Little Bird
Chapter 7
Kaen sat up in her futon, rubbing her eyes and listening to see if any other people in the house were awake. Nobody, even her early rising father, was awake yet. She looked out the window and saw that the sun was barely staining the sky pink.
"Every time…"
She always woke up before everybody else, and she rarely got more than four hours of sleep a night. She and her father had tried everything they could think of. Hot baths right before bed, warm tea, herbal remedies, you name it. She even tried sleeping in rooms other than hers. She tried sleeping in Asuma's room, then Ken's, then Ganro's. No luck there, she tried sleeping in the bathhouse, the dojo and the roof. That didn't work either. She looked over toward the dark shape that was the well and shivered.
"Nuh-uh. I am not going to sleep near the well."
She could hear the bell ringing on the charm that her father had made three years ago, when she was seven, to ward off the demons that Sano had convinced her were living in the well. She didn't really believe in the demons in the well anymore, but she still had some nameless fear of the well. Even seeing somebody else standing at a well made her shake.
Finally she stood and tied her robe tighter around herself. If she was awake anyway, she might as well do something. She took another look at the well and smiled. She would go out to the well, sit down next to it and get over her fear. Even better, she would sit on top of the cover! Wouldn't her parents be surprised!
She climbed out her window, shivering a little from both fear and cold as her bare feet touched the chill ground. She walked to the well quickly, muttering under her breath that she was safe, that there were no demons or anything that would drag her down and eat her… Okay, so maybe she did still believe in the demons in the well…
She crawled up onto the slick lid, holding her breath as she sat on the old wood that creaked and groaned under her.
"Oh, hush. I'm not that heavy."
She crossed her legs and arms and looked around, shaking as that mind numbing fear gripped her. She kept telling herself that there was no danger from the well, and shifted her weight.
There was an earsplitting crack, and Kaen tumbled down into the well's deep dark water with a shower of splintered wood.
"DAA-AA-AAADYYYYY!!!"
