I cornered Jeremiah at the “Cry Corner” around brunchtime. As I aimed to write more about this town’s diner, either way, this was for the best.

Sloan’s of the opinion that my flighty subject only ran from me this morning, in the motel hallway, because I “charged” at him the moment we made eye contact. Regardless, giving chase wouldn’t have normally been a problem; I’m a fast runner. The only reason I didn’t immediately catch up to Jeremiah was a very humbling reminder that I’ve yet to master running down stairs.ᶜ

The Cry Corner was surely named something else at some point in its history. Perhaps its roadside sign once had enough letters to make its name the “Country Corner”, given how the sign’s current appearance brings to mind a mouth with many missing teeth.

The interior of the diner is far better maintained. Its checkered, polished floor reminds me of a chessboard. Red bar stools line the diner’s shiny main counter, while red booth seats and plain white tables line the front windows. I noticed a black-and-white jukebox in a darkened part of the establishment and noted how this is an unusual color scheme for a jukebox. However, besides this oddity, the diner is appropriately decorated with posters of household brand names and diner foods. The lit-up “not 24/7 Diner” sign over the main counter is particularly cute.

By the time I recovered from the stairway incident in the Rosegold Motel and made it to the diner, Jeremiah had seated himself at the counter with two fascinating drawings laid out. Each art seemed horror-based; one art was a bloodied heart in a hand, and another seemed to be a dilapidated humanoid figure. I saw his pen shift colors as he worked with it as well, on top of everything else. (I should have asked where I could get a pen like that.)

Nevertheless, I approached Jeremiah at a walking pace and opened our conversation by complimenting his disturbing art—then, I asked both why he ran from me in the first place and why he told me not to venture out at night. Regardless of what anyone thinks, I’m quite capable of taking care of myself. It’s quite bold for him to think a woman like me shouldn’t walk alone in a town that might not even have 20 people in it, but perhaps the residents of this ghost town are particularly dangerous as well.ᶜ

The one waitress here, as mentioned before, is Valentine’s sister, Edith.ᶜ She’s quite a bubbly blonde, and perhaps that outgoing nature runs in the familyᶜ— but Edith interjected before Jeremiah could answer me, and with the well-meaning assurance that it gets incredibly cold at night, so it makes sense to stay indoors.

To that, I said, “Miss Edith, quite a few things are off about this town. Mr. Jeremiah’s behavior suggested to me that some greater threat lurks in the night. What is it? Shady persons who try to break into the motel in the same way they broke into my Mystery Mobile? Or is it something more paranormal? Sloan told me this is cryptid territory. While we aim to properly investigate who robbed my van, we can surely look into any other problems and mysteries the town is struggling with as well.”ᶜ

Edith’s eyes lit up when I called my beloved van the Mystery Mobile, but before she could offer a response, a deeply low voice monotoned from the kitchen window slit behind her.

“It’s nothing cryptid-related whatsoever. Don’t know why you two are even here. You shouldn’t be.”

A glowing pair of orange eyes with fatᶜ, black centers stared my way.

“Do you say that to all your paying customers?” Sloan retorted before I could. He’d been smiling and calmly watching the exchange up to this point.

“Nah—but you haven’t ordered anything yet.”

This voice was familiar, and I couldn’t quite place that either. I leaned against the diner counter and stared at the strange eyes.

“And who am I speaking to?” I asked.

“The cook here, obviously. If you wanna know what goes on at night, then go out at night. Or, you know. Just sit on your motel balcony long enough. I take it you’re staying over at the Rosegold.”

The motel is truly too equipped to call itself a motel–and every motel room indeed has a balcony.

Jeremiah paled to my left. “Or just believe me when I say it’s dangerous to go out at night? I think it’s a good rule of thumb not to head out at night in most places, and I don’t mean to be rude in saying that–”

“You’d probably just see the motel owner or Flint walking around,” Edith said, blinking in a way that made it seem—to me—that she didn’t find nights dangerous whatsoever. “Aaand you might get a cold if you don’t wear a coat out there, though!”

The Cook spoke up again, unblinking.ᶜ “Or you might see the Shack Dweller.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “The Shack Dweller?”

“Yeah. Order something already, or it’d be a waste of time to keep talking to ya.”

Sloan and I ordered “Burgurls”, which were hamburgers with little bows toothpicked into their top buns.ᶜ Edith designed, and was proud of, the diner’s menu. The Cook ignored further attempts at conversation until Edith had served us food in a booth. The burgers were incredibly good–but as soon as I was done with my meal, I approached the counter again.

And for this part of the conversation, I’ll summarize: the Cook told us that if Sloan and I venture into the woods on the outskirts of town, we’d eventually come across a small lake–and across from that lake lies a small shack. Supposedly, a very tall and aggressive man(?) resides there. He wears a skull from an unknown creature and has a moving, ink-black tattoo that traverses his skin as if it has a mind of its own.

I’ll believe this when I see him for myself, though I’m not sure what an antisocial Shack Dweller would want with the items missing from my van. What would a hermit need Sloan’s camera equipment for?ᶜ

While Sloan and I loitered at the diner after talking to the Cook (he refused to tell us his name), we also chatted with Jeremiah and Edith. I learned that Jeremiah is a graphic novelist (he’s too shy to share the specifics, it seems), and Edith enjoys dancing to the tunes of that black-and-white jukebox I mentioned before. Patrons aren’t allowed to touch it. I’m told it always emits a faint background static when it plays.

And before we left the diner, Sloan and I decided to stay up tonight. We’ll sit out on a motel balcony and see if we notice anything strange, as the Cook suggested. If anything about the night is truly dangerous, Sloan and I can always rush inside. (Just as well, we’ve both decided that Fettuccine should stay in Sloan’s motel room during this endeavor.)

Last night was rather productive as well, by the way. I spent most of my time organizing my notes on the town and its residents so far.ᶜ My motel room is at the end of a long hall, and is attached to the room adjacent to it by a connecting door. Sloan and Fettuccine are staying in the room beside mine. Sloan told me that it was very windy outside at one point of the night, but that’s the only thing of note. I never saw anything strange. The windy comment also made sense; during my time in the bath, I heard the aggressive tapping of branches at the window in my main room.ᶜ

In other news, Rorfu and the sheriff have yet to come back. I’ll see if I can contact her after submitting this post. Through our earlier conversation with Edith and Jeremiah (but mostly Edith, since the latter seems quite introverted), we learned that Flint left town to go pick up the gas station attendant he’d been filling in for, and a lot of the usual residents of the town tend to keep to themselves when new faces turn up. The latter fact may factor into how we’ve seen very few people so far. I get the sense that other townsfolk are avoiding us.

What else… oh, I again asked people what the name of the town is. Jeremiah, Edith, and the Cook all said it was REDACTED . (I doubt this will post any differently than my last attempts to post the name.)

That should be all for now. I’ll make another post after the balcony stakeout tonight–though I may take the whole day after the fact to sleep in. For now, have this sneaky picture Sloan took over in the diner. It captures the Cook’s strange eyes; he was watching us the whole time we were there.