The Well

There is a well that sits at the end of a dirt track behind our house. For as long as I can remember, it has always filled me with dread. Just one look at it and a cold shiver would run down my spine. My parents said it was all in my imagination, that it was irrational.

While I know there was no real reason for it, it had no dark past. Yet, whenever I looked in its direction, the world seemed darker, colder. My parents thought I would grow out of it, I did too, but no.

Even when I was at college out of town, when I returned, the fear returned.

Now 27 years old, I inherited the family home from my parents, who downsized. I was sitting on the steps to the back door, looking at the well. Feeling that same dread I had felt every time I set my eyes upon it.

Then it happened...

For the first time in 20 years - a sound came from the well.

The sound was like one shaky single note on a viola played throughout the day. It didn't matter if I was in the yard, in the house or off the property. Even if I had my earphones in, I would still hear the faint but eerie sound.

I started keeping a record, using a calender and journal, I became obsessed. Marking an x on the calender if I heard the sound when I woke. It consumed my life. I couldn't stop thinking about it...the well...couldn't stop hearing it...the sound.

As things were different now and I had, what I believed was a tangible reason to feel uneasy about the well...I felt less insane.

That was short-lived though. Only I heard it...no-one else. As my parents were unable to visit, one of my cousins came and could not hear the sound.

I felt like I was going insane, hearing things - but I knew it was real, it had to be real. Days and weeks of X marks on the calender passed with no sign of it stopping. Then...one day in September...one normal, run-of-the-mill day as autumn slowly took effect.

The noise stopped.

I was sitting on the steps to the back door, looking at the well...and there was silence. I was so elated to finally be free of the sound that had plagued my mind for so very long. The sound that had made me feel like I was going insane. That I didn't pay close enough attention to the fact that this silence was not normal silence.

There was no crickets, no morning birdsong. No sound of the neighbour's dogs in the distance. Nothing. The silence became deafening and the dread the well had given me for all my life, was amplified.

I felt a strong urge to look away from the well, but there was an even stronger urge that kept me focused on it.

The well was calling to me. Beckoning me.

A strong magnetic force was pulling me towards it. As hard as I tried to fight it, I stood up and slowly lifted one foot in front of the other. I couldn't fight it. Left and then right. Left and then right.

My heartbeat and breathing increased as I approached the well and then...nothing. I just stood there. Inches away from the well that had plagued me all my life.

Couldn't move. Like I was frozen in time or my feet were part of the ground beneath them.

I felt strangely calm. I had been running from and avoiding this well all my life and now standing inches away from it, without any way to escape, I felt at ease. As my legs freed up and I could move...without thinking I knew what I had to do...the only logical thing, was to jump into the well...where my parents lay.

-

Janie felt a cold shiver run down her back as she reached the devestating end of the letter she had found under some dusty books in the study of her family home. "What's that?" her mother asked as she walked into the study. "I think it's a journal written by the guy that lived here. What happened to him?" she replied putting the letter back on the pile of books. "I'm not sure sweetie..."

*

Thanks for reading!

I seem to be on something of a horror spree right now. This took more than one sitting, but the idea had been playing back and forth in my mind. I toyed around with the formatting, but felt it worked better with the fact that the bulk of the story is a letter than knowing from the beginning.

Thoughts?

Here are a couple of other recently published pieces:

You can also take a look at the rest of my work here.