I skidded to a halt on the gravel, managed her clouds of dust billowing up around my sneakers.

Taking out my earbuds, I looked around for anyone else, but all around me were hundreds

of acres of green.

My legs ached to resume my interrupted morning run, but I just couldn't shrug off what

I thought I'd heard.

Huh?

Somebody hold me!

That was again.

There's a few feet away from me.

It's allowed that I rang in my ears, but now they're really convinced that it wasn't

my imagination.

I ran to the source of the sound.

I pushed past the labyrinth of trees that crowded my path until I found myself in a forest

clearing.

There was no person, only an old well so overgrown by ivy, who was almost invisible next

to the trees.

The faded grey stone glimpsed through it.

There was a bucket attached to a rotting rope still dangling from the rafters of that.

The half caved in roof.

I thought arose in my mind, so unbelievable that it was almost laughable.

But surely the sound hadn't come from…

I peered over the crumbling stone edge.

...