Post by misssunflower on Sept 27, 2009 9:10:11 GMT -5
Most of you have read this already and it IS complete... so Modsies if you need to move it, please do!
Another story about the wonderful song. This one is REALLY different. I don't exactly know how to explain it, but it was a thought that had been playing in my head off and on for a while. I don't know when this took place, I kept switching between it being a long time ago, and being present times. So whichever floats your boat. Enjoy.
Retelling Midnight Well
Christina, or Chris, Muir had hoped to avoid boredom when she moved to Ireland. But it appeared dull life followed her even to the most magical of places. She guessed she shouldn’t have expected differently, any place she went she’d have to have some crappy job before she could work her way up to the fun ones. She just wasn’t sure she had the patience for that. She liked having more openness.
Ireland had openness, a vast lot of it. Beautiful free areas with so much history and story behind it. She wanted to know more about it, but working at a small pub in an even smaller village wasn’t getting her anywhere.
But she shouldn’t be complaining, truly. This WAS only her second day since moving in and boarding with the old couple that owned the pub. Sweethearts both of them were, but really quiet most of the time. So far in the course of her last two days every person there had asked her where she’d come from, embarrassing as she didn’t like the fact that she was the one with the accent, making her feel more like a tourist. She didn’t like tourists.
Her second day was going by rather uneventfully and during a slow time in the late afternoon, with the sun just starting to set she was asked to run a couple errands for the place. Before she could head on her way, however, her kindly caretaker quickly cut-in, “Don’t go by the old well either. There’s a longer way around it. And safer, might I add.”
“Safer?” She asked, as her curiosity prickled up. Maybe this place wasn’t as void of interest as she originally thought. But, alas, no explanation came and she went on her way.
Unable to control her own curiosity, she took as many long winding routes back from her errands as possible. But with every alley and quieter street no mythic well was found. She began to wonder if he just wanted to frighten her. She was new, didn’t know any better. Why not?
But before she was totally settled with her conclusion she noticed off in a field where the town reached its end, a small object, most obviously a well though. Still feeling interested she took her stuff and moved to the field, hoping she wasn’t going to get in trouble for this. What could be wrong with a well? Was it haunted? Maybe it was the sight of a murder? Was it a wishing well that had long ago been used to wish for something terrible? So many questions and stories played in her mind.
She wanted to check it out further but with her curiosity came a bit of fear. More than a bit as she remembered the warning not to go by it for her safety. Obviously SOMETHING had happened. Something he didn’t want to see repeated. Did she really want to know what it was?
“Geez Chris,” She murmured aloud, “You are getting all worked up over nothing. You wanted to find something interesting and here you are getting scared away… it’s a well, a simple well.”
This was getting her nowhere, she decided at last, might as well head back now before her arguing mind gave her a headache. So a little miffed at her self she made her way back to the quiet pub. Set to spend the rest of her afternoon in her own unhappiness as the pub stayed mostly empty most of the time.
It was for that reason she was more than a little surprised to note she and the owner were NOT the only two at the bar. Blushing, wondering how long someone had been waiting, and embarrassed at her immature wandering, she moved behind the bar to tend to the new guest.
Sitting at the bar was a young man. His hair was a smooth jet-black, and natural too. Not one of those people who died their hair to look cooler of something. His eyes were pale yet flashing blue that, while they looked as though they could be anywhere from downright icy to incredibly persuasive if the situation called for it, were rather warm as he smiled up at her. She blushed.
“Well, hello.” He said conversationally, “You’re new I take it?”
She hadn’t even opened her mouth and he’d known she wasn’t from the area. She hid a sigh. “That I am. Just moved here two days ago.” Chris said with a slightly strained politeness.
He chuckled, a pleasant sound that matched his smile, “Don’t worry about it. First time here today, myself.”
She blinked, confused. Though, the more he spoke the more she traced a small lilt of his voice different from the other accents she’d heard. From a different area of Ireland maybe, still…
“If you’ve never been here before, how do you know I’m new?” Chris asked, curiosity filling her again.
The young man simply shrugged it off, “You simply have the look of someone not altogether used to her surroundings.”
“Lost and confused like someone who has no clue what she’s doing.” She mumbled, embarrassed even more now that complete strangers knew she wasn’t a local.
“I was thinking more curious but bored.” Was his reply however, she met his eyes and he winked, she looked away quickly, blushing.
He was spot-on but Chris wasn’t going to admit that, “How is it you can tell such things?” And on an off note added, “And should I get you a drink or are we just going to stand here chatting?”
“If it’ll keep you talking to me, sure I’ll have a drink.” He said; his voice laced with stifled laughter. As she moved to get it for him he added, “And to your first question, your eyes.”
“What?” She asked, bringing it back to him. He met her eyes again, and this time she couldn’t think to look away from them.
“You asked how I could tell these things about you, and I said your eyes. They have that spark of curiosity but I can tell you haven’t found much worth it yet, like someone who wants something exciting and hasn’t found it. It’s quite attractive.” He added as if an afterthought.
Now she looked away, her face hot. She’d never had a guy look at her twice much less had anyone flirt with her, and certainly not anyone as attractive as the young man before her. She looked back at him, though not meeting his eyes.
“Well…” She paused, hoping to drop the hint of waiting for a name.
He took it, “Ryan.” He supplied.
She smiled her first real smile back at him, “I’m Chris.” She told him before continuing, “And I did find something interesting, or,” as she suddenly was aware of her boss and caretaker’s presence in the room as well, “or I heard of something interesting.”
“Oh?” Ryan said, interested, “and that was…?”
“An old well, somewhere on the outskirts of town. I was directed earlier not to go by it.”
“And you aren’t.” Came her caretakers voice from the other end of the pub.
“Well, why not?” Chris asked, a little annoyed “Could you explain what is up with it?”
He sighed, “I could, if you truly want to hear it. At least it will keep you away from it.”
He opened his mouth to begin some sort of tale but Ryan cut in, his voice tight, “I don’t think it’d be well to frighten her with ghost stories.”
“I wouldn’t be frightened!” Chris said indignantly.
At the same time the pub owner snapped, “It’s no story! It happened!”
“I have no doubt something happened. But who’s to say you have the tale right?”
“And you have it better than I do?” He asked, “You, who say this is your first time here?”
“And it is,” Ryan said mildly, “but that doesn’t mean I don’t know things about this area.”
Chris watched the discussion with confusion and indignation. Whatever happened, she was no child and she should be able to hear it. She could handle whatever had happened at that well.
As it grew to the point where neither man had acknowledged her, she coughed, “Sorry I asked.” She muttered.
Both grew quiet and her caretaker seemed to drop it, moving back so that she and Ryan were the only two there.
Then Ryan softly said, “Do you really want the story?” In that persuasive voice she’d known he’d have from the beginning. It certainly didn’t make her immune to it, though.
“Yes, I do.” She tried to keep her voice firm, and failed “I think I ought to know.”
“Well if you want to hear him tell you, then that’s fine…”
“And if I want to hear you tell me?” She asked before she could think right.
He laughed, as though this was the way he’d planned it from the start, “Do you get a break anytime soon?”
She blushed, “I don’t know, I’m not even sure if I have hours.”
“I can hold it up for the night, Christina.” Her boss popped in, in a kind but slightly apprehensive voice, like a father worried about his daughter dating the wrong kid. The endearment actually made her happier than annoyed.
“Thank you.” She said simply, turning back to Ryan, who was standing up to go. She had thought he’d just tell the tale here, but apparently they would be walking together as well. She was far from upset at this development, though, and followed him out.
“You know, I wouldn’t have been frightened.” Chris said softly as they walked the less than bustling streets of the small town. What few people were out earlier had settled in for dinner and the sun was just starting to set,
“You would have the way he’d have told it.” He said, still chuckling.
“And how would that be?” She asked.
“Would you like to hear his version or mine?”
“Can I not get both?”
His answer was more laughter, and he gently took her hand to pull her down a different path.
There was a silence before he began, “In this town, the people stay away from the ‘midnight well’.”
Was this his story or the other? She wanted to ask but didn’t want him to be distracted. However, when he didn’t continue she asked, “Why?”
More laughter, a little more… wicked, but in a strangely attractive kind of way, “It’s ‘dark and evil’, or so they say.”
Evil? She thought back to the old well she saw in the field. It certainly didn’t look it.
“You’d be told of lovely young lady from this town, the most beautiful anyone had ever seen.” He continued, his voice quiet and almost singsong, “Blue eyes like the sky in the summer and long golden hair… How beautiful she was, but she went on her own.”
“Her own?” She said, trying not to dwell on the topic of this young lady’s beauty.
He glanced at her, his gaze admiring, “She had that same curiosity coming here, like you. It made her very interesting to a young man who visited the town.”
Just like he’d visited today, she thought, but said nothing. She was too interested in the story at this point.
More mild laughter, as though he knew what she was thinking, but he said nothing about it. She noticed they were walking further out to the ends of the town, more towards that well. Fitting scenery, she thought, fitting also with the fading dusk.
“No one knew where he came from, but anyone could tell you about a certain fire in his eyes,” Ryan continued, putting a fair amount of emphasis on fire, making her shiver, “That very night the two were seen heading out in the direction of the small well on the edge of town, this very well, to have their own rendezvous.” He added, as they had reached it.
Chris thought of that with another shiver, two people late at night coming to this very place in secret. How thrilling and romantic that was. And how very much like what she was doing with the young man she’d only just met, she thought, looking at him. She had no idea what to think of that, but she couldn’t think to find it upsetting in any way.
Nothing else was said for a moment so finally Christina said, “Go on…”
“That was the last night anyone in this town ever saw her face.” Ryan said, unceremoniously ending that story.
“… Ever?”
“Ever. She was gone.”
She stared at the small well again, her interest and excitement quickly turning to fear, “W-what happened to her?”
He looked at her again, as if debating how to answer that, “No one here really knows…” He said at last.
“Did he- kill her?” She asked quietly.
To her surprise he laughed, “What makes you think that?” He asked her.
Chris didn’t know what to think of his more wicked sounding laughter now, as she was already finding it slightly frightening how that story compared to what they were doing now. But Ryan didn’t LOOK evil. He didn’t look like someone who would- would kill her.
“I-I don’t know… but that’s what happened, isn’t it?” She thought of the pub owner telling her not to come by this well. If it had been where that young woman had been kidnapped or killed, his worry made sense. Not that it had done much in the end, she thought, looking into Ryan’s eyes and feeling a million things at once, and defiantly unable to leave.
“You’re shaking.” He said softly, rubbing her arms gently to warm them up. However, that only made her shake more at his touch. He sighed, shaking his head softly, his lips still set in that smirk though, “I told you his story would scare you…”
“That was his?” She asked, a faint hope rising, “That one wasn’t the true one, right? You said-”
She got cut off by noticing his shoulders shaking in silent laughter, “You think I’m an idiot for even possibly believing it, don’t you?”
He put his arms further around her to pull her closer to him. Her heartbeat was in hysteria as she looked into his eyes, less than a foot from her. For a moment, the midnight well story was the last thing in her mind.
“Far from, dear Chris. And you aren’t wrong for believing either story, because both are true, in their own right.” He said, his voice more of a murmur.
Christina blinked, not sure what that meant.
He explained, “Well, if you knew only what the people in this town knew, only what I told you - when someone is never seen again the first idea in anyone’s head is death. So don’t feel bad that it was yours.”
“But that isn’t what happened? He wasn’t evil?” She felt idiotic for that last question and quickly added, “And how do you know what did happen?”
“Evil?” He laughed aloud now, “Sweet, sweet Chris…” He shook his head, “yes, he was very evil for simply falling for a girl and asking for her to come with him.”
She was a bit annoyed with his sarcasm, but too interested in that information to truly get mad at him.
“Come where with him?” She asked stupidly.
“His home… though that wasn’t much, he was a gypsy, a traveler, never stayed in the same place for long.”
“And she came with him?”
“Of course.” He chuckled, she opened her mouth to ask why, and he continued quickly, “Say, for instance, I asked you right now,” Pulling her even closer to him, “to come away, come and ride with me into the night… would you, would you be able to say no?”
He wasn’t playing fair there, she thought, and there was no way she was going to answer that aloud. But her blood red face, even in the lack of light, and her pointed silence was answer enough. His smirk grew.
“So she wanted to go?” She asked stiffly, not dwelling on her own opinion of the matter. “And was happy?”
His smirk turned sweeter, “She’s plenty happy now.”
It took Chris a second before that was fully registered in her mind, “WHAT?”
“She’s plenty happy now.” He repeated smoothly.
“You KNOW her!? You know THEM!?” That explained how easily he was able to repeat the tale, although he’d never been here before. And how he knew more about how it REALLY ended… but… “Who-?” She began.
“You can rest assured my grandparent’s are safe and happy.”
She blinked, “You’re lying.” She said coolly, though she wasn’t too sure of that.
He laughed now, “I’m not lying. They were my dad’s parents. I even look like both of them, back then.” He chuckled, “His hair, her eyes.”
She stared into those eyes again, remembering his earlier description, ‘eyes like the sky in summer’. He certainly did, but did that mean she was to believe…
“So…” She found it hard to get the words out, “Your- your grandmother-“
“Would laugh her head off if she heard the stories this town has made out of her long ago disappearance.” He finished, “I’d heard the story so many times from her, I figured I had to come here someday.”
She couldn’t help but break into a small smile at his words, all which sounded so true she felt her apprehension fading.
“And you?”
More laughter, bringing her even closer to him, which she hadn’t thought was possible “I’m no gypsy, obviously. But I think I take after my grandfather, in some ways. It was that curiosity, that free spirit, that caused him to fall for her… and it’s exactly what’s causing me to fall for you.”
Christina was speechless, everything he’d just said was still spinning in her head she wasn’t entirely sure of what it was he was saying. He had fell for her? Like in love? This handsome, somewhat mysterious, charming, young man loved HER!? Absolutely speechless.
He didn’t laugh for once at her blushing shock, and added, “So, lovely Chris, in all honesty, would you like to come away with me?”
She had to let out a small laugh his phrasing, and knowing she could not say no she simply asked, “Where?”
He seemed ecstatic that she hadn’t said no. Did he not know the affect he’d had on her? “Anywhere you’d like. You want out of this town, I know, and I’ve seen plenty of others and am willing to go anywhere with you…”
She thought of it, and finally grinned, “Your grandmother is still alive, yes?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’d like to meet her. Maybe hear this story of the ‘midnight well’ from her.”
He laughed, “She’d be happy to tell it.” He finally pulled away from her, still holding her hand, “Shall we, then?”
She nodded, softly laughing to herself as it occurred to her there would now be two “disappearances” at this well. She smiled at Ryan, if this well was ‘evil’ she didn’t care, its existence had made her happier than anything in the world.
I don't know if I'm happy with the very end... it took me a while to get down, though, and I figured you'd all want this story soon. So hope you liked it. It was, as everything, great craic to write.
Another story about the wonderful song. This one is REALLY different. I don't exactly know how to explain it, but it was a thought that had been playing in my head off and on for a while. I don't know when this took place, I kept switching between it being a long time ago, and being present times. So whichever floats your boat. Enjoy.
Retelling Midnight Well
Christina, or Chris, Muir had hoped to avoid boredom when she moved to Ireland. But it appeared dull life followed her even to the most magical of places. She guessed she shouldn’t have expected differently, any place she went she’d have to have some crappy job before she could work her way up to the fun ones. She just wasn’t sure she had the patience for that. She liked having more openness.
Ireland had openness, a vast lot of it. Beautiful free areas with so much history and story behind it. She wanted to know more about it, but working at a small pub in an even smaller village wasn’t getting her anywhere.
But she shouldn’t be complaining, truly. This WAS only her second day since moving in and boarding with the old couple that owned the pub. Sweethearts both of them were, but really quiet most of the time. So far in the course of her last two days every person there had asked her where she’d come from, embarrassing as she didn’t like the fact that she was the one with the accent, making her feel more like a tourist. She didn’t like tourists.
Her second day was going by rather uneventfully and during a slow time in the late afternoon, with the sun just starting to set she was asked to run a couple errands for the place. Before she could head on her way, however, her kindly caretaker quickly cut-in, “Don’t go by the old well either. There’s a longer way around it. And safer, might I add.”
“Safer?” She asked, as her curiosity prickled up. Maybe this place wasn’t as void of interest as she originally thought. But, alas, no explanation came and she went on her way.
Unable to control her own curiosity, she took as many long winding routes back from her errands as possible. But with every alley and quieter street no mythic well was found. She began to wonder if he just wanted to frighten her. She was new, didn’t know any better. Why not?
But before she was totally settled with her conclusion she noticed off in a field where the town reached its end, a small object, most obviously a well though. Still feeling interested she took her stuff and moved to the field, hoping she wasn’t going to get in trouble for this. What could be wrong with a well? Was it haunted? Maybe it was the sight of a murder? Was it a wishing well that had long ago been used to wish for something terrible? So many questions and stories played in her mind.
She wanted to check it out further but with her curiosity came a bit of fear. More than a bit as she remembered the warning not to go by it for her safety. Obviously SOMETHING had happened. Something he didn’t want to see repeated. Did she really want to know what it was?
“Geez Chris,” She murmured aloud, “You are getting all worked up over nothing. You wanted to find something interesting and here you are getting scared away… it’s a well, a simple well.”
This was getting her nowhere, she decided at last, might as well head back now before her arguing mind gave her a headache. So a little miffed at her self she made her way back to the quiet pub. Set to spend the rest of her afternoon in her own unhappiness as the pub stayed mostly empty most of the time.
It was for that reason she was more than a little surprised to note she and the owner were NOT the only two at the bar. Blushing, wondering how long someone had been waiting, and embarrassed at her immature wandering, she moved behind the bar to tend to the new guest.
Sitting at the bar was a young man. His hair was a smooth jet-black, and natural too. Not one of those people who died their hair to look cooler of something. His eyes were pale yet flashing blue that, while they looked as though they could be anywhere from downright icy to incredibly persuasive if the situation called for it, were rather warm as he smiled up at her. She blushed.
“Well, hello.” He said conversationally, “You’re new I take it?”
She hadn’t even opened her mouth and he’d known she wasn’t from the area. She hid a sigh. “That I am. Just moved here two days ago.” Chris said with a slightly strained politeness.
He chuckled, a pleasant sound that matched his smile, “Don’t worry about it. First time here today, myself.”
She blinked, confused. Though, the more he spoke the more she traced a small lilt of his voice different from the other accents she’d heard. From a different area of Ireland maybe, still…
“If you’ve never been here before, how do you know I’m new?” Chris asked, curiosity filling her again.
The young man simply shrugged it off, “You simply have the look of someone not altogether used to her surroundings.”
“Lost and confused like someone who has no clue what she’s doing.” She mumbled, embarrassed even more now that complete strangers knew she wasn’t a local.
“I was thinking more curious but bored.” Was his reply however, she met his eyes and he winked, she looked away quickly, blushing.
He was spot-on but Chris wasn’t going to admit that, “How is it you can tell such things?” And on an off note added, “And should I get you a drink or are we just going to stand here chatting?”
“If it’ll keep you talking to me, sure I’ll have a drink.” He said; his voice laced with stifled laughter. As she moved to get it for him he added, “And to your first question, your eyes.”
“What?” She asked, bringing it back to him. He met her eyes again, and this time she couldn’t think to look away from them.
“You asked how I could tell these things about you, and I said your eyes. They have that spark of curiosity but I can tell you haven’t found much worth it yet, like someone who wants something exciting and hasn’t found it. It’s quite attractive.” He added as if an afterthought.
Now she looked away, her face hot. She’d never had a guy look at her twice much less had anyone flirt with her, and certainly not anyone as attractive as the young man before her. She looked back at him, though not meeting his eyes.
“Well…” She paused, hoping to drop the hint of waiting for a name.
He took it, “Ryan.” He supplied.
She smiled her first real smile back at him, “I’m Chris.” She told him before continuing, “And I did find something interesting, or,” as she suddenly was aware of her boss and caretaker’s presence in the room as well, “or I heard of something interesting.”
“Oh?” Ryan said, interested, “and that was…?”
“An old well, somewhere on the outskirts of town. I was directed earlier not to go by it.”
“And you aren’t.” Came her caretakers voice from the other end of the pub.
“Well, why not?” Chris asked, a little annoyed “Could you explain what is up with it?”
He sighed, “I could, if you truly want to hear it. At least it will keep you away from it.”
He opened his mouth to begin some sort of tale but Ryan cut in, his voice tight, “I don’t think it’d be well to frighten her with ghost stories.”
“I wouldn’t be frightened!” Chris said indignantly.
At the same time the pub owner snapped, “It’s no story! It happened!”
“I have no doubt something happened. But who’s to say you have the tale right?”
“And you have it better than I do?” He asked, “You, who say this is your first time here?”
“And it is,” Ryan said mildly, “but that doesn’t mean I don’t know things about this area.”
Chris watched the discussion with confusion and indignation. Whatever happened, she was no child and she should be able to hear it. She could handle whatever had happened at that well.
As it grew to the point where neither man had acknowledged her, she coughed, “Sorry I asked.” She muttered.
Both grew quiet and her caretaker seemed to drop it, moving back so that she and Ryan were the only two there.
Then Ryan softly said, “Do you really want the story?” In that persuasive voice she’d known he’d have from the beginning. It certainly didn’t make her immune to it, though.
“Yes, I do.” She tried to keep her voice firm, and failed “I think I ought to know.”
“Well if you want to hear him tell you, then that’s fine…”
“And if I want to hear you tell me?” She asked before she could think right.
He laughed, as though this was the way he’d planned it from the start, “Do you get a break anytime soon?”
She blushed, “I don’t know, I’m not even sure if I have hours.”
“I can hold it up for the night, Christina.” Her boss popped in, in a kind but slightly apprehensive voice, like a father worried about his daughter dating the wrong kid. The endearment actually made her happier than annoyed.
“Thank you.” She said simply, turning back to Ryan, who was standing up to go. She had thought he’d just tell the tale here, but apparently they would be walking together as well. She was far from upset at this development, though, and followed him out.
“You know, I wouldn’t have been frightened.” Chris said softly as they walked the less than bustling streets of the small town. What few people were out earlier had settled in for dinner and the sun was just starting to set,
“You would have the way he’d have told it.” He said, still chuckling.
“And how would that be?” She asked.
“Would you like to hear his version or mine?”
“Can I not get both?”
His answer was more laughter, and he gently took her hand to pull her down a different path.
There was a silence before he began, “In this town, the people stay away from the ‘midnight well’.”
Was this his story or the other? She wanted to ask but didn’t want him to be distracted. However, when he didn’t continue she asked, “Why?”
More laughter, a little more… wicked, but in a strangely attractive kind of way, “It’s ‘dark and evil’, or so they say.”
Evil? She thought back to the old well she saw in the field. It certainly didn’t look it.
“You’d be told of lovely young lady from this town, the most beautiful anyone had ever seen.” He continued, his voice quiet and almost singsong, “Blue eyes like the sky in the summer and long golden hair… How beautiful she was, but she went on her own.”
“Her own?” She said, trying not to dwell on the topic of this young lady’s beauty.
He glanced at her, his gaze admiring, “She had that same curiosity coming here, like you. It made her very interesting to a young man who visited the town.”
Just like he’d visited today, she thought, but said nothing. She was too interested in the story at this point.
More mild laughter, as though he knew what she was thinking, but he said nothing about it. She noticed they were walking further out to the ends of the town, more towards that well. Fitting scenery, she thought, fitting also with the fading dusk.
“No one knew where he came from, but anyone could tell you about a certain fire in his eyes,” Ryan continued, putting a fair amount of emphasis on fire, making her shiver, “That very night the two were seen heading out in the direction of the small well on the edge of town, this very well, to have their own rendezvous.” He added, as they had reached it.
Chris thought of that with another shiver, two people late at night coming to this very place in secret. How thrilling and romantic that was. And how very much like what she was doing with the young man she’d only just met, she thought, looking at him. She had no idea what to think of that, but she couldn’t think to find it upsetting in any way.
Nothing else was said for a moment so finally Christina said, “Go on…”
“That was the last night anyone in this town ever saw her face.” Ryan said, unceremoniously ending that story.
“… Ever?”
“Ever. She was gone.”
She stared at the small well again, her interest and excitement quickly turning to fear, “W-what happened to her?”
He looked at her again, as if debating how to answer that, “No one here really knows…” He said at last.
“Did he- kill her?” She asked quietly.
To her surprise he laughed, “What makes you think that?” He asked her.
Chris didn’t know what to think of his more wicked sounding laughter now, as she was already finding it slightly frightening how that story compared to what they were doing now. But Ryan didn’t LOOK evil. He didn’t look like someone who would- would kill her.
“I-I don’t know… but that’s what happened, isn’t it?” She thought of the pub owner telling her not to come by this well. If it had been where that young woman had been kidnapped or killed, his worry made sense. Not that it had done much in the end, she thought, looking into Ryan’s eyes and feeling a million things at once, and defiantly unable to leave.
“You’re shaking.” He said softly, rubbing her arms gently to warm them up. However, that only made her shake more at his touch. He sighed, shaking his head softly, his lips still set in that smirk though, “I told you his story would scare you…”
“That was his?” She asked, a faint hope rising, “That one wasn’t the true one, right? You said-”
She got cut off by noticing his shoulders shaking in silent laughter, “You think I’m an idiot for even possibly believing it, don’t you?”
He put his arms further around her to pull her closer to him. Her heartbeat was in hysteria as she looked into his eyes, less than a foot from her. For a moment, the midnight well story was the last thing in her mind.
“Far from, dear Chris. And you aren’t wrong for believing either story, because both are true, in their own right.” He said, his voice more of a murmur.
Christina blinked, not sure what that meant.
He explained, “Well, if you knew only what the people in this town knew, only what I told you - when someone is never seen again the first idea in anyone’s head is death. So don’t feel bad that it was yours.”
“But that isn’t what happened? He wasn’t evil?” She felt idiotic for that last question and quickly added, “And how do you know what did happen?”
“Evil?” He laughed aloud now, “Sweet, sweet Chris…” He shook his head, “yes, he was very evil for simply falling for a girl and asking for her to come with him.”
She was a bit annoyed with his sarcasm, but too interested in that information to truly get mad at him.
“Come where with him?” She asked stupidly.
“His home… though that wasn’t much, he was a gypsy, a traveler, never stayed in the same place for long.”
“And she came with him?”
“Of course.” He chuckled, she opened her mouth to ask why, and he continued quickly, “Say, for instance, I asked you right now,” Pulling her even closer to him, “to come away, come and ride with me into the night… would you, would you be able to say no?”
He wasn’t playing fair there, she thought, and there was no way she was going to answer that aloud. But her blood red face, even in the lack of light, and her pointed silence was answer enough. His smirk grew.
“So she wanted to go?” She asked stiffly, not dwelling on her own opinion of the matter. “And was happy?”
His smirk turned sweeter, “She’s plenty happy now.”
It took Chris a second before that was fully registered in her mind, “WHAT?”
“She’s plenty happy now.” He repeated smoothly.
“You KNOW her!? You know THEM!?” That explained how easily he was able to repeat the tale, although he’d never been here before. And how he knew more about how it REALLY ended… but… “Who-?” She began.
“You can rest assured my grandparent’s are safe and happy.”
She blinked, “You’re lying.” She said coolly, though she wasn’t too sure of that.
He laughed now, “I’m not lying. They were my dad’s parents. I even look like both of them, back then.” He chuckled, “His hair, her eyes.”
She stared into those eyes again, remembering his earlier description, ‘eyes like the sky in summer’. He certainly did, but did that mean she was to believe…
“So…” She found it hard to get the words out, “Your- your grandmother-“
“Would laugh her head off if she heard the stories this town has made out of her long ago disappearance.” He finished, “I’d heard the story so many times from her, I figured I had to come here someday.”
She couldn’t help but break into a small smile at his words, all which sounded so true she felt her apprehension fading.
“And you?”
More laughter, bringing her even closer to him, which she hadn’t thought was possible “I’m no gypsy, obviously. But I think I take after my grandfather, in some ways. It was that curiosity, that free spirit, that caused him to fall for her… and it’s exactly what’s causing me to fall for you.”
Christina was speechless, everything he’d just said was still spinning in her head she wasn’t entirely sure of what it was he was saying. He had fell for her? Like in love? This handsome, somewhat mysterious, charming, young man loved HER!? Absolutely speechless.
He didn’t laugh for once at her blushing shock, and added, “So, lovely Chris, in all honesty, would you like to come away with me?”
She had to let out a small laugh his phrasing, and knowing she could not say no she simply asked, “Where?”
He seemed ecstatic that she hadn’t said no. Did he not know the affect he’d had on her? “Anywhere you’d like. You want out of this town, I know, and I’ve seen plenty of others and am willing to go anywhere with you…”
She thought of it, and finally grinned, “Your grandmother is still alive, yes?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’d like to meet her. Maybe hear this story of the ‘midnight well’ from her.”
He laughed, “She’d be happy to tell it.” He finally pulled away from her, still holding her hand, “Shall we, then?”
She nodded, softly laughing to herself as it occurred to her there would now be two “disappearances” at this well. She smiled at Ryan, if this well was ‘evil’ she didn’t care, its existence had made her happier than anything in the world.
I don't know if I'm happy with the very end... it took me a while to get down, though, and I figured you'd all want this story soon. So hope you liked it. It was, as everything, great craic to write.