Elatsoe: Chapter 30 Summary & Analysis

Ellie is sure Trevor killed the man, who must be an exorcist. She, Jay, Al, Lily, and four other vampires decide not to take the man’s gun—bullets don’t work on the dead, anyway—and head upstairs. Kirby whines as they reach a corridor filled with mangled bodies. Ellie tells Trevor he didn’t have to kill people, but she refuses to say if she’s an enemy or an ally. She asks if he’ll let them go home, and speaking through the walkie-talkies, Trevor tells Ellie to cross the hallway. Ellie sends the vampires through the hallway first. She tries to send Jay next, but an invisible hand grabs him and drags him to Al, slamming the door behind him.

Alone now, Ellie calls Kirby to her and closes her eyes. The corpses begin to flop, and Ellie opens her eyes to the exorcist’s body, which Trevor is using. Trevor agrees that he’s not Ellie’s cousin anymore: he’s “an emissary of a murdered man, unleashed to right a terrible wrong.” The emissary says he’s going to get justice for Trevor—and if Ellie wants to die, she’ll “interfere with [the emissary’s] vengeance.” He insists to Ellie that in this case, justice and vengeance are the same thing, and he wants to murder everyone in Willowbee. He continues that Willowbee “puts a bounty on the Indigenous, the poor, and the vulnerable,” causing them to suffer to heal the rich. The emissary wants to make them feel powerless.

When Ellie points out that Trevor taught some of the children at this party, the emissary screams, cuts the lights, and begins to prick Ellie’s skin with glass shards. He asks Ellie to try calling all the emissaries like him, who are trapped between here and the underworld, but Ellie refuses to help. As glass cuts her, she commands Kirby to howl, which protects her from the glass as she runs for the door, finding Al and Jay on the other side. The door leads outdoors, and Ellie looks up at stars: they were stuck in time in the house, and it’s actually now 8:00 p.m. The masquerade has started, and everyone in the ballroom is in danger.  

Ellie leads Jay and Al to the mansion’s front door, which is locked. They enter through an upstairs balcony. Inside, they encounter a drunk woman who thinks they’re joking when they ask if everyone is still alive. She is, however, able to point them in the direction of the room where Vivian likely still is, so Al goes to find Vivian while Jay and Ellie enter the ballroom. Ellie tries to call Vivian, and to her surprise, Vivian picks up. Ellie’s able to tell her mom what the emissary is planning and that it’s already nighttime, but then the call drops.

Just then, Dr. Allerton takes the stage to announce who’s winning the prize trip to Hawaii. However, the piano plays an ominous scale—and then every piano key slams down at once. Ellie shouts for everyone to evacuate, but nobody takes Ellie seriously. As everyone is staring at her, the piano flies up and heads for the crowd.