Carlos couldn't open his eyes, he couldn't lift his head, everything in his body ached. He could hear sounds though, sounds that slowly turned into voices and then into words.

"And how are things going with our guy?"

"He… He's resisting."

"Our guy is resisting?"

"Yes, ma'am, it's weird."

"That never happened before, why now?"

"I… think it's the outsider."

"The outsider?"

"Yes, ma'am, I think… our guy…wants to protect him"

"Argh! That fool!"

Carlos, now a bit more focused, opened his eyes, and after a few attempts, lifted his head. He was tied to a chair at a small school desk. In front of him there were two people. One was a heavily built male, and the other was a much taller women. That was the most he could tell about them as everything else was covered by black suits, gloves, and a mask that showed only the eyes, which were hidden by large sunglasses.

"Oh, he's awake finally," the woman said, turning to her partner. "Go. I can take care of science boy on my own."

Carlos looked around, the room was, he realized, weirdly… cozy. It was well-lit, the walls were a warm orangey color, the floor was covered in wall-to-wall carpeting, there was a long table next to the wall covered with pictures of smiling children and small trinkets, and out of the corner of his eye he could see a colorful poster of a kitten hanging from a tree branch, wearing a black mask and sunglasses, with the caption "Hang in there! (No, not you)".

"That's a nice interrogation room you have there." Carlos tried to move a bit in his chair.

"Oh, please! Surveys discovered that most interrogators felt that the 'Dusty, Dark Old Dungeon' image was just creating a negative atmosphere and hampering job performance," the woman said. "Besides, have you ever tried to work in the dark while wearing sunglasses?"

The heavily built man then entered the room holding a piece of paper. "Another fax from the boss, ma'am."

The woman took the paper, read it and sighed, adding it to a rather large pile of identical papers.

"Thanks, Jim." She turned towards him. "Can you believe that? The guy's dating the news announcer and he doesn't even know about the redesign we did here!" The two turned toward Carlos.

"You don't listen to your boyfriend's show, kid?" Jim asked.

"It's always on in the background," Carlos replied, wondering why he was trying to explain this to people who had spied on him, sedated and kidnapped him, and were probably going to torture him. He was spending too much time in Night Vale. "I just...get distracted sometimes."

The two interrogators just looked at each other and chuckled.

"Of course you do," the women said.

"By my work! I mean by my work!" Carlos blushed. Yes, he really needed to get out of Night Vale for a while.

"Yes, about your work..." The woman became serious. "Jim, go back to the fax machine and keep me updated." She then turned toward Carlos. "Now, you're probably wondering why we brought you here…"

"Ah, not really," Carlos said. "You're afraid that I'm getting too close to some truth about the town so you kidnapped me." He sighed. "Really, I should've expected something like that a long time ago."

"Man! I wanted to say that all threatening and ominous-like and you just ruined it!" The woman kicked at nothing in a rather childish manner. "Oh! But it doesn't matter! You know why it doesn't matter?" She leant forwards. "Because you still don't know WHAT we're going to do to you. Do you want to know what we're going to do to you?"

Carlos swallowed, he shook his head.

"Well, you're lucky because we have no idea either!" the woman said in frustration.

Carlos could have thought of several different reactions to that statement, but he figured "WHAT?!" would do.

"I mean, when you two got here, I got a message from the higher-up." She went to the large pile of paper and pulled out the bottom sheet. "The standard stuff, you need to be killed in horrible ways, your body should be buried in an unmarked grave in the Sand Wastes, every record of your existence should be terminated...you know?" She shrugged. "But suddenly, I got another message!" She pulled another sheet from the pile. "Now I have to 're-educate' you? And then another one!" She pulled out a few more papers. "Now you need to be dealt with 'minimal damage'? Or I need to convince you to leave Night Vale? Or I need to lobotomize you? Or kill you again? I just don't know what to do! And these messages just keep coming!"

Jim entered and delivered another sheet of paper. "Another massage, ma'am," and then suddenly turned around to the sound of the distant fax machine starting up and ran from the room.

The women picked up the paper and read. "And this one just says 'RUN RUN RUN. GET AWAY FROM ME AND THIS PLACE.' And then some scribbled drawings of eyes…and then 'RUN' some more!"

Jim returned with a new fax. "And this one says…" She winced, "I don't think I can even read this one aloud in public."

The sound of the fax machine was heard again. Jim ran.

"Jim, don't bother to bring me every single fax!" she shouted after him. "Bring them in bulk!"

She threw the faxes on the floor. "Look, we're sorry about the delay. I know we're disorganized today, but it's never happened before! We promise that, if you end up with both of your lobes mostly intact, next time we'll put you in one of the deluxe chambers and give you free shock therapy." She waited for a response from Carlos. "Look, I just want our costumer's first impression to be a good one. We've never had this kind of problem before!"

Carlos wasn't really listening, he was thinking. His memories of what happened before he was knocked out had been very fuzzy, but started to quickly return. Now he remembered when he had been knocked out. He thought that it was when he came up with his theory. But now he recalled that it was later. He was with –

"Cecil! Cecil! Oh no! Where is he? You didn't take him too, right?" Carlos started to struggle, which caused his chair to slightly rock from side to side. "I hadn't even had a chance to tell him my theory! You don't have any reason to – oh what I am saying?" He stopped struggling and sighed. "If you haven't captured him he'll probably burn down half the town trying to rescue me." He then started struggling again.

"Ah, Ma'am?" Jim entered, with a huge pile of papers. "The... the higher-up is really going nuts! The room is overflowing with faxes!"

"Again, really sorry, that's never happened before." The woman made a small wave and started to leave the room.

"Wait! Wait!" Carlos cried out. He started thinking again. "If my theory is correct…then your bosses' indecisiveness must be..." Carlos' eyes widened in terror. "Stop!"

"Oh, what now?" The woman stopped.

"Okay. Listen to me," Carlos said as slowly and seriously as possible. "If I'm right, then Night Vale is in danger. You have to let Cecil go!"

The woman chuckled. "Nice try. But that's really not going to work."

"But..." Carlos said as they closed the large metal door behind them.

"Can somebody hear me? I need to save Night Vale!" Carlos struggled harder, and his chair shook from side to side so much that he felt slightly disoriented. "Hello! Someone? Hello? Help! This is serious! Possibly more than ever! I-"

Another shake and Carlos found himself and his chair falling to the side.

For a split second, as he was falling, he saw something else, instead of the room. Something covered in blood and bright smiling shapes. But by the time he hit the very real carpeting, it was back to the usual Night Vale weirdness. The absolutely real Night Vale weirdness.

"Hello? Anyone?" He shouted again, his cheek pressed against the carpeting. "Is...is this it?" He added quietly

Suddenly, he heard the sound of the door opening and a very familiar voice.

"Carlos?" Cecil asked. He was standing in the doorframe, outside of Carlos' field of vision. "I heard shouting. I… CARLOS!"

"I'm fine, Cecil," Carlos said. "Don't worry, I just need someone to untie me."

"I'm so glad you're alright!" Cecil started untying the ropes. "I mean, I was in the room next to you also tied to a chair and completely alone it was weird I guess they really are slipping I'm going to write a letter of complaint and they better give me free shock therapy or something next time I'm here and then I heard shouting and it was you and I assumed the worst and then I ran into your chamber and you're okay!"

"I'm glad you're okay, too." Carlos got up and smiled and then stopped himself. "Wait… you just ran out? You said that you were tied up like me!"

"Well…I… I suppose I wasn't tied up very well." Cecil could feel that he was sweating. It felt like he was struggling with something, but he wasn't sure with who or why. "And the ropes just slipped off when I heard you shouting. And I guess that the door was slightly open."

"Maybe…." Carlos said, not really believing it. "But it could relate to my theory again."

"Oh, really?" Cecil said, getting closer.

"Yeah, but I'll have to tell you later," Carlos whispered, going towards the door and peeking out at the hallway outside. "Right now, Night Vale could be in danger."

"So, we'll go to your lab," Cecil whispered, as he tried to peek out too. "And then," he sighed, "back to the station for me. Someone needs to update the people of Night Vale about this new crisis."

"No, this time you need to stay with me," Carlos whispered. "I need you if we want to save the town."

Cecil let out a small squee.

"Shh!" Carlos checked the door again; the coast was clear. "Come on!"

They snuck out quietly. At the end of the hallway there was a metal ladder that led to a valve door in the ceiling. No one was around; all of the interrogators apparently were busy working elsewhere. Sometimes a loud shriek of pain was heard, startling Carlos. But other than that everything was going smoothly.

This was going to be easy. Nothing could stop them from climbing up the ladder, getting back into Night Vale and finding out-

Suddenly, in unison, all the doors behind them opened and people wearing suits, black masks and sunglasses started chasing them. Not even questioning who they were or whether or not they should be caught.

"Wha-" Carlos started to say, before he remembered that there would be time to investigate this later and right now they needed to run.

The ladder, that just a few seconds beforehand was only a couple of steps away, was now far, far away at the end of a long hallway. But they eventually managed to reach it and started climbing as fast as they could. Their pursuers just stared at the ladder in confusion, as if they were not sure what their next orders were supposed to be. Cecil and Carlos didn't stick around to see if they'd made up their minds, but instead climbed up the ladder and locked the valve door from the outside.

It was afternoon, almost evening. A sign next to the door read:

"Totally absolutely Not a Secret Entrance to the Abandoned Mine Shaft! What? Did you think that this was the entrance to the Abandoned Mine Shaft?! Pfft! Please… You seriously need to get your eyes checked. Or better yet, check yourself into a mental hospital. Because when you're seeing things that aren't there – like, just for example, this being a Secret Entrance to the Abandoned Mine Shaft, you're obviously crazy! Actually, now that I think about it, mental hospitals are such a bother – you should just walk away from society and live in some cave for the rest of your life and deteriorate into cannibalism. And when future archeologists find your bleached bones they will be able to tell with but a glance that you were an insane fool who thought that this was a Secret Entrance to the Abandoned Mine Shaft when this was clearly not! You poor fool!"

"Oh, too bad. If this was a Secret Entrance to the Abandoned Mine Shaft, it would mean that we're not that far from Night Vale," Cecil said with a completely straight face. "But, as it says on the sign, it's clearly not."

"Heh…sometimes…" Carlos was panting, "sometimes…Cecil…heh, even I…heh…can't tell if, heh, you're being sarcastic or not." Carlos tried to catch his breath and then said in the kind of voice you use when imitating someone you don't like, " 'No, Mom, you don't get it! Why should I care about gym at all? I'm going to be a famous scientist and when is sport ever going to come up then?' "

Carlos then sighed. "Cecil, did you ever get the urge to take your Middle School self and just…throw him across the room?"

"Well, as part as the Night Vale High School graduation ceremony-"

An explosion was heard behind them.

They spun around and saw Night Vale. The ground was cracking up, the skies above it were black and seem to be dripping some sort of goo. Screams were heard, buildings seem to have grown to bizarre sizes and proportions and some of them were clipped onto the other, like a bad video game glitch. People were walking on air in an infinite loop of jerky motions. Some huge tentacles could also be seen.

"Oh, no!" Carlos said "It's even worse than I thought. Looks like I was really right!"

"Really?" Cecil said, and looked around his city. "What makes you say that? I don't see anything unusual."