When Emma was 12, she first heard the voice from the old well on her family's rural property. It was a chilly winter evening, and Emma had been exploring the property after dark. The well, an old relic with a weathered rope and rusted pulley, had been out of use for years, or so Emma had been told.
As she wandered near the well, Emma suddenly heard her name called in a slow, raspy voice. She spun around, searching the darkness, but found no one. Confusion crossed her face as the voice spoke again.
"Emma!"
This time, the voice was clearer and more insistent, reminiscent of an old man who used to frequent the nearby diner. Emma peered down the well, her flashlight revealing only the first few feet of its depth despite the bright full moon overhead.
"Who are you? How did you get down there?" she called out, her voice echoing slightly.
"If you offer me something good to eat, I'll give you something in return," came the reply.
Emma looked in her pockets and found a few granola bars she had brought along. She placed them in the bucket and began to lower it down the well. She had lowered the bucket almost 50 feet when she felt the rope go slack and the bucket's weight disappear.
After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, the bucket's weight returned, and Emma started to pull it up. When she finally brought it back to the surface, she heard the voice again, "Not tasty."
Inside the bucket, Emma found a shiny metal object. It was a small, flat piece of metal, about the size of a credit card. It was smooth and unblemished.
"Want fresh!" the voice demanded. Emma tried to ask more questions, but the voice fell silent.
Emma decided to tell her father that she had found the metal while exploring. He took it into town, where it was confirmed to be a pure ounce of silver.
From that day on, Emma kept the well's secret. She soon discovered that the voice only appeared on full moon nights. She learned that only living things she lowered into the well would yield rewards—one item per moon cycle. So, she began lowering various small animals into the well, each time retrieving a different piece of silver.
By the time Emma turned 16, her collection of silver pieces filled a small box. But she had exhausted all the animals she could find. That's when a local farmhand went missing around the same time Emma received her first gold coin from the well.
After Emma inherited the family farm, it became clear that temporary workers occasionally vanished without explanation. It seemed the old man had finally found something truly satisfying.
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Collection of Horror Stories
Kinh dị📖 Step into the realm of fear and the supernatural as you delve into this captivating compilation of chilling short horror stories. Within the pages of this bone-chilling anthology, darkness takes hold, each tale presenting its own unique nightmare...
