How It All Goes Down
On his deathbed, twenty-year-old Gabriel thinks back over his life. There's plenty he's done that he's not proud of, and now that the bones are found, he knows he won't have long. He's from a small, rural town where everybody knows everybody's business, whether they should or not, so word gets around about the bones pretty quickly. Meanwhile, Finnigan also finds out about the bones and makes his way to Gabriel, who he knows will need his help.
We flash back to several years earlier, when Gabriel is just nine or ten, and meets Finnigan for the first time. Finnigan has stolen money from Gabriel's mom. He asks if his new friend will hide the cash for him, but when Gabriel's mom finds out, Gabriel gets a beating. Later, the boys meet and make a pact: Anytime Gabriel wants revenge on someone or wants to do something bad—for whatever reason—Finnigan will do it for him. This way, Gabriel can keep his hands clean while Finnigan takes the fall. Gabriel, for his part, will only ever do good.
At first, this plan works just fine—Finnigan sets fires all over town to punish people for mocking Gabriel or having something he wants—but after a while, the townspeople band together looking for the arsonist setting all the fires. Gabriel tells Finnigan to put an end to it, but Finnigan tells him they can't revoke their pact; they made a deal, yo.
From time to time, Finnigan disappears and then shows up again whenever Gabriel needs help. Sure, it's great having someone do all your dirty work, but Gabriel worries what will happen if his parents find out. They're already disconnected from him since he stuffed his disabled brother in the fridge to shut him up. Plus, they never liked either of their kids much to begin with.
Surprisingly, Gabriel's dad lets him get a dog, whom he names Surrender (ahem, book title alert). Gabriel loves the dog, but so does Finnigan—in fact, Finnigan loves to take Surrender out at night, hunting. Surrender always finds chickens and other small animals to steal from local farmers.
One day, though, Surrender sneaks into a yard and kills five goats. The owner is ticked, shoots Surrender in the shoulder, and tells Gabriel and his dad they better finish him off. Gabriel doesn't want to kill his dog, though, so he gives Surrender to Finnigan. Back at home, Gabriel's dad ties Surrender down and tells his son to shoot him. A little confused? Right about now we're thinking that it's actually Surrender's spirit that Gabriel "freed" and "gave" to Finnigan; not his body. Hope that helps.
Meanwhile, Gabriel gets a crush on a girl in town named Evangeline. They're just friends at first, but soon he starts to love her. Finnigan doesn't like this one bit, and he gives Gabriel an ultimatum: It's her or me, and I'm not going anywhere.
Um… does that sound like a choice to you guys? Yeah, us neither. But anyway.
Gabriel knows how dangerous Finnigan can be, and gets scared of what he might do, so he warns Evangeline to leave town right away; she thinks he's lost his marbles, though. Suddenly, Gabriel's mom shows up and drags him home. When he gets there, he's got a beating waiting for him. Gabriel's sick of his parents (seems fair) and figures he has nothing to lose, so he kills them with a hatchet (oh… well… that changes things a bit when it comes to fairness).
Years later, we check back in with Gabriel, who is actively trying to kill himself. We learn that he's not dying of cancer or some other deadly disease, but instead he's actually forcing his own death to get rid of Finnigan. It turns out, the guy isn't Gabriel's BFF or nemesis—nope, he's Gabriel. Finnigan is his dark side that comes out and does all his dirty deeds. Gabriel figures the only way to destroy Finnigan is to kill himself, so in the end, he surrenders and dies.