Sn -- a-- p

During the rescue after Exploration #4, Navidson's lifeline, the rope Tom sent down the staircase to haul the rescue party up, snaps. At this point (page 296) Johnny makes a footnote on how his lifelines are snapping too.

His job? Lost. Contact information for everyone he knows? Thrown away. Ability to keep track of time? Gone. Just as Navidson is alone in the dark and silence so is Johnny. While only Navidson's situation is physical as well as mental, it is no more real than Johnny's. Navidson has something practical to occupy himself with: escaping the house. Johnny cannot escape. Navidson has one section of his life where reality does not apply. Johnny's entire life is being stripped of its reality. Unable to escape, Johnny instead turns to ensuring that what marks of reality that he still possesses remain. He insulates his studio to prevent hearing the house's growl and puts down measuring tapes so that he knows if the demensions of the studio change. Abnormal behavior, but with the intent of preserving normalcy. Every other lifeline in Johnny's life has snapped. If he clings to the few that have stayed whole, is it really so strange?

In the same footnote Johnny includes what, at first read, appears to be an unrelated and rambling story about a ship called The Atrocity. The story of The Atrocity is just another way to tell Navidson's story, and so another way to tell Johnny's. Instead of buying the wrong house or visiting Zampanò's apartment, this story begins with a small puddle of oil and a wayward spark. Yet it has the same result: being lost in the dark. In the end, Johnny is left questioning if he remembered the story correctly or if it even happened, much as the reader questions Johnny's and Navidson's stories. Even the reader is not free from breaking reality.

It isn't until the end of the footnote that Johnny really acknowledges that his relationship with reality is snapping. "I'm lost inside and no longer convinced there's a way out. Bye-bye Ashley and goodbye to the one you knew before I found him and had to let him go"(page 300). In many ways Johnny is lost worse than Navidson is. Navidson has the labyrinth to help him find himself. Johnny has no physical labyrinth and can only get lost deeper and deeper within himself. Navidson accepts his changing reality, yet does not give into it. Johnny cannot do the same. By the end of Chapter XII, both Navidson and Johnny are lost, yet Navidson is the one more likely to find his way out.