A/N: So, it seems you all liked my story The Castle and the Boy. I decided that I will write more stories for you. It is a great way for me to express myself and share my writing... Albeit sometimes not my best. Just as a warning though, The Castle and the Boy is a rarity for me. I rarely write stories that end happily or with a "good" ending.
There is this well and I see it. I see it everyday and I touch it everyday. My hands know that the first layer of stone has worn from the world but the edge is still smooth. My fingertips know that every five inches or so there is a dip in the smoothness. My brain knows it's there, my body knows it's there, but why does no one else see it?
I've brought people to the well, asking them what they thought. You see, our city shouldn't have a well, it's just not that kind of place. My friends think I am playing a joke on them, or that I'm being funny about it. My parents think I'm crazy and every time I mention the well, they get nervous. It's as if I shouldn't talk about it...
But it exists. It exists and I know it. I wonder if I am crazy, I wonder if they all see it too, but they're just not allowed to recognize it verbally.
I come to the well a lot. Almost daily, I sit by it, look at it, question it. Some times I feel safer with the well. It's been there since I was a child, how can I not feel comfortable near something that is a constant in my life?
"Did you use to carry water?" I'd ask the well. "Is there still water down there?" I'd continue. "How deep are you?"
I always wondered how far down the well went. The light never shined quite right on it, so I couldn't even see more than a foot or two into it. Other people had to see the well, it couldn't just be me, right?
One day, while sitting with my parents I decided to push it again. "How come no one else sees the well?" They stiffened, it always made them uncomfortable to hear about the well. "There is no well, darling. You need to let this delusion of yours go." My mother said, worried. "You are a strange child." My father muttered and went back to his accounting books.
Why didn't they see the well? What was it about the well that made them this nervous. It's just a well, right?
It happened one morning, while I was sitting next to the well. I wondered why no one could see it. Looking at the edge, looking at the smooth stone, I had a funny idea. Maybe I'll climb into the well. Yes, that's it. I'll climb into the well and take a stone from the bottom of the well, surely it'll be very different than the stone around it. Maybe then people will see the well and the stone and believe me.
So I went home, grabbed a rope, and tied it around my waist. The old banister that would hold the bucket and the pulley wouldn't support me, so I tied it to a tree close by. Slowly, I climbed down the well, remembering the dips every five inches or so in the stone. I climbed down, my hands barely able to hold on until I slipped. Just one missed step and I was falling straight down. It seemed as if I was falling forever, but eventually I hit the bottom.
I don't remember much of what happened when I hit the bottom, just that I woke up later, groaning about the aches in my body. My eyes scanned around me and I couldn't see a thing. I looked up to find the sky and instead I found only darkness. Did the well swallow me?
I panicked, no one knows I am here. Even if they did, they can't see the well. I began to try and climb up but I would slip and fall back to the bottom. I screamed out in terror, what was I to do?
After crying for a moment in my panicked state, the well suddenly spoke. "Is this what you wished for?" I gasped and wiped the tears from my face. "Absolutely not! Who wishes for this sort of thing?"
"Someone who is lonely, perhaps?" The deep timber of the well's voice made it sound old, wise.
"I am not lonely. I have people who love me." My back was pressed to the wall of the well, while my legs pulled in.
"A person who is sad?" He offered again.
"Why would I be sad?" My retort was quick.
"Perhaps, then, a person who goes unnoticed?" I scoffed. "Yes, like my existence is so small to my loved ones."
The well seemed to be thinking about his response. Though it took him awhile, what he said next shook me. "Maybe you are all these things and you just haven't realized it." I was silenced. "Everyday, you come to me. Everyday, you bring people to me. Yet, everyday you walk away disappointed that no one but you can see me."
"Why can no one see you?"
Something of a chuckle came from the walls. "You'll soon find out, little one."
It was as if I could feel his presence leave. "Wait! How do I get out?!"
There was no answer.
I sighed and began to think I was going to be stuck in this darkness forever. I suddenly remember, the rope! Of course the rope could save me! I tugged on it, pulled the on it until it was taught. With a grin, I thought I had won. I pulled on the rope and pushed my feet against the wall, climbing, pulling. Yes! I was going to get out!
I climbed, I pulled.
I climbed, I pulled.
I climbed, I pulled.
I climbed, I pulled.
I climbed, I pulled.
I climbed, I pulled.
I climbed, I pulled.
I climbed, I pulled.
This went on for what felt like ever.
I paused, my chest heaving with exertion.
"It's still a long way to the top." The well was suddenly back.
"I will get myself out." My determination was strong.
"You could just stay at the bottom."
"And just waste away?"
"Nonsense, you would eventually find what lies within my walls." There was no indication that what the well was speaking about was pleasant, but no indication that it was terrible.
I thought about it, what did lie in his walls? "What would I find?"
"You'd have to wait and see, little one." His tone was inviting, but truthful. He wasn't trying to convince me, but give me options.
I shook my head. "People are waiting for me up there."
I climbed, I pulled.
I climbed, I pulled.
I climbed, I pulled.
I climbed, I pulled.
I climbed, I pulled.
Exhaustion was wearing on me.
"It would be easier if you just let go." The well coaxed.
"I have people waiting for me."
"People who don't believe you."
"Well they'll believe me this time." I had a bitter ring to my tone. When did that start happening?
"Or they'll chalk it up to another fantasy tale, like the well."
"Must you speak now?" I was beginning to resent this well.
"Yes, I must speak when you are so close."
"Close to what?"
Silence.
I gruffed and began my escape once more.
I climbed, I pulled.
I climbed, I pulled.
I climbed, I pulled.
I climbed, I pulled.
I could see it now. The light.
I could see my escape.
I rested, the next time I climbed, I wouldn't stop until I got to the top.
"What will you do when you get out?" The well asked, no longer trying to convince me to stay.
"See my family and my friends." I managed to speak between large intakes of breath.
"What if they no longer want to see you?"
"That's silly, of course they'll want to see me." My tone was resolute. These were people who loved me and I loved. How could they not want to see me?
"We shall see, little one."
I rolled my eyes and began my ascent once more.
Climbing, pulling.
Climbing, pulling.
Climbing, pulling.
Climbing, pulling.
Climbing, pulling.
Finally, I could reach the edge. I laughed, almost deliriously. I reached out and grabbed hold of it, pulling myself up to the top. I crawled to the ground, laying on my back and laughed, I made it.
My eyes found the well and I grinned. "I made it. I win." I unsteadily got to my feet. Once I was able to walk normally, I was running, straight for my home.
Bursting through the door, I looked at my parents. "Mom! Dad!" I ran to them only to be stopped by their stares of horror. "Why are you here?" Asked my father. "What happened to you?"
"Remember that well? Well I went inside of it and I couldn't get out until now." I laughed. "But thank god I managed to get out!"
"Go.. No, just leave." My mother broke out in sobs, screaming then turning to hit my arms. "Get out!" She screamed and I ran out. I was confused. Wouldn't they be happy to see their child?
I found it odd... So I went to my friends, surely they'd take me in while I figured out what was going on with my parents.
I went to them and the same reaction happened. They screamed at me to leave and called me crazy. What was going on? I was only gone a day or so. Why were they all being so odd? I frowned and wandered. It was when I caught my reflection in a shop window, did I understand.
My hair had thinned, so did my body. I looked like a skeleton that had skin. My body was filthy and I was a mess. But how could this happen? I was only in the well for a day or so.. How did I turn out like this so soon?
I cowered, realizing that everyone in the immediate area was staring me. So I fled, hiding in an alleyway. I saw a paper that displayed something that terrified me. The date on the paper was two years after the day I had left. This couldn't be.
Terrified I ran again, this time I had no intention of where I was going, I just knew I had to run. So I ran as fast as I could and stopped when I felt like no one could see me.
And before me...
There it was...
The well.
"Hello, little one."
"What has happened to me?"
"The same thing that happens to everyone that sees me."
"And that is?" My tone was weak.
"They become enveloped in darkness, so much so, that they are obsessed with it. And when they emerge from the darkness, they realize all that they had left behind." The well seemed indifferent, as if he had spoke of this frequently.
"But, I just climbed in to prove you were real.."
"Ah, but your obsession started so much earlier than that. Do you not see it, little one?"
Distraught, I looked at the well, thinking.
Thinking..
Thinking...
Yes... I remembered, as a child, I was invisible. I was alone, I was in darkness.
With tears, I looked at the well.
"What am I to do now?"
"Find what lies in my walls, little one." He offered.
Without a rope, without a way back, without thinking. I stood on the edge of the well and dropped.
It should have killed me, but I survived. I stayed there, for who knows how long. It took a long time for me to find what lay in the well's walls but when I found it, it was too late. For me, it was too late.
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