The Lighthouse

"I saw the light", claimed the crazed hunter. "It was so bright, so close yet so far. I wish to see it again. Please let me."

Except for the experiment of the Trinity House, London doesn't have any lighthouse, and never had one as far as I know. And yet those rumours are tenacious.

A light in the darkness

Multiple reports tell of a faraway lighthouse, encased in fog bank, lighting the city in the darkest hours of the night. It is always individual statement from people who seemingly witnessed something others next to them did not. If they weren't so common, I would take them as hallucinations of a hunter nearing his end or a cultist's deficient grasp on reality.

But the consistency of the reports over the years had me reconsider this point of view. It is always the same thing. The lighthouse seem to be very far, beyond the city, and towers over the clouds. The bright white light, though blurred by the thick fog surrounding the building, circles three times before fading. To the witnesses, the spotlight clearly run over the city extremely fast and illuminate the countryside.

As I haven't had the opportunity to witness this phenomenon with my own two eyes, I cannot emit a sensible hypothesis as its nature, and at the same time I am not sure I wish to do so.

Lost souls

The witnesses always disappear in the week following their encounter with the Lighthouse. At first, they remember it as a warm feeling and find comfort in its remembrance. Quickly, the fondness turns into craving. They are unable to think about anything else and adopt an erratic behaviour. Then, one day, they are gone. They are not kidnapped, they leave of their own will without a trace of a struggle, taking their belongings with them.

They always take advantage of a moment of inattention from their relatives, even jailed and attached there is always a moment, in the blink of an eye, when they are not looked at. And that's when they take their leaves, avoiding awkward goodbyes and never giving a chance of anyone following them. Suffice to say, they are never to be seen again once they reach the Lighthouse.