The Well

407 words | Horror

The Well

“Don’t go down there, Bran!” Willa cried.

“I’m the man of the house now, Ma said.” Bran shot back.

Willa grabbed his arm, trying with all her strength to pull her brother back. If he went there, he’d be lost, like the rest of them.

“The lights will eat you!” she sobbed.

Eat you, eat you, eat you, the echoes mocked. Willa shuddered because the echoes weren’t her voice.

Bran jerked his arm free. Then, more gently, “I’ll come back, Willa. I promise.”

Willa buried her face in his shoulder for a moment before he disentangled himself. “I just need to check. It’s the last place anyone saw Ma.” His voice begged understanding, but Willa, too close to the truth that adults have forgotten and teenagers pretend doesn’t exist, could not.

“She’ll eat you,” she whispered.

“There’s no one on the well,” he whispered back.

Come and see, something else whispered in the dark. Bran didn’t hear, but Willa did.

The well lay at the bottom of a hollow, reached by cobbled paths half-covered by moss and earth. Bran stopped, heart in his throat. Was there a faint light boiling up from the well’s depths? He rubbed his eyes and looked again. No, just his imagination. Or a trick of the light from his own lantern.

“Don’t be a baby,” he muttered to himself.

Baby, baby, baby.

“Who’s there? Ma?” he asked, holding the lamp higher.

Nothing. No one.

Bran’s hand shook as he approached the ancient stone well. He cast about on the ground around it, looking for any sign of his mother or the others who had vanished.

“Nothing.” The word felt jagged in his throat, hot and full of despair.

Nothing. Nothing left. Gone, gone, gone.

“Who said that?” Bran shouted, whirling, as the orange lantern light made the shadows of the naked branches dance and writhe.

Come and see. See me, see we, seeee–eee—eeee. Come and be eaten.

Bran backed up, colliding with the well’s rim. He scanned the night around him, breath coming in short, sharp gasps, exhales misting in the night air. Something cold as death and hard as iron grabbed him from behind and pulled Bran backwards. And then he was falling, falling into the well, as gravelight swelled all around and swallowed him up.

There was silence then for a little while. Atop the hill, Willa hugged herself tight, eyes shut, tears streaming hot down her cheeks.

Willa. Willaaaaa! Come and see. Come and be eaten.