The Midnight Feast

After leaving The Manor’s pool, Bella makes her way into the village of Tome. She sits on a bench under the town cross where she sees a stone carving of twelve hooded characters in a circle. A mysterious vicar appears and tells her the carving is of a 15th-century group committed to protecting the community. Bella asks the vicar if The Birds always act on the messages left in the trees. The vicar says it depends on whether the target shows remorse. Then, she disappears.

Bella makes her way to the local pub. She overhears Delilah and Nathan, whom she recognizes from the rock throwing incident, talking about their plans to “make it a night to remember” (173), but they stop talking when they see Bella is listening. When Bella tells the landlady of a pub that it looks different from how she remembered it, the landlady tells her that the pub had been partially burnt in a fire and had to be rebuilt. The landlady says she shouldn’t serve Bella because Bella is staying at The Manor, but reluctantly agrees after Bella pronounces the town’s name correctly. On her way to the bathroom, Bella sees a strange twig structure in the Function Room of the pub, but the landlady tells her she cannot go in there.

This chapter is a series of entries from Bella’s journal beginning August 9, 2010. Bella has been spending time with Jake, but after a couple of days, she goes back to The Manor. She arrives to find Francesca hanging out with Cora. One day, Bella is texting Jake when Francesca grabs her phone and reads her messages. Francesca says Bella, whom she calls “Sparrow” because of her thin legs, can do better.

Ruby, a fellow employee of The Manor, tells Eddie as he works that they are going to have to wear white costumes for the solstice ceremony the next night. Hugo Meadows arrives and tells Ruby that he wants special treatment for an investor he has coming that evening. After he leaves, Ruby and Eddie see a couple returning from a bike ride, shaken up. Ruby talks to them and tells Eddie that the couple saw a lot of blood in the woods.

The day before the solstice party, Francesca sits in the garden trying to relax when Ruby arrives and tells her about the blood in the woods. Francesca instructs Eddie and another staff member, Dan, to clean it up closer to nightfall so the guests don’t see them cleaning. Then, Francesca returns to her room where Owen confronts her with the note he found under the door with the dead cockerel. Francesca dismisses it as a prank by one of her brothers, but Owen remains skeptical.

This chapter is a series of entries from Bella’s journal beginning August 17, 2010. Cora tells Francesca and Bella that there are hallucinogenic mushrooms in the woods and they go out in search of them. Bella hunts through the undergrowth and discovers that Cora and Francesca have abandoned her in the woods. As she looks for them, Bella finds some mushrooms and picks them. She thinks she sees something move in the woods and starts running. She hears the song “The Teddy Bears’ Picnic” playing. It scares her.

Suspicious of Francesca’s response to the note, Owen thinks about how it’s similar to the note his mother left when she left him and his father as a child. Later, they received 20,000 pounds and never heard from her again. Soon after, Owen and his father left town. Owen opens his phone and checks Francesca’s location with an app he secretly downloaded onto her phone.

On the day after the solstice party, Detectives Walker and Heyer drive toward The Manor and see a man in the hedgerow. They approach, thinking it’s the driver of the crashed car, but the man tells them he’s an investor who had been invited to The Manor by Hugo and Oscar Meadows. The man, clearly high on an unknown substance, says the night was a “total shitshow” (196). He says the last time he saw Owen, Owen was running out of the woods “like his life depended on it” (197).

Leaving the pub, Bella walks toward the tennis courts. She sees a pair of couples playing mixed doubles and recognizes Hugo and Oscar Meadows. She thinks Oscar may have recognized her, but he doesn’t say anything. She continues into the woods, past Francesca’s grandfather’s study.

As the sun sets the day before the solstice, Eddie and Dan bike into the woods to clean up the blood found earlier. They run into Nathan and Delilah. Dan tells Nathan to leave, and Nathan insists they have a right to be there. Eddie and Dan leave them alone and find a clearing covered in blood.

Francesca goes into the library where she sees what her grandfather wrote on the last pages of his ledger: “The Birds…Must warn Francesca…Must warn her where…” (206). She tells herself he was “crazy” and that it’s better not to think about the past. Later, in her room, she pulls out her laptop and looks at the security footage. She confirms that Bella is actually Alison, whom she used to call Sparrow.

Meanwhile, Bella walks deeper into the woods. She approaches the tree with a hundred eyes, so-called because of all the knots and whorls in its trunk.

In a journal entry from Bella’s diary on August 18, 2010, Bella recounts how, that night in the woods, she ran toward Francesca’s grandfather’s study. There, she saw “Grandfa” kissing Cora. As she watched them, Francesca came up behind Bella, startling her. Francesca tells Bella she saw figures dressed in black. Bella tells Francesca she saw Cora and Grandfa together. Francesca is furious.

The day after the solstice party, Detectives Walker and Heyer arrive at The Manor to find it has burned down. In the grass, they see Bella’s Summer Journal. All of its pages have been ripped out.

The day before the solstice party, Dan and Eddie stand in the blood-soaked clearing. Dan runs off scared, but Eddie sees a bull harness and realizes the blood is from their old bull, Ivor. He rushes back toward The Manor and runs into Bella. They start trying to find their way back together when Bella sees something in the woods and they hide behind a tree.

Francesca takes a knife out of her kitchen drawer and leaves the apartment.

Owen hears Francesca leave. He looks at his phone and sees she’s going to Bella’s cabin. He goes down to the front desk and asks the staff where Michelle is. He finds her in the wine store and asks what she meant about Francesca not being a good person. Michelle remains evasive, but when he presses her, Michelle tells Owen she knows he was the one who burnt down The Crow’s Nest, the pub, when he was a teenager, and that she will reveal his secret if he tries to fire her. Owen chokes her, but then he lets her go and they start kissing. He notices a “small inked mark just above her left breast” (224), but when he asks her about it, she dismisses it as nothing.

Hiding with Bella, Eddie sees someone in a long, black cloak covered in feathers wearing a crow mask. More figures appear until there are 12 in all. They light torches and hold Ivor the bull’s severed head up in the center. Suddenly, Eddie sneezes. The figures turn and start moving toward them. Eddie and Bella run.

Francesca searches Bella’s room. She figures out the code to the safe—“a date, 15 years in the past” (231)—and opens it to find a pink iPod set to play “A Forest” by The Cure—a song Francesca and Bella had listened to together as teenagers. Francesca goes back to her apartment to find Owen gone. She checks the security footage and sees Owen having sex Michelle in the wine store. Enraged, she stabs the pillow repeatedly with the knife.

Detectives Walker and Heyer take in the scene of the burnt manor and the dazed people in white clothes. Detective Sergeant Fielding approaches and informs them that most of the guests were high the night before and have said they saw masked figures in dark cloaks. Just then, the paramedics leave the building with two figures on stretchers. Detective Fielding tells Detective Walker that they had been locked in the wine store during the fire and were unable to escape.

After fleeing the woods, Bella returns to her cabin. She notices that someone has been there. She sees that Francesca has left her a chocolate and a note on her bed. The note says “there’s so much to catch up on. Especially considering how involved you were in everything here” (238). Knowing Francesca is trying to frighten her, Bella barricades the door.

In a journal entry dated August 19, 2010, Bella describes how depressed Francesca was after finding Cora with her grandfather. In a gesture of goodwill, Bella gives Francesca the mushrooms she found in the woods. Francesca tells Bella that she herself had done all of the creepy things like putting the bird claw in the pool and the strawman in the treehouse after reading about the local myths in Legends of Tome. Francesca says she did it because she was bored.

On the morning of the solstice, Eddie wakes up feeling shock that the Birds are real. He opens TikTok and sees Delilah has posted a new video featuring Nathan where they hint that they have plans for that evening that will be “lit” and “fire.” Eddie goes into the basement to look for the sewing kit to alter the costume he has to wear for that night’s ceremony and finds a crow mask and robe. He assumes his dad must be a member of The Birds. Eddie takes the outfit with him when he leaves for work.

Meanwhile, Owen wakes up and sees Francesca asleep next to him. He feels bad for having cheated on her with Michelle. He has to get up because the men with the excavator for the Treehouse section of the development will be arriving soon and he has to tell them where to put the vehicle.

That same morning, Bella awakes in the heat and feels like the place is suffocating her. She goes for a walk along the shore and sees a huge flock of crows heading toward the manor. She goes into the cave “to muster the courage [she] need[s]” (250).

In an entry from Bella’s journal dated August 20, 2010, she describes her decision not to spend time with Francesca and instead spend the day with Jake. He asks Bella why she didn’t text him back, and Bella realizes Francesca had probably deleted his text the day she took Bella’s phone and read her messages. Jake tells Bella the mushrooms she found were probably poisonous and Bella texts Francesca immediately to warn her. In an entry from the next day, Bella describes how she and Jake went into the cave at the hidden cove and kissed. They hear footsteps and stop. Then he asks her on a date. When she gets back to the caravan, Bella sees her parents talking to Francesca. Francesca invites them all to a barbecue the next night and says Bella can bring Jake.

Bella walks back to The Manor, thinking about the map she had drawn in the journal. When she runs into Eddie leaving Seaview Farm, she realizes that Eddie is Jake’s younger brother.

The morning of the solstice, Francesca wakes up to begin getting ready for the celebration that evening. Among the “pagan chic” décor are a variety of willow sculptures. She looks out the window when she sees hundreds of crows descend from the sky.

As she approaches The Manor, Bella sees the excavator arrive. She approaches them with her journal open to the map with a spot marked with an X.

Eddie and Ruby try to chase off the crows, but they won’t budge. They watch Francesca desperately trying to make the birds leave. She looks frantic. Ruby realizes that someone has scattered birdseed all over the lawn to attract the crows.

Owen lights a cigarette and thinks about how good it felt to burn down The Crow’s Nest because of all the people in town who looked down on him as a kid. As he approaches the woods, he sees that the excavator is digging in the wrong spot. The men tell him that the owner, Francesca, told them to dig there and had marked the spot on her map. When asked, the men tell Owen the woman they spoke to was in her thirties with blond hair. The men announce that they have found something. Owen sees what looks like a tarpaulin under the dirt.

A uniformed policeman tells Detectives Walker and Heyer they found something in the woods. Walker approaches and sees the hole near the excavator.

Francesca sees the birdseed on the ground. She tells Ruby to go get Michelle. When Michelle arrives, Francesca yells at her to get every staff member to help get rid of the birds. Everyone is shocked at Francesca’s uncharacteristic outburst. Francesca controls herself, and Michelle says she will take care of it.

Owen and the men continue to dig. When Owen sees a flash of white under the tarp, he sends the men away, realizing there is a skeleton in the hole.