There’s Someone Inside Your House

by

Stephanie Perkins

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There’s Someone Inside Your House: Chapter 15 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Makani screams. The killer drops his large, double-edged knife to the floor. Makani can’t make out his face but sees that he’s white and male. The killer beats Makani to the knife and slashes her arm. Ollie, naked, sprints toward them. The killer looks surprised, and Makani realizes that he must have thought she’d be alone. Makani throws herself at the distracted killer, knocking him to the floor. His hoodie falls back, revealing a familiar but unplaceable face. He wriggles out from underneath Makani and grabs his knife. Just then, Grandma Young runs through the door and attacks the killer. He stabs her in the abdomen, and she collapses. Ollie pursues the killer, and Makani examines her grandmother. The killer realizes that he’s outnumbered, runs out the front door, and escapes down the street. Ollie calls the police and states the killer’s name to the dispatcher: David Ware
That the killer drops his knife when Makani screams suggests that he’s not a seasoned, undistracted villain—rather, he lacks the experience and reserve of someone older. When Ollie runs downstairs to Makani’s aid (rather humorously, naked) it proves that whatever doubts Makani’s friends (and Makani for that matter) had about his culpability were incorrect and merely the effect of baseless gossip. Makani evades the gruesome death her classmates suffered by mere coincidence—the killer clearly anticipated she’d be home alone. Finally, it’s important to note that though Makani registers that the killer is familiar, it’s not until Ollie speaks the killer’s name—David Ware—that she realizes this is who the killer is. Her inability to recognize David speaks to his unremarkable nature. It’s likely that even the reader has to refresh their memory to recall who David Ware is. He’s not a student who has been on their—or any of the other characters’—radars. 
Themes
Gossip vs. Communication Theme Icon
Inner Change  Theme Icon
Ollie hangs up the phone. The police are on their way. He and Makani tend to Grandma Young. Makani wraps a towel around her arm, which is bleeding badly. They hear the emergency sirens approaching. In this moment of calm Makani considers the killer, David Ware. He’d been Rodrigo’s best friend. He’d asked her in class who she thought the killer was, and she’d never suspected a thing.
That David Ware is the killer reinforces how little people know of others. David was Rodrigo’s best friend, yet Rodrigo—or anyone else at Osborne High—had never seen anything suspicious in David’s behavior; indeed, of the many rumors that have traveled around the high school in the days since Haley’s murder, David Ware has never come up as a possible suspect.
Themes
Gossip vs. Communication Theme Icon
Inner Change  Theme Icon
Quotes
The paramedics and police officers arrive. Makani and Grandma Young ride to the hospital in an ambulance. At the hospital, Grandma Young immediately enters surgery. Meanwhile, Officer Beverly Gage, a young woman with long hair and a friendly face, interviews Makani about the attack. She tells Makani to call her Bev. Makani blushes as she recounts her and Ollie’s activities prior to the attack. She tells Bev she doesn’t know why David would target her. Inside, however, Makani knows that the universe is punishing her for the incident in Hawaii.
Makani thinks that David has targeted her because he knows about the incident in Hawaii and wants to punish her. On a certain level, she feels she deserves the attack for whatever she did back home. This reinforces the reality that Makani’s move hasn’t given her a fresh start, despite being thousands of miles away from her past, her old community, and her old trauma in Hawaii. In short, Makani’s past continues to haunt her present.
Themes
Trauma, Loss, and Grief Theme Icon
Guilt, Shame, and Redemption  Theme Icon