↣ Book Two ↢

Lighthouse

A One-Shot

based on A Note A Day by Siriusly_fandoms

[This is one of the two winning one-shots]

★✩★

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine

You make me happy when skies are grey

You'll never know dear; how much I love you

Please don't take my sunshine away

--Jimmie Davis, You Are My Sunshine

★✩★

VIOLET DAWES WAS A BEACON OF LIGHT.

And like the sun, she radiated beauty and strength and kindness.

Her light brought people close to her. She had a heart of gold and she shared it with the people whom she loved and held dear to. And among those people were two boys who she loved the most: Malcolm and Theodore.

Her brother was one of the most precious people she held dear to. The boy who looked up to her, who loved her and would never let her go. The boy who poured his heart into acting just so he could be like his sister. The boy with so much charisma and confidence, one who would take up any challenge given to him. A creative little genius who would make up his own scripts and act it out along with his cousin and sister in front of their parents. The same little boy that had gotten lost in the woods trying to find the Tinkerbell to his Peter Pan.

The day he went missing when he was ten years old had been the scariest day of her life. At only twelve years old, she ran ahead of her parents to search every nook and cranny of the whole damned forest. Every little movement, behind every tree, over and under hills, she searched for her little brother until she found him sitting on top of a hill slightly off the trail looking at a sunset. After twenty minutes of searching and yelling, she found her brother sitting peacefully on top of a hill drinking a juice box.

"Malcolm! Where have you been? You had us all worried sick," she had shouted at her brother as she quickly ran up the hill.

"Sh, sh, I'm watching the sunset," he had replied, brushing his sister's words off.

"What do you mean sh, we've all been—" but her words were cut short as she approached the top of the hill, the view of the entire town unfolded below them, the yellow orb of the sun slowly dipping below the horizon.

She was breathless, the sunset entrancing her in an everlasting spell. The moment permanently engraved into her mind and into her heart. The sky looked absolutely magical, a myriad of colours playing and changing as the minutes ticked by. Around the sun were hues of orange and yellow, streaks of paint mixing and blending with the clouds in the sky. Beyond that, colours of pinks and oranges contrasted with the heavy azure of the sky that had yet to be touched by the rays of the dipping sun. Violets and magentas also sprinkled around as the yellows and reds were painting and mixing into the darker clouds of the sky. The whole array of the colour spectrum, all in one sky. Vibrant colours and pastel colours combined in a powerful contrasting way that made everything surreal.

And in that moment, her fear of her brother being lost and the anger she held at him for running off disappeared. It was her and the sky. This was her moment.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" She had heard Malcolm whisper quietly, as if the delicate moment that settled around them would shatter if he spoke too loudly. She could only nod, mesmerized by the beauty settling in front of her. The sky continued to turn from vibrant yellows, oranges, and pinks to deeper blues and violets.

"I found this place while I was searching for my way back home. I got lost and I figured you'd find me. So I found this hill and decided to watch the sunset. It reminds me of you, ya know? Everything looks so pretty, just like you." She had turned to him for a quick smile before turning back to stare at the sunset, wanting to imprint the whole sky into her memory forever.

"But the thing sticks out the most? I knew that you'd come up here and find me. It's like the sun's light brought me here just like it brought you here. You're like my sunset, Vi. I know that if I ever get lost, I can just look for the light and I'll find you there."

She turned and smiled the biggest smile she could at her precious younger brother. With tears in her eyes, she brought him close and hugged him, whispering a small "I love you" to him. He grinned back as he replied with an, "I love you too." Letting go, they watched the remainder of the dipping sun before Malcolm turns to her and cheekily offers a smile with a-- 

"Juice box?"

★ ✩ ★

Her cousin, who is the same age as Malcolm, was like her second younger brother. In a lot of ways, he was the opposite of Violet. Where she was extroverted, often very loud and talkative, constantly the center of attention, he was quiet and reserved, a little introvert in a world of his own. He kept to himself most of the time but he had the biggest imagination she'd ever seen in a human. She watched as he drew drawing after drawing, seeing him improve over the years. He was cheeky often taking after her own quirkiness.

But then came the day his father died. The light dimmed in him and he slowly became an onyx sky, a black hole, void of any light. She felt absolutely devastated for him. At fourteen years old, Theodore should've been out with friends, becoming a rebel teenager who was too cool for anything. Or more realistically, taking up more art mediums and (hopefully) working on his social skills. She remembered entering his room the day she heard the news to find him crying in bed, his bedroom floor strewn with papers, pencils, books, and the most heartbreaking, crumpled drawings he'd been working on for an upcoming art competition. The room was dark, the only source of light coming from the open doorway she was standing in.

"Theodore," she had whispered, vicariously feeling her heart being torn at the sound of his broken sobs. Each cry, each shout, broke her down even more. Malcolm was too disheartened to come; afraid he'd make the situation worse in the highly likely case he'd break down in front of his cousin. Besides, he's always been a softie at heart, yet would never admit it. Tear went her heart. Rip. Shred.

"It's dark in here, you should open the curtains," she had whispered, trying to ease into a conversation with the torn up boy in front of her.

"No! Please, the blue sky will remind me too much of his eyes," he had quickly yelped as she reached the drapes.

"You can't live in darkness forever."

"I can try." She had frowned, saddened to hear her once lively second younger brother with no life left in his voice. Pondering about the dark room, she remembered she had bought little fairly lights for her own room before visiting Theodore and she quickly took it out of her bag. Luckily it came with batteries and she turned it on, lighting the dark tiny room in little speckles of light. Walking over to her desk, she poured the remainder of the pencils outside of the mason jar they sat in and stuffed the tiny lights into the jar. In the dark room, the jar lit up the room like stars in the night. A bright nebula, held within in the confines of a jar. Walking over to his bed, she sat on the edge and handed him the jar.

"What is this for?" He asked her, and as she looked into his eyes, she no longer saw a beautiful ocean of azure and cyan but in replacement, a dark sky, black matter replacing the light left in the night.

"You've lost your light and I know Uncle wouldn't want you this way," she grabbed his hand and squeezed it comfortingly before continuing, "And this jar is supposed to remind you of who you are. You are meant to be filled with life and with light. But, like stars, we still need darkness to shine. You are full of life and you are loved and it is in these darker moments that you know how much you shine."

And as she looked into his eyes, she saw the dark night sky begin to sprinkle with stars. The once black hole that pulled all the light away slowly releasing it, the darkness into a bright galaxy of stars. The darkness still there, slowly but surely diminishing. And she could see the old Theodore coming back. And he had given her a small smile at her, giving her a tight hug, almost telling her that he never ever wanted to let go.

★ ✩ ★

The three of them were inseparable, Malcolm, Violet, and Theodore, never really seen without each other. They were all joined at the hip, always having each other's back despite the slight age difference. And to both boys, she was the light in the dark, guiding them through the dark nights. She was Polaris and they were the shipmen lost at sea. She wasn't just a light to them though. She was, a lot of the time, a light to others. She filled their darkness with light and hope and love. She was a light until the very end, yet she still continues to shine. On the night of the crash, she was on her way from the convenience store down the road. It was a Friday night, which meant her and the boys got to pig out on everything and anything unhealthy.

During the winter, the day gets shorter. The sun sets earlier, the darkness takes over longer. Starless nights like that night where even the clouds covered the only source of natural light. The moon, the stars, covered with a blanket of clouds. Violet disliked the dark. Being an actress, she was constantly surrounded with light. Spotlights constantly followed her on stage and she felt at ease with light all around her. Constantly being surrounded by lights also made her take in some of that light and she brought it within herself. That night would be the night where she released all the light she held within her.

The drunk driver was a troubled man. He was a runner, a coward in many ways. Running from his problems, never brave enough to face them. He was angry at the world for being so unfair to him, angry at himself that he couldn't connect with his daughter, angry that he tore his family apart. He was a drunkard, problems and problems stacking up, ignored by him as he drank until he blacked out. Or at least, until he was tipsy. He had a habit of making bad decisions, like the time he gambled all his family's money away or the time he got caught up in a fight and badly injured another man. But this decision to get into a car drunk changed everything. Going over the speed limit down an icy road, he didn't notice a teenage girl peacefully crossing the road. When he did it was much too late. The brakes screeched but he managed to hit the girl, not directly head on but almost. Quickly he stumbled out of his car and ran straight to the girl.

"Oh – oh my, I'm so – I'm sorry," he whispered, tears spilled from his eyes as he crouched down at Violet. She was lying on the ground, barely conscious, a deep gash on her forehead from where she hit the ground upon impact. He could see crimson on the light layer of snow on the ground. She looked up at him and whispered, ever so delicately,

"Tell my family that I'll be in the stars."

And her head rolled off, unconscious and barely breathing. The man was crying. He regretted every decision he'd ever made that brought him to this point in his life. Amongst the tears, he noticed the unconscious girl in his arms looked like his daughter, the same brunette hair and petite lips. And he cried, quickly calling an ambulance on his cellphone, before getting up. And he ran, like he always did he ran. But this time, he wasn't running away from his problems: he was running to face his problems. He frantically knocked on a mahogany door a few blocks down from the crash.

"Open up, please open up," he desperately whispered as he rapidly tapped the door. After a minute of knocking – although it felt like much longer – a teenage girl opened the door.

"Dad?"

And the man hugged his daughter, kissing the top of her forehead.

"I'm so sorry, for everything I've done. For not being there for you, for making you lose your trust, I'm sorry. But I promise I'll make it up to you, I will. I've done something very bad but I'm going to solve it. I'm sorry, tell your mother I love her. I still love you both, I never stopped, I'm sorry," he frantically spoke to his daughter. Tears were streaming down both their eyes as he kissed his daughter's forehead once again before turning around and stepping off the porch.

"Dad!" His daughter ran towards him and hugged him before whispering, "I love you too."

He wrapped her tight in her arms before replying with an "I love you." Letting go, he returned to the crash, and held the almost lifeless girl in his arms before an ambulance came and he turned himself in for driving under influence. In the midst of all his bad decisions, he finally made a good one. He was lost but found his way back home, all thanks to Violet.

Violet Dawes was a beacon of light; stars and sunshine held within her. On that night, her light was released and spread out into the world. The blanket of clouds that covered the night cleared and an ocean of stars was visible. Violet Dawes was a galaxy, lighting up the dark night in the most beautiful way, watching over the people she loved. She was a sunset, mesmerizing people with her beauty. She was a sunrise, awakening people for a new day ahead. She was loving and had heart of gold, impacting the people around her. She was light herself, and she overcame darkness.

And most of all, Violet Dawes was a lighthouse. And she brought lost ships back home.

  ★✩★ 

WORD COUNT: 2,411 words

a/n

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to read this one shot! This is based on the Wattpad story "A Note A Day" by Sophie Claflin and it is my entry for her one shot contest. I chose to write about Violet Dawes, who is the older sister of Malcolm Dawes, because even though she doesn't show up in the book much, she seems to be a significant character. She's almost a linchpin in the sense that she brought everyone together: Malcolm, Theodore, Shane, and even Charlotte. She also doesn't have much of a backstory and I wanted to bring out that "protective older sister" trait Malcolm and Teddy seem to describe of her. I wanted to bring her character to life as many people seem to overlook her. Like many of the characters in "A Note A Day," I wanted Violet to be a metaphor. Charlotte is the Earth and Teddy is the ocean and stars; Violet is the sun. A huge part of the original novel are the metaphors and I really wanted to incorporate that into my one shot.
I hope you enjoyed reading! Please do read "A Note A Day" if you haven't as it is an amazing novel. I hope my one shot did justice to the sheer awesomeness that is ANAD. Thanks for reading! And have a Happy 2016!