This chapter opens with a description of the fire that was started by the "demonic girl" the previous night. The girl is disguised as a woman and tries to escape, but the fire is put out by the girl's stepmother, who tries to stop her. The stepmother tells the girl that it is dangerous for her and her baby to be near the fire, and she begs the girl to leave first. When the girl refuses to leave, the stepmother tells her that she is his stepmother, and that she has held him when he was born. She tells him that their fates are "quite intertwined," and that if he does not tell her what to do, she will kill him and his baby