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Back The Lighthouse Save as PDF
Chapters (50)
  1. PART ONE
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. PART TWO
  13. 12
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 18
  18. 19
  19. 21
  20. 22
  21. 23
  22. 24
  23. 25
  24. 26
  25. 27
  26. 28
  27. 30
  28. 31
  29. 32
  30. 33
  31. 34
  32. 35
  33. 36
  34. 37
  35. 38
  36. 39
  37. 40
  38. 41
  39. 42
  40. 43
  41. PART THREE
  42. 44
  43. 45
  44. 46
  45. 47
  46. 49
  47. 50
  48. 51
  49. 52
  50. EPILOGUE

The bartender cut herself off. She had been distracted by a noise coming from upstairs. She looked up and so did Kevin, for he had heard it as well: the sound of footsteps rushing along the ceiling. Seconds later a young woman in a maid’s apron could be seen tearing down the stairs. She was waving her hands in distress, screaming at the top of her voice.

“Help!” she cried out. “There’s a girl and she’s not breathing! Someone please help! ”

38

38

After Ryan’s dramatic departure, Amy found herself adrift, lost in a place that felt empty, dark, and eerily still. It was as though her spirit had been cast out into some soundless, bottomless chasm where there was nothing to see, nothing to touch, nothing but the echo of her own thoughts.

But she wasn’t alone, for somewhere in the void there was a voice calling to her:

“Sweetheart. It’s me.”

The voice lit up Amy’s senses, rousing her from the shadows, bringing her back to the light. She could feel the world rushing back to meet her, could feel the flat of the earth beneath her body again as bit by bit the darkness began to fade.

She opened her eyes, tried to blink away the haze. A cloudy white sky loomed above her. The air was quiet. Too quiet. She moved her hands and felt grains of sand between her fingers. Had she been returned to the beach? But that couldn’t be right because Ryan had left and taken his snow globe with him. Unless . . . this wasn’t the same beach?

Amy pulled herself up, looked hesitantly to her left, then to her right, searching for clues as to where she might be, and then she looked behind . . .

“Mom!”

Waves of joy and relief swept through Amy as she hurried over and fell into her mother’s arms. She was so overcome with emotion that her whole body started to shake.

Her mother brought her in close, wrapping her in a warm embrace. “I promised you I’d be here, and I meant it.”

“I didn’t know what was going to happen next,” Amy cried. “I didn’t know where I was going. Didn’t know how you were going to find me.”

“Shhh, everything’s going to be all right. I’m here now.”

“But where are we? Ryan made it out, didn’t he? He’s safe?”

“Relax, sweetheart. He’s found peace, and that’s all because of you. I’m so proud of you. But now we need to move. It’ll be dark very soon, and we mustn’t linger.”

39

39

Kevin leapt to his feet, knocking over the table and sending both his drink and case file flying. He pushed his way out of the bar. The maid, visibly shaken and upset, had to lean back as he charged up the stairs.