Night Vale Unsolved

22

"Ah, here it is." Carlos pulled the car over into an empty driveway.
"I thought you said you came here often?" Ryan asked, getting out of the car.
"I did, in a way. This house was one of the first things I studied here in Night Vale. It's, well, it's been a while." Carlos studied the house before them like someone would study the face of a friend they hadn't seen in a few years.
"Great," Shane joined them, "Can you tell us what's so different about this house?"
Carlos glanced back at the other two men with him, then back at the house. He understood their confusion, of course. The house seems like it exists, like it's just right there, when you look at it. And it's between two other identical houses, so it would make more sense for it to be there than not. But...
"It doesn't exist." Carlos told them. When he got no response, he turned around to find Shane and Ryan sharing a look that conveyed large amounts of skepticism. "Seriously!" He confirmed. "Here, look."
He led them to a window, motioning for them to look inside.
"We can't just look inside someone's house!" Ryan whispered.
"Sure we can," Carlos assured him at normal conversational volume.
Shane shrugged and looked in. Ryan hesitated for a moment, and then joined him.
"That's...odd." Shane commented. The inside that they saw was sparsely decorated, with a couple chairs and not much else. The main thing that caught their attention were the black and white photographs hung up on the walls.
Carlos nodded. It is. "But this interior isn't really what's inside. Not if you open the door."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, a couple years ago, my team of scientists and I were trying to figure out how to get inside to look around. Well," Carlos conceded, "No one wanted to go up and knock or ring the doorbell, and that was the problem. But anyway. Eventually, we just all went up and knocked. Finally, a woman opened the door. She told us that she had lived in this house for nineteen years."
"That...doesn't sound that odd." Shane commented. "I mean, I'm sure you're getting there, but this all seems pretty normal."
"It does. But here's where things change. First of all, when this woman - Cynthia, her name was - opened the door, the inside that we could see through the door was different than the one we saw through the window."
"Different...how?"
"Well, it seemed to be the same size and shape, but the room was fully furnished and decorated normally. And the weirder thing is that when this happened, this neighborhood had only been around for three years."
"And Cynthia claimed to have lived here for nineteen." Ryan confirmed. Carlos nodded.
"Alright, but how does this all amount to the house not existing?" Shane asked."
"Well," Carlos continued, "That story involves a woman named Dana Cardinal, as well as," Carlos glanced around and lowered his voice. "The dog park."
"Hold on," Ryan said, digging around in his bag. He brought out a recording device and hit record. "I want to make sure I remember this." Off of a hesitant look from Carlos, he added, "Don't worry, I'll edit the tape later."
Satisfied, Carlos began.
"A while back, during one of our poetry weeks, one of Josie's...friends...posted one of their poems on the gates of the dog park. This, I guess, made the gates open for the first time in...I don't actually know. Anyway, a whole bunch of people had gathered, and they actually entered the dog park. One of these people was a then intern at the radio station, who had been sent to report on the events. This was Dana. Dana found that the dog park was a lot bigger on the inside, and so she tried to see how far it went. Instead, she found an old oak door, just standing in the middle of nowhere. She went through it, and found herself inside this house. To be more specific, she found herself inside the house that we can see through the windows."
"So," Shane jumped in, "Not the one that you saw with Cynthia, but this one with the weird photos?"
"Yes. They're all lighthouses, actually. And anyway, after looking around for a while, Dana left the house. And this is actually where us scientists come into play. You see, at the time, we were still investigating the house. I was there when we saw Dana come out of that front door. Now, this was a few months after the poetry week incident, so I was surprised to see her. I called out to her, but she didn't answer me. She walked right through me! Like a ghost or something."
"A ghost?" Ryan asked. Shane sighed, but Ryan pushed on. "Was it...?"
"What? Oh!" Carlos laughed. "Oh, no. She wasn't a ghost. No, when Dana went through that front door, what she entered was a desert otherworld. She got out, eventually, that's another story, but that about does it for the house."
The three of them sat in silence for a moment, the only sound was the brief click as Ryan stopped the recording.
"Well," Shane finally broke the spell, "That is quite the story."
Carlos opened his mouth to reiterate that it wasn't just a story, that it actually happened, but Shane beat him to it. "No, I know it actually happened, I'm just saying it was a hell of a ride. Anyway," He stood up, and the others did the same. "Ryan, do you think we need to shoot anything here, or are we good?"