The Devil’s Well sat upon the hill behind our town. It was an old, decrepit relic of the town, its rotting wood showing its age. Chunks of the cobblestone were missing and you could occasionally see a piece on the way down the hill. The old bucket was held by a taut, worn piece of rope over the dark pit. The water had long since dried up, causing it to be abandoned long ago.
Will sat on the edge of the well.
“How did you guys think you did on the tests?”
“Uh, fine. I guess.” I said.
“I did crap,” Dan laughed, “my aunt’s probably gonna kill me.”
“That’s because you never bother studying.” Rachel said.
“Not my fault the teachers don’t, you know, teach very well.” I always knew Dan liked Rachel. It was painfully obvious by the way he always made jokes around her.
“Their teaching would be more effective if you actually paid attention in the first place.” Will leaned forward to the group.
“Yeah, yeah. How’s Lucy?” Dan said with a mocking tone.
“She’s good.” Will kept a straight face.
“Yes I’m sure ‘Lucy’ is.” I couldn’t help but chuckle.
Will turned to me and glared.
“Shut up.”
The sun had started to lower, spilling orange and pink across the horizon. A chill breeze cut away the warmth from earlier in the day.
“So when are you gonna go in the well?” Dan asked Will.
“This again?” Rachel mumbled.
“I just don’t want to.” Will replied.
“Scared? Ooh, the Devil will grab you and steal your soul! Nah, I bet you’re just worried there’ll be a bunch of spiders down there.” Dan wiggled his fingers.
“No. I just don’t want to. You go down if you’re so brave.”
Dan leaned back and took a look at everyone. He only gave a quick glance at Rachel.
“Okay.” He stood up and placed his hands on the well.
“Come on Dan, this is stupid. What if the rope breaks?” Rachel stood up and placed her hand on his arm.
“It’s not gonna break. If it does, you guys can just throw me down some lunch every day,” he grinned, “Besides, there might be something cool down there. Imagine there’s like, a skeleton or something?”
Rachel sighed. Dan let out his dumb laugh he always does when he’s about to do something stupid.
“Hey Johnny boy, you coming down too?”
I shook my head.
“Aw, worried you’ll find another dead body? C’mon, you ever gonna get over that?”
“Too far Dan.” Will said.
“I was eight.” I shook the old image out of my head.
“Alright, forget I said anything.”
He climbed up onto the stone, holding the roof to balance himself. The rope groaned as he grabbed it with both hands and lifted his foot, testing the sturdiness of the bucket. Dan hoisted himself up, planting both his feet on the bucket.
“Oh god.” Rachel muttered.
“Alright. Send me down.”
Will practically hopped around to the winch. Will wasn’t the strongest kid, so it took a few seconds of pushing before it started to move. He kept on turning the winch, and I watched as Dan’s pointy hair disappeared below the stone.
“Bye bye!” Will laughed. It felt like ages before Dan’s voice came back up to the surface.
“Okay stop!”
Will left the winch and came to Rachel and I’s side, joining us into peering down into the blackness.
“Find anything?” I yelled.
“Uh, no. It’s all dry, there’s no water. Just some… dust or something.”
“Just come back up Dan.” Rachel called out. Her voice echoed through the inky black of the well.
“Dan!” I peered down into the well. It was almost like the light was drained causing the well to be pitch black.
“Hilarious Dan. Did you find anything or not?” Will’s smile was still plastered to his face. Rachel was starting to get visibly annoyed.
“Think he’s lost?” I felt the chill air brush past my neck.
“Lost where? It’s a well. He’s just playing.” Will said.
“What if he’s not?” Rachel turned to him.
“You’re too serious,” Will sighed as Rachel’s eyes stared him down, “Johnathan, you want to go down and find him?”
“Why do I have to do it? You’re the one who told him to go down.”
“Only after he pestered me all summer about going down. Oh fine,” Will went around to the winch and started to roll it back up, “It’s not like I was scared of it.”
Rachel crossed her arms. Will grabbed the rope and lifted his feet onto the bucket.
It was starting to get dark now. The pink had overtaken the orange in the sky, and the warmth was all but gone.
“Just be quick okay?” Rachel told him.
“Yeah and don’t run into any spiders.” I grabbed the winch and started to turn it.
Will nodded as he went down. I watched as his curly hair went out of sight down the well. The winch was stiff, every rotation was a struggle.
“I’m at the bottom!”
“Find him?” Rachel asked.
“Uh, no. I don’t know where he could have gone. It’s just- wait a second…”
“What?”
Will didn’t respond.
“Will?” I sighed as I took my hands off the well. “They must be both in on it.”
“I don’t know. They’ve never done anything like this before.”
The sky had turned to a dark blue, the air becoming chillier by every minute.
“I’m going in.” I said,
“What?”
“I’m going in. They might be stuck or something.”
“Come on Johnathan. Like you said, they’re probably just messing around.”
“Yeah I know. But just in case.”
She glared at me.
“Look, if I don’t come up, then you can get help. If they are messing around, I’m not going to join in. Okay?”
I moved over to the winch and started rotating it. Rachel didn’t say anything as she watched me climb onto the bucket. It shook with the slightest movement, and I could see the strands of rope untwined. The rope had an odd smell to it, reminiscent of sawdust. Rachel started to move the winch, her face contorted into a grimace.
The darkness immediately wrapped around me like a blanket as I descended into the well. I couldn’t even make out the walls around me, let alone the bucket and rope I was gripping. The circle of light from above slowly shrank as I went further down. A clattering sound echoed through the well as the bucket connected with the floor.
“Okay I’m down!”
“Alright, just please be quick!”
The depths of the well were pitch black and the only thing to guide me was the sound of stones clattering beneath my feet. The air was unusually warm and thick, like a greenhouse, and suffocated me like a snake.
“Guys? Come on.” Silence. I knelt down and picked up one of the many stones making up the floor. It was incredibly smooth, likely due to the erosion it went through over the years. I threw the stone forward, being met with a satisfying thunk. I picked up another and threw it to my left. The thunk came later than the first. That must have been where they went. I stumbled through the dark, my arms stretched out in front of me until they met with the cold stone wall. A breeze brushed through my legs. Kneeling down I could feel there was a short, narrow passage that must have only gone up to my waist.
“Guys?” Again, silence, “Rachel! I found a tunnel!” Silence was my reply. I pushed my hand further into the tunnel, peeling away the cobwebs that were coating it. I wasn’t exactly scared of spiders, but the memory of the corpse I found years ago kept flashing through my mind. I kept expecting to see the chubby, bloated face in the dark, the skin writhing and pulsing from the maggots underneath. That greasy hair trying it’s best to stay slicked back and to not fall off of his skull. It might have been the air, but I could have sworn the tunnel was getting smaller and smaller as I made my way through. A sickly light pierced the tunnel, almost blinding me. I had to turn my head as I continued to push myself along the floor. The light grew closer and closer, until I was engulfed by it and fell out onto the dead grass.
I was not in the same place. The sky was a sickly yellow, only partly shielded by the dark clouds which rolled like a snake unravelling. An earthy smell coated the air, which was even heavier now, and a warm breeze went through the air. The breeze was constant, not coming in like waves as normal. I stood and looked around for Dan and Will, but they were nowhere to be found. I looked back, only to find that the hill was gone.
The hole I had crawled out of was a mound, scarcely a few feet high. Had I really crawled that far? Scanning the horizon didn’t reveal the hill with the well. It was almost like the landscape had been flattened by a giant. There was no way I crawled several miles in only a few minutes. Was there? I turned back to the town, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw a familiar sight. Or as familiar as it could get.
It’s hard to describe the feeling that breached my mind as I made my way to the town. Despite it being so long ago I can still vividly remember it. A feeling like I wasn’t supposed to be here, and that I was trespassing. The uncanny sky and air solidly marked that this was not home. The only sound was the constant whistling of the air, which eventually blended in my mind to the point where I eventually didn’t register it.
The silence grew. Only my footsteps broke it. The sound of grass turned to pavement as I entered the edges of town. As I approached the streets, a strange, sweet smell became prevalent. It was the kind of smell that lingers in your nose. I couldn’t locate the origin of the smell, it almost seemed to be the smell of the air itself, and didn’t have any origin.
The smell didn’t grow any stronger as I walked further down the streets. They were completely barren, not even any cars were parked on the side. There wasn’t even any litter on the sidewalk. The absence of people extended to the houses, as no lights were on in any of the windows, and no sound leaked out. I even peered in through a few windows only to be met with nobody. As I continued to walk, I began to notice something. I didn’t recognise this street. I had been everywhere in town. Except here. The street seemed off. Just like the absence of cars, litter and people on the streets, there weren’t any street signs. The street didn’t seem real, as it stretched seemingly forever in one direction. How long had I been walking down this same street? How many of the same houses had I passed? It was like I was in a trance, just walking forward.
I can’t remember how much time passed until I shook my head, becoming lucid again, and dashed down a side alley. But just like the streets, the alley didn’t end. Buildings weren’t made this long, were they? My footsteps echoed through the ever lengthening alley, my breath becoming ragged. I kept sprinting, hoping my sheer will would make it end. The path continued, those same grey bricks repeating over and over in the exact same order. As I ran the bricks turned into a blur, one uniformed blanket of stone. I tripped. I tumbled across the floor, getting dust onto my already stained shirt. Groaning, I got to my feet and patted the filth off myself. I looked down the alley to see whatever tripped me. It was just a tin of beans.
Kidney beans. A tin of beans in an otherwise barren town. I turned around, and there was now an opening, the end of the alley. As I stumbled out back onto the street the anxious sensation within me only grew.. All of the buildings were the same house, but one was different. A shop. A butcher. Moe’s. Moe’s? Moe’s butchery? I didn’t remember a Moe’s in town. The same houses repeated around the butcher, repeating on and on into infinity. Apart from the butcher’s. Frowning, I crept over to the side of the shop and peered in. The room was clean, the dazzling white practically blinding me. The only thing that stood out was a man was at the counter, clearly bored. He had a slightly rounded face, his cheeks perhaps slightly larger than what could be considered healthy. He coughed, his hair falling in front of his face. He licked his hand, slicked his hair back, and then scratched his smooth chin before going back to leaning on the counter.
The bell rang as I stepped into the butcher. The man at the counter looked up.
“Ooh, a customer. How may I help you?” His voice was deeper than I expected. I walked up to the counter, a slight shudder ricocheting throughout my body.
“We have some lovely fresh cuts in today,” the man gestured to the still glistening red options through the glass, “we have chicken breast, chicken thigh, hind leg of beef, lambs breast, snake steak-“
The smell of the raw meat was nauseating, I had to close my eyes and take a deep breath. When I opened them, that bloated face was staring back at me. The skin writhing as the maggots pushed their way out, the skin becoming slimier, the hair falling out of the scalp. I could barely let out a tiny gasp as I recoiled back from the counter. A cold sensation engulfed me.
I sat up, spitting out the mud and wiping it from my eyes. Coughing, I looked down at the rush of water flowing around my legs. The downpour of rain could be heard as the streams of silver fell just outside. I was back. My body felt weaker, smaller. In an instant, I knew what was behind me. The mud thoroughly held me down, sucking my legs to the spot. I cried out, knowing there was nobody there. The mud seemed to become thicker. My face became hotter, and I could feel the tears about to roll down my face. I wanted to yell, but all that came out was a sputtering sound as the tears flowed. The underside of the bridge seemed to grow closer as the mud became tougher to move in. I could now taste the mixture of mucus and salty tears. Breathe.
I turned to the face behind me, staring it down. The dead eyes stared back. I wrenched my arm out of the mud, slamming my fist into the putrid flesh. The face caved in, bone splintered and flesh tore. I pulled my hand out, staring at the dark sludge now coating it. A low moan rose from the mud, as bony emaciated hands began to emerge from the ground. They flailed wildly as they tried to grab onto my shirt, forcing a whimper from my mouth as I rolled away into the water. I saw rotting heads rise from the muck as I fell under the dark, murky water. The taste of filth filled my mouth as the freezing torrent swept me away. I curled into a ball as the impossibly strong current tossed me around like a ragdoll.
My back struck something with a thud, and the sound of rushing water was slowly silenced as it poured out onto the tiles around me. The smell of the corpses faded as I sat up, my eyesight blurred. I wiped the muck from my face and took a deep sigh of relief as I examined my surroundings.
The room was dimly lit, the only orange glow coming from a door in front of me. The light revealed several icons on the wall, resembling various insects. As my eyesight became used to the conditions, I could make out several pieces of text, framed. A friendly colour scheme became apparent, with several images of smiling people in uniforms alongside it. It was a zoo. A dirty smell hung in the air, like faeces. A footstep. It broke the silence, and I spun around involuntarily.
A figure stood amongst the darkness. It’s curly hair silhouetted against the light.
“Will?” I began to stand and make my way to him, treading carefully. Will’s face came into my view, his face expressionless as he stared into nothing. I reached out with my still drenched hand and shook his shoulder.
“Hey Will! C’mon!” My brow furrowed as I turned to see what he was facing. Squinting, I could barely make out eight shining orbs in the shadows. A large mass slightly darker than its surroundings hung against the wall, so large it had to start to cling to the ceiling as well. Will made a short noise, like a mouse.
I shoved him back without a word. We both practically stumbled in unison, and I could hear the creature shifting from its perch behind us. Dark things scuttled in the corner of my vision too fast to discern. We both sprinted towards the door, our shoes squeaked against the floor accompanied with several crunches. I felt the blood pump through my veins as the room seemed to be slightly longer than it should be. I grasped the door handle with sweaty hands and barged out. The unnatural light of the day blinded me, forcing my hands up to my eyes. I turned back to see Will screaming as dozens of insects crawled up his body. A giant centipede slithered down his shirt, causing him to writhe in agony. Without thinking I reached into the room, grabbed him by the shirt and tore him out, slamming the door shut as I did so.
Will shook like a dog, thousands of tiny legs flying into the air. He pulled his shirt out causing the centipede to drop to the floor and scuttle away, then he grabbed a tarantula off his shoulder and threw it into the pavement with as much force as his scrawny arms could manage.
“SCREW YOU!” he screamed as it burst on the floor, “What in the hell was that?” his voice broke as he turned to me, genuine fear in his eyes.
“Where’s Dan?”
“I mean what the hell? Why were there so many?”
“Will! Where is Dan? Have you seen him?”
“N-No, all I know is, I came out in some different place, got chased by some weird monster made of lights, then I was in there. Jonathan, will you please tell me what’s going on?”
“You haven’t seen him at all?”
“No. Jonathan, please tell me what this all is.” Will looked at the sky. I stared at him.
“I don’t know, why would I know? I really don’t think it matters, what matters is that we need to leave. But we need to find Dan first.”
“Did Rachel stay behind?” Will rubbed his wrist.
“Yeah she stayed. I don’t know if time works differently here,” I looked up at the dark swirling clouds, “but I told her if we take too long, to go get help.”
“You want more people coming down here?” He glanced back at the zoo door. I shrugged off the comment, and we started walking.
The passage of time seemed to twist as we walked down the neverending streets. The orange-yellow light seemed permanently plastered along the dead houses. The sickly sweet smell lingered, slightly too strong to get used to. Over time, the houses seemed to become more and more unnerving. Seeing the same set of houses again and again almost conditioned me to expect something different, to which would then seem bizarre to me. Will and I didn’t talk much. There wasn’t much to talk about. There is only so many times you can point out the same details on a house. At one point, Will started counting the seconds. He reached seventy six days before giving up. At least, he says it was seventy six days. I still don’t understand how we both managed to stay sane while walking down those streets. It was like whatever force had trapped up here was making it physically impossible for us to go insane. We never seemed to require food or water, no matter how painful the hunger or thirst became, we never tired. Had our sense of time been so distorted that we had only been walking for a couple of minutes? Or was this real?
Something in my field of vision had changed. I had become so used to the same alignment of houses, that once there was a slight change it broke my walking trance, and made me lucid again. One of the doors of the houses was open. That single black rectangle broke the monotony of months.
“Will, you see that?” my dry throat croaked. Will blinked hard and turned to the door.
We didn’t even have to ask each other to both decide to head to the house. It was a risk, but one we had to take. We stepped in, the darkness almost swallowing us up. Only a few rays from the ‘sun’ crept through the blinds, illuminating the dust that floated in the air. The faint smell of cigarettes and beer stained the very foundation of the house, seeping through almost every surface. Empty cans and bottles covered the entire floor with the occasional empty packet of assorted snacks in the mess. The couch was covered in holes with hastily made patches to cover them. A large TV sat on a table slightly too small, displaying a football match. I was half expecting the players to be distorted figures, having spent clearly too much time in this other world.
“What are you doing here?” a familiar voice whispered from the stairs.
“Dan?” Will’s mouth was agape. The shrivelled figure on the stairs looked down at him. A caked grey shirt hung loose against his ribs, his jeans sagging slightly, his hair greasy.
“Dan, what are you doing here?” I could barely recognise him.
“You need to leave. Please.” he whispered.
“Daniel?” A booming voice came from another room, followed by heavy footsteps. One of the doors swung open, letting out a thud as it hit the wall. A large man stepped into the room, throwing a pair of pliers to the ground. His face seemed to recede back into his skull, grease slid down his chin as he stared up at the stairs.
“I can’t work on my bike for five fucking minutes without you making bloody noise, can I?” the man did a double take as he looked at me and Will, “Who the fuck said you could invite people over, huh?”
He stormed over to Dan and thrust his beefy arms through the bannister, gripping his shirt.
“Didn’t even think to ask for my permission didya?” With a showcase of inhuman strength and one swift pull he smashed Dan through the bannister, splintering it and sending Dan crashing down into the pile of cans on the floor.
The man snatched Dan up by the neck and dragged him across the floor into the room he came from. Dan didn’t even scream, but let out a quiet sob.
“Come on!” Will practically leapt over the couch only to be met with the door slamming into him. A short click came from the door. Locked. I waded through the sea of cans, staring at the chunk of missing bannister.
“Now what?” Will frantically rattled the door handle. A loud thud came from behind the door, followed by another.
“Okay let’s just stay calm.” I pulled his arm away from the stained door.
“Stay calm? What do you mean stay calm, Dan’s in there!”
“You think I don’t know that?” I picked the pliers off the ground and rammed them into the door handle, “Find something, anything and help me bust this door down!” I kept slamming the pliers into the door over and over, sweat forming on my forehead. The thuds became louder.
“Got something!” Will came back with a guitar over his head and gave me barely enough time to sidestep as he brought it down onto the handle. The handle flew off with a satisfying chink and clattered to the floor.
I barged through the door into the garage and almost recoiled at the pungent smell of oil. The man was midway through swinging his fist through the air when he spun to face us. Dan’s back had already begun to turn purple as he wriggled on the floor.
“Fuck’re you doing in here? Get the fuck out!” His spit managed to travel across the entire garage and landed on my cheek. With gritted teeth, I charged forward and swung the pliers with both hands. They landed with a meaty thud against his cheek and sent him spinning into the table in the centre of the room, laden with various tools. The man grimaced as he reached into his mouth and pulled out several bloody teeth. He tossed them aside and turned towards me.
“Oh you’re gonna die for that.” Dan suddenly leapt up, grabbed a screwdriver from the table, and plunged it into his fathers eye. He ripped it out, spraying blood onto the concrete as the man screamed in agony. The screwdriver came down again, puncturing the skin of his throat. All that came out of the man was a short gurgle, before he slumped to the ground. Red flowed out like a pathetic water fountain, slowly painting the floor. Dan stared at the body, unblinking.
“Dan, you okay?” I asked. Dan took a breath.
“No,” he wiped the blood from his face, “What’s been going on?” he said with a tremble in his voice.
“No clue, we’ve been wandering for what feels like months.” Will said. Dan raised an eyebrow through tears.
“Months? It’s only been a couple hours, max.”
“That doesn’t make any se-”
“Guys,” I interrupted, “It really doesn’t matter. We’re all here now, so let’s just focus on getting out of here.” I made my way to the door. The sound of spitting echoed behind us. I turned to see the body was now gone, only leaving the puddle of blood.
“I think we should really go now.” Will muttered.
The blood started to ripple with the sound of spitting growing. Bubbles started to rise as it boiled, and the room started to smell like a metal factory. Blood suddenly sprayed over us as something erupted from the pool. It was made of… limbs. A long chain of fused arms and legs, still dripping with viscera. The arms and legs pulled something from the pool. A large, groaning mass, the size of a bear, made of more people. The gory amalgamation heaved itself from the puddle and stood up now like a spider, the smaller arms reaching out towards us as the thing wailed.
Seemingly without hesitation, Dan let out a cry and leapt at the creature with the screwdriver. He drove the end into one of the many faces, one that resembled his father. Various bodily fluids sprayed across the room, forcing my hand over my nose. The creature squealed in a sound I never could have dreamed of, as Dan continued to stab deeper. Each strike caused the creature to slowly retreat into the bloody puddle it had emerged from. I took a deep breath before joining Dan in the carnage, sending my shoe into the creature with as much force as I could muster. A large boil burst as my foot caved into the creature’s body. In the corner of my eye I could see Will, shifting on his feet. He shook his head several times as he stared at the floor. He gritted his teeth and then broke into a full sprint towards the creature. Every step he made to the creature caused hundreds of small, centipede-like growths to burst from the creature. Will crashed into the creature, not even hitting it, but nonetheless he sent the creature down deeper into the puddle. In a last effort, the creature wrapped several of its limbs around all three of us as it descended, dragging us down with it, as it cried in pain.
Smell was the first sensation that came back to me. I had never really appreciated the smell of flowers before. But when I took that first breath, it was like heaven. My vision slowly returned, and I realised my eyes hadn’t even been closed. That’s when I saw something… strange. Blue. The colour blue. It took a second for my mind to comprehend what I was seeing. It was the sky. The sky as I had remembered it. I think blue became my favourite colour that day.
Neither Will, Dan or I said anything on our way home from the bottom of the hill. There wasn’t any need to. What was there to say? I changed out of my bloodsoaked clothes once I got home. My parents were shocked, for lack of a better word. They even called the police, but I never said anything. Despite the repeated questioning, they eventually gave up. School was different. Me, Dan and Will rarely spoke to each other, only when the teacher paired us for a project. But we never made mention of the Well to anyone.
Rachel disappeared that day too. There was a search party and countless visits from her parents asking me what on Earth happened. Eventually she got a grave. Empty, of course. It’s been sixteen years since we descended into the Well. Sixteen years since Rachel disappeared. Sixteen years of her parents going without answers. But they won’t need me to give the answers.
I’ve got a backpack stuffed with as many supplies as I could carry. I asked Will to join me. He refused. He has a family now. A wife and two daughters. I’m happy for him, I really am, I just wish he could have helped me. I couldn’t find Dan. Trust me, I looked. I’m sitting next to the Devils Well right now.
I’ll be alright.
I’m not scared anymore.