Theres a county, in Texas, called collingsworth county. It's right on the edge of the Texas panhandle, where you can be in a busy town full of tech and business and the next moment be in the endless plains of the panhandle.

In collingsworth, there's a town called Lutie. It's population at the time was loosely 125 people. Now theres a bit more, but we haven't gotten to now yet, and by the time we do, Lutie will be forgotten.

In 1982 a man named Geoffrey fell in love with a pretty blond woman named Cecilia. Geoffrey straight up told her he loved her, and they were married the next year. And they were very happy.

Geoffrey had a good job with an electrical company, and Cecilia co-ran a fairly popular bakery on the outskirts of town. They began to bicker after the firt two years of their marriage, and though it never went too far, they decided to take the next step and have a child to raise.

In 1988 they had a baby boy. Cecilia was very fond of family names and suggested they name him after his father, but Geoffrey insisted they never name a child Geoffrey, as it was hard enough hearing it.

So the boy was named after his mother. Cecil.

Cecil was a normal child, with a big heart and eyes for his father. He looked up to his dad and told him daily he was going to grow up and make computers just like him. Geoffrey couldn't be happier.

Cecil however, didn't have a single friend except for his dane/lab mix. The kids didn't like him because he didn't play sports or like to do group activities. And Cecil didn't much care, as he had his parents and dog for friends.

Until the second grade, when he was seven, he realized that parents aren't meant to be your only friends. and dogs are good but you can talk to them.

And Cecil's heart fell. He'd severed any chances of friends.

But of course there's always someone.

Nancy was a seven year old girl who amazed Cecil on the spot due to her pink hair. Nancy took a liking to him also, and since no one else's parent lets them talk to her due to her hair, they became friends.

Cecil actually began to be more open, and began to play some sports. He and Nancy both began to be more outgoing, and by the end of the year, cecil and Nancy had eleven friends.

So what makes this story to interesting? Where does it go from here?

It's all very sudden.

Theres a river, called the Salt Fork Red River. It runs through the Texas panhandle for a stretch, and pases through just south of Lutie.

Cecil, Nancy and their friends would go down there a lot, and play or wade or swim, escaping the summer and spring heat. Of course some parts of the river were deadly, but they always made sure to stay clear of these areas.

So one day on august 28th of 1998, when Cecil was ten, he and Nancy found the river to be flooded and running terribly fast. Cecil opted they leave, and Nancy agreed.

But her footing was off, and she slipped, and fell off the overhang before Cecil could even turn around. Cecil whipped around just in time to see her be engulfed by the muddy overflowed water with a piercing scream.

Horrified Cecil screamed her name over and over until her body re-appeared on the surface, with a gash across her face, and her pink hair full of leaves. He screamed her name but she was carried away in seconds.

Her body was recovered two days later, and Cecil attended her funeral the following week.

Cecil was emotionally scarred, as that was nothing anyone, let alone a ten year old should have to go through. He became distant to even his parents, dropped out of school, and just read books. Every once in awhile he would go down to the river and stare at it coldly. But Nancy never came back.

He loved Nancy as a friend, but he made it clear to her since the beginning of their relationship he didn't like girls. And she had been accepting of it.

But she was simply irreplaceable.

So that brings us to the worst night of Geoffrey and Cecilia's lives.

The day Cecil went missing.

He didn't come home one night after going to the river, and they immediately called the police. A week long investigation took place and all of Lutie was questioned.

They found tire tracks near a dangerous part of the river on the seventh day of the investigation, and since they had nothing else to go on, it was said that he was abducted. This was true.

Cecil stood by the river, and was taken so quickly, he barely had time to kick or scream. And though he doesn't remember it, or any of this story, he had never been so terrified in his life.

He was put in a four walled room without a door or window, but it wasn't too dark.

People were always showing up in the room, simply to sit in a chair and talk to him. Cecil begged them to take him home, but they just chuckled like he was cute and kept talking. They told him strange things about angels, and hooded figures, and monsters, and the nonexistence of things he knew to exist.

After a while Cecil stopped begging them. He just stared and listened to them.

Soon they began telling him about his life. Except everything they told him was fake. He used to call them out on this, but eventually, after months of sitting in this room, he just let them tell him. The lines of reality and fiction blurred, until anything they said he just accepted.

After six months, they began asking him stuff about himself. He answered everything according to what they had told him about himself. And he was taken to a different bigger room with no doors or windows, and people brought him tech and computers and equipment to play with and practice with. And he took to it naturally, as he already knew a good amount from his dad. But he didn't remember his dad.

He wasn't aware of much time passing but Cecil was kept in that room for five years of his life, until he turned sixteen.

Cecil was not the same person anymore. He was odd, his formerly brown eyes were much lighter and had a purplish tint, he had perfect posture, and when he spoke everyone would stop and listen to him immediately.

He was finally let out, into what looked like a town, and he acted as though he'd seen it a million times. He was lead to a building that said "NVCR" across the doorway. He was lead inside and over to a recording booth, and as if he did this everyday, he set it all up and got it running.

Cecil placed the headphones on his head and flipped a switch so that the "ON AIR" light lit up.

"Look to the sky, then, look away. And never look again. Welcome to Night Vale."