Night Vale Unsolved

27

"Finally," Shane grumbled as Ryan switched off the spirit box after what felt like an eternity of static and noise. Ryan just smirked.
Carlos approached him, staring at the spirit box. "What is that?" He asked.
Ryan showed him. "It switches between radio stations really fast, creating that static sound. The idea is that spirits can use the energy it creates to communicate."
"That's the idea, anyway," Shane said, mostly out of habit.
"Well, yeah. Sometimes we'll hear a word or two, and that's...hard to count as evidence, because it could just be a radio station coming through for a second. What we look for is either an intelligent answer to a question, or a full sentence."
Carlos took this all in with fascination, turning the spirit box over in his hands. "And it works?" He asked, glancing up briefly at Lucia.
"I guess." Ryan rubbed the back of his neck absentmindedly. "God, this...this place."
"Believe me, I know."
Ryan and Carlos grinned at each other.
"Well, there's so much more to see!" Cecil declared, glancing up at the darkening sky. "But for now, there's someplace special."

As they pulled up to their last stop - Carlos driving his car with Shane and Ryan in the back, and Cecil following close behind them - Shane glanced out and saw their destination.
"An Arby's?" He asked in disbelief.
"Yep!" Was all Carlos said, getting out of the car. Shane turned to Ryan, who looked just as confused as he felt.
"An Arby's?" Shane asked again, receiving no answer.
The two of them got out of the car, and looked around for Carlos and Cecil. They found them sitting on the hood of Cecil's car, laughing about something one of them had said. Ryan and Shane walked up to join them, and Cecil greeted them eagerly.
"So what do you think?"
"I don't..." Shane began, unsure what he was supposed to think about what.
"What do you mean?" Ryan finished for him.
Cecil cocked his head, confused, but Carlos smiled and, without saying anything, pointed up to the star covered sky.
Shane and Ryan looked up. Ryan made a noise, a mix between confusion, surprise, horror, and glee. Shane stared uncomprehendingly for a moment, then swore.
"Aliens!" Ryan practically shouted, not hearing Shane. "Are those...?"
"Or spy satellites," Cecil answered, "Or-"
"Aliens." Shane said, quietly enough that he was probably talking to himself, but loud enough that the whole group heard him. "They're real?"
"Oh, definitely," Carlos told him. "Yeah, we might not be sure what those are, but there have been some...encounters that have happened here."
"What were they like?" Shane asked, alert and unmistakably interested.
A little taken aback, Cecil began to tell Shane about some of Night Vale's history with the extraterrestrial.
Ryan, meanwhile, took out the camera and snapped photo after photo of the lights. Carlos listened and watched it all happen, a sort of distant smile on his face. He had started out by looking up at the lights, but soon found his gaze directed towards the stars and sky at large. Then he watched as Ryan took the pictures, the subtle snap of the camera blending in with the cars on the road behind them and the conversation next to him - which is what Carlos found himself listening to. As Shane eagerly sought information about aliens, Carlos remembered his initial fascination with Night Vale. Now, that fascination had not been sated - not at all - rather, it became a given, a part of life in this town. There always seemed to be something to learn, and beyond that, even, something to unlearn. And as Cecil explained all that he could - which was a lot, as Cecil seemed, in a way, to know everything there was to know about Night Vale - Carlos remembered his first time calling in to the station. And how Cecil talked about him in those first few weeks, gushing about his hair and his science. And then how Carlos asked Cecil out, finally, and how they sat on a car in this parking lot, exactly like they were now.
And how that first date became so much more.
Carlos watched Cecil talk, without really hearing what he was saying. He knew what his voice sounded like, but over the radio, he couldn't see how his eyes would light up, or how he waved his hands around, less to accentuate his point, but more to have something to do.
And he remembered another date. The one where Night Vale once again was faced with some sort of threat. Cecil drove Carlos to his lab, and Carlos, now, in this present of the Arby's parking lot, remembered with a grin what he did next.
And now, in this present of the Arby's parking lot, Carlos leaned over and did it again.