Disclaimer: South Park and all its characters is copyright Matt Stone, Trey Parker, and whoever else owns it or whatever. That means, not me.

Authors Notes: So yeah. Sometimes you just get an idea, and you run with it. This is one of those times.
I'm sorry to say, I don't write 'normal' length chapters. Some are longer than others. Its just my way of writing, I guess. Once I get to a point that 'feels' like an end of a chapter, I end it. I don't like forcing myself to write a half-assed end to a chapter, and therefore, I don't like forcing you to read a half-assed ending.

I hope you enjoy. Its promising to be interesting, to me at least. XD

P.S.: The Spiral Clause is made up by me, and its based off of the way depression works in people. Yeah.


Title: The Spiral Clause

Author: Zoshi the Confused
Rating: PG-13 to M (eventually)
Category: South Park

Genre: Angst/Psychological

Contains: (or will contain) Violence, Adult Situations, Swearing, Psychological Trauma


"The Spiral Clause states that :

On the spiral descent, there are only two places where the spiral may be halted.

The first comes at the beginning, while the spiral is still straighter than it is curved, before it gathers speed.

When the spiral tightens, the fall becomes faster and during this time nothing can halt the descent.

The second moment comes during a reprise; when the spiral tightens to its max, there comes a point where it straightens out for a brief period, right before it begins it final plunge into the oblivion of madness."

Kenny was at a loss.

Someone was yelling downstairs, he noticed vaguely, and his sister was singing along with her radio to some ridiculous pop song. All of that was background noise, however, and his attention was focused on something more important at the moment.

He stood in the middle of his room, scratching idly at his wrist. Staring at the sniffling, sobbing lump under his covers, he bit his lip and grimaced slightly when the sobs grew louder for a moment. Glancing around his room helplessly, he cursed the fact that he knew so little in these types of matters. He looked back at the lump, crossing his arms nervously.

Slowly, carefully, he backtracked in his mind, searching for the Moment, the moment when It All Went Wrong…

Half an hour ago he had been standing in front of the convenience store with Cartman, Stan and Kyle. He and Cartman had been involved in a game of "Kick the Rock", only that their version of the game involved kicking almost anything, and, occasionally, anyone, in the vicinity that could be kicked. Seeing they were busy, Stan and Kyle decided to go into the store alone. Kyle had promised Kenny a chocolate donut, to which Kenny had replied "Sweet!"

He distinctly remembered saying it, because the moment after he did Cartman kicked an old discarded lighter. The lighter bounced off a fire hydrant, ricocheted off a light pole, and somehow managed to smack Kenny in the back of the head. Kenny had proceeded to curse at Cartman, who had been laughing so hard he had almost fallen over, and Stan and Kyle had entered the store.

After they got bored of swearing, Kenny and Cartman had settled down to wait for their friends to come back out. Well, Kenny had settled down to wait, even pulling out a cigarette to stick between his teeth, although he (for once in his life) didn't have anything to light it with. Cartman had proceeded to complain about how long it was taking Stan and Kyle to get back and that they should just ditch them and go play videogames at his house.

Cartman had just launched into his second tirade, this one promising both complaining about how long the two were gone and the fact that Kyle was a jew (Kenny hadn't seen the connection but he'd laughed anyway, it was plain hilarious) when the store door slammed open. Jumping from the shock, the two barely caught sight of Kyle as he took off running down the middle of the street with wild abandon, and, to Kenny's dismay, his promised chocolate donut.

Stan burst out a few seconds later, screaming so furiously that his words had become incomprehensible. Someone in the store was yelling for the 'stupid punks' to calm down; apparently whatever had happened had escalated in the store.

Cartmoon stood by, cheering on Stan and adding his own voice to the other boy's. He seemed thoroughly ecstatic with the turn of events, and even went so far as to hop in place while yelling after Kyle.

Kenny, on the other hand, after a moments hesitation, gritted his teeth around the cigarette in his mouth (he did only have two left after all) and took off after Kyle.

Now, there was much conflict in his mind at the time. Most of it was due to the fact that he had witnessed something that should not, in his mind, have happened.

Stan and Kyle were pissed off at each other.

The words "Stan and Kyle" and "pissed off at each other" didn't really belong in a sentence together.

His mind, attempting to deal with this unforeseen event, set itself on autopilot.

Therefore, Kenny could not be sure - could never be sure, really - just what exactly prompted him to go chasing after Kyle at that moment. It could have been that one of his oldest friends, whom he respected and, yes, occasionally even admired for his moral steadiness, had come running out of the store with the strangest look he had ever seen on his face.

Then again, it also could have been that said friend had gone dashing down the street with a chocolate donut that had been fated to end its confectionary life in Kenny's stomach. Not only that, but it seemed highly likely that that donut would have been his sole source of nourishment that day, considering his older brother had gone on a binge and cleaned out the meager contents of their fridge that morning.

Therefore, not really knowing what was driving him to it, Kenny chased Kyle all through the town, up and down streets and through both the park and the schoolyard. He caught up to him at Stark's Pond, where he'd dragged the growling and cursing boy back from its edge. Keeping a good hold on him, and suffering more than a few punches and kicks, he'd pulled Kyle back to his house. Once at his door, Kyle had shaken himself out of his grip, and stomped up the stairs on his own, with Kenny following a good distance behind, just in case the other boy wanted to lash out again. In Kenny's room Kyle had thrown the donut at the wall, tossed his jacket on the floor, and crawled entirely under the thin covers on Kenny's bed.

And then, he'd started to cry.