Free Itsy Bitsy by John Ajvide Lindqvist

walk abreast. Iron shutters fastened with wing nuts covered the window openings.
    Cecilia stopped. Anders could hear that she was breathing heavily. She reached out behind her back with one hand. Anders took it and asked, ‘How are you doing?’
    ‘OK.’
    Cecilia carried on upwards as she squeezed Anders’ hand. She had a tendency towards claustrophobia, and from that point of view the lighthouse was an absolute nightmare. The thick stone walls rising up so close together swallowed every sound, and the only light came from the open door down at the bottom and a fainter source of light higher up.
    After another forty or so steps it was completely dark behind them, while the light above them had grown stronger. From somewhere up above they could hear Maja’s voice, ‘Hurry up! Come and see!’
    The staircase ended at an open space in a wooden floor. They were standing in a circular room where a number of small windows made of thick glass let in a limited amount of light. In the middle of the room was another open door in a tower within the tower, with light pouring out.
    Cecilia sat down on the floor and rubbed her hands over her face. When Anders crouched down beside her she waved dismissively. ‘I’m fine. I just need to…’
    Maja was shouting from inside the tower and Cecilia told him to go, she would follow shortly. Anders stroked her hair and went over to the open door, which led to another spiral staircase, this one made of iron. The light hurt his eyes as he climbed the twenty or so steps up to the heart and the brain of the lighthouse, the reflector.
    Anders stopped and gazed open-mouthed. It was so beautiful.
    From the darkness we ascend towards the light. He made his way up the dark staircase, and it was a shock to reach the top. Apart from a whitewashed border right at the bottom, the circular walls were made entirely of glass, and everything was sky and light. In the middle of the room stood the reflector, an obelisk made up of prisms and different coloured, geometrically precise pieces of glass. A shrine to the light.
    Maja was standing with her nose and hands pressed against the glass wall. When she heard Anders coming, she pointed out across the ice, towards the north-east.
    ‘Daddy, what’s that?’
    Anders screwed his eyes up against the brightness and looked out over the ice. He couldn’t see anything apart from the white covering, and far away on the horizon just a hint of Ledinge archipelago.
    ‘What do you mean?’
    Maja pointed. ‘There. On the ice.’
    A gust of wind made the powdery snow whirl up, moving like a spirit across the pristine surface. Anders shook his head and turned back to face the room.
    ‘Have you seen this?’
    They examined the reflector and Anders took some pictures of Maja through the reflector, behind the reflector, in front of the reflector. The little girl and the kaleidoscope of light, refracted in all directions. When they had finished Cecilia came up the stairs, and she too was amazed.
    They ate their picnic in the light room looking out across the archipelago, trying to spot familiar landmarks. Maja was interested in the graffiti on the white wall, but since some of it required explanations unsuitable for the ears of a six-year-old, Anders took out the information leaflet and started reading aloud.
    The lower parts of the lighthouse had been built as early as the sixteenth century, as a platform for the beacons lit to mark the navigable channel into Stockholm. Later the tower was added and a primitive reflector was installed; at first it was illuminated using oil, then kerosene.
    That was enough for Maja, and she was off down the stairs. Anders grabbed hold of her snowsuit.
    ‘Just hang on, sunshine. Where are you off to?’
    ‘I’m going to look at that thing I said I could see.’
    ‘You’re not to go too far.’
    ‘I won’t.’
    Anders let go and Maja carried on down the stairs. Cecilia watched her disappear.
    ‘Shouldn’t we…?’
    ‘Well yes. But