The Iron Lighthouse

Disaster Has Struck

Sometimes right before disaster strikes, you know it's coming. It's just a feeling you get in your gut, and it tingles painfully. And when you get this feeling, you often just ignore it. But right now, I was scared of what would happen if I ignored it.

The fact that everything was most likely not alright was quite evident as Rebecca, Davy and I stood at the top of the stairs, in the room below the light room where Grandpa was supposed to be.

The ladder that led up to the light room was down, which made sense because Grandpa was up there, but the weird part is that the storm was raging loudly upstairs, louder than it should have. It was as if the ladder led right up into the sky, and there was no room up there, just an open platform.

"It's probably fine," Rebecca said nervously beside me, putting her hand comfortingly on my shoulder.

I shook my head. "No need to lie, something is definitely wrong. If we embrace that fact it will make whatever has happened up there a little more bearable."

"So let's say your grandpa's hurt...are we just gonna wait down here asking ourselves if he's okay?" Davy questioned.

"Good point, let's go, Ellie first," Rebecca said, volunteering me. Even in the dim light of the lantern, I knew she saw my glare. "What, he's your grandpa, not mine!"

"Can I have that lantern?" I asked her. She handed it to me, and I wondered why it seemed so dim now. Only yesterday it was enough to light this place up, but now it didn't do that.

I took a deep breath, slowly walking to the ladder. I wanted to help Grandpa, if he needed it, but I was afraid of what I'd find. Finally, once I had managed to get my nerves together, I slowly started to climb up the ladder as carefully as I could while still holding the lantern.

I knew that all the thoughts that had gone through my head of what could happen were right the instant I set foot in the light room. I should've known when we were down in the room below that something wasn't right because the light hadn't been shining. Otherwise, I would have been able to see that and would've known that maybe the noise was just Grandpa dropping something.

Now, standing in the light room, moving the lantern around, I knew that something much worse than my original predictions had occurred. The rotating light wasn't on, there was glass everywhere, rain was pouring in through a part of the lighthouse, and wind was pushing it against me, leaving me drenched.

The thing that had caused all this destruction was a massive tree, probably the one that used to be in between the lighthouse and my house. It was driven right through the glass, destroying the light, and making a mess.

And the worst part was that I couldn't see Grandpa.