Lightkeepers, Episode 1: The Lighthouse Children

A Saturday Morning Mystery

This painting was done by my late father

2005

Tyler Gomez found himself in the abyss, floating in standstill. He felt light and weightless, his mind drifting down a magnificent expanse filled with twinkling stars and billows of colorful light. Wisps of glowing clouds glistened against his deep brown skin and tickled his frizzy black hair. His breath felt cold. Everything was eerily quiet. For a moment, he was confused at his surroundings, but then the pain quickly came back. Searing, oozing pain, and the chills of fear.

He opened his eyes and found himself floating high up in the air. The sky was dark gray and the wind pummeled his body. His ear drums burst when loud thunderclaps erupted nearby. He heard screaming and looked down at the water below. The colossal waves of stormy Lake Superior crashed around in a ravenous mess. He saw a fleck of bright yellow and gasped in terror.

“Amber! Nooooo!” Tyler screeched in horror.

He put his arms out in front of himself and rocketed downward toward the water. Amber, his younger sister, was being tossed back and forth in the massive waves. He was almost there. He just had to reach her before she went under. But he was too late. A wave plummeted her under. Tyler screamed and dove under the water. His heart pounded like a rocket. In addition to his own heartbeat and the rocking of the waves going by up above, Tyler heard nothing.

Nothing except another heartbeat! Certain it was Amber, he sped toward the sound until his outstretched hands ran into something. He grabbed Amber and leapt up above the water. Holding her in his arms in midair, he tightened his grip with one arm and gasped when he saw her eyes were closed. Her normally deep brown, freckled face looked pale.

Tyler ripped her yellow life preserver off and pressed a couple of his fingers on her chest repeatedly. Those CPR lessons that his mother insisted teaching them as part of learning emergency skills for living on a ship that he used to whine about were now indispensable.

“Come, on! Wake up!” He cried, shaking her while pressing repeatedly on her chest, “Wake up!”

But she would not. Tyler’s heart burst into flames for the second time today. But this time would be different. He would make sure of it.

“Noooo,” he declared. A bright blue burst of energy emerged from his hand as he slammed it against his sister’s chest. The light enveloped Amber, and her eyes opened. She coughed and spat up a bunch of water.

“You’re okay!” He nearly fainted in relief.

“Where… where are we?” she asked, “Aaaaah! We’re floating in the air!”

Water drizzled down from her drenched black pigtails.

“Yeah… I can fly,” he replied, “I… don’t know how. It just sorta happened after…. after....”

The memories came back to both of them now. They had been on their parents’ research ship, having a good time playing with his best friend Emmy. Tyler remembered the radiant orange light of the setting sun. The ship’s cook, Kowalski had started making dinner. They’d been so eager to have a greasy burger, some fries and green beans. But then the chaos started. Bad guys from another vessel attacked. Dad fell to the ground in a pool of blood as their mother rushed Tyler and Amber out of the room and towards the life rafts. She told them that they had to escape to live.

They had just barely gotten into the raft when some of the bad guys caught up to them. One of them was the leader, who wore a dark hood over his head and a strange mask on his face. The mask was jet black and had a jagged design. There were two eye slits, both glowing bright neon green. Tyler and Amber’s mom tried to fight, but the masked man stabbed her twice in the stomach and then tried to lift a special necklace off of her neck. Screaming as he watched this, Tyler felt something awaken in him at the time, a potent force activated by his anguish.

From his fists came blasts of golden blue energy that hit the hooded figure and sent him tumbling backward. Tyler’s mother scrambled down into the lifeboat and sent out similar blasts from her hands at the hull of her family’s ship. With a loud blast, giant holes burst open. As the raft floated away, they watched their prized ship began to sink.

“It was…. the only way to stop them,” his mother told Tyler. She was lying down in the raft now, blood oozing from her wounds. Growing weaker, she instructed Tyler to take the necklace from her. He stuffed it in a cargo pocket on his shorts.

“You… have to promise me,” she told him as she died, “You are strong… you have amazing power… just like me. Both you and Daisy are, Tyler…. promise me you’ll be strong. Don’t… don’t ever give up. It…. it’s not going to end here… like this. Okay… sweetie?”

“O… okay, Mama,” Tyler replied shakily.

“You… you won’t be alone,” she whispered weakly as her eyes began to close, “He’s… waiting for… you…. Jacob...”

“Jacob? Mama, who’s Jacob?” Tyler asked, “Mama…. Mama… Maaaama!”

She lay motionless. Tyler screamed out in anguish as world finished falling apart. As he and Daisy huddled together sobbing, they didn’t even notice the sky beginning to darken with storm clouds and the waves beginning to pick up.

The storm hit with a vengeance, and then came the fateful wave that knocked over the raft during. Their mother’s body was sent tumbling away into the depths.

Back in the present, Tyler continued to float up in the air with Amber in his arms, both of them sobbing. All of his worst nightmares had come true, all at once, slamming down upon him. His streams of tears were unmeasurably more powerful and icy than the slow, punishingly cold rain pelting him from above. All alone now with his parents dead, all Tyler could do was wait. But wait for what? His own death? As they hovered about, getting hammered by the wind, he tried to picture his mother in his head.

Her long, black braids and dark brown skin. The cheery smile she always had. How she would sing to Amber and him each night at bedtime. Tears came to Tyler’s eyes as he glanced down at Amber, remembering that she had all of these same beautiful traits as her mother. He thought of his dad. Tall and strong. Olive brown skin and a stubby black beard. His voice both stern and gentle at different times. Tyler clutched tightly to these memories, which were all that was keeping him glued together.

“Mo… Mommy!” Amber wailed.

Tyler kissed her forehead as he stretched out one of his arms and began flying, hoping to find any kind of land.

“Sssh, big brother’s got you,” he told her.

After what seemed like an eternity of hours, Tyler saw land just feet away. A beach. Shivering, he tried to lower Amber and himself down and ended up tumbling into the chilly water. He got to his feet, picked up a frantic Amber and carried her up onto shore. The sand and rows of trees stretched out for miles in both directions, much of it not visible in the dead of night.

To the left is where Tyler saw the tall, spooky structure that would become their home. A lighthouse. It was a eerie thirty plus foot shadow in the night. They cautiously approached it. Nestled in a clearing just off the beach, it appeared quite worn and old. In addition to the old tower was an old two-story brick house. The tower seemed less spooky and there was something appealing to Tyler in that moment about the safety of being up high, so he found the door to the tower.

It appeared to be boarded up and there were chains blocking the old wooden stairs up to the door. Nearby signs said CONDEMNED and PERMANENTLY CLOSED, as well as DO NOT ENTER. Ignoring that last one, Tyler slipped under the chain and tried to open the door. It was locked tight. Badly needing a place to stay and catch his bearings, Tyler tried to think of a way to get in. He found some large rocks beside the stairs, grabbed one and tossed it at the window pane of the door. It smashed through and landed on the floor inside. Tyler carefully reached his hand in and unlocked the handle. He yanked the ancient door open and carefully crept inside, taking care to watch the broken glass he’d just made.

Inside, the tower was dark and musty smelling. He managed to find the stairs and along with Amber, slowly made his way up, tripping a few times since he couldn’t even see the spiraling metal stairs he was climbing. They reached the top and opened the door to the light room. The old Fresnel lens that would’ve been there was long gone as was most of the equipment to operate it. Moonlight shone through the large window panes that went all around the room, giving Tyler a huge, extended view of the beach and lake.

He was still shivering cold and soaking wet, as was Amber. Recalling his dad, who was sort of a jack of all trades, teaching him about ice fishing and surviving the cold, Tyler remembered that their wet clothes were only making them colder, and could cause him to get hypothermia.

“We… we gotta take our clothes off,” he shuddered.

“Eww! No!” Daisy refused, even as she shook like a leaf.

“They’re wet and making us c… cold,” Tyler tried to explain, “If we don’t, we could die!”

Amber looked up at her big brother and nodded. She, too remembered their dad teaching them about this during ice fishing and though she was filled right now with confusion and terror, she knew that Tyler would keep her safe. Glancing around the room, she saw some sheets of canvas laying in a heap.

“Hey, we could use those,” she suggested, pointing at them.

Tyler went over and inspected the canvas. They were old, dusty and there was no telling where’d they’d been. But they were in survival mode. It would have to do. Tyler picked up two of the sheets, shook them out as hard as he could to get rid of dust and debris, and headed back over to Amber. He held up one in front of her that was longer than both of them. It completely obscured Amber from Tyler’s view.

“As soon as you’re done, I’ll wrap it around you,” he explained, “I can’t see you. Go ahead.”

“What if there’s someone out there who can see?” She worried.

“It’s the middle of the night!” Tyler groaned, “I don’t think raccoons or bats will notice a free show. Just do it already!”

Amber undressed and without looking, Tyler draped the canvas around her. She coughed from the dust and scrambled to wrap the giant tarp around herself.

“It’s scratchy,” she complained as she rested her arms around her chest to keep it held up at just below shoulder level.

“Well, this ain’t the Hilton,” Tyler joked, “Now, you promise that you’ll keep your eyes shut until I tell you.”

Daisy let out a low, mischievous laugh as she shut her eyes. Tyler gulped nervously and began peeling his drenched clothes off. Afterward, he picked up all of their wet garments and laid them out to dry by one of the windows. He remembered the necklace and frantically checked that cargo pocket on his shorts. After popping open the Velcro he was relieved to find it was still in there. He pulled it out to look at it. The chain and frame of the circular pendant were a dark gold metal, and in the center of the pendant was a large green jewel.

It had a pattern engraved on it of at least a dozen or more circular rings, starting out as large as the circumference of the jewel itself at the edge and becoming smaller as it approached the center of the jewel, where there was one tiny circle that was more of a bluish color. Tyler looked closer and saw two trails of sparkly dots coming from that center point, crossing through the rings and making an L shape. Unsure of what to make of it or why the bad buys found it so important, he draped it around his bare neck and headed back over to where the canvas sheet was awaiting him. Tyler wrapped the canvas around himself and told Amber to open her eyes.

“Feeling warmer?” He asked her. She nodded, and tears began streaming from her eyes as she thought about their parents. Tyler hugged her.

“I’m gonna take care of us,” he whispered, “As long as we have each other, we’re not alone.”

The night sky outside was chock full of twinkling bright stars. The trilling of frogs and hooting of an owl added to the serene picture. Tyler couldn’t help but think of his parents as he and Amber gazed upward into the endless dark landscape from the windows of the light room.

“There’s gotta be a reason why this all happened,” Tyler yawned, “Mom and that…. necklace.”

He held up the strange pendant necklace that was draped around his neck, studying its odd circular engravings. Then there was that L shape of sparkly dots stretching out from the center.

“What is the L for?” Amber wondered, “Lion? Lion…heart?”

“Cool guess,” Tyler shrugged, “Beats me. But those bad guys wanted this thing bad.”

A bloodcurdling scream rang out. Tyler and Amber jumped to their feet, startled and confused.

“It wasn’t me,” Amber insisted when Tyler asked. The scream rang out again. It sounded grainy and pained. Then, a series of moaning voices began echoing out, coming from the nearby woods. Tyler was petrified with panic as he glanced around trying to find the origin of the sounds. The moans grew louder, then suddenly stopped. Before Tyler and Amber could recover, the trees outside began to thrash around as something large but unseen crashed around like a bowling ball in a dryer. In the darkness between the trees, a pair of beady green eyes glowed menacingly.

“What the hell is going on!” Tyler cried. He yanked Amber into his arms and tried hard to recreate the energy bubble that he’d used the other day to shield them from bugs, but nothing emerged from his hands. He was too scared to focus. The next thing they heard was galloping footsteps. Thunderous, loud ones coming from the beach. Amber saw a gigantic black creature barreling towards the lighthouse and screamed.

The giant unknown creature was standing in front of the woods, roaring and snarling. The trees stopped thrashing. As if this wasn’t enough, Tyler heard the grunting of a motor, which got louder by the second. Up in the night sky, a dark object appeared.

“A…. flying motorcycle!” Tyler rubbed his eyes in disbelief. When he saw who was on the motorcycle, he and Amber both screamed in horror and dove under their bed of canvas sheets. It was the masked man who had killed their mother. Similar to the creepy thing in the woods, the man had glowing beady green eyes in his mask. Tyler heard the giant creature roar loudly and run in the direction of the motorbike. There was a terrified shriek and the motorcycle sped away. Away from the lighthouse, the beach, and from the two kids.

Even though the spook fest appeared to be done, Tyler and Amber did not dare come out from under the canvases or move a muscle for the rest of the night. They got down on the floor along the circular wall of the light room. Tyler folded another piece of the canvas into a makeshift pillow and they both laid their heads on it, side by side. Amber rested against Tyler and he wrapped an arm around her. Fear and pain gripped them both. The events of the last several hours were a confusing, emotional blur. Their parents were gone. Tyler suddenly had a host of strange abilities like flying that came out of nowhere. His mom left behind a weird necklace and a cryptic message about someone named Jacob. Tyler could not begin to comprehend anything as he and Amber both tiredly shivered and cried together. Even when the sun would rise, the long night they found themselves in would be far from over.

….

One month later….

The wind outside the lighthouse howled and hissed, as sheets upon sheets of rain pounded down onto the roof. Inside, in the light room at the top of the tower, Tyler and Amber lay in their bed, side by side. Amber yelped at the spine tingling sound of thunder crashing across the stormy sky outside. It was early morning, and they had no idea what day it even was. They were outside normal time, living in their own world.

“Darn, we’ll have to use some of the emergency food,” Tyler groaned as he began getting up to head over to a cooler nearby. Unlike how things were when they first arrive, luck had led them to finding or creating almost everything they needed. Most of it was the forgetfulness of people who visited the beach. Tyler and Amber had been utterly stunned at the amount of things people simply left behind and never came for. Cigarette lighters, knives, blankets and towels, and countless other things.

After the Fourth of July, they hit the jackpot. The beach had been packed with what seemed like millions of folks of all ages during the day and most of the night. To avoid being caught, Tyler and Amber were practically marooned up in the light room the whole time. To get food, Tyler went down a couple times, shirtless and in just his cargo shorts. He cleverly blended into the crowd and swiped a couple wrapped sandwiches and candy bars from some of the many beach patrons who were too caught up in the chaos to notice. It made Tyler fell quite guilty to steal, but it wasn’t like they could freely go and fish at the creek or gather plants.

Late at night, the two kids watched the fireworks that were being shot off from boats way out in the bay. From up in the lighthouse, you could get quite the view of the many colors, and sore eardrums from all the blasts. Soon after, everyone finally cleared out, and Tyler and Amber were free to go down and let out the pee they’d been holding all day. Early the next morning on the fifth, Tyler found that the whole beach was full of treasures.

Rainbow beach blankets. An inflatable pool raft. Water bottles. A dingy but solid large Coleman cooler. Even some blankets and zip up sweatshirts. Candy. A half full bag of nachos. Even a few mandarin oranges. Tyler and Amber spent the whole morning gathering everything, working in a hurry in case anyone would come for a swim and see them.

They added the pool raft to a bed frame Tyler had build out of several large tree branches, layered on top of each other. Under the raft were pine tree needles that they periodically replenished. Tyler washed the towels and blankets that they’d found in the stream and they were now their linens. The cooler was used to house extra fish and other gathered food supplies, including a couple of those candy bars from July fourth.

Most of their original clothes had now fallen apart, so Tyler and Amber both regularly wore the two zip up sweatshirts they’d found. Tyler still had his cargo shorts, but for Amber, the sweatshirt was all she had. Tyler was also working on making a dress or toga for Amber out of one of the sheets of canvas from the first night.

As the storm continued raging outside, Tyler retrieved two candy bars and two of the bottles they’d found, in which they stored fresh water from the stream.

“There’s also some cooked rabbit left over,” he told Amber as he handed her a bar and a bottle.

“Nooo! I told you I won’t eat that bunny you killed,” she pouted.

The other day, Tyler had killed a rabbit by blasting it with some of that bluish gold energy he could generate with his hands, similar to what he used to make that bubble on the first day. It took him three tries to finish gutting it. After each of the first two, it made him sick to see all the blood and he vomited. Amber also screamed in terror at the sight of it and had yet to forgive him for it. As time went on, it would become more necessary to hunt for food, as difficult as it was.

“If the rain lets up later, I’ll give you another fishing lesson. As long as it’s before Bewitching Hour.”

“Oh…. Yeah,” Amber shivered. Each night, they continued to be plagued with visits from the the moaning, thrashing green-eyed monster in the trees, the galloping black creature that always ran to confront it, and many a time their mother’s masked killer on his flying motorbike. Night after night, the same freaky horror show was acted out again and again. And mercifully, each time, the monsters failed to find or hurt them. It was so relentless that Tyler had to institute a strict schedule where they could not be outside after dark.

Against all odds, they’d found a way to build a life here. It was hard. Awkward. But they were still here, living. Little did they know that soon, huge change would come that would once again alter their lives.