Light

Chapter 1

North of England, early march 1986.

The old lighthouse is exactly as Michael had imagined it would be. Deserted and lonely at the edge of a rocky cliff that leads down to the gravel strewn beach below.
Its once white and pristine outer walls are now more gray and brown in uneven patches as the unrelenting sea-winds have stripped them of their paint and then covered them in a fine layer of sand and dirt over the years.
All kinds of weeds cover the path that leads up to the rusty door with slender and twisting vines that remind Michael of grasping hands that crack and rustle as they are crushed underneath his shoes.

The sky is overcast, it usually is this time of year, and this high up on the sea-side cliffs there is no escaping the cold breath of late-winter.
He pulls his coat and scarf tight but still there is a chill in the air that manages to crawl underneath his clothing and skin and burrows into his lungs and veins.
He shivers.
The lighthouse is tall.
A lone giant that towers over the barren and empty lands below.
The only sounds that can be heard the whistle of the wind, the flapping of the tails of his coat as it billows around him, the crunch of rocks and twigs underneath his feet, the rush of waves far, far below and the lone cry of a seagull.

Michael closes his eyes and inhales. The cold air stings as it settles down into the warmth of his body. Wet and salty and raw.

He likes it here.

At least here he will be alone.

The lighthouse no longer serves a purpose. It hasn't done so for many, many years.
A newer, more modern lighthouse has been built about thirty years ago several miles up the coast.
This one left here to rot, crumble and vanish unnoticed.
To eventually topple over and become one with the sea.
Its stones sinking deeper and deeper with the water closing overhead without remorse and the light diminishing until nothing but the deepest black is left.

An all encompassing nothing.

No sight, no sound, no air.....just.....nothing.

He carefully moves as close to the cliff's edge as he dares and peeks down.
Wind and sea-spray assault his face and he is left squinting again.
Below the sea comes and goes unending.
Just like it has always done.
Eating away slowly at the rocks underneath his feet.
Patiently.
Reclaiming what once belonged to the great oceans that covered everything millions and millions of years ago.

Michael had never known that their family owned the lighthouse.
He knew they owned pieces of land here and there dotted all across the country but the lighthouse.....he had had no idea.

“Are you sure?”, Richard, his older brother, had asked him, “the building is practically a ruin.”

Michael had shrugged.
Sure.
Yes.
Why not.

“It'll give me something to do”, he had said.

Richard still hadn't been convinced.

“The quiet will do me good”, Michael had continued.

“You will be completely alone.”

Michael had shrugged again.
Richard had left it at that.

Being alone had been the point.

He doesn't need people around him to do what he plans to do.

He's been planning to do this for quite a while.