Intoxicated (Stardew Valley)

Chapter Six

WHEN I WAS sleeping, I had a dream. I knew it was only an illusion when I saw the familiar space that would continue to haunt me even if I were a thousand miles away.

It was my old office. The very same one I had sat in when working in the city.

I remembered my cold, bitter self. I was no better than the people I worked for. My mind was corrupted by the thought of money, the greed that consumed me. This selfishness pulled me away from the people I cared about.

"This is business. This is life. Join us. Strive."

How long ago that used to be my motto; what fuelled me to reach to the top. Had I not realized the person I had become while looking in the mirror? Had this corrupt capitalist system changed who I was? I once found joy by scheming people for their money.

My dream shifted to another figment of my past: the day I decided to leave. It was blurry but I recalled slamming the piles of paper onto my boss's desk, claiming the last of my funds and storming out of there.

Why did I leave? I kept asking myself. It was probably the most good I've done in my whole life or the most stupidest.

You see, a few months prior, an employee had filed a request for a loan. At that time, I was above the system and foolish. Not even looking at his or her face, I had denied the request, not bothering to listen to their excuse. After all, I was rich. I had money. Why should I have given it out to people who didn't work hard for it like me?

It was later then that rumors started to break out among the workplace, claiming that this co-worker had lost his pregnant girlfriend and didn't have the funds to save her. In the end, the rumors led to me, and I was shamed at. I caused the death of a woman and her child. I had blood on my hands. Not just with this family, but with hundreds of other lives.

It was as if something broke inside of me. I realized what I had done and I fled. I ran away like a coward and tried to escape my past through Pelican Town. Grandpa's farm was truly an escape from reality.

I didn't want that life anymore. Didn't want to remember all the pain I caused to those who suffered.

My dream self walked down the halls, passing by the angered faces of people I've caused trouble to. Eventually, my parents were there, looking at me with disappointment. And my grandpa, his eyes sad.

I approached the last figure, peering up at the face that made me tremble. It was Shane. Although his expression was always in anger, this one was different. His face was twisted in pure hatred and his eyes burned like hell-fire as if striking me with his stare. With this look, it was as if he hated me.

As the dream faded, I awoke with a jolt, sitting up in my bed. Or so what I thought was my bed. I looked around and saw that I was in the clinic, again.

"Wow, I have a bad tendency of passing out, huh?" I murmured to myself, getting up and walking out the room as if nothing had happened at all.

But something had happened. I couldn't explain it. Was my past coming back to finally haunt me?

"Ah, she's awake!" Harvey said from the front desk. "How do you feel, Mae?" He handed me a paper which contained the medical bill of a hefty amount of gold.

"Just peachy... Say, Harvey... I only passed out because of exhaustion. I could've been brought to my house."

"Yes, but I was worried you had exerted yourself more than what was necessary after the dance. You were passed out on the ground. People assumed you were dead," he explained.

"Right..."

"Are you okay?" he asked again, peering down at me through his thick rimmed glasses. Harvey didn't look at me as if I were a patient, but as if I were a friend.