The Legend of the Light Keeper (The Light Keeper Series Book 1) (6 page)

Talon shrugged. “It’s too hard to make out what she’s saying.”

“Come look at this.” Owen led us to his room.

His room was similar to mine with very few things taking up space, especially compared to his brother’s room. But what he did have was neat as a pin: a weight bench, twin bed, dresser, nightstand, and some shelves with a stereo and trophies. Most of them had little baseball players or gloves from Little League.

He went around his weight bench and pointed to a place on the wall. “The next morning, after that was recorded, we found a mark here. The very same kind of mark we saw at your house.”

“What do you think it is?” I asked, noticing a faint trace on the wall.

“Bragg Light,” Owen answered, as if it should be obvious.

“Yeah, probably,” I said. “But what exactly? What does it want? Why is it here? Is it just some unexplained phenomenon or is there more to it?” I sighed. “Are we safe?” I folded my arms and stepped closer to Talon. He put his arm around me.

Owen shrugged. “Look, this thing, whatever it is, it’s never touched us. It hasn’t hurt us. It doesn’t seem to have any rhyme or reason, which makes me think it’s not intelligent. It’s probably just residual.” He seemed pleased with his analysis.

“Let me get this straight,” I said. “This
thing
locked me in the bathroom and you think it’s residual. Really? It sounds pretty intelligent to me.” I knew he was wrong, but he didn’t know about my Shadows.

“Yes, I do.” He nodded.

“Wait, what’s residual?” Talon was still trying to keep up.

I answered, hoping I’d make sense. “It’s like a recording in time. It’s recorded energy from the past that just plays over and over.”

Hunter interrupted, “It’s not intelligent. Which means it doesn’t know that it exists. It just does. It’s the most common type of a haunting and usually occurs in places where there are natural conductors like the underground springs in this area.” He waited for Talon’s reaction.

“I think that’s all it is.” Owen nodded. “Recorded energy from the past.”

“That would only explain the voices and the orbs, maybe, but what about the bathroom lights going out and the locks? And besides, doesn’t the energy have to be from some strong emotion or traumatic event to be recorded in the first place? Has anything bad happened around here?” I turned to Hunter for my answer.

“Not since we moved in almost a year ago. No telling what happened here in the past, but I doubt that is even a requirement.” He shrugged.

“Have you told anyone?” I figured they hadn’t since they were just telling us.

“No, just you and Talon. Granny would get too worked up about the marks.” Hunter lowered his brow. “That reminds me. I have to go set a trap.”

“Wait,” I blurted. I had to do it now. I had to tell them about the Shadows. A sensation of overwhelming fear come across me like it had in the bathroom, except this time it was my fear of them not believing me, or worse, judging me.

“What’s the matter, Lily?” Talon asked. His arm slipped from around my waist and then his hand closed around mine.

I was surprised when Hunter stepped forward and put a hand on my shoulder. “You have something else to tell us,” he said. It surely wasn’t a question. He could tell.

“You can tell us anything, Lily,” Owen encouraged.

“I haven’t told you the whole truth,” I said. Talon dropped my hand and I was suddenly unsure again. “I see things in the dark. I always have. Well, not just
things
, Shadows to be specific. I saw one last night and today in the bathroom, too.” I watched their faces change and Talon sighed.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He took my hand again, his thumb stroking the back of my knuckles.

“No one has ever believed me, only my Gram. I didn’t want you to think I was a freak. We just met and you don’t seem to believe in too much.”

“I believe in you, Lily.” Talon’s eyes met mine directly. “If you say it, I believe it, even if I don’t understand it.”

“Since I was very young, whenever I’m in the dark, I see them, like darkness flowing in the dark, shadows in the shadows. If I have a light on, I don’t see them for some reason. It’s why I keep the lights on at night. So they can’t get me.” I paused to see their reactions.

“Just because you can’t see them, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t still there,” Hunter said, almost apologetically. “I’m not trying to scare you, just making an observation. Have they ever touched you? Spoken to you?”

“No, it’s like they don’t exist unless it’s dark, but there is always an overwhelming sense of panic when they’re around. That Light— it came and it’s almost like it chased the shadows away. I’ve never seen it before.”

“Look, obviously there’s something here. We can’t dispute that. We have too much proof.” Owen glared at Talon as though he was going to get a debate, but Talon didn’t disagree. “We’re all in this together, so from now on we share
everything
that happens. No secrets in the circle.” Owen gave me a pat on the back as Hunter spoke up.

“Sorry, little brother, there’s four of us, so technically, we’re a square.” Hunter ducked Owen’s swing and headed into the hall. “Let’s go build that trap.” He motioned for us to come along.

We followed them outside and noticed our parents had made it back. Talon’s eyes got wide. “We better get home, Lily. We have to clean up the mark before Cate finds it.”

We ran to the house, dodging our parents out front, and ran straight to the bathroom to clean the mark. The rag from earlier was still in the hamper. No need to dirty another one.

This mark was larger. It was almost the entire length of the door and the grooves in the wood grain made it harder to get off. I was glad Talon was there with me. I was a little hesitant to be in there so soon after being locked inside. I figured I’d never lock the doors again, which would make sharing a bathroom even more interesting.

Just as we finished, Talon’s phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID and then went to his room to take the call in private. I wondered if it was the stalker again, though his actions spoke otherwise. Maybe it was the girl with the gorgeous body. I gave it a second thought, realizing his body language was way too stiff. I guessed it was not my busin
ess either way.

Out front, I found Mom and Tom trying to figure out how to lay the pavers for the walkway. Mom wanted it to curve around to the driveway. She argued that it would be prettier when she got to plant flowers, but Tom thought a straight shot would be more practical. Mom was determined to have it her way. She even resorted to calling Tom by is given name. “Stephen Thomas!” she snapped during her plea, and he caved. He put up a pretty strong fight, but he never really stood a chance.

“Did you have fun in town?” Mom finally acknowledged my presence.

“Sure, small town, not much to see. We went straight there and back so the drive took longer than anything else.” I sighed.

“Where’s Talon?” Tom asked, glancing over his shoulder at the truckload of pavers.

“He’s in his room. He had a call.”

Tom went inside to find his helper and Mom and I rested on the steps. “How do you like it so far?” She nudged me with her elbow.

“So far so good, I guess. Talon’s nice. It’s good to have someone here to talk to and hang out with.” I thought about it. It really wasn’t so bad. It was a lot different than I had imagined, different than it was when it was just us girls, but I could adjust. Nothing to do, strange neighbors and ghosts. I would tolerate it all to get to know Talon better. It wasn’t like I had a choice.

Back home, I had my group of friends and there was always something going on. We had great times, driving into town, shopping, hanging out at the movies or at the mall. We would spend the nights gathered on the beach and listening to the waves. Now I couldn’t even call them. We’d all been scattered to the winds. The first sacrifice toward recovery was giving up our cell phones. I’d only had mine back for a month and none of their old numbers worked.

I had missed them terribly while at the hotel, but I hadn’t thought of them at all in the last few days. I never made any real friends at my temporary school and was glad I’d never see that place again. At least I would have Talon and the brothers when school started back in the fall. I put my arm on Mom’s shoulder. “Sure beats the hotel,” I said.

We both laughed. The hotel had really been boring with nothing but a TV with limited cable access for entertainment. I spent most of my time there reading. It was my only escape.

Talon and Tom argued as they returned. “We’ll talk about this later, Tal.” Tom threw him a glare and walked to the back of the truck and dropped the tailgate.

Talon glanced at me. His lips were pressed in a tight line and his chest was bowed. He was fuming mad. I wasn’t aware that he had such a temper. I figured it wasn’t really about moving the pavers. Tom must have cut his call short. I think Mom felt as awkward as I did. We went inside to get dinner ready and escape the tension. As soon as we were in the house, we heard them going at it again.

An hour later we all sat around the dinner table. Talon wouldn’t look up from his plate. His eyes stayed hard with anger. Tom, however, sat quiet, his expression much more at ease. He’d obviously won the battle, and before too long he was laughing with Mom about friends and making plans for the weekend.

After dinner, I retired to my room for a little “me” time. I desperately needed to paint my toenails. It was sandal season and I hadn’t been to Mom’s shop for a proper pedicure in weeks. I brushed my last little toe with a dot of hot pink polish as Talon knocked on my door. “Come on in,” I said.

He pushed the door open and came in; his temper had calmed considerably. “Sorry about earlier, I was just so mad.”

I closed the polish and patted the place next to me. “What’s wrong?” I hoped it wasn’t anything too serious.

He sat with me at the foot of my bed. “That was my mom who called. She wants me to come and visit her for a week.”

“Oh, so Tom doesn’t want you to go?” I figured. Surely Talon wanted to go to his mom’s.

“No! He
wants
me to go! He thinks I should spend some time with her. I really don’t want to go right now. Not with everything going on here with the marks and the ghosts and Lights and stuff. Plus, I’m still getting settled.”

“When are you going?” I sighed and gave him a sympathetic smile. There was no doubt he was. Tom was pretty confident at the table and my heart sank at the thought of him leaving. I knew I shouldn’t feel that way, but I couldn’t help it. It bothered me. Plus, I’d have to be all alone at our end of the house with the “ghost stuff.”

“In a week. I leave next Sunday and come back the following. A whole week.” Talon spoke as if it were a prison sentence. As much as I hated him leaving, I thought he was pretty lucky. At least he wouldn’t be stuck out in the woods with me. He’d be someplace normal, someplace where he didn’t have to worry about burning orbs of light and haunts. I’d be stuck all alone to face God knows what. I clutched my hand to my throat and swallowed hard as my brows pinched tight. Talon reacted. “I’ll find some way out of it. I can go later. I’ll just have to convince Dad that now is not a good time for me.” I didn’t want to see another battle between the two of them.

“You can’t put it off forever. She’s your mother. She wants to see you.”

“I should be here if something happens.” He rubbed the back of his neck and clenched his jaw.

“I’ll be fine. Besides, Owen and Hunter can look after me,” I said.

“Oh, great, I’m sure that will make Owen’s week.”

“What do you care anyway?” I asked, teasing him with a nudge. He laughed off my comment. It was hard to tell what he was thinking when his emotions were mixed.

He changed the subject after glancing around at my bare walls. “You really lost everything, huh?”

“Yes, everything that was left behind, house and all. I probably should’ve left that mark on the wall. At least it was some sort of decoration, right?” I joked, hoping to lighten the mood. We’d never really talked about the storm or my old house. The last thing I wanted from him or anyone else was pity.

“Well, maybe you’ll get another mark,” he said, frowning. “Seriously, it must be hard on you and your mom. I couldn’t imagine losing everything.”

“It’s not just us. Lots of people lost everything, including their lives.” I shrugged. “The hardest part is the fact that all of my friends were scattered. We were staying at the hotel, and I haven’t really gotten back in touch with anyone.”

“That sounds lonely,” he said. “It’s been months ago now; nearly a year. Our old neighborhood wasn’t hit that hard.”

“The recovery is ongoing in mine. Some people are still in tents and trailers if they haven’t relocated. My entire neighborhood is gone; completely flattened. Only two houses out of hundreds were left standing along the beach, and they were damaged so badly they’ll have to be rebuilt. They still haven‘t found a lady that lived a few houses down from us. She didn‘t evacuate. I went to school with her grandson.”

“I guess when you look at it that way, what’s a bunch of stuff, right?” His eyes narrowed, and I could tell he was really giving it some thought. It wasn’t just a distraction.

“Sure, I miss my stuff. I’m human, and I was a very spoiled one before the winds came. All the way home from the evacuation, all I wondered was if my house had flooded and if the water had gotten high enough to ruin my TV and computer. I wondered how long I would have to wait to go to the mall with my friends again. I was bummed that our homecoming dance was cancelled.” I sighed, thinking back on it. “Then once I got to our old neighborhood and saw that everything was flattened, it hit me how petty I was being. There are more important things in life than dances and shopping malls.”

“You can use my computer anytime,” he offered as his expression waned. “Looks like you’ll have it all to yourself next week while I’m at Mom’s. Guess things could be worse.” He scanned my empty room again.

“Always,” I said, nodding. “I’m really glad we’re here now, though. I think I’m gonna like it, even if there’s some sort of Ghost Light out there. Besides, not many people get a chance to start all over in life.”