Content Warning: This section describes and discusses the novel’s treatment of child abuse, child sexual abuse, and cannibalism.

The prologue takes place years after Chapter 1 and consists of a note explaining a future year’s iteration of a yet-to-be-established annual competition between the two protagonists, “Butcher” (Rowan Kane) and “Blackbird” (Sloane Sutherland), who are both serial killers who kill other serial killers. The target is a killer nicknamed “the Forest Phantom.”

Sloane Sutherland, aka “the Orb Weaver,” is a serial killer who kills other serial killers. Three days ago, a serial killer named Albert Briscoe trapped Sloane in a cage in his house in Louisiana before dying of wounds she inflicted. Now, Sloane is stuck in the cage with his corpse and no food. Flies buzz around Briscoe’s corpse and maggots emerge from his belly. Sloane has no idea how she is going to escape the cage until a handsome man with an Irish accent appears.

The man, Rowan Kane (aka “the Boston Butcher”), is also a serial killer who kills serial killers. He came to Briscoe’s house to kill him only to discover that Sloane beat him to it. Rowan and Sloane have heard of each other, and Rowan admires Sloane’s work.