THE LIGHTHOUSE

She was walking alongside the shores when she heard a voice. But little did she know that it was her own conscience calling to her.

No…She gave the voice another listen, it wasn’t her delusion. It was from the lighthouse.

It was 6:00 pm. She was walking briskly with the dog’s leash in her hand. Toffy was playing by the little sand dunes. She took a quick look to make sure he hadn’t fled. Step by step, she walked through the sand toward the lighthouse. Amidst her neighbor’s warnings, she had to know for sure this time–that whatever kept her up for four nights was not her imagination.

She was not sure if she should go up the stairs when she arrived at the base of the lighthouse. Then she heard it again–the same screeching voice that made her lose sleep. It sounded like someone in excruciating pain, but not to the point where the authorities would become alarmed. Garnering full strength, she climbed up the stairs. She felt her heart was in her mouth when she reached the threshold. It looked like someone was inside the lighthouse as she could see the silhouette of a girl with long hair from outside. Mustering up more courage, she crossed the threshold and went inside. When she peered up from the steps, the lights were on, but it appears that it’s pitch black now. She turned on her phone’s flashlight and looked around for whatever had startled her. It was a small steel bowl with the letters ‘TOFFY’ labeled on its front.

“What’s Toffy’s bowl doing here?” She asked herself and bent down to pick it up. The instant she lifted it and the instant it struck the lighthouse’s wooden floor was somewhat overlapped. She was unable to even cast a second glance in the bowl’s direction. The first time itself was more of a horrific one. She could spot blood stains all over the steel bowl.

“Could it be…Is someone there?” She shouted in the dark.

“Hello? Is someone there?”- Her voice was trembling when she spoke in the dark.

All of a sudden, she heard a clapping sound from the back of her head. She turned around instantly and there was nobody there. She heard the same sound again, it came from behind her and was closer to her ears. When she turned around again, nobody was there.

“Hello? Is someone there?”–she knew she would get no reply, but she had to ask, for her own sake.

She went ahead in the dark, noticing a large object in the corner.

‘Is it a cupboard? No, it’s a…it’s a mirror!’.

She advanced forward. The mirror was large and had a wooden frame attached around its corners with some symbols marked along the sides. She couldn’t recognise the symbols written, but she could recognize what was written on the mirror in bold red letters-”YOU DID THIS!”

‘Was it blood? Was it the same blood which she saw in the steel bowl earlier? Was it…was it Toffy’s blood? Could it be….?’

With a shaking breath, she moved towards the mirror, it looked like it’s freshly written. If she told the others, no one would believe her. She needs to get enough evidence to substantiate her experience. She turned on her phone’s camera and tried to take a snap. But, it looks like it’s not showing up on the camera. The letters appear to have completely vanished. When she looked up to check in the mirror, she saw herself. She had long brown hair and was wearing a white frock. She was holding her phone in her right hand. But, the one she saw in the mirror, didn’t have a phone in her hand and blood was dripping from her palms.

‘Was it her blood or someone else’s?’ She thought to herself.

Suddenly, her flashlight went off, so she tried turning it on again. However, she was unable to do so since it really felt as though someone was breathing down her neck. She slowly turned and managed to switch on the flashlight again. And she thought she was going to die when she used it to see what was in front of her..The girl in the mirror was now face to face with her and was screaming at her. She looked just like her…only, her clothes were muddy, her hair was wet and her teeth were rotten with some black sludge. And blood was dripping down her right palm – the left palm had a small object which she was clutching to herself hard and blood was dripping from it too.

‘Was it…is it…It’s Toffy’s head!’ “NOOOOOOOOOOO!” She let out a loud cry and screamed, running straight for the door and not even looking back.

“Where..Where am I?” She opened her eyes just to see Liam at her bedside.

“Liam..What are you doing here?”

“Krystal, Thank God You are okay! How are you feeling now?”

“What? Why? Oh My God, Toffy..where is he? He..Was he hurt?”

“Krystal, please calm down and have a glass of water.”

“What? Where is Toffy? Please Liam, what happened to him?”

“Ok, Krystal, please hear what I have to say calmly. You were found unconscious at the base of the lighthouse and the life guards called me and asked for help. We found Toffy’s leash in your hand and we figured he might have run away or something. Do you remember what happened to him? Did he run away?”

“Oh My God, Liam, we have to go to the lighthouse..like right now!. He is there, or I think he is..please come with me to the lighthouse.”

“Krystal, I don’t think he went to the lighthouse. It was locked when we reached there. No way a tiny little pomeranian can go inside it unless he magically has the ability to open closed doors.”

“Liam, Please, it’s not the time for jokes. He is in trouble, I hope he is alive. And what do you mean the lighthouse is locked? I went there just now and I…”

“What? And then what? I cannot understand what you are saying right now. Unless you have the keys, you won’t be able to get into the lighthouse.”

“You don’t believe me? Okay, let’s go there right now. Liam, I told you something was not right at the lighthouse. I used to hear all these screeching voices from inside it and I went on to check it.

And someone..some girl that looked like me attacked Toffy and me. I swear to you, this is what happened. Can we please go and take a look?”

“Ok, Ok, tell you what, My shift ends at 9.00 pm. Maybe we can take a look then? I have a copy of the master keys to the lighthouse so that we can check to see if what you’re saying is true. In the meantime, I will keep an eye out for Toffy also. The poor thing wouldn’t have gone far.”

“Ok Liam, thank you. I hope he’s safe.”

“Krystal, I remember you telling me that he always does this, right? Goes out on his own and comes back by the end of the day? I’m sure he will turn up at your doorstep eventually.”

“Hope so. I’m sorry for the trouble”.

“No problem, See ya. Call me if you need any help or if Toffy turns up.”

She nodded slightly but she knew Toffy might not turn up soon if she waited till 9.00 pm.

After Liam left for his shift, Krystal decided to take matters into her own hands. This time she was prepared. She charged her phone in full and and chose to pack a flashlight, knife, and a pepper spray in her purse.

At around 8:00, when the coast guards left their station, she ran towards the lighthouse and entered inside. Fortunately, light was present. Turning on her flashlight, she started peering inside the lighthouse.There were cobwebs everywhere and dust was scattered here and there. It’s as if authorities are not interested in preserving the town’s lighthouse at all.

She went through the nook and corner of the lighthouse to find any clues, but all of them were in vain. The mirror which she saw before was spotless without even an ounce of blood. She couldn’t even find Toffy’s little steel bowl. All she could find were some paintings and some old journals possibly belonging to the town’s founders. Suddenly she heard footsteps outside the door. She took the knife out and hid behind the mirror, fully prepared for any attack. It was a man, he slowly entered inside and shut the door behind him. Krystal panicked and dropped the knife onto the floor.

“Krystal? I know you are in there”, the man shouted.

She picked up the knife and ran towards the man.

“Jesus, Krystal, It’s me!”

“Liam? What are you doing here? You said you weren’t free until 9.00.”

“Well, I had to come, since you don’t even value anything I have to say. I saw you going up the stairs and I thought to myself, ‘You couldn’t even wait for like 2 hours’.

“Liam, Toffy is my baby and my everything. It’s not a joke to me. It will be too late if we wait till 9.00.”

“Okay, okay, I don’t want to argue with you further. Have you found any clues so far?”

“No, nothing. This place wasn’t like this. I swear, I experienced some unusual things here.

“Ok, then let’s look for the clues together”.

Both of them began searching the entire lighthouse for any clues as to what might have happened to Toffy or a possible explanation for Krystal’s horrific experiences.

“Krystal, I found something here. Looks like it’s a trunk.”

“And it hasn’t got a lock. Can you try opening it?”

Liam opened the trunk. It was a large wooden trunk filled with some ragged stuff.

He took out the pink music box kept at the top of the trunk. The outside was covered in dust. But as soon as it was opened, Beethoven’s symphony began to play, accompanied by an engraved ballerina dancing.

“Liam, I’m telling you, This place gives me the creeps. Eddie Rogers from next door warned me about this place. He was always telling me that this lighthouse has been haunted since the day I moved here.”

“Did you seriously listen to your neighbor, that crazy old Mr. Rogers? You know he always says stuff like this.”

“Liam, Please believe me. You know that mirror over there, it had….

Suddenly, Liam’s phone rang.

“Ok, sorry Krystal, I got to take this. I forgot to return my mother’s call yesterday. There’s no reception here. It will just be a moment. Stay here.”

“Yeah. I will look for some more clues.”

Liam left the door open and stepped outside the lighthouse.

Krystal was starting to feel worried when she noticed something. The wallpaper of the room was starting to come off and it looked like something was written beneath it. She started to peel off the wallpaper slowly when she found that those weren’t mere letters. It started with a bold “K” in red letters and she was baffled when she saw the full words. She began to peel off more and more until the words that followed almost made her unconscious.

“KRYSTAL BENNETT

BORN 12 July, 1995

DIED 30 Jan, 2023”

“What? Oh My God!”

Suddenly she felt as if the entire room was cold and breezy. It was like a walk-in-freezer. Krystal stepped back, shocked, and attempted to shout Liam’s name. But it was like she couldn’t get out her own voice. She felt this eerie presence over her, above her, on her sides…she couldn’t even move. She could hear something dripping from above her, but she didn’t have the courage to look up. She tried to aim the flashlight’s beam towards the ceiling as she felt something was moving back and forth. She looked upward and flashed the light at the ceiling. Suddenly, she could feel something grabbing her shoulders. Or was it someone?

She couldn’t even believe what was in front of her eyes. It was the girl she saw earlier…but this time her neck was bent…like something hurt her…It was as if she was neckless. The girl had her exact eyes, nose and her long brown hair. It was not some girl, it was her itself!

The girl’s neck was partially bent towards the left side and she could hear her screaming. It was the exact same scream that she heard over the past few days, but this time more louder than ever. She was able to feel the girl touching her shoulders. She had to do something. Only thing she could find was the knife she carried with her. She could just make a swing at her, if lucky, maybe even target her neck. But can her knife really injure this girl, as she believed? She had to give it a shot.

Closing her eyes, she grabbed the knife quickly from her bag and bludgeoned the girl’s neck with it. She couldn’t count how many times she stabbed her, but when she opened her eyes, she saw that her knife had turned bloody. She collapsed to the floor with a shaking breath on seeing who was lying in front of her covered in blood.

“LIAM!!! Oh My God, Liam, I’m…I’m so sorry. Liam, Please forgive me, I swear, I didn’t want to hurt you. I didn’t do this. She made me do this. I’m sorry….I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry…I’m sorry Liam.”

Krystal woke up from her dream with a shattering breath. She opened her eyes to see chains wound at her both legs and they were bolted to the bed.

“Krystal, you are awake, you know, you dozed off all of a sudden during our session.”

“Liam…Liam, you..I thought I hurt you…what are you doing here?”

“It’s Dr. Kane for you and we were talking about you going into the lighthouse. And then you just stared at me blankly and then drifted off to sleep.”

“What? I can’t understand anything. What about Toffee and the girl in the lighthouse?”

“Well, we were talking about them and I would like to hear more about what’s going on in your mind.”

“My mind…what? Liam, what am I doing here? And, why I’m I chained to the bed? Why…?”

Krystal began crying without understanding what was going on.

Looking around, she saw she was in a room with a white wall covering. She saw a pink music box at her bedside table. She couldn’t stop staring at it.

“Do you want me to play it? I know It always calms you down.”

Liam opened the music box and the ballerina started dancing to Beethoven’s symphony.

She stopped crying and looked around. She could hear continuous chatter from outside. It’s as if she was in a different world.

“Dr. Kane, It’s time for her dose, she probably has no memory of her earlier conversations. It’s also time for you to get in on a session with the patient next door.”

“Okay, Rogers, let’s keep the dose as it is. Anyway, she changes her story every single time. To get into her mind, we might need to step up our game.”

“I’m sure if anyone can, it’s you, Dr. Kane.”

“Krystal, it’s time for me to go. Our next session is scheduled for the day after tomorrow, same time. I hope I get to know what happened to Toffee and the girl in the lighthouse then. Goodbye.”

Krystal saw Liam leaving the room with a smile on his face.

She saw the orderly approaching her with an injection. She read his name tag – “Eddie Rogers”. As in… the crazy Mr. Rogers?

Tears were dripping down her eyes as she laid on her bed again.

Eddie took out a small bottle from his pocket and filled the syringe with it and injected it into her left arm. She wanted to resist, but she knew there’s no point.

While being injected with medicine, she saw the painting that was hung on the wall in front of her. It was that of a lighthouse. Was the lighthouse a beacon of hope for her or her worst nightmare?

Not knowing the answer, she began dozing off, her eyelids closing slowly and she drifted off into another sleep.