Be Still My Banshee Heart

Chapter 16

Florence O Neil had never been a women to shy away from danger, liked to face things head on.

Like a bull in a china shop, her husband would say and that approach had always worked for her. As she crouched behind a mass of, what she thought was jagged rock, she realized that particular approach would not work in the current situation she found herself in.

Flo's floral sundress snagged on the sharp rock causing a tear, "fig sticks," she muttered, she loved this dress, it was one her son Samuel had bought her back on one of his visits from England.

She was a tall, robust women, knew she set quite the imposing figure and she was finding it increasingly difficult to stay hidden. Flicking her thick grey plait over her shoulder, Flo tried to make out the two small figures lay in the dark. Where they asleep, she wondered, it was just so darn hard to make anything out in this dark.

Flo had literally just stumbled upon this place, she had been searching for both Mary and the child when she had caught one of the vilest of smells, like nothing she had ever smelt before.

Following her nose she had veered from the usual path she would have taken and been drawn into one of the wooded areas she had never frequented when alive, preferring to stay to the paths her husband had created. As she had wondered further afield she saw it was truly quite breathtaking. Green fields lay before her, small wooded areas where small birds, sparrows and tits darted back and forth, wild flowers gently swayed in the breeze, their sweet perfume briefly blocking the vile stench.

It truly was beautiful, how had she not seen this before.

As she walked the grass started to gently slope forward forcing her to quicken her pace slightly.

The gentle slope was now becoming quite steep, Flo proceeded with careful footing, till she came to a cluster of trees unlike the ones she had just passed through.

These trees were closely set together their trunks gnarled and twisted, long bare branches clung to each other all entwined with the next creating a thick, dark canopy overhead.

Misshapen roots bulged and broke through the soil.

The smell had grown truly dreadful here, the stench of rot and decay thick in the air.

Peering through a small opening, Flo stared into a forest full of darkness and shadows, carefully she squeezed through, emerging into the dark forest. Cautiously she made her way forwards, towards the stench. The shadows appeared to be moving, weaving back and forth between the trees. As she placed one foot in front of the other her foot met with thin air, there is no ground she realized before plummeting forward.

She had kept falling through the dark for what felt like an eternity eventually landing with a hard crack to the cold stone floor, her breath leaving her on a gasp at the sudden impact. Slightly disorientated, Flo stumbled to her feet rubbing her aching back, death it would seem did not cure all your aches and pains nor did it dull the sense of smell, she thought gagging violently.

How on earth was she going to get herself out of this one, she stared around blindly, reaching with her hands trying to find something to grip. Finding the cold, stone wall, Flo made her way forwards, hoping she would soon come across another opening. The wall turned, Flo followed, there were now stone walls either side of her. A long stone corridor stretched before her, either side narrowing as she went, narrower and narrower. Flo was forced to turn sideways to fit through, she pushed herself on eventually falling out into another dark opening.

As she fell forward, Flo could hear a noise in the dark, concentrating she stopped moving and listened.

There it was again, was that crying, it was definitely crying, so quiet but she could just make it out.