#Book 1 - Page 32 (1/2)

The teeth glinted at me.

“Where’s Dex?” I asked, my voice warbling. I swallowed hard. “Who are you?”

“I am the lighthouse keeper,” the man replied. Again, the voice came from inside my head and the teeth did not move. “You are trespa.s.sing on my property.”

“I’m sorry,” I managed to say, “but this lighthouse has been in the property of Alberto Palomino for many years now. I’m afraid you are on his property.”

I don’t know where I got the b.a.l.l.s to say that and I immediately regretted the decision.

Before I knew what was going on, the man stood up so fast that he knocked the chair back from under him. It landed on the floor with a deafening clatter that enveloped my ears.

In a flash, dark strands of kelp flew out of the man’s sleeves—for he had no hands—and wrapped their sticky, pulsing ropes around my neck. I reached up at them with my hands to pull them away, but before I could get a grip, they tightened around my larynx and I was yanked forward at a startling speed.

Unable to breathe or move, I was thrust face-first into the lighthouse keeper. I was inches away from the black void of his hood and as he spun me around and slammed the back of my head hard against the gla.s.s window, I caught a glimpse of his face in the pa.s.sing beam of the light.

It was the one in my nightmares. Its skinless, p.u.s.s.ing purple mealy surface was so close I could see the tiny broken veins that snaked along top of his shattered nose. Amazing the things you notice when you’re on the verge of death.

The kelp pulled tighter and I felt my body growing limp. I couldn’t feel the ground beneath my feet as they dangled helplessly. He pulled me closer to his face again; his jagged mouth, which reminded me of an old dog’s, with his black puffy gums and misshapen fangs, was open and I shut my eyes, fearing I was about to lose half of my face to it.

Instead, he paused and I was soon moving backwards again. I braced for impact as the back of my head cracked. I felt precise pain and the sharp tickle of gla.s.s as the window smashed and sprinkled down the back of my neck and coat. I felt rain and wind on my face as the window gave away behind me to the night sky. I opened my eyes and saw the moon as it peered out from behind a cloud.

The moon was on its nightly orbit across the earth. I found a soothing comfort in that. It was so soothing I almost didn’t notice I couldn’t breathe anymore and that everything on the sides of my vision was growing black. Was this it? Was this to be my death? To be thrown out of a lighthouse by a dead man?

With the last ounce of strength I had it was tempting to laugh at the absurdity of it all. It was also so tempting to just let go. The waves crashed bleakly on the cliff below and I had no problems joining them.

The blackness almost enveloped the moon now. My eyes were closing.

And then I heard something amongst the cras.h.i.+ng waves, the shattering gla.s.s, the wind, and the grunts of the lighthouse keeper who still had his slick strands along my neck. It was Dex.

He was calling my name.

“Perry! Perry!”

It floated up on the breeze and filled my ears and brought me back to life.

Instead of laughing, I took that last bit of strength and kicked up with my legs. I felt the satisfying crunch of a broken jawbone as my right foot connected with Roddy’s face and felt him fall back under the impact.

I twisted myself forward from the waist and out of the window as the kelp fronds released my neck.

I landed on the floor and took in the biggest gulp of air possible. Roddy lay on the ground twitching. He yelped in pain and once again I found myself wondering if he was dead or alive. Either way, I wasn’t about to hang around to find out.

I staggered past him toward the staircase just as one of his kelp fronds flew out and almost grasped my leg. I leaped over the snaking strand and landed with a thud on the first landing below. My s.h.i.+ns felt shot, but I managed to keep going until I ran down a couple flights of stairs.

Far away from the dying light everything was black, but I could still sense I was on the floor with the desk.

“Dex!” I screamed. “Dex, where are you?”

I heard a thump from upstairs and a sick, sopping sound. I knew Roddy was crawling down the stairs with the wet kelp trailing behind him.

I ran down the stairs to the next level in a few leaps and screamed for Dex again.

“Perry! I’m in here!” I heard Dex’s m.u.f.fled cry to my left. I ran forward and hit the door to the room that we were in earlier. My feet were immediately wet.

With no other light available, I fumbled for my iPhone and shone it at the door. Water was pouring out from the bottom and flooding the hallway. The door handle jiggled as if being pulled from the other side. Dex had to be in there.

“Dex!” I pounded on the door.

“Perry, the door’s stuck. I think a pipe burst. It’s flooding in here, and fast!” he yelled from the other side.

I frantically pulled at the door but it didn’t budge. The sound of Roddy slowly coming down the stairs only added to the urgency.

“Dex, there is someone else in here with us. Roddy. He tried to kill me. You have to get out. There’s a window; you’ll have to jump out of it. I have to go down the stairs.”

“Don’t leave me in here!” I heard him scream, and my heart dropped a little. He was finally as terrified as I was and with good reason.

“I’m sorry, Dex, I can’t get in and we have to get out now!”

A THUMP, followed by a clatter.

I spun around and saw an oil lamp slowly coming down the stairs toward me. It slowed and curved as it rolled and the proceeded to crash down the rest of the stairs to the floor below. It landed around the corner with a smas.h.i.+ng sound and the tinkle of gla.s.s.

The staircase below me lit up, and within seconds hot flames licked the walls and made their way back up the stairs toward me.