Night Vale Unsolved

26

"What's up?" Carlos asked as he followed Cecil off to the side.
"Oh, nothing," Cecil replied, unconvincingly, "It's just that...it's been a while since we've had some time alone, you know?"
Carlos smiled, not out of happiness, but rather out of love. "Cecil, if you want to have a night out or something, you can just say so."
"I know. The thing is...well, I was going to ask you out to the movie theater. Tonight."
"Oh." Carlos glanced back at where Shane and Ryan, apparently completely over their previous apprehension, had gotten out a camera and had started filming with Lucia.
"Cecil, I'm sorry. If I had known..."
"No! No, it's ok. Really."
"We can catch a movie tomorrow, if you'd like. Or have a nice dinner, or...I don't know, anything."
Cecil relaxed. "Yeah. That sounds great, Carlos. Just...promise me something?"
Carlos took Cecil's hand. "What's that?"
"Can we try to...I don't know, spend more time together? Not, like, at the store or something like this," Cecil gestured vaguely at their companions, "But...you know...as a couple."
Carlos smiled again. "Of course, Cecil. I'd really like that."
Cecil grinned. "Neat," He replied.
"Neat." Carlos answered.
"Crap!" Ryan exclaimed.
Cecil and Carlos turned to see Ryan and Shane staring incredulously at their camera's screen.
"What's wrong?"
"This!" Ryan showed the screen to them and pressed play. The video showed the field and the far wall of the ballpark, and aside from the slight shake of a hand-held camera, that was it.
"Um," Cecil ventured, "What are we looking at?"
"Well, you should be looking at Lucia here," Shane answered, "But, well..."
"She's not showing up on video." Carlos realized.
"Exactly." Ryan said, frustrated. "I can't even tell if we got any audio from her."
He turned up the volume on the camera and they all listened. For a second, there was nothing. All of a sudden, a loud static noise blared out from the device, causing Ryan to fumble and almost drop it.
"I am sorry," Lucia spoke up. "Technology and I...we do not agree."
"So we can't get audio or film?" Shane asked, trying to confirm. Lucia nodded in agreement.
Ryan cursed under his breath. Shane turned to him and asked, "I can't believe I'm going to ask this. Did you bring the spirit box?"
Cecil and Carlos looked at each other, confused, as Ryan fumbled around in his bag.
"It should still be in here from our last shoot..." He muttered, finally pulling out a small-ish black box. He looked up at Shane. "What's your idea?"
Shane took the box and turned to Lucia, who was studying it with interest.
"Do you think you could use this thing to communicate?" He asked, turning a knob with distaste written all over his face. A loud static, much like the one from the camera, exploded out of the tiny speakers, before settling down into a slightly quieter, more even static. A few blips of other noise cut in here and there, but that was it.
Lucia stared intently at the box, focusing, clearly understanding something that Carlos and Cecil were missing. After a long moment, her voice came haltingly through the speakers amidst the static.
"Yes...I...Can." It - Lucia - said. Ryan looked up with a triumphant grin on his face.
"It does work!" He announced. Shane shook his head slightly, but got the camera ready to film again. He turned back to Lucia.
"Alright. Well ask you questions, just like before, and you do your best to answer them through this...thing. Ok?"
Lucia, still staring intently at the box, nodded. Ryan nodded to Shane, who pressed record.