The motel does not welcome him. It's not very welcoming at all.

Neither were the folks at that diner, but he's free to try again.

He will in fact try again. Hello, diner.

Most of the patrons have gone, but the man with the hat ducks his head as soon as he spots Kaede, and one of the girls from earlier cocks an eyebrow from her spot by the jukebox.

So he decides to take a seat at an empty table.

The girl approaches.

"Surprised to see you back here. Usually people think we're disconcerting."

"Oh so it's not on purpose?"

"Accidentally on purpose? Living here gets kind of weird, and pranking the tourists is fun." 

"I'd imagine so. Weird how?"

"There's the tourists who think they're in Hell, until we explain that's just what it looks like here, there's that creepy motel, there's the way some of the old people don't talk normally, there's just lots of horror movie stuff. I should write a memoir."

He laughs. "I know why the tourists who think they're in Hell think they're in Hell, and it's not the décor."

"Yeah, so they're like, sent here, whatever. Maybe this is actually Hell now. Nobody in town has been normal since it started."

"When did it?"

"Oh, years and years ago. I wasn't born then, I guess, so I don't know, but it's just obvious. People here are weird, because they know something's wrong with that motel, and that's why people keep getting sent here. Something happened here, and none of the people noticed."

"And why was it abandoned?"

"Someone died there and they haunt it."

"...really?"

"Pssh, I don't know. One of the rooms has like, a gas leak or something, but that's new. The motel's been abandoned even longer."

"Are the owners still around?"

"God no, they ran with their tails between their legs. It's embarrassing, when your motel stops getting visitors and you can't do anything."

"I suppose it would be. Kinda sad, though."

Shrug.

"I still think they sacrificed someone to a dark god."

"Ha. That'd explain a thing or two."

"They say there used to be thirteen rooms, and each time one of them disappears, they take some of the world with them."

She leans in, her eyes narrowing to pinpricks of light.

"Huh, that explains the magical key I have that takes me to room ten."

"See, now you're getting it! What about the others?"