I collided into something large and heavy. Again.
I let out a blood-curdling scream and I stumbled from the impact. I might have had an out-of-body experience at that moment. I never knew I could scream like that.
The figure was screaming back at me. I didn’t know if it was an echo or what, but I wasn’t going to wait to find out.
I scrambled on my feet, slipping a bit from the goo under my treads, and the thing reached out and steadied me.
“Perry!” I heard it say.
How did it know my name? My head reeled, my heart pounded, and all instincts still told me to run for my life.
I was about to when it shook me.
“Perry! It’s me!”
Me? Dex?
No.
In the light of the waning moon, Matt thrust his face in front of mine.
“Holy fuck, you scared the hell out of me,” he whispered, his voice cracking.
“Matt?” I asked incredulously. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“What am I doing here? Perry, what the fuck? What are you doing here?”
“Matt?” I could hear Tony’s voice calling from upstairs. “Is that her?”
I turned and saw Tony coming down the stairs, his phone in one hand and a huge industrial-looking spotlight in the other. He saw me and let out a sigh of relief.
“Perry, thank God, I almost called dad.”
Matt put his hand on my shoulder. “What are you doing in here?”
I had a hard time composing my thoughts and my breath, so I just shook my head and gave myself a moment.
The twins stared at me, more curious than concerned.
“What were you screaming about?” Tony asked.
“Did you leave this?” I managed to ask Matt, holding up the dying flashlight and ignoring Tony’s question.
He nodded. “Yeah I put it there so Tony could find his way back downstairs. If he used that spotlight in here it would blind us all. This thing is pretty intense.”
“Huh,” I mused, not sure what to make of that. “Was that what that blinding light was?”
The twins looked at each other and shrugged.
“Ada was shining it on the lighthouse from the outside,” Matt said.
Ada. Her name sounded so sweet and familiar.
“Where is she? Is she OK?” I asked anxiously.
“She’s fine,” Tony said warily. “She and Whiz are waiting outside. Are you OK?”
“Yeah, why?”
Matt laughed. “How drunk are you? Next time you want to go exploring the lighthouse, just tell us, OK? I mean, are you fucking nuts coming here? Alone? At night? This place gives us the creeps in the daytime.”
Tony nodded. “I can tell some fucked up stuff has gone on in here. We even get phone calls from ghost hunters and shit wanting to film it. It has a history or something.”
Ghost hunters? Filming? Suddenly it was all beginning to make some sense.
And then I remembered Dex.
“Did you see anyone else in here?” I said slowly. “Or hear anything?”
They both shook their heads.
“You didn’t even hear me yelling? For Dex?” I asked.
“I heard you screaming your head off,” Tony said. “Who’s Dex?”
I shook my head. Scratch that. Nothing made any sense at all.
“We should go back,” Tony said gently, perhaps sensing my mental fragility. I nodded, done with talking. We carefully exited the lighthouse through the broken window. I hoped I never had to step inside of that place again.
There was a comforting sense of normality outside. Ada and Whiz were making out around the corner. OK, that wasn’t the first thing I wanted to see but the minute she saw me, she stopped sucking face and came running over. She threw her arms around me. Not a normal move from her.
“Thank goodness!” she exclaimed, slurring. “I thought you were dead. Or that maybe you jumped off the cliff.”
“That’s nice,” I said blankly.
We started walking back towards Uncle Al’s place.
“Did ya see anything fucked up?” Whiz called from alongside Ada.
“I thought I did,” was all I said. If Matt and Tony were roaming the lighthouse while I was inside, and they didn’t see any sign of Dex, maybe Dex never existed. Maybe he was just another one of those imaginary friends of mine, long lost since childhood. I looked down at my camera. It wasn’t working, which meant any proof of what happened would have to wait until I got it fixed. I hoped it wouldn’t cost me a lot of money.
I sighed with some effort, suddenly overcome with acute mental and physical exhaustion.
I was so tired that when we finally made our way back to the house and put out the bonfire, I nearly passed out on the pull-out couch with my clothes on. Ironically, drunken Ada was the more coherent one.
“What is mom gonna say when she sees you passed out in your clothes?” she admonished.
I nodded at that and slipped into my nightshirt and pajama pants. I threw my clothes on the floor. Papers and change flew out of the jacket. Ada picked up a piece of debris and peered at it.
“What’s this?”
I looked closer. She was holding a business card in her hands.
“Who is Dex Foray?” she asked, looking up at me.
I snatched it out of her hands and turned it over in mine. He did exist.
“A ghost,” I said dreamily, before falling fast asleep.