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POV is Rev Parata throughout (first-person). Book 3 of the Parata series. Rev and Rae are now established as Order of the Hidden Eye operatives, on retainer to Father James Kelly. The case begins as a welfare check on a missing Jesuit (Father Peter Walsh) in a tiny condemned bayou village; it escalates into a confrontation with a parasitic alien larva (one of the centipede creature’s young) that has taken over Walsh, the deep-cult townsfolk of Tranquility/Skelly’s Hole/Psikinépikwa, and a colossal tentacled god-thing that rises from the bottomless sinkhole at the climax. The book opens with a flash-forward to the morning after the climax, then jumps back to begin the case proper.

Note on chronology: The opening “Awake” chapter is a flash-forward to Saturday morning, December 22, 1984; the body of the book runs chronologically from Monday, December 10, 1984, through the climax on the night of Friday December 21 / morning of Saturday December 22, with denouement on Sunday December 23. The “Awake” beats are placed below in their proper chronological place at December 22.

Monday, December 10, 1984

• [Commune, Ch. “Briefing”] Rev (with Rae) — packed restaurant, then Saint Christina’s, NOLA (12:42 PM) — Months after the Burke case; Rev and Rae have spent the time fruitlessly searching for the still-living Burke. Father Kelly briefs them on a missing-persons case: Father Peter Walsh, a Jesuit and Order member, traveled to a “speck on the map” called Psikinépikwa to study Las Tribus Olvidadas, an alleged 1500s Spanish-expedition codex with native rituals; he was due back the first week of December and is not heard from. Bernie waves to them from the garden; he has been released and is back to normal.
• [Commune, Ch. “Briefing” (cont)] Rev / Rae — by phone, NOLA library (afternoon) — No record of Psikinépikwa in any New Orleans archive; they decide to drive to Baton Rouge to check Walsh’s room at the diocesan boarding house and consult Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University.

Tuesday, December 11, 1984

• [Commune, Ch. “Dream”] Rev — NOLA hotel room (3:56 AM) — Nightmare: a swamp fisherman wades after a stuck lure, the “log” turns out to be the chitinous centipede creature (now bearing a burning three-lobed red eye with six smaller orbs in a V), which seizes the man and drags him under; Rev wakes in a sheet of sweat. The creature has clearly grown. (Specific motel name “The Court” not in chapter — generic “hotel room.”)
• [Commune, Ch. “Boarding House”] Rev — Baton Rouge boarding house (9:37 AM) — While Rae heads to the Louisiana State Archives to look for Psikinépikwa’s articles of incorporation, Rev meets the elderly Black caretaker (a chatty 78-year-old woman, not a man) who leads him to Walsh’s separate guest cottage behind the main shotgun house.
• [Commune, Ch. “Walsh’s Rooms”] Rev — Walsh’s guest cottage, Baton Rouge (11:49 AM) — Rev finds an empty prescription bottle (medication name not recognized at the time — Rev only IDs it as chlorpromazine later, in the “Jar” chapter) in the bathroom trash; in Walsh’s locked study walls are covered in tacked-up pencil sketches of eel-like sea creatures interspersed with Key-of-Solomon-style symbols; the sketches begin to ripple and form a smoky tentacled apparition; a passing diesel engine’s air-horn breaks the spell. Rev Polaroids the study and relocks it. Finds a “Skeeter” airboat-charter business card and a Louisiana map with a single hand-drawn black dot deep in Terrebonne Parish.
• [Commune, Ch. “Franciscan”] Rev & Rae — Franciscan University, Baton Rouge (12:38 PM) — Professor Emilio Diaz (history) confirms Psikinépikwa is real (deep in Terrebonne Parish), believes Las Tribus Olvidadas is a hoax (its rituals don’t match the rest of the de Pineda expedition), and points to the dot on Walsh’s map.
• [Commune, Ch. “Skeeter”] Rev & Rae — Skeeter’s Airboat Charters, Terrebonne Parish, LA (3:11 PM) — Skeeter (Mason) confirms he’s taken Walsh several times to “Skelly’s Hole” near the abandoned village. (Town “Gibson” IS stated in the chapter narrative — the location stamp uses “Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana” but the text places Skeeter’s shop just west of Houma in Gibson. Other detail re: Skelly Oil 1920s salt-dome sinkhole and the Hurricane Camille road destruction is consistent with later chapters but the precise lines were not re-verified here.)

Wednesday, December 12, 1984

• [Commune, Ch. “Dream”] Rev — New Orleans hotel room (5:11 AM) — Nightmare: the centipede creature drags the dead fisherman’s corpse to a burrow under an old cypress; piles his body atop a shrine of bones and stomps on the body, then sprays a greenish-gray foam from its rear that contains squirming larvae. (Chapter location stamp: “New Orleans, Louisiana”; Holiday Inn / Baton Rouge from prior version is contradicted.)
• [Commune, Ch. “Boat Ride”] Rev / Rae (with Skeeter) — Skeeter’s airboat (9:37 AM) — Rae geeks out over the big-block Hemi airboat engine; Rev wears the comically small life vest; long, mosquito-plagued, stink-bombed airboat ride deep into the bayou.
• [Commune, Ch. “Landfall”] Rev / Rae (with Skeeter) — muddy island shore, Terrebonne Parish (12:07 PM) — Skeeter wears a S&W model 29 .44 (“for gators”); the trio walks an old asphalt road south through the swamp.
• [Commune, Ch. “Skelly’s Hole”] Rev / Rae (with Skeeter) — sinkhole edge, Psikinépikwa (12:19 PM) — The road literally ends at a 300-yard-wide perfectly circular sinkhole filled with impossibly clear lapis-blue water that grows pitch black at depth (Skelly Oil failed to find bottom in the 1920s — at least 1,000 ft); a strong unseen undercurrent sucks anything that touches the surface straight down with no return; Rev recognizes the same dread he later associates with the entity below.
• [Commune, Ch. “Tranquility”] Rev / Rae (with Skeeter) — Tranquility shore, Psikinépikwa (12:34 PM) — A few dozen ramshackle stilt-shacks line a muddy shoreline; the Elder, ancient white-skinned Cajun in overalls, comes out belligerent and demands they leave; Skeeter explains and the Elder tells them Walsh is in the abandoned hilltop church.
• [Commune, Ch. “Father Walsh”] Rev / Rae (with Skeeter) — old hilltop church, Psikinépikwa (1:08 PM) — Glimpse of “Wax Man” (later called Felix), a small, hunched, burned, ragged figure with one withered arm peering through a window. Walsh is alive, working on a 400-year-old battered Spanish bible at a desk in a back room; he insists on staying through Christmas to perform the village’s annual sermon. Rev reveals he is Order; Walsh asks Rev to take a note to Diaz about how long the de Pineda expedition stayed in Psikinépikwa.
• [Commune, Ch. “Baton Rouge”] Rev (with Rae) — diner / phone booth / Holiday Inn, Baton Rouge (6:14 PM) — Drive back to Baton Rouge for the night; Rev calls Kelly to update him; Rae overrides Rev’s choice of a no-tell motel and gets them rooms at a Holiday Inn (Order is paying).

Thursday, December 13, 1984

• [Commune, Ch. “Dream”] Rev — Baton Rouge (2:07 AM) — Nightmare: the centipede’s larvae burst from the dead fisherman’s body, blunder around the burrow, then mass-march out of the cypress as one slithering pink-yellowish-white carpet. A grayish-green bird snatches one and dies sizzling — the larvae secrete acid. (Chapter does not mention “tongues” or “candle wax” in this scene — that imagery comes later from Felix.)
• [Commune, Ch. “Research”] Rev (with Rae) — Franciscan library (8:11 AM) — Professor Diaz hands Walsh’s note to research assistant Martha (purple hair, headphones, Walkman); Martha begins transcribing Las Tribus Olvidadas (Spanish, too brittle to xerox); Rev finds Tribes of the West Indies — Volume Three describing “Mecikenäpikwa,” an island the Choctaw called “Ishko-Oka-Hanta” (the Atakapa cannibal sect), allegedly the source of Ponce de León’s Fountain-of-Youth myth. Rev’s volume Blood Rituals of the Atakapa describes the “Yalu̱s” or “blood drinkers” subset of the Atakapa, mound builders who buried items of significance.
• [Commune, Ch. “Message”] Rev — Franciscan hallway pay phone (11:17 AM) — Answering service relays two urgent messages from First National Bank in Pensacola: an “ant problem” in his safe deposit box. The first bank had a “smell” issue six weeks earlier when Rev stored the Jar there; the Jar is interfering with whatever container Rev keeps it in.
• [Commune, Ch. “The Jar”] Rev — First National Bank, Pensacola (3:37 PM) — Rev recovers the Jar from a box swarming with ants (line stretching out the door); ants pour into the Jar’s interior despite its sealed lid. Rev experiences the Jar’s mental call (“possessiveness, desire to hold and protect”) for the first time clearly.
• [Commune, Ch. “The Jar” (cont)] Rev — Saint Christina’s, NOLA (later afternoon/evening) — Lies to Father Kelly that the Jar is “my grandfather’s urn,” asks Kelly to store it in the church safe, makes Kelly promise not to open the bag.
• [Commune, Ch. “The Jar” (cont)] Rev — Pensacola drugstore (evening) — Rev looks up “chlorpromazine” — the antipsychotic Walsh was prescribed.

Friday, December 14, 1984

• [Commune, Ch. “Beast”] Rev (with Rae and Skeeter) — Psikinépikwa hilltop church (10:34 AM) — Returning, they spot Wax Man scampering at the rear of the church; Walsh bursts from the front pursued by a large alligator; Skeeter spooks the gator with his .44; the gator slips back into the swamp. The Elder confronts them angrily; Rev defies him by insisting he will stay with Walsh.
• [Commune, Ch. “Aftermath”] Rev (with Rae, Skeeter, Walsh, the Elder) — Psikinépikwa (10:52 AM) — Rev declares he is staying with Walsh; Rae will leave with Skeeter and return with supplies.
• [Commune, Ch. “Walsh”] Rev (with Rae, Walsh, Skeeter) — Walsh’s room, hilltop church (11:51 AM) — Rev finds the chest in Walsh’s room has been pulled out from the wall, exposing a hole behind it; Walsh confirms the chest was previously flush; the chest is too heavy for Walsh to push back, but Rev lifts it back into place. Discussion of Felix (Wax Man) — name confirmed by Walsh.
• [Commune, Ch. “Bonfire”] Rev (with Walsh) — hilltop church window, Psikinépikwa (6:37 PM) — Rev and Walsh watch a Friday-night ritual bonfire on the muddy shore through binoculars; villagers dance wildly, chanting in a discordant chorus to a bass-drum beat; Walsh says it happens every Friday like clockwork. Watching the firelit shadows, Rev falls into a vision: he plunges into deep water and is drawn to five glowing blue points circling in the dark — the tips of five tentacles attached to a creature so vast that one of its black eyes is itself the size of an orb seen from hundreds of yards away. Rev jerks back to the room.
• [Commune, Ch. “First Night”] Rev (with Walsh) — Walsh’s room (7:45 PM Fri Dec 14 → 1:42 AM Sat Dec 15) — Rev wonders whether the lanky figure he glimpsed at the bonfire was Skeeter; reasons it can’t be (no airboat noise from a return trip). Nails windows shut, hangs cloth curtains, shoves a bookcase against the door. Tries to sleep but can’t; visions of the great eye keep returning; checks watch at 1:42 AM.

Saturday, December 15, 1984

• [Commune, Ch. “Return”] Rev (with Rae, Skeeter, Walsh) — hilltop church, Psikinépikwa (9:11 AM) — Rev wakes to the airboat returning. Skeeter and Rae bring breakfast (eggs, grits, bacon); Rev describes the bonfire and the vision over the food. Rae reports Kelly is still working on the Burke-case symbol — has faxed it to people in the order, awaiting reply (the explicit Elder Sign confirmation actually arrives later, see Dec 17 below). Trio hauls supplies (water, MREs, lantern, camp stove) up to Walsh’s rooms.
• [Commune, Ch. “Felix”] Rev (with Walsh) — Walsh’s rooms / wooded hillside (1:42 PM) — Walsh explains he is preparing the village’s Christmas sermon from a 15th-century Spanish De Pineda Bible — the village will only accept a sermon read from their own Bible; large portions of Job, Psalms, Daniel, and Revelation are still legible; the rest is water-damaged beyond reading. Rev spots Felix tinkering at the windows from outside; sneaks around the church and gets the drop on him at gunpoint. First close look at Felix: slick, droopy/drumhead-tight scarred skin “like wax runs down a candle.” (Note: timeline previously placed the freeing of Felix in “Uncertain placement” — Rev’s first close encounter with Felix actually happens here. The full reveal of Felix’s missing tongue and his real fear of Walsh is established later in the manuscript; specific freeing-from-cell scene was not located in the dated chapter sequence.)

Saturday night, December 15, 1984

• [Commune, Ch. “De Pineda’s Bible”] Rev — old hilltop church, Walsh’s room (11:47 PM) — Sitting awake watching the night, Rev approaches the open Bible on Walsh’s desk; the water-stained left page resolves into shifting images of an immense rounded grey “pillar” (a head) rising from a sea, with two huge bulbous black eyes and five thick tentacle-roots. Rev shuts the cover, tries to convince himself he’s hallucinating but cannot.

Sunday, December 16, 1984

• [Commune, Ch. “Morning”] Rev (with Walsh) — old hilltop church (7:39 AM) — After a sleepless night Rev tells Walsh everything (including the visions in the Baton Rouge room); Walsh is fascinated, theorizes that “items of power” can attune you to the supernatural via accumulated contact. Rev nearly tells Walsh about the Jar but holds back.
• [Commune, Ch. “Symbol”] Rev / Rae (with Walsh) — old hilltop church (9:27 AM) — Rae and Skeeter return; Rae confronts Rev for hiding the visions from her; Rev admits embarrassment. (Timeline previously claimed Rae reports the Burke-case symbol identified as the Elder Sign here — that identification is delivered by Kelly the next day, see “Kelly” Dec 17. The escort-to-Florida tome retrieval is set up in this chapter or the next; specific lines not re-verified in this pass.)
• [Commune, Ch. “Sermon”] Rev / Rae — old hilltop church, Psikinépikwa (11:09 AM) — Walsh delivers a fire-and-brimstone sermon stitched together from the legible portions of the old Spanish Bible (Job 41, Revelation 13 — the beast from the sea). All ~27 villagers attend in their Sunday finest, no children, no apparent family groups; all show subtle fish-like deformities (bulging eyes, wide flat lips, ear-into-head molding) — inbreeding and/or the water; everyone is rapt. Skeeter watches from the open doorway, also rapt. Rev and Rae are deeply unsettled.
• [Commune, Ch. “Road Home”] Rev / Rae — back to NOLA (3:49 PM) — Rev drives Rae back; on WWL-AM news, comet Tartarus is announced — closest approach December 21, last seen 40,000 years ago; Rev files this as suspicious.

Monday, December 17, 1984

• [Commune, Ch. “Dream”] Rev — NOLA hotel (4:27 AM) — Nightmare: an old gnarled-handed Cajun (the Elder) on a dock; an enormous gator drifts up obediently and opens its mouth; the Elder feeds it a lump of raw meat, then extracts a pink-white centipede larva (with a tongue) from a slit behind the gator’s eye, captures the larva in a mason jar.
• [Commune, Ch. “Escort”] Rev (with Rae) — NOLA → Florida Gulf Coast palatial home (8:25 AM) — Drive to a beachfront mansion (Magnum-style Ferrari and Mercedes 300 SL in the garage); a Black butler in a white tuxedo formally hands them a dark-leather book in a foam-lined diplomatic briefcase; chain-of-custody form signed.
• [Commune, Ch. “Kelly”] Rev (with Rae) — Saint Christina’s office, NOLA (3:24 PM) — Kelly translates: the Elder Sign is a protective ward against the Great Old Ones (deity-class entities to whom ghouls and other monsters are “minions”). Rev finally tells Kelly about the Randolph killing in the Quitman cellar in self-defense (mind-control, ricochet); Kelly notes the protective power of Rev’s grandfather’s Sunrise Ceremony memory. Rev and Rae describe Walsh’s strange sermon (Job 41 and Revelation 13’s “beast from the sea,” really the Canaanite Lotan/Yam myth retold). Rev tells Kelly about the visions in the Bible; Kelly fears Walsh has been seduced by an “object of power” (does not yet know about the Jar). Rev proposes calling the parish sheriff to extract Walsh as a senile old man.

Tuesday, December 18, 1984

• [Commune, Ch. “Return”] Rev / Rae (with Skeeter) — Psikinépikwa hilltop church (9:54 AM) — Skeeter’s airboat sputters and dies just as they make landfall; Skeeter says he needs parts. They find Walsh’s room covered wall-to-wall in the same eel/tentacle drawings from the Baton Rouge study; Walsh is sweating, pale, glassy-eyed, doesn’t remember making the drawings; Rev and Rae burn them all (keeping one folded in his pocket for the Order).
• [Commune, Ch. “Return” (cont)] Rev (with Rae and Skeeter) — Psikinépikwa (~noon) — Skeeter says Franklin (a villager) is in town with the only motorboat — they’re stuck the night. Rae spots inconsistency in Skeeter’s “broken fuel pump” story.
• [Commune, Ch. “Night”] Rev (with Rae) — old hilltop church (1:15 PM onward) — Bed-down rooms in the hall have outside-mounted bolt latches — they’re makeshift cells. Rae and Rev decide to sleep in Walsh’s room. Rae confirms via her car-mechanic knowledge that the airboat’s fuel pump was clearly running when it died — Skeeter is lying. They plan: Rev will sneak to the boat in the morning to verify the pump while Rae stays with Walsh.

Wednesday, December 19, 1984

• [Commune, Ch. “Boat”] Rev — Skeeter’s airboat, Psikinépikwa shore (6:11 AM) — Hot-wires the airboat by twisting the ignition wires; verifies the fuel pump works perfectly when the battery is connected (the lead was simply unhooked). Skeeter ambushes him from the path with his .44 drawn.
• [Commune, Ch. “Caught”] Rev — airboat → Psikinépikwa church (7:26 AM) — Skeeter zip-ties Rev’s hands and walks him back; the Elder snipes (“Je t’avais dit que tu mourrais ici, gros connard”); Skeeter hands Rev’s S&W to villager Louis (bulbous eyes, scaly skin); Louis covers Rev while Skeeter pat-searches him; Rev is locked in one of the church cells.
• [Commune, Ch. “Captive”] Rev (with Rae through the wall) — church cells (8:09 AM) — Rev hears Rae from the next cell. Rae was put under Walsh’s gaze and “remote-controlled” into the cell; she describes the alien feeling of his consciousness rummaging through her mind. Rev recognizes the parallel to Randolph’s compulsion. Rev guesses they’re being kept alive for the Christmas sermon; they begin planning escape but find no way out.

Wednesday night → Thursday morning, December 19–20, 1984

• [Commune, Ch. “Escape”] Rev — church cells (7:49 PM Wed → ~2 AM Thu) — Late at night, Felix sneaks in with a sock-of-pebbles makeshift blackjack, KOs the guard, and unbolts both cells. He mimes a slit-throat at Walsh and scurries away. Rev recovers his S&W and speed loader from the unconscious guard, frees Rae, hands her the gun, refuses to leave Walsh behind despite Rae’s pleading. Rae stays in the hallway.
• [Commune, Ch. “Rescue”] Rev (then Rae and Skeeter) — Walsh’s room (1:57 AM) — Walsh stands trance-state at the window, back to Rev. Skeeter ambushes Rev from behind; close-range knife fight; Rev jams the gun against Skeeter’s nose. Walsh begins telekinetically hurling drawers, books, and a full dresser at Rev — one breaks Rev’s right hand and concusses him badly. Rae fires three rounds into the doorframe in defense; Skeeter outwaits her until she runs dry. Rev sees Walsh glide soundlessly out of the room.
• [Commune, Ch. “Resistance”] Rev — Walsh’s room → cells (2:14 AM) — Walsh’s voice from the corridor: “Do try and capture her alive… everyone must do their part for our Lord.” Rev tries to rise, projectile-vomits, blacks out. Wakes briefly being dragged by his feet down the hall; overhears Skeeter and the Elder argue: Skeeter wants to kill him, the Elder says “De comète only come ‘dis one time” and they need both of them. Rev wakes again later in his cell, head crudely bandaged, hand untreated and grotesquely swollen. Rae is in the next cell, tied with zip ties (she choked Skeeter out before Walsh got back into her head).

Friday, December 21, 1984

• [Commune, Ch. “The March”] Rev (with Rae and Walsh’s villager guards, Skeeter) — church cells (8:37 PM) — Storm brewing; Rae alerts Rev that the village is preparing for the sermon. Rev can barely stand; Skeeter and two villagers march them out into the swamp at gunpoint.
• [Commune, Ch. “The Hymn”] Rev (with Rae) — sinkhole clearing, Psikinépikwa (9:38 PM) — The full village stands in a semicircle around Walsh on a large boulder by the lip of the hole; villagers begin a discordant alien hymn (the rhythms match the thunder); Rev’s pain dulls and he feels a sense of “oneness”; thinks of cigars/Scotch/Santiago/his mother/grandfather/Rebecca/Rae to anchor his sense of self; deflects Walsh’s mind-probe.
• [Commune, Ch. “The Awakening”] Rev (witness) — sinkhole clearing (10:04 PM) — Walsh chants in the Cthulhu cult-language (“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn!”); the storm clouds open into an “eye” centered on Comet Tartarus’s red smear; an enormous head the size of a boxcar breaches the sinkhole, two enormous black orbs reflecting the comet’s red, six thick tentacles (five blue-glowing tipped with triangular heads, one limp); the creature snatches villager after villager, crushing them like toothpaste tubes (sonic-boom-loud reports). Rev tries to shoot Walsh but a wave of the creature’s “power” (warps in spacetime) drops him; Felix runs from the wood line and stabs Walsh in the back with a butcher knife; the creature snatches Felix; Walsh chants one last word and falls. Rev throws his S&W at Rae’s back to keep her from leaping into the hole as a willing offering, knocks her to the lip but doesn’t push her over; the creature submerges as the storm-eye closes over the comet; Rev passes out.

Saturday, December 22, 1984

• [Commune, Ch. “Awake”] Rev — Psikinépikwa, sinkhole edge (5:42 AM) — Rev comes to in the rain, mud, and gore; Walsh is crumpled on the boulder; Rae lies face-down with her head and arm dangling over the lip of the chasm. (This is the cold-open scene from the start of the book, now in its proper chronological place.)
• [Commune, Ch. “Awake” (cont)] Rev — sinkhole edge → cypress at the wood line (5:42 AM) — Pulls Rae back from the lip; she revives, says she was about to leap willingly, the patterns were “so beautiful”; Rev sees Walsh is still alive.
• [Commune, Ch. “Waking the Dead”] Rev / Rae — large boulder, sinkhole clearing (6:05 AM) — Walsh comes to and grabs Rae’s head, trying to pull her into a kiss; Rae reverses into a wrestling lock. A fat ~4-inch white grub emerges from Walsh’s ear, with a tongue-like appendage that burns Walsh’s skin like wax. The instant the grub is fully out, Walsh goes limp — dead. Rev and Rae understand: the grub had been Walsh; Walsh died days ago.
• [Commune, Ch. “Worm”] Rev / Rae — sinkhole clearing (6:09 AM) — Rev stomps the grub; it bursts in a black acidic puddle that melts a hole in his boot sole.
• [Commune, Ch. “The Plan”] Rev / Rae — sinkhole clearing (6:15 AM) — Decide to dump Walsh’s body into Skelly’s Hole and let Kelly file him missing — telling the truth about a god-thing rising from the sinkhole would land them in an asylum. They will keep silent about the villagers and Skeeter, hope no one notices the place is empty for months.
• [Commune, Ch. “The Return”] Rev / Rae — sinkhole / Tranquility shore (6:27 AM) — Rev dumps Walsh’s body into the hole; eats two MREs while Rae’s shoes dry by a fire built from church boards; Rev gathers personal IDs and Walsh’s clothes/effects to remove anything tying them to the village.
• [Commune, Ch. “Civilization”] Rev / Rae — Walsh’s room → Tranquility (9:41 AM) — Rev recovers his wallet, keys, S&W, Walsh’s coded diary, Walsh’s steel flask, and the old Spanish Bible from Walsh’s room. Steals Franklin’s small johnboat (with outboard) to leave; cuts the road and walks ~4 miles to a roadside diner.
• [Commune, Ch. “Civilization” (cont)] Rev — diner / Skeeter’s place / back to diner (afternoon) — Rev makes the long walk to recover his cruiser at Skeeter’s; chucks the .44 into the swamp; tortures Rae with worry by being gone six hours.
• [Commune, Ch. “Hospital”] Rev / Rae — NOLA hospital (9:21 PM) — Rev’s right hand is dangerously swollen; doc sets the bones, fits a fiberglass cast; diagnoses serious concussion; Rev refuses overnight observation. Rae drives him to her apartment.

Sunday, December 23, 1984

• [Commune, Ch. “Rae’s”] Rev — Rae’s apartment (1:36 AM) — Rae lets Rev sleep on her couch; Rev wakes the next morning to bacon, eggs, and Cuban coffee; Rae makes him strip to underwear so she can wash his blood-stiff clothes. There is an unspoken charge between them.
• [Commune, Ch. “Debrief”] Rev / Rae / Father Kelly — Saint Christina’s office (10:08 AM) — Rev tells Kelly Walsh is dead; Kelly’s grief turns to rage then resignation. Rev finally tells Kelly and Rae the full truth about the Jar of Nephren-Ka — origin in the Coventry case, the centipede creature it spawned, the dreams, the calls inside his head; admits the Jar is in Kelly’s church safe.

Uncertain placement

• The Felix backstory — what was done to him, why he is so terrified of Walsh — is implied but no specific date is given. Felix’s killing of Walsh during the climax is on Friday Dec 21 evening; his disappearance into the creature is moments later.
• The “Dream” chapter at line 2501 (between “First Night” and “Return” on Dec 15) has no date/location stamp; presumably set in Walsh’s room on the night of Dec 14/early morning Dec 15 between Rev’s checking-watch-at-1:42-AM and the morning return.