Significance (Completed)

Significance - Chapter Twenty Five

I felt my stomach bunch and cramp. So this must be the third or fourth day away from Caleb and they were going to let me sit in a well for days, testing a theory. And what would they do with me if it did break the imprint? Should I fake a broken imprint? Could they tell?

I sat for a long time, trying not to shake and jerk my muscles in pain because the sloshing of the water was driving me insane.

I listened to see if someone was up there waiting for me. I listened for their thoughts but got none. I tried to call Caleb but got nothing from him. After a few hours my teeth chattered so much that my jaw ached and I bit my tongue several times. I had an idea.

I spit my blood into the water around me and waited and waited. No glowing apparitions, nothing. I scolded myself for buying into his lame story and wanted to lay down so bad I could barely think. I couldn't lean back on the wall because the platform started to buckle.

Eventually, I gave in and began to cry again. All day, I sat there. I watched and felt the sun making its way across the sky, but the water was so cold that I couldn't feel any warmth from it. Then the darkness came. I heard awful noises out there, animals yelling and howling, birds hooting and chirping, breaking twigs, crickets. It was excruciating. I couldn't sleep because I couldn't lie down. My eyes kept closing against my control and I rested my head on my knees, but I fell over several times into the water, splashing it everywhere and wetting me more, making me colder so I eventually stopped trying.

Then morning came. The sun starting making it's was across the sky. In the light I could see the bricks were out of alignment in the well wall. I stood wobbly, holding the pulley rope for leverage and tried to set my foot on them and climb. I got a little footing but it was all so slimy and lined with algae that I never made it more than a step before I slid back down and scrambled to not fall further in the well. The last time I was reaching for a brick with one foot and slipped, slicing my arm on the hard, dirty rocks.

My blood, once again dripped into the water beside me and I watched it in anticipation, grimaced at it. It was stupid to believe maniacs.

I tried yelling again. I tried reaching Caleb. I was so exhausted, I could barely think. When it was almost so dark and I could barely see, I heard voices.

I hoped and prayed they were the voices I wanted, the Jacobson's, Caleb, but they weren't. I saw Marcus's face above me as he smiled.

"Dead yet?"

I slumped in defeat and wanted to scream as they began to pull me up. Two days. Two days they'd left me down here. All the water left me and I thought the warm air would help but it didn't, it made it worse. My skin burned and shivered at the same time. Whoever was pulling was jerking and pulling so forcefully that the board was banging on the walls, jabbing my muscles with the force. It felt like my bones were hitting against each other. I heard myself scream and whimper. My chest hurt with it. I screamed Caleb's name and thought it, begged for him to hear me.

When I reached the top, I rolled off the board and side of the well to land forcefully in the grass. I gasped and shook. I opened my eyes and saw that Sikes' wife wasn't there, but Marcus, his uncle and three other guys were. I wondered how they were going to help me without putting offense marks on me, but by the looks on their faces, they had no intentions of that anymore.

Marcus smiled cruelly at me and grabbed my arm, yanking me up before jerking his hand back hissing.

"That still stings as bad as it did the first time."

"All right. We can't do this outside she'll make too much noise. Inside, now," Sikes barked.

Oh, no. What- Then his thoughts were blaring to me. He was so, so mad. He didn't want to do this and, in fact, had no intentions of watching. He was going to let Marcus loose on me and see how many offense marks they could put on me at one time. See if it affected or drained me so much that it changed something. I couldn't have that. I shook my head.