This chapter opens with a description of an encounter between a group of people and a creature that jumped out of a doorway in the sky. The creature was scared out of its wits by gunshots, and the group searched for the creature all night, but did not find it. This chapter ends with an explanation of the nature of the institute of "fringe science" that the group works for. The institute, according to the narrator, is the place where he met the "ifs" , the people who believe in "weird" things, like "witches" and "demons." The group is going to "validate their stories" with their research, he says, and they will not find anything chasing "fairytales" or "delusions." This is a reference to the fact that there is a murderer and a murderer is killing animals, and now there are people who are "ritualally" killing people. The narrator explains that the killing bears a "close resemblance" to the mutilation of cattle at a nearby farm, and he believes it is a "cult."