Paper Towns

To Quentin’s relief, when he, Ben and Radar walk around to the back of the building, they find the bloated corpse of a raccoon. Quentin has renewed hope now, as the smell is not coming from Margo. He still thinks about the specific lines of Whitman’s poem the Margo highlighted, however. The lines are about the beauty of death. He wonders if Margo had in fact used the poem as a suicide note for herself. Radar tries to open the door to the building, but they find that the strip mall is sealed shut. There seems to be no other way inside, so Ben decides to try and break the boards over the windows. Quentin begs him not to, but Ben talks a running lunge at the boards and slams into them. Though he injures himself, the boys notice that one of the boards has in fact cracked, and they begin pulling it away from the window so they can climb inside.

The inside of the abandoned building is dark and dismal. The boys find empty shelves lining the walls and torn-off pages from calendars littering the floor. There is also a tunnel cut into one of the walls, with the words “Troll Hole” painted next to it.