Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Carlos arrived at the tall, dark building with windows on all levels except the top one exactly on time. The company was called “Strexcorp”. Carlos had never heard it before. The instructions of the job offer were very precise. He was to tell his family he was taking a job in South Korea, teaching STEM subjects to children in local orphanages for an indefinite amount of time, when in reality he was only an hour’s drive from where his parents lived, and his task was much less noble. Carlos didn’t actually tell them anything, because hearing from him for the first time in years just to say he was leaving the country would likely have just concerned them more than necessary.

Carlos had never grown up thinking it would be cool to be a scientist for illegal and often inhumane projects, and abandoning the family he cared so much for. As a kid he had actually dreamed of being a marine biologist and saving wounded dolphins, octopi and sea turtles. Then one friend one time said he had work, but it was “shady”, and Carlos had been too poor and too desperate to uphold his morals. Now, years later, he still didn’t have much of a choice but to take whatever questionable jobs were graciously tossed his way. Very few people left the business he was in.

Carlos was always known for being on time. Punctuality meant predictability, and if it was predictable, it was easy to understand. Half of science was predicting what would happen. He walked into the building in typical work clothing. He was issued a black lab coat and an ID badge with clearance levels 1, 2, and 15. There were fifteen floors on the building, so Carlos deduced that the numbers were the floors he was permitted to be on. He judged by the way that the top floor had no windows that were visible from outside that floor 15 was going to be his primary work environment. A look at the sign informed him that floor 1 held a cafeteria, the front desk, and several offices that did not matter to him. Floor 2 was his bosses’ offices, his subordinates’ offices, and his office. He was fine with never knowing what was on the other floors. Based on his task, he assumed he didn’t want to know.

He went up to floor 2 to meet with the other people working on his team. He found that he had two people above him on the corporate ladder that he was actually allowed to know about, Lauren and Kevin. They looked almost exactly alike, both with reddish-brown hair and eyes the color of uncut diamonds that cut through Carlos’s soul. He was uncomfortable looking at them, but he assumed that meant they were in the right line of work. He realized quickly by talking to them that Kevin was the optimist of the pair, and Lauren was more of a realist. He saw on their office doors the same last name. Normally that would lead him to assume spouses, but since they looked as close to identical as opposite-sex people can be, he presumed siblings.

“I assume you read all of the information distributed to you on Subject NV01?” Lauren asked him after she outlined the little things you need to know for any job, especially the legal ones.

“Yes, but I still don’t feel very adequately informed.” Carlos expressed his concern. “The file had a blurry picture that really just looked like a flash of blue light coming from a corner, and several copies of death certificates of people the subject has killed. Has he really killed that many scientists?”

“Dr. Científico, we do not use gender pronouns when discussing the Subject, because we feel it humanizes NV01. The Subject has, in fact, slaughtered that many scientists, and maimed many more. The file was very thorough. Anything else you need to know will come straight from either me or Kevin.” Lauren explained sternly.

“Oh, my apologies. I suppose what I’m the most concerned about is, what is my job in relation to Subject NV01?” Carlos asked, trying his best to sound professional and intelligent. They were withholding what seemed to be vital details, even more than was customary in other jobs Carlos took.

“Eventually, we would like you to take measurements and do biological studies on the Subject’s anatomy and biology, but you see, Doctor… NV01 does not respond well to observation.” Kevin elaborated pleasantly.

“What do you mean?”

“Getting the subject to stay docile long enough to take biological samples has proven difficult,” He paused. “Also, if you could get a solid picture of the subject while it is in it’s threatening form, that would be excellent. Just in case you’re not successful. But I’m sure you will be!”

“Threatening form?” Carlos questioned. What had he gotten himself into this time?

“It’s best if you see that aspect of the Subject for yourself.” He smiled worryingly. Carlos requested if he could go up and feed or even meet the Subject right then, and they said that’d be a great idea. If the Subject didn’t immediately slaughter him when he went up there, then he could come down later and meet the assistants he was welcome to use. They handed him a giant chunk of meat on a bone, like what you would see in a cartoon. Carlos didn’t have the guts to ask what animal it was from. The risk involved in this position was mildly concerning, since it didn’t seem like anyone expected him to come down that elevator alive, but he didn’t have much to lose. He headed up to floor 15 and took a deep breath before stepping out of the elevator. There was a hallway with no doors except one at the very end of the hall. Carlos thought this was an exceptional waste of space, but he figured no one wanted anything to do with the floor that the Subject was on. He used his security badge clipped to his coat to unlock the door. “Carlos Científico” the door read out loud before the light changed to green and Carlos turned the handle. The room had a large tank on one side of the room that connected to what looked like it could be a zoo habitat for sea lions. The tank’s sides, separated by a glass wall (the entire habitat was glass, but about 2 feet thick, and reinforced) came up to the ceiling, which was about twelve feet tall. The entire left half was filled to the ceiling with water. The right half had a tan, flat rock that took up most of the floor, with a little bit of water at the bottom. It looked like the Subject was moved between the two for different methods of studying. On the side of the right half was a very reinforced metal door that opened into hallway that revealed another very reinforced door to prevent the thing from getting out.

Carlos had walked into this with very little description of what he would be managing. He was told it was semiaquatic, and could breathe underwater and on land. He was told its central body was about six and a half feet tall/long, depending on how you looked at it, with bilateral symmetry. He was also told there were tentacles, but not how many or how large. He was told that other than the tentacles and some skin discoloration, Subject NV01 appeared… human. Even with that warning, Carlos was expecting a monster, something that looked human in the way that TV zombies looked human. This… thing… had killed a lot of people. It was a monster. But… it didn’t look like one. Carlos had never been one to take other people’s descriptions as fact before getting to know someone himself, but how could the subject look so normal, and be so evil?

The subject was facing away from Carlos on the rock side. Its tentacles lied flat out on the rocks next to it. Three on each side of his back, each one thicker at the base than the rest. It had dry, scraggly looking light hair, lighter even than bleached hair- it was a pure white. The hair was at a curious length- short enough where it seemed like, at one point in time, it had been cut. The dryness led Carlos to believe it had been on the land side for a while. When Carlos shut the door behind him, the Subject became alert, throwing its six tentacles around its body, shielding itself from prying eyes. Carlos approached the glass. He saw that the Subject was quivering. Carlos imagined it needed water or sunlight to maintain its preferred body heat. He wondered if NV01 was warm or cold-blooded. He hypothesized that it was warm-blooded, but further observation was needed.

Carlos walked over to the two-door system of getting in. He got through the first door and stayed there a moment. The Subject, nearly covered by its thick tentacles, used the two on either side of its lower back to move its body to the opposite side, near the glass that separated the water half. Carlos took this as an invitation to open the second door, though it most certainly was not intended as one. He walked in and closed the door behind him. The door only opened again if Carlos said his name out loud, and he had been informed that the Subject was non-verbal in all sorts.

“Hello.” Carlos greeted. He felt incredibly nervous, because this thing had a hundred different ways to kill him and was likely only hesitating to decide which one, and they both knew it. “I’m Dr. Científico.” He gulped. “Or, you know, just Carlos. I’m not here to be antagonistic.” Carlos just prayed to a smiling god that his tone of voice came across as unthreatening enough. “I just came to give you some food.”

The Subject turned its head at this, just enough to look. Carlos set the meat down on the ground equidistance between them. NV01 rotated around using the bottom two tentacles to face Carlos, and he got a good look. The Subject had a human face, and human torso, and human legs. Even human arms. That was ten limbs total. Its complexion was typical of Caribbean natives or islanders, though its human features could not be pinned down to any race or ethnicity. The subject glared at the meat, but Carlos’s eyes were trained on the Subject. He- it, Carlos scolded himself- was objectively, by human standards, attractive. Symmetrical face, large eyes, a strong jaw… the tentacles and murderous reputation were certainly off putting, but Carlos was not so easily deterred by a creature of nature, no matter how freakish. That wasn’t to say that he was attracted to the Subject, only that he was slightly entranced. The tentacles were dark, dark blue. More like black, but with glimmers of blue and purple in the light. Carlos wasn’t close enough to see its eyes. He wondered why it wasn’t going for the food.

Then, it did. The Subject reached out with one tentacle and brought the slab of meat into its lap. Carlos noticed that no matter what it did, it always kept two tentacles, the middle ones, over its crotch area. It seemed to have human ideals of modesty. Carlos wondered if that meant it had human genitalia. Its sex was listed as male on the documents, though gender pronouns were strictly discouraged, so… another hypothesis to determine. Its torso was not exceptionally muscular, but it had broad shoulders. All of its ribs were visible, even from ten feet away. The subject held up the meat, and Carlos thought he was going to get to watch it feed, when it brought down the meat like a hammer and slammed Carlos against the back wall of the tank. He hit his head hard against the thick glass. Carlos felt dizzy, and he struggled to stand back up. He remained calm, though he was seeing stars, and was very concerned that he was concussed.

“Uhhnn,” Carlos groaned, rubbing his head for a sign of a protrusion. He seemed fine, physically speaking. “Alright. I understand you don’t like me or my kind, but I’m only trying to help.”

The Subject then scowled at Carlos, and used what seemed like teeth on the bottom of a tentacle to bite off a tiny piece of the meat, like a taste. It held the piece up to its mouth, sniffed it, and threw it back at Carlos’s feet. Carlos didn’t understand. The creature wasn’t eating it. Maybe it just wasn’t eating out of rebellion for being trapped. That was probably it, and also explained the very visible ribs. Carlos picked up the uneaten meat and walked over to the door, clearly enunciated his name into it, and left the tank without incident.

“I’ll likely be back later today.” He told it through the glass. He wasn’t sure if the glass was soundproof, but if it was, at least NV01 saw him speaking. He left the meat on a metal desk near the door.

Carlos went down the elevator to floor two. Everyone was having a conference room meeting. When he walked in, they all looked surprised.

“Dr. Científico? You fed Subject NV01?” Kevin gaped.

“I did. Well, I attempted to. It didn’t give me much trouble, but it didn’t eat either.” He felt a warm liquid drip down his forehead. He touched it, and his fingers came back red. He didn’t even notice the blood the first time he checked. Lauren rushed to the office and came back with a clump of tissues.

“You didn’t even take the discipline button.” She commented, impressed.

“No one told me there was a discipline button,” Carlos replied, beginning to feel incredulous at the lack of information he was being given, and wondering how many of those deaths linked to the subject had, at least in part, been due to negligence.

“Whoops,” She shrugged, not sounding very apologetic.

In the conference room, all the assistants who were allowed to be in there, Lauren and Kevin, and two other guys who looked the same age as Carlos sat around the table. The two other guys were introduced to him as Steve and John, who had only been there for a week before Carlos arrived. Steve had dark skin and short, kept hair. He wore a pale green button down under his black lab coat. John had lighter hair, and more light-medium skin. Steve gave Carlos a weak smile, but John just nodded when they were introduced. Carlos was told that they had the same job as him, to feed and gain the trust of NV01. He supposed they had three of them because the likelihood of at least one of them being successful was more appealing. Neither John nor Steve had been up to feed NV01 yet, though. It led Carlos to believe that neither of them ever planned on doing so. The meeting was a discussion on what the next steps to be taken were. He found out the discipline button is like a panic button, and if pressed, the rocks and walls become electrified. It was intended to make the creature leave them alone, and since they’re required to wear rubber sole shoes, it wouldn’t affect them. Carlos grumbled that such a device would have been nice to have while he was literally in the cage with it, though he knew he wouldn’t have used it unless his life was directly at stake.

“Today’s meeting is to be a brainstorming session. Everyone, just throw out your ideas on how we can get this thing to do what we want and figure out why it is the way it is.” Lauren informed.

“Why don’t we just drug it?” Steve asked. “A simple tranquilizer could be less painful for everyone involved.”

“Steve, we’ve tried to pump that thing upstairs full of so many chemicals, its bloodstream looks like the goddamn periodic table.” Lauren replied stoically. Steve nodded; if he was bothered by her harsh tone, he didn’t show it.

“Why do we even need it alive?” John spoke up.

“We need to monitor its patterns and such while it is alive. It is worth far more to us scientifically and financially if whatever it uses to breathe still does exactly that.” Kevin smiled.

“Is there another of the same kind anywhere? Possibly a more willing participant?” Steve offered. Kevin and Lauren shared a glance.

“This is the only creature of its kind we know of.” They agreed firmly.

“I think I can get what we need. Creatures get attached to what feeds them, so if the same person feeds it for every meal and shares a bond with it, then it will feel comfortable with them,” Carlos explained his idea.

“What, so who do you suggest puts their life at risk, pretty boy?” John smirked. Carlos was confused by the “pretty boy” comment.

“Me. I thought that was obvious. I want to do it.”

“Dr. Científico, you must remain professional. The Subject is just that, a subject. You cannot think it will want to be your friend no matter how much you feed it and speak to it. NV01 doesn’t even have any language skills.” Lauren warned.

“I understand. I simply hypothesize that repetition and soothing tones of voice could relax NV01, and once it is relaxed, I can take measurements and the like without it being hostile,” Carlos continued explaining. Lauren and Kevin nodded. And like that, Carlos was the only one with actual work to do until he could get some data for the others to analyze. Eventually it came time to attempt to feed NV01 again, and Lauren gave him the discipline button. Carlos thanked her, but still did not plan on using it unless he was seconds from death. The Subject could not trust him and fear him.

Carlos went back to floor 15 and stood in front of the glass. The Subject was sitting in the same place as before, but now facing the water side with its forehead against the glass and its knees pulled up to its chest. Carlos stood as close as he could to it through the glass, holding the meat. If the Subject would open its eyes, Carlos would have been about to see what color they were. The Subject had light brown eyelashes and thick, furry brows. It had coral colored lips and accented cheekbones. Carlos attributed the cheekbones to both whatever was making its ribs show as well as genetics. Carlos admired that no matter how cruel the creature was, it was still a magnificent and beautiful being of nature. Carlos could feel its eyes on him when he turned around and set the discipline button on the floor. He went through the 2-door process and walked into the tank. NV01 turned around, still covering its crotch, and used the top right tentacle to point at the button through the glass. Carlos was amazed that it had abilities beyond eating and violence. The creature pointed again more vigorously.

“That button is to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you,” Carlos stated calmly, hoping his tone would affect how he was perceived. Somehow, he felt that NV01 understood what he was saying. He wondered just how complex NV01’s communication skills actually were, and if he was the first person to ever learn that those skills existed.

Carlos put the meat between them again, just like before, only this time he sat down on the rock. “I decided you might want some company while you ate this time.”

The Subject glared at him warily, but not angrily. Carlos was encouraged. He didn’t know if whatever species NV01 was was a social one, but it couldn’t hurt to try. He realized immediately after he had the thought that it certainly could hurt to try, since this thing could kill him if he made any move it didn’t like, but still. Carlos felt he had nothing to lose. He began describing himself to have something to fill the silence.

“Like I said, I’m Carlos. Feeding you is my new job. I’m thirty-four years old. I have a nice mother, though not nice enough to support me after I got out of college, and a younger sister. She’s twelve now, but I haven’t seen her in about three years. She’s a lot younger than me, because we have different dads. My dad died when I was a kid. My mom was sixteen when she had me, so she’s still younger than most of my peers’ parents.” It was strange, but at the mention of his twelve year old sister, NV01 looked up with intrigue, though not exactly making eye contact. Carlos couldn’t imagine why. The subject still hadn’t taken the meat.

“I like science a lot. When I was little, I wanted to study ocean creatures. Like dolphins, turtles, octopi.” Carlos chuckled lightly. “Maybe even like yourself.” NV01 recoiled at that last part. “You don’t want to be studied?” The creature took the meat and began nibbling on it.

“Do you understand me at all?” Carlos asked, not expecting a concrete answer.

The Subject stopped looking at the meat and slowly looked up and met Carlos’s eyes for the first time. Something like a shock went up Carlos’s spine in the form of a shiver as their eyes clicked together. The experience caught Carlos completely off guard; he felt magnetically connected to the pupils across from him. The whole action was so sentient, so human, that Carlos lost all train of thought. It extended out that middle-right tentacle towards him and laid it out by Carlos’s feet.

“You’re trying to communicate.” It wasn’t a question. “Can I… can I touch you?” The creature did nothing. Carlos so-so-delicately, barely even grazed the tip of the tentacle with his hand, but NV01 jerked it away and whacked Carlos upside the head with it yet again making him see stars, but not as badly as the first time. “Okay. I deserved that. Moving too fast,” He said once he recovered. “I know its a lot to assume that you actually understand my words, but I’m going with- nothing means no, and moving means yes.” NV01 tapped Carlos’s foot with the tentacle. Carlos’s heart raced. He had-possibly- established communication with the non-verbal subject. The Subject continued to eat in tiny bites. It took him about two hours to eat the entire thing. Carlos just continued to chatter away about his life, and NV01 seemed to listen.

“I haven’t stayed in one place for a long time. I’ve done jobs that last a couple of months, then moved to the next city.” He paused.

The Subject wasn’t looking at him anymore, just focusing on slowly, nibble by nibble, eliminating the meat.

“This is the closest I’ve been to home in a while. Home, meaning, where I grew up, and where my mother and sister live.” A deep breath from Carlos. “I just left one day. I wrote some lame note, about how I needed to find myself, but that wasn’t why I left.” Carlos didn’t understand why he was pouring out his soul to this creature that probably understood no more than tones and body language, but he didn’t stop. It felt like he was establishing trust by just sitting, unarmed, and almost entirely unafraid.

There was a whirring sound from the door that lead out to the elevator, and in came John and Steve.

“Oh, Dr. Científico, we were sure you were dead.” Steve sighed with relief.

“Please, call me Carlos.” Carlos insisted.

“Científico, how are you supposed to press the discipline button if you’re sitting on the rock?” John said like it was obvious. Carlos supposed it was obvious, and he knew he was breaking protocol, but he didn’t care. Risks were necessary for the sake of scientific discovery.

“I didn’t need it.” Carlos motioned for the button, still on the floor in front of the tank.

“Doctor, this is grossly irresponsible. You are in an enclosed space with a dangerous and hostile creature. Do you really think this company needs any more deaths drawing attention to them?” John scolded.

“John, do I look like I’m in danger?” Carlos casually waved. John gaped like, yes, he did, but Carlos was fine. Carlos figured the best way to earn the trust of NV01 was to pretend to trust him first, even if he was absolutely terrified. Nonetheless, he left the tank for the last time of the day and walked back to the elevator with Steve and John. They all went to floor 2 and sat in the conference room, just to hang out until work got out not too much later, since they still didn’t have any samples to analyze.

“So, what would you guys do if it wasn’t all this?” Carlos motioned to indicate all this . Befriending the two people who shared a similar job couldn’t be the worst thing. If he was going to be in the same place long enough to unlock all the mysterious of Subject NV01, it would be nice to talk to someone who could actually talk back.

“I’d do something in agriculture. That life always appealed to me.” John sighed. Carlos could only imagine the tragic reasons he was doing this instead.

“I dunno,” Steve grumbled. “Probably teach high school, settle down and start a family. I’ve always liked kids.” Carlos found that surprising. Something about Steve seemed so kind, which made it hard to believe he ended up in a place like this. Carlos passively wished the cards could’ve lined up the right way so that Steve would have gotten to teach.

The lot of them just chatted about work and simple stuff colleagues talk about before Kevin and Lauren came in.

“How was the second attempt at feeding?” Kevin asked cheerfully. Carlos was absently doodling a tentacle in his scientific notes.

“It was great.” Carlos smiled back, more out of a human mirroring instinct than true feeling. “No complications whatsoever.” Carlos looked at John. If John wanted to tell their bosses that Carlos didn't bring the discipline button into the tank and possibly get him into trouble, he wasn’t going to do it right then.

Eventually the day finished up. Carlos was just hanging up his black lab coat when Steve tapped him on the shoulder.

“Hey, do you want to go grab a beer?” He asked with a genuine smile.

“Yeah. That sounds great.” Carlos grinned back.

Chapter Text

When Carlos woke up, his head was pounding. He felt like he had drank himself dead the night before, but he and Steve had only had two beers each- he had a strict policy against getting blackout drunk. He got out of bed and went to inspect himself in the mirror. He had a deep red slash across the side of his face, with small round indents in dual straight lines. It started at the corner of his hairline and crossed his eyebrow and one cheekbone. NV01 had left a serious mark on him. Carlos made a mental note to write down that part of the tentacles were sharp in his scientific notes. He got up and put a bag of frozen vegetables over the left side of his face, and sat down on his couch. He had time to lounge around before he needed to get ready for work, so he just pondered. Any other day he would have just popped on the TV, but he had better things to do. He thought back to his dreams. He had dreams of a dark, multi-limbed figure, but they had not been nightmares. His dreams just left him even more curious.

He needed to get NV01 to trust him, and he was on the right path to doing it. His face stung infinitely worse than it had the day before. In fact, he was amazed that the mark hadn’t shown up until sometime during the night. It even looked infected, or poisoned. If he could get some of the ooze coming out of it by his eye, maybe he could hand it off to be studied. Carlos grabbed a test tube and a pipette, trying to transfer the liquid into the tube. He squinted, and scrunching his face made a lot more squeeze out. He had a good sample size. He closed up the tube and made attempts to disinfect the wound with anything he could find lying around. He hadn’t had time to buy a quality first aid kit for his new place, and even though the office had one, he didn’t want to expose his screwed up face to the elements without cleaning it some.

He settled on a rag and some rubbing alcohol. Carlos decided to just go for it right on the target to ensure he was staving off infection, and he bit his lip so hard it drew blood trying to hold back a grunt. It stung like hell, but he was tough. He couldn’t wrap it or anything without having to cover his eye and be completely overdramatic about it, so he let it breathe.

After his wound had been sort of taken care of, he put on a light blue button down and black slacks. People had told him that pastels looked good with his complexion. He combed out his hair, brushed his teeth, the usual stuff you do to get ready for work before taking a deep breath and heading out the door.

He wasn’t the first guy there, but he wasn’t the last either. Steve wasn’t there, but John sat at his desk in the open room, tapping away at his computer.

“John. I have something for you to do some experiments on.” Carlos held out the test tube. John looked up lazily.

“Shit!” He jumped back. “That sucker got you good, Carlos.”

“Yeah, I know.” John gave him an “I told you so” look. His wound was still throbbing but he felt confident in his abilities to ignore pain. Just then, Lauren and Kevin came up behind John. Carlos wondered why he never saw just one of them.

“Oh, Dr. Científico, how did that happen?” Kevin gasped.

“NV01 smacked me at the end of the day yesterday,” Carlos explained.

“Why didn’t you use the discipline button?” Lauren asked suspiciously.

“I, uh, I didn’t get a chance. It all happened so fast, you know. That, uh, that thing has serious speed,” He lied semi-smoothly. John started typing back on his computer, clearly not interested in getting Carlos in trouble. If Carlos got fired, John might be the next one sent up there to face the beast. “Uh, anyway. I gave John a sample of some kind of liquid that was oozing out of my face this morning, so we can see if the Subject has some kind of venom in its system.”

“Fascinating. Why aren’t you analyzing it, Doctor?” Kevin asked.

“Oh, I was going to go up and feed NV01 and see if it can get a little more comfortable with me.”

“Again? You just fed it last night,” Lauren remarked.

“Well, yes, but that was approximately seventeen hours ago.” Carlos defended.

“Hm. No one’s ever bothered to feed it when they first came into work.” Kevin shrugged, smiling.

“Maybe that’s why its ribs are so prominent. The creature seems to be dramatically malnourished.” Carlos hypothesized.

“Keeping it hungry keeps it weaker. But, hey, you’re the only person ever to have been smacked and not killed, so if you want to risk strengthening it, I suppose we can trust your judgement.” Lauren replied stoically. The air went cool. Carlos struggled to detect if she was being passive aggressive, or was honestly leaving it up to his judgement.

“If you are going up there,” Kevin smiled. “I should come with you. You need to learn how to transfer it out of the left tank and into the right one.” Carlos nodded, and they headed up together. While he knew he couldn’t make as much progress with someone tagging along, Carlos had been wanting to see how the Subject reacted differently when submerged in water.

When they got into the room, NV01 was lying in the fetal position with its back to them, tentacles lying slack. It was unmoving, and Carlos felt a pang of concern for his semi-aquatic acquaintance.

“Is h- is it dead?” Carlos caught himself.

“I doubt it. Perhaps this is how it sleeps.” Kevin grinned. Carlos didn’t understand why he was grinning so much.

“Alright. How do we get it into the side with the water?” Carlos eyed the Subject, still not convinced of its well being. He wondered for a moment why he cared so much, but chalked it up to scientific curiosity.

“The water on the right side drains out when you press the green button.” Kevin showed him a remote with a blue, a green, a white, and a yellow button. “Then, the yellow button electrifies the whole left side, and the blue electrifies the whole right side, depending on which side you want it to go on. Or, you can just press both and have some fun.” Kevin giggled. Carlos was disturbed, but he hoped Kevin was kidding. He couldn’t possibly take joy in hurting it, right? He was a professional. Kevin pointedly pressed the green button, and the water on the right side drained. Then he pressed the white button, and the glass in a long oval shape swung out like a door, bridging the two sides. Carlos winced as Kevin pressed the yellow button and NV01 shook like it was having a seizure and leaped through to the other side. Kevin let go of the yellow button, pressed the white one again to close the glass, and pressed the green button again, filling the tank up with water. The Subject kept the middle two tentacles covering its crotch, and used the other four to float in the middle of the tank, facing them.

“Here you go.” Kevin handed Carlos the remote. “I’ll be going back down now. Have fun!”

Carlos sat down in front of the glass and began writing notes on the Subject’s appearance. His idea of fun in the office was very different from Kevin’s. He took out a camera and looked at NV01 closely.

“Look. I know you don’t like having your picture taken, but it’d be great if you could let me photograph you.” NV01 ignored him and got right up against the glass, only the two feet of reinforced glass separating them. Carlos could see the Subject’s eyes clearly. They were the same black-ish color with iridescent highlights as his tentacles. Carlos gazed into them, and he felt something strange. It was almost like… he wasn’t sure. It felt like looking into, not the eyes of a wounded animal, but the eyes of a person. A tragic person. No, not tragic. Was that… remorse in its eyes? The Subject pointed his tentacle at the left side of Carlos’s face, the injured part. It clicked in Carlos’s mind.

“Yeah, this is what happened after you hit me yesterday.” Carlos said factually. “It’s fine.” Carlos didn’t understand why he was trying to spare NV01’s feelings. The thing smacked him right in the face.

“Would you mind if I took a picture of you?” NV01 broke their eye contact and glared at the floor. The eye contact was still as captivating as the first time, even more so when Carlos could see every fleck of color in those mysterious irises. “I’m sorry he shocked you.” The Subject looked back up into Carlos’s eyes. Carlos could swear it was like it was asking, are you really? “Yeah. I really am. As long as you’re not about to kill me, I’m not going to shock you.” The creature blinked at him, twice. “In fact, I think you would move tanks if I just asked you to. I think you understand me fine.” The Subject blinked at him again, and Carlos began to doubt. What if he was just imagining all of the communication? What if NV01 was just an animal that happened to look sort of human? Was Carlos endangering his life for nothing? Had he lost his mind after living in solitude for so long?

“Am I crazy for thinking that you’re more human than creature?” Carlos whispered, letting his thoughts slip out into reality. He figured there was no way NV01 would be able to hear him whisper through the thick glass, but NV01 smiled. It really smiled,not a mimic of a smile, a genuine expression of feeling. A flicker of happiness danced across his- its- face. Carlos’s heart softened a little. Its teeth were normal, human-like teeth. They almost looked round. No, they did look round. They definitely did not look like the kind of teeth a carnivorous beast would have. Teeth less fierce than human teeth, even. Carlos was confused.

“How could you possibly kill anything with those teeth? Or even chew meat?” Carlos pondered aloud. The creature’s eyes lit up, like he had been waiting his entire life for someone to say that. Two of his right tentacles twisted together in what Carlos thought appeared like excitement. Carlos gazed down at the hunk of animal by his feet. Suddenly Carlos understood why NV01 had to pull off the tiniest bites of meat just to eat it. He wasn’t starving himself in protest, he just wasn’t capable of properly digesting meat. NV01 was not a carnivorous, or even omnivorous species.

“You don’t eat meat.” Carlos gaped. The Subject twirled more of his tentacles together as a sign of glee, still covering his genitals. “If you move over to the other side, I can give you something else,” Carlos offered. The Subject sat down at the bottom of the tank where it knew the door would open up. Carlos drained the tank, opened the door, and NV01 leaped back to the other side. His body was still glistening with the water, and his hair was wet and falling in different parts of his face. Its, Carlos scolded himself. It’s still a monster that killed more people than Carlos had in his family, and considering Carlos was hispanic, that was saying a lot.

Carlos opened his lunch bag that he brought up with him. He took out a bag of celery. Carlos knew it wouldn’t be close to enough calories to be an effective meal for such a creature, but it would be something. Carlos opened the doors and went into the tank with the Subject. He held the celery sticks out in his hand. Carlos was assuming that NV01 wouldn’t harm him while he was holding food, which he realized was not a safe assumption at all, but also realized it was too late to back out. NV01 used its tentacles to move closer to Carlos, and he wondered if NV01’s arms and legs even worked. They weren’t as close as they had been through the glass, but closer than they had ever been without anything but air between them. It was about four feet. Carlos was shaking. NV01 extended a single tentacle to Carlos, suctioned the sticks to the pads of its tentacle, and curled around them. The tiniest bit of touch between their limbs left Carlos speechless. It was as gentle as when a horse takes a carrot from a palm. The Subject took the celery sticks in its human hands and stared at them like they were precious jewels. It inhaled the aroma like it was intoxicating before devouring all of them in rapid succession. Carlos actually thought it was kind of cute to watch it eat. It ate like a person, munching on the sticks, holding them close to its mouth with its hands… only more hungrily, which was understandable.

“I’ll see what I can do about getting your food changed,” Carlos promised. “What did you eat before you came here, in your home? Where did you even come from?” NV01 looked up at Carlos with saucer-like eyes. Carlos saw nothing but despair in those deep colored eyes. All of a sudden, he was overcome by pity for this creature. It had been taken from its home and fed food it was repulsed by for who knows how long, electrocuted frequently, and generally treated awfully. It opened its mouth. Carlos was very confused by the way it did that, because it looked like… it looked like NV01 was trying to speak, but just couldn’t enunciate the words. Carlos wondered if it was going to make some kind of growling noise, the way an animal would. Finally, a strangled grunting came from its throat.

“Aunghnk- ouhn- uhng-” It struggled. There was no real voice, just choked sounds, like it lacked a human tongue. He looked closer and gasped. The subject’s tongue was a human tongue, but it had been cut off. It was a brutal wound that looked like it had been sloppily cauterized. Carlos was taken aback by the creature’s attempt to communicate, and even more so by the mutilation. Had that been done by someone Carlos worked for? He thought back to Kevin’s giggle at the prospect of electrifying the subject for entertainment. Had Kevin done this?

“Your… your tongue,” Carlos whispered incredulously, any other volume unavailable him in his shock. The creature just looked at him with tortured eyes. NV01 vigorously shook its head and looked at Carlos with impactful feeling in its expression.

“What did they do to you?” Carlos said so softly it was just air breezing out of his lips. NV01’s eyes watered, and tears dripped down its cheeks. It was in that moment that Carlos realized this was not a creature- it was a person . And he deserved to be called a he.

“I have to talk to them about this. You’re a person , this is torture, you’re-” Carlos was stopped short when the creature lurched forward on his lower tentacles and grabbed Carlos with the top ones, holding him firmly around the waist a few feet off the ground. Carlos was shocked to feel his hands on Carlos’s shoulders. Carlos looked and saw NV01’s knuckles turning white, gripping Carlos so hard. But the tentacles were not squeezing him at all. It was desperate, but almost… gentle.

The subject shook his head vigorously, furiously. His eyes locked onto Carlos’s. His fingernails pinched into Carlos’s arms. Carlos trembled with paralyzing fear, but then he realized this wasn’t an attack. This was a plea.

“Why?” Carlos wheezed out. NV01 looked like he was struggling greatly.

“Ehh-” He struggled to properly make words. His eyes watered more and nearly poured tears. Carlos could see so many things that NV01 did not have the capabilities to enunciate. But most prominently, he saw… regret. Carlos knew NV01 was regretting saying anything to Carlos, and though Carlos wasn’t totally sure what NV01 was saying, he knew it wasn’t safe for anyone else to know about this. Carlos wasn’t going to give him a reason to regret it. He would earn his trust.

“Can you write? Is there a way we can-” Carlos pieced together what he was trying to say. Just then, with expert timing, Lauren came through the main door.

“Doctor, I just came to see how you-” She dropped her clipboard when she looked up and saw the scene in front of her. She rapidly took a remote out of her pocket and slammed her hand on the button. Carlos could see sizzles coming off the glass as NV01 shuddered violently, releasing Carlos and collapsing to the ground. Discipline button. Carlos quickly exited the tank.

“Dr. Científico, I’m so glad you’re alright!” She exclaimed, inspecting him for serious wounds. Carlos’s shoulders felt slightly sore from where NV01’s hands had gripped him, but the tentacles hadn’t left any marks.

“I might get tentacle marks later. They tend to have a delay in showing up.” Carlos commented nonchalantly, brushing her off to show that he was fine. Lauren looked at the meat, still by the right side of the tank.

“Doctor, why were you in there without the food?” She asked with a peculiar expression on her face, almost suspiciously.

“I discovered Subject NV01 doesn’t have the appropriate teeth for a carnivorous diet, and through a trial I discovered that h- it is clearly an herbivore, and has only been eating the meat so as not to starve,” Carlos explained.

“Really? But look at it,” She disagreed.

“Science is based on more than looks,” Carlos responded.

“That’s true.” She paused. Suddenly, her eyes widened with shock. “Hold on, did you say you got a look at its teeth?”

“Um, yes. It opened its mouth- very briefly- enough to reveal that it does not have sharpened teeth. In fact, they are even duller than a human’s,” Carlos revealed. Carlos had followed a vegan diet ever since he found out that, scientifically, humans were not made to eat much meat if they could help it. Science had never steered Carlos wrong.

“You’ve got guts, Científico. I’ll change the food order to, I don’t know, seaweed or something.”

“Oh, did NV01 come from the ocean?” Carlos asked curiously. Lauren ignored him. He had asked the subject where it was from, and it tried to answer. He held back a shudder, thinking about his stump of a tongue.

“Carlos, we don’t pay you to ask questions,” She answered coldly. Her eyes were like daggers. Carlos wanted to inform her that he was a scientist, which meant that they literally did pay him to ask questions and subsequently answer them, but he figured that wouldn’t do him much good.

“Don’t give me a reason to regret saving you, Doctor.” Lauren said clearly before walking out and slamming the door. Carlos turned around, and saw NV01 collapsed on the ground, face down. His tentacles were sprawled out everywhere. He was still convulsing. Carlos felt terrible for him. He wanted to bolt back in the tank and make sure he was alright, but if Lauren came back up and saw such a thing, both of them would surely suffer for it.

“I’ll be back later,” He promised remorsefully, voice cracking at the sight of him helplessly in so much pain.

Carlos went down to check on John’s samples.

“Hey, John. Do you have the results on the liquid from my injury?” He asked. John nodded, lifting his goggles up onto his forehead.

“Yeah, and it’s kind of strange. It’s not a poison or a venom, it’s an enzyme. It isn’t predatory, not exactly, but what’s so strange about it is that this enzyme is specifically made to break down cell walls, which, as you know, are only in plant cells. What would a carnivorous water-beast need with cell wall targeting enzymes?” John exasperated. Carlos grinned when he realized he had the exact answer to John’s questions.

“It’s not carnivorous. It has round teeth, and rejects the meat when given a choice. I’m going to feed it again later with whatever Lauren can gather up. It’s only been eating the meat to survive, and that enzyme just proves it.” Carlos was joyous at his success, but couldn’t get the image of NV01 seizing on the bottom of the tank out of his head.

“Oh. That makes sense. But, Carlos, most herbivores will never eat meat, because they don’t understand that they can. Their brains just aren’t capable of seeing it as food. Are you telling me this creature has a complex enough brain that it can completely reverse its diet when there are no other options?” John looked at Carlos expectantly, and Carlos realized John actually called him by his first name. Maybe getting slashed in the face by the Subject earned him John’s respect.

“Yes. Just by looking at it, we could assume it is fairly intelligent. It very closely resembles a human besides the tentacles, which are a characteristic of an octopus. Both are in the top most intelligent creatures ever discovered. It only makes sense that the creature would also be pretty smart.” John nodded. Carlos just couldn’t tell him how smart. Having scientific revolutions that he wasn’t going to share went against everything he had always believed, but at this point, nothing would be worth risking more harm befalling his new… ally.

“I just wish we, or just you, could get a good observation. If that thing would just let its guard down for a few minutes, we could leave it alone for a while. If only its body reacted to tranqs.”

“What if… what if I stayed overnight, and snuck in while the Subject was asleep? I could measure it, check its vital signs…” Carlos was rambling, terrified he would slip up and use a wrong pronoun.

“Are you serious? Carlos, you’ve got to be kidding me. That thing up there is dangerous, and you’re acting like it’s just a big dog that’ll leave you alone when you toss it some food,” John argued.

“It’s smarter than a dog! I think it has a brain similar to a human’s. Or perhaps an octopus’s. There’s no way to be sure. But it trusts me enough, and I trust it back.”

“You trust it? Científico, have you lost your goddamn mind? That thing up there is not a person! It just looks like one! Science is more than looks!” Carlos was surprised by the similarity of his statement to what he said to Lauren earlier. He also knew that he might be going too far in saying that he trusted it. But he just had to convince them to let him come at night. Carlos was bursting at the possibilities that something like that could lead to.

“I know that, but John… think about it. If every other person to enter that tank is now dead, why am I not? Why is this-” Carlos pointed to his only slightly wrecked face, “-the only thing I have to show for it? This was just because I got too close. If NV01 wanted to kill me, he- it would have by now!” Carlos exclaimed. John glared at him, hopefully not catching the “he” Carlos accidentally let slip.

“If you’re going to stay here overnight, at least let me or Steve stay too.” John conceded after a beat.

“I’m the only one it trusts. The results may be different if either of you are here, and there’s a higher chance of it waking up. If it even sleeps.” Carlos paused. “If it doesn’t sleep, then I’ll leave and send you a text. If it does, I’ll still let you know. Here, how about this- when I leave the tank after I collect my data, I’ll call you to let you know I’m not dead. No call, you let Kevin and Lauren know.” John sighed, but clearly was more or less okay with the plan.

“Good luck. But I’m coming with you to watch you feed it today,” John relented. Carlos nodded, not wanted to be suspicious. Too much alone time with NV01 could send up a red flag.

He no longer felt right calling the being upstairs “the subject” or even “NV01”. Neither of those were names, just titles given to dehumanize him. Carlos resolved to find out a name as soon as he could.

The two men went up to feed NV01 later that day. With John there, Carlos couldn’t ask NV01 any questions. He just dropped the plant-based mixture into the tank, sat there while NV01 ate, and then left. NV01 let one tentacle lay just slightly over Carlos’s outstretched foot. John gaped at them the whole time, like he had just watched Carlos put his head directly into the mouth of a tiger. From John’s perspective, Carlos realized, it seemed like something even more dangerous, even stupid. About an hour after that, everyone but Carlos went home. In that time, Carlos explained his plan to Kevin. He figured Kevin would be more likely to give him the overtime form out of the smiling siblings.

"No. Under no circumstances," Kevin said, grinning.

"What? But, sir, this could be an excellent method of retrieving the samples we need," Carlos added, puzzled at the rejection. 

"I hear you, Doctor, and I understand, but it's still a no. It's too far from protocol. Not to mention, you are getting awfully cozy with a murderous beast you've only been acquainted with for a few days. You're the most promising scientist we've hired yet, and I'm not going to let you get yourself killed."

"But-"

"Ah ah ah," Kevin cut him off. Carlos glanced around the empty conference room, but there was no one around to back him up. "My decision is final. In fact, Doctor, I'm downgrading your clearance. You are forbidden from interacting with the subject in any way, or even entering the fifteenth floor, without another scientist or Lauren or me present. Do you understand?"

Kevin's chipper tone with those words was a slap in the face. Carlos saw that arguing was only going to get him into trouble- more trouble- so he held back a sigh and went back to his desk for the last few minutes of the workday.

Chapter Text

Carlos stood up at his desk and tossed his bag across his shoulder when the clock hit six pm.

“You’ll text me?” John paused on his way out to confirm with Carlos.

“No, Kevin didn’t approve it,” Carlos bit back the extra words he wanted to add onto that, kept his opinion out of it. John could tell he was perturbed.

“Why?”

“He says it’s too much of a risk,” He answered.

John pursed his lips and said, “Well, to be fair, he’s right.”

“I know,” Carlos admitted, though it was still a risk he wanted to take.

“See you tomorrow?” John said.

“Yes.”

Later that night, Carlos sat curled up on his couch, reading a biography on a historic scientist he found fascinating. He much preferred true stories to fictional. They were grounding, and he needed that kind of rationality. His life was starting to look more and more like fiction, in a bad way.

He couldn’t get the subject out of his head. Subject NV01. Its severed tongue. The image haunted him. He couldn’t imagine that kind of pain, or the kind of brutality it would require to remove a person’s tongue… especially considering the subject was immune to their efforts to sedate him, so he would have been awake and fully aware the whole time. Carlos’s mouth hurt just thinking about it. His face scrunched into a wince. How could he enjoy reading about science while a person was being held against their will and tortured in his workplace? Any judge would look at the situation as it was now and deem him partially responsible for letting it continue. Not that it would ever go to trial, knowing the kind of people in the business he was in. No one would ever know how evil Strexcorp was unless he did something about it.

Unless he was reading it all wrong. There was still the question of all the scientists the subject had killed. Even if they had been complicit in the subject’s misery, that didn’t justify how brutal and horrifying those deaths had been. Pictures taken like crime scene photos were in the subject’s file. Limbs had been torn off, skin sliced open like a much more horrific version of what had been done to his face. And… well, Kevin was a little sadistic, a little creepy, but did that make him a villain? Wasn’t he just doing his job, trying to keep his subordinates safe?

Carlos closed the book and tried to go to bed, even though it was only eight pm. He slipped under the covers and tried to relax himself. His body was stiff as a board. His eyes wouldn’t close, even in the pitch black.

The next day, Carlos sat down at his desk and turned on his laptop, started doing research on tentacles that looked similar to the subject’s, to see what the closest match was. John and Steve came in at different times. Carlos couldn’t help but notice they were both looking at him, and turning away when he looked up.

“What is it?” He said.

“We got an email,” Steve said, just as John said, “It’s nothing.”

They looked at each other.

“Get your story straight,” Carlos narrowed his eyes at them.

“Lauren sent us an email that says to make sure you don’t go up to the fifteenth floor by yourself,” Steve elaborated, looking a little nervous.

“Lauren did? Not Kevin?” Carlos checked.

“It’s from Lauren,” John confirmed. Carlos sighed. Now he was being babysat? All his coworkers had to know he was under supervision? He felt his face heating up.

“Must be a safety issue,” Carlos muttered in an effort to save face, but no one bought it. He went back to his research.

Carlos made a list of all the octopus species that had tentacles resembling the subject’s coloration. He came up with several that were varying shades of black, blue, and purple, but none with that same iridescent finish. He had been hoping for an exact match to have something to compare, but no luck.

He kept doing research on various species and types of cephalopods, but after a while it started to feel like busy work. He grew frustrated that his idea had been shut down so firmly. As he steamed in his seat, Kevin approached. He put a metal bowl like what you’d serve to a dog on the desk. It was filled with a green mush and a few chopped vegetables.

“Doctor, I need you to go feed the subject. Take John or Steve,” He ordered.

“I’ll go,” Steve offered, and Carlos nodded.

“This is still my task?” He asked.

“Yes. We still want you feeding it, since you have the most success.” Kevin walked back to his office abruptly after finishing his sentence. Carlos pursed his lips and stood up with Steve. They walked to the elevator.

“How are you so fearless?” Steve asked suddenly while they waited for the elevator to rise them all the way to the highest level of the building.

“Fearless?” Carlos scoffed.

“That thing is horrifying. It could kill you so easily, with hardly any effort. But you don’t even mind,” Steve pointed out.

“It hasn’t killed me yet,” Carlos said, carefully policing what he said, unsure of who he could trust. The elevator doors slid open and they stepped into the hallway. Carlos tried to use his key card to open the door, but the lock beeped at him and flashed red. “What the…?”

Steve waved his own card in front of the sensor, and it flashed green. They pushed open the doors. Carlos scowled. They really had downgraded his clearance.

The gust of cool air made the room feel extra clinical. Holding the bowl of food in his hands, he went to the tank’s door. It opened the same way it had the day before, so at least they hadn’t changed that. Not that it was much use being able to get into the tank if he couldn’t even get into the room.

Steve stood five feet away from the glass, watching intently. Carlos stepped into the tank.

“I brought your food. Not meat this time,” Carlos said.

The subject sat against the wall across from him, one knee up and one leg outstretched, tentacles still functioning as modesty curtains. The subject’s position made him look like a bored prisoner, but a quick glance up at his eyes showed the fear, the uncertainty. Carlos cautiously came halfway between the subject and the door and set the food down, stepping backwards a few feet. The subject looked at the bowl, considering it, before one long tentacle encircled the bottom and lifted it into his lap. Carlos glanced at Steve- he was clutching his discipline button, ready to like the subject up like a Christmas tree if he made a wrong move. The subject started picking around the bowl with his hands.

“I’ve been trying to research things I think might give me some insight into… well, insight into you. Looking at cephalopods and comparing your tentacles to them. I couldn’t find an exact match, not that it’s surprising. You’re certainly a unique being,” Carlos spoke, not looking at Steve, not interested in his reaction. “I did some research into mermaids too, if you can believe it. It’s so unscientific, to do research on a fantasy creature.”

The subject’s eyes shot up, met with Carlos’s, for a second. So fast Carlos thought he might have imagined it. The subject went back to moving his hands around in the bowl, occasionally putting bites into his mouth and chewing.

Carlos continued to talk, rambling on about the specifics of the research he did. The subject seemed focused on the bowl and its contents, or he might have been ignoring Carlos more since Steve was in the room.

“I can’t come in here alone anymore. They say it’s not safe.” Carlos put special note on the word “safe”. His eyes darted briefly to Steve, who still stood, watching. Carlos didn’t blame him, but he resented him for being there. Carlos noticed the tip of a tentacle start to twirl around, drawing circles on the ground like someone might do with their finger. He watched it, but kept talking. He talked about anything inconspicuous he could think of until the subject had finished eating. It held the bowl with a tentacle the same way it had picked it up, and hovered it towards Carlos. Carlos stepped closer and put his hands out, and the subject dropped the bowl into his grasp. He looked down to see what was left of the meal and saw bits of the mush stuck to the bottom, molded into letters. He blinked over and over, not believing what his eyes were telling him. The leftovers spelled out “THANK YOU”.

Chapter Text

Carlos kept this up for a week, taking either Steve or John with him to sit in the tank with the subject while he ate, talking about anything he felt comfortable saying in front of Steve or John. He recognized the irony of being more comfortable talking to a tentacled semi-human than his coworkers, but that was genuinely how he felt. One particular afternoon, when Steve was the one supervising him, an opportunity arose.

“Crap,” Steve said. Carlos and the subject both turned their heads.

“What?” Carlos called through the glass.

“Kevin wants me downstairs ASAP. He says you can stay until you’re done, so… I’d offer you my discipline button, but you won’t take it, will you?”

“Absolutely not,” I agree. “Kevin says I can stay?”

“Yeah, believe it or not. I’ll see you downstairs,” Steve said, hurrying out of the room, clearly glad to get out of their. Carlos knew just being in the room with the subject made him incredibly nervous.

Carlos turned back to the subject, who was still working on his daily meal. The subject stared back at him. Carlos startled when he heard the sound of a throat clearing, such a distinctly human noise that it alarmed him.

The subject opened his mouth like he had the first time he tried to speak in front of Carlos, only this time, the labor seemed different. Carlos wanted to step closer, but fear held him back.

“Ah. Eh. Ay. I…” The subject started. These sounds were much closer to words than before. Carlos’s heart started pounding. “I’m.”

Carlos stared, wide eyed, as the subject opened its mouth, showing instead of telling. His tongue… was back. It looked as if it had never been cut. His tongue completely regenerated .

“What the hell,” Carlos gasped, stumbling back. “Th-That’s not possible, it’s not, it’s-”

He gave up on trying to explain why what he was seeing couldn’t be real, because it was, it was right in front of him.

“I’m. Fffffffrom. Niiiightt. Vay. Vay. Vale. Night. Vale,” The subject forced out each word, rising up on his knees.

“You can speak… you can speak English,” Carlos said, mouth agape. The subject nodded, seemingly waiting for Carlos to say something, to ask something. “You said Night Vale?”

The subject nodded.

“Mmmmmmy. Hhhhhome.” The subject’s entire face contorted with each word, presumably getting reacquainted with speaking with a tongue.

“How are you… how did you… who are…” Carlos had too many questions, and his head was spinning.

“Nnnnnot. Sssafe,” The subject said, the words becoming more urgent and less strained.

“Okay. Right. Not safe. Can you…” Carlos desperately tried to figure out what to ask. They didn’t have long. “Who did that to your tongue?”

“K… keh…”The subject swallowed. A hard gulping noise accompanied it.

“Kevin,” Carlos finished for him. The subject nodded.

“Please. Don’t. Tell,” The subject pleaded.

“I won’t,” Carlos swore. He looked at his watch and knew he needed to start going back down before he was busted. “I have to go, but one more thing- do you have a name?”

“Cecil,” the subject said, voice wobbling and cracking, like the name was a harder word to say when you were still breaking in your tongue.

“Cecil,” Carlos repeated. It was a beautiful name, an old-fashioned name. A human name. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”

He came out onto the second floor, still shaken from what he’d experienced. He forced an even expression onto his face so as to not set off any alarms from the others. He sat down at his desk and poured his focus into meaningless research until it was time to go home and do the real research.

On his way out, he passed Kevin’s office. The door was open, and Kevin sat in his desk. He reached under the desk and pulled out an ornate wooden box and set it in front of him.

“Doctor Cientif í co. On your way out?” Kevin said, noticing him looking in.

“Yes. Are you?”

“Ah, not yet. I have extra business tonight,” He said with a coy smile. Carlos lingered, wondering if Kevin would open the box while he stood there. It seemed like he wouldn’t, so Carlos left. He shuddered as he turned away from the man who had cut out another person’s tongue.

That night, Carlos set his computer firmly on his lap and did some digging. He searched for Night Vale everywhere he could think of, starting with a simple search and going deeper, scavenging on obscure forms and websites. He couldn’t find a single thing. He started questioning if he had heard the subject correctly. Or, heard Cecil correctly. He didn’t have to use that dehumanizing label anymore. At least, not in his head. To everyone he worked with, Cecil was still Subject NV01. NV… Night Vale. He must have heard him correctly. So, it was an extremely underground location. Not surprising, considering Cecil’s… attributes. Carlos wasn’t exactly expecting him to say he was from Seattle or Miami or any place he had heard of. For all he knew, Night Vale could be some underwater village full of tentacled people. That hypothesis brought on an entire new layer of questions… like how did Strexcorp find it? How did they take Cecil captive?

Carlos’s head started to hurt, and he realized he wasn’t going to make any headway, at least not tonight. He closed the computer, turning the living room pitch black.

The next morning, Carlos had a swamp of emotions bubbling in his stomach. He was energized by the progress he had made in the mystery, but disturbed by some of the revelations. The only thing he could do was go into work and push to learn more.

He did just that. He sat at his desk and did what he could until it was time to take someone up and give Cecil his food. He brought John. They rode up the elevator and John unlocked the door to let them in. Carlos narrowed his eyes at the tank. At first, he didn’t see Cecil, not until he got closer. Cecil was slumped against the back corner, knees pulled to his chest, tentacles wrapped around him like toilet paper on a child’s mummy halloween costume. Carlos rushed into the tank, bowl of vegetable mush in hand, and came as close as he could without breaking their unspoken boundaries. Instinctively, he almost called out Cecil’s name to get his attention. He swallowed the impulse and instead set the metal bowl down on the rock floor, loudly enough to make a sound. Cecil jolted up, rose his head so the top half of his face was visible his eyes met Carlos’s.

“I’m back,” Carlos said, unsure what else to say, wishing so badly he could just ask what was wrong- of course, he knew a lot of the things that were wrong, but Cecil looked… awful. Much worse than usual. The skin under and around his eyes was red and puffy, while the rest of his face seemed to have the color drained from it. His stark white hair was tangled, disheveled. Cecil put his head back down. Carlos pursed his lips and stepped back from the bowl. “I’m running out of relevant things to talk about, so I… tell you about a book I was looking into.”

Cecil did not move. Carlos chose not to look back at John. He knew he was standing up close to the glass, getting his front row seat. He could see Cecil almost as well as Carlos could.

“Most of the book took place at night . And over the town there was this… veil ,” Carlos hinted. “But I couldn’t find anything else about this… Night Veil… online. It’s almost like it doesn’t exist.”

Carlos sat down, a safe five feet away from Cecil. Cecil slowly lifted his head. His deep set eyes bore into Carlos’s. Cecil moved his arms out of the way of his face, and Carlos gasped.

Around Cecil’s mouth, and on his hands too, was the unmistakable remains of dried blood.

“Carlos, what is it?” John demanded. Carlos looked back and saw his finger hovering over the button that would send Cecil into violent convulsions.

“Don’t!” Carlos shouted, too shocked to control himself. “He’s bleeding!”

John pressed his face against the glass.

“Did you say he?” John exclaimed back, bewildered. “How do you know it’s the subject’s blood?!”

Carlos stumbled back until his back hit the glass. No. It couldn’t be true. Did the subject… kill someone? Someone… else? Carlos couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing. When he’d figured out the subject was a person, with a name and a home and feelings and- and everything people had, he’d… well, he’d subconsciously assumed the tales of his kills had been exaggerated. It wasn’t a very scientific assumption, but… he was guilty of empathizing with the subject. With Cecil .

“Carlos, get the hell out of there!” John shouted, banging his fist on the glass. Carlos obliged, too full of adrenaline to do anything but flee. He leaned, panting, against the closed outer door. John warily approached him. “Carlos…”

“We have to talk to Kevin,” Carlos barked immediately, before John could remind him that he’d called the subject a “he” instead of an “it”, that he’d shown concern for the subject’s well-being before considering that it had actually hurt someone. The bolt rushed to the elevator and down to the second floor. Kevin stood casually, leaning against the edge of Carlos’s desk.

“What’s all this?” Kevin said, mouth corners turned up as always.

“The subject’s mouth and hands are covered in dried blood,” John spat. Kevin’s face fell, not to one of shock but one of concern.

“Yes. I’m afraid I forgot to tell you sooner. One of our lab assistants snuck into the tank and suffered a terrible, terrible fate. He will be remembered, and memorialized in Subject NV01’s file,” Kevin explained somberly. Carlos and John stared at him in disbelief.

“You sent Carlos in there without telling us the subject had just killed a man?” John snapped.

“It slipped my mind,” Kevin said simply, the smile returning to his face. Carlos blinked. He still couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He refused to believe it. But… how could he ignore the facts? Couldn’t he accept that he had been wrong? That he had been seeing something that wasn’t there, that just because Cecil was a person didn’t mean he was a good person?

The realization hit him like a ton of bricks. Just because Cecil was a person, didn’t mean he wasn’t still a monster . Carlos’s heart sunk, his stomach turn, his head spun. He felt light-headed.

He was a man of science, a man of facts, and to ignore them now would go against everything he had believed for the entirety of his life. Still… his gut gave him a different feeling, one he couldn’t ignore. Carlos turned on his heel and went back to the elevator, hitting the button for the fifteenth floor. It wasn’t until the lock beeped and flashed red that he remembered he didn’t have access. He hit his fist against the thick metal door, over and over again. He knew it wouldn’t open, but he was so angry, so frustrated, that he needed to feel the pain of metal against hand over and over to bring himself back to reality.

The elevator doors slid open. It was Steve.

“Carlos,” Steve said, steadily walking up to him. Carlos said nothing, only panted out heavy breaths in between slamming his fisted hand against the door. “Carlos, what are you going to do if I let you in?”

“I have to talk to…” Carlos caught himself. His hands went to his head and he grabbed fistfulls of his own hair, closed his eyes so tight his eyelids strained against each other.

“It can’t talk, Carlos,” Steve reminded him. Carlos closed his eyes, focused on breathing like a normal person.

“Please let me in. Give me two minutes alone with h- with it,” Carlos pleaded with him. Steve narrowed his eyes at him.

“Are you trying to get killed?” He asked sincerely.

“No,” Carlos answered, equally sincerely. “I’m trying to get answers.”

“If I get in trouble for this…”

“You can tell them I stole your keycard,” Carlos begged. Steve relented and swiped his card over the sensor.

Carlos darted in the room and rapidly used the voice command to get into the tank, his feet hitting the floor fast and hard, knowing he didn’t have much time, if he had any at all.

“Did you do it?” He demanded as soon as his feet hit the rock. Cecil slowly lifted his head. “Tell me you didn’t do it, God damn it. Tell me I’m right about you!”

Carlos yelled freely, knowing he couldn’t be heard by Steve all the way outside the room.

Cecil looked at Carlos with the sorriest, most pathetic gaze Carlos had ever seen.

“Say something!” He demanded, his voice cracking.

“Aughn. Ugck,” Cecil choked out. Carlos stumbled back and lost his balance completely. The blood around his mouth… on his hands… how much worse he looks today…

“Oh, my God,” Carlos whispered. “He… he took your tongue… again.”

Cecil dropped his head back into himself, encapsulating his body in his extra appendages. Carlos heard the labored breathing that comes when a person sobs, saw the shaking shoulders. His hand went to his mouth.

Chapter Text

After Carlos realized the truth, he couldn’t go back. Whether Cecil had killed people or not, he didn’t deserve the treatment he was getting. Carlos had to find a way to put a stop to it.
For a month straight, he kept his head down. He did everything he was told with a delightful plastic smile across his face. He never accidentally called Cecil “he” in front of anyone. He spoke about him more clinically, more apathetically, more like an object. And it was working. Kevin would smile with approval when Carlos would say cold, callous things about The Subject.
He started making a plan. He still had no idea where Night Vale was, but he figured he was running out of time before he really became complicit in all of this, or before something happened to Cecil that couldn’t be undone. He needed to do something to help besides be a friendly face for Cecil. Getting him vegetables instead of meat wasn’t enough. He needed to bust him out.
He withdrew a significant amount of money from his bank account. He packed everything in his apartment he gave half a shit about into a duffel bag and put it in his car. He figured, after he dropped Cecil off at Night Vale or at the nearest coast, he would go to Mexico and lay low for a while, start a new life. It’s not like he was too attached to his current one.
“Oh, sir,” Carlos said, stopping by Kevin’s office on his way out. “I know I requested this when I first got here, but now… I understand the situation more fully. I understand the dangers. I was completely reckless in the beginning. The thing is, now, we can only learn so much from observation. I believe, if you’ll let me, it’s time for me to attempt my idea I proposed when I first got here. I want to stay late tonight and get biological samples from the subject.”
Kevin leaned back in his chair, straightened his tie. Carlos waited patiently, anxiously, for an answer.
“I agree that you have developed a better understanding. Hm. Doctor, I think this is an excellent idea. You have my permission to stay overnight to gather samples from Subject NV01. The condition being that you must keep one of your associates by phone at every moment. I’m going to say… check in with one of them every forty-five minutes,” Kevin said, laying down the rules.
“Yes, sir. I understand. Thank you,” Carlos sucked up. He went back to his desk and put his stuff down before running out to the parking lot to catch John on his way out. He called for him when he spotted him getting into his car. “John!”
John stopped and asked, “What’s up?” There was a forlorn expression across his face.
“I’m staying tonight to get samples. I need someone to check in with,” Carlos explained. John winced.
“Sorry, I, uh… I can’t. I just talked to Lauren… I quit,” John said, sheepishly scratching the back his neck.
“You… what?” Carlos echoed in disbelief.
“Yeah, I just… I gotta get out of here, man. This place… it messes with your head. I’m going out of town for a while. Sorry to bail on you,” John said, and Carlos could tell he really meant it. Carlos thought of all the moments, tense and pleasant, he had shared with John. All of the lunches, both quiet and chatty. He’d started to consider both John and Steve his good friends. When Carlos wasn’t too busy planning his heist (which he kept secret from them both), the three would go out for drinks. Now… John was leaving. So suddenly.
“Did something happen?” Carlos asked, still trying to wrap his head around it.
John sighed and said, “It wasn’t one thing. I’ll see you some time, Carlos.”
He turned on his car. Carlos backed away so he had room to pull out, and watched his friend drive off. He would never see him again.
Carlos went back in the building and called Steve to tell him the plan, not mentioning that John had quit. He gathered up syringes and plastic bags for collecting samples. Tonight wasn’t the right night to try and bust Cecil out. Ideally, he’d get to tell Cecil about it, first. This night was to build trust with Kevin, to show him that Carlos was pulling his weight and wasn’t doing anything he wasn’t supposed to. Admittedly, it would have been great to finally get some time alone with Cecil again, but this was a stealth mission. He needed samples,and saw the risk for rejection as too high to gamble with.
He left the building briefly to get some dinner, finished typing up a few reports, and bided his time until midnight, when he thought Cecil was guaranteed to be asleep. The whole night, he sent texts to Steve every forty-five minutes. Steve always sent back a little smiley emoticon. Extremely inappropriate, but kind of nice.
Carlos braced himself for what he was going to have to do, walking down the hall with all of his sample-collecting-equipment in the pockets of his labcoat. Kevin had restored his security clearance to let him into the room on his own. It was all a part of the plan. He took a deep breath before unlocking the door on the fifteenth floor and stepping in.

Chapter Text

When the cold draft of air hit Carlos as the door opened, he added temperatures to the list of reasons to feel sympathy for Cecil. After transferring from the underwater left side to the dry right side, he must have frozen all over again. It was amazing he had held on for however long he had been trapped here. Carlos added the question of how long onto his list of many, many questions.

At first, he wasn’t sure what to expect. It was entirely possible that Cecil didn’t require sleep, and would just be surprised to see Carlos in the middle of the night. Hopefully, Carlos could get take the observations anyway, possibly ask for the samples, and then have a real conversation. Though Carlos was still terrified beyond his mind, something within him told him that Cecil and he shared an understanding. Carlos knew that, as a scientist, he shouldn’t get such high hopes for any kind of experiment, but he couldn’t help it. It was exciting, and nerve wracking. Just because Cecil could speak the same language as Carlos and seemed to trust him, didn’t assure that he wouldn’t kill Carlos the next chance he got. Just because Kevin had lied about him killing that one person didn’t mean he lied about killing all of those people. Carlos had seen the photos of the brutalized bodies, and had a hard time imagining where those specific slashes could come from if not from one specific set of tentacles. Perhaps Carlos didn’t need to worry, as they both knew that Cecil may never have someone as willing to get to know him as Carlos again.

With that in mind, Carlos gazed into the tank. At first, he didn’t see anything. Cecil usually took up a good amount of space with the large tentacles, but Carlos had to squint to see a thin figure lying against the back wall. Carlos got closer, stepping so carefully as to not make any noise. He appeared to be sleeping. Carlos turned on his phone, but silenced it. He used the light from his screen to shine a tiny bit into the tank. He gasped, and slapped his hand over his mouth. Lying with his back to Carlos, was just… a man. His long thin legs looked like Cecil’s, and his white-haired head looked like Cecil’s, but his back… was bare. No giant tentacles, and no gaping holes where they should be. Just a man’s back, with clear, thin muscles, visible ribs, and pointed shoulder blades. Carlos stared into the tank. He finally decided that Cecil was completely human… plus a little extra. Strexcorp’s project was not testing on some monstrous creature, but a man, who for some reason, had tentacles, and possibly used them to kill people. But not while he slept. Carlos got into the tank without waking Cecil, of which he was proud. The first thing he had planned on doing when he got into the tank had been to measure and inspect the tentacles, but that was clearly off the table. He marveled at the sight before him. Carlos kneeled down by Cecil’s back, casting the faint light on his body. He was just a man, and Carlos let his mouth hang open in shock. Carlos only looked at places that Cecil had let him see before, because he did not want to invade his privacy. Whether Cecil was man or beast, he was truly beautiful. His hips led a curved line up his side, his torso, to his arm and shoulder and neck. It was just like every other person in that way, but Carlos couldn’t stop admiring the beauty of the lines of his body. He looked like a marble statue. Carlos couldn’t think of anything to do but let his hand graze the top of Cecil’s hair. It was rough, likely from extended time being in saltwater. It was white as copy paper, from the roots to the tips. Completely natural. Certainly not from the sun any time recently.

His heart sank as he wondered how long it had been since Cecil had seen the sun. He instinctively stroked the light hair under his hand, and Cecil made a sound Carlos immediately labeled as adorable. He inspected what he could of the body in front of him. To his surprise, he found a tiny tattoo on the right side of his neck. It was a series of lines that Carlos, obviously, did not recognize. Carlos wondered if it was a symbol to a person, a tribute to a memory, or just a cool symbol. It could be anything. Carlos’s eyes started to well with tears as he thought of the misery this person had been through, how heavenly he looked even though he had been through so much hell.

He then thought again about this man likely having a family, but all Carlos knew was his name and home. He wondered if Cecil’s family was out there somewhere, looking for him. His throat tightened. Carlos’s hand stroking the man’s hair accidentally drifted down and touched skin, and before Carlos could react, the man was on top of him, pinning him to the rock floor, and black-ish tentacles were rising out of his back with an incredibly unsettling sound- like opening a can of processed meat- and surrounding Carlos. Carlos winced and prepared himself for the violent act he was owed, but when nothing came, he cautiously opened one eye. The man was gazing at him in shock. There wasn’t even a hint of anger in his expression.

“Yyyyyyou,” Cecil whispered, with nothing but tragedy and deflation in his tone. Carlos shook his head, at a loss for words, his heart breaking for the millionth time at how used to abuse this soul was. To Carlos’s surprise, it wasn’t the tentacles holding him-those hovered above him, giving the effect of an endless black sky. Cecil was holding him down with his hands and sitting over his hips. Carlos flushed bright red.

Cecil looked at Carlos’s hands, which were expertly pinned above his head, and saw them empty. The man looked over and saw that Carlos had only brought a phone and a notebook in with him. The man let go of Carlos and leaned back, using his middle tentacles to cover himself and wrapping the others around his own waist and shoulders. Carlos sat up.

“I’m sorry for sneaking up on you, I… I came to talk to you,” Carlos said softly, gently.

“Tahhhlk? Or…” Cecil drifted off, his voice crumbling. “Or cut.”

Carlos recognized what he meant. He was able to talk, which meant his tongue was back, which meant… Kevin would be coming up here soon.

“No. I would never do something that cruel. You’re from a place that doesn't seem to exist, you have body parts I’ve never seen on a person, and you’ve killed a lot of people like me, but I know you don’t deserve to be treated like a monster.” Carlos explained quietly, hoping the man would believe him.

“I. Nevvver killlllled. Annyonne like yuh-yyou .” Carlos understood what he was saying. The man had never killed someone who showed him humanity.

“Did all of them shock you?” Carlos asked. Cecil nodded. “Who are you? Where did you come from? How did these people find you?” The humble man just stared at him.

“Okay, first. Where did you come from? Where in the world is Night Vale?”

“Night Vale. Night Vale. Night Vale. NightVale. Nightvale,” Cecil said it over and over again, rolling it around in his mouth, trying it on for size.

“Where is that? Is it in the ocean?” The man shook his head. So he was from land.

“It’s… a… towwwwn.” He was still drawing out his consonants and pausing between each word, but some of it had his actual inflection seeping through. It was dark and melodic, thick and sweet.

“Can you tell me more? Are there others like you there?” Carlos asked. Cecil nodded.

“Llllllike me. Yyyou. Nnneither.” Cecil looked at Carlos’s eyes, past them. Carlos felt like the tables had been turned, and for once, he was the one being studied.

Cecil shuddered from the cold.

“Do you want my lab coat?” Carlos offered.

He nodded his head yes, and Carlos took it off and handed it to him. He used his tentacles to turn around so his back was to Carlos, then retracted his top and middle tentacles so he could pull the coat on. He turned out and sat, bottom tentacles wrapped around his waist, still covering himself.

“Can you pull those in whenever you want?” Carlos asked, getting distracted by science and his undying fascination.

“Yyes. But thhhey ddon’t stay out wwwhile I slllleep,” He answered. Carlos nodded. Cecil’s hands fell to the lab coat’s pockets. He made a face when he felt they were full, reached into one, and pulled out a syringe. His expression contorted into one of betrayal.

“No, I wasn’t going to do anything without permission-” He explained quickly. Cecil’s cautious expression defined that he didn’t completely believe him. “Really, I… I was going to get some samples from you, if you let me, but- I don’t think I can do that now.”

“Why?” Cecil asked. The distance between them was so much less than it had ever been before. Carlos begged his eyes to stay on Cecil’s face.

“I can’t let Kevin hurt you like that again. I… I thought I would have more time, but I don’t. I have to get you out now.” A wave of determination filled Carlos’s eyes, stiffened his jaw.

“Get. Me out?” Cecil leaned back farther distrustfully.

“Yes. I’ll take you to Night Vale, if you know how to get there,” He added. Cecil’s eyes widened, then narrowed. “I promise this isn’t a trick. I’m…” Carlos’s voice cracked. “I’m sick of seeing you like this. You deserve better. You deserve a life.”

“I…” Cecil swallowed laboriously. “I deserve…”

“Trust me, Cecil, you deserve better,” Carlos insisted. At the use of his name, Cecil’s eyes started to water.

“Okay,” He whisper. “But I’m not alllone.”

His eyes pointed to the left of the tank.

“There’s two of you?”

“Mmy niece.” Cecil’s voice cracked again. Carlos’s eyes shot open wide.

“Is she…”

“Difffferent. Same but different,” Cecil said. His eyes sparkled with desperation. Carlos stood up.

“Come on,” He said, holding out a hand. Cecil removed one hand from the way he was gripping the lab coat around his shivering body and grabbed Carlos’s hand, letting him gently tug him onto his feet. Carlos led Cecil out of the tank. Cecil’s feet stumbled like he wasn’t used to them, and considering how Carlos mostly saw him move with his tentacles, that likely was the case. Cecil tripped over nothing- not used to a flat floor- and nearly collapsed, but Carlos moved quick and caught him. He realized he was holding a naked man in his arms and quickly steadied Cecil on his own.

They started walking towards where Cecil had pointed.

Carlos inspected the wall where Cecil was staring and saw a slight line in the wall. He ran his hand over it, then pushed on it. A panel swung around like in an old mystery novel.

Chapter Text

On the other side of the panel was a clean, industrial looking bathroom. The room was mostly shower, a big glass room with a tile floor and an obviously broken showerhead above it. In the corner of that shower room, was… a child. The same white hair that Cecil had, only longer, fluffier, was strain across her face, shoulders, and chest. She wasn’t clothed either, and her lower half… was a thick, dark blue fish’s tail. Six little tentacles, identical to Cecil’s in color, encircled her waist and hips. Same, but different.

Cecil bolted to the shower door and yanked on the handle. Carlos snapped himself out of the shock of looking at a literal mermaid and helped him get it open. It wasn’t even locked. Strexcorp hadn’t even bothered.

Cecil crashed knees-first onto the floor next to her limp, unmoving form. He put his hands on her shoulders, on the thigh-area of her tail, on the top of her head. He rocked her gently back and forth.

“Janice? Janice, it’s Uncle Cecil. Janice, honey,” Cecil cooed. Carlos’s heart melted at the familial affection, then solidified like a rock as little Janice continued not to move.

“Oh God, Cecil,” He muttered.

“Hnng…” Janice stirred.

“Oh, Janice,” Cecil cried with relief. Carlos came into the shower and helped Cecil lift her, checked her vital signs as best he could, inspected her skin. It was chapped in several places skin should not normally be chapped.

“Is she going to be okay? I- I can’t llllose her, Carlos.” Carlos jolted at the sound of his own name. Cecil had never said it before, and the way he did rung in Carlos’s head for many moments after.

“You won’t. She needs to be mostly submerged. That should wake her up enough for her to hydrate more effectively, orally.” Carlos noted. That method wouldn’t work on anyone that wasn’t built like Janice. Her skin appeared incredibly porous and absorbent. Carlos took off the button up shirt he was wearing and handed it to Cecil. Cecil adjusted the shirt so that Janice was wearing it like a backwards robe. He hefted her up, his arms under her back and the crook in her tail, with his two middle tentacles providing extra support. The lower ones helped him walk.

“Show me where I can take her,” Cecil begged, making the most completely fluid statement yet, without a single lapse in speech. He was clearly great under pressure. Carlos wasn’t sure why he himself wasn’t falling apart, only that the life and death urgency of the situation had to be keeping him together. Carlos nodded and led Cecil out of the room. They needed to go all the way to floor 2, so that’s where Carlos took them. Cecil was nervous about getting on the elevator, but he made sure Carlos knew that Cecil trusted him. He offered Carlos eye contact with deeper meaning than some novels.

They went into the testing lab, and Carlos pointed to where Cecil could set Janice down. Carlos left for a second and returned with the extra set of clothes he brought for Cecil. He turned around long enough for Cecil to put the clothes on, then turned on the shower that was used in case anyone got chemicals on their skin, and more saturated color flooded back into Janice’s skin and scales. Her eyes fluttered as thick droplets poured down her young face. She started shaking with fear when she saw Carlos.

“Janice. Janice, this is Carlos. He’s a good scientist.” Cecil ran up to her after Carlos turned off the water and put his arms around her her. They left the shirt on her, since a wet shirt would be more helpful to her at the moment than a dry one. “He’s going to save us.” Janice eyed Carlos wearily, and squeezed Cecil’s hand weakly.

“U-uncle Cecil,” She whispered. “I d-didn’t tell them a-anything about us.” Carlos didn’t understand what she was talking about, but instantly noticed the lashes and cuts all over Janice’s arms and neck as Janice pushed up the sleeves of the coat. It was clear she had been tortured, apparently for information. Carlos was instantly filled with rage as if someone had injected it into his bloodstream. What kind of monsters tortured a little girl for information? Carlos tried to find satisfaction in that they thought the little girl would be weak enough to crack, and they were wrong, but it only made his fists clench harder at how much Cecil’s niece had endured. Carlos became overwhelmed with respect for the bravery of this little girl. It made him think of his own sister, which yet again filled him with guilt for leaving her without a goodbye.

“Oh, Janice,” Cecil sobbed into her hair. Carlos’s throat tightened at the sound of Cecil’s cries. “You always were the tough one.” Carlos heard a thud from downstairs. It sounded like someone was walking around, and coming up the elevator.

“Cecil, you need to hide,” Carlos hissed.

“I can’t leave Janice,” Cecil protested fiercely. Carlos told him to take her and hide under a desk. Just as they shielded themselves from the view of the elevator, the doors opened, and none other than Steve came out.

“Carlos? I thought you were dead. It’s been and hour and a half. Why didn’t you text?” Steve exclaimed ragefully. Carlos was first in disbelief that over forty-five minutes had really passed since he texted, before scolding himself for not texting Steve that he was fine.

“Has it really been that long?” Carlos rubbed the back of his neck anxiously, feeling himself start to sweat.

“I really did think you were dead, Carlos. I wanted to come make sure first, before I told Kevin or Lauren. Why didn’t you text me?” Steve looked him up and down. “Where’s your coat? And shirt?”

“I, uh, I just got a little hot.” Carlos had always been bad at lying under pressure, but he couldn’t afford to fuck this up. Carlos suddenly spotted a couple inches of Janice’s tail and fin peeking out from under the desk they were hiding. Carlos tried to look away as soon as he saw it so as to not to draw attention, but Steve was a scientist too, and Carlos had been acting suspicious anyway. Steve turned to see what Carlos had glanced at.

“What the hell is that?” He yelled.

“Steve, it’s-” Carlos tried to explain, but Steve had already yanked the desk to the side, revealing the two souls huddled together behind it.

“Oh my God, oh my God, Carlos- what have you done ? Subject NV01? And… a mermaid? My God, where did his other tentacles go?” Steve gasped, clearly absolutely terrified, looking around for some way to defend himself.

“Steve, wait! He’s not some monster, he’s a person. With a family. And they’ve both been kept here against their will and tortured,” Carlos desperately tried to convince Steve not to freak out. One call, and they would be dead.

“Carlos, you’re… you’re crazy. That… that thing is not a person. It killed so many people.” Steve stepped back, and Carlos saw the emergency wall phone behind him.

“Steve, don’t! He’s not a thing! He has a name, he can speak! Steve, please listen to me. Strexcorp kidnapped him and tortured him.” Steve was speechless, still going for the phone.

“S-Steve?” Cecil stuttered, this new person he had no reason to trust making him shake- but Carlos saw him forcing himself to be strong for Janice. Steve fell backwards with fear. “I-I’m not trying to- to scare y-you. P-please. J-Just let me go home.” Steve broke his stare from Cecil to look at Carlos.

“I- good God, Carlos, I don’t know how you got yourself into this mess, but… I believe you. I don’t know why the subject has taken such a liking to you-”

“His name is Cecil,” Carlos interrupted.

“O-okay. Cecil. But… I know we don’t exactly work for a company of angels.”

“Because angels are definitely not real.” They heard Cecil whispering to Janice. They both ignored it- it wasn’t the time.

“I know these people are criminals. Do you understand what you’re doing? If you help them, you’re dead. Our employers, or theirs, someone will find you. There’s no where you could go.” Steve analyzed quietly.

“I know, I’m- I’m going with them,” Carlos sputtered without thinking about it. Cecil’s eyes widened at him.

“I don’t need to know where. You have to get as far out of here as possible. I’m going home and telling Kevin that… that Cecil, Christ I don’t know, the subject killed you, and somehow escaped. They’ll know it’s a lie, so I’ll tell him that’s just what it looks like. I’ll call in thirty minutes,” Steve finished, his voice frantic. Carlos stared at him and whispered, thank you. “Go!” Steve spat. Carlos took the hint and nodded to Cecil, who scooped up a thoroughly petrified Janice.

“Cecil, we’re going to my car, and we’re going to my place to pick up my other bag. Then we’re out of here.” Cecil nodded and followed Carlos quickly downstairs. Cecil sat in the back seat with Janice, who was still dazed. As Carlos was pulling out of the parking lot, he made eye contact with Steve. Steve nodded at him, a final goodbye. Carlos pulled out of the parking lot and sped off as quickly as he could towards his apartment.

Chapter Text

Carlos didn’t waste any time. He knew the criminals that had imprisoned Cecil and Janice were going to send someone to Carlos’s apartment as soon as Steve made the call. Luckily, Carlos had already done some of the planning. Carlos threw the remaining clothing items and toiletries into the bulky duffel bag. He glanced down in the duffel bag at the picture of him with his hermana y madre, and tried not to think about how he would never be able to see them again. He was saving one family at the cost of his own. The difference was, his mother and sister could survive never seeing him again, but Cecil and Janice eventually would have died there without Carlos. Carlos hoped the good karma could make up for all the other terrible jobs he did the last few years.

He ran back into the car, also bringing along a blanket and real t-shirt for Janice. She pulled on the shirt and snuggled up in the blanket. By about five minutes of driving, she was asleep. Neither of them blamed her. Cecil looked like he wanted to go to sleep too, but Carlos needed him to stay awake and give directions. Cecil told Carlos where to go, and further explained Night Vale to him. Every few moments he would say something to Carlos that was just so… strange. But Carlos knew he was in too deep to back out. He also figured that a lot of what Cecil was saying was probably exaggerated unintentionally because of the torture and the time that had passed since he had been home.

He glanced over at Cecil while they sat at a red light. Carlos's red flannel was big on him, while the jeans were short. Cecil had tucked the white hair behind his ears, and by the way he kept fiddling with it, Carlos assumed he didn't normally wear it so long. He wondered, if the man had been going without a haircut for all this time, how he didn't have facial hair. Cecil compounded Carlos's curiosity.

“Can I ask you some… uncomfortable questions?” Carlos asked cautiously, quietly so as to not disturb Janice.

“…Yes,” Cecil agreed. Carlos inhaled.

“How long were you there?”

“It… it was hard to tell. Around three years.” Carlos couldn’t believe they had survived for that long. It was incredible that they had, horrible that they had to. Three years was also how long ago Carlos had left his family. It made him feel like shit that he had left his on purpose.

“Can all of you… what other parts of your body regenerate?” He asked. Cecil turned away, put his hands over his face. “You don’t have to-”

“Kevin once cut off all of my fingers with garden shears,” Cecil whispered. Carlos didn’t know if he was being quiet to protect Janice or because he couldn’t bear to be any louder. “I lost part of a tentacle in a lawnmower accident when I was a kid.”

Carlos huffed a noise resembling a laugh at that, a response to the closest thing to humor he could see through all the darkness. Carlos didn’t say anything else. Several dozen yards of road passed under them before either spoke again.

“Ask me more.”

“Wha- why?”

“I want to get it all out now,” Cecil said with a different intensity than Carlos had seen from him before. It was not desperate, or tragic, but determined.

“Alright,” Carlos relented. “Did you kill anyone?”

“Yes.”

“How many people?”

“Two dozen… give or take. The day I lost count… was a horrible, horrible day.” Cecil turned and stared Carlos down. Carlos took his eyes off the road for a split second to look at him back. He saw incredible strength. Admirable strength.

“Did they deserve it?”

Cecil paused at that.

“Some of them.” His voice was even below a whisper now.

“Most of them?”

“…Most,” Cecil tentatively agreed.  

“What did you do for work, before?”

“I was a radio host.”

“Really?”

“Yes?”

“Hm. Interesting.” More road rushed by under them, trees rushing by around them.

“Can you tell me more about Night Vale now?”

“Okay.”

The tone shifted as Cecil kept going. A lot of what he was saying was actually kind of cute. He told some happy stories of life with Janice and others. He had a good friend named Josie back in Night Vale who he said he couldn’t wait for Carlos to meet. The whole thing became slightly domestic as they got closer. Carlos almost felt like he was with a lover, going to his hometown to meet all his old friends. Cecil didn’t mention parents, but people their age usually didn’t unless things were good, so Carlos didn’t ask.

“I wonder if Old Woman Josie still has her not-angel friends staying with her.” Cecil mumbled to himself in passing.

“Did you say angels?” Carlos quipped curiously.

“Yes, and no. I said not-angel, because angels definitely do not exist,” Cecil defended, looking back to see if Janice was still asleep.

“If angels don’t exist, why don’t you just call them people?”

“Oh, Carlos. It will take you some time to adjust to Night Vale. Old Woman Josie’s friends are all ten feet tall and have large, feathery wings. Also, they are all named Erika and have no determinable gender.”

“Hm,” Carlos pondered. The scientist in him was very thrilled to see Night Vale. The normal person who had just thrown away any chance of going back to the life he once knew was terrified. “What about metaphorical angels? Like, if some miracle happens in your life, wouldn’t make sense to attribute it to something like angels?” Cecil looked like he was thinking very hard about this.

“I suppose…” He looked at Carlos warily. “That would make you my angel, sweet Carlos.”

Carlos blushed. Cecil had been subtly saying things like “sweet Carlos” more and more as they talked. He was treating Carlos like they had known each other for years. It made Carlos’s chest feel like it was full of marshmallows, but it also ached.

“But seriously, Carlos, you’re going to need to watch it with the angel talk when we get over the town line. If you set of the Angel Acknowledgement Sirens more than once or twice without taking it back, you could get sent to reeducation.” Cecil shuddered as he said it. Carlos wondered if the place they were going was so much better than what they were running from. Janice stirred in the backseat.

“Uncle Cecil?” She called quietly. Cecil turned around to make eye contact with her.

“Yes?”

“What if they find us again?” Her voice dropped to an impressively quiet volume. Even after everything, Carlos had been expecting some variation of “are we there yet?”. He realized he would need to change his attitude. Janice was clearly wise beyond her years, and he got the feeling she had always been that way.

“That’s not going to happen,” Cecil stated firmly. Carlos saw Janice nod in the rearview mirror. Carlos hoped Cecil was right.

“Are there a lot of people with fish-like tails in Night Vale?” Carlos pondered aloud.

“No,” Cecil began, grumbling. “Night Vale is a desert town. The man who contributed to Janice’s biological production was visiting from somewhere near an ocean. He and Janice’s mother had one of those things where he claimed to love her no matter what, until the surprise baby with unexpected appendages came along and revealed that he never really loved anybody. You know, the classic story. Of course, Janice has heard all of this before.” Carlos had already forgotten about how, recently, Cecil could barely even form real words.

“Is it hard for you to live in a desert?” Carlos asked Janice. He had to catch himself before he asked Cecil, because he suspected Janice wouldn’t like being spoken through as if she weren’t even there.

“Depends on what you mean by hard. I have to stay hydrated more than anyone else. Everybody tries to look at me like they feel sorry for me, but I can do more in a wheelchair with my body than they can do with theirs.” Carlos nodded. There was a comfortable silence that settled on them until Janice decided to break it.

“Are you going to stay in Night Vale?” She asked Carlos. Carlos hesitated. He didn’t really have a choice, but moving to a new town like this was… insane.

“I don’t know, Janice,” He finally said.

“Where else would you go?” Cecil broke in.

“I don’t know. I was thinking Mexico; it would be fairly easy for me to disappear there… but I don’t know. I wish I could tell my madre and hermana goodbye. They’ll never know what happened to me. If I didn’t stay in Night Vale, I’d definitely need to go out of the country. Maybe I could make a friend, have them go find my family…” Carlos drifted off. “I don’t know.”

“If you decide to stay… I have a spare bedroom. Janice lives with her mother, obviously. I’d love to have you room with me for as long as you wanted. Night Vale hasn’t had a good scientist come around in years, so there’d be plenty of work to find.”

“Oh, Cecil, I wouldn’t want to inconvenience you. I’m sure I could figure something out.” With the mood they had set, going back to Cecil’s hometown like lovers, calling Carlos cute pet names and complimenting him… Carlos felt like moving in with him was just… too much. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy Cecil’s company, but it was just… Carlos, for some reason, couldn’t seem to have a complete thought if Cecil was involved.

“It wouldn’t be an inconvenience at all, dear Carlos. The faceless old woman who secretly lives in my home may bother you at first, but she has good judge of character. Also, she’d bother you wherever you lived in Night Vale, so it might as well be at my apartment.” Carlos blinked twice and looked back at Janice. She had no reaction to the odd thing about the faceless old woman, but was looking at Carlos expectantly. Somehow, Carlos couldn’t say no to that face.

“I suppose that settles it.” He held back a smile. Cecil made no such effort. Carlos felt as glad as he did uncertain.

“Yay! Oh, Carlos, we’re going to be roommates! We can watch movies, and brush each other’s hair, and share bloodstone circles-”

“Wait, did you say ‘brush each other’s hair’?” Carlos sputtered.

“Um, yes. S-sorry if that was a bit forward. You just have, um, r-really, uh, really nice hair. It’s sort of, uhm… s-sort of perfect, actually,” Cecil stuttered. Carlos didn’t understand why he was having trouble speaking again, like earlier. He blushed at the compliment.

“Are we getting close?” Carlos changed the subject. Cecil peered out all the windows.

“I… think so.” He paused and avoided Carlos’s eyes.

“Cecil, you think so? Are we lost?” Carlos exasperated. Cecil looked like he was about to speak, but closed his mouth. Carlos groaned. He drove for a minute, and found a small motel that looked like the kind of place you would go for a small family getaway. It was comforting. He pulled into the lot and parked.

“What are we doing?” Cecil asked worriedly.

“I’m about to fall asleep at the wheel, and I know you wouldn’t be any better. We’re stopping here for the night.” Carlos sighed.

“What about me? I kind of have a tail, and no wheelchair.” Janice put her hands up, irritated at being forgotten.

“I know, I know. We’ll just have to wrap you up in a blanket and Cecil can carry you in. Just… pretend to be asleep, and we can act like he has to carry you because you fell asleep in the car.” They nodded, but Janice didn’t look happy about it. Though, Carlos decided, being irritated at having to depend on her uncle was far better than being filled with post-traumatic stress, which she showed no signs of, yet. Carlos found it somewhat miraculous that she and Cecil seemed so… fine. It was like they were just a family on vacation, and not on the run from an evil corporation that would do anything to keep this under wraps.

Chapter Text

They all went in the motel, Janice begrudgingly in Cecil’s arms, Cecil’s tentacles sucked back into his body. It was five am, and the sun was starting to rise. Carlos decided he would be the one to go to the front desk.
“Hi, can we get a room?” He asked the guy at the desk. The guy was young, with slicked back hair and one earring.
“The only rooms we have are the ones with two queen beds.” He informed Carlos. Carlos knew what he was implying, and squinted at him.
“Really? What’s the occasion?” Carlos responded sarcastically.
“Hey, man, it’s not a big place.” The guy replied defensively. Carlos may have overreacted a little defensively.
“Alright, you’re right. That’ll be fine.” The guy handed him a key after Carlos paid. He paid with the last of his cash. He didn’t want any chance of the company finding him before he had even really gotten away. The three of them got on the elevator and went up to their floor. The second they got in, Cecil set Janice down on one of the beds.
“I’ll take the couch,” Cecil announced casually.
“Are you kidding me, Cecil? You haven’t slept on a bed in years. I’m taking the couch,” Carlos disagreed. Cecil looked like he was about to protest, but closed his mouth and sat down on the other bed. Carlos opened his suitcase to take out some pajamas, and offered Cecil a pair of pj pants as well, which he had brought specifically for Cecil. They were purple checkered, and warm. Cecil changed in the bathroom, and Carlos went in after him. When he came out, Cecil was tucking Janice into bed. He whispered something to her before giving her a small kiss on the forehead. Carlos’s heart melted once again at the act of family affection, and yearned for a similar love. He missed that feeling. He wondered if he would ever feel at home again as he drifted off into a dream-filled sleep.
Carlos dreamed deeply that night. He dreamed that he was a dolphin, swimming freely in the ocean, but without purpose. He was alone. Dream Carlos the Dolphin found a black-ish octopus with glints of purple and blue on the girths of the tentacles. All of a sudden, Carlos the Dolphin's life had renewed meaning. Even though it didn’t make sense, he felt like he belonged with this completely different creature. They were so different, but they felt at home together. It was like the universe had been waiting, counting down the seconds until they finally realized what they were to each other.
Carlos instantly forgot his dream when he woke up. It was just at the cusp of his memories, but it faded as he desperately tried to cling on to it. He checked the time on his phone and saw they had all slept only about six hours. He got up as silently as he could and washed his face before putting on real clothes. When he left the bathroom, Cecil was playing with Janice. He had two tentacles out, the lowest ones, and was holding her by her waist and spinning her around while holding her hands with his. Carlos chuckled along with them. They had a good, much needed laugh. Carlos tried to absorb the feeling of family while he knew it would still be there. Everything would change once they got to Night Vale, and he just wasn’t ready.
“If we want to catch the free breakfast, we should go downstairs now. We don’t have to check out for three more hours, but we should probably leave as soon as we can,” Carlos informed them when they all settled down. Cecil and Janice nodded and got ready to leave. They decided it was too risky to bring Janice down there, and she said she wanted some alone time. The men agreed to bring her back a plate after they ate.
Cecil and Carlos walked out to the eating area. It was completely empty other than the few staff members. Carlos again doubted the legitimacy of the desk guy’s statement about them only having rooms with two queen beds. Cecil stared at all the food, not sure what to eat. He smelled the bacon, and nearly gagged. He ended up grabbing a lot of fruit. Cecil wouldn’t take his nervous eyes off Carlos’s piece of toast until it was completely gone, which Carlos did not understand. They sat down at a small table. It was quaint. The atmosphere of the motel was serene. It was the kind of motel that everybody has been to at least once in their life. Carlos and Cecil both scarfed down their food. Cecil ate a record amount of apples. Carlos liked watching Cecil eat. It was intriguing. Like watching an exotic zoo animal eat, in the cutest way possible. Cecil also picked out a similar plate to bring to Janice. Cecil gave an abrupt “NO” when Carlos offered a whole-wheat bagel, and Carlos put his hands up in defense. Cecil apologized for being rude and they went back up. Carlos assumed it was a “Night Vale thing”, which is what he was calling anything about Cecil’s hometown that was unfamiliar- or, bluntly just plain weird- to Carlos.
When they got into the room, Janice was lying on the floor. Carlos, at first, thought she had fallen off the bed, but grinned subtly when he saw that she was doing pushups. Carlos had noticed when he first saw Janice that she had thick muscles for a little girl, and now he could see why. What she didn’t have in legs was made up for in arms. Cecil held out a hand and stretched two tentacles out to help her. Everytime he outstretched them, it caught Carlos by surprise. The fact that is was so normal to the two of them was so surreal for Carlos. Their norm was Cecil’s aquatic limbs being just as functional as his arms, if not more. He set Janice on the bed and handed her the plate. She ate similarly to Cecil. Carlos wondered what they had been feeding her in the lab, but he didn’t want to ruin the happy mood they had set or disturb the peace by asking. Carlos realized that he had curbed his our scientific curiosity. He had no interest in ever talking about what happened in that lab ever again. After she ate, Carlos packed up his bag. They chatted a little more, and Cecil said more weirdness about Night Vale. Carlos mostly ignored it, and decided to cross that bridge when he came to it. They soon after decided it was time to leave. Cecil wrapped up Janice the same way they had before. She still wasn’t happy about it. Cecil took Janice to the car as Carlos checked them out. When they were all packed up in the car, Cecil had an epiphany.
“Oh, Carlos! I know exactly where we are!” He declared.
“Why now?”
“I don’t know. But keep going the way we were going, and then turn right. That should do it.” Cecil nodded intensely. Carlos started driving. Time started to feel like it was slowing down, which didn’t make any sense considering the sky was actually getting darker, when Carlos could have sworn they had left the motel at twelve pm. It was certainly possible that he had just been in a highway hypnosis daze for several hours, he supposed.
“Look!” Cecil shouted, pointing at an indigo sign that read, “Welcome to Night Vale” in faded white letters with “help” spray painted across the bottom. Carlos wondered again what they were getting in to. If someone as… lovely as Cecil called this place home, how bad could it possibly be?
They drove past the sign. Carlos didn’t know what he was expecting to happen, but nothing did. The reality of Night Vale being no safer than any other town within a few hours of the people that were certainly tracking him by now set in. Cecil had to be messing with him about all of that other stuff. It seemed unrealistic that Cecil would prank him after everything he had been through, but certainly it was less far fetched than any of the things Cecil had told him in the last couple of hours? Carlos felt like he was walking into a trap. Some of the things Cecil had said… Carlos understood that a town that produced men with tentacles and girls with tails was going to be a little odd to him, but he could only suspend his disbelief so far.
What if Strexcorp’s people were already in Night Vale, knowing Cecil and Janice would come back home? The idea that Cecil had expressed before as fact, that Night Vale only revealed itself to those who were worthy, sounded ridiculous. That was something out of a television show, or some kind of cliche podcast. Even if Cecil did believe that, how would Strexcorp have found Night Vale originally? Nothing was making sense to Carlos, and he found that all too familiar pain in his chest that meant he was about to have a panic attack. Pain wasn’t the right word, it was more of a weight, like someone sitting right on top of his heart. His throat closed up with fear, and his hands began shuddering. He took one hand off the wheel and scratched the top of his hand. Clawing at the skin on top of his hand until it bled was his release when he was panicking. He thought about the danger he was putting Cecil and Janice in by having an attack while driving, which made him panic more. He tried his best to pull over to the side of the road, but it was a bumpy thrust to the side that almost flipped the car. He heard a faint, “Carlos? Are you okay?” but it sounded a million miles away. He desperately clawed at the seatbelt to unfasten it, then opened the door and stumbled out in an effort to get some fresh air. He heard a car door shut that wasn’t the one he came out of. He tried to steady his breath, but the corners of his vision were going dark. He couldn’t see or breathe. Suddenly he felt incredibly dizzy. He tried to lower himself down on the ground to center his offset balance, but he collapsed against the car and felt his head knock the door.

Chapter Text

Carlos woke up in a hospital. It was not the first time in his life this had happened, but it was startling nonetheless. He only remembered fragments of what had happened before he passed out. He couldn’t remember what knocked him out, the panic attack or the car door. He didn’t really care.

He looked around the room and saw Cecil, passed out in an armchair. Seeing someone passed out in a chair next to your hospital bed is never as comforting as you would think, because it means you’ve been there long enough for someone to fall asleep waiting for you to wake up.

“Cecil,” Carlos hoarsely whispered. It wasn’t intended to be a whisper, but Carlos found he hadn’t had much control over anything lately.

“Carlos!” Cecil jumped awake. Carlos was shocked Cecil had heard him.

“Cecil, what happened?” Carlos asked, trying to fill in the gaps.

“Well, you started freaking out in the car, so you pulled over to the side of the road and got out. You d-didn’t r-respond to me at all, l-like I- I wasn’t even th-there.” Cecil explained, starting to stutter. “You started to tip over, and then you just collapsed in a heap on the ground. I put you back in the car and brought you here. It was a dashing scene, me carrying you in to the hospital with Janice walking on her hands behind me. Ev-everyone st-st-started going w-w-wild when they saw Janice and I, but- but I told th-them it could w-w-wait and deman-demand-ded you be treated.”

“Why are you stuttering?” Carlos asked, too drowsy to remember to be polite.

“Oh, uh… I g-guess when I g-get nerv-vous I kind- kind of revert b-back to b-bad sp-speech.” He shuffled. Carlos didn’t understand how the blubbering, silly, nervous Cecil was the same as the cool, profound, “the day I lost count was a horrible, horrible day” Cecil.

“How long ago did you bring me here?” Carlos asked him.

“Only a couple of hours. It’s nearly dusk.” Carlos was confused by both Cecil using “dusk” as a determination of time and that Carlos thought he remembered it being dusk before he passed out. Surely enough, out the window the sun was setting. It was a glorious sight, all the purples and pinks and oranges. It calmed Carlos. He looked down at his hand and saw that he had scratched a nice mark into his hand. He had broken the skin. It was a bad habit. He ran his other thumb over it, and Cecil approached him. Cecil held the hand to inspect little wound. Carlos held back the blood from his cheeks when he realized Cecil was holding his hand.

“What’s this? Did the car catch you on your way down?” Cecil wondered caringly. Yet again, Carlos felt like Cecil was a concerned lover. He winced, at what, he wasn’t sure.

“No, I did it. With my nails.” He held up his other hand to show his nails. “It’s a nervous tick.” Mentioning nerves reminded him that he had been slightly nervous of Cecil last he was awake. Carlos pulled his hand away.

“That’s more than a nervous tick. That’s…” Carlos wasn’t listening to Cecil. Cecil could tell.

“What is it?” Cecil asked. Carlos ignored him and looked away. “Carlos?”

“Nothing, Cecil.”

“N-nothing?” Cecil frowned. It almost broke Carlos’s heart the way he said it.

“All that stuff you were telling me about Night Vale wasn’t funny, okay? After seeing everything I saw back at Strexcorp, and of you, I guess I was willing to believe in crazy shit, but you need to drop it. You can go ahead and laugh at me for believing everything you told me about Night Vale, but I don’t anymore. I’m just going to check myself out of here and go,” Carlos spilled. He didn’t think about the words before they came out, they just flowed. Cecil looked puppy-dog hurt.

“Crazy shit?” He echoed. “C-Carlos, I-I-”

“Save it. I helped you and Janice get home. I’m not going to be fucked with anymore. I don’t believe you’re the monster that Strexcorp wanted me to believe you were, but it takes a weird kind of person to say all that stuff to somebody who saved your life.” Cecil just looked at Carlos with an expression of confusion and heartbreak. Carlos could see Cecil getting upset. Carlos thought for a second Cecil was going to lose it on him and get angry, and he inspected black-ish tentacles to come out and hover above him, but instead Cecil mumbled something like “I’ll leave you alone then” and bolted out of the room with misty eyes. Carlos didn’t understand why, but his eyes misted some too. It suddenly started to rain outside, covering the last bit of sunlight leaking out. It was like the universe was crying, Carlos thought. It was a silly thought to have, and he hated having it. But that was the thing about thoughts, you couldn’t not have them. Carlos threw his head back on the pillow and smacked himself on the face. Just then, an older woman with a long grey braid walked in with a pep in her step unusual for a woman her age.

“You’re the science boy?” She said. Her voice was coarse and drawn.

“Yes. It’s Carlos,” He answered. She pranced up and kissed him on the cheek, which left him too confused to react.

“That’s for saving Cecil.” Then she slapped him straight across the other cheek. “That’s for making him cry.”

“Who are you?” Carlos yelled in anger of being smacked, clutching his cheek.

“Josie! Old Woman Josie!” She said like he should have known, which was ridiculous.

“You’re real?” Carlos exclaimed.

“Listen, youngin’.” She poked him in the chest every other syllable. “The difference between real and unreal is whether or not you believe it. You should know that being a scientist. Every scientific rule is real until someone proves it wrong, right?”

“...yes?” He answered, still touching his cheek. It didn’t hurt, but it didn’t feel great, either.

“Right. If you stick around, you’re going to see things you never would believe otherwise. You’ve probably already noticed how time is sporadic. That’s just scratching the surface. I don’t even have to know exactly what my lovely Cecil said to you to know that anything he said about this town is real. Why is any of it so hard to believe? The man has tentacles, for God’s sake! His niece is a tentacled mermaid!” She yelled. Carlos turned away from her loud voice.

“You’re right,” He said quietly.

“Now listen here- hold on, I’m right?” She stopped.

“Yes, Josie. You’re right. I panicked. It was too much too fast and I-” Carlos sighed. “I just threw my entire life away to save some mysterious man I barely knew. Cecil is- well, Cecil is wonderful, I think. From what I’ve seen.”

“He is. And that’s Old Woman Josie to you.” Josie smiled.

“Are- are you sure?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I, uh- Nevermind.” Carlos sighed and smacked himself on the forehead. “I feel terrible. I basically just told Cecil to fuck off, but that’s not- I don’t- I- I…”

“I know, I know. Lord, you act like you’re the first dashingly handsome scientist to waltz in here and get the hots for the town’s most beloved celebrity.” Josie rolled her eyes.

“Hold on, the hots? Dashingly handsome? Not the first -” Carlos attempted, but Josie silenced him with her hand.

“You can sign yourself out of the hospital whenever you’re ready. Here’s Cecil’s address. He’ll be home. The Erikas are making sure of it.” She handed him a piece of paper with Cecil’s address.

“The angels?” A siren went off in the distance, and Carlos remember Cecil’s mention of the sirens. “I mean, the definitely not angels,” Carlos corrected. The siren stopped. Carlos made a bewildered expression and put his hands up in confusion.

“You’re going to get along here just fine.” Josie winked before bobbing out, her braid whipping over her shoulder.

Carlos checked himself out after the nurses cleared him and asked around to find out where Cecil’s place was. The paper had the address, but no directions. It didn’t take too terribly long, especially because the ten feet tall figures with long dark wings were hovering outside the building. They granted Carlos access and he walked up the stairs, stomach fizzling. He was nervous, but not in the shaky, panicking way. In the frazzled, brushing through his hair with his fingers way. He remembered that Cecil liked his hair, and he smiled to himself. Carlos found Cecil’s apartment, on the top floor, and knocked, wiping the sweat off of his hands on his jeans. He felt like a stupid, nervous teenager, and he hated it. Gross.

Cecil answered the door, looking… worn. Carlos wasn’t afraid to admit to himself that it was captivating. Cecil’s light, coarse hair was tossed up in places it usually wasn’t, pulled up into a sloppy, amateur topknot. His dark eyes showed more color than usual as well, the blues and purples dancing and melting into the inflated black pupils, like two little galaxies. He wasn’t wearing Carlos’s jeans anymore, instead a pair of black leggings that Carlos thought were dazzlingly androgynous. Cecil had on a loose grey t-shirt under none other than Carlos’s red flannel. Carlos’s heart whimpered as he thought about Cecil feeling torn up over what Carlos had said and putting Carlos’s flannel back on over his own shirt for comfort. Cecil rubbed his forearm nervously and darted his eyes away.

“D-did you c-c-come for your, uh, your c-clothes? Here, I’ll give th-this back-” Cecil started, trying to avoid Carlos’s eyes, but failing.

“Keep it. It, uh- it looks good on you.” Cecil and Carlos’s cheeks both turned pinker. There was a pregnant pause. “Cecil, I… I… is that spare room still open?” He squeaked out. Cecil looked up and stopped rubbing his arm. He locked eyes with Carlos and saw the apologetic look in Carlos’s face. He leaped forward and snatched Carlos up in a hug so warm and so tight that Carlos felt every stress and hesitation melt off his body like snow in the summer. It was the best hug he had ever felt, and he wanted to live in it. “I’m sorry, Cecil. I shouldn’t have snapped at you. No excuses.”

“No, you shouldn’t have, but I forgive you. Oh, my dear Carlos, I forgive you.” Carlos bubbled with joy at the physical affection. He felt pathetic once he realized it, but it had been so long since he had been hugged, and he needed it.

“Cecil, you’re… really something,” Carlos whispered into Cecil’s shoulder, not entirely keeping his voice even.

“Are you sure you believe it all? Are you sure you want to be here, where things don’t make the kind of sense you’re used to? And… with me?” Cecil mumbled the last bit. Carlos broke the hug, and held Cecil at arm’s length so he could look in his eyes.

“Cecil… I was thinking, and I know what I said, but… Sometimes things seem so strange, or malevolent, and then you find that, underneath, it was something else altogether. Something pure, and innocent. Do you know what I mean?”

“Yes. I do know.” The two of them looked at each other and smiled. “Do you want to come in? Or come home, I should say?” Cecil offered.

“I’d love to.” Carlos grinned back.