Ekrona

Well Wished

"... to save Dian."

Nothing happened at all, until he was foolish enough to peak inside, resting on his palms. The shabby brickwork gave away and he fell in head first, as his heart leaped down. Or was it up?

The deafening roar of the steady draft made it hard to realize, but now he knew for sure.

He was falling upward.

*****

It took Euchred Kain a year to find what he searched for like a madman- a stone well- almost too well hidden in the ferns that grew around it, and now that he was here, he felt stupid.

The world was a devastating place, he learnt firsthand, and that those who lagged back were forgotten. Worse were those than ran ahead, for they were not only forced into oblivion, they were scorned until their daggers turned towards their own selves.

He was from the forgotten, but his friend, suffered a worse fate.

Dian Smith was very well ahead of his time. His melody however, was labeled, "The Devils Composition", fated to impair anyone who was foolish enough to hear it. Simply because it didn't "sound" like good music. Simply because it was too different.

Euchred loved to hear Dian play, loosing himself as he saw the chords of the ukulele vibrate into a blur. However, the world silenced him, forced him into his tiny little white room of despair, and Euchred was left alone to listen to the melody of his lonely heartbeat. He could visit Dian twice a month, and every time felt worse than the last one, for Dian slowly kept loosing his cognition, and now, he was unable to even wipe whenever he soiled himself.

He would kill himself. Being a 17 year old, that was the logical conclusion he had come to.

Standing over his school's 5th floor however, Euchred heard something.

The Devils Composition.

He turned around slowly, to not scare away the source, if it were imaginary.

He was there however, in all his angelic glory, incapable of thought, as the doctors had said, yet playing violently on his ukulele, as his eyes seemed to scream into his head.

Don't you dare join me.

Before he could react, Dian had thrown himself over the ledge, and Euchred, who had come to that roof first, felt cheated out of his own death. 

*****

Euchred didn't know when he had started believing in the supernatural, but as he turned 20, he had dug up stories about a power that could bring any thought into existence. Even the end of the world.

A well that granted wishes.

He pulled out the stone coin that took him 6 months to find and tossed it in.

The well hummed and it was at this moment, Euchred realized, it was not a farce. For he had never really believed himself, but now, his heart eased into it at last.

 I wish for the world to end...

He knew he had to say it for it to happen, but something clutched at his gut, as if his own body were holding the words in, betraying him. He tried again.

"I wish... to save Dian."

*****

A pair of very alarmed eyes stared at Euchred as he opened his.

"Think of moving, and you die"

It was barely a whisper, but it froze his already frozen body twice all over as he suddenly became aware of the blade pressed up against his chin.

His eyes slowly focused to the green hue all around, and the immense heat that his now awake skin suddenly sensed. Laying on his back, the last thing he recalled was falling through that stupid well. He could feel the weight of his intimidating assaulter as his back further pressed into the soft dirt ground. Something else stuck out underneath him, but uncomfortable as it was, he didn't dare move.

"I'm getting off you... sit up slowly.."

Still whispering, his assaulter moved of him and Euchred almost felt ashamed.

It was a girl, who looked barely older than him, draped in a hood the ran all over her, extending back into a black robe, blending in beautifully with her black hair.

She looked his way for one more second before jerking back to look somewhere else, crawling, so as to not disturb the tunnel of plantation they were in.

Euchred sat up slowly, taking in his surroundings. He was in forest definitely, a pretty dense one at that, under a bush. They were hiding from something.

Did he want to know what? Of course not. He was already freaked, but for the second time in his life, his body betrayed him, as he crawled towards the girl, peeking through the small gap in their cover of leaf and held his breath.

The girl didn't notice, or if she did, she didn't seem to care, much to Euchred's relief, as he took in as much of the sight he could take in.

The forest was ablaze, but never seemed to burn. Green flames were everywhere, sending wave after wave of sickly heat. Lighting up the green background fiercely, green upon green.

It was however, serene.

The flames looked stationary, never moving, as they swayed ever so slightly, as if conscious, and in humble discussion.

But then his gaze fell upon the object of the girls interest. Aghast, he stared on, frightened to look on, and even more frightened to look away.

A group of... men.. if they could ever be called that, were circling and throwing themselves in prostration to one of them at their center.

Naked and repulsive, they were hairless, with tails and horns, displeasing to the eye, yet charming.

A scene straight out of Hell.

Euchred almost threw up, his eyes watering, stinging from the heat and sweat dripping from his brow, but all was useless as he hoped death would take him away in the worst way imaginable as the creature in the middle turned his way.

He would recognize that face anywhere, even if it now had horns.

As he stared on, Dian Smith stared back.