The well

The Well

Suzanna was planning a trip. She had been planning and planning it for years, she had saved every penny for over a year. She had all kinds of financial denominations, 1 cent, 2 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, 20 cent, 50 cent, €1, €2, €5, €10, €20 and €50. There were only a couple €50’s but all of it added up. When she finally had about half she needed she decided to borrow against her savings to start to get a credit rating.

Suzy wanted to see the world. Her dream was to fly emirates but that Boeing 777-300 ER only went to Dubai. Obviously Australia would come next but Suzy wouldn't do well in the heat. Not only that though, she wasn't too enthusiastic as of what she could do there. They do have weird and wonderful animals but the sea has jelly fish and they have mosquitoes so Suzy said no, she wanted to go to the other side of the world – Canada.

There are so many options in Canada. Suzy's best friend lived in Calgary. That was appealing. Niagara falls and an amazing zoo with weird and wonderful animals were in Toronto also. She decided that she could stay with her friend and when she was at work Suzy could do day trips here and there. The northern lights are on Suzy's bucket list, so was Niagara falls.

Suzy had her little bag packed and her map was ready so she flew from Dublin to London and London to Calgary. It was more expensive to fly direct but the peace of mind that Suzy got knowing her bag would go from Dublin to Calgary without her having to pick it up wait for it in London was worth the extra money. If she had gone from Dublin to Toronto she would have to do immigration in Toronto and depending on the wind flying over the Atlantic the timing could be off with regards connecting flights. The Toronto flight was on a Boeing 757 anyway which has a 3 x 3 seating plan. It would be very uncomfortable.

The night before Suzy was supposed to fly out she got some bad news, her mother got sick. She was at a crossroads. Should she go away on her dream holiday or stay at home and nurse her mother. She had travel insurance so she wouldn't have lost any money and she cancelled the dream holiday. In the end she went and looked after her mother.

She was at a crossroads in her life. She decided to go on a country trip when her mother got better. She went to Connemara in Galway. It was the summer and the sun was splitting the stones during the day. She had to put a hat on so her head wouldn't burn. The cottage she rented was situated beside a wishing well. She was happy out until the night came and she started hearing weird noises.

She heard footsteps outside her bedroom. She thought to herself that it was just animals wandering around. She heard a wolf howling at the full moon. Things started getting creepy. The footsteps got louder and louder. Suzy walked out to the front of the house to see if she could see the wolf. She wrapped her cardigan around her and stepped out as far as the front wall. She saw the wolfs paw prints and was relieved. It looked as though that was what the footsteps were

Suzy went back into the cottage and sat in front of the wood burning fire. She got a fright, a man grabbed her from behind and put his hand over her mouth so she couldn't scream – not that anyone would have heard anyway the cottage was so out of the way, deep in the country. Suzy was petrified. He raped her…………………

As he was forcing himself on her she was looking around trying to see something she could use to get him off of her. She saw a shovel but she couldn't reach it. When he finished she grabbed the shovel and swung it against his head. He didn't know what hit him. She struck the heavy metal at his head again and again. She couldn't stop. As he was lying on the floor unconscious she was on her knees over him striking him over and over with her closed fist. Blood was splattered everywhere, and the more blows she threw the more blood flew in the air.

She stopped when she was just too exhausted to swing her arms anymore. She wept not grasping fully what had happened. She had her head in her hands hysterical. She looked on the ground. It was a sea of blood. It was obvious he was dead. He had broken bones protruding out of his face. She had done a right job on him.

What was she going to do with the body. Even if she rang the Garda it wasn't going to bode well for her. Suzy was frightened. Immediately she thought of the well.

Suzy wrapped the body in the soiled rug and dragged the body with difficulties through the living room and over the threshold of the front door. It's true what they say that the weight of someone is less than dead weight. He was just so heavy. A trail of blood followed the rug. It was streaky across the pale grey tile and followed her all the way across the road to the well

It took all of Suzy's strength to get this bastard to the well. The sweat was pouring off her. She was sore both physically and emotionally. She had just been raped, killed a man and was in the process of getting rid of the body. She was running on adrenaline. What happened next she can't account for.  She remembered lifting the body up and hearing a massive splash. It was the body, she had put it into the well.

As the adrenaline wore off Suzy passed out. When Suzy became conscious again she tried to make sense of it all. Yes she had been raped, yes she had beaten the rapist to death and yes she had thrown the body down a well. She shook. There was blood everywhere. She didn't know what to do.

Eventually she phoned the police. They were there within a few minutes. Suzy was shaking. They could see exactly what had happened. They had been looking for this guy for months. He was wanted in both Ireland and the U.K. For rape and then he would murder his victims. They said that for such a woman she did well to fight back and that she was lucky, if you could call it that

The police fished the body out of the well and Suzy wasn't punished. They were able to close 12 murder cases from his DNA.

Suzy needed extensive counselling afterwards but is doing well under the circumstances.