Leather & Lark

The Phantom watches Ethel sleep. She suddenly wakes up and demands to know who he is. When he gives her a fake name, she understands that he is using an alias and realizes that he is there to kill her. Even so, she makes no move to push the call button or summon a nurse. The Phantom asks her if she repents “before the judgment of the Lord” (333). At first, the Phantom thinks that Ethel will repent, but she tells him that her only regrets in life are not stealing a recipe and not going home with a man after a party. Ethel goads the Phantom and “grins, a devil satisfied” (334). He gives her a syringe of saline and expects her to try to save herself, but she just smiles at him.

When he is about to give her an overdose of lorazepam, he feels a rush of euphoria. He considers how God has helped him by leading him to avenge his brother, Harvey: a serial killer whom Rowan and Sloane killed. The Phantom recites a hymn to Ethel, who makes fun of him, then takes a bloodied handkerchief from Ethel’s hand as a souvenir.