Well of Memory

A girl finds herself staring into a pool. The water is cool, refreshing, it's calling her name--and so does a woman, telling her not to go into the water.

Well of Memory

By Gabrielle Esposito

    She stood on the edge of the ledge, her pale toes dipping slightly towards the pool of water beneath. Its calm surface was speckled with stars that painted the drab calm of the swirling depths. A cool wind blew, lifting her hair upwards. Alice followed its direction, and her eyes caught hold of a spiraling staircase that climbed all the way to the top of a tower. She followed it down. The last step abruptly ended at the edge of the lake.

    “But it doesn’t,” said a voice. “Look closer.”

    Alice jumped at the sound, lost her footing on the ledge. She felt a weightlessness in her stomach as she fell downwards. A shrill cry exited her lips. She shut her eyes against the closing distance between herself and the pool. Alice waited for the cool slap of the water to hit her, but it never came. She opened one eye, and then the next. Her body hung suspended in the air, her limbs splayed in a nonverbal message of shock. Alice saw her reflection in the water. She narrowed her gaze, and saw the slightest mirage more of those spiraling sets of steps spinning down into the water.

      The sight of the water, so cool and touchable, lightened her heart. She suddenly laughed at the sight of how ridiculous she looked there, and how utterly impossible her dream was. The sound of it echoed throughout the neverending world. She reached out to touch the water, knowing that it was meant for her, knowing that she was meant to let it consume  her. Her throat began to burn simply looking at it. She thirsted for it. No fear gripped her heart until the booming voice rang out around her.

    “It is not a dream, Alice,” it said. Her body was swung upwards, as if she were a fish that had just been caught on the line. The bare flesh of her feet kissed the top of the stone floor before being gently lowered onto it. Alice whirled around, her gaze searching for a face to put to the ominous character that could read her thoughts.

    “Who are you?” she asked the wind. “What do you want?”

    “I want nothing from you, but for you to listen to me.” The voice was right in her ear, drilling the sound of its layered minor harmonics right into her skull. Alice turned. A woman stared back at her. Her gaze told Alice that she knew too much. She shrank away from the apparition, finding slight solace when her back touched the cold marble wall.

    There was something wrong with the woman. Alice could tell just by looking at her. The complexion of her skin matched the white of her dress, making it seem that there was really no end to where she stopped and began. Everything about her was seamless, an example of perfection. Alice caught the slightest scent of cinnamon drifting off of her, but it was marred by the subtle albeit powerful bottom note of rotten meat.

    “What is this place? It makes me feel--weak. It makes me thirsty.” That silent tug pulled her eyes towards the serene pool once again like a bad habit that couldn’t be broken. She felt it calling her, whispering her name softly, as if it were nothing more than a breeze. But she knew she heard it. There was no mistaking that the lake wanted her. Alice could feel it pulling at her, telling her to come and taste the refreshing waters. Her feet took a step towards the water.

    “Alice, please, look at me,” the woman said.

    It was the command in her voice that sent a charge through Alice’s body. She snapped her concentration back towards the thin frame of her face. She was terrifyingly beautiful, radiating power. It made Alice feel all the more insignificant, and she felt a hot ball of tears working its way into her throat. It sat there, created by frustration and confusion and made Alice want to curl under a rock and hide from the scrutinizing gaze of the woman.

    “I want to go home,” Alice said. She opened her mouth to say more, but the words eluded her. She stopped, tried again, then shut her mouth. Her eyes widened as she realized that nothing she said had no meaning to her at all. She couldn’t remember a time before seeing the staircase leading down into the water. And the thirst. It was a blinding and unbearable lust that racked her body.

“Alice?”

Her eyes snapped towards the woman. She was lifting a thin, sickly pale hand in offering. She backed away from it, aware of only the sharp nails on her hand that reminded her of daggers.     

“This is your home now. Come with me. I can help you accept it,” she said.

“Where is here?” She turned away from the woman, unable to handle her any longer. Alice looked for something to hold onto. But nothing was working. The landscape kept shifting, the world turning too fast.

"What is this place?"

  “This is yours, Alice. This is the Well of Memory.”

    “Mine?” Alice felt herself swell with desire. The world disappeared for a fleeting second as her mind was overcome with joy at the prospect of owning the water. Alice suddenly saw the pool coming closer, felt her feet moving though she never told them to.

    “Stop!”

Alice’s body stalled, one leg bent in mid-run, the other about to bound off the floor to switch positions with the other.

    “You can’t go in. Not yet,” said the woman. Her demeanor was calm, but her voice had changed. Alice knew she should listen, but hungry desire and longing killed her wished and buried them deep beneath the ground. She fell at the woman’s feet, moving towards the woman for the first time. The beauty simply looked down, her irises of her eyes suddenly tinged in red. They were mesmerizing and horribly unsettling.

    “My throat burns,” screamed Alice. “I just need a sip, please! You’ll let me, won’t you? You have to!”

Now the tears made their appearance, streaming down Alice’s face in rivers. The craving to have just a single drop of that water touch her tongue sent her reeling. She began to struggle against the bonds the woman had placed on her, growing hotter with anger each passing second. A teardrop fell into her mouth, scalding her delicate palate. She screamed so loud her throat felt like it was being grated on with an emery board.

    “Alice, do you understand what this means?” said the woman.

Alice pretended not to hear her. There was a red haze surrounding everything besides that lake. She wanted to strip off her clothes and feel her body against the calm waters. She needed to feel it rising around her, getting higher and higher, letting it catch the ends of her hair and send the strands floating all around her. She ached to feel it filling the empty spaces between her fingers, her toes, her legs. She longed to drink the pool’s essence, dousing the thirst that raged inside her body.

The woman reached down and gripped Alice’s face in her hands. The child quieted, killing the cries that had flooded from her mouth only a moment before. Her eyes were like hot embers now, the pupils swirling like black smoke drifting off a pool of blood.

    “You’re dead, Alice,” the woman said. “This is your punishment, your final judgement. You will watch and relive every moment of your miserable life, you will stand by as you watch yourself make the wrong choices over and over and over again. Come with me Alice. You can save yourself!”

The woman stared at the struggling child tearing at her clothes and her hair. She had already made her choice. The woman let go of her mental hold over the girl. Alice’s face flooded with instant relief and she dove off the ledge without a second thought. The woman heard a sharp slurping sound fill the air. There was never the dead plunk of anyone hitting the Well of Memory. It always sounded as if the waters were eating them, relishing every last taste of the dead soul that it could before sending them spiraling to their eternal damnation.

    The woman walked towards the Well, her feet padding on the marble floor. She leaned over and saw her own reflection in the water. Those dead eyes stared back at her with the reminder that she hadn’t been alive ever since she had gotten thrown out of Heaven. Her black lips curled into a smile, and she stuck her forked tongue out at herself.

    Doomed forever to be the voice that no one hears, she thought.

    Lucifer watched Alice disappear into the well, becoming an insignificant speck in the sea of eternity.

Author's Note

Please feel free to speak your mind about this work. All criticism is accepted in order for me to grow as a writer. Thank you very much!

Reviews

[best]

sunken eyes, express How a very beautiful woman could be haggard.
e.g: looking at the woman you could tell she's had a hard life, yet even her wryly looks couldn't hide the fact that she was a very beautiful woman in her time.. Am not saying u should use exactly my description, But it should point u n d right direction.
finally, How can u say she used a commanding voice when you stated out clearly 'Please '
u could say 'the plea n her voice halted her' or 'though she said Please,her voice brooked no arguments '.
Thanks.... n Am looking forward to the first chapter as I feel this is an prologue.
it's an interesting story

[Gabrielle Esposito]

I love your suggestions. Thank you for helping me out! It might evolve into something longer, who knows. We'll see how the story grows organically. Thank you :)

[best]

I hope so n pray d lord help you n give u inspiration.
I so can't wait for.
I'll keep in touch n hope u don't hate me before the book is fully developed

[Tommy Naclerio]

Alice in Wonderland? Well whatever It was petty good. And I can sympathize with her, I want to cool water on me too. As you know I hate the heat. Whatever I won't ask where you were. Um I really appreciate the old woman who nobody listens to, it reminds me a lot of my mother. She says that so much and its totally true. I missed you today but lucky you cause I got this huge zit. Anyway its okay except I think maybe you could describe the last moments BEFORE her death and how that played out. Or maybe I just really didn't understand it. Whatever bye.

[best]

Nice.
I never guessed she was dead nor the old woman Lucifer.... it terrific.
But girl, u need to make some things clear, like, easy to understand the position of the well in this scene, u know the pool is very significant n u should make clear Which angle or How far from it she is at every given time.
again, back to Lucifer,you presented her beautiful yet, u said she has pale skin,bony hands n sunki

[Gabrielle Esposito]

That's a great point thank you!! I'm glad you liked the twist at the end :) I'll be editing it soon!