The Watcher in the Lenses

Sterling has been the desk clerk at the Hells Bells Motel for as long as anyone can remember. With his gaunt frame and seemingly permanent bloodshot eyes, he sits in the cramped space behind the front desk, trying to keep up with the Lost & Found logs.

Lately his vision has been waxing and waning, and his old reading glasses aren't strong enough anymore to read the fine print, so he digs through a dusty box of unclaimed items and pulls out a pair of heavy wire-rimmed spectacles that--according to the leather-bound ledger were left behind in Room 104 back in 1962.

Sterling sat back, ready to log the latest items, but the moment he looked through the yellowed lenses, the lobby vanished.

Sterling was suddenly looking through a stranger's eyes, forced to watch a horrific scene play out right there in Room 104 all those decades ago. He watched as a pair of trembling hands choke out the life of a young woman in the room, then frantically dragged her body out into the dark.

As the light catches her face, Sterling recognizes her from an unsolved disappearance years ago that was splashed all over the news.

Deeply unsettled, Sterling pulls the glasses off his face; his vision blurring back to the safe, quiet lobby--but now holding the final piece to an old town secret buried right at the Hells Bells Motel.