When someone is different from others, people alienate them. In both The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie and Welcome to Night Vale by Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink, the characters feel disconnected from others. In Night Vale, Diane Crayton is raising her teenaged son Josh after breaking up with her boyfriend, Troy, who is also Josh’s father. Josh sets out to find his father, whom he has never known. When Diane hears him asking around town about someone, she assumes he has a crush. However, he is actually searching for information about Troy. He hears that Troy has gone to King City, and decides to follow him there. He leaves Night Vale, where everyone had always been kind and accepting towards him, and enters the real world. In The Mousetrap,
