Addy rolled her eyes as she placed her raw and cut up hand on the rough, gray boulder. She hoisted herself up and firmly placed her dirty white converse on the rock before standing up tall. The trees around her whispered secrets as a chilly wind wound between their red, yellow, and orange leaves. Addy ran her fingers through the tangles of her blonde curly hair before continuing her journey. She narrowed her eyes as she scanned the woods for something. She had only taken three steps when a shrill voice called out from below the boulder.
“Addy, stop! You have to help me up,” the voice whined.
Addy took a second to make an annoyed face before turning around to face the eleven year old girl. Kylie Shepard was tiny for her age with light brown hair that wound into tight curls, and the sprinkle of freckles across her nose and cheeks made her look even younger. She sat at the bottom of the boulder with a demanding look, as her eyebrows remained furrowed. Addy walked toward her and glanced down the boulder.
“Just push yourself on top of the rock, Kylie. I’ve helped you over the last twenty, I’m sure you can do this one on your own,” Addy said, annoyed.
She spun back around and began up the next mountainous peak of uphill wood. She walked slowly, making it look like she was leaving Kylie.
“Addy!” Kylie shrieked when Addy disappeared from view.
Despite climbing up all the rocks, trudging uphill through the woods, and trying to avoid hanging spider webs, Kylie was the biggest obstacle. Addy walked back over and pressed her knees down onto the flat part of the boulder. She stretched both of her arms down to Kylie, which Kylie grabbed quickly. Addy shivered at the cold touch of Kylie’s hands and wondered why Kylie had even agreed to this adventure. Addy leaned back as she pulled Kylie up to the top of the rock. Having done this many times before, Addy’s arms were already exhausted and Kylie slipped before she could pull her all the way up. Kylie let out a yelp as she fell across the side of the boulder, scraping her entire side. She fell to the ground in complete shock. Addy stared blankly at Kylie, waiting for what was going to come next. Inside, Addy knew what was coming but she prayed that this time would be different. Kylie looked at the side of her body which had been completely scraped in shock. She lifted her shirt up and saw a tiny piece of scraped off skin. The small injury began to turn red as a few drops of blood rolled down Kylie’s side. She immediately burst into tears at the sight of her own blood rolling down her side. Addy jumped as she began to make an attempt to fix her mistake.
“Kylie, stop it! I’m sorry I dropped you. Here, I’ve got you this time. Just please stop crying, we’ve still got a few more boulders to climb anyway,” Addy pleaded with her.
Kylie’s cries ruined the beauty of their surroundings and gave Addy a headache. The blue mountains above didn’t seem as breathtaking or beautiful with Kylie’s ugly cries as back round noise. Kylie pulled out a tissue from her vest and dabbed at her eyes. She carefully dabbed around her mascara as not to smear it. For an eleven year old, Kylie was very interested in self-appearance and fashion.
“Why did you even come with me, Kylie? You hate my adventures,” Addy sighed, sitting on the boulder looking at Kylie from above.
Kylie hiccupped and began to calm down a little. Addy silently wished that Kylie would just leave her alone, instead of following her everywhere. Addy declared her mission as too dangerous for Kylie to come on.
“You know you aren’t allowed to go into the woods alone, Addy. You need me,” Kylie sniffled, with a small smirk breaking out upon her face.
Addy’s mom was not a big fan of her adventures. She created a few ground rules so that Addy would be as safe as possible in these woods. Rule Number 1: Always take someone with you. Despite Addy being 14, apparently there were many dangers in the woods that could hurt her.
“I could have asked Zach or Nolan, Kylie. I don’t need you,” Addy said, mentioning the other neighbors who always enjoyed Addy’s adventures.
“Well, you didn’t ask them. I’m the one who’s here, so you owe me!” Kylie deviously answered, with an immature tone.
Addy shook her head and hid her smile. If Kylie thought that Addy would do anything for her, she was in for a terrible surprise. She wished she could just explain to Kylie the real reason for their quick pace, but if she knew the real reason for Addy’s newest expedition, there would be no way Kylie would stay up here.
“Whatever you say, Kylie. Now hurry up. We have to be back before the sun sets,” Addy urged, grabbing Kylie’s hands and lifting her up the boulder.
This time Kylie was lifted all the way up to the top of the boulder, and placed her tan Ugg boots down onto the rock. Kylie glanced uneasily at Addy’s ruined converse.
“Why do you wear your white converse when you come out here? You’ve ruined them,” Kylie asked in a concerned tone.
Addy began to walk up the next large hill and swerved through the trees.
“I didn’t ruin them. They just show the story of all my adventures through a visual focus,” Addy explained, knowing Kylie would not understand why she would deliberately ruin a perfectly good pair of shoes.
As the girls made their way through the woods, they got so high that they could see the blue bumps of mountains on the skyline. They walked higher, taking occasional rests to give their legs a break. The two got so high up that their entire town was in their view and they were hovering over everything. Addy navigated through the woods and Kylie followed her with confidence. Addy knew everything there was to know about these woods.
After five and a half minutes of walking, Addy wasn’t surprised to hear Kylie let out a frustrated cry. Addy whipped her head, her blonde hair twirling around her just in time to see Kylie’s foot slip after the dead leaves she had been stepping on slid down the hill. Kylie landed on her stomach and rolled down a foot or two before grabbing onto a skinny tree. Addy grimaced. Adventures were definitely not Kylie’s forte. Kylie began to cry as she moved herself into a sitting position with her back leaning against the tree.
“I’m done. I’ll wait for you here. I don’t care if a tree falls on me or if I get eaten by an animal. I’m done following you.” Kylie hiccupped, covering her eyes with the sleeves of her pink coat.
“Kylie,” Addy protested, tiredly, “You can’t stay here.”
“I can and I will!” Kylie declared, her voice coming out muffled from behind her sleeves.
“No, you can’t,” Addy said as she decided to tell Kylie her reason for this certain adventure, “You’ve heard about Kate McConnell haven’t you?”
Kylie stopped crying and glanced through her sleeves.
“No,” she said hesitantly.
“Well, Kate used to live in the house in between ours. She lived with her family in that red house with the white shutters. When she was sixteen, she used to always come up through these woods. I’ve heard that there is a Well somewhere in these woods. It’s sort of like a Wishing Well. They call it Kate’s Well. Anyway, she had just gotten into a fight with her parents because one of her friends had gone missing in these woods. Her friend had gone up with Kate to her Well. Then when they began to make their way back down, Kate turned around and her friend was gone. She ran back to her parents and they called the police, but they couldn’t find her friend. After a week of searching, Kate went back up to the woods to find her friend, herself. Everyone was accusing Kate of her friend’s disappearance. The last place Kate apparently went to was her Well.”
Addy finished the true story of Kate McConnell who had lived nearly one hundred years before them. Kylie stared at Addy with her jaw dropped.
“What do you mean the last place she went?” Kylie asked, her voice raw from crying.
Addy shrugged, “Kate disappeared just like her friend did. No one knows if she just ran away or if something actually happened to her. They haven’t found the bodies.”
Kylie shot up as if someone had grabbed her.
“Addy, are you crazy? Why are we even up here? What if they were murdered and the murderer is here right now?” Kylie cried, as she began to get hysterical.
“Kylie! Kylie, stop! This was over one hundred years ago. Even if they were murdered, whoever murdered them would be dead.” Addy smiled, trying to calm Kylie down.
“Still! I don’t want to be in these woods! I want out! Take me home, now!” Kylie screamed, trying to make her way back down.
“Sorry, Kylie. I’m not taking you down until we find the Well,” Addy declared.
Kylie stopped dead in her tracks. The cool wind blew her tangled hair, and made her eyes water.
“Fine,” Kylie whispered in a defeated tone, “but as soon as we find it, that’s it. We’re going home and I will never have to come here ever again.”
Addy bit her chapped, pink lip. She felt sort of bad dragging Kylie into this mess; after all it was a little creepy. The two of them began their mission again, and searched for what felt like hours before they stopped to take another break.
Kylie sat on the dead leaves. They crunched as she moved around trying to find a comfortable position.
“These woods are huge. We’ll never find Kate’s Well,” Kylie sighed, half in defeat while half relieved.
“I wish I could just ask Kate where it is,” Addy sighed, sitting down next to Kylie.
“It’s been one hundred years. What if someone knocked it down, or what if it just collapsed?” Kylie asked, realizing that it would be very unlikely for the well to still be there.
“No, it’s probably still standing. After all it was protected by a cave…” Addy’s voice trailed off as realization set in.
“What’s wrong?” Kylie asked, looking up at Addy.
Addy didn’t look back at Kylie. Instead her eyes were transfixed on something ahead of her. Kylie followed Addy’s glance and gasped. In front of them were a dozen gray rocks, stacked on top and around the side of each other. It was the perfect shape of a cave. Addy got up and began racing toward it, trying to get around to the other side to find an opening. Kylie sprang up onto her feet too and chased after Addy.
The girls ran around the stack of rocks to find a beautiful mossy area of forest. It looked magical. Addy stared wide eyed at the entrance to the cave. A very large cylinder shape was carved into the rock and it was layered with white and green tile. Most of the tile was still intact; however there were many missing pieces. Water filled the top of it and was spilling over the edge. Between the rocks water was pouring in and running down a little ramp also layered with white and green tiles until it got to the well.
Addy began to scream. She started jumping around before running up and sticking her hands into the icy cold water. There were three wooden planks that had been placed in between the rocks, creating a bench. Without even testing out the hundred year old architecture, she sat down on it immediately.
“Kate’s Well exists! I found it—we found it! Can you believe it, Kylie?” She squealed, excitement leaking out of her voice, as she swung her legs back and forth on the bench.
“Kylie?” She asked again as no response came.
She looked up and was shocked to not see Kylie in front of her. She slowly got up off of the bench and exited the tiny cave. She looked out to the blue mountains and gave the view a worried look. She turned and looked back toward the direction they had come.
“Kylie?” Addy yelled into the cool, fall air.
“Kylie!” Addy screamed when there was no response.
Addy sprinted around the cave that the two girls had discovered together. Kylie had better not be hiding from her in order to teach her a lesson for staying up here so long, she thought. Addy made her way back to the front of the cave, her heart knocking against her ribs. She jumped as she heard a loud slap coming from the cave. Her head whipped around to glance at Kate’s Well, as tears threatened to fall. Her stomach lurched as she saw nothing but a hand reaching out of the well, before dropping in with a quiet splash.