The Forest of Sleepers (Nowhere Book 2)

t hi r t y - t h r e e : d i s a p p e a r

Birdie couldn't breathe, so she walked to the truck. The idea was to get inside and leave somewhere. Anywhere.

She didn't notice that Wyatt had arrived back home until she felt his familiar grip on her arm.

"Birdie?" he asked.

"Don't," she snapped but turned around to face him.

His face was full of concern and worry. It made her want to punch something.

"Did you know?!" she cried.

"Know what?"

"About Sal Hickory living in your greenhouse?"

Wyatt frowned. He didn't know about Sal Hickory. But when she mentioned the greenhouse, he blinked. "You mean Marshall?"

"I mean Sal Hickory," Birdie replied, then explained in a rush of anger what had happened. At the end, she said, "It's Sal Hickory, Wyatt. And she's...she's in love with him."

Birdie was on the verge of tears and Wyatt remained as placid as ever.

"Didn't you hear me!? Birdie shouted. "Sal Hickory."

"Yes," Wyatt replied, "I heard you."

Silence filled the space between them, Birdie's face contorted with emotion as she stared at him, wordlessly begging for him to react.

When it became clear that he wouldn't--or didn't know how to--she straightened.

"You know what? Never mind." She lifted her chin, refusing to cry in front of him one more time. "I forgot there's some sort of barrier between you and reality that doesn't allow you to feel things."

"What?"

"You know what," Birdie spat. "I don't know why you're made of stone, Wyatt Best, or why you can't trust me with your emotions, but it's like trying to shake a piece of cement to life with you!"

"Are you angry with me?" Wyatt asked.

"Would you care if I was?" Birdie retorted and immediately regretted it.

Wyatt's face fell from concern to hurt, but still, he said nothing.

Birdie wanted to scream. To let out everything trapped behind her ribcage. But she knew she'd be the only one to shout while Wyatt took the blows and the whole thing would end up worse than it started.

She backed away. "I just need to be alone."

She turned, half-hoping Wyatt would call after her, and ignoring the disappointment when he didn't.

The leather of the truck's driver's seat was already cold and Birdie shivered as she sat in the cab.

Her blood pumped with the adrenaline of seeing Sal.

Deep down, she always knew she'd see him again. Ghosts didn't just disappear like that.

But still, going into that greenhouse, seeing the way Ophelia's eyes sparkled when she looked at him, and staring into the face of the one person she could, without a doubt, say that she hated more than anyone...it made Birdie feel like she was plummeting off a cliff.

As much as the thought of Sal Hickory disgusted her, she couldn't deny the foreign look in his eyes: fear.

Her first instinct was not to believe him. Sal Hickory would easily lie his way back into Birdie's life, only to crush her. But would Marshall?

And then there was the horrible thing she'd said to Wyatt...

She rested her head on the steering wheel.

Ophelia opened the door of the passenger seat and climbed inside. She sat quietly for a moment, fiddling with the edges of her blouse.

"I...I didn't know. I didn't recognize him," she said. "I swear."

"I know."

"But he's not the same person. He's--he's kind and thoughtful and shy...he's the opposite of me, really."

"How is it possible?" Birdie wondered. "How did he age as a ghost?"

"I don't know," Ophelia replied, "but I think activating Gwydyr the second time had something to do with it."

"What do you mean?"

Ophelia shrugged. "Well, Sal Hickory disappeared right after that and not even a few weeks later, Marshall appeared."

Birdie pulled on her lip. "It reset his lifespan."

"Exactly."

"But that still doesn't explain why he aged. Ghosts don't do that."

Ophelia shrugged again.

Birdie tapped the steering wheel, her mind whirring in all different directions.

Ophelia snuck a glance at her and asked in a small voice, "What if he starts to remember more? And then...he really does become Sal Hickory again?"

Birdie could almost guarantee that he would. Once he remembered how much he hated her, of the way his father treated his mother, of the anger and greed and lust that patterned his footsteps...

He wouldn't become a monster, he'd only remember that he was one.

Before Birdie had to lie and say that it wouldn't happen, there was a small tremor that ran across the ground.

Ophelia looked down as if she'd spilled something on herself. "What was that?"

They got out of the truck and the ground rumbled again.

Birdie braced herself. "Is that an earthquake? Do we have those in Georgia?"

Wyatt ran up to them then, followed by Marshall, much to Birdie's dismay.

"Did you feel that?" Wyatt asked no one in particular.

Marshall fiddled with his hands, not having noticed the rumbling. "Birdie, I--"

"Don't talk to me," Birdie snapped. She didn't have time to talk to him, and she couldn't look at him either, so she turned her gaze toward Gwydyr. She froze.

Everyone followed her stare.

"Gwydyr," Ophelia gasped. "It's disappearing."

Sure enough, the edges of the treeline were beginning to blur as if a fog was settling over it. It looked wrong, like a fresh watercolor painting that had gotten wet and begun to run off the page.

"Marshall?" Ophelia murmured.

Everyone then turned to look at him instead.

He was staring at Gwydyr wide-eyed.

"I...I can see it," he said.

"Marigold," Birdie realized with a jolt. "She's got to be in there!"

Without waiting for anyone else, she ran across the field until she reached Gwydyr.

As soon as her foot stepped through the treeline, pain shot through her mind.

She saw the faces. Heard the screams.

But then she saw Marigold, bloodied and bruised, with cracked stone all around her.

Then everything went black.

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Hey guys! Sorry for disappearing for a while! But I'm back on track now ^_^

~What do you think Marigold's up to? <.<

~General thoughts on the chapter?

Thanks so much for reading!!!