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The greasy little diner simply named 'Flora's' was the heart and soul of Forklea; it had been open for as long as anybody in the sleepy little town could remember. It wasn't surprising that the most ground-breaking news to happen in Forklea in the past eighty years was announced in Flora's.
Esther had been sitting in her usual booth with her usual cup of coffee when it was announced that somebody had been murdered. Laurie Bradley had been killed in her own home, gutted like a fish, and left to rot on her front lawn – or at least that's what the rumours said had happened. Gory details or not, Laurie Bradley had been murdered and that news practically broke the otherwise boring town.
Forklea was exactly like the town in 'Edward Scissorhands' in Esther's opinion. Y'know how all the houses looked the same and the exact same thing happened every single day like clockwork? Yeah, well that's what Forklea had been like before October began, and a deranged killer started stalking the small population. With the way some people were acting, Esther wouldn't be surprised if purge started happening.
The number of wannabe-vigilantes only rose when the second murder happened. Besides some minor details, Michael Price had ended up almost the same as Laurie; murdered by some bloodthirsty psychopath. Suddenly Forklea had turned into Camp Crystal Lake; Esther will admit that that's just a little bit scary – well that and the fact that both of the murdered victims had been in in the same year as her back in high-school.
Despite that though, Esther wasn't going to put her life on hold just because some maniac decided to get a little knife happy, which is exactly why she was sitting right back in her usual booth in Flora's.
Esther scanned the diner as the now luke-warm coffee slipped down her throat. It was obvious that the diner hadn't been updated since the sixties, although Esther thought that the aged décor and outdated jukebox in the corner only added to the charm of it – outdated décor or not, it was still a nice place to read for Esther to read her books and sip on mediocre coffee.
The well-worn copy of 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' sat comfortably in her hands.
"You still reading?" a light lilted voice rung out from behind the counter.
A small smile spread across Esther's face as she nodded gently, "you bet I am." She replied without looking up from her book.
The owner of the lilted voice was a waitress who had worked at the diner for as long as Esther could remember, she was sure Nancy had been around since the diner had first opened even though she didn't look at day over forty-five.
"I think I've seen you read that book a hundred time by now, Esther." Nancy said as she shuffled menus into a neat pile.
Esther hummed, "I've only read it like fifteen times, and I'm sure at least five of those times I wasn't even in this state for."
"Only fifteen times." Nancy imitated Esther, laughing lightly as she moved away from the menus and started wiping down the empty tables closest to the door.
