Shadows of The Keeper – Chapter 2: Vanishing Point

Ali whistled softly to Muffin, and they crept toward the treeline. The morning dew had left the tall grass bent in a clear trail where someone had recently passed. Each step brought them closer to the ancient oaks, their gnarled branches reaching like fingers into the pink-gold sky.

The old treehouse loomed ahead, Cooper’s pride and joy. Rising three levels into a massive oak, it was more of an engineering marvel than childhood hideout. He’d spent last summer reinforcing its wooden bones, adding solar-powered lights, a weather station for Ali’s lighthouse readings, and even a small radio antenna for picking up marine broadcasts.

Through patches of early morning fog, Ali caught a glimpse of the dark figure just ahead, moving with purpose toward the treehouse. But as they drew closer, something impossible happened. The figure simply… vanished. Right at the base of the massive oak.

Patches of fog still clung to the ground, swirling around their feet as they approached. Ali noticed fresh scuff marks on the trunk’s ancient bark, dark against the weathered gray. A patch of disturbed moss gleamed wet and green where something – or someone – had just been. The rope ladder swayed slightly, though there wasn’t any breeze, its wooden rungs casting strange shadows on the ground.

She reached for her phone, ready to text Cooper. His mechanical mind might make sense of what she was seeing. That’s when Muffin suddenly bounded forward, breaking the morning stillness.

“Wait!” Ali called, but her dog was already at the base of the tree. The golden retriever circled once, twice – then stopped, head tilted in confusion.

Ali caught up and understood why. The trail they’d been following just… stopped. No bent grass leading away, no footprints in the soft earth around the tree’s base, no sign of anyone climbing up. As if their mysterious visitor had simply vanished into thin air.

Something glinted in the early morning light. Pushing aside fallen leaves, she found a small metal disk, no larger than a quarter. Its surface was etched with swirling patterns that reminded her of the decorative borders in Ms. Greco’s old books – the ones the librarian kept locked in the glass cabinet, written in languages Ali didn’t recognize. The metal felt oddly warm against her palm, and the markings seemed to shift in the changing light, like ripples on water.

Muffin whined, pawing at a worn section of the tree trunk. Ali had seen that mark a thousand times – just old damage from a long-ago storm. But this morning, in the strange quiet following their vanished visitor, the jagged scar looked different somehow. More deliberate than she remembered.

Her phone buzzed, making her jump. Jan’s message lit up the screen: “At vet clinic early. Just saw someone really weird by the theatre. Never seen them before. Everything ok over there?”

Her thumb hovered over the reply button when Muffin’s head snapped up. A low hum filled the air, barely audible but making Ali’s teeth vibrate. The disk in her hand grew warmer, and for a moment – so brief she might have imagined it – the etchings glowed with a faint blue light.

At least it was Friday. Pizza night at Ms. Greco’s couldn’t come soon enough. Cooper would want to examine the disk, Jasper would dive into his folklore books, and Bett would undoubtedly have a theory involving secret societies. Ali slipped the disk into her pocket and headed toward the lighthouse. Morning checks couldn’t wait, even for mysteries.

An hour later, lighthouse duties complete and logbook updated, Ali found herself with a decision to make.

“Shadows of The Keeper” is written by Julie D’Aloiso in collaboration with Anthropic’s Claude AI. Each chapter is crafted through creative partnership, combining human storytelling with AI assistance.

Continue to Chapter 3 here.

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https://youtu.be/K6X1j8qvwZs?si=Na_jiou7H3nt1jnp