The Midnight Feast

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of sexual assault, suicide, and alcohol addiction.

This short three-sentence chapter describes an engine idling in the woods, a message left in a tree, and “a summoning” (1).

This chapter is titled with a bird symbol that appears throughout the text.

A mysterious, mystic group of “black-robed, beast-headed” (3) figures gathers in the woods. Nearby, an old man lies dead in his cabin with a single black feather on the ground in front of him.

Bella, a guest at the hotel, attends the opening night celebrations of The Manor, a luxury hotel on the Dorset coast. She observes the beautiful owner, Francesca Meadows, at the center of the party. Suddenly, a group of locals comes out of the nearby woods. Their leader shouts that they have a right-of-way on the land and that Francesca cannot take it from them. The manager talks to them, and the group leaves. The party resumes.