Every Heart A Doorway

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child death, death, graphic violence, transgender discrimination, and emotional abuse.

Jack and Christopher return to the lab in the basement. She warns him that associating with her or discussing the grimmer aspects of his time in the Country of the Bones will likely lead to ostracization from their peers: “Right now, you’re still one of them, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that can’t change” (139). The music that Christopher plays on his flute is inaudible to the living, but it stirs Loriel’s skeleton into motion and covers her bones with an opalescent sheen.

Eleanor owns all the land surrounding the school, and Jack and Christopher lead the dancing skeleton to an isolated area of rocky ground covered with weeds. Jack asks Loriel who murdered her, and she points to “the space next to Jack” (141). Because no one is standing there, Jack assumes that Loriel is unable to provide a real answer. Christopher directs Loriel to bury herself, and then he and Jack return to the school.

That afternoon, Eleanor gathers the students in the library. She thanks Nancy and her friends for disposing of Loriel’s body and stuns everyone by offering to open her door for anyone who would be safe in a Nonsense world.