CHAPTER SEVEN - AGAINST HIS WILL

“Aidey, why won’t you answer me!” Sarah yelled.

Aidan started in surprise at her voice and found himself falling forwards against the well’s weathered lip. The stone on the top shifted and he frantically threw his weight backwards, arms pinwheeling, to stop himself from collapsing onto the fragile lid. He stumbled back a few steps. His chest heaved and his heart beat so loudly that he couldn’t hear anything else.

Jesus! I could have fallen in! Aidan wiped away the sweat that had broken out on his brow. Shaking, he managed to turn around to face Sarah. Her little face was scrunched up in confusion.

“Aidey, what’s wrong? I was calling and calling and you wouldn’t answer!” she said. Her face went an alarming shade red as if she were going to cry.

“Why didn’t you come over to me?” Aidan asked then realized that his sister was determinedly staying outside the brown ring of dirt like it was a line she simply would not pass.

“I don’t like it here. I really, really, really don’t!” she wailed, stamping her foot against the dying grass.

He held his hands up in surrender. “It’s okay, kiddo. Really. We’ll go away from the well. We’ll play over here. C’mon, back up a bit so I can throw the Frisbee to you,” Aidan instructed, gently shooing her towards the house, as he caught his breath and calmed down.

Aidan could still feel the well’s presence at his back. It seemed to pluck at him as he took step after step away from it. More cool sweat broke out across his brow as he crossed the demarcation between the dirt and the grass. It took effort to make that last step, but once he did, it was much easier to just walk away.

Once Sarah was satisfied that he was really going to play with her and not go back to the well again -- like a hypnotized freak. What the hell happened there? -- she turned on her heel and ran about fifteen feet away then flipped around to face him expectantly. He let the Frisbee fly low enough to the ground for her to catch it easily. She grabbed it with her grubby hands and eagerly threw it back. It wobbled in the air, but Aidan was able to dive and catch it. He brushed the dust off his t-shirt and sent the Frisbee flying back to her. She giggled as she tossed it higher and higher and he had to jump up and catch the Frisbee with his fingertips.

“Almost made you miss it!” she sing-songed to him.

He mock frowned at her. “Oh, really? We’ll see about that! You can’t throw anything I can’t catch.”

Like he intended, Sarah took that as a challenge. The orange disc went higher than ever before, but then made a parabolic arc and shot straight down. It slipped right inside the missing part of the well’s lid.

“Oh, shit,” Aidan cursed as he saw the day-glo orange disc disappear from sight.

“I’m sorry, Aidey! I didn’t mean to lose the Frisbee,” Sarah’s frantic voice rose high and brittle behind him.

“Its okay, Bed Bug. Maybe -- maybe I can get it,” Aidan said. And the urge to go to the well was back, stronger than before.

“But it fell in! You can’t get it!” Sarah called. “Aidey, don’t go over there!”

But he wasn’t listening to her any more. Aidan had begun by walking towards the well, but suddenly he was trotting and then all out running. In his mind’s eye, he imagined that the Frisbee had caught on one of the ladder’s rungs. He’d be able to scoop it up easily.

And even if it’s fallen all the way in, I could climb down the ladder and get it.

The thought came from inside Aidan’s head, but it was contrary to all he had felt about the well moments ago. His disgust and fear fled, replaced by a desire to actually be in the well, as near the bottom as he could. Aidan could picture the Frisbee floating on the surface of still, black water. He could see himself hanging off the ladder, one arm outstretched, reaching to grasp the Frisbee’s edge. His fingers would get wet as they slipped under the disc’s curved lip. The water would be cool, icy almost, as it was hidden from sunlight and the heat of the day being so deep below the surface. Aidan could almost taste the satisfaction he would feel once the Frisbee would be in his hands again.

Rescued.

Recovered.

Perfect.

Aidan shoved the cracked stone cover off eagerly. It fell onto the dirt and broke into two more pieces. He began to scramble over the well’s edge, impatient to feel the solid metal of the rungs under his feet and palms. But suddenly strong hands were around his waist, yanking him back bodily from the well’s edge.

“NO!” Aidan screamed. Someone was trying to stop him from fulfilling his desire. Someone was standing in the way of his achieving his success: to be in the well, to be a part of the well.

He fought the stranger with all he had, fists and feet flailing. Curses flung from his lips with spittle, words he didn’t even think he knew. But the person was too strong. He was being dragged beyond the well’s reach.

His back was pressed against a masculine body that was far bigger and more muscular than his own. The scent of pine needles and mountain air rushed over him. The smell was familiar and almost calming, but the compulsion that had made him race to the well rose up again and Aidan began to shriek. The need to be in the well, to feel the cool dankness of the well’s depths, to be away from the sunlight and the wind, to be in the dark … the dark …

“Let me go! I have to – I have to go DOWN!” Aidan yelled.

The stranger’s lips were suddenly pressed close to Aidan’s left ear and a rich, melodious voice said something so low that Aidan couldn’t catch the words. But immediately the boy calmed, going limp in the man’s arms. The craving to be in the well was completely gone. Horrified by what he had almost done, Aidan began to shake uncontrollably.

Why did I do that? Why did I want to do that? It was like another voice inside my head, making me want those things. Making me do those things.

The stranger turned Aidan around and the boy forgot all about the well, all about Sarah, all about Anna, all about Grandfather Patrick. He forgot everything except one word: Sidhe.

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