The Well

A spooky campfire story for the weekend.
The famous Christmas Place is as strange a place as you will ever come across. Beautiful woods, a rich sense of history, and tremendous hunting combine for a paradise on Earth.
The land is also filled with strange and unusual phenomena.
There are places that compasses will not work, several ghosts, awe inspiring Indian Mounds and a grave that is strangely cold. There are old roads, house places, and mysterious places to be explored. There are amazing Ghost lights and a hidden Confederate treasure waiting to be found.
A strange and frightening creature roams the deep hollows and an ancient gigantic buck rules the woods. Most of these things can be taken in stride after a while, but we are always alert when we enter the woods. Scouting trips can be hazardous in more ways than one and we keep on the main trails if dark finds us alone in the woods.
You enter the large Spike Camp field from the South. The large rye grass field is part of an old house place and Indian camp. The disk has turned up bottles, arrowheads and pottery. I have taken several nice bucks there and Spencer took his first deer on this field.
There are three old roads that lead out of the field. The right one leads back to the old main road, the center road leads down the ridge to some more fields that make up the Spike Camp Area. The road to the left leads to an old Cedar covered ridge that is largely unexplored. I scouted this area in the fall, to hopefully find signs of a big buck and get a new place to hunt. What I found there was so odd that this is the first time I have written or spoken about it.
I worked the edges of the ridges in this area looking for big hooks and scrapes. I found some sign of good bucks but not what I was looking for. After scouting, I circled up and into the large grove of cedar trees that shaded the top of the ridge. This is not a place to look for deer sign but I was curious and wanted to check it out for any old artifacts.
Large old trees shaded the area; keeping it cool and dark and I looked for signs of old buildings. I searched hard for part of a rock fireplace or stones from a foundation.
I took my stick and poked around until I reached a thick area of tangled brush near the north end of the ridge. I worked my way through this and in the very center, I almost fell into a deep black hole that had a couple of old rotten logs and planks across it. Pushing the briars away I realized it was a deep well.
I stepped back, looked around and dragged an old piece of rusty tin from a tangle of briars. I figured that would work to cover the hole till we could get something better.
But first, I decided to look in and see if I could see anything in the bottom.
The sun was high, and after pushing vines and an old log away, I could see a tiny reflection of water deep in the bottom. The rest of the interior was pitch black.
I had instantly marked it to come back with a strong light to look for old bottles in the bottom and stepped away to put the tin over it, when I heard high pitched laughter.
There was tinny laughter, light giggling and whispered conversation so low that I could not make out words. Then more high-pitched laughter as I looked around. I looked back over into the old well again and fresh child-like laughter rolled out of the darkness. My hair stood on end as I froze and listened. A whispered conversation was going on in the darkness at the bottom of the well.
The laughter sounded as if it was from children. Muffled high pitched voices, a giggle and then it was quiet. I stepped back into the brush a half dozen steps and froze again. Still holding the piece of tin I was drawn back to look into the darkness again.
The light voices started again from the well. Another laugh, and one voice that seemed very unhappy. I found myself looking down into the darkness of the well again. I could not make out the words, but felt that they were happy and having fun except for the one low angry voice, and after a few minutes of quietly listening, I could feel loneliness in their whispers also. Looking into the reflection, thoughts came to me that I needed to climb in, it would be soothing and quiet. That everything would be complete if I just got to the bottom of the well. I was mesmerized until the piece of tin fell out of my hand and luckily landed on it’s side and fell over covering part of the well. I shook my head realizing how close I was to a suicidal leap into space. I stepped back and finally realized they were searching for a playmate to join them in the dark pit.
I eased over and quickly put the sheet of tin over the well. I rolled several old logs over the hole and left as fast as I could. I have not been back.