This chapter's epigraph comes from a poem by a famous poet, Henry David Thoreau. In the poem, Thoreau describes a dream in which he wakes up from a nightmare and realizes that he is surrounded by invisible people. He realizes that his dream is not a dream at all, but a nightmare of his own creation. The dream is interrupted by the sound of someone's voice, and he realizes that it is the voice of a young girl who has awakened from her dream. The girl is Emerald, and she tells him that she was raised by the church, and that she is afraid of her own death because she is stronger than death. She tells him to tighten his torture on her, because she has become "a fearsome demon killer" . He tells her that he was helping her when he pinched her hand, and now he needs her to rescue him from the enemy. He says that he spent years creating a small town in order to remember the best time of his life with John. Now, he says, the enemy has taken advantage of this small town, and it is time for him to "let go of his past."