Unlike most of the people of South Park, who had accepted the idea that Butters had just disappeared years ago, Kenny wasn't ready to give up; not now, and not ever. Sometimes, it felt as if the 22 year old was the only one who knew he ever existed. Kenny knew this couldn't be true. How could he be the only one to see the slow, yet ruthless, transformation Butters went through all of those years ago?
He pulled off his orange hood, grabbed a bottle of gin, and poured himself a glass.
After struggling with the broken lock, Karen walked through the door of their small mobile home. Before she could even think of greeting Kenny, the smell of alcohol had already wafted over towards her.
"You're drinking again Kenny"
"I…it's just that…"
Kenny struggled to find exactly the right words to say to Karen. While she never wanted to make him feel as if he was crazy, she never was able to understand Kenny's stories about the boy in the woods either. She would listen, but to her, it all seemed like a desperate cry out for his long-lost friend.
"You know that we left mom and dad's house to escape their constant issues with alcohol. If you keep this up, you'll be no better than them," Karen sternly scolded him as she put down what she could scrounge up at the local market. The worn down expression on her thin face told Kenny that she was angry, but too tired to do anything about it.
She has had that expression for about a year now. This was the time where Kenny and Karen left their parents. While they loved their parents, the constant alcohol use had become an issue. Neither adult had bothered to hold a job. It made it impossible for Kenny to keep up - between working, helping Karen finish school, and fighting to find his missing partner, Kenny had finally cracked under pressure. He and Karen had left for their own goods and never looked back.
For a while, this was going alright. More recently, however Kenny hasn't been doing much better than his parents. He held a steady job as a bartender for about 10 months, but many people at the bar began to recognize him as the lunatic who saw ghosts and heard voices. Eventually, Kenny's unruly and crass attitude got the best of him and he started fighting with the patrons at the bar. He started to feel isolated from all of the ridicule. If nobody else would be his friend, then alcohol would just have to do.
Kenny wanted to say something to make Karen feel better, but he didn't know what to say. The fact of the matter is that she was right - they left to escape alcoholism. Instead, he was welcoming it back into their lives like an old friend.
"I know this might mean nothing to you anymore, but I swear that I will get my life together again," Kenny plead. Karen choked back tears at the sound of his brother's words.
"I sure hope you do," she managed to quietly say, "for your own sake, I hope to God that you do".
Kenny put the bottle back in the cabinet, hoping Karen didn't see where he put it. He knows he should stop, really, but the comfort of having it there when things go wrong helped him get through tough nights like the one he had just been through. He needed to take a walk and talk to his friend, Kyle.
As he walked down the street, he stared down at the sidewalk the whole time. His mind was not paying attention to any of the sights or sounds of South Park. All he could think about was Butters' eyes. How he longed for those cold, dead eyes to go back to being the beautiful, deep oceans of blue that he recognized.
Heavy thoughts cloud his mind.
How much longer do I have to fight until you finally come home?
Kyle Broflovski has been a good friend to Kenny since they were in preschool. None of Kenny's antics ever got the best of Kyle - not even the whole Butters' ghost situation could scare him away.
They met in their usual spot at the bus stop. While neither boy visits there much anymore, it still felt like a good spot for them to meet. The cool spring breeze brushed their cheeks as they met each other's gaze.
"Kenny! It's been a while. What have you been up to?" Kyle said cheerfully. Like Kyle said, it had been a while since Kenny saw his close friend - a month to be exact. And while a month doesn't seem like much, a lot can happen in a month.
"You know, the usual" Kenny replied nonchalantly.
"The usual as in working, or the usual as in ghost-hunting?"
"I mean…"
Kenny paused. He couldn't tell if his friend was being sarcastic or not. It didn't really matter to Kenny, as he knew his friend wouldn't leave him, but the question still made him think.
"More of the latter than anything" Kenny finally let out with a smirk on his face.
"Ah" Kyle said in a sympathetic way, "well…let's go into town".
They made their way through the doors of the old diner and squirmed into a small booth.
Kyle looked up at Kenny while Kenny stared down into his cup of black coffee, as if it held any answers.
"I think it's time for you to move on" Kyle said nervously, yet firmly. It wasn't something he wanted to tell his friend, but he felt as if someone had to. If he didn't who was going to?
When Butters disappeared, Kenny immediately began searching for clues - anything to get his beloved friend back. At first, this was seen as an act of bravery. Nobody else had been willing to go to the same lengths to find him as Kenny was. After a while though, it had become extremely difficult for Kyle to watch Kenny continue this futile fight. He thought that Kenny would have given in by now, but here they were three years later - in the same diner they were at when they heard the news of Butters' disappearance.
"He's out there and I'm going to find him" Kenny affirmed his friend. He couldn't believe that the one friend who has stuck with him through all of this was changing his mind.
"Butters is gone. I'm sorry Kenny, but it's time for you to…you know…move on".
His words pierced through Kenny's soul. He knew that by now, he should have given up. This chase for Butters was proving itself helpless. Quite frankly, it was harming Kenny more than anything. The endless lives he lived after each attempt to retrieve his friend had become more and more tiresome, and they were starting to take a toll on him mentally. But if not Kenny, who else would save Butters? Who else could try time and time again, just coming back to life after each failure?
Kenny laid out his feelings to his close friend. "Well who else is going to save him?" Kenny blurted out in a fit of rage. "You asshole! Butters has no one else!"
Kyle attempted to reason with Kenny. He knew how much he had been through and that this conversation was going to be a tough one. "Maybe if you get a job again, you'll get your mind off of it. Even small businesses in South Park are always looking for-"
"Are you kidding me? And leave his soul in the woods to be forgotten? He's out there and-"
"Butters is gone and you know it!" Kyle cut him off.
There was silence. Patrons of the run down diner turned their heads to watch the showdown. Both boys could feel all eyes on them, but did not avert their gaze.
Finally, Kenny slipped out of the booth and walked off. "Where do you think you're going?" Kyle asked his friend in a somewhat guilty tone.
"I'm going to bring Butters home".