Chapter 90
Everything inside him felt more full now, more complicated. John couldn’t just step inside to the trunk as he had then.
He had to maneuver, negotiating his way around countless other memories and choices and decisions and moments. He reached deeper, farther than he’d been in a long time. He finally saw the trunk.
This version looked dusty and unused, uncared for, and it was indeed smaller than he remembered. The metal seemed to have decayed somehow, with dark spots blooming all over.
John wouldn’t have been surprised to see cobwebs and junk stacked up against it, much like Branwen’s trunk in the attic. He couldn’t sense anything else in this space, just the prison he’d created for James so long ago.
He moved closer, remembering how Branwen’s trunk had rotted through at the
