48
Salem
From the Ashen Waves
S triking the water, I blacked out.
Conciousness came and went, terrifying moments of painful reality.
The waves beat me, tumbling me end over end.
Seawater rushed into my mouth and nose. Choking, flailing, I tried to right myself.
The waves and the sky were the same deep void of darkness, except one shone with stars and the other reflected the flickering orange light of the flames.
The cold was making my muscles freeze up. I had mere minutes before hypothermia dragged me down to a watery grave. The majority of the shoreline here was a sheer cliff face, but I could see a narrow, rocky beach over the waves, and I swam for it.
Dragging myself onto the smooth pebbles, I coughed until I vomited the water out of my lungs. My breath rattled in my chest as I gasped for air, but with every gasp I yelled, “Rayne! Rayne, where are you?”
The waves crashed relentlessly against the shore. The churning ocean gave me no answer. Up on the cliff, the lighthouse’s flames were spreading. The bricks were so hot they were glowing from within. A giant funeral pyre.
“RAYNE!” I screamed her name until my throat was hoarse. “Rayne, please! Please... where are you?”
Dragging myself to my feet, I took my first agonizing steps. My ankle was broken, surely, but it didn’t matter. I could reach her. I could get back to the lighthouse, I—I could find her, I—somehow—somehow, I would—
My ankle gave out, and I went down. Sobbing, shaking my head, I curled up in the sand. “No, no, no, please—fucking, God, please —”
She deserved better than this. We were going to escape this island together. She was going to explore all the places she’d always wanted to see. She was going to experience so much more than the isolation she’d always been forced into.
She fought for years to be free. She fought so hard.
I watched the lighthouse burn. I couldn’t look away. I stared until it felt as if my eyes were burning too.
She didn’t want to die here. She’d always feared she would. And now...
Tears or screaming weren’t enough. This grief was too heavy, this void of cold darkness was too great. Every time I whispered her name, my heart cracked a little more. But her name was all I had left.
As I watched the flames, another faint red glow caught my attention. I thought it was only a reflection on the waves at first, but no. It was a figure, surrounded by crimson light.
Melanie Balfour, standing in the waves, watched me.
She didn’t look like the haggard, rotting spirit that had stalked me in the manor anymore. She looked like the woman in Rayne’s photos, with long, dark hair, skin the same golden brown as her daughter’s, and a gentle expression.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered as tears poured down my face and my voice broke. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save her.”
Melanie raised her arm, her finger pointing to the south. I looked, scanning the dark shore and the crashing waves. Nothing but driftwood and tangled seaweed.
No... there was...
“Oh my god.” I struggled to my feet. I tried to run, but every step felt like glass shattering in my leg and I stumbled. Heart pounding so hard I thought I might collapse, I crawled the last few yards toward the soaked, limp body lying on the shore.
Rayne was face down, and when I turned her over, her face was deathly pale and her lips were blue. I couldn’t think, I couldn’t speak. She must have leapt after me, following me into the waves only once she was sure the beast was burning.
I started giving chest compressions, begging her all the while, “Please wake up, please, please start breathing...”
Suddenly, in a fit of explosive coughing, Rayne’s eyes opened.
She gasped for air, choking on the water she’d inhaled. One side of her face, including her hair, had been burned severely. Her skin was red and blistered, her hair singed away.
But she was alive. Heart beating, lungs breathing.
She looked at me, and it felt like awakening from a dream. Like shedding the veil of a nightmare.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “God, Salem, I didn’t want to do it, I didn’t, I just—”
I threw my arms around her, collapsing into the sand beside her. Our bodies entwined, tears of joy and relief overflowed as the cold waves lapped over our feet.
“I had to make sure you were safe,” she said. “If I killed it, but lost you... I would have rather burned alive.”
Relief made me weak, my muscles like jelly. But even as battered as she was, Rayne still held me.
Part of the lighthouse collapsed, sending plumes of sparks into the night sky. Like spirits fleeing this cursed place.
Faintly, among the waves, a crimson light glowed. But it was fading, melting into the flames reflected in the water. Rayne sat up, holding me close, and together we watched until the light was gone completely.
“She knew you’d save me,” Rayne said softly. “She knew it all along.”
There was something I’d known all along too. I kissed Rayne’s cold, rough fingers, resting my head against her chest. Her heart still beat like a war drum, but the battle was at an end.
Our love had won.