Waypoint: Cache Quest Oregon (3 page)

His head throbbed, and his entire body felt broken. His hands felt the cool dirt floor below him. He was so thankful he hadn’t landed on wood again for the fear of falling through. The air was moist and musky; he rolled himself over and looked up. Astonished by what he saw he screamed, “Help!”

3

L
acey screamed again, “Ben!” but didn’t hear any response. Fear overcame her, what if he was dead? The thought made her throat tighten; whatever had happened inside wasn’t good. She stepped back from the old red door then, using as much force as she could, kicked it in. The door flew open, smacking the interior wall with a loud thud. She glanced inside before entering, she couldn’t see Ben anywhere. She looked up the spiral staircase, then around the floor one more time, just in case she had missed him in one of the shadows. He wasn’t there. Panic constricted her chest; she grabbed her cell phone, but didn’t have the nerve to call her sister. She would find him, she had to.

Ben closed his eyes and opened them again to make sure he was seeing correctly. It was as if his brain wouldn’t process the image above him. The structure of the lighthouse went deep into the ground, circling the walls was an ancient staircase winding slowly all the way up. It had to be over one hundred feet high. Ben didn’t think he had fallen that far, but it had all happened so fast. He squinted his eyes, and there like a tiny dot he saw the hole he had fallen through, it would take him ages to climb to the top.

He pulled himself to his feet, groaning with pain. He almost screamed as he stood, not because of the pain, but because there were thousands of human skulls staring back at him. They circled the walls all the way to the top, running parallel to the staircase. Each skull was set into the walls of the lighthouse, as if someone had carved shelves specifically for displaying them. But who had put them there? The question ran through Ben’s mind and then suddenly common sense took over and he started running up the stairs. Whoever had put them there probably wouldn’t mind displaying one more.

Lacey stepped into the lighthouse and noticed the hole in the floor just below the window. She looked down into the hole and was amazed to see such a huge deep cavern. Stairs circling the walls seemed to go on forever. She heard something; it was a pounding sound, coming from the staircase under her. She stuck her head into the hole, “Ben!” she yelled, her voice echoed loudly below her. She waited, praying that she would hear some sort of response.

“Help! I’m coming up as fast as I can!” Ben yelled back. Just as he felt a little relief he suddenly fell and smacked his face into the stairs, but they weren’t stairs anymore. The entire staircase had become a huge slide. He was sliding down so fast he couldn’t stop. What on earth was going on? One minute he is climbing stairs then suddenly they changed into a slide? The stairs must have folded in, but why?

As he reached the bottom he realized the answer. He flew off the slide and was thrown into the back of a figure standing in an old cape of some sort. The figure turned and looked down at Ben. It was an old man, with a long tangled beard. His deep eye sockets were almost black. He didn’t even look real, or maybe it was that he didn’t look
alive.

Ben started to crawl backwards, as he turned over to stand the old man took the long staff he was holding and slammed it into Ben’s back. Ben smacked into the cold dirt floor. “Help!” Ben screamed. “Aunt Lacey, help!”

Lacey could barely hear what Ben was yelling, but it sounded like he was screaming for help. Something was going horribly wrong. She sat on the edge of the broken floor and slid onto the steep slide below her. “Well this will be fun.” She said to herself as she pushed off.

The ancient man towered over Ben, he was extremely frail and yet it looked as if he was ten feet tall. He reached down and grabbed Ben’s shirt with a twisted, knobby hand and pulled Ben to his feet. “Have you come to harm the light?” He asked, his voice whistling as it escaped his lips.

“What?” Ben’s voice shook as he tried to speak.

“The light, have you come to harm it? Why are you trespassing on this place?” The man was growing angry.

“I just came for the prize.” Ben pleaded. “The window was open, and I saw the prize, so I came in, but then I fell.”

“I saw you come through the window, most come through to harm the light.” The old man knelt next to Ben. “What is your name?” his warm smelly breath was burning Ben’s eyes.

“Ben.”

“Benjamin, do you know who I am?” His face came even closer to Ben’s. Now Ben could see that deep in those black sockets were small blue eyes. They were the bluest eyes Ben had ever seen, and strangely as Ben looked into them a calming sensation came over his body.

“No, I don’t…but did you kill all these people?” Ben responded.

“No, they were killed by those that have harmed the light.” His voice seemed to struggle as it escaped his old withered lips. “I have protected the light for two hundred years, when someone harms the light those in the sea parish. These skulls belong to them, all of those that have been lost at sea, because I failed to keep the light shining.” A tear dropped from his wrinkled cheek. “I keep the skulls to remind myself everyday why I must protect its brightness, for if it goes out, I fail once again.”

“But who harms the light?” Ben asked innocently.

“Some who come are simply here to destroy, Benjamin. They don’t understand the consequences of darkness, for when darkness wins the sea swallows up those who travel its waters.” He pointed to the skulls that spiraled up the walls, with a long curling finger, “The bodies come to me, as a punishment for allowing the light to go dark. Can I trust you Benjamin, to not harm the light?” His eyes pierced into Ben’s soul.

“Yes, I promise.” Ben replied. The old man closed his eyes and breathed deeply.

As Lacey rounded the last corner of the slide she saw the tall cloaked figure standing in front of Ben. Fear and anger came together within her chest; she had to protect her nephew. “Hey!” she yelled. The figure turned, spread his arms, and anger replaced his calm expression. Her speed was growing on the slide and as she hit the end she flew off and was headed right for the tall man who stood before her. As soon as her feet connected with his cloak his body exploded into millions of tiny pieces of glitter, they floated for a second, and then began to spiral around like a tornado, they became bigger and at the top of the tornado they began to separate and fly away. Ben and Lacey just stared as they saw each piece fly into each individual skull, lighting it like a jack-o-lantern. The entire cavern became bright, as if someone had just plugged in a string of white Christmas lights. Suddenly the floor shook, Lacey grabbed Ben’s arm. As the floor churned slats of wood on the slide lifted and once again became stairs.

“You can explain at the top!” Lacey said as she shoved Ben toward the stairs. They both began to run as fast as they could, the skulls of thousands of men lighting their way.

Their legs were burning and aching, completely out of breath they collapsed on the floor of the lighthouse as soon as they climbed through the ridged hole. Strangely as soon as they fell, that hole closed up, the floor looked as though Ben had never fallen through. They both looked at each other, at this point, neither seemed surprised, they had just witnessed so much.

“So, what on earth was that?” Lacey asked.

“I’ll tell you in the car, right now I want to just get the prize and get out of here.” Ben stood up, his body struggling to hold his weight due to exhaustion.

“Okay, but where’s the prize?” Lacey asked in a frustrated tone. Ben pointed to the ceiling, he saw his aunt’s eyes widen as she focused in on the red container that had the black compass on the bottom. They both began to climb the stairs, slowly testing each step to ensure its safety. As they reached the top Lacey reached over to grab the container.

“Wait!” Ben exclaimed.

“What?” Lacey pulled her arm back quickly.

“Look.” he pointed to the container, then pointed to a thick black wire that the container was chained to.

“That’s okay, let’s just cut the wire.” Lacey said confidently.

“Wait a sec’.” Ben followed the wire with his eyes, and just as he expected it was the electrical wire that energized the light at the top of the lighthouse. “If we cut that wire, the light will go out.” Ben said.

“So?” Lacey responded. “We’ll cut the wire, and then someone will notice the light is out and they’ll come fix it. Heck we could even leave them some money for the damage.”

“No!” Ben said firmly.

“Why?” Lacey asked, this time with concern.

“I promised I wouldn’t let that light go out. We just have to figure out another way to get the container.” He looked again at the container, and then looked down to the floor; a shiver of fear went down his spine, as he realized how high up they were. “Wait, it looks like the top of the container screws on and off, doesn’t it?” Ben nudged Lacey.

“Yeah, I think so, but who knows how tight the lid is.” She replied

“What if we could somehow get a hold of the bottom of the container and twist it until just the bottom dropped off, that way the lid stays connected to the electrical wire, and we won’t have to cut it.” Ben waited, hoping Lacey would agree to his idea.

“I could probably reach it, I don’t know about twisting it though.” She looked at the container again. “Well let’s try it.”

She reached as far as she could; Ben held her legs to stabilize her. Her fingers grasped the container; it was too large to wrap her hands around. “Ben run to my car, I have a batting glove in the back. I think that’ll give me a better grip.” Ben ran down the stairs. He returned quickly and handed her a gray and blue batting glove.

“You play baseball?” Ben asked.

“Well, softball.” Lacey said as she reached for the container one more time. The gloved hand gave her enough traction to twist the container slightly. “Hey it’s working!” She said. “But I think you will have to go to the bottom to catch it.” Ben made his way down the stairs once again and looked up just in time to see the container drop; as it dropped a single piece of paper flew out of it. “It must be a check!” Lacey yelled with excitement. Ben let the container fall to the floor and went after the check, adrenaline coursed through his veins, for a moment he couldn’t feel how badly it hurt to move.

The check floated into his hands, he could hear Lacey as she bounded down the stairs. Suddenly his face grew sad. “It’s not a check.” Ben groaned.

“What do you mean?” Lacey said, as she jumped onto the floor.

“It’s more numbers, look.” He handed her the slip of paper, then dropped to the floor, suddenly his body began to ache again.

Lacey read the writing aloud,
“Congratulations on a job well done, you found the first, now there’s another one. This waypoint leads to a mountain of black, deep in the glass you’ll find what you lack.”
Lacey sighed loudly. “Well I guess I better call your mom.”