In today’s episode we read the chapter 22 – Trial by Water – in which Farfalla’s actions catch up with her.
This week's podcast partner is Paranormal Exposed: https://linktr.ee/paranormalexposed
Interview with Melissa on The Brian Oake Show: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1zw9A6Q22ZqQiw9RNkq8Gc
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Author/Producer: Melissa Oliveri - http://www.melissaoliveri.com
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The Skylark Bell is brought to you by: Phaeton Starling Publishing and Things with Wings Productions.
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Things with Wings Productions presents: Chapter 22 of The Skylark Bell, Skyedive. I am your host, Melissa Oliveri.
In last week’s episode Farfalla used her control over a Sea Bird to send Nurse Betsey over the edge of a cliff.
In today’s episode we read the chapter 22 – Trial by Water – in which Farfalla’s actions catch up with her.
Today’s podcast partner is fellow Boopod Network member Paranormal Exposed – you may recognize the name from our past collaboration about haunted objects released for Halloween of 2022. Paranormal exposed takes a look at eerie and unexplained events from a sceptic’s point of view. Be sure to check the show notes for a link to their show.
Now, it’s time to settle in… grab a blanket, and a warm drink… and let’s get started.
November 1st, 1799
I felt a rush.
Like a gust of wind rushing through my body.
Not just because I succeeded in ridding the children of Nurse Betsey, but because I realized that I have the ability to make both people and animals to do my bidding. That feeling when the seabird flew, full force, in the direction of my pointing finger, having immediately heeded my command… It thrilled me!
After I left the cliffside I went to find the children. First, I found Felix hiding behind the horse shelter, a favourite hiding spot of his. Then we made our way back toward Carnifex House where we found Frannie sitting in the grass near the back door. She seemed somewhat out of sorts, very quiet, perhaps because I took so long to find them, or maybe she was simply tired from outdoor play all afternoon. Felix asked where Nurse Betsey was, and I told him she had been called to fulfill another task. I could have sworn I saw Frannie bristle at my words, but it was probably just my imagination.
We enjoyed a lovely dinner after which I came back to the sweet solace of the caretaker’s cottage. I have found peace here. Perhaps, if I am honest with myself, I could even find joy here.
Yesterday I did not get a chance to see the children as I was called out to perform for a family across the island whose child had fallen out of a tree and lay unconscious. I sang for them, but the child did not wake. The parents began to fret, so I sang them to sleep instead, then let myself out.
Now I am sitting at my desk looking out the back window at the vast expanse of the ocean. Somewhere on the other side, in another time, is my darling Elisabeth…
~~~~~~
The sound of fists banging on the door of the caretaker’s cottage startles Farfalla, sending a streak of ink across the page. She looks down at it, furrows her brown, rips the page out of her book and throws it into the fireplace. The banging strikes again, even more persistent than the first time. Farfalla marches across the room, ready to give a piece of her mind to the person on the other side. She swings the door open and freezes in her tracks, mouth agape. On the other side of her door is a crowd of people, led by a man she vaguely recognizes but can’t quite place.
“May I help you?” she says, swallowing the annoyance threatening to spill into her voice.
“Take her,” he says simply, nodding his head in Farfalla’s direction. Before Farfalla has time to react two large men with bulging arms grab her and bind her wrists behind her back.
“What in the world-?!” She exclaims as the men pull her out the front door of her house. She whips her head around frantically. What is happening? In the crowd she sees Donald and Isabella Carnifex, the children peeking from behind their legs. Farfalla zeroes in on Frannie’s tear-stained face. “Frannie!” she calls, desperately, “Isabella! What is happening?!”
“Better to gag her, ‘case she tries to sing the lot of us off the edge of a cliff!” says the man who appears to be their leader. Farfalla feels a wave of shock, fear, and nausea wash over her. They know. But… how?! Before she can say another word a dirty, foul-tasting strip of fabric is strung across her mouth and tied tightly to the back of her head, then she is pulled forcefully across the grass and thrown into a horse cart. She lands with a thud and searing pain pulses through her right shoulder.
“Not so high n’ mighty now, are ye?” says a familiar voice. Farfalla shuffles her body around so she can turn and look at the driver’s seat of the cart. Looking down at her smugly is Agnes Sutherland, her husband John sitting next to her facing forward, his back rigid.
“Take them to the clearing,” says the man who just a moment ago had been banging on her door. The cart pulls away, and Farfalla turns over so she can stare at the sky as they travel for what feels like an eternity. She notes the perfect shade of blue, and the bright white of the contrasting clouds. Such a beautiful day. Finally, the cart comes to a stop, and she is lifted out and dragged across a field of stubbly, dry grass and thrown to the ground in the middle of a circle formed by most of the people she’d encountered since her arrival in this place, this time.
She awkwardly gets to her feet and slowly turns, taking in every face. She sees the Brackenridge family, whose daughter Elisabeth was the first one Farfalla sang for. Next to them are other families for whom she performed over the years. She sees the Carnifex family again, and near them the man who appeared to be the leader of this witch hunt. Next to him, Farfalla recognizes the small boy with the large blue eyes who had approached her on the beach a few months ago. He had said his father was the mayor. This realization sends Farfalla’s heart pounding. The mayor has spearheaded this arrest, and all these people are here for some sort of trial.
“I, Stuart Malcolm Sandpiper, Mayor of the town of Pòcaid, proclaim this trial to be open and call our first witness, Miss Frances Annabel Carnifex,” says the man, puffing out his chest like a bird. Isabella Carnifex pushes Frannie into the circle, nodding at her to keep moving when the small girl looks back at her in fear. “Now Frannie, you told your parents that you saw Ms. Skye with Nurse Betsey two days ago, standing near a cliff. Can you tell us what happened?” says Mayor Sandpiper, looking down at Frannie from his towering height. Frannie sniffles, looks at the ground, and nods her head. “Go on dear, tell everyone what you saw,” he prods.
Frannie takes a deep breath and looks at Farfalla, devastation in her eyes. “I heard Ms. Skye singing. She sings real’ pretty! I saw Nurse Betsey walking, she looked like she was asleep, but her eyes were open. Nurse Betsey got real close to the edge of the cliff and I got scared she would fall, but she turned around at the last momet,” says Frannie, her little voice shaking. There is a long pause before the mayor prompts her to continue. “Then a sea bird landed on the rock that I was hiding behind, and Ms. Skye looked at the bird, and pointed at Nurse Betsey and told the bird to fly. Then the bird flew at Nurse Betsey, and she fell off the cliff.” Frannie begins to cry, and tries to continue between heaving sobs, “Nurse Betsey was so mean to us, Felix and I, Ms. Skye was only trying to help, she would never hurt anyone!”
“That’s quite enough!” says Donald Carnifex, marching over to his daughter, now a hapless heap on the ground, and carrying her back to the edge of the circle.
Farfalla can feel tears streaming down her cheeks as guilt takes a grip of her heart. Frannie had been there, she had seen the whole thing. Farfalla’s guilt is quickly replaced with anger. I did it to help you! she thinks. She and the children were close, especially Frannie, and this ultimate betrayal brings back the feeling of rage she felt when the people of Pocket accused her of placing a curse on Meadow Lane.
“Next, we have several witnesses who can attest to the fact that Ms. Skye’s healing powers are not what they seem,” continues Mayor Sandpiper. One after the other, several people she had been called to perform for testified that their loved ones didn’t heal, and in some cases that their loved ones had died. Of course they did! Thinks Farfalla They needed medical attention, not singing! Finally, a man she recognizes as the butler for the house where she hypnotized the woman into taking laudanum claims he heard her singing and saw the lady of the house walk into the kitchen in a daze and pour a hefty serving of laudanum in her tea, all while “the selkie”, as he called Farfalla, was singing in her ear.
“People of Pòcaid, the evidence has been laid out before you. I believe there is no doubt as to the accused’s guilt. The Sutherlands claimed to have found a Selkie, when in reality they brought us a Siren!” At this, a collective gasp escapes from the crowd. A few of the townspeople edge closer to Farfalla to get a better look.
Suddenly, Farfalla feels a tug on the bottom of her dress. She looks down to see Frannie’s little tear-stained face looking up at her. “I’m so sorry Ms. Skye, I didn’t know…” she begins. Farfalla does her best to nod. “Here,” says Frannie, slipping something into Farfalla’s bound hands, “Felix snuck this out of Agnes Sutherland’s pocket. He’s quite good at doing that,” says Frannie. Farfalla holds the object in her hands and feels around. She feels grief and relief hit her all at once. Frannie has handed her The Skylark Bell. “I remember you told me about your bell, and how special it is. Then one day I heard Mrs. Sutherland bragging that she had taken it from you.” Tears slip out of Farfalla’s eyes. She does her best to convey her gratitude to Frannie.
“Is there anyone who wants to speak on behalf of the accused?” shouts Mayor Sandpiper. Farfalla turns her head back toward him, then looks hopelessly around at the townspeople. Surely one of them will speak up! What about Margaret Brackenridge? She had improved after Farfalla’s visit! As had dozens of others! She had helped them, and now they were forsaking her! A silence hangs over the clearing, and Farfalla can feel her heart beating faster and harder with every second. Her fear is quickly replaced by seething rage. How dare they?! How dare they use her for their own benefit and then throw her away like a ragdoll? Nurse Betsey was an evil, horrible person! Didn’t that count for something? “Alright, then the accused is found guilty. Take her to the cliffside!” shouts Mayor Sandpiper triumphantly. He lifts his son, the boy from the beach, into his arms. The boy makes eye contact with Farfalla and nods his head toward the edge of the forest where a large stone stands to delineate between two fields. Farfalla turns her head to look and gasps through the fabric in her mouth. Standing by the rock, a sad, sympathetic look on her face, is the woman Farfalla had seen years ago at boarding school. Farfalla blinks in disbelief, and when she reopens her eyes, the woman is gone.
The two large men who had hauled her out of her house earlier this morning now grasp her arms again, and drag her across the clearing to the cart, her bare feet scraping across the dry, stubbly grass. She is once again. thrown into the back of the cart, exacerbating the pain in her shoulder. This time Agnes doesn’t bother to look down at her, and the cart takes off. Farfalla painfully shifts her body into a sitting position. She looks down at the bottom of her white dress, covered in blood from the scratches on her feet. How can this be happening? Everyone in town loved her! I am the Skye Lark Belle! She thinks, confusion, disbelieve and devastation swirling through her mind. She turns to look behind the cart and sees a parade of people following behind.
“Sink the siren!” shouts Mayor Sandpiper, his son now sitting atop his shoulders.
“Sink the siren!” chants the crowd.
“Sink the siren!” shouts the mayor, and the crowd responds. Their chants grow louder and faster until the cart comes to an abrupt stop at the top of the cliff.
The mayor lifts the boy off his shoulders and gently sets him on the ground, ruffling his hair. “You stay here, Ash, there’s a good boy,” he says before taking long strides across the cliff top. The two large men lift Farfalla out of the cart and hold her there, awaiting further instruction. She looks down at the boy, who takes a step closer to her. “Don’t worry,” he whispers, “you’ll be back.” Farfalla’s brow furrows, but she is pulled away before the boy can say anything more. She looks up to see the mayor gleefully gesturing toward the edge of the cliff. The villagers follow closely behind, resuming their chant of “sink the siren”.
Farfalla can feel the cold sea air pick up as they near the edge of the cliff and a shiver runs through her. It is November, and she is barefoot in a light cotton gown, not at all fit for the weather. She can hear the waves crashing below, and gets a sinking feeling as understanding comes to her. A bitter laugh escapes her throat and catches in the rank fabric in her mouth. They’re going to throw me back in the water, back to where I came from, she thinks. All those years of having the same dream, what are the odds it would come true... twice?!
Agnes Sutherland steps forward and hands something to Mayor Sandpiper. He turns and Farfalla can see the silver crown of twigs and vines in his hand. He plops it on top of her head, twisting it around so it tangles in her hair, then roughly pulls the gag form her mouth. “Any last words, Siren?” his tone is dripping with arrogance, he is thoroughly enjoying this.
“I suggest you hold your son very close tonight,” whispers Farfalla, defiantly meeting his gaze. The mayor takes a step back, clearly shaken, and nods to the two large men, ever at the ready to do his bidding. The men grasp her shoulders and turn her around to face the crowd. Farfalla’s eyes search the crowd for a friendly face; Frannie, or even the boy from the beach. The children are nowhere to be found, but at the back of the crowd, sheltered by the shadow of an oak tree, she sees the woman with the long red hair, the one who looks just like her. The woman nods at her. It will be okay. Farfalla can’t hear her, but the thought enters her mind none the less.
“Sink the siren!” comes a shout from the crowd. The woman’s unwavering gaze and sad, but comforting smile, never leave Farfalla. The chant from the crowd grows louder, and she hears the mayor instruct the men to do it. She clutches the bell tightly in her bound hands and closes her eyes. She feels the force of their push and then an eternity of nothing but rushing air. She can feel her hair blowing violently around her face, tangling even more into the twigs of the silver crown, and her dress billowing, dampened by the mist lifting from the crashing waves below. She opens her eyes at the last second, and sees the mayor looking over the edge of the cliff above her, a smug smile of satisfaction pasted on his pale face.
The last word out of her mouth as her body crashes through the surface of the water is “Ash”.
Thank you so much for listening. Join me next week for Chapter 23 – Déjà vu – in which Farfalla finds herself in a horrifying familiar situation.
The Skylark Bell is brought to you by Phaeton Starling Publishing and features original music by Cannelle. Leaving a rating or a review on your preferred podcast platform is incredibly helpful in helping the podcast gain visibility so others can find and enjoy the story of The Skylark Bell, it’s a quick, easy, and free way to support my work. If you’d like to support me further, you can also subscribe to Patreon, where you’ll get early access to ad-free episodes as well as digital downloads of my music, artwork, behind the scenes videos and more! And be sure to follow me on social media for updates, I love to connect with listeners... Just check the show notes for all necessary links.
Once again, thank you for listening – I’m Melissa Oliveri, writer, host and producer of The Skylark Bell Podcast.
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