Chapter Text
The sun slanted in through the windows, which was odd because the windows were on the north side of the house. Then again, in their experience, everything was weird here in Night Vale. There was a slight breeze blowing outside, but the windows were shut tight against the vast, immeasurable heat. "Oof. All this equipment is so freakin' heavy, Carlos. I understand needing research materials..." the other scientist muttered. "But did you really need to pack all 200 of your books?"
"I need all of them." Carlos answered, offhandedly, opening up a box and beginning to go through it, shaking the sand out from between the pages, his mind far removed from his coworker. "Thanks for helping me get moved in, Aaron."
"Oof, no problem," Aaron rubbed his shoulder, glancing around the room piled high with books and lab equipment and who knew what all else. "This place -this… town?- sure is weird, isn't it?... Do you need help with anything else?"
"That's it." He answered, digging through a box. "I can't wait to see what secrets this town holds."
"Cool, alright." The other scientist stretched. "I'm gonna go check out this house that doesn't exist."
"Go for it." Carlos answered. "Let me know how it goes."
"Oh yeah..." Aaron held up his phone and snapped a photo of Carlos. "Smile." He scurried out of the room, leaving Carlos to look annoyed.
"Ugh, my hair's a mess and everything." Carlos muttered. "I'll pay him back for that later."
Aaron drove up to the non-existant house, and he found the sky darkened and it became harder to see the closer he got to it. He walked up the steps, and walked around the house. “Huh… I’ll need to take some samples…” He took a scrape off the door, storing that away. There was a pot of flowers next to the front door. Aaron smirked, picking one up. “I think Carlos would love an imaginary flower.”
As he went to walk away, the door flew open and something flew out, binding his arms and legs to his torso. “Who dares disturb my home?” A creature demanded. “You would steal from me, and simply leave?”
“Ahhhh-” Aaron shrieked, his phone falling from his pocket as he struggled. “Please, wait, I wasn’t- I wasn’t thinking, I just, I took a sample for my scientist coworker to analyze, I promise I wasn’t trying to steal from you!”
The tentacle-like things slammed him down into the ground as their owner registered confusion. “A scientist?” The beautiful, seductive voice belonging to those terrifying, horrifying tentacles drawled, in enough of a way to make Aaron deeply uncomfortable. “Hmmm… Prove it.”
“I have- have a picture of him on my phone. Carlos is…” He pointed at it. A tentacle lifted the phone up to him and Aaron shuddered but took it, flipping through it. “See?” He held it out. The tentacle reached out and took the phone, bringing it to the pitch blackness at the door, and the monster studied it.
“Carlos?” The creature murmured. “Hmm…” He - Aaron had determined the thing was male - repeated his name again, in a low purr. “Well. I will tell you what, Aaron. I will trade you, for him.”
“WHAT?” Aaron demanded.
“Bring him back to me, or I will hunt you down in the dead of night and make you wish you had never lived,” The monster crushed the phone with one of his long, dark tentacles. “Hm?”
“I- … ah- … there’s there’s no way I can convince him to-” Aaron trailed off. “... Well, you know what, I bet… Okay. Let me try.”
The thing released him and he hit the ground hard. Aaron took off running towards his car, the black slime covering his labcoat.
Carlos had just finished unpacking when there was a knock at his door. He walked over to it, pulling it open. “Yes?... Aaron, you look…” Carlos took a tentative step back. “Disgusting. What is that?”
“C-carlos, the- the house that doesn’t exist! You have to come see it!”
“Hold on. I need to take a sample of this for analysis…”
“CARLOS. Come on! You can analyze the whole damn thing when we get there!” He grabbed him by the hand and drug him out to the car.
They drove to the location and Aaron bullied him up to the door. Carlos started running tests. “... Absolutely nothing. It’s like it doesn’t even exist.” He murmured. Aaron knocked on the door and took off running. The door flew open and tentacles flew out, wrapping around Carlos, yanking him inside, the door slamming shut behind them.
Carlos awoke, lying on the dark floor, covered in slime. He looked around, studying the room. It was pitch black, and he couldn’t see anything. There was a glowing pool of water next to him, the only visible thing in the room. Before he did anything rash, like using it to wash the slime off his body, Carlos did some samples on it. “... It’s no more radioactive than anything else in this town.” He slipped his labcoat off and washed his hands and face and neck, running his hands through his hair. He followed the wall around until he found a doorway, which he passed through.
Luckily, he still had his equipment. I’m pretty sure Aaron had something to do with this. Carlos tested everything, before realizing he seemed to be in a round room. There was a whoosh and the room lit up. A candle hopped towards him, bowing and waving. “Hello,” she greeted. “Hello. I’m Intern Dana.”
“... But, you’re a candle?” Carlos hovered his scanner over her, testing her.
“Yes!” She answered. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Carlos!”
“How do you know my name?” Carlos raised a brow, checking the readings.
“Our master told us you would be staying here!” she replied.
A tennis racket came up, greeting Carlos the same. “Hello, Carlos! I’m Intern Chad.”
Tons of small objects, candles, plates, forks, knives, a wide variety of things came out of the woodworks. “- Intern Vithya!” “Intern Leland!” “Intern Brad!” Carlos was becoming overwhelmed with the massive crowd of intern silverwear and living equipment, and he sunk down onto Intern Maureen, holding his head.
“Is everything here alive?” Carlos asked, over the crowd of interns. “Is the BATH alive?”
“Goodness no. We all left the bath to give you some privacy! Our master said to make you totally at home!” Intern Dana chirped.
“Well, that’s good…” Carlos rubbed his forehead. “Where did you all come from?”
“We came from the study,” Dana brightened. Carlos paused.
“There’s a study?”
There was suddenly doors where there weren’t before. They led Carlos to the study, Intern Dana filling the space with light. There was row after row after row of books, and Carlos was in awe. “... All this?”
“Our master has also built you a laboratory upon hearing that you are interested in the magic of science!” Dana added, happily.
“... Who is your master? You keep saying that?”
The interns all went silent, the whole crowd of them. “You’ll meet the Master soon enough,” Dana said, ominously. “He’s very eager to meet you… but he chose to let you adjust to living here before ever meeting you.”
“So I’m going to be living here? Forever? Can I never leave?” Carlos raised a brow.
“Not until the master says so. He’s the only one who knows how to leave.” Dana paused.
“Can I speak with him?” Carlos questioned. Dana shook her head. Carlos looked over the library. “Well, I’ll meet him whenever I meet him.”
A few days later, Carlos was carrying a stack of books to his lab from the library, when he glanced up and caught a full glimpse of a human-like figure. The figure wasn’t particularly tall or short, thin or fat, he had hair and eyes and hands… He was attractive, in an odd way, with some strange darkness at his back. Carlos immediately dropped his books, moving towards them. “Hey!”
The figure startled and turned away, taking off into the dark. Carlos chased him, but lost him, running his hands along a solid wall.
“Oh no…” Intern Dana murmured. “You scared our Master…”
“HE was the Master?” Carlos’ eyes widened.
“Master Cecil said he would come out to meet you today but I’m afraid you startled him.” Dana paused. “Well, I need to go speak with him…” she disappeared off somewhere Carlos couldn’t see, and he ran his hands along the wall, wondering how he had disappeared. Carlos caught on sharply to that uttered statement. Master Cecil. Cecil, huh?
Carlos lowered himself into the warm, glowing water, splashing it up his arms and tilting his head back. The bath felt nice after a long day. He’d been there for weeks, crossing between the library and the laboratory, and he would leave occasionally to eat and bathe. He talked a lot with Intern Dana, of everyone, she was his favorite person on the grounds.
Aside from that one glimmer of the mysterious master Cecil, he hadn’t seen anything else, but he constantly sensed something amiss. He felt something at the corner of the dark room and he opened his eyes. There was no one there, but it felt like there was. He looked over at it, wondering if there was something he could see.
There wasn’t. Carlos thought to himself. He likes to watch me in the bath, huh? He moved back, taking a seat on the back of the stone bath, leaning back, swallowing hard. “... You watching me?” The question fell flat on the air, and Carlos instantly doubted basically everything he’d ever done in his whole life until he sensed an increased presence there. He paused. “... So, you brought me here because you’re… attracted to me?” The silence hung on the air. “... I thought you were… I wasn’t expecting you to be so cute.”
The thing he sensed grew stronger and closer, like the presence of someone at his side, someone he couldn’t quite see. Carlos hesitated. The master of the house - Cecil - seemed so… kind and doting, so attentive. Carlos wanted to meet him personally. But for now… “I’d like to meet you, personally. Discuss this thing… Hm? Can you talk?”
The silence was deafening. Carlos spread his legs slightly, leaning against the wall. “... Well, maybe I’ll give you a show?” He slid his hand down his taut stomach, wrapping his fingers around his soft member, beginning to stroke his hardening length. There was something deeply arousing in this, touching himself and being watched by the master of the house, who clearly seemed to be attracted to him. “Maybe I’ll make you want to talk to me?... Cecil,” he said, in a breathy voice. The presence jumped and moved around nervously, deeply affected by his words.
Carlos ran his thumb over the tip, the pleasure building hot and fast in the base of his dick, sliding his hand up and down it. “Mm… You know, I wouldn’t do this if you weren’t cute.” Carlos murmured.
The presence seemed to move closer, seemed to fill out. Carlos felt a human shape drape itself over his back, running its ghostly hands over his body. Carlos let out a slow breath, tilting his head back, the ghostly hands raking their way down his torso, indicating that Cecil was definitely interested in playing with him. “Why don’t you come in here and join me yourself?” Carlos quirked an eyebrow.
The presence immediately disappeared and Carlos was left to sit confused. He leaned back more against the back of the tub, one hand wrapped around his throbbing member, and the other rubbed and stroked lazy circles around his balls, closing his eyes, his breathing growing a bit heavier.
He startled when the door flew open, and darkness itself was there. It strolled across the room, wrapping itself around Carlos’ body in ways he’d never experienced before. Cool, dark, moist tentacles wrapped themselves desperately around his body, twining and rubbing against his skin, and it was hotter than Carlos had ever imagined tentacles could be.
Sliding their rubbery slickness across his skin, tensing and rubbing and sliding across every inch of his body, Carlos let out a low grunt, long and heavy, his breathing hard, and head arching back. “I- I wasn’t expecting- these- they’re… nice.” He could see the flash of a face, the darkness receeded, and that strange, indescribable, handsome figure was in front of him, unclothed, the tentacles continuing to travel Carlos’ body, one tentacle wrapping around his erect member, the slickness of it providing a relief to his straining dick.
“You like them?”
The voice was more than Carlos could have ever expected, so rich and dulcet-y, almost enough to make him come at the sound of it. “Nnn- y- yes!”
Cecil stepped into the tub, leaning against Carlos’ body, rubbing their bodies together, his hands threading in his hair. “Mm… Your hair is wonderful… your skin,” Cecil nipped his shoulder with almost too sharp teeth, “I knew the moment I saw that photo that I had to have you for myself.” Cecil got to his knees, removing his tentacle from Carlos’ leaking member, Cecil lapping the precum off the head.
Carlos hissed air in through his teeth. “Ph-photo, huh? How did…?”
“Your friend came and stole from me. He took things from the outside of my house. When I threatened to punish him, he said he was taking it to you. I saw a photo on his phone…” Cecil’s eyes flashed, as he took Carlos’ member in between his lips, sliding his tongue up and down it. “Come down into the water,” His tentacles pulled Carlos down, and he slid down, until he was sitting in the water, face to face with Cecil.
Cecil yanked him close, those hands threading roughly in his hair again, kissing him hard, tongues dancing together, sharp teeth knicking the sensitive lips, passing the slight tang of blood into their mouths. Cecil pulled away, their lips swollen and bruised, before Cecil moved forward, reaching down to position Carlos, before sliding slowly down on him, moaning softly when Carlos was fully inside of him, his fingers digging at Carlos’ chest. Carlos knit his brows, his breathing ragged, as he adjusted to being inside that intense heat. He hadn’t expected this, but he wasn’t complaining.
“Ha…,” Cecil seemed dazed by the fullness, and Carlos took that moment to slip one of those jet-black tentacles into his mouth, sucking on it, and running his teeth across it, experimentally, curious as to what Cecil’s reaction would be. “Oooh,” Cecil’s nails dug into his chest again, seeming to shake from the pleasure. “Y-yes, that, the- that’s so good. Mmm.” He flung his arms around Carlos’ neck, lifting his hips and beginning to move up and down on his glorious length.
It was hot and carnal once Cecil found his bearings, bouncing hard on him, Carlos thrusting up to meet him, their chests sliding together, tentacles snaking between them, wrapping around Cecil’s very hard and leaking dick and around Carlos’ back and one still in Carlos’ mouth, licking and sucking at it. Cecil’s moans of pleasure got louder and finally his punctuated cries, in that voice that made Carlos want to fuck his mouth aggressively, all degraded into one long moan of some language Carlos wasn’t quite sure he knew.
He shifted Cecil slightly and started thrusting hard into him, hitting the sweet spot inside the - Carlos wasn’t quite sure what he was, creature perhaps? - and Cecil came, crying out in that same foreign language, which rolled hot and heavy off that perfect tongue, and Carlos wasn’t but a few moments behind.
Cecil clung to him a few moments. “Stay here,” he said, through a heavy, tired tongue. “Stay here with me, and the interns, I’ll take care of you and give you anything you want- just stay- You belong to me, you’re part of this house now, you’re mine,” Cecil rested his head, weakly against Carlos. Cecil wound the tentacles around them, pulling Carlos closer to him. “You belong to me.”
Carlos threaded his hands through Cecil’s blonde hair, thinking. Cecil fixed him with those eyes, distant and inhuman. “I can’t say I mind too much...” He pressed a kiss to one of the tentacles, causing Cecil to shudder. “... you’re quite kind and attentive… building me a lab when you heard I’m a scientist, and you were quite the gentleman, staying away until I called you… The kidnapping was a bit unnecessary,” His voice was teasing. “I want to know more about you.”
Cecil looked up at him, his eyes hungry. He rested his head against his shoulder, his arms wrapped around Carlos’ neck. “I will give you anything you ever wanted, do anything you need. Stay with me.”
“I won’t leave yet. I’m far too curious about you, who you are, and about the interns,” Carlos said, playfully. “I’ll stay.”
Cecil wrapped a tentacle around Carlos’ wrist, and Carlos winced at how tight it was before it was gone. A mark was present around his wrist, a broken solid circle, with a row of tiny suction cups all along the side. “This marks you as belonging to me,” Cecil gazed into his eyes. “I will remove it if you ever change your mind… It will protect you from Night Vale and all the things that live there.”
Carlos leaned forward, smiling a bit into Cecil’s neck. “We’ll just have to see what the future holds.” Cecil twined his fingers in Carlos’ hair, closing his eyes blissfully.