The Lighthouse

Chapter Four

Holly was lying on her bed staring at the celling, she had told her parents she was reading the books she had borrowed from the library but was finding it hard to concentrate. Holly kept looking over at the locket that was on her bedside table. The one thing that truly intrigued Holly was the unusual symbol that was engraved on the front. It was a spiral heart joined to a tiny star in the middle. She had never seen anything like it before. Holly kept tracing it with her finger. She knew she had to go and see if she could find anything on the internet about it.

The receptionist, at the library, had not said anything about the unusual engraving, she was mainly concerned with the picture of the family inside, which bothered Holly a bit too much.

Holly opened the locket, to look at the picture. She saw the picture had changed. Before it was just the family with blue sky behind them, but this time, she could see a black and white smudge behind them. Thinking she had somehow ruined the picture, she tried to brush it away, then gently scratched at it with her fingernail. Nothing happened.

She needed to get a closer look at what it was. At first it was hard to make out, but when Holly borrowed her father's magnifying glass, she could see that behind them, the smudge was actually the lighthouse. She was sure it had not been there when she first opened the locket, she was also sure that it had not been there when the receptionist had taken a look at it. She thought this was strange and it made her more determined to go and look up the symbol on the front.

Holly decided against going to the library to look it up, she also wanted to avoid the receptionist for a while, instead she waited until her mother had gone food shopping and her father had left for work, before she went into his study to use his computer. She knew he would be working late that day at the University so she did not have to worry about him finding her there.

When she switched on her father's computer, it was password protected. Not wanting to lock him out but feeling undeterred, she looked in his draws to see if he had written it down somewhere, because he usually forgot his passwords. When she could not find anything, she decided to try and guess it.

Thinking carefully, she put his birthdate in. Nothing. That would have been too easy she thought. Then she tried her mother's name and birthdate. Again, nothing. The computer flashed up saying that she had one more chance before being locked out. On the third and final attempt, Holly put in her name, her mother's name and her parent's anniversary date. It was successful.

The computer was old and slow loading. So while Holly was waiting for the computer to load up. She looked around her fathers cluttered desk. There were plenty of lecture notes and a manuscript for the novel he had been writing for the past four years. She had a quick read through.

Holly was engrossed in her father's manuscript that she jumped when the computer sprung to life. She put the manuscript back and began to search for this symbol. There was not much on the first page, but five pages in revealed a website that seemed to be dedicated to this symbol. The homepage had a picture of the lighthouse and underneath it read; The original heart star can be found here.

Holly rolled her eyes. More tales, she thought.

She was finding it hard to believe that the ratty old lighthouse had anything to do with this beautiful piece of jewellery but she kept of reading.

There were loads of pictures of people outside the lighthouse, and at first Holly did not notice it, but one common denominator in all the photographs, was a silhouette of a man standing at the top of the lighthouse. It was the same man Holly had seen.

Holly began to read the background story.

The lighthouse was built in 1640 as a tower to hide illegal dealings. It was said that a witch, who was the wife of the local butcher, put a curse on it to stop her daughter from escaping from there when she was locked away during the local witch trials in 1645. The witch was then burnt to death and her daughter's remains were not found until 1890 when the tower was broken into, reconstructed and turned into the lighthouse that still stands.

It is said that the curse is still there, and whoever looks after the lighthouse must never invite a young girl into it, as any young girl who steps foot inside, will never be seen again. The only way to break the curse is to save the person trapped inside. Dead or alive.

The curse can be seen on the door and wall of the basement area of the lighthouse. It was put there by the witch for the truth to come out when her daughter was freed, but it had also been engraved on her daughter's locket. It was also said that where ever that symbol of a spiral heart and star appear, it means that the truth will come out.

Holly was so engrossed in the story and pictures, she did not realise the time or hear her mother return home from food shopping. It was only when her mother was standing at the entrance to her father's study that she realised she was home.

"Oh, hi mam" holly said in surprise

"Hi yourself, what are you doing in here?", asked her mother

"Just doing some research, you know I can't use my laptop"

"I know, but you could have gone to the library or at least asked your father or I if you could come in here",

"I didn't want to go to the library today and you were both out, I didn't snoop, I promise"

"Okay, but you know how your father gets, now turn everything off and come and help me bring the shopping in"

Holly shut everything down and went to help her mother bring the food in from the car and put it away in the cupboards. The whole time Holly and her mother were doing this, Kiwi sat watching them and letting out small cries.

"Hold on Kiwi, I'll give you something now", said Holly's mother

"Aww, Kiwi wants a treat"

"Doesn't she always" Holly's mother replied as she gave Kiwi a dog treat.