Night Vale Unsolved

43

Shane and Ryan sat on their beds, not talking. Shane was reading a book, and Ryan, after trying the room's TV for sports and finding very strange shows, was doing his best to doze off for a nap. It wasn't working.
"Can you close the curtains?" He asked Shane, who was closer to the window. Shane looked out, the bright desert sun reflecting off of every window and car in sight.
He closed the curtains.
Sitting back down, he said, "You know, we can't just sit here forever."
"Why not?" Ryan grumbled.
Shane put down his book and looked over at his friend. "Because," He said, "We do have a job. Out there, in the real world."
"Yeah, well, how great are we doing with that?" Ryan asked, frustrated with everything that had happened. "We came out here for a job, remember? And now...we can't do it."
"Ryan..."
"Yeah, yeah." Ryan waved Shane off and turned around.
Shane sighed. He picked his book back up, knowing that Ryan would stop moping eventually, and start coming up with ideas on what to do next.
Shane was almost dreading it.
But instead of crazy schemes, Ryan's mumbled voice offered a "Maybe we should just leave now."
Shane frowned, surprised. "Leave?"
Ryan turned back around. "Yeah. We can't get the footage back, and even if we could reshoot, it'll probably just get stolen again."
"We don't know that."
"Yeah, Shane, we do." Ryan threw up his hands. "Look at this place. It's like it doesn't even want us here."
Shane considered this. As much as he wanted to stick with his initial reaction to the little desert community - peaceful and quiet - he just couldn't. Night Vale wasn't a bad place, but it sure wasn't peaceful.
But then he remembered the night that he and Ryan had walked through the town. It was right after they'd been chased by the Librarians, and as hectic as that experience had been, the town itself was...welcoming. Happy, normal, even though it really is anything but.
And that was the memory that Shane pictured when he answered Ryan.
"I don't think Night Vale wants us gone. I mean, I don't think a city can want anything, but I think it's just...strange."
Ryan thought about that for a moment, then grinned. "Weren't we having this talk the other way around like, two days ago?"
"I guess so, yeah." Shane laughed back, relieved that the moping had passed.
But Ryan's laugh and smile faded, and he sat in the edge of his bed, frowning. Shane sighed, seeing that he wasn't yet ready to move on from his idea.
"You still want to leave, huh?"
Ryan shrugged. "I mean, we have to eventually, right? It's like you said. And there isn't much more we can do here."
"Not unless you want to go back to the library," Shane tried to joke, eliciting a shudder from his friend.
"No. Definitely not. But I think we should say goodbye in the morning and go."
Ryan then excused himself to the bathroom, leaving Shane to think about it.

Meanwhile, across the street from the hotel, a small group of Night Vale citizens gathered. Their numbers grew slowly larger, until they spilled over off of the sidewalk and into the street. At the centre of this mob was Larry Leroy. It was impossible to hear what was being said from the outskirts of the crowd, but after some rousing statement, everyone raised a fist in the air. They repeated, over and over, a single word.
"Interlopers! Interlopers!"