The Forest of Sleepers (Nowhere Book 2)

f i f t e e n : b o x e s

Wyatt pulled down box after box of Hal's old research.

Evelyn was sound asleep in the adjacent room, so Wyatt had to be quiet. He handed the lightest of the boxes to Marshall, who'd volunteered to help him. He was gaining more energy with each passing day and while he wasn't capable of doing everything, he was pretty close.

The Penny sisters had been grounded from going anywhere near Gwydyr after Rose saw them trying to sneak away behind Wyatt when they came home.

Wyatt hadn't escaped a good lecture, to be sure, one which cut him deeper than any whipping his parents had ever given him.

There was mention of responsibility, being a disappointment, and a betrayal of trust, none of which was ill-deserved.

Wyatt had apologized earnestly, especially for doing such things while Rose was doing him a favor, but Rose's ire didn't seem to be so heavily attuned towards him.

If one thing was for sure, it was that the Penny sisters wouldn't be coming back to Gwydyr for a while.

He hadn't told them about the visions he'd seen at the hotel in Alabama. He'd only said that he knew Celtic writing when he saw it, which was partially true.

"Your brother must've been an interesting fellow," Marshall said, holding up a glass jar that was half-filled with dirt and Old Bay seasoning.

"He was," Wyatt agreed.

In retrospect, Wyatt should have been looking through Hal's research sooner. But after Hal died and Wyatt had to take over the farm, his only focus was to scrub away as much of the creepiness as possible. That meant putting all of the obsessive research Hal had done to find Gwydyr into these boxes, which Wyatt hadn't been planning to unpack so soon.

There was a desperation to his search now, to find out what that grave inscription said.

He knew there was something dangerous about the forest and he was determined to find what that was.

"I think that's it," Wyatt said, stepping down from the stool and placing the last box on top of Hal's old desk. The room still smelled of decomposing ghost, which was different than the smell of rotting flesh. It didn't exactly smell of rot, but of decay.

It made Wyatt remember things he wished he could forget.

"We'll bring them downstairs," Wyatt instructed. "Just take whatever you can carry, I'll get the rest."

He and Marshall had become accidental housemates over the past two week. For a reason Wyatt could only guess at, his mother had taken a keen liking to Marshall. He was the only one she wasn't angry with all the time, which was fine with Wyatt.

Marshall, not having anything else to do, took to helping around the house and doing chores wherever it was needed.

Wyatt placed the first two boxes on the dining room table and opened the lids while Marshall went to get the rest.

Most of the contents were angry scribbles and random notes. And most of the legible information had to do with the location of Gwydyr, but since the forest was already found, they were useless.

"What about these?" Marshall asked, holding up a wrinkled stack of drawings.

Wyatt took them and examined the charcoal markings. He'd seen them several times in Hal's room, hanging around his desk.