101 Paranormal Writing Prompts Volume 2- written by J. Dodson
Writing Prompt # 7- The Lighthouse
Chapter 3
Two weeks have gone by and Charles has kept the lighthouse up and running perfectly. Every night, the light shines bright and the ships pass, honking their thanks to the new lighthouse keeper. Indy and Annibel start school while their mother gets a teaching job at a close-by Preschool. Charles took up a part-time job at the local library even though he knew that he didn’t have to since he is getting paid well as the lighthouse keeper but he wants to have a job outside of the lighthouse. He only works for a few hours in the afternoon since he stays up at night and sleeps several hours in the morning. But he can’t sit still so he got another job and loves it.
The cat had disappeared after the first day the family arrived but the family can hear the cat meowing from time to time. Annibel looks for the cat from time to time but always came back empty-handed and pouting, asking why she can’t find the cat. Indy continues to feel like someone is watching her but she finds no one so she keeps it to herself. She doesn’t want to scare her little sister with ghost stories that she doesn’t even know if they are true or not. She went to the local high school, hanging out with a few friends while there, did her homework, and did chores around the place to help out like making dinner or sweeping the floors. She also watched her sister whenever her parents wanted to get away during the weekend. She didn’t mind since she loves hanging with her little sister.
One sunny Saturday, Indy and Annibel waves to their parents as they drive off to do a little shopping with one another. Indy tells Annibel to hide for their daily game of hide-and-go-seek and laughs as she watches her sister skip off into the house to hide. Indy begins to count loudly so Annibel can hear her as she closes the front door and stares at it until she finishes counting to 10.
“10… ready or not, here I come,” She yells, so that Annibel knew that she better be hidden because she is starting to look for her.
Indy turns away from the door and comes face to face with a tall man dressed in rain gear and while white hair sticking out from under the rain hat. His misty eyes stare back into her own gray eyes, studying her for a moment. Indy opens her mouth to scream but nothing emerges from her. The man shakes his head and lifts a finger to his mouth to tell her to stay quiet. Indy steps back, pressing her back up against the door, her eyes never leaving the old man. How did he get in the house? Who is he? Without a word, the man turns and walks away slowly, dissolving into the sunlight that is streaming through one of the windows. Indy doesn’t move for several minutes, waiting to see if the man will reappear in front of her but he doesn’t.
Finally able to breathe again, not having realized that she was actually holding it for a bit, Indy takes off for the back of the house. She begins to look for her little sister, opening up cabinets and closets, trying to see if Annibel is hiding in the dark corners. She looks under the beds and even behind the doors but she can’t find Annibel anywhere. She stops in front of the closed door that leads into the lighthouse itself but dismisses the thought that Annibel had gone in there since it is against one of their dad’s rules. Plus the door is always locked with the key up where Annibel can’t reach it so Indy knew that Annibel couldn’t be in there. Shaking her head, Indy goes to turn away, but the man appears beside the door.
Indy stops in her tracks while the old man turns towards the door, walking through it, glancing back just as he is fully through the door. Indy watches him then notices that the key is no longer on the hook. She looks around to see a stool that has been pulled over to where Annibel can stand on it and grab the key off the hook. She pushes aside the fear of going through the door that a ghost has just melted through and grabs the doorknob. She pulls open the now unlocked door and rushes inside to see if Annibel is hiding just inside the door. Indy glances up to see the old lightkeeper standing on the first step, showing her that her sister isn’t hiding behind the door.
The tabby cat appears at her feet, meowing loudly as she race’s up the stairs. The lighthouse keeper smiles down at his pet and looks back up at Indy. He waves for her to follow the cat up the stairs.
“Go,” he says in a low quiet voice.
Indy swallows as her heart races in her chest and her palms begin to sweat as she stares at the ghost. She hadn’t thought about the man being a ghost at first but the way he vanishes then reappears as if by magic and walks through doors, he can’t be anything but a ghost. She keeps her eyes on him as she slowly makes her way to the stairs.
“Go!” he says again, louder and with more force.
Indy shakes herself out of her trance and races past the spirit, feeling a bit of cold when her arm brushes his. She sees the cat waiting impatiently for her a few steps above, a look of disdain sitting on the furry face. She catches up to the cat, and she takes off up the stairs, forcing Indy to run. The come to the first landing where there are a bench and cabinet that holds some supplies. Indy watches as the cat stops in front of the cabinet, sniffing around the bottom of it before turning her gaze up to the human. Indy walks over to the cabinet, noticing the key to the downstairs door resting on the top. Indy places her hands on her hips and bends over as she does her best to catch her breath quickly before she scolds her little sister for disobeying their dad.
Indy finally catches her breath and grips the handles of the cabinet, ripping them open and seeing the supplies shifted to one side so that a smaller person can hide inside. She then looks at the other side where her sister is curled up, giggling to herself. Annibel hears the doors open and sees her sister standing in front of her, glaring down at her.
Annibel groans and unfolds herself, falling out of the cabinet, “No fair! You had help from the cat.” She sits up in front of the cabinet and starts to go to pet her but the cat turns tail and walks back towards the stairs to go down them. “Hey!”
“She knows that you aren’t allowed up here, Annibel. And she isn’t the only one who told me where you were.” Indy grabs the key off of the cabinet top and shuts the doors after pushing everything back to where they are supposed to go. “Let’s go, Annibel. I am done playing since you broke the rules,” Indy growls at her little sister as she begins to head back down the stairs.
Annibel stomps her foot and stomps back down the stairs after her sister. Indy rolls her eyes when she hears Annibel throwing a tantrum behind her, shaking her head as she continues down the stairs. Indy stands just outside the door, waiting for Annibel to walk into the house, or well stomp her way back into the house. Once Annibel has joined her in the house, Indy closes and locks the door, hanging the key back on the hook, sliding the stool back to where it is supposed to be on the other side of the room.
Annibel crosses her arms over her chest while she watches Indy lock the door. The cat walks away and disappears into Annibel’s bedrooms, meowing and flicking her tail, catching Annibel’s attention. Annibel takes off after the cat, ignoring Indy’s calls.
“Annibel!” Indy shakes her head and walks out to the living room. Indy looks for the ghost of the old light keeper but he has vanished again. She sits on the couch and pulls her cell phone off of the coffee table where it has been charging, unlocking the screen. She can hear Annibel playing with the cat in her room, down the hall. She slides through her small contact list, trying to figure out who she can talk to about what she had just seen.
“Indy, is the cat out here with you?” Annibel asks, walking into the living room and looking around confused. “She crawled under my bed but when I looked underneath, she was gone.”
Indy shakes her head, “Sorry, sis, but she hasn’t come out here.” She looks back down at her phone and settles on calling her library-loving friend, Stanly, to see if he knows anything about ghosts, hauntings, and the lighthouse. “I have to make a quick phone call so you need to go play in your room for a while.”
“Fine, but don’t forget you promised to play a board game with me,” she whines as she walks back into her room, shutting the door with a loud bang.
Indy calls out, “I know… just give me 30 minutes to talk to my friend.” She hits the call button and listens to the phone ring as she waits for Stanly to answer. Finally, she hears his soft voice saying hello. “Hey, Stanly are you busy right now by any chance? I really need to talk to somebody about what has just happened to me.”
“Sure, I was heading to the library but we can talk,” he tells her.
“Good! First, what can you tell me about the lighthouse and the house where my family lives?”