2025 is almost over. About five minutes to go. I can hear music and laughter a few rooms away. The walls in this motel are very thin. I won’t say exactly where I am. I already ditched my old phone since too many people knew the number. I found that out when I kept getting weird calls at all hours of the night with nothing but heavy breathing on the other end. Maybe they were just trying to scare me. Well, they succeeded.

I’m still not sure why I’m clinging to the Gazette and that town. It’s been challenging not to just give up. This isn’t where I thought I’d be when I rang in the new year. Not after moving to Emerson Valley at the end of 2023. That year, I went to one of only two staff parties that occurred during my tenure at the Gazette. This one was at Libby’s house. It was nice.

There was some awkwardness because Chuck and Sarah had separated earlier that year. They mostly stayed away from each other. She spent most of the night whispering with Ash. At first I assumed something was going on between them, but they both seemed to be in a pretty grim mood. Marty was his usual jovial self and his wife Lynn was very sweet. I talked to her a bit, but she kept going off to call their babysitter to check on their daughter.

I spent a good portion of the party getting the rundown on how things worked at the Gazette from Chuck. Having already had two appletinis, I didn’t think that was the best time to go over stuff I would actually need to remember, but he had to leave early the next morning and wouldn’t be available for a while. I kept thinking how weird it was that he had to rush off on New Year’s morning. I didn’t yet realize it was actually weirder that he was in town at all.

Coop played bartender and we chatted a bit when I wanted another drink. He was very charming and got me talking about my past a bit pretty quickly. I rarely open up at all, let alone that fast. It was pretty clear why he did almost all the in-depth interviews for the Gazette. Libby gave me the stink eye the whole time, although I had no idea why. I guess I didn’t question it much since I’m used to people not liking me right off the bat.

Sitting alone in this motel room and listening to the revelers counting down the New Year got me thinking about that party. As uneventful as it was, I enjoyed just being around other people. It’s 2026 now. So much has changed in the last two years. Everyone else at that party is dead. I know Chuck is technically considered “at large,” and Marty and Coop are officially missing persons, but I just know in my gut they’re gone. They’re all gone. It’s just me left. But for how long?

-Quinn Paxton, Acting Editor-in-Chief, Emerson Valley Gazette