Adonis Valley (WIP concept; may not stay fanfiction)
Shane / Elli / Jeff
Stardew Valley / Harvest Moon 64
Violence mentions, and a little graphic (possibly?) at times
Dark, dreary setting. (Purgatory)
Prompt: “I heard you scream. Nightmares again?”
Elli had always thought life a certain kind of hell, a struggle that seemed unending and painful. And yet it was in death - undeath? - that she was scarred all the more. Nothing could have prepared her for the purgatory that was Adonis Valley.
The never-ending feeling of being watched paired with those shadowy beasts outside was bad enough, but Elli had seem someone actually try to take on the shadows. They failed. They died. Ripped apart piece by piece right before her eyes as Shane covered her mouth, muffling her scream so as not to draw the monsters’ attention.
That was earlier that day. By the time Elli dropped into the bed in the abandoned house she’d been staying out, she had drifted off to sleep. She had hoped it was dreamless. She hoped it would ease her heartache of seeing Jeff ripped apart in front of her eyes. At first, it seemed peaceful dreams awaited her. But as it always seemed to go in this fog-filled town, pain and suffering were quick to follow. So were the nightmares.
She dreamt it was her body ripped apart by the maws and sharp dagger-like claws of the shadows prowling town. She dreamt she was the one screaming, the one in pain. She swore she could feel it, every drip of blood, every drop of sweat, every tear, bite, swipe - without the peace of death to end her pain.
She woke from her nightmare with a scream, holding her nightgown-covered body close as if to confirm she was really still there. She was. Fully whole. Safe. Unharmed.
She gasped for air. Her lungs burned. Her eyes stung. Tears dripped down her face.
And then footsteps. She braced herself for whatever shadow must have heard her, must have come to tear her apart. But when the door opened, it was only Shane. His dark brows creased with worry. He chewed at his lip, chapped and resting above an unshaved face.
“Elli,” he said softly.
Hearing her name helped ground her. That’s right. She’d never seen a shadow inside a building, only people. Thank the Harvest Goddess.
“Shane, thank goodness,” she breathed, her voice coming out in no more than a whisper.
He stood in the doorframe, leaning against the white wood with a worried look on his face.
“I heard you scream. Nightmares again?”
Seemed she wasn’t the only one to suffer through these nightmares every night. Even though she’d only met him the other day, he understood. Nightmares followed you here. They haunted your sleep.
She nodded. “It was… about earlier. About Jeff.”
He glanced away, unable to hold the weight of her brown eyes staring at him, as if he actually had the power to ease his pain. As if. They were all powerless here.
“I know. That was… brutal.”
“That’s one word for it. And… and now he’s gone.”
She held her head in her hands, eyes shut tight to prevent any more tears from slipping out. Jeff… Poor, sweet Jeff… The bakery owner who had trained her, flirted with her, almost swept her off her feet. And he was gone.
A choked sob caught in her throat.
“He’s gone…”
Shane cleared his throat with a ‘harumph’, but Elli didn’t look at him. She didn’t look up as she heard his mud-caked tennis shoes make their way across the room. She didn’t look at him as he took a seat on her pale blue covers.
She only looked up when he reached a hand out and cupped her cheek in his hand.
“Elli, I’ve got some… news for you.”
“Good or bad?” she asked, already dreading his answer.
“That’s up for you to decide.” He hesitated, before breaking the news to the baker as gently as he could. “Jeff… isn’t dead.”
“What?” the word barely squeaked out of her throat. A look of hope lit up her hazel eyes. “Where is he? Is he safe?”
“Debatable. If he’s not careful, he’ll become a shadow. But for now… For now he’s alive.”
Elli’s mouth fell open, but no sound followed. There were no words for this, for anything in Adonis Valley.
Lumi didn’t know how long she was swallowed by the darkness, how long her corpse must have rotted on the side of the street. She didn’t know. She couldn’t. All she felt was the feeling of being trapped underwater, holding her breath but with no threat of running out of air. All she could do was wait for life to pull her out of the darkness.
She gasped for air, and found it filled her lungs finally. Her chest ached, though whether that was from holding her breath for so long or the many tendrils that had pierced her was beyond Lumi’s guess.
She drew in some deep, shaking breaths as she realized she was, in fact, alive. Or as alive as one could be after they have an experience with death. Not even a near death experience could relate. She had definitely died, and now she was back.
They were right. Death wasn’t final here.
She ran a hand over her chest, checking for injuries. All she felt were the many holes pierced through her shirt and cardigan.
With a groan, Lumi pulled herself to her feet. Her body ached, but the piercings were long gone. She wondered how long she’d been away. Just a few minutes? That’s how it had been for Justin and Kelly. But she wasn’t sure.
Even when Lumi returned home, she found no clocks with which to tell time. There was no phone to check or gaming system. There were no watches either. There was only Lumi standing in the lobby of her hopeful shop.
She breathed a small sigh, running her fingertips over the shop counter. A thin line of dust came back with the finger. She glanced around and found the dust everywhere. Just how long had she been gone?
Lumi sighed. No point just thinking about it. Something had to be done.
She wandered her home and found a closet in the downstairs kitchen. It was empty save for a frustratingly convenient broom and dustpan, as well as a cloth sitting along on a shelf. There was no food in the pantry, only those three items.
Adonis Valley was strange like that. It gave only what the resident seemed to need, and only that. Though anything that took crops to create, for the most part, seemed off the table of convenience.
She’d have to figure that out later.
Her stomach growled hungrily as she took to cleaning her home. It took some time, likely more than an hour, to have everything swept – both upstairs and downstairs.
So what would Lumi do now?
She hesitated in her room, eyes falling upon her reflection. Holes were torn through her clothes, leaving them ragged and revealing. She ought to change, ought to take a shower to wash all the aches away.
She stripped in her room though, eyes falling upon the dark spots that littered her chest. Scars. Scars from the shadow’s tendrils. The wound would stick with her, it seemed.
It bothered her, but it didn’t surprise her. She still remembered what Justin and Kelly looked like when they stumbled back into the bar. Justin’s shirt and jacket were cut in half like weird crop tops, revealing the thick scar spread across his chest. Kelly was on full display to the world, the cracks across her body showing how she’d been torn apart quite literally, piece by piece.
She didn’t remember if they had other scars. She’d like to think she would have seen them, noticed them, but she didn’t quite remember and definitely wasn’t sure of herself. She’d been too shocked to take much information then.
She dug some clean, whole, non-damaged clothes out of her closet and headed to the bathroom, which sat in a neat little corner of the loft behind a light brown door.
She closed the door behind her, locked it for good measure. Another sigh exhaled. Just what was this valley? And how could she leave it? How could she escape it?
She remembered the pamphlet which had mysteriously disappeared. There was no exit. There was no escape.
She still wanted to try. Not now, not soon. Just whenever she worked up her courage enough to risk upsetting the shadows. It seemed a long while off. She wouldn’t push it.
She turned on the hot, steamy water and waited. Inhale, exhale. Her lungs were complete, together. She could breathe. It no longer hurt, but the fear remained.
She stepped into the hot water and breathed another sigh. It felt good, like it was unrolling all the kinks that had spread throughout her body since her first death.
First death, huh? In a place like this, it seemed terrifyingly inevitable. Her body trembled upon the thought. She’d have to die again and again and again until she finally found some grace and got the hell out of here. It was sobering. It was horrifying.
She turned off the water and found a single towel neatly sitting on the counter. She grabbed it and dried herself off, before leaving it around her shoulders so her long hair didn’t wet her oversized t-shirt.
She didn’t know what to do next. What could she do next?
She was too tired to visit the bar and let everyone know she was alright. She didn’t know where Shane lived so she couldn’t go see him and get comfort from him. She didn’t have the energy to explore the town or find the farm up north.
For now, she just wanted to curl up and get some sleep, not just float in a shadowy limbo for God knows how long. Lumi needed just a little break before she had to get her hands dirty again.
Lumi stopped in front of the house she knew to be hers. She wasn’t sure how she knew. She couldn’t distinguish the color from the other houses, nor was their any number or mailbox to show this was indeed her home. She knew just, almost instinctually, that it was hers.
Shane just grunted to show he heard her. His hands were shoved in the pockets of his dingy black jacket.
“So, um… I guess I’ll be going.”
She opened the door. Why hadn’t she locked it? She must have a key somewhere, right? It would be bad if those shadow creatures got inside. But, then again, they only seemed to lurk about in the fog. For now, she hadn’t seen them inside any buildings.
She hesitated. If she went inside now, Shane would leave and Lumi would be lft alone with her thoughts. That was the last thing she wanted. She hesitated in the door way.
“Hey, Shane?”
“Yeah?”
“Would you like to stay a while? I can see if there’s any tea I can put on.”
She didn’t want to be alone. The thoughts would consume her and feed off of her fear. She was already overwhelmed enough. She was sure she’d have a panic attack if she had to think about where she was, how she got here, and what those shadows were any more than she already had.
Luckily, Shane nodded. “Yeah. Don’t got anywhere else to be.”
Lumi motioned for him to come inside, and he did. She shut the door behind them, making sure to lock it. Oh, but would Shane think that was weird? It wasn’t like she was trying to put the moves on him or anything. She was fairly certain he wasn’t her type.
“Just to stay safe,” she explained, just in case he was concerned.
But all he said was, “Yeah, I get it.”
She was glad he did. She then turned back to the lower floor of her new home. It looked like some sort of shop, with several empty shelves and a counter a register could likely fit on. Come to think of it, the bar didn’t have a register either. Maybe because they didn’t need money here, if what Grant said was true.
“What’s with this place? You run some sort of business?” Shane asked. He looked around the room, before spotting a small table in the corner by the window. He plopped down in one of the chairs and leaned back.
“Not exactly,” Lumi said. “I wanted to be a baker, but that dream just didn’t come true.”
“It could,” Shane said, his answer vague.
“How? I can’t sell anything in a place like this.”
“You don’t need to sell anything. People here could use some sort of pick me up. A nice cake or some fresh bread. Something like that.”
He raised his shoulders and then let them down in a lazy shrug.
“But where would I even get the ingredients?” she insisted. She hadn’t seen any other stores, but maybe she’d just passed it by on accident.
“There’s a farm to the north of town. Guy there’s pretty weird, but he does a good job. It’s where Grant gets most of his drinks.”
Lumi quirked a brunette brow. “The farm makes alcohol?” she asked.
Shane chuckled. “They make a little bit of everything. Animal products, alcohol, crops – Hell, they even make cloth from wool and flax.”
Lumi wasn’t sure she understood. How could one person do all that? It seemed like an impossible job to run a farm on your own, especially in a terrifying place like this. Wouldn’t the shadows attack the farmer? She paced around the room anxiously.
“Don’t think too much about it,” Shane said, as if sensing her thoughts. “Not much makes sense here. You’ll just hurt your head if you think about it too hard.”
Lumi could definitely agree that her head was aching just trying to piece together the many mysteries in the valley. It all felt like some horrible, impossible dream – a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from.
But it was a nightmare she had to live in.
She glanced about the empty shelves. Maybe she could do some baking soon. It would put her mind to ease. If she just had some flour, eggs, and milk, she could make something. But she would need far more than that to actually run a free bakery. She hated the thought that it was for free, but if money had no value here there was really no point.
She exhaled a small sigh. There was nothing to be found in this room. She’d have to go further in to find some tea. Or anything to drink at this point.
“Is it okay if I leave the room for a minute?” she asked.
He just waved her off, muttering something about how she didn’t need his permission to explore her own house.
That was true. Lumi just hadn’t wanted to be rude, even though Shane seemed to have no issue being rude himself. She wondered if he was just a gruff sort of guy.
She headed through a door by the stairs. It led into a kitchen, fairly modern with all the cooking utensils, pots, and pans she could ever possibly need. It would be a nice place to bake once she had the ingredients.
She checked the shelves and cabinets only to find there were no tea packets to put on. She supposed she’d have to get the tea leaves herself. That meant she’d have to get something else for Shane and her to drink.
In the back right corner of the room, there was a tall, black refrigerator. Lumi made her way over to it and opened the right door, the one for the fridge. She could always check the freezer later. Inside, there were three kinds of sodas – a fruity strawberry one, Sprite, and Coke.
It only occurred to her then that she had no idea what Shane would even like to drink. She hadn’t thought to ask. Not to mention she’d assumed there would be at least one kind of tea for her to make for the two of them. Seemed that wasn’t the case.
She’d had a Sprite earlier, so she decided not to grab that can. Instead she grabbed two red cans, one strawberry, one Coke. She returned to the shop room with a can in each hand. She settled across the table from Shane and placed the cans on the table.
“Got a preference?” she asked.
He shrugged.
“You can take whichever one you want,” she insisted. “Or I can grab you a Sprite.”
“This is fine,” he mumbled and took the can of Coke. He popped the tab and gulped some down. “Always was more of a beer guy though.”
Lumi managed a pleasant smile. “I don’t drink though.”
He sighed. “You mentioned that.”
Lumi glanced out the window at the fog-filled world. She could see the shadows skulking about, dragging limbs, their bones creaking from the effort. Even now, she had no idea what they were. Demons? Bogeymen? She wasn’t sure. All she knew was that they were some kind of monster, and definitely not of a friendly variety.
She searched her mind for something, anything, to talk about. The silence was suffocating. So Lumi said the first thing to come to her mind.
“How long have you lived here?”
Shane hummed thoughtfully. “Let’s see… You said it was 2019?” he asked.
Lumi nodded.
“Must have been seven years or so,” he said.
“How old were you when you came here?”
He hesitated. His eyes darted back and forth as he searched his memory. “Can’t remember,” he said. Seemed his memory came up blank. “You forget a lot of things here.”
“Like what?” Lumi asked even though she was sure she wouldn’t like the answer.
“The world outside. Anyone you weren’t particularly close to. I remember my ex-wife and our daughter, but can’t seem to remember my own parent’s names.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Lumi said. What else could she say to that?
He just shook his head. “Don’t be. Sometimes it’s better to forget.”
This time, Lumi held her tongue. She didn’t know just what he was trying to forget or what must have happened to him in the past. She didn’t want to push him to remember something he’d rather not.
Shane took another swig of his drink. “Let’s see,” he said. “You forget songs you didn’t hear often. And jobs you had. You remember the gist, but not what it was like. You remember clothes you wore and food you ate. Books you read, movies you saw. That sort of thing.”
“What else do you remember?”
“Anything that can hurt you.”
Lumi wanted to ask what that meant, but she was afraid. Anything that can hurt you? She certainly didn’t remember seeing those shadows in her day to day life, but they could certainly hurt her.
“Shane…”
“Don’t ask. I’m sure you’ll find out soon enough.”
She didn’t know what that meant either, but he said it with such an air of certainty that she couldn’t help but believe him.
Shane downed the rest of his drink and slammed the can on the table. “Just be careful. This valley’s more dangerous than you can imagine.”
Those words sent a chill down her spine. She could already tell it was extremely dangerous. All she had to do was look outside, and she saw the same creatures that had killed Justin and Kelly. She saw what it did to them, or at least to the latter.
The valley was even more dangerous than that? She was scared to ask what other horrors the fog hid.
Shane glanced outside again. “It’s getting darker,” he muttered. There was a slight hint of anxiousness to his voice.
“Does something happen when it gets dark?” Lumi asked.
He grit his teeth. “They get more active.” He must have meant the shadows.
He quickly tossed his can in a nearby trashcan and turned to Lumi with an apologetic smile. “Look, I gotta go. Otherwise you might not see me for a while.”
She didn’t know what that meant either. She didn’t want to ask, didn’t want to know. Lumi just led him to the door and opened it for him.
“Stay safe, okay?” she asked.
“You too.”
Lumi was about to say her farewells when she heard something. A voice. It was calling out to her in the fog. A chill ran down her spine. The hairs on the back of her neck bristled. She knew that voice.
“Dad?” She barely managed to breathe the words.
Shane put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t,” he warned. “Stay here.”
But she shook her head. “I didn’t know Dad was here! He’s been gone for so long. I have to find him. I have to tell him it’s not safe here.”
She shrugged his hand off her shoulder and ran into the fog.
“Lumi, over here!” the deep voice of her father called.
“I’m coming, Dad!”
He had disappeared when she was only twelve, but she still remembered his face, his voice, everything. She could never forget.
And there he was. She saw him. His arms were outreached to her, a grin on his face. Didn’t he know how dangerous it was out here? She had to get him inside. They could have their reunion then.
“Dad!”
But just one hug couldn’t work. She ran to the man and gave him a hug. He still had the scent of the cologne he wore all those years ago, the one Lumi couldn’t find in any of the stores.
“Dad, it’s been so long!” she said, sniffling back tears.
“I missed you,” he said. His voice cracked. He really must have missed her as much as she missed him.
“I missed you too…”
“My dearest daughter, welcome to Adonis Valley.”
The man’s voice distorted like a crackling old radio. Lumi risked a glance up. Her father was gone. In its place was a shadow with a maniacal, toothy grin spread across its face, literally from ear to ear.
“Dad?” she squeaked out.
Just in time for something to pierce through her chest. It was a shadowy tendril, a spike made from whatever the monster was made out of. It was hard to breathe. Lumi gasped for air and tried to pull the spike out from her chest.
Behind her, she could hear Shane swear under his breath. So he saw her fall for this. Seemed she was long gone, but she could at least save him.
She coughed up blood on her shirt as she glanced at Shane out of the corner of her eye. “Get out of here,” she begged. “Go home. I’ll live.”
She hoped.
Shane stared at her, thick brows knit together in worry. He swore under his breath again, this time loud enough for Lumi to make out the distinct words.
She watched him disappear into the fog, just in time for another tendril to pierce through her stomach. Then another through her shoulder. Over and over. She screamed as she was pierced like a pincushion.
As darkness overtook her, the tendrils removed themselves from her body. She fell to the ground, unable to move, unable to breath. It felt like she was choking and drowning.
When Lumi came to, the first thing she was overwhelmingly aware of was her aching head, quickly followed by her churning stomach. She groaned lightly as she sat up, finding herself in a booth seat. She raised a hand to her pulsing temple and blinked a few times, letting the world come into focus.
“Finally up,” came a voice to her right. “We were starting to worry.”
She glanced in the voice’s direction. It was the grungy-looking man from earlier, the only who looked crabby as could be. Right now, though, his thick brows were knit in concern. For once, he didn’t look angry.
He then turned to the bar. “Donna, she’s up.”
Lumi turned in time to see the waitress come bounding up to her, a cup of water in one hand, some painkillers in the other.
“Hey,” Lumi said weakly.
“You had quite a shock, huh? I don’t blame you. Freaked me out the first time I saw it too.”
She handed Lumi the glass and two oval-shaped pills. Lumi popped the pills in her mouth and downed them with water. She was too tired to try and argue or resist. Plus, they looked well enough like Ibuprofen, so they probably were. At least she hoped they were.
It took a moment for Donna’s words to register. Saw “it”? At first, Lumi couldn’t remember a thing. Then a flood of memories came rushing back all at once. It made
Lumi’s already uneasy stomach feel all the worse.
“What was that?” Lumi asked. “That thing, I mean. The one who killed those two…”
Donna chewed at her lip, as if unsure how to answer if she knew the answer at all. She looked at the bartender, then at the man sitting across the table from Lumi.
The latter chose to speak. “Honestly? Don’t know. I call them shadows. They’re… well, some sick freaks that hunt us down honestly.”
“Are they human?” Lumi asked though she already knew the answer.
The man chuckled. “Hardly. They look human enough, but I’m pretty sure they’re monsters or something. Maybe demons.”
That certainly would fit their terrifying appearance, Lumi supposed. She ran a hand through her brunette hair, trying to take it all in. It was hard. There was so much she didn’t understand, so much she couldn’t bring herself to even try to comprehend.
“Don’t worry. They’re not really dead. I mean, they are. But not really,” Donna said as if that would make it all better. It didn’t. It just left Lumi with even more questions than she started with.
“What do you mean ‘not dead’. I saw that girl get… get torn apart. And the guy-“
“People don’t die around here,” the bartender said, glancing up from his paper. He then sighed and turned back to it, muttering something about a crossword puzzle.
“But I saw her die,” Lumi said, her words sounding weak and desperate even to her.
The man across the table spoke again. “Look, I get it. You saw her die, but she’ll come back. Grant meant what he said. The dead don’t stay dead here.”
There was a hesitation after those words, as if there was something he wasn’t telling Lumi. For now, she chose not to press the issue. She didn’t understand how things could happen like that. But there were stranger things going on in this fog-filled town, strange enough that Lumi was willing to accept these strangers’ words.
The dead don’t stay dead. But that left yet another question.
“But what happens when they die?”
All three of them were unable to meet Lumi’s eye. She wasn’t sure why. Donna absentmindedly rose a hand to her scarred temple.
Grant, the bartender, was the one to tell her. “They piece themselves back together. Ain’t pretty. I advise just staying here ‘til they do.”
Lumi wasn’t going to argue with that. Those shadows were probably still outside, hungry for more blood and death. The last thing Lumi wanted was to deal with them.
“Just what is this place?” Lumi asked.
“Adonis Valley,” said the man across the table. “You can’t leave. You can’t die. You just… exist here. It’s kind of your own personal Hell.” He gave a half-hearted laugh at his own words.
Lumi lowered her eyes, trying to make sense of what he said. “But there has to be a way out of here, right?”
Again, they all avoided her eyes. This time, Donna was the one who spoke. “Hon, listen, there’s no way out. We’re stuck here. We’ve all tried to leave. We can’t.”
Lumi wanted to protest, to insist there surely had to be some way out of here if only they could think of it. She couldn’t bring herself to say anything. She glanced at the three before her and saw the look of pain in their eyes. They meant their every word.
“I’ll walk you back once Justin and Kelly get back here. You’d probably feel safer with someone else around.”
Lumi nodded. “I would but… I still don’t even know your name.”
He gave a half smile. “It’s Shane.”
“I’m Lumi,” she said.
“Heard you when you introduced yourself to Donna,” he replied.
“Oh.”
She looked away, sipping at her water and listening to the music playing on the jukebox. It was a weird hodgepodge of different tunes – some country music from the fifties, cheerful pop songs from the eighties, nineties boy bands, early twenty-teens emo. It was like each of the songs were selected for everyone who had been in the bar earlier. Everyone but Lumi.
Donna hummed to herself as she checked what song was playing. “Lumi, what year is it outside?”
The question struck Lumi as odd. What did she mean “outside”? How did she not know the year? It didn’t make sense but, then again, nothing else did in the valley.
“It was 2019,” she replied.
The others muttered shocked acknowledgement among themselves. Why didn’t they know? What was going on?
She didn’t know how much time passed, stuck in those thoughts, a hand holding her head as if it might explode from all this confusion and fear. Eventually, she heard the door open.
She looked up to see two familiar figures walk in – Justin and Kelly. Justin was missing his shirt and a fresh scar spread across his chest as if he’d been cut in two. Kelly was stark naked. Crack-like scars spread all over her body as if it had pieced itself back together.
Just like Grant said.
They all averted their eyes to provide the two with as much privacy as they could allow.
Even Donna didn’t look their way when she spoke to them. “You know where the extra clothes are in the back, right?”
“Yeah, we know. Come on, Kelly.”
The two headed through a door near the bar, which they shut behind them to provide a way to block out prying eyes.
Lumi opened her mouth to ask just what had happened, but Shane just raised his hand to hold off her question.
“Don’t ask too much too soon,” he warned her. He stood up from the bar and stretched, his back giving a nice pop when he did so. “See ya, Grant, Donna. Tell those two to be more careful next time.”
Grant nodded. “Yeah, I will. Don’t think they’ll listen though.”
“They better,” Shane grumbled. He headed for the door and held it open for Lumi, an impatient look on his face.
Lumi was close behind. She got the feeling that if they stayed too long in one place outdoors, they’d meet a similar fate to Justin and Kelly. The thought terrified her. She’d likely have nightmares about it tonight.
For now, she was just content to walk home with Shane in silence.
The outside world was unmistakably covered by a thick fog, so thick that one could probably cut it with a knife.
She could barely make out her hand a few feet in front of her face, so she took a moment to orient herself. She could vaguely see the street stretching out on either side of her new house. Street lamps stood tall, but there were also moving shadows. Were those the creatures she’d seen in the pamphlet? She decided not to find out.
She glanced to her right and saw one slowly hobbling in her direction. It was still a ways away, but it moved fast for how it was dragging its body. Lumi didn’t want to be here when it got to closer.
So she headed in the opposite direction, to her left. She wasn’t entirely sure where she was going, but was sure that if she remembered the way she came, it would be easy enough to find her way back.
And so she just wandered.
She passed by buildings with all the lights off. She didn’t hear any noises from outside. Either the houses and shops were abandoned, or their owners were out, just like she was. She followed the path a ways further, noticing it spread out into a plaza. Was this the center of town?
In the center of the plaza, there was a large fountain, topped with a statue of what looked like an angel. It was hard to make out more than just the silhouette in the fog. Lumi wondered if it was actually a nice-looking statue, or just another horror waiting to be revealed when the fog vanished.
When did the fog vanish? She wasn’t sure.
She didn’t linger too long in the plaza, especially not when she saw the shadow folk stalking around. They were getting closer, and there were more of them now. If she wasn’t careful, she’d likely end up a victim. Of what? She didn’t want to find out. She needed a place to hideout until they were gone.
She passed the plaza and looked for the first building she could find with lights on. Surprisingly, it didn’t take too long. There was a decent-sized building with a neon sign lit up in a sickly green color. There were lights on past the windows.
Lumi could barely make out what the sign said. It was too foggy, too dark.
“Loveless Liquor? What kind of a name is that?”
But she didn’t question it too long. Whether it was a brewery or a bar, she didn’t care. It was hopefully safer inside than it was out.
She knocked on the door, before letting herself in. She knew she should have waited for someone to open the door, just in case that was how things were done here. But she couldn’t wait. It wasn’t safe.
She headed inside and was met, finally, with a clear view. It was an old-timey bar, full of pictures that she couldn’t make out from this distance. Road signs also hung on the walls, though she didn’t recognize any of the locations the signs were meant to point to.
A man looked up from the bar. He looked to be in his late forties, maybe early fifties, and wore something like a cowboy or country singer would back in the fifties. His bedazzled suit was a light brown, matching the cowboy hat atop his head. He had a thick moustache that covered a good portion of his upper lip.
He was strange-looking, almost like he didn’t fit the time setting, but he didn’t look too intimidating. He almost looked friendly.
He looked up and quirked a dark brow. “Hey there. Not seen you around here before.”
Something about that statement unsettled Lumi. Adonis Valley hadn’t shown up on the maps she’d checked before responding to the email, so she’d assumed that it was a community in the process of being built. The bartender’s words suggested otherwise.
“Yeah,” Lumi said nervously. “You could say I just moved here.”
He gave a knowing nod, as if he understood what vague words meant. Had he been tricked by the email too?
“Come have a seat. We’ve got whatever you like.”
“I don’t drink,” Lumi replied. “Never liked the taste. Had a weird twang to it. I’ll just sit.”
He motioned for her to head to any barstool she chose, so she chose the one furthest from the door.
“Don’t matter none whether you like alcohol or not. We’ve got literally everything.”
Literally everything? There were too many drinks in the world to suggest something like that, and yet he said it with confidence. Was he a strange hallucination cropped up from this fog-filled world? Lumi was no longer sure the answer was no.
She hesitated. “A Sprite, then?” she asked, almost hopefully.
He nodded and leaned down to get something from beneath the bar. She couldn’t see what, but she assumed there must have been some sort of mini fridge there.
He stood and offered her the green can. “Need a glass?” he asked.
She shook her head. “No, this is fine.”
She popped the tab and took a sip. Sure enough, it was nice and cold and bubbly. It was Sprite like she remembered it, a semblance of normality in this crazy world.
She took the time then to look around the room at the people in there.
There was bartender himself, who went back to a newspaper. For some reason, Lumi couldn’t make out the writing or make sense of the pictures. She didn’t know why. She didn’t like it.
There as a waitress, a bubbly, ditzy, blonde woman who looked like she stepped right out of the eighties. She looked like she would be a Cyndi Lauper fan, or perhaps that she might have been the woman herself. There was a strange, thick scar on her left temple. Her bangs were pushed back by a hairband, leaving the scar on full display. This woman too was seemingly plucked from a different time and placed in this strange valley.
There was a young couple sitting near the door. The boy had dirty blonde hair, spiked and gelled like some sort of nineties boy band member. He wore an ugly hoodie, worn sneakers, and torn jeans. The girl had her raven hair pulled into two braids which rested on her shoulders. She wore an old cardigan over a sweater and a long plaid skirt.
Perhaps the most normal of the bar’s inhabitants was the man in the corner. His dark, greasy hair rested uncombed and untamed. His hoodie was torn, resting over a polo and khaki shorts. His sneakers were caked in mud. He leaned against the wall, downing a beer in a glass mug. He was fairly big with a beer belly, and he looked grouchy as could be.
For a moment, their eyes met. His were dark grey, almost like the sea in a storm. She felt heat rise to her face, and she looked away. Just in time for the blonde woman to approach her.
“Hey, it’s good to have a new face around here.” She offered a smile too friendly for the fog-filled world outside. Her blonde hair had pink and purple highlights in it; Lumi only noticed that now. “I’m Donna. And you?”
Lumi forced an anxious smile. “Lumi,” she replied.
“Strange name. Is it short for anything?”
“Lumiette. Parents wanted a cool, new age sort of name. Seems that’s what they came up with.” Her shoulders rose then fell in a half-hearted shrug.
“Well, it’s a pretty name anyhow. First day here?”
The fact that she could tell so easily sent a chill down Lumi’s spine, but she nodded and forced her smile to remain on her face. “Yeah. How’d you tell?”
“You just had that look,” Donna said, as vague as could be. “We all had that look at one point or another.”
Lumi didn’t know what that meant, nor did she particularly care to know. It was probably bad news either way.
Luckily Donna got distracted enough when the young couple stood and headed for the door.
The young man raised his hand in farewell .”Later. Stay safe, alright?”
“Have a good day,” the braided girl added.
Donna waved at them. “You better come back here alive, you hear me?”
They talked about it so casually. Staying safe, being alive – it all felt wrong. It made her stomach churn to the point where not even the Sprite could ease her stomach. She needed to leave soon.
She downed the rest of her sSrite, then fumbled in her bag.
“Huh?”
Her wallet was missing. She knew she’d had it this morning when she’d gotten on the train, but now it was gone. She had everything else in her bag. Or so she thought.
“That’s weird.”
She felt her pockets. Empty. She dug through her bag again. It wasn’t there. Her phone was gone too. Her gaming consoles weren’t there either. She’d packed them to help pass the time, but they were also gone.
She didn’t like this one bit.
“Looking for something?” the bartender asked.
The way he spoke sent a chill down Lumi’s spine. “My wallet. I, uh… I must have left it at home.”
The bartender just chuckled, like he expected it. Had he taken her wallet? How could he have done that though? But her house had been unlocked when she woke up…
She needed to leave. She needed to go right now.
Donna put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. It was supposed to be comforting gesture, but it only brought Lumi more anxiety.
“Don’t worry about it,” Donna said. “You don’t need to pay for anything here.”
Lumi swallowed hard. What was this community? Some kind of a cult? She had to get out of here, before the demons could catch, before the people could sacrifice her to whatever crazy gods they surely worshipped.
“W-well, I’ll be going then.” Lumi’s voice cracked and she gave nervous laugh.
Even when she headed for the door, she could still feel eyes on her. This was bad, bad, bad. She’d feel safer in her new home. She just had to make it there alive.
She excused herself from the bar and headed outside, just in time to freeze in her tracks.
The girl from earlier had something – something – stuck through her stomach. Pierced through her stomach. She coughed and hacked, blood splattering on her cardigan as she did so. She looked up at the blonde guy through desperate eyes.
“Justin,” she croaked out.
The thing through her stomach pulsated. Lumi almost emptied her stomach then and there. The blackness literally tore the girl apart into so many tiny, bloody pieces. Lumi was going to be sick.
“You bastard!” the blonde, apparently named Justin, cried out. He ran to punch the shadow in its face. But it just turned to him with a sickening creak. Its mouth spread wide in a bloody, gaping smile.
Lumi opened her mouth to scream, to warn Justin to be careful. She never got the chance.
A hand covered her mouth, muffling her cry, while another arm wrapped around her stomach and pulled her back inside. The figure behind her crouched, pulling her down with him.
The hand covered her mouth was removed, and she looked over her shoulder to see the grouchy guy from before. He raised a pudgy finger to his lips, shushing her. He then flicked the lights off and motioned for the others to hide.
Lumi locked the door just in case, before falling back into the man. Her mind was spinning, or perhaps it was the world around her. Nothing made sense. It was wrong, all wrong.
“What… What happened to them?” she barely choked out.
The man shook his head. “Seems they got a shadow agitated,” he said in a hushed whisper. “Wouldn’t recommend it, by the way.”
She stifled a gag by covering her mouth.
The man holding her looked to Donna. “Donna, we’re gonna need a trash can.”
She had just enough time to fetch one before Lumi threw up then promptly faded. Seemed she’d have to get answers later.
“Want to start a new life? Come to Adonis Valley!”
Those words stood in bold at the top of an email. Lumi had meant to delete it, but ended up opening it accidentally. The words were accompanied by beautiful countryside pictures, most likely of the aforementioned Adonis Valley.
Lumi wondered just where the valley was. She’d never heard of it before, and a Google search yielded no results. It was like the place never existed, or perhaps it was just beginning. Maybe they were trying to find people to help start a new community.
She read the rest of the email more thoroughly than she’d like to admit, eyes carefully hovering over each word, taking the information in. It seemed the valley was looking for potential residents who wanted to live a peaceful, countryside life. They were especially looking for people who could farm, bake, or build; Lumi could bake.
She’d been so tired of living life as a nine-to-five customer service worker, baking only in her past time while she cried over the hardships of the day. She wanted to bake full time. She wanted to live that peaceful valley life.
She replied to the email and they gave her very specific, very strict instructions for how she should go about moving to the valley.
First, box up her belongings and send them in a specified truck ahead of time. When she traveled, bring only what she needed – a purse, necessary belongings, the clothes on her back – and no more. There would be a bus showing up on the outskirts of town at six in the morning. SHe couldn’t afford to be late, or her items would be forfeit.
Looking back, she felt like an idiot for so easily submitting to the emails’ demands, and yet she couldn’t help but feel things couldn’t have gone any other way.
So, sure enough, once she’d quit her job and sent her belongings ahead of her, she headed to that empty bus stop on the first day of the month. She sat outside in the fog, her jacket zipped up and her over-the-shoulder bag clung tight to her chest.
At exactly six, an old, grey bus stopped in front of the bus stop. It opened its doors. Try as she might, Lumi couldn’t seem to register the bus driver’s face. She was probably just tired.
“Let’s go,” the bus driver said.
“Coming.”
She stood and boarded the bus, taking a seat near the back. She tried to look out the window, but it was so foggy she couldn’t make out much of the world passing her by.
Her eyelids felt heavy. She’d gotten up at five just to make it here on time and throw away the few belongings she had left. A little shuteye wouldn’t hurt. Nothing in the emails said she couldn’t sleep on the way there.
Just an hour or so… I’ll feel better when I wake up.
She let the steady rumble of the bus lull her to sleep. It was dark, so dark, but somewhat peaceful. She was sure she’d wake up long before she got to the valley.
And yet, when she opened her eyes, she was no longer on the bus. She was lying in a bed she didn’t recognize, in a house she also didn’t recognize. At first, all she felt was confusion. She was no longer tired, but she wasn’t fully convinced that this was reality. It felt more like a strange dream.
She sat up in bed, letting one leg go over dangle over the side, then the other. She stretched and felt her back pop. She felt so stiff, as if she’d slept wrong for a hundred years. How weird. She popped her neck and it gave way with a sickening crackle.
It hurt. She hurt. Dreams weren’t supposed to hurt, were they?
The feeling of confusion was quickly consumed by an overwhelming feeling of panic. This wasn’t any place she recognized, and it certainly wasn’t the bus. Where was she?
She hurried to the window, but found she could barely make out the world outside. There were the faint outlines of trees and houses, but nothing she recognized. Just where was she?
“It’s just a dream. This has to be just a dream”
She pinched her cheek hard, then let out a small whine as she realized it did indeed hurt. It wasn’t a dream. But then what could she call this? It didn’t feel real. It felt wrong, all wrong.
Lumi sucked in a deep, shaking breath as she tried to process her surroundings. She turned her back to the window, taking in the room she was in. Parts of it were familiar, sickeningly so. The sheets were hers. So was the pillow. The clothes in the open closet were hers. But the room was so very much not.
“What is this place?”
Her eyes fell upon a small pamphlet sitting on the bedside table. She forced her legs forwards. What was it? Something related to this strange place she was in? She had to know.
Sure enough, those big bold letters were up top. Adonis Valley. They weren’t in some cheerful, pop font, like they had been before, but rather big, solid, black letters. They overtook the otherwise white page, with an old grainy image of… something in the fog. What was that? It looked humanoid, but it wasn’t a human. It was a shadow of sorts.
“What the hell?”
Lumi picked the pamphlet up and flipped through the small pages, eyes frantically skimming the pages for some sort of answer. There had to be an answer. But there was none, only the warnings that Lumi ought to make herself at home and definitely, most definitely not try to leave.
That just made her want to leave all the more.
Then there was another picture of the strange shadow creature with a very big warning: DO. NOT. INTERACT. It didn’t say why, but it was all the warning Lumi needed. Don’t interact? You got it!
Not that she wanted to run into those terrifying-looking things in the first place. Whatever they were.
She sighed softly as she paced around her room. She couldn’t just stay in her bedroom all day, or for the rest of her time in this valley. She had to find more information and figure things out. She had to find her way back to home, to normality, to reality.
Her pale pink cardigan hung over a chair. It was the only part of her outfit that hadn’t stayed on her when she woke up. But at least it was close by. It was chilly in the house, though whether the cold was called by fear or an actual breeze, Lumi couldn’t tell.
She sighed softly, gathering her purse which sat in the chair her cardigan rested over. She pulled the cardigan on, buttoning up the large, brown buttons until she was as warm as she likely would be.
“So let’s see what this Adonis Valley place is all about.”
She drew in a deep breath, then exhaled it. She’d have to learn sooner or later, so why not now? She just had to be brave.
Her legs trembled as she made her way down the stairs, past what looked like a small shop. She could explore the rest of her new home later. For now, she just wanted to see the world outside the door.
Adonis Valley (original fiction, but using Stardew Valley / Harvest Moon characters as place holders)
Shane / Elli
Stardew Valley / Harvest Moon 64
Violence mentions. Debatably graphic at times.
Dark, dreary setting. (Purgatory.)
Prompt: “Don’t give me space. That’s the last thing I want with you.”
The corruption began from just a finger. When Shane woke up one day, it was an inky black that wouldn’t wash off. He knew what it was, even then, but he didn’t want Elli to know. He kept his hand in his pocket as long as it took, as long as she looked.
But the corruption never stayed in just one place, not for a single person Shane met. Every injury from the shadowy beasts caused the corruption to spread, slowly rising up his fingers and spreading until his hand was black. He thought Elli must suspect something, but he never told her. She didn’t know what it meant, but he felt like telling her meant he was giving up. He couldn’t give up.
The shadows pulled a nasty trick on him before the truth had a chance to slip or Elli had a chance to wise up. Oh, Yoba, how could they show him his goddaughter? Between the mist and the malice, the shadows conjured up a frightened image of Jas, and Shane ran towards it against his better judgement.
Funny, he’d gotten onto Elli for dying to that once.
They pierced him through with a shadowy tendril that was quick to spread and tear him apart. He begged Elli to run, and she did. Smart girl.
When he woke, his body had pieced itself back together on the streets near the Blue Bar. Elli said it was taken from a place called Forget-Me-Not Valley, along with the bartender and waitress. They weren’t there when he woke up.
His shirt and jacket were torn to shreds, leaving it perfectly visible that the corruption had crept up his arm and began to spread onto his chest.
“I’m becoming one of them…” he whispered, forcing himself onto his feet. He had to find Elli. Fuck, if something happened to her because he wasn’t there… “Just hold on. I’m coming.”
Even if he had to explain everything to her.
Even if he had to give up.
Luckily, Elli wasn’t a hard girl to find. She was predictable, so it was only natural she returned to the bakery they were calling home. It was familiar for her; it was a piece the shadows had brought from Flowerbud Village.
His muscles ached from reconstructing themselves, so he leaned against the doorframe after opening the door. He inhaled the scent of fresh bread and chuckled to himself. Elli always did bake when she was anxious.
“Smells good, Elli!” he called out.
He laughed as he heard the surprised noise that escaped her mouth and the hurried footsteps of her flats on the wooden floor. Damn, she was going fast. Might make a guy think she actually missed him.
“Ah, Elli?”
She threw her arms around him, pale hands clinging to his pudgy, shirtless form. Tears stung her eyes as she choked back a sob. She was always crying these days.
Shane hesitated, unused to the contact. But it was hard to say how long he’d been gone. The carnage had been pretty bad after all. He sighed softly, resting his chin on top of the short girl’s head, wrapping his arms around her.
“You came back! It’s been a week so I thought-”
“That they really got me this time?”
She nodded against his chest.
“I’m back…” he said softly.
As if realizing what she’d done only then, Elli quickly released the taller man and backed away until she pressed against the sales counter. Her hazel eyes wouldn’t meet his gaze and a crimson flush colored her cheeks.
The touch had been sudden, and as sudden as it came it was gone. Shane would have been lying if he said he hadn’t wished it lasted a little longer.
“Y-your arm-” Elli managed to say.
He followed her gaze to his inky black arm and exhaled a sigh. How could he say this? Slowly he approached her, raising his hand to her cheek. This was forward for him, but he didn’t know how the process worked from here. He didn’t know if he’d lose Elli soon when he lost his own mind.
“Don’t give me space,” he begged. “That’s the last thing I want from you.”
Because he didn’t know how much time he had left with her.
