absence-and-responsibility

In this chapter, Silas has been absent for an extended period, leaving Bod under the care of the Owens family who worry about Bod's safety and the whereabouts of Silas. Bod reflects on his past and the man who killed his family, named Jack, while preparing himself with knowledge and skills to face the dangers outside the graveyard. Meanwhile, Scarlett Amber Perkins, a troubled teenager new to the town, accidentally enters the graveyard and encounters a man engaged in gravestone rubbing, highlighting the town's deep historical roots.