Heeeeeey! LunaTheSmallAndFancy here. I'm uber sorry I haven't posted anything in like months... Thank you to everyone who read my story Soul Mate! It meant a ton to me. This is an overly optimistic thing I wrote to give myself reassurance after episode 47 (Company Picnic). This takes place many days after episode 46 (Parade Day) but before 47. I'm really hoping this is what happened, because if anything more painful happened to either Cecil or Carlos, I will not hesitate to cut a bitch. (Also I would like to remind you that the two-year anniversary of WTNV is coming up... so hopefully all will be revealed then.)
ONE-SHOT SONG: "I Slept With Someone in Fall Out Boy and All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me" by Fall Out Boy
Thanks for reading! Reviews and Rates equal love! Please tell me what I did well and what I can improve upon. It really helps me out a ton.
Lots of love,
LunaTheSmallAndFancy
Escape
"Carlos." Cecil whispered from the doorway to their bedroom. Carlos, however, being the heavy sleeper he was, had to be nearly shaken awake.
"Cecil?" He said, drowsily at first, then wide awake as he realized his lover was home at last. He threw his blankets to the side and crossed the room to the doorway where Cecil stood. "Cecil, where have you been? I was so worried, I heard on the radio-"
"We need to go. I'll explain everything, but we need to go." Cecil said, handing Carlos an empty backpack. Carlos quickly threw clothes and other necessities into the backpack while Cecil filled his NVCR messenger bag with prized possessions and cat supplies. They did all of this with the lights off so as not to attract attention from the neighbors of the malevolent StrexCorp. When they were ready, Cecil whispered to Khoshekh, who came running at the voice of his daddy, and scooped him up in his arms. Finally, Carlos climbed into the driver's seat of his red Jeep, after helping Cecil and Khoshekh into the passenger seat, and they pulled out of the driveway.
"Where do we need to go, Ceec?" Carlos asked once they were on the main road in town.
"Away." Cecil said quietly, without his usual enthusiasm. "Away from Night Vale. As far away as we can get."
"Leave Night Vale? But Cecil-"
"It's not Night Vale anymore, Carlos." Cecil snapped. "It may have been Night Vale once. It may have been a friendly desert community where the sun was hot, the moon was beautiful, and mysterious lights passed overhead while we all pretended to sleep. But it's not that place anymore, my beloved Carlos. It's not Night Vale; it's Desert Bluffs."
Carlos said nothing but took the next exit out of Night Vale.
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It was not until they were well on their way out of Night Vale and the sun began to rise (at the appropriate time, Carlos noted) that Carlos got a good look at Cecil.
His shirt-and-sweater-vest combo was soaked in blood, as were his tan slacks. His tattoos were interrupted by dark red gashes forming the shape of the StrexCorp logo. And his face—oh, his beautiful face…
There were slices around his mouth that forced his lips up in a bit of a smile, so that even among the pain he was obviously feeling, he appeared almost happy.
"Cecil…" Carlos started.
"They got me. At the end of the last broadcast, they got me. I got away, for you. I heard them say they were bringing over the host from Desert Bluffs to take over my show. I tried, Carlos. I tried to stop StrexCorp. I tried to help Tamika, but…" Cecil scratched Khoshekh gently between the ears.
"Cecil, you did all you could. You did amazing. You gave the people of Night Vale hope, even if it was only for a short period of time. You're a hero, Cecil, as much as Tamika is."
Cecil gave a small smile, and it was far different than the one the gashes on his face caused. "Thank you, darling Carlos."
"Te amo, mi amor."
"I love you too, Carlos."
Carlos reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his phone. "I'm going to call my sister Rosa. I'm certain she'll let us stay with her, at least for a while, especially because she hasn't met you yet. Maybe we'll stop at a hotel first, try to get you patched up. Does that sound alright?" Cecil gave a drowsy nod as his lack of sleep caught up to him. Carlos gave a small smile. "Sleep, mi dulce. I'll wake you when we get to the hotel."
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"Cecil? Wake up, mi amor. I got us a room." Carlos gently shook the sleeping Cecil awake
.
"How far away are we?"
"We're two states over; we're in Texas. It'll be far enough for one night." Carlos reasoned. He gently helped Cecil from the car, and, after grabbing the bags from the backseat, led Cecil to their room on the ground floor of the cheap motel.
"What did Rosa say about us staying?" Cecil asked after they arrived in the room.
"She's overjoyed. She's kind of angry that I haven't brought you to meet her yet. I didn't tell her anything about StrexCorp or what happened to you. I figure we'll come up with something to tell her when we get there. Could you take of your sweater vest and shirt, Cecil?" He gently removed both articles of clothing, revealing various gashes and cuts on his pale chest. Carlos gasped quietly at the wounds, but composed himself and removed the antiseptic cream from the first aid kit. Cecil winced as Carlos rubbed the cream into his wounds.
"I'm sorry." Carlos apologized, noticing Cecil's wince.
"No problem." Cecil murmured. Carlos carefully patched up all of Cecil's wounds, wrapping them in thick white bandages. After he had finished, he handed Cecil the change of clothes he had brought with him and took the blood-stained clothes, allowing them to sit in a sink full of cold water to remove the stains.
"Get some sleep. After I wash your clothes, I'll make us something to eat. I'll wake you when it gets here. Okay?"
Cecil nodded, already dosing off again, and curled around the pillow on the motel bed, asleep in minutes.
Carlos followed his mother's simple steps to removing blood stains from clothes, then set about making peanut butter crackers for Cecil from the supplies he packed in the backpack. After they were neatly arranged on a paper plate (also from the backpack), he pulled Cecil's NVCR mug from his messenger bag and filled it with cold water. He placed both of these things on the table, then gently shook Cecil's shoulder.
"Cecil. Ceec, wake up, mi amor."
Cecil grunted. "Five more minutes, my darling Carlos."
"No. Not five more minutes. I have peanut butter crackers waiting for you." The idea of food was evidentially enough to drag Cecil out of bed, because he swung his legs over the side of the bed and ran a hand through his blond hair. He winced slightly as his wounds were jarred unexpectedly. He dragged himself to the small table in the motel room. He plunked himself into one of the chairs and began devouring the crackers.
"Cecil?" Carlos asked, sitting in the chair opposite Cecil.
"Yes, perfect Carlos?"
"You said they were bringing the announcer from Desert Bluffs over to Night Vale."
"Yes."
"Who… Who is the announcer for Desert Bluffs?"
Cecil paused a moment before answering. "He's…" He stopped. "He's my double."
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Carlos and Cecil both awoke early in the morning, eager to put as much distance as possible between them and Night Vale. Carlos checked them out of the motel as soon as the front desk, much to the chagrin of the manager, and they were off. Fortunately, Carlos's sister Rosa lived in Maine, so they were putting almost as much distance as possible between themselves and Night Vale while remaining in the continental United States. They decided to take a plane as they could a) abandon the car in the parking lot, and b) get to Maine quite a bit faster. After the horrors of security were over, the two men settled into chairs by their gate, their fingers lazily entertwined.
The man beside them glanced at them and chuckled lightly. "Faggots." He coughed. Carlos looked at the man with disgust.
"Cecil, let's go sit by the window. It's cold over here." He said suddenly, getting up and gathering his backpack, Cecil's messenger bag and Khoshekh in his travel cage.
"Actually, Carlos, I'm a bit warm—oh, okay…" They sat in two seats by the window, with no one on either side of them. "What was that, my dear Carlos?"
"That guy was a dick, that's all, Ceec. Don't worry about it." Carlos patted Cecil's knee reassuringly.
"Oh, do you know him?"
"Never seen him before in my life."
"Then how do you know he's so bad?"
Carlos gave a small sigh. He'd known he'd have to give Cecil this talk, he'd just hoped he'd be able to do it at Rosa's. "Cecil, out here—outside of Night Vale, I mean—not everyone is okay with people being gay."
Cecil gave Carlos a confused look. "What do you mean? In Night Vale, you could love whoever you wanted to love. Why isn't it the same here?"
"I don't know, Cecil. The rest of America isn't much like Night Vale. But one thing is the same: there are good people, like old woman Josie and John Peters—you know, the farmer?—and Tamika Flynn and Dana. And there are bad people, like—"
"Like Steve Carlsburg?" Cecil sneered as he said the name.
"Exactly like Steve Carlsburg. But what you find is that there are far more Danas and Tamika Flynns than Steve Carlsburgs. What you have to do is learn how to deal with the Steve Carlsburgs. Does that make sense?"
Cecil gave it a moment of thought, then nodded. "I think I understand, my darling Carlos."
At that moment, they called boarding for the couple's plane and they stood with their bags, ready to depart from the western half of the United States.
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Carlos stopped the rental car in the driveway of Rosa's house. The flight had taken quite a while, as had the drive because of the icy roads. As they drove, it had also begun to snow, which, while it did make everything much more pretty, it did not make anything easier. However, they were merely a doorway away from safety. They climbed out of the 2011 Hyundai VeraCruz, Carlos carrying the backpack and messenger bag and Cecil holding Khoshekh.
"We made it, Cecil." Carlos said, looking up at Rosa's house.
"Yeah." Cecil smiled, and it was his true goofy smile, not the small fake-looking one that his face scars caused.
Both me simply stood in front of the car for a moment, looking up at the house. Cecil suddenly turned and pressed his face into Carlos's chest, unable to wrap his arms around his lover because of the presence of Khoshekh in his arms. Carlos, after overcoming a moment of surprise, dropped the bags into the rapidly appearing snow and pulled his boyfriend into a warm hug. Cecil looked up at Carlos and stood on his tiptoes to kiss him on the nose. Carlos gave a hearty chuckle and pulled Cecil up into a deeper kiss.
"Come on, mi amor." Carlos chuckled. "Let's get inside. I'm losing feeling in my toes."
The two men climbed Rosa's steps and rang her doorbell. The sound filled Cecil, Carlos, and even small Khoshekh with a sense of hope.
'A sense of hope for what?' You may ask.
A sense of hope for the beautiful future, free of the Smiling God.