Lone Women

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains descriptions of racism, anti-trans bias, graphic violence, and murder.

The opening chapter of Part 3 begins with a flashback to the day that Adelaide’s parents were killed. She recalls that they had an uncharacteristically big lunch and went out to the barn later that evening without telling her. Her father was holding a shotgun and her mother was holding a Bible. At the time, Adelaide realized that they intended to kill Elizabeth. She watched and listened from her bedroom window, first hearing the sound of the shotgun and then her parents’ screams. She knew that she could go to their aid, but she hesitated before sitting down on her bed with a book, tacitly condemning her parents to death. Her narration of this memory reveals that the creature is named Elizabeth and is her twin, for both Adelaide and the creature were born from the same mother, just minutes apart. The midwife attempted to kill Elizabeth when she was born, but their father saved her, and from that moment on, the Henrys committed to raising Elizabeth while simultaneously imprisoning her and hiding her from the wider world.

Back in the present moment, Adelaide relays all of this information to Bertie, Fiona, Grace, and Sam.