She awoke to the sensation of tiny legs crawling across her skin. As she opened her eyes she screamed and flailed, sending the spider on her hand flying across the small space. Where am I, she thought once her mind settled from the initial shock of the situation. Around her on all sides was nothing but slick, wet, algae-covered stone, and she was sitting in one inch of water. Its a well,she soon realized, and she quickly stood and looked up. My God, the top had to be a good fifty or sixty feet up.

          Help! she screamed. No response. There was nothing overhead but a bright blue sky, speckled with a few cirrus clouds. Thats good, though, maybe someone will come by. Maybe someone will hear me. Help, she screamed again, elongating the E until it she was out of breath. She continued that way for the next half hour, until her throat was sore from the strain.

          Nervously, she began to pace around the walls of her confines, trying desperately to remember how shed gotten here. It was then that she realized there was nothing to recallat all. She couldnt even remember who she was. Depressed and exhausted, she slid to a sitting position and rested her head on her knees.

          She awoke an indeterminable amount of time later to the sound of cicadas crying. As she looked up she saw the sky filled with thick grey clouds. It was getting late. In a panic she stood and began shouting again, at the top of her lungs, until her throat was sore from it. Wherever she was, she realized, she must be miles away from any humanity. Despair filled her as the cold rain began to fall.

          She slid back to a sitting position and rested her head against her knees as the water began to rise. Rain fell in torrents, and pretty soon she had to stand in order to keep her head above water level. Just as the water rose to mouth level she looked up and noticed something on the opposite side of the well from her. She half-walked, half-swam to the other side to retrieve it, and quickly realized it was a purse. It was her purse. But this hadnt been there before had it?

          In a moment of clarity she realized she hadnt thoroughly inspected her confines yet. There must be a hole, or crevice at the bottom of the well! She ducked into the water and began to feel around the floor and along the walls, desperately feeling for a crack or hole of any sort. A moment later she stood once more--the water to her nose at this point--frustrated, for she only found that the entirety of the well was enclosed in stone.

          She stared up at the sky once more--soon it would be completely dark. But if it continued raining this way, shed eventually get to the rim and escape this damned well. She looked at her purse, floating only a few feet away from her, and realization hit her. She grabbed it up out of the water and began to scoop through it until she found what she was looking for.

          Yes! she exclaimed as she pulled out her cell phone. Her excitement quickly turned to disappointment as she flipped the phone open and saw that it was dead. She held the power key for a long moment, hoping against hope that it would eventually power on. Water had seeped into the cracks and short-circuited the battery, she realized. Frustrated, she threw the phone at the wall, shattering it, and broke into tears.

          The moon was high in the sky when the raining stopped, and the walls were illuminated in a faint silver glow when she decided to go through her purse further. She found her drivers license and pulled it out, and the picture of herself stirred her recollection before she even had a chance to read her own name. Kristen Haynes, she said, taking comfort in the sound. As if by magic the name brought back a few hazy memories. Her mothers face, her boyfriends (fiancé? husband?) smile. She struggled for his name for a long moment, growing more and more frustrated by the second.

          She gave up in frustration--tears rimming her eyes--when many minutes later his name never came to her. She rummaged through her purse for more clues, more information, anything to help her understand why she was in her current situation. Her hand closed around a tin can and she pulled it out. Lot of fucking good this did me, she laughed as she tossed aside the can of mace. Searching further, she found only makeup, a mirror, and a handful of tampons--nothing of use. What did you expect to find, Kristen, a grappling hook? she said to herself derisively.

          Hours passed, and the moon moved out of sight, leaving only a starless sky overhead. Unable to sleep, lest she drown, Kristen floated in near absolute darkness. Once in a while she would be roused from her sleep-like trance by a strange sound from far belowlike something very large was moaning long and deep. She simply dismissed it at first as her sleep deprived mind hallucinating, but by the third time she heard it, this time much closer than before, she knew something was alive beneath her. She could feel it through the vibrations its cry sent through the stone.

          The final cry went quiet, and the night become very still. The muscles in her stomach loosened as she was able to relax once more. Soon dawn would break, and someone would eventually pass by. Someone would find her. She began to swim back and forth, getting her blood pumping so she could stay awake. The last thing she needed to do was doze off and begin to sink, only to get a lungful of rainwater.

          Something large and slick brushed past her feet. She screamed as she swam to the wall, fingers clawing at the stone fruitlessly. She turned back once, hoping not to catch a glance at whatever was below the surface. What she did see was worse, and the blood curdling scream escaped her throat before she even realized it. The skeleton that had floated to the surface of the water seemed to stare at her through its eyeless sockets, as if begging her for help. The ripples in the water sent its arm floating in her direction--small bits of meat still attached in various places to the wrist and hands--and she quickly slapped it away.

          -more in next blog.