Jud wakes up, knowing that he has been put to sleep. He hears the door hinges creak: “That wasn’t Louis out there. Whatever was out there had been sent to punish an old man for his pride and vanity” (363). He hears footsteps and smells the grave, seeing Church crouched in the doorway. The cat then crawls around his feet. Jud backs up and kicks at the cat. He goes to the kitchen and gets a meat cleaver. Church follows him and then Gage does as well. Gage says he will send Jud to hell. Gage starts talking about how Norma cheated on him with all Jud’s friends and now she’s in hell. He starts speaking in Norma’s voice, talking about how she had sex with his friends and they laughed. Jud screams at Gage to stop, lunging at Gage. Church trips Jud and Gage stabs Jud through both his hands, screaming at him and stabbing him over and over.

A truck driver puts Rachel’s car’s battery cables back on, which had somehow come off. Rachel offers him money but he refuses. Rachel knows she has been held up just long enough for something terrible to happen because a new car’s cables should not rattle off.