The Iron Lighthouse

Caleb, My Hero

I didn't know where I was or how I got there. But from what I could tell, I was in a field. The grass was golden, the sky was white, and it was peaceful.

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes, smelling dampness, the type that a wet cloth would smell like. How was that possible? I opened my eyes, back in the odd meadow. Something was wrong. I shouldn't be here. But where should I be?

Once again I shut my eyes, trying to concentrate. Where was I supposed to be? 

A face floated into my mind, soft brown hair, brown eyes, and beautifully shaped face that looked so kissable...who was that?

I couldn't recall the person's name, just that I really wanted to see them. I had to. I focused more, hoping that would do something, maybe make me remember their name.

"Eleanor," I heard someone call. It sounded like it was coming from the sky. Who was...wait am I Eleanor?

It was starting to come back to me. I could imagine a storm, a house, a lighthouse, that face, another one, this one older. Me, Eleanor, that boy, Caleb.

I gasped, my eyes flinging open to the real world, unable to see anything because it was dark. I was moving, but not on my own. Someone was carrying me.

"C-Caleb?" I whispered. In my head I cursed. I was back from my dream state, and chances are it was Davy, or Grandpa, or Rebecca carrying me, not Caleb. But...Grandpa was under the tree. So it couldn't be him. And Davy...what had that loud noise been? Was he even alright?

"It's alright, it will be okay. I just have to get you downstairs, alright?" I heard a voice say. That's when I realized that we were still in the storm, the rain pouring onto us. 

"B-B-But what about Grandpa? And is Davy okay? I-I-I heard him scream a-and then..." I trembled, my body shaking as Caleb held me. I saw now that he was carrying a flashlight, and that we had reached the open hatch.

"Shhh, it'll be okay," Caleb whispered.

"No! You can't tell me that! I-It won't be okay! You're lying!" I tried to scream, but it came out sounding weak.

"We're at the ladder, are you ready to go down?" Caleb asked me.

"N-No! Not without Grandpa!"

Caleb sighed, adjusting me so that I was over his shoulder, one of his hands holding my lower back to keep me from falling. Then he used his free hand, gripping the side of the ladder and descending it.

I wanted to keep protesting, but climbing down a ten foot ladder while carrying someone was a difficult task, and I didn't want us to fall to the ground. So I stayed quiet. When we finished, Caleb carefully laid me down on the floor, and I saw Davy laying down next to me, and Rebecca sitting on the floor by him, a lantern next to her illuminating the room.

"Davy! Are you okay?" I stuttered. He didn't answer, and I saw that he was sleeping. Or unconscious, I couldn't tell which.

The cold from the rain was seeping into my bones. I heard a slam and looked to see that Caleb had closed the ladder that led to the top of the lighthouse. 

"Caleb! What are you doing, we have to get Grandpa! He's up there!" I screamed.

"No, not right now. After the storm," He told me, his face serious.

"B-But he'll get hypothermia!" I yelled.

"You'll get hypothermia if you don't get dry clothes!" Caleb yelled back. "He's old, it's just about his time anyway!"

I have never been one to cry in front of other people, but I was just about spent and I didn't have the energy to do anything else. So I cried, trying to put my head in my hands before I realized they still had glass, although the blood had been washing off by the rain. This made me more upset and worsened the situation.

"It's going to be okay," Caleb told me, sitting down next to me.

"Don't feed her lies," I heard Rebecca say. "She won't believe your bullshit, so just cut the crap."

"Who asked for your opinion?" Caleb snarled. Then he turned to me. "As soon as this storm is done, we will call an ambulance and they'll take care of him." Then he reached over, brushing the tears off my cheeks.

"Dude, stop teasing her, you have a girlfriend!" Rebecca told Caleb.

"Shut the fuck up," he told her. 

"If you want to be useful, why don't you take care of her hands?" Rebecca asked him, throwing a first aid kit at him. "Actually, I don't trust you to do that, give it back and I'll do it."

"I got it," he said, glaring at her. "I used to be a boy scout."

Caleb used the tweezers in the kit, starting to pull out the glass from my hands. It hurt like hell and caused me to cry more, trying to hold back my screams.

"I don't know if I got it all out," he said after a few minutes. "But it'll be enough until we can get you to a hospital." After that, he wiped my hands with alcohol and then bandaged them.

"Please help Grandpa," I whispered when he was done, my teary eyes searching his for anything that could help.

"Is he under that tree?" 

I nodded. "Just his leg though."

Caleb let out a sigh. "I'll go up and see what I can do. But uh, you should change and put this on." He tossed me his sweatshirt that was lying on the ground. He must've taken it off before going into the rain.

"But you need it, you're wet too."

He put his hands in his hair, frustrated. It looked really hot. "Just put it on, okay? As soon as I go up there, then you'll have privacy to change. You've been wet longer than me, so you are colder and need it more."

I shook my head. "No."

"Caleb, just go up there. I'll get her to put it on," Rebecca told me.

Caleb nodded, pulling the ladder down from the ceiling and climbing up.

"Put it on," Rebecca told me.

"But I can't. Bailey will kill me," I told her. 

"Would you rather freeze and die or just have to face some popular bitch?"

"The latter."

"If you don't put that damn sweatshirt on in ten seconds I'm going to do it for you."

"Fine," I mumbled, secretly wondering what the jacket smelled like as I tried to slide it over my head.

"No, you can't do that," Rebecca told me. "You have to take your wet clothes off. Otherwise it will be pointless."

"How about I just give Davy the jacket?" I asked her.

"He already has fresh clothes. I gave him my sweater and for some reason he had two pairs of pants on, so he's fine. But you aren't."

Finally I gave in, turning around and taking off my shirt and pants, sliding the sweater on. I wasn't going to take off my underwear or bra though. They may be a little bit cold, but that was better than walking around in a plain sweater. Oh, and the sweater smelled like evergreen, which I loved. If he wasn't a dating a bitch, and wasn't an asshole, I would be in love with him. Maybe I am already. But I am trying not to be, because I just can't. He would break my heart because it would never be more than a crush.

Then I saw feet coming down the ladder, and then Caleb. And Grandpa.