Welcome To Night Vale, As It Was Always Meant To Be

The Glow Cloud

Carlos

            Carlos hurried from the lab to his house, frantically running through his apartment and to his living room. He stopped a moment to carefully take off his lab coat and hang it on the hook by the door. He toed off his shoes and walked towards the coffee table. While wrapping himself in a fuzzy purple blanket (maybe he bought it because it reminded him of Cecil’s eyes, but if you asked he would immediately deny it. And if you did the blush across his cheeks would tell you the truth.) and turned on the radio just in time to hear Cecil describing the new glow cloud that had recently rolled across the sky towards the town. Cecil went on to say that one death had been attributed to the glow cloud, and just like that Carlos’s plan for a relaxing evening of listening to his radio broadcaster came to a close. He begrudgingly turned off the radio and went back to his lab coat.

He walked out of his apartment and towards his car. Quickly driving to his lab he grabbed a few test tubes and corks, in case any rain came out of the cloud for testing. Placing them in a case, he grabbed the lab’s computer; the weather balloon might have something useful for him. He got back in his car and drove around town searching for the glowing cloud. He rolled down the window and the smell of vanilla hit him like a brick wall. He leaned out the window and looked towards the west. There, he spotted a rather large cloud. It was currently moving from a dark, purple- blue to an astounding violet color. As he continued to watch the cloud he started to hear a low whistling noise. Carlos pulled away from the town and stopped in the field. He got out of his jeep and pulled open the back door. He grabbed his camera and set up the stand, putting it on a timer and allowed it to continually take photos of the cloud. He opened the laptop and attempted to understand the readings from the weather balloon that had been set up earlier. Without warning, several different types of undistinguishable objects began to fall from the cloud. Curiously, Carlos crept towards the cloud and watched the figures fall. Suddenly, he felt a soft thud on his head, causing him to stumble. Carlos carefully grabbed it only to discover it to be a dead raven. Revolted, Carlos dropped the dead bird. He glanced around to see that all the objects falling from the sky were in fact some type of small, dead animal. He jogged back to the car and picked up a small container and some gloves. He gathered up a few of the creatures and loaded up his jeep. He got in the car and traveled to the one person who could have some answers, he drove to see Cecil.

Cecil

            Cecil sat in his chair, letting his headphones sit around his neck as he set up for the next broadcast. Cecil had lived in Night Vale his entire life, making the small town less confusing. The one thing that Cecil had learned after all this time is that you can’t make sense of anything that goes on in his town. Everything around him is impossible to understand, and it made the place he called home that much more beautiful. When it rained, the town could smell of roses, but in a flash flood it smells like a fire. Sometimes the rain isn’t rain at all. Sometimes burning acid falls from the sky and you have to hope you are lucky and are inside that day. Once in a while, when it rains it comes down in the form of notes and song. When the sun sets it’s a beautiful mixture of purples and during the day the color of the sky can change. Night Vale is incomprehensible in the way that time and space are. So when Cecil heard a knock at the door just to see Carlos burst in the room with a dead raven in hand and a confused expression, Cecil understood. He understood that Carlos hadn’t yet figured out that, for the most part, this town didn’t have an explanation.

            “Cecil, the glow cloud. It’s sitting out there raining down dead animals! What’s going on?” Carlos demanded, looking flustered.

            With a small smile Cecil replied, “The glow cloud isn’t just a cloud Carlos, it’s a giant living mass. Why it drops dead birds and smells of vanilla is confusing, but its reasoning is like your reasoning for always wearing a lab coat. It’s just something that is. It’s just so neat.” Realizing that Cecil had been gushing and stopped, blushing. It seemed, however, that the explanation Cecil had provided wasn’t good enough for Carlos.

            “I’m sorry, Cecil, but everything has an explanation. Clouds aren’t beings, animals don’t fall from the sky, and the rain shouldn’t smell of vanilla. Just because I can’t find the answers doesn’t mean that they aren’t there.” Carlos ran his hands through his dark hair, pulling it out of frustration.

            Cecil sighed. He shouldn’t have expected Carlos to understand immediately, but he was just being closed-minded now. Cecil saw that the scientist could be slightly stubborn if he wanted to be. So that’s why Cecil let the scientist skulk out of the studio. He let Carlos go, but as the door closed he felt something heavy sit in his stomach. He felt a lump in his throat climb up, and it didn’t leave for the rest of the day.

             And so time went on in Night Vale, in its own inexplicable way that is always has and always will. Until one day. Time didn’t cease on this day. That’s the thing about time in Night Vale. Time doesn’t end. It’s irregular, but it’s reliable in the sense that it is the only constant in the town. However, to Cecil, time might as well have ended that day. Because on that day, Carlos went after the hooded figures.

             Thank you guys so much for commenting! Sorry it took so damn long for me to update. Lots of school and things like that. I'll update it again either Friday or Saturday. Thanks again