Work Text:
It ends like this and it begins like this.
Cecil disappears on a Tuesday.
Carlos is surprisingly calm about it but Old Woman Josie screeches like a banshee for three straight hours until she has a heart attack and the angels come to cart her off somewhere in a general south-east direction.
(They want to keep watching, see where the angels go and come from, but any citizen that tries to watch ends up inexplicably sitting in front of their television watching static and praying in a foreign, unknown language except for the kid at the end of that one street, who vanishes without a trace and only leaves his left shoe behind, shoelace missing.)
Carlos keeps the radio on all day, listening to the snowy static (and the occasional blood-curdling, thunderous scream that echoes around the street this week) and waits for Cecil or his voice to come back.
They never do.
On Wednesday, every door in Night Vale disappears from their proper place and they are later found behind Old Woman Josie’s house, scratch marks and bloody teeth embedded into each and every one of them.
On Thursday, Carlos turns off the radio.
On Friday, six people try to break into the Night Vale Community Radio recording room. Two come back, pale and missing 3/4ths of their vocabulary.
(Carlos is pretty sure that was Station Management. Or maybe Khoshek?)
(Probably Khoshek.)
On Saturday, the Glow Cloud makes its reappearance and everyone but Carlos and the Sheriff’s Secret Police stay home, hiding under tables and kitchen chairs. Carlos peeks through lacy window curtains to watch the colours until he gets dizzy and has to sit down. By the time he can focus again, the Glow Cloud has moved on.
On Sunday, absolutely nothing happens. It sets Carlos’ teeth on edge and the other citizens are torn between quietly celebrating a normal day and panicking because nothing is happening.
On Monday, Khoshek meows so loudly that the right lens of Carlos’ reading glasses cracks and every child in Night Vale starts wailing.
On Tuesday, Carlos disappears. A note is found on his door in Cecil’s handwriting with a simple ‘good-bye, Night Vale.’ The Sheriff’s Secret Police decide not to further investigate (or investigate at all, really). Station Management decides it needs a new radio jockey.
On Wednesday, Station Management decides on you.
Welcome to Night Vale.