Mexican Gothic: Chapter 26 Summary & Analysis

Francis leads the two women down the back stairs, then inside a walk-in pantry with a hidden door that Francis says leads to the family crypt. From the crypt they can walk down the mountain and get to town. Francis is in a lot of pain, and very out of breath, so Noemí takes the lead. The house reverberates with Howard’s moans—somehow, impossibly, he’s still alive. Noemí slides open the hidden door, revealing an ornate stairway decorated with yellow tiles and silver sconces shaped like snakes. On the ground and the walls Noemí notices a few mushrooms popping up between stone cracks. They seem to glow in the darkness, like stars. She knows that these are the mushrooms that Howard found in the cave all those years ago. Immortality, she realizes, is contained in these mushrooms.

Francis can hardly walk, so Noemí tells him to lean on her as they walk deeper underground. They reach two massive double doors of dark wood, a silver snake biting his tail inlaid in the wood. Francis tells them that this is the chamber beneath the crypt; they must go in and then up. Francis pulls open the doors and they all walk in. The chamber is dotted with a dizzying amount of mushrooms. There’s no furniture except for a table set upon a stone dais, and Noemí walks toward it. She finds the jeweled dagger that Howard used to kill children as part of his cannibalistic rituals. Francis tells her that their children are born infected with the fungus and that ingesting their flesh means ingesting the fungus; it makes the family stronger and binds them more closely to the gloom and to Howard.

Francis winces suddenly and doubles over in pain. “She’s speaking,” he cries. Then Noemí becomes aware of a sound. It’s the buzzing noise she’s heard elsewhere, only this time it seems higher. The hum seemed to come from behind a yellow drape at the back of the dais. Noemí walks toward it and raises her hand to pull the drape down. Catalina warns her not to do it, but Noemí clutches the fabric and yanks it aside. She stares into the open, screaming maw of a mummified woman. She’s naked, but mushrooms sprout from her flesh, growing up her body and clustering around her head, creating a crown—a halo of gold. She wears an amber ring, and Noemí knows that it’s Agnes.

The Doyles buried Agnes alive, and this is what she became. She screamed and screamed but nobody came. Nobody was supposed to come. This is the way it was supposed to be—Howard needed her to do this. The fungus needed her. The mushrooms themselves could heal, but they could not make someone immortal. Howard, with his knowledge of science and alchemy, knew that the fungus needed a human mind that could serve as a vessel for memories. Howard could then control that mind, and the gloom. So he offered up his wife. What had once been Agnes became the gloom. Francis grabs Noemí and spins her around. He tells her not to look at Agnes, saying that no one is ever supposed to look at her.

Virgil strolls casually into the chamber. Rather than follow them through the house, he went around and entered the chamber through the crypt. He mocks Noemí. Poor girl! Did she think she had killed him? No. Virgil planned for Noemí to fight with him and take the tincture from his pocket. He planned for her to cause mayhem and hurt Howard. He couldn’t do it himself because Howard had too much control over him. He forced Ruth to kill herself, after all. That’s why he needed Noemí to do it. And she did not disappoint. Now Virgil controls the gloom. When Howard dies, he’ll be gone for good—no new body this time.

Noemí grabs the knife on the dais. Virgil tells her to drop it, and she feels a terrible impulse rushing through her body, pushing her to obey. Noemí says that she drank the tincture, so Virgil can’t control her. But he explains that they’re standing in the heart of the house, the place where the gloom is most powerful. He’s in control now, and he’s going to make them all do as he says. Noemí’s fingers burn, and she lets the knife drop to the floor. Virgil looks around with distaste. Howard was caught in the past, he says, but he looks forward to the future. He’s going to reopen the mine, bring electricity to High Place, and Noemí is going to give him many children.

Francis interjects and tells Virgil to let the women go. Everything they do here is wrong. Virgil replies that when he has absolute control over the gloom, he’ll need an ally. They can even share the women. Francis picks up the knife and threatens Virgil, but he laughs. Is Francis going to stab him over a woman? Francis charges him and the two begin fighting. Virgil is stronger than Francis, and he has the gloom on his side, so it’s not long before Virgil overpowers Francis. He tells Francis that he’s going to kill him by forcing him to bite off his own tongue. 

Noemí regains control of her body, and she runs over to the body of Agnes. It strikes her that the gloom surrounding them is actually the manifestation of all the suffering inflicted upon Agnes. The sliver of Agnes that remains is screaming in agony. She is the snake that bites its own tail. And what does she wish for? Simply to be released from this torment. “Sleepwalker,” Noemí says. “Time to open your eyes.” She tosses a lamp at the corpse’s face, and it instantly ignites the crown of mushrooms around her head and spreads quickly down the wall.

Virgil screams and collapses on the floor, as does Francis. Noemí goes over to Francis. Virgil reaches for her, and she kicks him in the face, but he keeps coming for her, clawing for her, trying to pull himself up. Catalina picks up the knife that Francis dropped and stabs her husband in the face, piercing his eye—just like she did to Howard. Noemí picks up Francis and demands that Catalina help her. They each take one of his arms, half dragging him towards the gate.

Noemí, Catalina, and Francis escape from the chamber and exit the mausoleum back into the open air. Francis guides them with half-lidded eyes, and the three slowly make their way down the mountain. They see that High Place is burning, and Noemí imagines Howard Doyle lying immobile in his bed, the fire consuming him inch by inch.