Nightvale's enigma

Chapter 2: The Glow Cloud

After I wake up my head feels a lot clearer. It takes me a while to remember what happened before but once I do I leave the room and head downstairs to find the girl and the old lady; who I either never asked of their names, or I just forgot. When I get downstairs no one’s there but I hear some voices outside so I go out the door. The old lady and the girl are outside both looking up, so I walk up over to them and when I look up I see this bright cloud that looks like the sunset, but there’s no way the sun would set in this time a day.

“What is going on” I ask.

“I don’t know” the girl replies. “I’m going to go listen to the radio. Maybe Welcome to Night vale is saying something about it”.

“You don’t need to listen to that junk, journalist do nothing but lie, child!” the old lady yells to her as she runs back inside.

“So I see you finally woke up”. She adverts her attention to me “You slept through half the day. Well there’s really nothing to see here let’s head inside.” She starts to walk inside and I follow.

When I get in the girl is sitting at the Inn’s reception desk with a portable radio in front of her.

“So what was that about” I ask the girl hoping she heard something from the ‘radio’ she said she was going to listen to.

“You seem to think that I know everything about this town, why don’t you think before you ask questions”. She snaps at me, presumably because I interrupted her from listening to the radio. Besides, her grandmas probably right it’s probably junk anyway.

“Oh don’t mind her she’s obsessed with that journalist stuff, she’s wanted to be one for as long as I can remember. And by the way you can call me Ms. Terri, or just Terri if you like.” It’s good to finally know her name. She motions me to come sit with her “how about we try to find this grandpa you talk about. What’s his name?

“His name is Odis Chapps, how do you suggest we find him”?

“Well if there’s one thing you must know, even though it seems like the dessert goes on forever, this is actually a very small town. And since I run this Inn I know just about everyone here. However if you were anyone else id just give you a map and send you on your way, but since you don’t know the town very well it wouldn’t be very responsible to send you on your own, so I’ll have my granddaughter go with you”.

“Dear”! The old lady yells to the girl: whose name I still don’t know.

“Yes”. When I turn around she’s right behind me and it scares me a bit because I didn’t hear her walk up.

“Now I know it’s a bit far but I hope you won’t mind taking this boy to Mr. Odis Chapps house”. She lets out a sigh and then replies

“Yeah, fine I know the way, come on”.

“Oh we’re going now? Ok”. I get up and walk to the door where she’s standing with it open.

When I look outside I see the most ridiculous thing ever. The only thing that make me certain that what’s going on here is not a prank, because no one could pull this off. It’s raining cats and dogs; literally, but not just cats and dogs. Armadillos, snakes, and raccoons are all falling from the glow cloud which has now doubled in size. It looks as if it’s possibly covering all of Night vale. I don’t know what anyone in this town could have done to deserve this. It is as if this town is cursed, and I want nothing to do with it. This is possibly the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever seen. This entire town is being pelted with what looks to be dead animals. I don’t know why this is happening but by the look on the girls face, and the fact that she is completely frozen in place, neither does she.

“What is it children why have you not left yet”? The old lady ask as she very slowly gets up to come towards us.

“Granny. The. Glow. Cloud”. She say not taking her eyes off of it.

As soon as the old lady gets a look she pulls us inside and shuts the door “go turn on that garbage of a radio station, I may not care much for it but I bet it will make you feel better”.

She heads over to the receptionist desk and I follow, because quite frankly this is something I would love to here.

When she turns on the radio station the host is talking about the same thing that is happening outside. He’s reporting about the falling animals that are descending from the clouds. After a while of listening I then understand why her granny calls it junk when I hear the host say “all hail the mighty glow cloud”.

I walk away when a song comes on which I assume is the weather forecast. I then sit on the sofa in silence for a while.

Finally I hear the girl yell “Cecil says the Cloud is going away”. Assuming that Cecil is the host of the show, I get up and walk to the door. I then confirm that the cloud is going away

“Well it’s much too late for you to go anywhere now”. When I turn around the old lady is standing behind me with both her hands behind her back. “Unfortunately for you, you’ll have to put your journey on hold for now. You’ll be staying here for the night again”.

The sky is this type of beautiful purple and I can’t take my eyes off of it, when I finally do I can’t remember why I was looking in the first place, and I feel as though I had been staring out this door towards the beautiful dessert night sky the entire day.