The moment that Cecil's broadcast came to an end Carlos was out of the lab, in his car, and on his way to the station. On his way there he slowly drove by old woman Josie's home where bright yellow vans with the letter 'S' on the sides sat around her house, men in black suits with large guns stood around. He didn't even dare stall too long or get out to get a closer look, right now he needed to get to Cecil and make sure that he was alright.
At the station he sat in the parking lot waiting for nearly two hours, he almost considering forcing his way into the station and demanding they take him to Cecil. What would he do though?
The men with guns, men from a large company that could kill him like he was nothing. He couldn't do much, he could only lean against the side of his car and wait while listening to the pounding of his heart in his chest.
A wave of relief washed over him when the black eyed man came out, he walked quickly, his head lowered.
"Cecil!"
He paused, body tensing; he looked up a scared look on his face when he spotted the younger man. He jogged up to him, he threw his arms around Carlos' neck and buried his face against his chest.
"W-we need to get to Josie, we need to get her."
"Cec we can't go there, we need to go to my apartment."
Cecil pulled back, he shook his head in refsual.
"N-no we have to get Josie...Di-did you, did you see her?"
"Baby I drove by her house, there are vans and men with guns everywhere. There isn't anything that we can do, right now we need to focus on getting you away from there...Did they hurt you?"
Cecil averted his eyes for a moment, rubbing absently at his right arm.
"Cecil?"
"N-no, not really...Not much, I-I'm fine...Really, I feel fine...Ca-can we get out of here, right now?"
There wasn't even a need to ask that question. Carlos felt safe getting back inside of the car, the sound of the doors locking once both men were inside gave him a false but nice sense of comfort. He stole glances at his boyfriend every now and again as they made their way to the apartment. He could see where he'd been crying, his body trembled, and every sound from outside made him flinch as if he was going to be attacked at any moment. Once at the apartment they quickly went inside, locking and dead bolting the door behind them. They went back to Carlos' bedroom, Carlos sat down with Cecil curled up against him, his head resting on his shoulder.
"What happened?"
"I got one of the fliers and then next thing I know...These men came in, one grabbed hold of my arms and the other put a gun to my head. If I didn't...If I didn't read it right or tried to say something like...warn people then they would shoot me."
"What did they do to you, I know they hurt you."
Cecil gave a weak little laugh, he took hold of Carlos' hand, lacing their fingers together. Carlos focused on the swirling black tattoos going along the older man's long fingers and the back of his hand.
"Nothing that I haven't been through before with City Council...They told me...It was funny, but they told me I was getting out of hand. I wasn't being...I wasn't being docile like I was back when I started at the station...I don't get it, they gave me some drugs and they just did the usual things...Nothing I can't handle, but it scared me."
His voice sounded hoarse, he thought about his last line about dripping and occasional screams. He held his hand a bit tighter when he realized that the screams belonged to Cecil.
"What drugs?"
"I don't know, they said it was something to begin the process...whatever that means." He said sounding confused.
"Process?"
"Yeah...I don't...I don't know...The way they talked it was as if they knew me or I'd been through this before...It's funny, because it feels like I've been through this before...The drugs and the stuff they did...I don't know, my head hurts a lot and I think I'm sort of seeing things right now."
Carlos kissed the top of his head.
"Go to sleep then."
"I'm scared to"
"Shh it's alright, I'm right here."
"What if they take me while you're sleeping or take you?"
"Nobody is taking anybody, I'll be right here in the morning...I'll even spend tomorrow with you, just to make sure."
Cecil nodded, he leaned up gently kissing his boyfriend.
"Can you tell me one thing?"
Now his voice was quiet, a bit uneasy; his black eyes set on Carlos like he was scared to look any place else.
"What is it?"
"Can you also see the flickering movement behind me?"