The Lighthouse in Oregon

Dusk was approaching amongst the smokey pines. Meandering roads carved the brush where Sam and Frankie rode their bikes along the rocky path. They pushed every pedal with an agonizing heave, trekking up a massive hill.

“I hope we have no more of those, Frankie.” The sun set on Sam's face as he reached for the last of his water.

“Well, we don’t have to go too far,” Frankie’s dirt brimmed fingernails pointed towards their destination.

Just over the hill’s horizon was a cliff with the Pacific coast roaring white caps ramming against it.

"There it is!" Frankie said grimmingly, a silhouette of a lighthouse was situated punctiliously at the top.

“That’s the old lighthouse!” Sam’s face scrunched, “There was something you weren’t telling me, huh Frankie?”

Frankie wasn’t the type to leave a task unfinished and knew where Sam’s tone was going.

"I'll beat you there!" Frankie pushed down the hill and sped towards the lighthouse without any explanation.

“Frankie w-wait up! D-don’t just leave me here!” Sam dashed down the hillside only a few pedals behind.

The very lighthouse they were going to was infamous in the small Oregon town. It was decades old and considered a landmark. Once a beacon of hope for the people living there, it aided ships lost at sea. However, during the 1940’s it was decommissioned and since then the structure has been abandoned, dilapidated and left for nature to age.

Sam and Frankie dropped their bikes in the grassy field before the towering landmark. Their plaid shirts frailed in the wind as they both approached the looming structure.

"Whoa! This is so cool." Frankie's head lifted to see the light room above.

"Uh… Frankie? I don't think we're supposed to be out here."

"What are you scared of?!" A familiar voice sounded from behind them. Frankie and Sam turned to see Anessa and her gang of coronies. The duo tried to run, but Anessa’s two airheaded minions, Dion and Pauly, blocked their way.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't chicken-dee and chicken-doo!" Pauly laughed, breaking the white noise of the distant splashing of waves. The group closed in on Sam and Frankie. Sam was so nervous that his glasses jumped off his pale face.

“I’m surprised you actually came.” Anessa snickered, “Made it just in time too. Did you bring what I asked for?”

“Frankie, w-what is she talking about?” Whimpered Sam.

Dion cracked his knuckles. “Shut up nerd or else I will pound you! You still owe me for not doing Mrs.Pletcher's assignment for me.”

Sam yelped before falling backwards into the wet grass.

“Leave him alone!” Frankie placed the backpack in front of Anessa. Sam quickly reached for his inhaler out his pocket and clutched his chest as he inhaled.

"Dion Look! He's doing that huffy-puffy thing again!” Pauly's annoying laughter cracked through the muted atmosphere.

Frankie kneeled to help Sam.

“It’s called asthma numbskull, if he doesn’t use it he can die!”

Anessa laughed, “Yeah, yeah I don’t know why you brought the basketcase!” She rummaged out a two-pronged metal object from Frankie’s bag.

“Is that a lantern?” Sam asked,

“Damn you are a nerd!” Dion pinched,

“Frankie, did you tell him!?” Anessa demanded, Frankie shook his head. “Cause if you tell him then this is over!”

Thunderstruck and the clouds began to turn an eerie colour. “Guys look!”

Pauly pointed to the sky, as a wall of rain suddenly poured down. Lightning struck an old sycamore tree nearby, sending them all flying off their feet.

"I gotta get out of here!" Pauly got up from the slippery ground, covered his ears and ran inside of the lighthouse entrance.

“PAULY!” Everyone screamed. They ran after him as he instantly disappeared in the ramshackled house. Suddenly, the door slammed shut.

They began banging on the frail door, pleading Pauly to open it. But he wouldn’t listen and continued to lean on the door.

“This isn’t a part of the plan, Anessa!” whispered Dion.

"I'll see if I can open it around the otherside." suggested Anessa and ran to the back door. She tried to pry it open, but it was yet another failure.

Frankie looked at Dion and Sam. "Push with me, ready? One, two, three!" The group jolted their weight into the door and crashed on the entrance floor, but to their surprise, no one was there.

The wind was harsh, sand and the salt of the sea cracked Anessa’s lips as she rushed back to them.

"Who did that?!" Anessa pondered. They slowly picked themselves up off the floor, soaked from the rain. "If it was one of you two, girl I swear I’ll--”

“I am not a girl … and it was the wind! I...think.” Frankie said firmly.

"Frankie, why did you bring me here?” Sam asked,

“There's no time. We have to find Pauly!” Dion said, searching the bar. As the storm was passing the thunderstruck continued and shook the shingles on the roof.

"Why should I?!" Sam whimpered. "If I were missing, none of you would ever look for me."

Anessa glared at Sam intently. “You know the story about this place right?” She crouched next to him.

“Sure, it was a-an automated lighthouse after World War II.” answered Sam brightly.

Anessa’s wide body turned towards him. She got so close that he could smell Anessa’s wet braids.

Cracking her knuckle she asked, “So? Who worked in this place before, Twerp!”

“A lighthouse keeper.” interjected Frankie.

“Yeah, so what?” reacted Sam.

“So...” Dion continued “It wasn’t only the lighthouse keeper, he also had a son from his late wife... He was a widower after his wife died during childbirth.”

Dion's face grimaced and as he encircled the three, the trodenned wood creaked. “They say that one day his son fell off the top of the lighthouse and landed right in this room. Flippin’ sad really, the townspeople all came and didn’t believe one ounce of what happened."

Anessa followed, “Yeah, the cops found it suspicious, so they took him in and sentenced him to death by burning his eyes out with burning pikes!” She then motioned her eyes being gouged out by two imaginary sticks.

“Gross Anessa...” Frankie rolled his eyes and tended to Sam.

“They say that his ghost still haunts this place, cursing anyone that dares to enter!” Anessa said snarkily.

“That d-doesn’t explain w-why? Why tonight?” stuttered Sam.

“Fine, I’ll come clean.” Frankie shifted side to side, “After overhearing you and Dion’s deal in class to cheat on the assignment, I knew I had to get you out of it. So, I went to Anessa and I thought that the only way to get Dion off your back was to come to the old lighthouse and see if the rumours were true!”

Anessa snickered while Dion was aloof.

"Tonight is the anniversary of his son's death.” she said. “It's said that the keeper roams this place, looking for him. And whoever lays their eyes on him, their soul shall be taken forever. But we are here to stop that. That’s why we need the lamp. To end the curse finally!"

Sam looked up. "Do you believe in it?"

"Of course I don't, Sam." Frankie laughed, "It's just some stupid legend they tell to kids to keep us out of here."

"Wait," Anessa interrupted. "Do you guys hear that?"

"Give it up, Anessa. The joke's over now!" Dion whined.

"No, I'm serious." They all paused to listen. There was a cold whisper coming from above the raptors. Dion giggled but was quickly hushed by Anessa. The room became darker than before. The children huddled closer together after another noise shifted upstairs.

Suddenly, it was quiet and the room was still. A deathly frigid chill escaped through the broken windows, and the odor of a thousand pounds of chum filled the air. One by one two small green lights appeared across the room. Staring intently at the children. Frankie was the first to notice but was frozen, reaching for his friend Sam.

Breaking the trance, Frankie yelled, “LOOK!”

Anessa, Sam and Dion turned after the glaring green eyes that lit the room. The green eyes lifted and darkness formed a pitless humanoid shape.

“Dion, the camera, now!” Laughed Anessa.

Dion pulled out his phone’s camera and took a flash photo of Frankie and Sam in the front of the floating eyes. Once he took the photo the blazing green eyes vanished behind a door that creaked open from the wind.

Anessa's laughing continued as Dion stopped and viewed the image.

“Wait...do you see that?” Asked Dion. “Pauly was supposed to jump out. That’s not Pauly. Anessa, that's not Pauly!" He groaned and ran after the two green glowing orbs whose lights were dithering away somewhere.

“Pauly, stop! Bro, we got the picture!” he commanded.

“Anessa, what is he talking about?” demanded Frankie, but Anessa couldn’t stop laughing.

“You should’ve seen your faces!” She snorted and mimicked the sound that Frankie made gasping for air.

Having enough of Anessa's game, Frankie raced up the grated stairs followed by Sam.

“It was just a joke you guys!" Anessa couldn’t refrain from her laughter but ran after the group anyway.

She looked up to see the spiral staircase and gears lit by the pulsing green orbs floating above it. She followed the two kids’ shadows climbing the stairs up to the lightroom.

“Wait for me.” Anessa's voice echoed from beneath Sam and Frankie. They pleaded to Dion to wait before they all stopped dead in their tracks. Anessa’s laughter stopped once she saw that Pauly was floating in the mid air in front of a glaring lantern harboring the orbs. His body seemed to be controlled by the orbs.

The green iridescent lights emitted from the lamp of the lighthouse. Thunderstruck and Pauly’s lifeless corpse dropped to the grated floor as the two green lights entered inside the lamp.

“OH MY GOD!” Dion shouted.

The windows around them shattered as the glass covered the catwalk. The group shielded their heads as they fell to the floor.

"W-we gotta g-get out of here!" Sam said.

“We can’t just leave Pauly!” Anessa shrieked. “Help me pick him up!”

Anessa and Dion lifted Pauly by his arms and feet. They started towards the staircase when the structure crumbled just before reaching a step.

“We’re trapped!” Dion yelled.

“The only way down is going over the banister.” Frankie pointed.

“No way. No way I’m jumping from here!” Anessa shook her head fiercely.

“We have no choice. And there’s no time! This whole thing is caving in!” Frankie’s legs began to shake from beneath him, then suddenly everyone else followed.

The foundation of the lighthouse began to rumble. Wood from the ceilings began to fall around them. There was no choice. Frankie grabbed Sam’s hand.

“I- I don’t think I can do this.” Sam whimpered.

“We have to jump now!” Frankie put one leg over the banister. The others followed. The wind battled against the rain. And a crack of lightning broke the sky.

Anessa screeched and bent over in fear. Before they knew it, they were perched over, looking down at their fate.

“Ready?” Said Frankie. “One, Two, Thr—”

Suddenly,the bannister shattered, casting them flying through the air.

The children screamed as their bodies flailed. They tried to grab a hold of anything, a railing, a cliff, an invisible hand; Anything to brace their impact, but before they could, they all hit the ground with a great thud.

Then, came silence.

Shadows from the lightroom dithered away. The waves, once clashing weapons of Poseidon, were made to be at peace. The storm passed and the lighthouse became a distant calm between the breeze of the grassy field where the children laid lifeless on the ground.

Falling the same way the keeper’s son did all of those years ago. The same way many before them did. The sun rose from behind dark clouds. Morning was steadily approaching.

And the curse of the lighthouse in Oregon, lived on.