Emerald Seas II

Chapter 15

Location: the Locker

Light it up. Light it up..

Long golden red curls moved from the silken white fabric of her pillow. Her long fingers removed the silken bed sheets from her white-laced long sleeping gown that was draped alongside her four-poster bed. It was a darkness that was covering the room in which Kate awoke from sleep, if she could even call it sleeping. Her eyes getting used to the dark for a moment moved through the lighthouse's chamber, and removing herself from the bed her bare feet touched the creaking wooden floor. Her feet carried her to the balcony, with a small wooden staircase attached to it, taking her one floor up, the last and highest floor, taking her outside. There she met with something she hadn't felt for a long time, a harsh wind, moving the strings of her long red hair, the wind picking it up and down, like the waves of the ocean. Also, it was pouring down, her hands for a moment enjoying the touch of cold rain on her pale skin, something she too had not experienced before in the Locker. Strange, it felt like things were changing. Soon she took cover from the rain.

Looking up underneath the roof Kate noticed the large beautiful scale where a fire was supposed to burn for the lighthouse to function. The scale was covered in small mosaic shiny stones that almost looked like fish scales. Suddenly she realized the fire inside the lighthouse's scale had only been lit just before she would find another one of her experiences from the real world, outside the Locker. The fire had been out all the other times, except the moment she had seen Jack inside the Locker, the moment she heard the singing dead people, and when she had found the empty Endeavour entering battle. Like the lighthouse was guiding her toward her escape, her freedom, her loved ones.

Only just moments earlier while sleeping, she had heard a soft voice whisper to her, it told her the lighthouse had to be lit once more. She felt confused as to why it didn't light up by itself like it did all the times before. For a moment she wondered whether it was Calypso's voice in the dream. Kate was positive it was, as she had promised to help her. But why did it always have to be like riddles, and no clear hints was to Kate a mystery. The corners of her lips lifted, it must be part of the whole mystery of meeting a legendary goddess.

'Light it up' Kate whispered, repeating the words from her dream, where her words got carried away in the wind.

'But, how?' Kate whispered once more, looking around for something that looked like a torch. Even if she would find one, where would she find fire?

Half an hour passed. Kate had stared out over the long empty terrain where on the of the lighthouse she could see beyond she'd seen before, but still nothing. The same nothingness. Sitting on the wooden floor the hem of her long white dress was hanging from the balustrade of the top floor, floating in the wind it almost seemed as if the endless lace fabric touched the ground underneath. A sight came from her lips, and as she stood tall from her place on the ground almost tripping she moved her hand upon the mosaic-like texture of the scale.

'Auch!' Kate almost shouted while pulling her hand away quickly, right after her face had been lit up for just a second by something that seemed to be light. The surroundings dark again within a mere second, her scream howled across the empty landscapes. It felt like she'd burned her hand on the scale, which was impossible as there was no fire inside. At least, not for long, because the second Kate had touched the scale, she swore she'd seen a little fire inside. Slowly but surely she moved her hand, back at the scale, the tips of her finger now almost touching the scale again. Pausing a slight moment, before full force placing her fingers and then the whole palm of her right hand on the scale. Kate screamed again, her voice covering the silence of the Locker's desert. Holding it Kate was breathing heavily but didn't want to let go. To her surprise the burning pain was short and within seconds her whole body felt warm, like life was entering her body, her soul. There was a big fire inside the scale now. Daring to let go, Kate took a few steps back as the scale started to rotate, as it was supposed to do to make the lighthouse work. Her green eyes stared at the scale now turning at normal speed, a big orange light beam came from the fire inside, that was visible when the scale faced a certain direction, disappearing, and coming back, again and again. Kate saw the orange beam made a light string, hovering above the sand below, functioning as a big guideline, like on nautical charts.

'It's guiding me.. guiding my escape' Kate felt tears in her eyes dwell up and was holding onto the balustrade of the lighthouse's balcony. And before she knew it her bare feet touching the wooden stairs rapidly, took her below. Back in her chamber, she started collecting everything that she felt like she needed for a journey. She needed to hurry and needed to get out of there as quickly as possible as she did not know how fast the light string would go out again. But before Kate could finish, she felt dizzy. Her head started spinning, and for a moment she felt like laying down on her bed for just a moment. As soon as her long curls touched her pillow everything became black.

This was it, she had done her purpose, Calypso's purpose. The goddess's power had made it possible for Kate to guide her rescuers. But the curse was still too strong, back to sleep it brought her. As only the power of something strong, was going to wake her for real..