Contents
Chapter Thirty-One
Overview
Chaos erupts at the Grove when Elif is grievously injured—stabbed in the eye with a paintbrush. Alicia, eerily calm and expressionless, is restrained nearby, strongly implying she attacked Elif. The sudden violence escalates the stakes of Alicia’s treatment and rattles Theo, deepening the sense of danger around her silence.
Summary
Theo arrives at the Grove intent on confronting Alicia about Barbie’s claim that Alicia felt watched before Gabriel’s murder. Before he can act, screams echo through the corridors, drawing staff and patients toward the goldfish-bowl area.
Theo reaches the scene to find Diomedes calling for paramedics and blood on his shirt. Nurses kneel over Elif, who writhes and screams, her eye pierced by a paintbrush embedded in the socket.
Nearby, Yuri and another nurse hold Alicia against the wall. She doesn’t struggle; Alicia is motionless and blank-faced, evoking the emptiness of her Alcestis painting. She stares directly at Theo, whose initial concern shifts into fear at her chilling composure amid the violence.
As orderlies contain the scene and help arrives, the incident reframes Alicia’s silence as ominous and volatile, disrupting Theo’s plan to discuss the stalking revelation and intensifying the peril within the Grove.
Who Appears
- Alicia BerensonStands calm and expressionless while being restrained, strongly implied to have stabbed Elif’s eye with a paintbrush.
- Theo FaberArrives to question Alicia; witnesses Elif’s injury and becomes fearful of Alicia’s unsettling composure.
- ElifVictim of a violent attack; screams in agony with a paintbrush lodged in her eye.
- Professor DiomedesLeads the emergency response, calls paramedics, blood on his shirt from aiding Elif.
- YuriRestrains Alicia at the scene, helping keep her contained after the attack.
- Security guardRushes past Theo toward the ward as the emergency unfolds.