#Book 1 - Page 33 (1/2)

I also knew I couldn’t leave just yet.

Though he was completely across the room, I had no doubt his kelp tentacles could easily ensnare me again with a flick of his wrists. No one would save me this time. I had to know how this was going to end.

“Why me?” I asked. “Why did you start coming for me? In my dreams, to this place. What do you want!?” I shouted over the roar of the flames.

He grinned, white teeth against the black void. “I was told you would listen.”

“Who told you?” I barked as the fire came closer. I could hear Dex yelling for me to jump from outside.

“She told me you would listen and that you would come. That you’d help me. That you’d free me. I’ve been so lonely. I’ve been waiting for someone like you.”

His head lowered as if he was genuinely sad. I felt nothing for him.

“You’ll have to keep waiting,” I said, determination rising in my voice.

He looked up with a sneer and the kelp came flying my way.

With less than a second to react, I jumped up on the window and launched myself off the building.

I was going to land to the left of Dex and for a second it looked like a group of bushes might break my fall, but that wasn’t the case. I managed to get in landing position in mid-air and then go limp as my legs, knees bent, slammed into the ground. Thankfully, the gra.s.s was wet and soft, and I was able to propel myself off of it and go into a low roll.

I rolled for two revolutions before I sprang up to my feet again. I looked behind me and saw the cliff end less than a meter away.

Dex, who had been yelling this whole time, ran over and grabbed my arm.

“Are you OK?” he asked frantically.

I was OK, so far. I looked up at the porthole to see Old Roddy’s shadow standing there, looking down on us. The flames now had completely taken over the room and were licking at the edges of his raincoat.

“Do you see him?” I whispered to Dex, not taking my eyes off of the horrific sight.

“Yes, I do,” Dex replied quietly and to my relief.

As flames engulfed Old Roddy, he extended his arm out of the window and pointed at the sea, just as he had in my dreams.

I turned to look. There was nothing there except the steady, beaming swirl of the Tillamook Lighthouse doing her duty off sh.o.r.e.

I looked back up and saw him slowly disintegrate into the fire.

Dex turned to me. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

He grabbed my hand and scampered over to the nearby bushes. He reached in and pulled out his camera. He must have tossed it outside before jumping out of the window. The bulb for the light had broken, but other than that it looked like his gamble turned out OK.

With the camera safely tucked under his arm, we were off and running northward, skirting around the lighthouse as far away as we could. The sound of sirens began to fill the air in the distance and the severity of the situation hit me. Uncle Al’s lighthouse would burn to the ground because of us. How the h.e.l.l were we ever going to explain this?

We slipped and slid down the cliff and made it to the dunes when a large explosion threw both Dex and me into the sand. Instinctively, I covered my neck with my hands as small pieces of debris rained down.

We lay there for a minute. I could feel Dex on the wet, crunchy sand beside me and heard him move, obviously alive.

When I saw the fragments of the blown lighthouse had stopped falling, I lifted up my head and looked at him. He was covering his head with his camera, which was surely embedded with deep grains of sand now. From my shattered lens last week to his scratched-up camera today, this place was not audio/visual friendly.

“Are you OK?” I asked. I tapped him with my hand.

He rolled over on his back, groaning and wincing, with his eyes shut in discomfort.

“Where did you learn to roll like that?” he muttered, his voice low and broken.

“What?” I asked, spitting out sand.

He opened his eyes wide, as the flames from the explosion danced in his dark pupils.

I rolled over on my back, lying beside him, and watched the night sky as the flames from the lighthouse danced high into the darkness. The rain stopped. You could hear the crackling flames and sirens that were still far enough away.

We lay there, watching the light show while catching our breath.

Finally, Dex replied. “When you jumped out of the window. And when it exploded I was ready to cover you, but you had already propelled yourself across the gra.s.s and were all in protective ninja mode or something.”

“I’ve...taken some cla.s.ses,” I answered breathlessly.

“Uh huh,” he gasped and took in a deep breath.

I rolled over and looked at him. He rolled his head to his side and looked at me. I found myself speechless. I honestly couldn’t even get over the fact that we were alive.

He slowly nodded. He looked sleepy, but I saw the understanding beneath his drooping lids. I felt like I could just stare at him and he would just know everything I was thinking.

He reached over and grabbed my hand. He squeezed it and held it in the air above us, about as victorious a gesture as either of us could manage.

I gave him a small smile.