It seemed to take forever. Muscles aching, she followed the tedious twists and turns, shivering as the wind grew wilder, as the rocks pressed unnaturally close. Then without any warning, the lighthouse was standing just ten feet away.

It looked like an oversized headstone.

As Kelsey stared up at its dingy, crumbling walls, her excitement turned to disappointment. It was a dull, mottled color, rust and mildew trailing up the once-white stone, and it wasn’t straight as it had appeared below, but rather seemed to lean like the cliffs, out over the water. Kelsey let her eyes rove up, up, to the actual light tower atop the house. It looked so spooky perched up there all alone, walls and windows disintegrated from their frameworks, the encircling deck rotted away to a few splintered railings. It probably doesn’t even have a floor anymore…or stairs…only ghosts…

Giving herself a firm mental shake, Kelsey walked toward the entrance. It was so isolated up here…so forgotten… She reached out toward the lighthouse door and gave it a shove.

She didn’t expect it to open.

She didn’t expect to fall across the threshold and sprawl facedown in the dirt and sand, scrabbling madly to tear the sticky cobwebs from her face…

And she didn’t expect the laugh.

The high, shrill, singsong laugh that rose up from the depths of the lighthouse and echoed again and again from a face she couldn’t see.

Chapter 4

IN HER PANIC KELSEY fell against the door, jamming it shut, but as the senseless laughter faded around her, she jerked at the latch and stumbled out into the deserted yard. As the wind forced her back toward the road, she spun around to gaze back at the lighthouse.

The man was right behind her.

With a scream, Kelsey jumped back, eyes riveted helplessly on his ghastly appearance. He seemed a giant skeleton, tattered clothes billowing from his lanky frame, a moth-eaten cap pulled low upon his brow. He was dressed like a fisherman, yet the hands that dangled from his frayed cuffs looked like they could crush effortlessly with a touch. But it was his face—sun-wrinkled, wind-weathered—that filled her with such loathing. The leathery skin was covered with moles, and where his right eye should have been there was only a filthy black patch. His left eye, narrowed and slanted, was tinged with yellow, and spit clung to the sprouting of whiskers on his chin.

Kelsey took another step back, ready to run.

“What you doing here, girl? Hmmm?” The voice was brittle, the laugh a shrill, thin cackle that left him gasping for breath.

Swallowing hard, Kelsey glanced toward the road.

“You a tourist?” The one eye pinned her where she stood, and he cocked his head. “You come to swim? Or die maybe?” He chuckled at her look of horror, shaking his head from side to side. “Funny things happen to girls swimming round here. Maybe you hear about these things, hmmm?” He took a wobbly step toward her, and Kelsey realized she couldn’t move at all, she was too terrified. “You think I hurt you, girl? I won’t hurt you. Isaac don’t hurt nobody. See?” He groaned and lowered himself to the ground, joints popping. “I sit down. Here. Can’t chase you if I’m sitting now, can I?”