The Midnight Feast

This chapter is an entry from Bella’s journal dated August 22, 2010. Bella invites Jake to the barbecue at Francesca’s that evening and he accepts. At the caravan park, Bella runs into Cora. Cora says she had been trying to get in touch with Francesca to explain and apologize. Bella suggests Cora come to the barbecue as well to try and talk to Francesca.

As Ruby and Eddie serve cider to the guests, Eddie thinks he sees Nathan Tate in the crowd.

The day after the solstice party, Detective Walker looks into the hole dug by the excavator and sees nothing. An officer takes him to see a tarpaulin deeper in the woods where someone or something has dragged it. Detective Walker sees the tarp is wrapped around a skeleton.

Francesca has been drinking to calm her nerves before the party. She looks for Bella amongst the party guests. She realizes that she expects Bella to still look like a teenager.

Bella walks into the party with the jewelry from the gravesite in her bag. She watches Francesca thank the party guests and Owen. However, Owen is not in the crowd. Later, Bella overhears Michelle talking to Hugo and Oscar Meadows. They don’t like the cider being served, so Michelle offers to escort them to the wine store.

This chapter is a journal entry from Bella’s journal dated August 23, 2010. Bella goes to the barbecue with Jake. When Jake says it’s a shame they don’t have swimming clothes to take advantage of the pool, Hugo pushes him in. Bella jumps in after him and they kiss. Bella sees Francesca looking on, jealous.

Eddie sees Nathan Tate, Delilah, and their drummer take the stage. They begin to perform, and Eddie realizes Delilah is an incredible singer. Suddenly the microphone is cut off and lights go down. When they come back up, Nathan Tate and the drummer are gone.

Francesca can’t find Owen or Michelle at the party. She nervously drinks some of the cider. She notices some of the guests are behaving oddly. Eventually, Michelle arrives and Francesca tells her to find and get rid of Nathan Tate and the other gate-crashing locals. Then, Francesca overhears two of the guests talking about the “pagan” willow statue on the beach.

Delilah finds Eddie and pulls him under one of the serving tables so they can talk privately. She tells him she is worried about what Nathan has planned. Nathan’s angry because Francesca is trying to take his father’s caravan park. Delilah encourages Eddie to look out for Nathan.

After leaving the woods, Detective Walker is approached by Detective Heyer, who says the two people trapped in the wine store have died. Detective Walker goes to look at the bodies and sees they are identical twins, Hugo and Oscar Meadows.

After Delilah leaves, Bella approaches Eddie and tells him she knew his brother, Jake, and that she wants him to know what happened 15 years ago. They go to a private dining cabin. Bella gives Eddie her journal to read.

This chapter is a journal entry from Bella’s journal dated August 23, 2010, 3:00 am. Francesca offers Jake and Bella brownies. They take them, but do not eat them. When Cora arrives, Francesca looks angry, but lets her in.

Bella tells Eddie that what happened to Jake was her fault. Eddie keeps reading the journal to learn why his brother disappeared 15 years ago.

A journal entry dated August 23, 2010, 4:00 am describes Francesca offering Cora a brownie. Francesca takes it and says they should go into the woods. They agree, but Jake and Bella leave Francesca and Cora, and kiss on the tennis court. They hear someone screaming.

Owen regains consciousness in the woods. He has been unconscious for some time, having passed out from the shock of finding the body. He feels the tarp-wrapped skeleton under his hands.

Bella tells Eddie she can still hear the screams she heard that night.

In a continuation of the journal entry dated August 23, 2010, 4 a.m., Bella describes herself and Jake running into the woods toward the scream. They see Cora on the ground. Bella accuses Francesca of putting the poisoned mushrooms into the brownies, which Francesca denies. Jake checks for a pulse and says Cora is dead.

Owen remembers seeing the skull with its chipped left front tooth and the pieces of jewelry in the grave and recognizing it as his mother. He had lifted the skeleton out of the grave and brought it into the forest with him.

Eddie reaches the end of the journal entries. Bella tells him what happened after Cora died. Jake carried Cora’s body out of the woods to the driveway where a Range Rover pulled up and Francesca’s grandfather got out. Francesca and her grandfather told Jake and Bella they would be blamed for the death if they tried to report the incident to the police. Grandfa locked Jake and Bella in the library and gave them each 3000 pounds. Jake told Bella that Cora was Shrimp’s mother. Bella fell asleep and when she woke up, Jake was gone. She went back to the caravan park where she learned that Jake’s moped had been found at the bottom of the cliffs and that Jake was presumed dead.

Francesca goes down to the beach where she sees a giant willow statue of a crow. Suddenly, someone lights it on fire.

Eddie tells Bella that Jake didn’t die. Jake jumped off his bike at the last minute. He returned home some days later, but he had changed. He became a drug addict and started stealing from his parents to pay for drugs. After he stole the family tractor, putting the family farm in financial precarity, his parents kicked him out of the house. They never saw him again.

Ruby arrives, saying she needs Eddie’s help, and he leaves with her. They go out to the grounds where the guests are all high and hallucinating. Eddie realizes that Nathan Tate has spiked the cider.

Francesca looks up from the path to the beach and sees Bella staring at her up on the cliffs.

Detective Walker gets a call from the crime scene investigators letting him know that a bag has been found in the crashed Aston Martin. It has a silver ring and the key to Bella’s cabin in it.

Eddie sees Nathan Tate with cans of gasoline and a lighter. Eddie tells Nathan to stop. He accuses Nathan of spiking the cider and selling Jake drugs all those years ago. Nathan says it was Jake’s own decision to take drugs. Eddie punches him in the face and runs away.

Francesca approaches Bella. They go into the library to talk. Bella accuses Francesca of killing Cora with the poisoned brownies. She tells Francesca she found the body when she told the excavators where to dig. Bella knew where it was buried because the day after Cora’s death she returned to The Manor and saw a part of the lawn that was freshly dug. She marked the spot in her journal. Bella demands Francesca confess to what she did. She tells Francesca she saw The Birds in the woods the night before just like she did the night of the murder. Francesca calls The Birds “childish games and fairy tales” (357). She hits Bella over the head with something heavy and knocks her unconscious. She takes Bella’s bag and leaves.

Francesca drinks more cider. Owen calls her and tells her he has found the body of his mother. Startled, Francesca says “Your mother was Cora the cleaner?” inadvertently revealing she knew there was a body buried on the property (361). Owen coldly asks Francesca her location.

Owen feels stunned by the knowledge that Francesca knew about his mother’s murder. He opens his phone to see her location.

Francesca runs into Michelle who leads her into a clearing in the woods. Francesca, beginning to feel the effects of the spiked cider, tells Michelle that she’s fired. Michelle says she isn’t fired and in fact, it’s Francesca who needs to leave. Michelle reveals that she is a member of The Birds and that she was the girl that Hugo and Oscar sexually assaulted in the treehouse 15 years ago. Michelle says The Birds have sabotaged the opening weekend and that they know Francesca and her grandfather covered up Cora’s murder. Just then, Owen steps into the clearing and Francesca runs from him.

When Owen sees Francesca run, he knows for certain that she is the one who murdered his mother.

Francesca runs toward The Manor where she sees Nathan Tate and his friend pouring gasoline on the building. She grabs a lantern and throws it at the gasoline, sparking the fire. She runs to Owen’s Aston Martin, thinking about how 15 years ago she sent Shrimp/Owen the letter Cora had sent to her apologizing for kissing her grandfather to make it seem as if Cora left. Francesca gets into the Aston Martin and turns it on.

Bella regains consciousness and realizes Francesca hit her with the fossil Bella found on the beach 15 years prior. Bella uses the fossil to break the library window and escape the burning building. Bella sees Francesca leaving in the Aston Martin with Owen chasing after her. Eddie approaches Bella and sees she is injured.

Eddie runs to get Bella an ice pack and realizes the house in on fire. Nathan tells him that it was Francesca who started the fire. He admits he sold Jake heroin, apologizes, and runs away.

Owen chases after Francesca.

Francesca speeds away from the Manor with Owen and Michelle in pursuit. High and hallucinating from the spiked cider, she sees a figure in a black cloak in the road. She swerves to avoid it and crashes the car. She gets out and starts running away from the figure pursuing her. She runs off the cliff.

Mysterious shadows in the woods have found justice. They are part of the natural world and “always fin[d] a way” (385).