Chapter Three
1020 Words
The flames spat in the hearth, sending flickering golden light dancing against the stone walls. The wind outside howled, causing the old wooden beams to rattle.
Selene sat rigidly in the dark room, her fingers wrapped tightly around the old leather journal she had discovered. Her knuckles were white with pressure.
She gazed at the name scrawled in ink. Faded. Old. But legible.
Caius Merrow.
Date of Death: October 13, 1842.
Her breath was caught.
The words merged into one another as she read them over again, her head refusing to process what she saw. She hadn't misread it. This wasn't a misprint.
She raised her eyes. Caius sat mere feet away from her.
The dancing light of the fire illuminated his wet skin, his dark hair wet from the sea. He sat there in silence, watching the fire, his face impossible to read.
A dead man.
Sitting in her living room.
Selene's breast constricted, her racing heartbeat pounding in her ears.
She had been on the hunt for blankets, rummaging through a dusty old wooden chest in the rear of the house when she stumbled upon the journal. She hadn't been searching for the past, but the past had discovered her.
She flipped the pages gently, her hands shaking as she read the entries.
---
๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ช๐จ๐ ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ง'๐จ ๐
๐ค๐ช๐ง๐ฃ๐๐ก :
September 1842.
The boy washed up on the shore after the storm. He would have drowned, but he did not. I do not know how.
He does not remember where he was from. The sea has hold of him.
Selene's eyes flickered to Caius, her heart racing. The sea has hold of him.
Her knuckles whitened on the corners of the page as she read on.
October 1842.
He can hear them in the night. The voices. The whispers.
The sea beckons him back. It won't allow him to remain.
Selene gulped hard, turning the next page.
The writing had shifted. The words were rushed, almost desperate.
He's gone.
The sea has claimed him back.
---
Selene breathed shakily, shutting the journal. Her fingers were ice-cold despite the heat of the fire.
She raised her eyes once more. Caius was gazing at her.
The dancing candlelight etched shadows across his sharp face, his storm-dark eyes fixed on hers.
Selene's throat was parched. "You." The words were barely whispered. "You're dead."
Caius didn't even blink.
"You think I don't know that?"
Her fists curled around the leather cover of the journal.
"How are you here?" She spoke this time in a steady voice.
Caius drew in a slow breath, his jaw clenching.
"I don't know."
Selene's nails scrabbled at the book. "Don't lie to me."
"I'm not." His words were soft, but insistent. "I remember drowning. I remember the cold. The dark. And then."
He paused.
His eyes flashed at her.
"You."
Selene's breath caught.
She retreated a step, her head shaking. "That doesn't make sense."
"I know." His voice was gentler now. "But it's the only thing I remember."
The fire snapped sharply, the flames dancing, casting moving shadows against the walls.
And thenโ
A blast of wind crashed against the windows.
The shutters crashed against the walls of stone, the glass rattling in the frame.
Selene winced. Caius leaped to his feet.
His form stiffened, his head whirling toward the window.
Selene looked as well.
The wind shrieked outside, but the atmosphere within the house had shifted.
Thickened. Weighted. Chilled.
And thenโ
A sound from the corridor.
A cautious, measured groan of wood.
Selene's gut lurched.
She turned toward the doorway, her heart pounding in her ribs.
Another creak.
Footsteps.
Not hers. Not his.
There was someone else in the house.
---
Caius stepped slowly towards the doorway. His movements were guarded, measured. Like an animal that sensed the presence of a predator close by.
Selene caught his arm before she could stop herself. He was cold as ice.
"Don't," she whispered.
Caius paused. "You hear it too."
Selene tried to nod.
Yes.
She did.
The wooden beams creaked, the walls groaned, the shutters clattered.
And thenโ
The whisper came again.
Not from outside.
Not from the hallway.
From behind her.
Selene's breath caught.
The room went ice-cold.
Something was in the room with them.
---
The candle flames danced wildly, reaching unnaturally tall before being extinguished completely.
Darkness engulfed the room.
Selene took a step back, her heart a frantic hammer against her ribs. "Caiusโ"
A high, sharp sound echoed through the house. A piercing, screeching sound, like metal on metal.
Selene slapped her hands over her ears, agony lancing through her head. "What is that?!"
Caius took hold of her wrist. "The lighthouse."
Her gasp caught.
The lighthouse?
But that was impossible.
It had stood empty for decades.
Another booming creak shook the house. The scuff of something moving.
Something heading in their direction.
Selene hardly had a moment to register before Caius took her hand and yanked her toward the door. "We have to get out. Now."
She didn't protest.
The instant they entered the hallway, the air became heavy and oppressive.
Selene gasped. It was as if something was pressing against her chest. As if the house itself did not wish them to depart.
"Move on," Caius encouraged.
They staggered along the corridor, through doors that should have been closed, through rooms where shadows appeared to move and twist in the corners.
The front door was in sight.
Selene grasped for the handleโ
And it slammed shut by itself.
Her breath came in quick gasps. "It doesn't want us to leave."
Caius swore under his breath. "Then we go out the other way."
The only other way out.
The cliffs.
The lighthouse.
The wind screamed at the house, shaking it to its very foundations.
And through the gale, the whisper came againโthis time louder.
"Come back."
---
Somewhere Beyond the Shore.
The lighthouse creaked, its very old gears laboring against rusty metal.
Its golden ray swept over the cliffs.
The waves below rushed forward, restive, hungry.
The ocean was no longer pleading.
It was demanding.
---
- Writer
