The Wishing Well

The move from California to Salem Massachusetts was a tough one, I had lived in the same house for 17 1/2 years, and suddenly we were moving across the country so my dad could accept a well deserved promotion to CFO in his company. It took us two weeks to pack and before we knew it we were in our new house. It was a creepy looking old house, like all the ones you see in horror movies. The house was a very large two story house that looked to be a gothic style Victorian house, this house was old and creepy, but it also had a kind of mysterious beauty to it as well. It has several points to the roof of the house, the roof was also steeply pitched, making it look like a scary old haunted house, but in a pretty way if that makes any sense. All the old white paint was peeling off due to lack of maintenance. The windows are all very large and shaped like a pointed arch, almost like a church, with a roundness to them but flat on the bottom, and very tall front doors that opened inward with beautiful ornate handmade designs down the entirety of each, they were seemingly made of iron or some kind of heavy metal because they were solid but moved with such ease and when they were closed you could hear the thud of the doors together. The house also had a large wrap around porch that went from one side around to the backdoor. I stood in front of it staring at it for what seemed like forever before I heard my stepmother Christine yell "Katelynn Marie, what on earth are you doing, come get your things and take them up to your room!" I grimaced at her and turned to the moving truck to see my father and step brother Jake carrying the very large sectional pieces into the house. I walked over and grabbed a box that had my name on it and carried it into the house, and as I walked through the front doors there was a large staircase that was about 15 feet in from the door way, about 6 feet wide and wound to the right, up to the second floor, the handrails were hand crafted out of a dark wood that had recently been polished, and the stairs were covered in a very pretty runner that went the length of the entire staircase, it was mostly red with a gold pattern winding up the sides like a wave and in the center was a repeating pattern of gold roses, three across each step and the steps seemed to go on forever. The house inside looked amazing, the floors were all wood floors that looked like they had recently been replaced because they looked brand new with a shine you could see yourself in and the color was a dark red. The kitchen/dining hall floors were covered in white marble which gave it quite an elegant feel and the kitchen was big enough for 20 people to fit in, it looked like they used to have a lot of staff cooking and moving around busily, made me even more curious about the previous owners. The walls in the foyer were covered in rose patterned wallpaper, white roses with green stems. The living room walls were a dark green paint with gold leafing and gold painted mouldings with very ornate carvings that looked to be done all by hand, around the highest ceiling I have ever seen. as I reached the top of the stairs I began walking down the long hall which had to be six feet wide and at least 200 feet long, and along the way there were pictures hung of people after each door which there were ten doors in all. Each picture looked like the people were staring right at me and the eyes seemed to be following me, there were eight men and two women, one of the women I was told was the matriarch of the neighborhood and I wondered why we had these paintings hanging in our house of people we didn't even know. The hallway started to completely creep me out, so I decided to get to my room a little quicker and began jogging, it felt like I would never reach my room, but I finally arrived at the door that said "Katelynn's Room" on a post-it note in Christine's scratchy scribble that I could barely read, thank god I have practice reading dad's scribble or I might have missed it entirely. I entered my new room and was instantly smacked by the sight I saw, what an incredible room! The walls were painted by hand, and it was a mural of someone's version of the most amazing garden that had every flower you could imagine. A grand white gazebo hung over a deep blue pond, and a little bridge that led to a white brick Wishing Well with a small bell tower over top of it, without the bell, instead there hung a small plaque that I could barely read, "To all who visit the wishing well: wishes for good, are understood, wishes for bad, are always sad...be careful what you wish for". I thought *what a strange plaque to hang over a painted wishing well, it's not like anyone could "actually" use it right?*

I slept like a baby that night in my beautiful new room, I loved it, it felt so...homey, you know like I had been here before, only I knew I hadn't because I would remember a house like this simply because it was truly unforgettable, I felt like I connected with this old house, it was kind of weird but I was actually happy to be here now, I didn't really have any friends in California that I liked, most of the kids thought I was weird because I like science class more than anything! I was a geek and I didn't care, but even the geeks thought I was weird if you can believe that. I got dressed and headed downstairs where Christine and Jake were laughing about some joke Jake had told her, he was alright for a step brother, and Christine got on my nerves a lot! But she really loved my dad, so I made the effort to get along with her. My real mother however was a different story, she decided when I was 7 that she needed more...more money, so she ran off with a rich guy and I haven't seen her since. Christine has given my dad purpose again, and I have to admit I like having a "real family".

I walked into the kitchen following the smell of bacon that had just been cooked, Jake said "hey!" with a grin on his face, I replied with a half smile and a nod as I sat down to a wonderful looking breakfast. There were eggs, bacon, pancakes with butter and syrup, and fruit with orange juice, apple juice, and milk, I will admit Christine was great in the kitchen, I actually liked most every meal she made. I asked "Dad already leave?" Christine replied "yes, he danced out the door to the tune of seniority this morning, smiling and excited". I let out a chuckle and started loading up my plate with delicious breakfast foods, taking my time to taste every delicious morsel, and with a full stomach, I helped clean up the kitchen before going outside to explore the surroundings. Christine and Jake decided to go into town and roam while I stayed behind to do the same. I was actually happy for the first time in a while, Christine and my father who's name is Will, met and fell in love two years ago, then decided to get married 10 months after they met, and so far everything has been good. It took some time for me to accept Christine and Jake because I was only used to my dad and me, so I might have gotten a little jealous of her and declared war on her for a while, but she finally came to me and waved the white flag of surrender and we talked, I realized that all she wanted was to be happy and to make my father happy. When she told me that she really loved my dad and that she was not trying to replace my mom, just be my friend, I backed down and said we could try. Jake was a hard pill to swallow! he is 3 years younger than me so we met at his most "annoying" stage. I was 15 he was a tween! He did everything he could to bug me, I would spend most of the my day hiding from him. I now realize that he was just lonely and had nobody else to bug, so I was his target. We used to spend any time in the same vicinity with him acting ridiculous and me being mean to him. I would come home from school and immediately run to my room and barricade myself in away from everyone. I hated him, or so I thought, then one day while we were at school he was being harassed by Vincent Hollow aka "Vinny" who was one of the rich kids, Vinny was teasing him, pushing him around, and just being plain mean to him, and something in me decided I had to defend him, so I walked up to Vinny and told him if he didn't stop I would tell his father, and Vincent's father was a very strict man about any actions on his family's behalf, that might stain his reputation in town, so that convinced Vinny to leave Jack alone, for now.

Jack and I had a pretty decent relationship after that, a few weeks went by before the bullying started again, this time I went straight to his father and he was made to apologize to Jack in person in front of the whole school, but it didn't stop Vinny from calling him a cry baby because "his sister had to rescue poor little cry baby Jack from big bad Vinny...ha ha ha ha". Vinny was always after someone. Well, now that you know how we got here, let's get back to what happened that made us closer than we thought we would ever be.

I had earlier decided to stay all by myself at the house to discover what was around the place, get to know my surroundings and new home ya know? So, I stood on the large front porch looking around at the land in front of me, and what I saw was a wild mess of grass, trees, and flowers growing everywhere. The grass hadn't been cut in years from what I could tell because it was at least 3 feet tall all around the house, but what an amazing place it would be once it was manicured. I turned around and walked around the side of the house that the porch followed, and I came around to see the same high grass and huge trees about 30 feet behind the house, I looked down to see that there was a small trail carved out by being walked a lot that led into the trees, so I began to follow it. It winded down an embankment, through the huge trees and stopped about a quarter mile down a hill, when I got through the trees I could see the same exact white well that was painted on the wall in my room...as a matter of fact, the entire area was just like the mural in my room! What a beautiful place! I was amazed at how unbelievably kept up it was, all I could think was "someone really loved this garden, to take such good care of it all this time". I made my way to the well to look down into it to see if I could see any water in it, I couldn't see down that far into the deep darkness, it seemed bottomless, but what a pretty little well. I was drawn to it like moth to a flame, I just had to know more about it, who built it, how long has it been here, who has been taking care of it and this garden?

I walked down a small dirt path that wound around the whole garden almost in a neat little circle, I was in awe of the whole secret place. As I am walking around I hear someone coming from the woods beyond, sounds like someone is humming, and I could hear them but could not see them, yet somehow I heard them pass very close to me, but how? I don't see them, and where are they? I can still hear them, and then I turned around and there he stood, inches from me, startling me to jump backward, I gasped in surprise, and almost fell into the well! He reached out just in time, grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the small hole that nearly swallowed me. At that moment I almost wanted to fall, so I could see what was down there, I had a feeling it wasn't just a well, that there was so much story to it, and I was going to find out what it was.

I asked him who he was and he said "oh me? I'm nobody special, I just like to keep this place beautiful, it gives me a sense of peace" I replied with a grin "well, hello Mr. Nobody, my name is Katelynn, nice to meet you". I was looking him over and noticed that he was kind of cute, in a strange sort of awkward way, but his eyes were the bluest I had ever seen. He was tall and very lanky, he had thick sandy blonde hair that was put back into a ponytail and it went halfway down his back in tiny spiraled curls. His teeth could use some work and he was missing an incisor on the left side and both bottom teeth in the front, but other than that and being a bit disheveled and dirty, he seemed like a nice guy. "do you live here now?" he asked, I shook my head in agreement, "you?" he said "yeah, I live down the road about 5 miles or so". I smiled and nodded, "Did you start the garden?", he said "no, I found it here one day and came back everyday to see who it belonged to, but I never saw anyone, so I started taking care of it, and it's funny because it seemed to just come to me", I asked what he meant by that, and he replied "I never took care of a garden before, but somehow I just knew what to do, it was like I had been here all my life" I nodded in agreement, because I felt it too, that feeling of Deja vu, where you feel like you have been there before. It was a familiar feeling of belonging. I asked if he knew about the people in the paintings in our hallway, and he said that the older woman who's name was "Silvia Fitzpatrick" in the first painting at the head of the stairs, was the Mayor of the town about 45 years ago and every person in those paintings lived and died in that house. Mr. Skinner down the street painted all of them and knew every person that has ever lived or died here, he is the oldest living patron of Salem at 97 years old, and Mrs. Skinner is the second oldest at 90. The whole city is only 18 miles in diameter, so I suppose not much goes on that isn't spread across the city within a few hours. I thanked him for his information about my new town, he went home and so did I. The family all found their way home and we all got to sit down to dinner, have a family meal, and listen to dad go on and on about his new role in the company. It was comforting to have all of us together as a family, just enjoying each others company. For the first time since we came together, I actually felt a sense of belonging, and peace. Then Christine mentioned that she got the feeling people were avoiding her and Jack, "but I guess that's just how people treat newbies in their town till they get to know you" she said, shrugged her shoulders and quickly dismissed it.

The hallway always creeped me out when I would walk to my room, but today I decided to find who Silvia Fitzpatrick was, so this time when Christine and Jack went to town, I went with them in hopes of talking to Mr. Skinner and get the 411 on the house, garden, and the rest. Salem is also a creepy cute town, funny that the name of this town means "peace", when that is not what has happened in the last 45 years according to Mr. Skinner. He told me that Silvia is the one who started the garden and the well came from another property here that was apparently owned by the Parris family who's daughter Abigail was part of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, she was showing odd behavior in her early teens and thus was deemed a witch and hung by the neck until dead, along with two of her friends Betty and Ann. Over 60,000 people were hanged for witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. Apparently after the fact they found out that the girls were not witches but most likely were reacting to fungus infected rye called ergot, they called the disease Ergotism. Mr. Skinner also told me that every single person in the paintings on the walls died in the house in the same room, the same exact way...in their sleep, but he then said "which was strange, because it would appear that when they were discovered, they all had their eyes open and a terrified look frozen on their faces". When I asked him which room, he said "the one I painted a mural of the well and garden in, I painted that mural after the third death, because I felt like it might bring some peace to the room, I guess I was wrong, then the priest of the church performed an exorcism after the last death before you all moved in, hoping who or whatever was possessing the room would be gone". I asked him "When was that" he said "oh, about a month ago", I could feel the anxiety building up inside my body and all of a sudden I felt dizzy and it began to get darker, and the next thing I knew I woke up with Christine and Jack standing over me asking me if I was ok. I was lying on a small couch in Mr. Skinners shop, and it felt like the whole town was standing there staring at me. I apparently passed out, Mr. Skinner called for help, the boy I met in the garden Mr. Nobody, was standing over me as well, talking to Jake. That's when he told me his name was Kyle Christensen and his mom was a very sweet nurse named Lydia. Once we determined it was ok for me to stand safely, I was ushered home by Christine to rest for the day. I went straight to my room, and slept for a good 3 hours. I woke up around 10 pm to find everyone else had gone to bed, realizing that I was starving because I didn't eat dinner, I headed downstairs to find some leftovers or see if Christine left a plate for me. As I was heading downstairs I could feel an uneasy feeling come over me as I walked down the hall, like I was being watched. Then as I was approaching the stairs out of my peripheral vision I swear I saw the painting move...so I looked quickly and nothing, I turned back around to go down the stairs, and again I thought I saw her head turn and follow me, I actually decided to run back to my room, and when I opened the door....there she stood! Big as life it was Silvia dripping wet, there was a puddle of water at her feet! She had climbed out of the well and come for me! I got so frightened my heart stopped, I fell onto the bed and that was it. They found me the next day, dead with eyes wide open and my face...frozen with the same terrified look as all the others, they never figured out what scared me to death.