a Stardew Valley fan fiction: The Proper Care and Feeding of Souls

Chapter 21: Wild

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

- Mary Oliver

"Fuck, man, sometimes you are hard to track down."

Abigail has spent the better half of her afternoon searching for her best friend only to find him wandering around by the railroad tracks north of his house. Looking down, Sebastian scuffed his boot along the dirt path and shrugged.

"Seb", Abigail's voice took on a different tone. "I need to talk to you." The waver in her voice did not go unnoticed. Sebastian looked up into her gray eyes. He felt his heart beat faster. "Our spot...?" Abby reached her hand out luring him to follow.

The inside of their shallow cave was cool and dark. Abigail dusted off their quilt and pulled Sebastian down to join her. She sat facing him, his dark eyes searching her the way they had countless times over the past 18 years of her life. He was all of her firsts. All of her was known only to him. Every curve of her body, he knew. Every stirring in her heart, he knew. Every thought, every inkling, every bit of who she was, he knew. He knew her like he knew himself.

There had been times she loved him fiercely, obsessively and times she hated him just as much as she'd loved him. They laughed until they cried and cried until they laughed more times than she would ever remember. She had sat with him, distracting him from the awful things surrounding him. He fanned the flames within her, stoking the fire that made her who she was. They had grown up not knowing one from the other, their lives, lived together, intertwined like the gnarly branches of two trees that had somehow grown together into one.

Abigail's eyes turned soft as she took him in. "Seb," she whispered with passion in her voice. "Run away with me?" She pleaded, her eyes sparkling. "I gotta get out of this place. I wanna see the world.... experience life. I......I know it's out there....just waiting for me." She stopped. Reaching her hand out, she gently touched Sebastian's arm. "Please?" She whispered.

Sebastian's eyes squinted as if looking harder would make him understand better.

"What?" he asked plainly.

Abigail fidgeted with her hands, nervously. Although she didn't necessarily expect it, she had had wild dreams of him saying something much different.

"I'm leaving." She looked down at the dusty flowered quilt. She had spent so many hours of her childhood sitting on this quilt. She ran her finger softly against its worn threads. Abigail could feel the tears forming in her eyes, the lump building in her throat.

"Wait.....what......" Sebastian's mind could not process what he was hearing. Fear raged within him at the thought of losing his best friend. He clenched his fists to keep his hands from shaking. "What do you mean?"

Abigail knew if she looked up, she would lose control, so instead, she stared intently at a red string that had wildly strayed from the quilt. "I cannot stay here, Sebastian. I cannot let this be my life. I want to go on adventures. I want to eat weird food and have outlandish conversations with complete strangers. I want to be wild and free and....." She swallowed the lump in her throat and allowed herself to look up. "I want you there." She said simply. "With me." She searched his beautiful, dark eyes. "But you won't come, will you?" She shook her head, knowing. A tear escaped, rolling gently down her face. Abigail felt her heart ripping in half, the future wrenching itself away from the past.

Sebastian had no words. He desperately scrambled inside his brain to figure out how to go backward, how could he go back to not having had this conversation? What could he do to keep the words from ever coming out of her? He could feel his heart crushing inside of his chest. He reached up to his face, realizing it felt wet. Tears streamed down his cheeks. "Abby." He managed.

Abigail gently leaned into the space between them, waiting for Sebastian to follow suit. He leaned in, pressing his forehead against hers. Their tears streamed silently, together.

LISTEN TO THIS....

DISSOLVE

ABSOFACTO