Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child death, rape, physical abuse, mental illness, suicidal ideation, sexual content, and cursing.

Malachi keeps his distance from Olivia after the camping trip, though he often sneaks into her room while she is asleep so that he can watch her or lie under her bed. The more he stays away from Olivia, the more subdued he grows. His best friend, Mason, worries that Malachi is having suicidal thoughts, but Malachi knows that he can never leave a world in which Olivia is still alive. He believes that if Jamieson witnesses him having a panic attack again, he will tell Jennifer about it. This would lead to therapy, medication, and maybe a psychiatric hospital for Malachi. Jamieson has no idea how deeply Malachi’s childhood trauma has affected him.

Malachi’s feelings about the Vizes oscillate: Sometimes, they treat him like family, but sometimes, he thinks they resent him. One evening, he realizes that he could steal Jennifer’s sleeping pills and drug Olivia so that he can rape her. He acts on the thought, secretly stirring the pills into Olivia’s drinking water. 

After Olivia loses consciousness, Malachi undresses her. He manually and orally rapes her, even though he knows that what he is doing is wrong.