Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of prescription drug addiction and suicide.

Working as a medical psychologist, Chloe Davis strives to create a new life for herself in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with her successful fiancé Daniel Briggs. Chloe has anxiety stemming from childhood trauma. As the protagonist of the novel, Chloe undergoes a journey of transformation as she navigates the blending of her past and her present.

Chloe’s intense fear of darkness limits her ability to connect with her loved ones. Afraid of vulnerability, Chloe attempts to rely only on herself. She maintains a shallow relationship with Daniel and restricts him from accessing her true emotions and thoughts. She refers to their relationship as “surface level” and “staged” (138). For Chloe, Daniel represents a new beginning that allows her access into a more stable life. However, she treats her relationship with Daniel as a performance during which she must perform a version of herself that obscures the truth. By maintaining this distance with Daniel, Chloe isolates herself. The pressures of this isolation and façade of happiness drive Chloe to seek freedom from her overwhelming emotions in prescription medications and alcohol that numb the pain. When faced with the reemergence of a serial killer in her new town, Chloe must confront her deepest fears or risk her safety.