Chapter 10
The wind picked up outside, howling through the pine trees and slamming rain against the cabin windows with sudden, violent intensity. David emerged from the hallway, holding a rolled-up set of architectural blueprints he had found in Allison’s makeshift office, his face pale in the flickering lamplight. He laid the papers out on the wooden table, pointing to a sketched diagram of the old lighthouse ruin mentioned in the journals. The blueprints revealed an underground subterranean vault built into the cliffside below the lighthouse, complete with security mechanisms that defied modern electronic hacking. David finally admitted that Allison was right; the corporation was real, and they had been systematically destroying or buying out local landowners to bury a decades-old environmental scandal involving toxic dumping along the coast. Yet, David remained terrified of the physical danger involved in walking into that ruined lighthouse in the middle of a raging coastal storm with their six-year-old daughter. Claire stood her ground, her voice steady and resolute as she argued that running away was no longer an option. If they left now, the corporation would find the archive, Allison might be lost forever, and Lily would grow up in a world built on a foundation of stolen truth. As if sensing the gravity of the conversation, Lily walked over, tugging gently on Claire’s coat and holding up the doll with the purple bow. "Aunt Allison is waiting for us by the big tower, Mommy," Lily said with an eerie, uncharacteristic calmness that sent shivers down both parents' spines. There was no hesitation left in Claire; she grabbed her heavy coat, handed David a flashlight, and together the small family stepped out into the howling darkness, determined to reach the lighthouse before it was too late.
