An Entire Year of You

Chapter 30: The Promise

Carlos had never been a scout for several reasons. It was partially because constantly moving around meant getting involved with anything often seemed like a waste of time. By the time he'd signed up and started working towards his first badge he'd be gone again, so he decided from a young age not to bother. It might have also had something to do with the fact that Carlos wasn't a particularly social or outdoors kind of a child. In fact, young Carlos hadn't been much a child at all. He was more of a miniature adult who hadn't quite grown into his lab coat yet. As such, he didn't really know much about scouts other than what others had told him, which wasn't very much. Despite this, even he was sure that Night Vale's ranks, similarly to most things within the town, were very much different from the rest of America.

"I don't see why it matters." Marsha had said when he first brought this fact up right at the start of his stay. "They do everything wrong around here."

"Not wrong. Just different." Carlos corrected.

"Allowing your children to be part of anything with 'blood' or 'fear' in its core values seems pretty weird to me." Said Jess.

"Well, to be fair to the parents I'm not entirely sure they have a choice."

"Blood, fear, and forced participation." Said Marsha. "Sure, Carlos, nothing wrong with that at all."

Carlos lack of knowledge on the matter never really been much of an issue. Scouts had been the last thing on his mind until one fateful Monday, when the local scout group suddenly became the talk of the town.

"It's finally happening." Cecil jumped up and down excitedly. "It's finally..." his face dropped, and the excitement faded. "Oh God, it's finally happening."

"What? What's happening?" Carlos desperately prompted.

"Eternal scouts." Cecil said firmly, as if the words were supposed to make perfect sense to anyone who heard them.

"Oh...um...th-that's nice." Carlos smiled.

"Is it?"

"I don't know, is it?"

"Nobody has reached this rank before and-"

"Ranks." Carlos realised. "We-we're talking about ranks. Okay, I'm with you."

"Nobody knows what happens ever this."

"Probably...a badge or...."

"Sacrificial murder. Dimensional rifts. Black magic." Cecil thought aloud.

"Yeah...or that." Carlos muttered. There was no way this was the same institution that his young peers had always discussed in the school yard. Although he'd never stuck around long enough to find out their views on sacrificial murder, so it was possible.

A man approached the pair, which was quite a relief because Carlos had no idea where to direct the conversation next. Cecil was the kind of person Carlos could happily sit in silence with for hours on end, the two of them doing their own thing, quiet yet together, but it had to be deliberate silence. Standing the street mutely starring at each other wasn't what he had in mind. The man was a tall, lanky, red head. His face was covered in freckles and his scout master uniform was covered in badges. His mouth smiled, his eyes did not.

"Earl." Cecil greeted warmly, pulling the man into a hug. The man didn't hug back. He just patted Cecil's shoulder and pulled free.

"Hey, Cecil." The man, who Carlos' presumed must have been Earl, mumbled.

"Congratulations to Frank and Bart, first ever eternal scouts. You must be so proud."

"Yep, so very, very proud." Earl replied through gritted teeth.

"Are you excited for the ceremony?"

"Sure...excited. Excited is totally the word to describe what I'm feeling." Earl nodded awkwardly. "I'll...be over to the radio station later to give a statement and look around the place a bit. I haven't been in there since you were an intern." He laughed.

"Radio station...work...I'm late." Cecil suddenly realised and broke into a dash. "Bye Carlos, bye Earl."

"Yeah...bye, Cecil." Earl waved weakly. The precedence of happiness dropped, and his eyes sunk to the ground.

"You and Cecil close?" Asked Carlos in a futile attempt to make things seem normal again.

"Childhood sweethearts of sorts." Earl laughed.

"Oh, that's nic-"

"He really cares about you. You know that don't you?" Earl asked coldly.

"Of course." Carlos gulped.

"Do you really care about him?"

"Well...yes. I suppose I-" A hand grabbed his arm, which was still bruised from the incident in the forest. Carlos winced, but Earl didn't let go. His eyes shot up, starring daggers straight into Carlos' mind.

"Listen to me. You look after him, you understand? No matter what happens to look after him and you love him, and you don't take a single second you have together for granted."

"I-"

"Because if I come back from wherever I end up to find out that you hurt him, I swear on everything I am that I will destroy you." He finally let go and stormed away, not giving Carlos a chance to respond. Carlos watched him leave, unable to say anything, not that there was anyone around to listen to him if he could. Deep down, he knew that one or another Earl would never get the chance to follow through on his promise, regardless of his or anyone else's actions. Nevertheless, he would never take Cecil for granted. He was going to treasure every little moment. After all, moments were a resource that was rapidly running out. There was only one month left.