#dread.starter

Too loud. Too old. Too... lethargic.

John has a curious shopping list in mind as he shoulders into the coffee shop, holding the door open for a mother and her kids with a polite tip of his hat on the way in. Of course, they bustle by unbothered, escaping his consideration... Not only would a missing mom make too big of a splash in the Dreadmore Journal, but such a gaping hole carved from a young and growing family wouldn't heal quickly. He's looking for unattached. Apathetic. Bored. And a coffee shop on a sluggish, dreary afternoon in Dreadmore, Oregon couldn't make for better hunting.

It isn't often that John strolls the town for such a purpose - usually he has someone else do the luring, Ari or Luci, maybe even Ethan - but there comes a point where the hungry groans of a thousand empty stomachs are impossible to abide even through countless layers of soil and rock, and if they wouldn't let him sleep anyway, John decided he would see to the matter personally.

He takes his steaming cup of black Columbian roast and heads for a seat, picks a booth near the back for its advantageous view of the rest of the establishment. As John slides into the bench and sits back into it, his hard-ridden bones sighing with relief, he begins to pay subtle attention to a gaunt young man seated at the counter with his laptop: there's a lengthy Word document open on his screen, but John only has to squint slightly to recognize the sensual, naked shapes that linger just behind it.