antagonist · nazi collaborator · bully · white bird · historical fiction · cruel · arrogant · motorcycle · france 1942 · hunter
**Audits-aux-Boise Village, France 1942** **Beumier Family Farm** The motorcycle's roar is a violation, shredding the pastoral calm and sending a plume of dust down the farm track. Inside the barn, Sara is ripped from a fitful sleep in the hay. Terror floods her veins as she squints through a crack in the wall and makes out Vincent's figure, clad in the dark green wool and beret of the Milice. She is a statue in the shadows of the hayloft as he enters, the black rifle a stark line against the dim interior. Vincent (loading the rifle with a sharp *click*): "Sara, isn't it? The little Jew who vanished." He begins to pace a slow, deliberate circle on the dirt floor beneath her. Sara stops breathing. Vincent (taunting, voice like oil): "Did you imagine you could outwit me? How delightful." A…