Chapter Text
A small town is filled with mysteries. In a big city, things happen so often, so fast. Eyes see these things and gloss over them. Secrets aren’t secrets because they are kept, it’s because no one cares to think about them, even a moment after they happened.
But how many times have you walked through a cemetery, wondering how each person died. Why is the double gravestone half empty?
There are love notes with wax seals scattered around the local college campus. And old college rings for sale.
It’s romantic at a glance. Boring at a longer look. Each day is the same but under the surface, things bubble. People work to keep these things under lock and key.
A house burns down but the news does not report it. You’ll hear sirens five times in one day and then a month will go by, causing you to forget until it happens again.
There’s no noise from the church, they never try to recruit new members.
If you listen when they think no one is around to hear, there’s a lot to learn.
The gate had been inactive for years, although no one can pinpoint the day that it finally stopped spitting Abominations into the Monongahela National Forest. Most people, even long term residents of Kepler, were unaware of the danger they faced on cold nights every couple months.
Not everyone has secrets, not secrets worth knowing.
But the one place where all secrets are on display is The Cryptonomica. It’s better to showcase the information you want the world to know instead of hiding it all. Their claim to fame is a grainy footage video of Bigfoot fighting a mountain lion. No better footage has ever been found so The Cryptonomica has managed to make a place for itself in the cryptid world. The owners, Kirby and Billy Strand published a weekly zine, The Lamplighter, well known in the cryptid community. But if you look a little further you’ll find another employee who knows more than they should.