The police search for Finney is unsuccessful. The Grabber brings Finney food and leaves the door to the basement unlocked. Finney prepares to sneak out but is stopped by another boy on the phone called Billy. He explains this is a game that The Grabber plays, and he is waiting upstairs to attack Finney with a belt if he leaves the basement. Billy instructs him to use a cord Billy found to get out via the basement window. While climbing Finney breaks the bars on the window, preventing him from climbing back up. Gwen dreams of Billy being abducted and confides in her father about what is happening.

Wright and Miller speak to an eccentric man called Max who is staying in the area with his brother. It is revealed Finney is being held in Max’s basement, which he is unaware of, and The Grabber is his brother. After an agitated exchange with The Grabber, where he tests Finney’s honesty, he makes it seems as if he would have let Finney go. Finney speaks to another one of his victims, Griffin, on the phone. Griffin shows Finney a combination to a lock and informs him The Grabber has fallen asleep upstairs. Finney sneaks upstairs and unlocks the door but The Grabber’s dog alerts him to Finney’s escape. Finney flees down the street but is recaptured.

Despondent over his failed escape attempt, Finney answers the phone to hear another victim, a punk called Vance whom Finney was scared of. Vance informs Finney of a connecting storage room he can escape through if he breaks a hole in the wall and exit through the freezer on the other side of the wall. Finney creates a hole with a toilet tank cover and enters the back of the freezer only to discover that the door is chained shut. The phone rings one more time with Robin at the end of the line. He comforts Finney and encourages him to finally stand up and fight for himself. He instructs Finney to remove the phone receiver and pack it with the dirt he had dug up to use as a weapon.

Gwen dreams of Vance’s abduction and discovers the property of The Grabber. She finds the house and contacts Wright and Miller. Max realizes Finney is being held in the house and rushes to the basement to free him, but his brother kills him with an ax. The police rush to the house Gwen found but find it abandoned. In the basement, they find the buried bodies of The Grabber’s victims. The Grabber attacks Finney with the ax, but Finney manages to trip the Grabber with the cord, causing him to fall into the tunnel Finney dug, where the Grabber breaks and traps his ankle in the window bars placed at the bottom. The ghosts taunt The Grabber over the phone before Finney breaks his neck with the phone cord, killing him. Finney distracts the guard dog with meat from the freezer and escapes the house using the combination he learned. Finney exits the house across the street from the gravesites where he reunites with Gwen and the police rush to the property. The siblings comfort each other and reunite with their father, who apologizes for his treatment. Back at school, a confident Finney sits next to his crush in class.