There are mementos of the people who died that are collected in various areas of the Fromland town, like the Cafe and the room where Acosta is sorting through old stuff. What if these are the bookmarks that take Julie back to when the person died?
Child play elements are woven into the story. The night creatures are dressed as the characters from the old maid card game. "They come for three" nursery rhyme. Numerous children's story book references that explain how things work in From land. Everything is set up and ordered as a child sees it. The town of From land is also built in a weird way...like the motel sign with no motel...with a lack of understanding, again, as a child sees the world. If a child is controlling the story, then the BIW is the puppet master who appears only when needed to move the story along. The first time he appears to Ethan, he shushes his finger...signalling to Ethan to be quiet. The puppet master does not want to be revealed. As everyone has guessed, the game has to be reset by everyone "ripping" themselves apart. The BIW is changing because the reset, which also resets him back to be being a boy, should have already happened. When he says "You're running out of time" he is not telling the truth. It is he, the Boy in White, who is running out of time.