They circled the open well lazily, no discernible pattern–about twenty of them–five feet off the ground. You could feel that something was about to happen.
Then they shot up in a linear swarm and turned suddenly at the leader’s chosen zenith to arc straight-down, still in formation, toward the well and its unseen nadir. I watched them disappear into its depthless darkness at top speed and wondered at their inexplicable, soundless, frenzied ends. Not a single bird emerged again.