Secrets of the Lighthouse

Chapter 1

With one last hesitant glance over her shoulder, Kaitlyn tiptoed out of her bedroom. She winced at the seemingly deafening creaks the floor made as the made her way down the stairs and out of the front door. She held her breath as the door clicked and she began her journey for answers.

The rays of the sun cast a warm glow over her, and she breathed in the summer air. She felt in her pocket for the one picture that had helped her get through sixteen hard years of wondering. Why had her dad left her? Was it something she had done? She hadn't noticed at first but it was right there staring her in the face. The place she should have realised was where her father had been. The picture was of her mother and father together on a beach with a lighthouse in the distance. They had beaming smiles on their faces laughing over something she would never know. Why then, she wondered, did her dad leave? Alone in her thoughts, she had time to ponder over all the possible reasons she could think of. Even the ones she couldn't bring herself to believe. When she finally found him and saw him for the first time she was going to get the answers she deserved.

Kaitlyn's thoughts drifted back to a week ago, when although her mum was unaware, Kaitlyn had been eavesdropping on a conversation she was having over the phone. "I know I should tell her, I just can't bring myself to do it. The pain that would come with knowing. I'm just... I just can't do that to her, Emma."

Emma? Who was Emma?

"Her father's secret is too big. Honestly I can never do that to her and she can never find out the truth," her mum confessed to the person on the phone.

Hours passed until eventually the slowly dimming flicker of hope lit up again in her chest. When she was about to give up hope, turn around and go home, she saw the unmistakable pulsating light in the distance of a lighthouse. The exact same lighthouse as was in the picture and there was no denying it. This it, she realised and for the first time in sixteen years she was going to get the answers she knew she deserved that everyone kept hiding from her.

Even though she had never met him, she felt like she knew the man from the photo. He was no stranger to her even if she was to him. When she finally saw her dad in real life for the first time, she imagined the way she would hear fireworks go off in her mind and the bright golden sun would shine against a clear blue sky. That was how it would happen, she thought but things never turn out the way you think they will.

The sky turned a pale grey until eventually it was almost a midnight shade of black and she knew there would be a storm soon. She heard the deep rumble of thunder as the sky illuminated with a bright, white strike of lightning. If she wasn't so afraid, she might have thought it looked spectacular. Determined, she glanced at the lighthouse in the distance. She had to see her dad and get at least some answers even if it was the last thing she ever did.

Her mind knew what was about to happen before she did. It all happened so fast: she slipped on the perilous rocks, the salty, violent waves rose up to greet her and dragged her over the edge of the cliff against her will. The slippery cliff face with jagged rocks in all directions pierced her skin as her life flashed before her eyes. She grabbed onto a pointed sharp rock and clung on because she knew that her life depended on it. She could hear her heart pounding against her chest over the aggressive, roaring storm. Above her, the grey, dull clouds starting angrily, thundering and she knew she couldn't hold on for much longer. The coast was desolate and nobody was around to help her. With a jolt of panic she realised that if the crashing waves below her didn't take her first, then the thunder and lightning coming from the deafening sky would instead.