Stay awhile and relax., [ open ]

[Thad Beaumont]

The place was quaint, a few people milling around here and there. Waitresses, other patrons, cooks. It was quiet. Thad couldn't help but smile thinly at it. It was nice.

He had pulled into a spot closer to the front than Lisey and Amanda had, and he had entered the establishment telling the woman at the front that he needed a table for three. Non-smoking. He hoped. He was guessing there and he hoped he was right.

Glancing around quickly, he could see the women walking up to the restaurant as he was getting led to the table. A small round booth in the back corner. Thad sat down on the left edge of it, figuring they would want to sit next to each other. He waved them over, pointing to the table he was seated at before he picked up the menu and started scanning it.

[Amanda Debusher]

Amanda entered the Blue Moon and reached a hand back to hold the door open for Lisey. Scanning the bar, her eyes found Thad just as he waved them over. She slid into the round booth and shifted her eyes about the place, taking in every detail.

The Blue Moon was one of the few Bars in Castle Rock and during the summer months was often overrun with vacationers. There wasn't much more night life to be had in Castle Rock. For a real night on the town most people drove over to Portland.

Finally opening her menu, Amanda absentmindedly studied to the etnrees. What was going on in her head at the moment was much more important than anything she would soon put into her stomach. The strangeness of this place still overwhelmed her and her mind wouldn't rest easy until she figured it out.

"So Thad," she said suddenly from behind the menu. "Most of the out-of-towners have headed home now that summeris over. What keeps you around?"

[Lisey Landon]

Lisey followed her sister in and sat down beside her, trapping Manda between herself and Thad. She picked up her own menu and looked it over, her thoughts drifting to Beaumont as Amanda asked him about his place here.

There was a laugh somewhere inside her head. She wondered if it came from Scott or herself. She knew it was because she was sitting across from Thad Beaumont -- the Thad Beaumont. Scott would've had a field day if he had been there. With questions, musings, ramblings -- all the things Scott was good at. He and Thad probably would've gotten together swimmingly, shit, they could've written something together.

Lisey realized she had been staring at Thad over the top of her menu and she shifted her eyes back down to the words in front of her, pulling the menu up to hide the sudden flush of her cheeks.

[Ray Garraty]

"What kind of place is this?" Ray mumbled as he walked into downtown Castle Rock.

The fact that he had no visual on any of the other Walkers bothered him. Surely he hadn't walked that far ahead of them...that wasn't heeding tip #13: conserve your energy. But he knew he hadn't fallen that far behind the other Walkers either. Stebbins always brought up the rear at a dead even four miles-per-hour and if Ray had fallen this far behind him, he'd be carrying a bit of extra weight in the form of lead and bullet holes.

Ray had already passed the Blue Moon five times and now, without changing directions or backtracking, he was passing it again.

"What the fuck!" he spouted in exasperation.

Before he even realized what he was doing, Ray held his breath and shifted his eyes wildly in search of soldiers and flying bullets. Stumbling over the curb of the sidewalk, he flailed his arms about in a barely successful attempt to keep from meeting face to face with concrete. When he regained his balance--and a slight bit of his dignity--Ray sprinted for the entance of the Blue Moon and hit the ground as the door slammed shut behind him with a resonating bang.

[Thad Beaumont]

"Well," Thad begin to chuckle slightly, thinking of how messed up it would sound if he began to unravel his tale of George Stark and Liz and the kids and the sparrows and everything and just went with: "It's a long story. I was here for---"

He stopped speaking when his eyes caught a teenage boy throw himself inside the restaurant and fall to the floor. Thad noted that the few other patrons of the place just sort of stared at him, as did the staff. What the hell were their problems? Was no one gonna help this kid? Something was obviously wrong.

Before he could take note if Lisey and Amanda were staring just like the others or ready to get up like he was, he dropped his menu -- "Excuse me, ladies." -- and quickly crossed the establishment to where the boy was. He knelt down and reached out for the kid's shoulders, shaking him slightly.

"Hey." No answer. "Hey, kid. Are you alright?"

As a teacher and a father, he always found himself worrying about the younger generations.

[Amanda Debusher]

Amanda had to turn her head to see the commotion going on in the front of the restuarant, but she still caught sight of the kid just as he hit the ground and the door slammed shut behind him. Amanda rose only seconds after Thad, but the look on her face suggested that she expected something like this to happen.

"I told you there was something going on here," Amanda stated as she threw her sister a knowing glance and shuffled out of the booth.

Amanda took notice of the other people in the Blue Moon. They just sat there shoveling food into their mouths and chatting away, almost as if they hadn't noticed the boy's dramatic entrance at all.

[Lisey Landon]

Hesitating, Lisey watched Thad and Amanda rush over to the boy and then glanced around to see if anyone else was reacting to the events surrounding them. They weren't. She wondered why before sliding out of the booth and calling out to one of the waiters on her way. "Call 911!"

The man just looked at her with blank eyes.

"Hey! 911!" She repeated, waving her hand in front of the waiter's face. He waited a few moments and then wandered off -- Lisey figured he wasn't going to call like she told him too. Looking at the others in the establishment, none of them looked like they were going to do anything.

Amanda and Thad were down beside the boy and Lisey could only hover over them and watch, hoping he was alright.

Everything the same.

[Ray Garraty]

The sudden fuss of the people standing over him snapped Ray back into action. Flailing about wildly, he scrambled to his feet as fast as possible and began searching for blood and bulletholes. Once he realized there were none, Ray shifted his baffled eyes wildly around the establishment A few moments later he attributed the sudden burst of sound--that he had mistaken for a gun shot--to the noisy slam of the heavy oak door.

"Y-Yeah," he answered the man's question dazedly. "Yeah."

Anyone looking at Raymond Garraty of Freeport, Maine, though, would wholeheartedly disagree. His eyes were hollow looking and his entire body appeared gaunt and frail. Everything about him looked tattered and worn out, even his shoes, which were spotted with blood and neearly shreaded to pieces.

With wide eyes, Ray looked over at the man and muttered in a hoarse voice, "Where are we?"

[Thad Beaumont]

"We're in The Blue Moon," Thad stated slowly. Although, as disoriented as the boy looked he didn't think the information would get through to him. "In Castle Rock."

Thad pushed himself to his feet beside the boy, his knees cracking, and he grabbed his shoulders to steady the kid. "What happened to you?"

There were so many questions to ask but that seemed to be the most obvious. He threw a quick glance to Lisey and Amanda before looking back to the boy and he silently cursed the patrons around them who were still doing nothing and pretty much not reacting at all to the whole ordeal. What the hell was wrong with this place?