Jane took off her socks and put them on top
of the heating. She had no idea the lighthouse had radiators in all its rooms
but it really came in handy that that was the case. She also took off her pants
and shirt and decided to stay only in her underwear, lying on top of her
jacket. The storm outside did not seem to subside, if anything it was getting
worse by the minute. The rain was so strong that almost nothing could be seen,
except when the light from the tower passed over it and revealed. But even then,
it was just the pissed off sea and the razor sharp rocks that had been the
whole reason to built a lighthouse there.
For many years, the tower had been managed by
a human, a man that stayed there several months and then was replaced and had
to come back again later on that year and so on. But rather recently, that had
ended with the modernization of the tower and the installation of an automated
system. That was the reason why Jane had been forced to kick the door several
times until the old cement caved in to her efforts and the door flung open.
The machines and computers that controlled the
tower now occupied most of the space but there were still spaces to be used by
people, possibly for tourism or by the person that had to come and fix the
system in the case of any failure or something like that. It all looked so new
and clean, except for the ground level that was slowly flooding due to the
storm. Jane had found an old folding chair and had used it to prevent the door
from opening as she had broken it when entering.
She had been walking for days along the
national park that surrounded the lighthouse so Jane knew exactly where she was
or at least she had realized it when she found the tower when the rain started
to get really dangerous. All the time she had been walking in that place, she
had thought that animals were the ones to be careful about but it wasn’t the
case. The storm had scared them all off and she was the only living being
stupid enough not to take shelter when in had been obvious for many hours than
the storm was going to arrive to the coast.
Deciding to check for food, Jane realized she
didn’t really have much food on her backpack. At first, she had a lot of
provisions she had brought from home like dried fruit and things like that but
now her rations were very low and had nothing to calm her stomach, which was
growling like a wounded wolf. She decided to go down to the middle level of the
tower and check out a kind of deposit there was there. No idea why, but the
door was opened so she had free reign to check everything out. There were
cleaning products, paper, some tools to fix things, a big bag of sand (for some
reason) and, finally, a survival kit that she opened in haste.
The kit was a very complete and Jane made a
mental note to thank the people that managed the lighthouses when arriving to
society. It had flares, a flashlight, more tools but also some beef jerky and juices
in bags and candy. It wasn’t the most nutritious meal ever but Jane guessed it
had been put there in the case of an accident or something. It wasn’t really to
survive on for more than a week so Jane knew it was perfect for her as she
believed she was only staying for one night.
She went back to the top floor with the whole
kit and started to eat as she sat down again on her jacket. But realizing the
floor was too cold, she decided to stand by the heating and look outside, in
order no to get bored and maybe getting sleepy. She ate the beef jerky slowly:
it was very hard to chew on it and had to yank pieces of one by one, so it took
time to finish a single portion, which was good in order no to ran out of it.
Then she gasped and almost dropped her meal.
She raised her head and looked outside, sure she had seen something when the
light of the tower had hit it. But there was nothing, only water falling from
the sky and the water from the ocean that was very violent. Aside from that,
only the rocks and none of them had the shape of what she had seen.
Jane sat down again and realized it was
impossible that a person would be outside the tower as the storm was very
violent. And who she had seen did not seem like a normal person, it was like a
very pale person, almost like the way people have painted ghosts over the
centuries. The more she analyzed it all; she realized it was really silly. She
had been silly to think about someone been out there and it had possibly being
the light playing ticks on her tired mind.
She decided to look in the kit again and she
found one of those blankets that keeps you warm without electricity (the one
use by paramedics). She just used that as her blanket lying on her jacket and
used her hands as a pillow. Before that, she had turned off the light on the
top floor of the tower and everything was now in darkness.
Her eyes closed and then open and then closed
only to open again a few seconds later. The light of the tower annoyed her but
that really wasn’t the reason why she couldn’t sleep. Jane was, for the first
time since she had begun her adventure, very scared. She didn’t mind the heat
outside or sleeping in a tent or even the bugs. But there was something deep
inside her telling her than there was something weird about that tower and,
furthermore, that what she saw had not been an optical illusion of some kind.
Then, she heard knocking. The sound was weak
but it was clear it was coming from below. Jane’s mind raced, thinking if maybe
there really was someone in need out there or if there was really such a thing
as ghosts or spirits. But for that last one, she had to punish herself in her
mind: it was ridiculous that a grown woman than had learned a few things in
life was now thinking there could be a ghost outside her door. It was
preposterous and simply stupid.
So she closed her eyes but the sound coming
from the ground floor didn’t really help her relax in order to sleep. Trying to
be logical, she concluded that the sound had to be because she hadn’t put the
chair in the perfect angle to really close the door. So the wind was banging on
it and everything was shaky and moving. So she decided to stand up and go down
the stairs in the dark, with the flashlight, in order to fix that sound that
could make her crazy if she didn’t do something about it.
Barefoot as she was, she realized the ground
floor was flood when she put her feet on the cold water. It reached ankles. She
walked to the door and realized she had been correct in her conclusion. The
door kept getting opened and closed and it was all because the fair was not
good enough to keep it shut and the water out. So she tried to find something
she could put on the handle of the door in order to close it for good.
She had started walking towards the stairs in
order to go up again and look for something or at least some told to help her,
when the door flung open and the wind entered messing her hair and everything.
Water also came in, making her fall to the ground, hurting her knee. She
reached for the door and tried to close it but the door wouldn’t move and the
wind was too strong for her. She pushed and pulled and did everything she
could, but everything coming in from the storm was making her weaker and weaker
by the second.
It was then when, once again, she saw it
outside. But this time she was sure she had seen it because it hadn’t been for
a fraction of a second. This time, she had felt time get frozen and her eyes
been able to detail every single part of the creature’s complexion. It was
taller than her, very pale and with a larger mouth than any human she knew. Its
feet and hands were very large and it watched her, very attentively. She
noticed it had no pupils and that its eyes were very white too.
But that lasted a minute or so. In the next
moment, the wind subsided for a second, which Jane used to push harder and
close the door with a loud sound. There was no need to look for something to
lock it with because the door had closed so violently it had become jammed in
its place. Nevertheless, Jane stayed there for a long while, only breathing.
The next day, the storm disappeared. The
weather outside was perfect, with bird singing and everything. After the door
had closed, she had remained there for a while but she eventually found her way
to the top and had some sleep. It took her a long while to open the door again
and she did it fell of its hinges and into the flooded floor. Jane just went
out and started walking along the coast, looking at the sea and how the storm
was now there, again.
And she thought of the creature but even now
she doubted its existence. Maybe the monster was inside her and she had just
seen it in a dire moment.
