Lilah grabbed the prybar leaning against the wall and sighed. The cross-breeze through the windows didn't do much to cool the cabin down during the afternoon and manual labor didn't help the sweat plastering rogue strands of hair to the back of her neck. Someday she would have a proper air conditioner but she'd have to suffer until then. Luckily, the floor was almost completely torn up. There were just a few more boards to go and she'd be rid of the tainted wood for good.

Almost the entire floor of the cabin's main room had to be replaced. Blood soaked into the wood and no matter how hard Lilah had tried to clean it, the faint stains of her boyfriend's blood remained a permanent mark on the floor next to her bed. A few feet away was another dried splatter, haunting for all the opposite reasons.

Emery had survived his wounds. A dark part of her thought that had he died, she would have set up velvet rope around the bloodstain and laughed at it every chance she got. As it stood, it had only reminded her that he was still out there. Not quite a free man—her and Bas's statements combined with Eddie's own account of events had him being held at an exceptionally high bond, but the knowledge that he still drew breath was enough to chill her spine every time her eyes had rested on the ruddy stain.

She jabbed the prybar between the slats of the floorboards, yanking them up board by board and dragging them out to the burn pile behind the cabin. The work was repetitive—almost mind-numbing. Her thoughts wandered as she moved, not thinking of anything particularly of consequence, yet she was still shocked back to reality as the prybar sounded a hollow thump beneath her feet and held fast. Lilah kicked splintered shards of wood away and used her foot for more leverage, pressing her full weight against the tool until the wood sprang completely upright.

The force sent her rocking back with a shout, almost knocking her off her feet. She caught herself before falling onto her back, eyes locking on the large square of wood standing perpendicular to the rest of the floor.

"What…the hell?"

A large hole yawned in the middle of her kitchen. Old stone steps led down into a dark abyss, so deep beneath the foundation that Lilah couldn't see the bottom. Of all the things she imagined she'd find underneath the floorboards, a trapdoor hadn't even made the list. She wracked her brain, trying to think about what could be down in the shadows below but couldn't bring herself to check it out.

A hidden cellar, an old cabin in the woods, it was all too reminiscent of a horror movie. It was always the person that investigated that got axed by the monster in the dark and she'd had enough of monsters for one lifetime. Still, curiosity gnawed at her brain and she wondered what Gramps could have possibly stashed in the sealed up basement.

"Lilah?" A familiar voice called from outside, though it seemed to bounce through the cabin and echo deep from the bottom of the stairs in a way that alerted the hair on the back of her neck. Lilah swallowed thickly and turned for the door. Sebastian was already walking through with a canvas bag on his arm, testing the foundation with one foot before stepping into the cabin proper. He took one look at the stairs and froze. "Woah…"

"Tell me about it." Lilah moved out of the way as Sebastian approached.

"What's down there?"

"I don't know. Maybe nothing," Lilah said. She smiled weakly. "I was kind of trying to psych myself up to check it out."

"So we're thinking the Necronomicon is hiding down there?" He grinned.

"Don't even joke. I'm not sure either of us can pull off a chainsaw hand."

"Speak for yourself. 'Bas vs. Evil Dead' has a nice ring to it, if you ask me." He kissed her once and set the bag he'd brought on the counter. "Mom made lunch so I brought some down if you want to take a break," he explained when she looked at it curiously.

"A break sounds nice," Lilah said but her eyes trailed back to the cellar door. Bas smirked at her and nodded towards the stairs.

"Should we survey the dungeons of Dreadlord Xarth first?"

"Hey, that's my Gramps you're talking about!" Lilah huffed in mock offense. He only laughed and grabbed his phone, flipping on the flashlight and holding a hand out towards her. Lilah took it without hesitation.

They descended the stairs carefully, Bas leading the way with his phone's light barely illuminating the steps. There was no railing, the only support as they dived into the shadows was Bas's hand around hers. The darkness surrounding them only granted the illusion that the cellar was a long way down—it was only about 10 steps or so before they reached the concrete floor below. A light switch rested on the wall at the final step but even before she tested it, Lilah knew it wouldn't work. She held fast to Bas's hand as his light scanned the area.

The basement was much larger than she thought it would be—running the full length of the cabin from what she could tell. A row of wooden casks lined the wall across from the stairs. Kegs and pickling barrels, a rack of axes, pitchforks, shovels, and other tools, and some machinery that Lilah didn't recognize littered the floor without any real organization. Most of it appeared in useable condition, much to her delight. They worked their way across the floor, maneuvering around a pile of scarecrows and storage bins full of what appeared to be stone, iron, and lumber.

"The old man—I mean, your grandpa must've had a pretty good setup back in the day," Bas said.

"There's so much. I wish I had known about it sooner. What's that?" Lilah tugged his hand and led him off to the right. A work bench was pressed up against the far wall. Its surface was cluttered with papers—diagrams or blueprints that Lilah couldn't make heads nor tails of. A thick book rested in the midst of it, leather bound and sealed shut by a silver lock on the cover. The name Nicolas Elijah Casey was inscribed in the bottom right corner of the cover.

"Holy shit." Bas pulled her closer to his side. "You know, I was only joking about the whole Necronomicon stuff."

"So you're saying I shouldn't open it?" Lilah teased, reaching out and dusting off the cover. She picked it up, surprised by the weight of the thing. It reminded her more of a wizard's spellbook than...whatever Gramps probably used it for.

"I'm just saying if you do and the trees start moving, we're hopping on the bike and never coming back."

"We? You'd still take me with you even if I started the apocalypse?"

"That goes without saying."

"I think that's the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me." Lilah laughed and held the book to her chest. "Come on, it's creepy down here. Let's go eat."

"You don't need to tell me twice." Bas led her back to the stairs, bracing his hand against the small of her back. She'd have the replace the lights and investigate the rest of Gramps's possessions thoroughly. There was so much to sort through it was almost overwhelming, though she couldn't deny she was excited to figure out just what all had been left behind.

Her fingers trailed over the leather book—soft and smooth to the touch. She didn't know what was in it, maybe it was even blank, but Gramps's name carved elegantly in the corner warmed her heart. She barely had enough memories of him to fill less than half the book in her arms yet remembering his patient smile, hearty laughter, and shining eyes filled her with joy.

Back in the kitchen, Lilah examined the lock on the cover. She wondered if they key was still buried downstairs under all the piles of bric-a-brac. In theory she could bust the lock open or just cut the covers off, but the thought of damaging the book in any way made her uneasy. She didn't want to destroy it if she could avoid it. Lilah placed the book gingerly on her bed and rejoined Bas as he carefully shut the cellar door behind them.

"Are you sure I can't help you finish up in here?" He asked after a quick survey of the room. The job would go a lot faster if she had help, even more so if she had agreed to let Robin take care of everything. It had been tempting but almost as soon as the idea planted itself into her head, Lilah rejected it. It was a whole new level of cruel to ask a woman to replace flooring stained by her own child's blood. Lilah couldn't bring herself to stoop so low.

"You're still not completely healed up," Lilah said. "It's not so bad as a one-person job. It's oddly therapeutic."

"Therapeutic, huh?" He didn't sound convinced but he smiled at her anyway.

"It kind of is. It's nice to keep moving without having to really think about things."

"I guess I know what you mean." Bas moved back to the counter and lifted the bag of food. "What do you say we head out to eat?"

Lilah took in the war-zone that was left of her cabin and could only laugh at how unappetizing the atmosphere was.

"Probably a good idea. Where did you have in mind?"

Bas grinned and reached into the bag to pull out two pairs of fleece gloves.

The mines were just as beautiful as the last time Bas invited her. Though it had barely been more than a few weeks, it felt like it had been ages since she felt the icy chill of the cold on her nose. She and Bas sat at the shore of the frozen lake, the sandwiches and salad Robin prepared had long since been eaten but Lilah couldn't bring herself to move. Bas's arms were wrapped snugly around her, keeping her warmer than any coat or scarf could ever hope. His lips occasionally pressed against her hair, spreading even more warmth through her from the inside. Silence stretched out through the cavern— welcome and peaceful. Bas's whisper was almost thunderous when it broke through the quiet.

"I don't know what I'm going to do when you go back to Haven for good."

"What do you mean?"

"I just…" Bas laughed sardonically and pressed his forehead into her shoulder. "Shit, I always sound so lame when I talk to you."

"I don't think that." Lilah tilted her head to look at his face but he kept it buried in her shoulder. She could have sworn she felt the heat of his blushing face through her coat.

"I was just thinking that I like having you with me. Going to sleep with you, waking up with you...I wish you could just stay with me."

"Bas…"

His arms tightened around her and he sighed, finally lifting his head to meet her eyes.

"I know it's stupid. It's not like you'll even be that far away. I just can't stop thinking about how different it'll be to not have you with me when I wake up. I don't want you to go."

Lilah's chest tightened. She bit her lip, rested her hands on his arms and leaned into his warmth. She mulled over her words carefully, thankful that Bas didn't seem to take her silence as immediate rejection.

"If I told you that I didn't need to go back to Haven, it'd be a lie," she began slowly. "That's not to say that I haven't been happy living with you for the last couple of weeks. Actually, I can't remember the last time I was this happy, ignoring the circumstances." Lilah turned in his arms, bracing her arms on his shoulders and moving to straddle his lap so he had no choice but to look her in the face. "But it's because you make me so happy that I need to go back. I feel like, if I don't, I'll start to rely on you too much. I'll be too focused on becoming the girl you want me to be that I'll never find out who I really am."

"I don't want you to be anyone but yourself." Bas frowned. "Lilah, if I've done something to—"

Lilah kissed him into silence.

"Stop. That's not what I meant." She kissed him again, relishing the way his cold nose brushed along hers and the heat of their breath steamed between their bodies. "You've been nothing short of wonderful since we met. I'm so thankful to have you as my boyfriend, please don't think this is anything to do with you."

When he nodded, eyes half-lidded and focused on her lips, she continued.

"If we lived together permanently, I'd be too focused on you. Everything in my life would be centered around you—I've already caught myself doing it from time to time. I worry too much that you won't want me anymore and I can't feel calm unless I see you or touch you. As romantic as it sounds, I know it's not really... good to have you be my only source of stability. It's too much pressure to put on you and it's not fair." Lilah smoothed her gloved fingers along the lines off his cheekbones, taking in his features that seemed to be crafted from porcelain. His pale skin almost glowed with the light in the cavern, dark lashes and eyebrows like coal stones nestled in the snow—clearly visible but if she didn't pay attention, she could trip over them and fall into his clear eyes. "Years ago, I thought I knew who I was. Then, I left behind everything I had known and I was completely remade from the inside out. I became someone that I still don't recognize every time I look in the mirror—someone terrified and weak, unable to fend for herself without someone leading the way and cracking a whip. So, I need time. I want to try and find the person that I was before and bring her back...or at least figure out who I am now."

Bas was quiet for a long while. His eyes searched hers, searched all over her face, but Lilah wasn't sure what he was looking for. Eventually, he smiled and pressed his forehead against hers, rubbing the tips of their chill-bitten noses together.

"All that talk about turning into someone weak, but you're still a million times stronger than me," he said. "When you put it like that, I can't even try to argue."

"It's okay?"

"It's not up to me." Bas held her tightly to his chest. "If this is what you need to do, then I don't have a say in it. I just have to wait—no, not even that. I want to wait. I want to meet the real you too."

When they kissed, it was a promise.

There was so much she had to work on—on Haven, on herself—but she didn't feel scared in the least. It would take time. She knew that she wouldn't find all the answers she needed overnight but having Bas's support made a world of difference. He would help her when she needed it, she just had to make sure she didn't rely on his comfort too much. It was too easy to close her eyes and just lose herself in the warmth of his arms, tell herself that she was fine as long as he cared about her...but that was a one-way bus ticket to Nowhere-Fast.

She had truly been given a second chance. It was hard to imagine that she was there, safe and sound, all because she happened across that old battered lockbox in a fit of desperation. Finding that old key had given her a sense of purpose that she'd never known she had. She became brave enough to defy Emery and get a job that she knew he'd never catch a whiff of, hoard her money away like a hungry dragon and even if she hadn't completely turned her life around because of it, she knew now that it was the first step she had to take.

Buying the bus ticket was the next. Holding it in her hands had been like having liquid concrete poured into her lungs. Fear had taken hold and if the bus hadn't shown up when it did, Lilah had a feeling that all of her hard work would have been for nothing. She had almost gone crawling back on hands and knees, prepared to take any sort of punishment that she had earned. It still chilled her how a step forward had almost been two steps back— possibly into an early grave.

Yet with her face cradled by Bas's hands, lips gently meeting while surrounded by snow, she knew that even if it meant erasing everything Emery had done, she wouldn't want to be anywhere else. She would finally sever the chains that bound her to a life of pain, fear, and uncertainty. The friends she had made, though perhaps fewer in number than most would boast about, made her feel like for once in her life, she was wanted. Cherished. Home.

Yes, it would take time. But as long as she had Bas and their friends behind her, she knew she could have the life she had been longing for all along. A life of joy, full of Abigail's spirit, a spit-fire personality that Lilah admired from the moment they met. A life of laughter, full of Sam's ostentatious jokes and cheeky grins. A life promising a future, with Bas's secret smiles and gentle hands keeping her looking forward even when all she wanted to do was run and hide.

Finding that old key had given her courage. Buying the bus ticket had bought her freedom. But it was in Stardew Valley, the people that she met in a little place called Pelican Town, that would finally give her peace.

Who knew that freedom smelled like cedar and tobacco?

BURY MY HEART IN STARDEW VALLEY

END

SEQUEL COMING SOON: A FRUIT FOR ALL SEASONS