hrrrm. I'm in a weird place with this one. Biting my tongue for bringing up second shift, but unlike that one, where I felt like the paranormal aspects were at least decently foreshadowed, and the vibe dead on, this one leaves me a fair bit more wanting. On a raw, in a vacuum level, there's some lines of prose I really like. Towards the beginning, "It's a standard American infrastructure; concrete, steel lamp posts, aluminum signs, and painted street markings. You've been here too, in a way. A variation of it maybe." This line is a banger, but it's also the only one that really made me feel the liminal space. Now, maybe this is just my desensitization, because I live in a small town, and 40ish minutes away is a slightly bigger college town that also loses or switches a majority of its population out every summer, but while the backgrounds were really good, I struggled to really feel that sort of transient aura. To me, liminal spaces come with not only that, but also a vague feeling that you shouldn't be here. You shouldn't be lingering here. They're in between places, where strange in between things can happen. And I think that was the goal, but it felt a bit lost on me. I get the feeling that by the end, we're supposed to agree with Red that walking home in the pitch black for hours back to his hometown is not only a win for him on a personal level, but also unquestionably safer than staying at the overpass. 

Which, yes, the mystery car, the consuming grass, the slowly growing ocean, all are very Bad Vibes, but they feel very sudden. I'm glad he didn't give in, but I just never really felt a sense of danger, and when he made his choice, I didn't really feel catharsis either. 

I guess I mean to say, I like all the pieces. The out of chronological story telling, the relationship between red and his Friend (the name reveal felt meaningless, I would either try to play with it more, or just tell us his name from the start), him and grace, and I'm open at least to the idea this interchange having some Supernatural Bad Vibes. The raw unfiltered BGs are mostly pretty good, especially when they provide a really harsh change of pace from the flashbacks. But something is just keeping all of these parts from coming together into a greater whole. I wish I could offer better advice, because I don't know what needs to change where, but it's just not quite where it wants to be.