The Well Atop the Hill

Story

Prologue

Open heart surgery is no easy task to perform. It is especially difficult when one is to perform said surgery on his/herself, without the proper tools to aid him/her. This exhaustive procedure is typically completed on an exam table, within the confines of a licensed medical facility, surrounded by practitioners and nurses with extensive knowledge of the ins and outs of the human body. The patient is sedated with a general anesthetic and the heart is exposed to a machine that directs the blood flow away from the vital organ, and once the surgery is complete, he/she is stitched up and free to rest and resume most normal activities with few restrictions. 

Unfortunately, this was not the case at the present moment.

A man, barely past the age of thirty is trapped in a state of paralysis, not of his body but of his mind and his free will. Staring down into the dark depths of an ancient well, he prepares to remove one of his most essential organs with a platinum scalpel and a ball peen hammer. His fingers grip around the sharp blade and make an incision just below his frantically beating heart. Then, with one fatal blow, he shatters his breastbone to gain access to the hollow muscular organ beneath. However, in doing so, he punctures his aortic artery with a sliver of his own bone and he begins to bleed out, rivers of blood echoing in the emptiness that was the bottom of the well. His body, now drained of liquid life, is heaved into the stone structure where it will remain for eternity. 

He was a failure. 

The permanent and centuries-old resident of the desolate well recognizes this and takes pleasure in watching the bloody corpse fall endlessly to the bottom of the well. The creature finds immense pleasure in watching his victims attempt to dissect themselves against their own will. They most often fail, resulting in he himself having to remove his target organ from their lifeless bodies.

He has an aspiration, a dream of sorts, to walk among the living once more, raising hell and inflicting pain upon the descendants of those who banished him to the shadows of this very well centuries ago.

**~**

A small town with rolling hills and a population just exceeding 3,000 loyal residents is home to a young girl preparing herself for yet another day. 

She begins lacing up her shoes when, suddenly an overwhelming sensation washes over her. Her senses are halted and she becomes paralyzed, a statue aware of its surroundings but unable to interact. She was released from the episode moments later and left feeling dazed and confused, unable to comprehend what she had just experienced. A dreadful feeling seeped through her bones but the girl could not produce any sort of explanation for it. 

She made a valiant effort to go on with her day as normal but the shivers coursing down her spine and the hair rising upon her neck made it difficult, almost impossible.

After school, the girl gathered her belongings and sauntered to the local police station where she would begin her afternoon of delivering newspapers to nearby businesses. 

At the station, while placing the papers in their proper bins, she overheard an alarming conversation between a boy and an officer in uniform.

"Yes, I heard you the first four times. You won't consider her a missing person yet. I get that. But listen, I'm telling you she is missing." The boy enunciated each word with desperation as the exasperated officer rubbed a calloused hand down his face. "She would NOT have run away like that, she's seven years old for God's sakes, she still clings to her stuffed alligator and sucks her thumb! She wouldn't go anywhere without our mom. Please, we need to find her. She left her medicine behind" the boy says and opens his hand to reveal a plastic baggie, with a Toy Story design, with two capsules inside. The girl could see the wetness in his green eyes and instantly wanted to help in any way she could. He was clearly upset and frustrated with the lack of support and desire to find his sister the officer showed.