An Entire Year of You

Chapter 35: Awakening

For a few blissful seconds after regaining consciousness, Carlos thought that he was floating, wrapped inside of warm, fluffy cloud. Then he realised that this was impossible, or at the very least extremely unlikely, because clouds were made out of water vapor which he'd fall straight through, and a near-death experience was no excuse for unscientific daydreams. As his senses began to return, he felt that the whatever he was lying on was far too hard to be a cloud anyway. It was much more likely he was in a very firm bed, wrapped in blankets. He opened his eyes, his vision still blurry and his head still aching. He struggled to focus. Turned out he was wrong again. He wasn't in a bed, he was still in the bowling alley, lying on one of the benches under a pile of coats.

The chaos of the mid-morning had passed to a steady quiet. The shouting had turned to silence. Carlos lifted his head and looked around. The aggressively flashing electronic score cards had been turned off and the bowlers had been cleared out. The only person left was a single old man who was sitting on the bench opposite, watching him. It took a few seconds of blank staring to work out that the man was Teddy Williams. He was almost unrecognisable now that he was still and quiet.

"So," Teddy started. "do you still think I'm deranged?" Carlos shook his head, still unable to speak. "Are you okay?" he sighed.

"I'm not sure." Carlos managed to mumble.

"That'll teach you be more careful in future. You've been out for hours, nearly all day. I was getting real worried about you." Teddy explained.

"Was...was I flying?" Carlos asked.

"Wow, you hit your noggin pretty hard down there didn't ya?" He smirked. "No, you weren't flying. That Apache Tracker guy carried you out."

"Apache Tracker?" Oh right, that guy Cecil was always ranting about, one of many guys Cecil liked to rant about. Carlos kind of understand in the case of the Apache Tracker, who was and had always been a man in an offensive feather headdress and not a real native American despite a handful of magical appearance changes. All the same, he'd saved his life. Carlos had to be somewhat thankful for that.

"Yeah, he may have been a jerk, but he had his uses."

"Had?" Carlos gulped.

"Oh..." Teddy said quietly. "I'm sorry, kid, he died getting you out. Whatever those tiny people were firing hit him in the throat. There wasn't much we could do."

A cold shiver washed through Carlos' body. This was his fault. His naivety had resulted in a man's death. And then the realisation hit. Josie had been right, as had the vague but menacing government agency. Death had indeed come to Night Vale; it just hadn't been his death.

"I wouldn't beat yourself up about it, kid. He wasn't a good man." Teddy said softly.

"That's not the point." Carlos muttered.

"I know." Teddy sighed. "Oh, before I forget. A woman came by while you were asleep. She told me to give you this note."

Teddy walked towards him and brought a crumpled note out of his trouser pocket. Carlos swung his legs out to a sitting position, brushed out as many of the paper creases as he could, and began to read.

"Dear Mr Carlos Ciencia,

I don't know whether to be disappointed with you or respect you. I opt to do neither and instead be mildly annoyed by you. But I understand. If you want to stay in that backwards town and die that's fine. It won't change our plans. I hope you have a good life. Judging by your current behaviour it's going to be very short.

Yours Sincerely,

Diego Markson."

Carlos laughed. The paper had clearly been ripped out of a cheap notepad and scribbled the text down in a hurry, but Mr Markson, or Diego since Carlos no longer had the need to respect him, had still taken the time to format it like a real letter. Though Carlos' would never like him, he had to admire the man's commitment.

"Do you need to call the woman back?" Asked Teddy. "You can use the office phone."

"No." Smiled Carlos as he shoved the letter into his pocket. He wasn't going to contact any of those people. They weren't a part of his life anymore. All his life he'd been moved by the whims of other people; first his parents, then his employers. No more. He was going to stay in Night Vale, whatever the consequences. He would put down roots in the sand like a mighty oak and the forest would, in time, accept him as one of their own. And, when the time came, the forest would survive whatever storm was coming, like it had survived hundreds of storms before. "Though if you don't mind, I would like to use your phone. I need to call-"

"It's okay, kid." Teddy laughed. "I know exactly who you need to call."