Liminal Space | A Stardew Valley FanFiction

Chapter 4

We watched in silence as the lamp flickered on and off, sometimes in quick succession and other times as if someone was occasionally flipping the switch. The anticipation of an inevitable outage loomed over us for hours on end. Wind howled against the house and shook its foundation from the ground up; stagnant anxiety sat within my core and bubbled into my chest with each crash of thunder.

"I think that's it," Maru whispered after a thirty second bout of darkness.

"And I thought it was dark down here before," Abigail giggled.

"Power is out!" Sam's voice called from the top of the steps a few minutes later, followed by a series of clunky footsteps. "But don't worry, ladies. I'm here to save the day."

"Pfft," Abigail scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Save the day my ass. One step outside and the wind would blow you away."

Sam's jaw dramatically dropped, his hand draped over his chest as though she had stabbed his heart.

"It's not like it's just a breeze or something," A prickly voice chimed in from behind him. "We are talking over 130 mile-per-hour gusts. That could knock, like, Bigfoot over."

My breath caught in my throat as he approached, the mood immediately shifting. He wore a stoic expression that was only heightened by the absence of light—his features looked as though they were carefully chiseled into a slab of stone by an angry sculptor.

"This should give us some light, yeah?" He mumbled, a tiny flame igniting on the head of a joint nestled between his pointer and his thumb. I watched as it dimly illuminated his lips, and how they twitched as he sharply inhaled through gritted teeth. Thin wisps of smoke leaked through the apertures in his bite, quickly diffusing into the air.

"Oh," Maru said shakily. "Seb, you really shouldn't—"

"Hmm?" He hummed, blowing the rest of the cloud out through the left side of his mouth. "Why's that?"

"Well, Harvey says that it is really damaging to—"

"Is Harvey here?"

"No, but—"

"Then it's settled," he whispered, taking another pull and extending his arm to Sam. "It can be our little secret."

"I'm sorry," Maru stammered, grabbing her bag. "I don't want to be a part of this—I'll be in my room."

"You mean my room?"

"Shut up, Sebastian!" she screeched, quickly making her way up the stairs. "Jesus Christ."

"You're such an ass," I muttered, watching as Sam took a hit, his cheeks puffing outwards in an attempt to stifle a cough.

"Sorry?" he said, leaning towards me with narrowed eyes.

"I said that you're an ass," I reiterated. "She didn't deserve to be talked to that way."

"Did she deserve to be forced to share a room with you all those years ago? To have to share her room with me now?"

"What the fuck is your problem?" I asked, standing up and walking towards him. "What did I ever do to you?"

"What did you do?" He hissed, mimicking my movements. "You—"

"Sebastian," Abigail said, launching herself off of her seat. "Leave her alone."

He pressed his lips into a thin line, his eyes darting between her and me. "Fine," he spat, leaning over to grab the joint back from Sam and drawing another hit. "Whatever."

He blew the smoke into my face.

My hand moved more quickly than my mind; as he was raising his arm for a fourth pull, I snatched it for myself. The smoke burned as it cascaded through my mouth and hit the back of my throat—I basked in the fire. I swallowed it with the anger and released the excess, aiming it back towards him. A smirk creeped onto his features as he subtly moved his lips to inhale the smoke I'd just shot towards him, and for a terrible moment, my heart fluttered.