is led to question whether the ghosts are real, only to discover that this question was a distraction from the real secret.
The psychological horror of these chapters is particularly effective. The terror shifts from external, spectral forces to an internal, existential crisis for Maggie. The horror is not that the house is haunted, but that she might be a monster and that her entire life has been a carefully constructed lie to protect her from that fact. The final reveal of Marta Carver brings the horror full circle, proving that the "ghosts" were real people all along, their motivations far more complex and dangerous than any spirit's.