It's so dark... Riva balanced her stomach on the edge of the well and swung her legs as she peered deep into the abyss below. Darkness looked back at her, its face unreadable and cold. She shivered and pulled herself away from the well's mouth. "Hello...!" called out the girl into the well. No echo returned her greeting. "Hello! Is anyone down there? I dropped my doll!" She heard a low click. "Hello?" She turned away from it and looked over the field around her. She saw only grass waving before her like a trembling sea of green. Daddy would be angry if he found out that I sneaked out... She groaned as she puffed out her cheeks. No one would be able to help her, nor would anyone know where she went if she tried climbing down the well. Riva glanced down it once more.
"Hello? Please, can you help me?" She knew someone lived down there, an elderly woman told her so. The crone spoke of creatures living in the stomachs of wells that would perform a favor for anyone who paid them. Riva dug her hand into every pocket she had, but found nothing, save for a small string and the pebble that resembled her mother, or so she thought. She squeezed them in her fist. "I don't have any money!" apologized the girl. "But I do have these!" Riva held her clenched fist out over the well's lips and unfurled her fingers, dropping the string and pebble into the hungry darkness. "Hello?" she whimpered, leaning back over it once more.
"Hello, deary." hissed the abyss.
"Hello!" exclaimed the girl as a beaming smile danced across her lips. "Hi, my name's Riva! What's yours?"
"Cold. I am Cold." answered the darkness.
Riva shivered and looked over her shoulder once more at the emerald meadow behind her. The grass shook and looked as if it were beckoning her, trying to get her away from the well. "Hi, Cold!" said the young girl.
"Riva...what is it you desire, deary?" gasped the well.
"I want my dolly! Do you see it?" wondered Riva.
"Your dolly? Why, I don't think I do...If you would like, I can let you look around down here." wheezed the voice.
"Am I allowed to come down there?"
"Oh no, dear. I'll be able to show you without you coming down. Don't you worry. Do you wish to see your doll?"
Riva trembled once more. The low, croaking voice sounded different now. It was excited and anxious. "I...I do. Yes, I do!"
"Then hold still, deary..." Two black vines slivered up from the well and danced before Riva. They twirled and bent in every direction until their two tips were pointed at her. "Are you ready, dear?"
"Y-Yes..." mewled the girl.
"Good..." The vines lunged at her and the world became darker than the inside of the well. Riva screamed. "What's wrong, deary? Don't you want to see your dolly? You should see it very soon..."
The girl groped her face and felt her hands grow wet and warm with her own blood. She felt around for her eyes, but found only two holes. She cried out.
"Can you see it? Can you see your dolly?" asked the well earnestly. Riva only howled in pain. "Can you see it? Your eyes are in the well now, so you should see it...! Can you see it?"