The storm was heavy outside. Its fury threatened to pull down the stones of the lighthouse. Its winds howling fiercely as if to announce its powerful presence. But deep within the warm quarters of the towering, lonely building was Elijah, the keeper of the lighthouse.
The lantern above the lighthouse shook loudly, flickering in the heavy storm. Then, all of a sudden, it died, putting the whole lighthouse into deep darkness.
Elijah grunted and picked up his little bedside lantern, and made his way up the circular stairs, to the room that held the lantern.
"Oh, not now", he muttered on getting to the lantern. Shattered glasses from the broken lantern lay on the floor.
He thought of how he would be able to get to repair the lantern that night, and when he found out it was impossible. He decided to leave it. The chilly cold from the storm crept up his body, he felt a strange presence beside him.
"Who's there?" He asked, swiping his lantern, but he was alone.
Out of fear, he descended back to his quarters. But with every step he took, he felt unease as each sound became more dreadful and the silence felt heavy.
Just at the door of his quarters, he found the old log book belonging to the old keeper dated 30 years ago which he was sure was stashed away open and on the floor
"Trust the light, for they're in the shadows" it read.
Apart from the stashed away book being open in his doorway, Elijah tried not to read the meanings of the weird happenings that night. It blamed it on the storm.
He quickly put the book away, but as the night wore on, the strange noises increased. He could hear whispers seeping through the walls. His heart raced. It was a cold night but he was sweating. He tried staying calm but his body betrayed him.
Suddenly, the door creaked open, and his lantern went off. Elijah turned, and in the dead of the night, he could see a figure standing at the door shrouded in shadow. He tried turning in his lantern but it wasn't coming on.
The shadow moved slowly towards him. Elijah screamed and shut his eyes. By the time he opened it, the shadow had disappeared into the walls of the lighthouse.
Elijah fell on the floor, his head throbbing. His loud breath pierced the dead silence that engulfed the room. He thought of what to do.
"The logbook", he muttered with a shaky breath.
Picking it up from where he dropped it, he flipped through its pages, searching for a clue to what was going on. He stumbled on a page about strange occurrences in the lighthouse.
The lighthouse must have been a beacon for old sailors but it also housed the souls of captured prisoners who had perished in the four walls of the tiny prison in the lighthouse.
By now shadows were moving on their own in the stone walls of the lighthouse.
He kept flipping through the pages of the logbook: "There has to be a solution", and just on the last page, written in red ink, was the solution.
"Rebuild the light. Banish the shadows."
With renewed determination, he ran back to the lantern room. Bit by bit, he reassembled the broken lens of the lantern, its sharp edges cutting through his fingers, but he didn't care. He trembled and shivered as he worked in the darkness and the cold wind.
Finally, he placed the lens back in place and switched the cut on. The light flickered and turned on, cutting through the dead of the night.
Immediately, the shadows recoiled back, and the silent whist ceased.
He took a deep breath and slumped to the ground.
