Carlos could remember the white light coming from the door within his very own apartment, aware that it was the very same white light that Cecil had reported weeks before before another voice came on the radio. The voice was unsettling to him, far too happy to be real, far too high in pitch for his liking. After all, listening to Cecil all that time he quickly found that he was rather more likely to favor a deeper tone, a more silky tone, one that belonged to the beloved night-time radio host in Nightvale. All the warnings were in place for him to not approach the light in any way, not even acknowledge it. Generally, he would have ignored such a phenomenon like the citizens of the little desert town refused to even think about, much less walk into, the Dog Park where the Hooded Figures resided. Honestly, he had yet to see these Hooded Figures even before the obelisk walls emerged around the area, but he wasn't going to say anything about the hallucinatory beings that the people said existed.
Yet, despite all knowledge and all warnings that came before the light underneath the door, he found himself drawn to it. It was so beautiful, so bright, such a foreign thing to see after he came to Nightvale. It was slow that he walked towards it, his arm tingling as he touched the doorknob, and his eyes forcing themselves into a squint once he opened the door and light flooded into the room. This was most certainly not something that mere science could explain, as much as he hated to think about it in such a way, but it was true nonetheless. That was only proven further as he set a single foot inside and quickly found himself unable to bring his leg back into the comfortable space of his apartment no matter how hard he tried. The light was beckoning him in and he felt so inclined to obey it so unlike how every movie character who ever came into being told another to 'not go towards the light' when they were passing. Slowly, hesitantly, he took another step, and another, and another... And then his mind became blank the further he walked, but it wasn't like he noticed it in the slightest.
By the time he realized what he was doing and where he was, it was far too late for him to even react. The apartment he resided in was much like his own - albeit much newer and the tenant seemed to have more money than he if the flat-screen and the modern art on the walls were anything to go by. It would have been completely normal had the squishing sound beneath his feet was not due to the blood dripping relentlessly from the ceiling and soaking the carpet, had entrails not been strewn about like streamers or normal decoration, or had the couch not had a human-skin cover that looked like it was fresh if the blood coming off of it and staining the upholstery was anything to go by. Just as he was about to take a step, he heard a rather eager laugh and went to turn before hearing a rather loud 'clunk' and watch his own vision fade rapidly into darkness before he even had a chance to yell helplessly for Cecil.
"Good afternoon, Desert Bluffs! Today, we have a very special guest with us! Fancy that he looks just like my darling Diego - who brought him in today-, though his hair's much longer than his, not to mention he has a hint of grey already at such a supposedly young age. Ooh, he is very young if his driver's license has anything to say about it! His name is Carlos as well! Oh, how interesting! And it looks like he's just waking up now so let's see if we can ask him some questions and have fun, shall we? After all, Strex Corp has emphasized that even they are curious as to where this foreign man came from and why he is in our lovely town."
As his eyes blinked open, Carlos had to hold back the contents of his stomach as the organ flipped, trying to get him to empty it of all its contents. The sight to him was horrifying, much more so than the apartment that he landed in after traveling through the light he decided to call a vortex into a personal Hell. The man that stood in front of him looked much like Cecil but the empty smile, the fake one that was obviously cut into his face and scarred over, mixed with those empty eyes told him that it clearly wasn't if the voice he heard upon awakening wasn't enough of a clue. Looking up at his own wrists, he found that they were shackled to the wall and tugging at them was utterly useless. He was stuck there and it was with a grimace that he realized he could feel the blood that was spread on the walls seeping through his clothing and soaking him through it.
"Oh, come, there's no need to be uncomfortable in this lovely little recording booth! Now, Carlos, tell us why you're here!"
A mic was shoved in his face and the scientist gagged a little, swallowing to keep his stomach under control. Unable to remove his eyes from the piece of skin dangling from the post on which the microphone was set, he spoke with rather shaky voice.
"I'm here for scientific research..." his tone was tentative, nervous, and shaky, but it didn't seem to faze the ever-happy radio host in the slightest.
"How wonderful! Are you enjoying your stay here in Desert Bluffs? It's such an amazing town, isn't it?"
"N-" he was cut off as he yelped and squirmed beneath the blade that was promptly embedded into the meat of his outer thigh as he tried to speak.
"It's. Amazing. Isn't it, Carlos?" the lookalike insisted, his grip on the knife tightening and twisting just a little to make a tear roll down Carlos' cheek.
"Quite," he forced out, grunting in agony as the knife was slowly removed from his being. A breath left him in a quick rush, eyes closing. This wasn't a dream, as much as he wished that it was. No, it hurt far too much and he could remember waking up, going home, and promptly discovering the light that lead to this horrible place.
"Good! I'm glad that you agree with everybody! Soon you won't have to leave at all. Strex Corp. said that they would love to have you as a honorary guest, you know. That's quite a big deal!"
"What's Strex Corp?"
"You haven't heard of Strex? But... Everything is Strex, Carlos. Your life, my life, these citizen's lives, this very town's life! It's all thanks to Strex," he said happily, gripping Carlos' thigh and reveling in the groan and squirms it gained him in return, "Isn't it a miracle?"
"N-" he stopped himself for a brief moment before his heart overruled all warnings his brain shot to him, "It sounds like a hell to me."
That gained him a punch to the jaw, thus knocking one of his teeth loose. Rather than just let it hang there by the weak gums that now kept it in place, Carlos watched as the hand that socked him came closer to his mouth and ripped out the tooth without any hesitation. A giddy laugh came with it, and the scientist watched as the radio host fawned over it like a school girl would a high school crush.
"Oh, it's magnificent! Listeners, Carlos has just given me a gift! A wonderful gift! Is this courtship? Oh, I don't think Diego would like that very much, but I accept it nonetheless! Thank you so much, Carlos!"
All that the other got in response to the thanks was a cringe and a shudder, for Carlos did not particularly enjoy the way his own name rolled off of Cecil's double's tongue. It didn't sound right, it didn't even sound like his name and it wasn't right not hearing it from Cecil's lips, in that excited and adoring tone he had gotten so accustomed to hearing it. It just... Sickened him.
"I said. Thank. You." The perpetual smile turned for a brief moment into a dark scowl that sent a shiver down Carlos' spine.
And then the glint of the blood-covered knife got involved once more, and it was only moments later that the sound of a shirt being torn went through the speakers of the radios across Desert Bluffs.
"Oh, look at this... So many scars..."
Stupidly, the scientist almost questioned it before he felt the knife drag agonizingly slow from his shoulder, across his chest, and down to his hip where it began to dig in just a tad.
"Carlos, you should learn to take care of yourself better. Getting into this many obvious accidents isn't good for you!"
The knife refollowed its course back up to his shoulder.
"And you should also learn some manners! Didn't your mother teach you to say 'you're welcome' when people thank you so kindly?"
The trail was traced once more before Carlos jerked and the blade redirected to slash his side as well instead, causing a rather deep slash in his side. All the contents of Carlos' stomach promptly emptied themselves, as much as he hated to admit it. He was lucky enough to have turned his head to he side in time so it didn't wind up in the injuries, however, though it caused the 'kind' radio host to 'tsk' in disappointment.
"I'm surprised at you! So hospitable and this is how you treat me? How rude, my good sir. How very rude."
Just as the blade glinted again in the light as the man raised his hand and began to bring it back down right near the center of Carlos' chest, the phone rang. A lucky save, if the scientist ever heard of one.
A glare shone in the soulless eyes of the man who tortured the scientist up until now, though it quickly faded as he answered the phone with a happy, "Hello! Kevin speaking!"
So his name was Kevin. Not an uncommon name, but it only made things seem more unsettling as Carlos dangled there against the wall, bleeding and listening to the 'uh-huh's and 'hmm's come from the man on the phone.
"Understood! Goodbye!" he chirped, hanging up the phone much to the captive's dismay, and walked right back over with a broad grin across the face, "Well, it seems that Strex has some plans for you! So you'll just have to stay here for a little bit while I get everything set up for them!"
And then the razor came out, a dreaded thing that Carlos hadn't seen since Telly the Barber decided to cut his hair back in Nightvale. He hadn't cut his locks since. Well, at least not as dramatically. A trim now and again, sure, but he had quickly learned and the thought of it getting chopped off now by a man who he didn't trust in the slightest, let alone liked, was enough to get Carlos' stomach to churn again. The feeling of dread only got worse as the blade came closer to his head and if he didn't mind a few more cuts - or still want to live and hope to return to Nightvale one day - he would have jerked enough to throw the razor off of its mark.
Instead, he was forced to dangle there, helplessly, as his hair was slowly cut from its place and dropped onto the floor, Kevin humming what was likely the theme to the radio station that came after the daily message.
"You look so wonderful without all of your hair in your face!" Kevin said happily, clapping his hands together before turning and walking off somewhere within the radio station. When he came back, he was dragging a machine behind him. A machine with so many wires Carlos couldn't even begin to wonder what it was used for before he saw the helmet at the end. This was a re-education machine. He could remember Cecil describing them to him one day when they decided to get together to discuss scientific things around Nightvale. He was going to be re-educated to love this town, to get used to its ways... To forget the town he now called home and everything about it.
Tears welled in his eyes as the memories of his new home flashed through his mind and he slowly shook his head, glasses slipping from the bridge of his nose and down onto the floor.
"Please... I don't want to forget any of it," he pleaded as the device was placed onto his shaven head, his hands curling into fists as he struggled harder than he ever thought he could against the chains holding him to the wall, "I'm not going to forget Nightvale!" he declared before his body tensed as a shock of electricity ran through him.
"I'm sorry, what town were you talking about?"
"Nigh-"
Another shock, a gurgle from the scientist.
"What was that?"
"... Nothing. Absolutely nothing."
"Better," Kevin purred, turning away again before bringing out a scalpel, a chip, a needle, and some thread, "Now it's time for your initiation!"
Carlos couldn't recall anything besides the searing pain in his chest before he blacked out.
Hours later, he awoke to Kevin's voice once more and he found himself smiling automatically as he heard it. The gash in his chest where the chip was placed was all sown up and bandaged along with his entire torso as well as his thigh, and the cut that he had on one side of his face to put himself in a perpetual half-smile was already healing nicely. He belonged in Desert Bluffs with Kevin. He couldn't even remember why he ever thought he didn't in the first place.