An overwhelming well

The buzz from the alarm clock, and Maya's body startled again, regaining her seconds to track.

She scribbled in her diary,

3.17 AM, Thursday, June 12, 2019

She retraced her steps, trying to figure out if anything seemed to be different today. But nothing, everything looked the same.

Unable to fall asleep, she walked over to the window and grasped the rails. She stood for exactly 7 minutes, looked around, and came back. Then, as she started to close her eyes, she got distracted by a buzzing sound. When she got up to check, she felt a bite on her ankle, and she dozed off instantly into a sleeping beauty.

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Just one and a half weeks into her summer break, Maya had been canceling her 6 AM driving lessons due to lack of sleep. Her excitement to take a 2-hour drive to the beach with friends had been falling through the roof.

All the hard work, so as to earn the car key from her father by showing good results and driving skills, had been spiraling down the road.

She muttered, "Someone had got jealous of her plan" as she had been announcing to everyone when asked, "What her plans were for the summer break."

"That's why they say keep your mouth shut," she breathed.

But it had been a chaotic week from the night she had arrived home from her final exams. A disturbance, and she thought maybe she was tired of the journey. However, she couldn't sleep peacefully through the night and was knocked out in the morning. Maya didn't complain to her mother, as she didn't want her mother to worry, so she kept giving reasons for canceling the driving classes.

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Thursday, June 12, 2019

The whole day, she wandered in her room, with no interest in going outside, and unnecessary mood swings rattling her presence. Maya paced from left to right, strolling her fingers along the window rails, thinking about what she was thinking about. What is this new search unnecessarily winding in her room? She couldn't let go of the signs, the distress calls whispering at night.

Maya knew something wasn't right, and Maya's mom had started to notice her absent-mindedness, raising questions: "Was something wrong?" But Maya kept avoiding her.

10:00 PM, Thursday

"Aren't you turning off the light?" Maya's mom asked,

"I am reading," Maya said, but didn't say anything further. She had been sleeping with the lights on through the night the whole week, and Mom hadn't noticed.

11:45 PM

"Aren't you turning off the light?" Maya's dad showed up,

"Ya will do in a few minutes," Maya said, and he, too, had not noticed that she had been sleeping with lights on.

Faintly, she closed her bedroom door but didn't latch it, as her mom had forbidden her to do so, following the parental guide.

As Maya prepared her bed, she thought to approach the night in a different direction. So, she latched that one open window too and switched off the light for the night. Her eyes wide open, she couldn't lie down on her bed out of fear, but she sat on the corner of the bed with her back resting on the headboard, with her half body pressing the wall. Her flashlight was on and under the pillow, her pepper spray ready to activate and all set to scream in an emergency.

The darned darkness began to cast a shadow, and she couldn't help but run to switch on the lights as she felt something moving on her ankle.

12:25 AM, Friday

She saw the time, and Maya couldn't believe she had been brave for 15 minutes. She noticed a ladybug sitting on her shoulder, and suddenly, it flew to the window. Maya opened, but the ladybug stayed inside. She was shocked to see a ladybug fly.

She had never seen it before. She held out a jar to capture it as it kept buzzing and flying everywhere. Maya observed as she closed the cap - a flash of sight struck her mind.

The ladybug Maya had seen before. Then she remembered it had been running around in her home at the same time for the whole past week.

"The buzzing sound makes sense," Maya bit her lip in thought,

awaiting what's next. Her courage in overcoming her fear started to settle.

Maya waited with the bait, "What was it going to be for tonight?"

But unfortunately, the tired mind and body couldn't withhold, and she dozed off on the table holding the jar.

3:10 AM, Friday

Maya startled at the buzzing sound, woke up, and walked over to the window. This time, Maya saw a lady standing across from her window, in her neighbor's backyard, staring at the deep well while holding its rails, and standing on the slippery trails, ready to jump.

No sound, no breeze, no whispers, but a standstill silence under the dimly lit sky.

And the lady jumped. Thud.

Not a splash or sprinkle of sound from the water surrounded the hours in the darkness.

But a chill froze across Maya's body. Maya could see the body jumping, the body's hair flying into the air. A strip of foggy veil dispersed into thin air. In shock, her eyelids fluttered, her chest screamed, and everything muted as she fell to the ground. Not a single voice was heard, but was consumed by the air.

"Do I know her? Did I see her face? It was just a shadow. Was it her or him?" Maya stuttered

Her alarm buzzed, "7 minutes?" and Maya's body startled again, regaining her seconds to track. She peeked to take a look but saw nothing.

She scribbled in her diary,

3.17 AM, Friday, June 13, 2019

Maya pulled herself to bed but quickly fell asleep once her head hit the pillow.

10.00 AM, Friday, June 13, 2019

Finding Maya on the floor through the gaps of the door, Maya's mother came running,

"Wake up, Maya, wake up. Why are you down? Did you fall?" Maya's mom repeated,

Maya, trying her best to open her eyes, shouted, "I can't see! I can't see anything!"

With an instant cold shower, Maya regained her sight and senses, but she was running a slight fever.

But then Maya's mom noticed a blood oozing from Maya's feet and asked, "What is this? A ladybug?"

Maya looked at the jar, and it was empty.

Shocked, Maya's mom checked her body and shouted,

"Why didn't you say?"

"It was not such a big deal!" Maya replied,

"Was there anything else you noticed?" Maya's Mother questioned,

A delay and a hesitation to respond, Maya looked at her mother with tears rolling down her face.

"Oh! My child, I am sorry. I am so sorry. I didn't mention it earlier. You were having your exams, and I didn't want to scare you. Also, you were going to be here for one month, and I didn't want to spoil your summer vacation plans by hearing such bad news." Maya's mom hugged her tightly,

Settling down over a cup of iced chocolate milkshake,

"What is it, Mother? What happened? " Maya patiently approached,

Maya's mother narrated with a worried face,

"The ladybug is everywhere, all over our neighborhood. You will see a bunch, especially at night. The neighbor lady next door jumped into the well one month ago. Now, we don't fetch water from their well."

Maya's mom continued in a mellow voice,

"She was under depression and was locked due to mental instability. Police said it was around 3 AM and 7 minutes of struggle. But there was no sound, just pin-drop silence, no one heard anything, not even a single sound of water splashing. "

Maya was anxious and curious to know more, but was cut short by her mother,

"You haven't even met her once, so it felt okay to skip it and share when the topic comes. But when the police had recovered her body and removed the clothing for further procedures, she had a jar filled with dead ladybugs. She used to spend hours in her garden. She loved ladybugs, it seemed. We didn't even know her garden was filled with ladybugs, and did you know it flies?" Mom stated,

Maya's mother went on, as if she had been eagerly waiting to unleash the stories that were circulating.

"So people had been seeing ladybugs a lot more than usual. Some had to call pest control. And that friend of yours, too, had to evacuate for a week for the same reason."

"What was her name? " Maya's mom asked.

"She is not my friend anymore," Maya said, and slowly slipped into her room, closing the doors behind her. She cried and cried, with doubts and guessing the tales of truth.

For the whole day, Maya kept herself inside her room, waiting at the window to see if anyone visited the neighbor's house, but no one came by. The night was silent and asleep.

3.10 AM, Saturday, June 14, 2019

Maya woke up with an alarm and wrote in her diary,

"I am sorry, I knew but never helped. I walked away from my friend, who was waiting at the clinic that day, when I saw your husband. The so-called our neighbor uncle who couldn't control his groin itch or couldn't keep his di*k inside his zip, a sight from across the window. I walked away and never turned back."

This time, Maya slept through the night with a dim light on and woke up in the morning to go for her first driving practice. And as Maya turned around the corner of the house street, she saw him, the uncle, speaking to a teenager, gazing, and wearing a creepy smile as she drove. There was no sign of remorse, but something struck her mind with his sneeze. His trademark, sneezing 3 times, all-time pollen allergy.

After that for a few days, Maya didn't step out and stayed indoors as much as possible, didn't complete her driving sessions, slept beside her mother, and began reading books that explored dark myths, revenge, thrillers, mysteries, and rebirths—something unexpected she picked up during her summer vacation: the reading habit.

She started to keep an eye on the uncle from behind the curtains and noticed that the count of sneezes had doubled and grown louder, as if he was nearing to his death. The struggle started to be visible on his body, and Maya could hear everyone gossiping, "When it's the wife who dies first, the husband leaves soon, they say!"

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Like a promise for a new start with a new week,

On a Sunday late night, Maya decided to put an end.

She took her diary and penned,

"And I know you were there right behind the pillar, staring from the corner of your eye from the bus stand. The ladybug sticker strikes a chord. The pride in celebrating 18 years of love for the Ladybug Garden was well executed to end his itch. I saw you and never uttered a word, is the truth."

Maya felt free, as if released from a hold, as she gazed at the truck loading water from the overwhelming well to distribute it to the apartment complex in the city.

Maya knew, and her insight wasn't wrong.

"Time to move on," A whisper,

And Maya was free.