The Haunting of Sunshine Girl

Chapter 17

Sunshine hates furries.

Basically, anything in costumes.

Mascots count.
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They're standing over the boardwalk as Kat shares Sunshine's forgotten childhood memories with her.

Sunshine loves sea food, so they're going to eat at Local Ocean Seafoods. Kat also teases her daughter while she's choking on her food.

That's nice.

(Why's she laughing so hard again?)

Oh, right. That furry thing is still freaking her out.
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Sunshine and her mother are standing in the midst of a clutter of trees, overlooking the sandy beach and the ocean. Behind them, a lighthouse towers over the trees. Which is, supposedly, haunted.

Not a secret place, but still creepy enough.

Once they near the building, they realize the lighthouse is actually pretty tiny. They have to walk through the front of an old house with too much space and too little furniture. There's a doll in a crib to the side and Sunshine gets out of there as quickly as possible.

They slip in and out of a few different rooms, scanning over all the information and making their way farther and farther up. They can see the ocean out of the windows and it's honestly, just, wonderful.

And they haven't even been to the actual lighthouse!

The duo shuffles up the long, winding stairs while tiny rooms pass by their sides. They read up a little on the people that have died here, then decide to go to the basement. A man dressed in a tan uniform stands before several books and trinkets about the lighthouse, nodding at those that pass by.

"A long time ago," the man begins, shifting the green cap on his head, "way back when there was no electricity or TV or video games or anything like that, this lighthouse was abandoned and.. there was no lighthouse anymore. Over the years it kinda got older and older and fell in to ruin. It looked terrible — falling apart."

He leans back. "Way back then, there was a strange ship that came in to town one day, in the harbor down here. Out of the ship came two people — the very handsome captain of the ship, and his teenage daughter. The father talked to some of the local people and said that Muriel needed to stay here because he had to take his ship down to coast. He set his daughter up in a boarding house — or, otherwise known as a hotel of sorts — and said he'd be back very soon."

The man sighs and shakes his head. "Well, that soon turned in to a week, two weeks, and then a couple of months. Muriel had become acquainted with some of the local folks in town, and they decided that they'd have a picnic and come up to the lighthouse. They got the key because it was, of course, all locked up, and they walked around the lighthouse, having their picnic, and decided to go in to check things out."

He tilts his head. "They went in the lighthouse, which was really kinda spooky; there were cobwebs all over the place and no one had been in there for years and years. So they're walking around and exploring and they find this strange passageway up the top. They looked down and thought it went all the way down to the ocean. Kinda strange, maybe pirates or something. Who knows?

They decided they'd leave and all left, and Muriel said she — she forgot her hankerchief, which was kind of an heirloom, very special because her father had given it to her. She ran up and, and one of the boys she was kind of attracted to offered to accompany her, but she said, 'Oh, no, it'll just be a minute,' and she ran on up there and, meanwhile, the group had gone down to their buggy. Then, they heard these — these terrible screams, 'Help me! Help me!' They rushed up there and loe and behold, the door was locked.