Strangely Familiar Uncomfortable Liminal Spaces Novels & Stories

The sounds around me- the laughter, music,and clinking glasses,warped into a distant hum. A blurry figure approached me and grabbed my arms, dragging me forward. At that time,I couldn't quite pinpoint what was occuring. The only thing I was sure of was my unusual obedience to a stranger. The numbness in my limbs made it impossible to resist and the next thing I saw was darkness pulling me into its deep abyss. *****

The other mind is angry, confused, and scared. She tries to help it to calm, to help it to settle so it didn’t hurt itself, or her, or the children they’re carrying. When she thinks about the children it stills, almost instantly. It doesn’t want to hurt them, but ‘it’ felt wrong. She, she didn’t want to hurt her or the children. She feels Sol pulling at her to come to liminal and she silently agrees. The next thing she knows she’s in a large white room, with wooden floorboards and two sofas and a fireplace on one wall.

The lines dimmed, their movement slowing until they stopped entirely, leaving behind a space that felt… disconnected. Lucian noticed it first. “Hey… that’s not right.” Kael’s head snapped toward the dead zone instantly. “That’s not a failure.” Raven narrowed her eyes. “Then what is it?” Ethan’s voice came low. “A removal.” They moved quickly, crossing the distance in silence, each step bringing them closer to something none of them had anticipated. The ground felt different beneath their feet—not unstable, not broken, but… empty. The patterns that had become so constant, so present, were simply gone in that section.

Eli staggered back half a step, his face white as paper, that faint flicker of hope in his eyes splintering inch by inch, until nothing was left but a boundless, hollow desolation. "From beginning to end, I brought this on myself. I was the one who wronged you." He murmured it low, his voice so faint it nearly dissolved into the air. "In this life, there's not the slightest chance of taking it back." I lingered no longer, and without another glance at his dazed, anguished face, I turned and walked toward the stairs. The gilded box door closed softly behind me, shutting out his gaze completely. We had once walked side by side and loved each other deeply, and in the end, all that was left was

it said. “Origin inconsistency detected,” the core said. The statement carried tension now. “Yes,” I replied. Another layer of connection loosened, and this time the shift was deeper, pulling more of my awareness outward, beyond the boundaries of the system. My chest tightened as the sensation expanded, not painful, but overwhelming in its unfamiliarity. A sense of space that was not confined by structure. A sense of self that was not defined by function. A sense of existence that was not tied to control.

"It will be some time before we finish. Don't tense up your body. Otherwise, I can't help you." I began to feel some relief in my chest, and the pain eased slightly. A strange feeling surged within me. Suddenly, I noticed his unfocused gaze when our eyes met. Judging from his state, he seemed to be carried away by the heat of the moment. I could feel him becoming more and more aroused. Meanwhile, my body was throbbing so badly that I couldn't help but lean in closer. At that moment, I felt myself losing control once more. Charlie gently reminded me to change positions. "Babe, this isn't making it very easy for me. Could you move over?"

“We checked the area. No hidden paths, no side routes… nothing.” Her voice dropped a little as she added, “And those people… they didn’t come from anywhere we could see. They just showed up, like they were already inside.” “That’s exactly it,” I added, my voice a little firmer now. “You didn’t see them come in because they weren’t moving through the space you’re looking at.” I could feel the idea settling into place. “It might be more like a split space,” I said. “Two versions existing side by side… but only one actually leads somewhere. And we’re stuck seeing the wrong one.”

The air felt heavy and strange, as if the night itself were watching us. We stayed like that until morning. Then suddenly, as if the darkness had never happened, Horris wiped his face and smiled. “Come on,” he said gently. “Let us take a walk.” His voice sounded light again. Happy. Almost too happy. A few hours earlier he had been frozen in terror, and now he wanted to walk as if nothing had happened. It felt strange, but I pushed the feeling aside. He was smiling again. And when Horris smiled, it was easy to follow him anywhere—even into the dark.

Sucking in the air, my nostrils flare wildly when the intoxicating notes of cinnamon and clementine drown out the entirety of my senses, filling me with enlightening emotions that I can’t quite describe; left undiscovered until this very moment. Held like a prisoner in our attentive fixed stare, my invisible restraints continue to bind me to where I rest when I can’t help but notice that the stranger stood before me somehow oozes in familiarity while they warily hide amongst the shadows—leaving me to reel in utter confusion as our unbroken mental hold remains intact. Growing flustered by what I can’t explain, I begin to burn up uncomfortably when an opposing pleasant burst of untamed energy

It was exactly like a home that didn’t feel lived in. There was no clutter anywhere, no framed pictures for memories, or anything to breathe life in the space. Just sterile perfection. “Do you always come back to this?” I asked, stepping through the open-plan space, my voice barely audible before the echo amplified it. “I come back to silence,” he said, almost like an apology.