Adrift

by Robin Wainwright

away.

  Now she drove straight to the lighthouse. She got out of her car and began to carefully pick her way toward where she thought Daniel’s trailer should be. He told her that it was set up behind the light keeper’s cottage, so that is where she went. In her absence, the lighthouse station had transformed from a quaint but abandoned locale to a full-fledged construction site.

  Large dumpsters startled her as they loomed over her from out of the fog. Small construction equipment was everywhere. It felt like she was walking a maze in a carnival fun house with surprises and scares around every turn.

  She paused to get her bearings and realized that she was standing on the wrong side of the cottage. She glanced up at the lighthouse and saw a figure standing on the gallery.

  Uncertainly she called out to the figure, “Daniel?” When she didn’t receive an answer, she walked closer to the lighthouse and tried again.

  “Daniel?” After a slight hesitation, the figure turned as if to face her, then she heard Daniel’s voice drift down from the gallery.

  “Heather? Come on up.” The figure beckoned her to come and join him.

  Heather smiled and entered the lighthouse thinking that Daniel must have fixed the gallery and that he wanted to show her how beautiful the view was at night. She smiled at how romantic he was and began the long climb to the lantern room.

  Daniel was lying in bed with Heather gently kissing her and holding her close. They were sharing funny stories about their day and just enjoying being with each other.

  He was looking deeply into her eyes getting ready to kiss her again when someone shook the bed wildly and he heard a voice shout, “Daniel wake up!”

  He sat bolt upright in bed and looked wildly around the room, but there was no one there.

  He listened carefully to see if maybe some noise had awakened him, but the night had a strangely muffled quality to it.

  He stood up to look out his window, but all he could see what a thick bank of fog. Shaking his head, he decided to go back to bed.

  “Shit,” Daniel muttered in exasperation as he flopped back onto his bed, but before he could get comfortable, someone was knocking on the front door.

  Thinking Michael had forgotten his key Daniel yelled out, “Dammit! Michael if you’re going to sneak out to see Sarah the least you could do is remember your keys!”

  As he strode by Michael’s bedroom door it flew open and Michael stuck his head out. “What the hell, Daniel? I’m trying to sleep.” Daniel looked at Michael in confusion as the knocking was repeated.

  “What the hell?” Michael asked.

  “Exactly,” said Daniel as he strode to the front door with Michael in his wake.

  Daniel yanked open the front door ready to give whoever was on the other side some hell, but there was no one there.

  “Crap,” Michael said. “Some kid is screwing around and they’re going to get hurt and we’ll get in trouble. I’ll grab us a couple of flashlights and meet you outside.”

  Daniel stepped outside into the fog, but he couldn’t see anyone lurking.

  Returning with two high powered flashlights Michael handed one to Daniel, “Okay you go look around the front of the cottage and I’ll check back here. Let’s meet up by the tree in the front yard.” Nodding Daniel headed off for the front of the cottage.

  Heather hit the watch room door and paused to catch her breath. She was surprised that even with the exertion of climbing all those stairs she was still shivering. The cold damp fog seemed to permeate everything.

  Looking up the last small flight of stairs toward the door to the lantern room, Heather wondered why Daniel hadn’t met her at least half way. It seemed out of character for him, but shaking off her uneasiness she stood up and continued climbing.

  Michael and Daniel met in front of the cottage and they were both shaking their heads.

  “Nothing?” asked Daniel.

  “Nothing,” agreed Michael.

  “Damn it. Okay, well I guess we should just go back to bed.”

  “Daniel,” said a woman’s voice.

  “Heather?” Daniel looked around but he couldn’t be sure where the voice had come from.

  Daniel looked at Michael, “You heard that right?”

  “Yeah, but I don’t think it was Heather.”

  “Daniel!” said the voice again but with more urgency.

  “Okay, come on out whoever you are.”

  “Daniel?” this time it was Michael trying to get his attention, “who’s that up in the lighthouse?”

  Daniel looked up at the lighthouse and he could see someone standing on the gallery.

  “Michael the gallery isn’t safe! Shit, grab a rope while I try to get this guy to stand still.” Michael headed to a storage shed while Daniel ran toward the lighthouse.

  As Daniel ran, he yelled to get the attention of the guy standing on the gallery. “Hey mister, that’s not safe. Stand still we’re getting some rope and we’ll come get you down. Just stand still.”

  Daniel couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw a second person framed in the window of the lantern room. He could hear a voice faintly from where he stood, it sounded like Heather.

  Heather opened the door to the lantern room fully expecting Daniel to sweep her up in his arms, but he wasn’t there. She paused to look around the room at the fog pressing close to the windows and that’s when she saw him standing out on the gallery.

  “Daniel?” she called, but he didn’t respond. She moved toward the door and called again. “Daniel?”

  “Heather?” she heard Daniel’s voice but it sounded so far away. Heather figured that the fog was messing with the acoustics and called again.

  “Daniel?”

  “Right here,” came a voice from out of the fog. Now Heather could see Daniel’s dark figure standing out on the gallery on the village side of the walkway. Daniel beckoned her to come and join him, so she placed one foot on the floor of the gallery. The metal made an ominous creaking sound, but when Daniel didn’t react, she figured that that must be normal and took another step.

  Slowly she made her way around the gallery and, although it creaked and groaned under her feet, she felt safe because Daniel was waiting for her just a few steps away.

  Down below Daniel watched the figure move onto the gallery and he knew that it was Heather. His heart was in his throat and he felt frozen with fear. He couldn’t understand what she was doing up there.

  “Heather!” he yelled, but she didn’t look down. She just continued to make her careful way around the outside of the lighthouse toward the other figure standing on the gallery.

  Michael pounded up to Daniel with a big coil of rope looped over his shoulder.

  “Shit, is that Heather?”

  All Daniel could say was, “Yes.”

  “Fuck, what are we going to do?” Michael’s fear snapped Daniel out of his stasis and he grabbed the rope from Michael.

  “I’m going to go up and get her down. You keep yelling at her until she hears you, and then get her to stand still.” Michael nodded and Daniel sprinted for the lighthouse.

  The gallery was slippery from the fog, and Heather felt dizzy from being up so high, but she carefully made her way around the outside of the lighthouse mimicking Daniel’s careful stepping technique. She counted in her mind to keep her fear from making her retreat back into the safety of the lantern room. One-step, two-steps, one-step, two-steps.

  “Heather?” She looked at Daniel but his voice sounded strange.

  “Heather!”

  Not sure if the fog was playing tricks again, she called back, “Daniel?”

  “No, it’s Michael.” Michael? That didn’t make any sense. Where was Michael? She finally looked down and she could see someone waving madly to get her attention.

  “Michael?” she yelled down to the waving figure.

  “Yes!” he yelled back, “Heather stand still. Daniel is coming.”

  Confused, Heather looked at the figure standing across from her and she
tried to understand what Michael was saying. Daniel was coming for her? She looked at Daniel and he wasn’t moving. Deciding she had misheard what Michael was trying to say she yelled back down to him.

  “What?”

  “Stand still!” Heather glanced back at Daniel and jumped when he suddenly rushed her. She stumbled back against the railing as the dark figure rushed right through her.

  The railing made a horrible grinding sound and the piece of flooring that Heather was standing on began to tilt toward the cliff.

  Daniel ran as quickly as he could up the lighthouse staircase chanting under his breath, “Hang on Heather, hang on.”

  As he pushed through the watch room door, he heard Heather scream.

  “Heather!” he cried out in terror and flew up into the lantern room.

  He surveyed the gallery but he couldn’t see her.

  “No, no, no, no, no,” he chanted as he ran from window to window looking for her. He noticed the missing railing and saw that Heather was wrapped around the railing spokes holding on for dear life.

  “Heather,” he whispered, almost like a prayer. Not wanting to startle her he leaned out the door and gently said, “Heather, it’s me Daniel. Don’t move.”

  “Daniel,” Heather sobbed, “is it really you?”

  “Yes honey, it’s me. Now hold as still as you can. I’ve got a rope and I’m going to come and get you.”

  Daniel tied one end of the rope to the railing that encircled the lamp then he knotted the other end around his waist.

  Carefully he stepped out onto the gallery.

  Michael was torn. Should he race up and help Daniel pull Heather in or should he call for help? He pulled