May 16th, 198X
Today I went hunting and came across a stag and his doe. I observed them for a while and then I bagged them both. The stag gave a good fight and nearly gored me, but I cut his throat. Considered sparing the doe, but became disgusted when I noticed her hide was still stained with his cum.
???????
March 28th, 202X
She looks so innocent, my sparrow. But she isn’t. Beneath those glowing feathers, she is as dark as I am. I want to tell her the truth but I’m afraid. Her sweetness runs deep. Perhaps too deep.
Maybe I’ll just keep her.
Nobody has to know.
???????
Each of these later entries had been written in a different hand. Based on the dates, Nadine suspected the disgusting one about the two deer must have been written by Nathaniel himself, which would mean that the latest one would have had to have been about Ben—and Noelle.
Noelle had been Ben’s sparrow?
Beneath these glowing feathers, she is as dark as I am.
What did that mean? What had he done to her?
Maybe I’ll just keep her.
No one has to know.
Had Ben killed her, after all?
(he says you should know better after what happened last time)
Nadine grabbed her purse and carefully dropped the book into it, along with her notes from Noelle and the broken necklace.
(they’re killing all the sparrows)
Her sister had gone missing after finding this book that appeared to describe not just one, but several murders. Nathaniel had been apparently been calling her a deer this whole time, and Cal had lured her out to the mine and nearly raped her to keep his father from “giving her to Ben.”
Ben, who had apparently called Noelle his sparrow. And Noelle had left behind a note saying to count the sparrows, before hysterically screaming about their killings in the square.
(she wouldn’t let him touch her)
Between all that and the evidence she’d already gathered, there was no way Sheriff Crocker could brush her off this time. Not without handing in his badge.
Not bothering to change, she pulled a hoodie on over her pajama shirt and slipped her feet into her Converse. She tried the door, half-expecting to find it locked, but it swung wide open. No one was in the hallway as she tiptoed out, either.
Lucky.
She held her breath as she went down the stairs, as if that would make her steps lighter. The eyes of the various portraits followed her, many of them cruel. Now that she knew the dark family secret, she wondered if they had always looked that way, or if she was only noticing now.
She was going through the gate at the same time that Cal and the others were coming back from their apparently unsuccessful impromptu hunting party. One of them called out her name, and sheshouldhave kept walking calmly and pretended she hadn’t heard, but panic spurred her into a run.
“Oh, she wants a chase,” she heard Ben say sarcastically. “She really is a sparrow.”
Cal handed off his gun to Odessa and whatever consolation that might have given her was consumed by the fact that he was running like he intended to catch her.Oh fuck, he’s fast, she thought, a cry escaping her, as she clutched her bag to her side and bolted.
Fear made her legs feel rubbery and weak and she could hear Cal behind her now. She didn’t have to look behind her to know he was probably closer than she imagined.
“Stop running, Nadine,” he said. “Come here. Talk to me.”
