Day 346

The rope tightened and went lax for the fifth time.
She'd been standing by the well for a good hour now, waiting to see what would crawl out.
Her ma had told her to keep well away when the ropes moved by themselves.
Last time they did that she was with her ma enjoying the sun.
Ma dragged her away faster than she ever had before.

Ma wasn't here now though and she could finally find out what was down there.
In spite of her excitement she didn't dare lean over the stone ledge just yet.
The tugging was getting faster now, less time between them.
She reckoned it must be getting closer now, she could faintly hear water dripping.
Taking a risky step forwards she squinted, seeing shadowy movements down there.

She held her breath and leant back as the outline of a figure emerged from the well.
Its tiny pale green hands clutched the rope and its chest heaved as it pulled itself up.
She had no idea what it was, its face was covered in eyes of all sizes.
Maybe ma would know, if she said she found it somewhere else then it'd be fine, right?
Better yet, she could just put it in the back garden and let ma find it herself!

Plan all set she grabbed the almost childlike thing that had been squinting at her in the bucket
and ran home, holding it under its stick-thin arms.
It began burbling along the way, writhing too - she nearly dropped it several times.
As she approached her home she spared a glance around her in case Mrs Neeves was watching.
She didn't want to get in trouble, she just wanted to know what this little thing was.

It took her a fair while to decide where to place the green fairy (that's what she thought it was).
In the end she crammed it under a flowerpot and ran inside to call her ma.
Of course being a child she got distracted and forgot about the thing she'd left in the garden.
She forgot for days until her mother's screech called her outside.
Her ma stood there the police, crying harder than she'd ever seen.

They asked all sorts of questions about a neighbour's missing baby.
It'd been left in a metal pram by the well and hadn't been seen for months now.
Mrs Neeves had seen her carrying something and told the police, they wanted to know what it was.
She told them she found a little green monster in the well and hid it in the garden.
She told them about the eyes, the claws, the rope and how her ma never let her near it.
They left her alone after that, took her ma to the station and left her with her aunt.

Nobody told her what happened to her ma but she heard whispers.
Whispers saying murderer, jealous and child snatcher drowned it but freak child found it.
She didn't understand it all until she went back to where she'd hidden the little green fairy thing.
All she found under the pot was a lump of something that stank, bones stuck out in some places.
A small hat sat on top of the crumpled pile, brown liquid seeping into the stitched word Angel.