The storm screamed like a wounded beast.
Winds howled. Waves crashed against the cliffs, sending icy spray into the air. Elias gripped the lighthouse railing, knuckles white, as the salty wind burned his eyes.
Then—smash!
Below, a glass bottle shattered against the jagged rocks.
Something about it felt… important.
Elias scrambled down the slick, twisting stairs. His boots splashed through puddles as he reached the shore.
A corked bottle, now cracked, lay among the seaweed. Hands shaking, he pried it open. Inside:
A waterlogged map. A faded photograph.
And a message, written in desperate scrawl:
“Find her.”
Elias’s breath caught.
The soldier in the photo—he knew that face.
It was his grandfather.
The same grandfather who had vanished in 1943, lost at sea. Presumed drowned.
Yet here was a message… a plea… after all these years.
That night, the lighthouse shuddered under the storm’s fury.
Then, the beam flickered.
Not randomly. Not by accident.
The flashes came in a pattern—Morse code.
Elias hadn’t programmed it.
The message was clear:
Come below.
His pulse thundered as he followed the light’s command, descending into the lighthouse’s deepest level.
The air turned damp. The stone stairs felt endless.
Then, at the bottom—a door.
Elias hesitated. Then, slowly, he pushed it open.
Inside, a hidden bunker lay frozen in time. Rusted radio equipment sat covered in dust. Old maps curled at the edges.
And in the farthest corner—
A skeleton.
The tattered uniform left no doubt. The man had once been a soldier.
Elias’s stomach twisted as he spotted an old leather journal, its pages brittle with age.
His trembling hands flipped to the last entry.
“I chose this tower over my family. Tell Clara I’m sorry.”
Clara.
Elias’s mother.
The woman who had spent her life believing her father abandoned her.
His heart pounded. His mind raced.
The next day, he radioed the coast guard.
Divers searched. They found it.
A sunken U-boat, rusted but whole. A forgotten relic of war.
As the past rose from the deep, Elias stood at a crossroads.
Reveal the truth… and tarnish a hero’s legacy?
Or let the sea keep its secrets?
The lighthouse stood silent, waiting for his choice.