Chapters 37-40

Charles Halloway sitting in his library just enjoys being surrounded by his multitude of books. He thinks about all the stuff that's gone down, and is worried about what's coming and what he'll have to face. When the boys head over to the library, Will's worried that something bad has already happened to his father, but nothing has. Will and Jim tell Mr. Halloway about everything, like everything. The good thing is that he believes them and is willing to help. Turns out, this evil carnival has been running since 1846. Mr. Halloway tells them about how the carnival people feed on people in despair. However, there is some hope, because of the fact that Mr. Dark was afraid of Mr. Halloway in the cigar store. They wonder what they can do to fight the evil carnival. Mr. Halloway has this great lecture to the boys about love and humanity and about how these men are leeches, sucking and feeding on everything sad and mournful in the world, about how they seem to offer a lot, but really take everything for themselves. Jim asks if the carnival people like buy souls, but Mr. Halloway explains that like...they don't need to because people just give them away and the freaks feed off of them. He explains that when people hit rock bottom, near death, they'll do anything to get away from it. And that they use the carousel to isolate the people, so their minds are the same, but the are children and have no support system. When they start to plan an attack, Mr. Dark opens the front door, and the boys hide.