The day Kyle went missing started off great, I woke up to the sound of my parents not fighting, which was extremely rare. I found a half-eaten candy bar by my bed, which, when you live in a family as poor as mine, is an utter blessing. It seemed like it would be my lucky day, it seemed like everything would go my way.
However, with good luck comes bad luck.
Bad luck that would last six years.
I was eleven when I got that fatal knock on my door, the knock that would change my life, and the life of many others. I was sitting on the couch, slowly eating the half-eaten candy bar, it was a Mr Goodbar, savouring its taste, when I heard the knock on the door.
"Get the door Kenny!" Dad yelled, he surprisingly, didn't sound very drunk, that was a first.
I let out a sigh and answered the door, to my surprise, it was Mrs Broflovski standing there, looking worse for the wear, she was still in her night clothes, her hair was down down around her back instead of in its usual bouffant shape, and her eyes were red and swollen, like she had spent a lot of time crying.
"Have you seen Kyle?" She asked, her voice sounded strain, putting even more stock into my suspicion that she had been crying.
"Not since yesterday at school, why?" I asked, feeling a little worried, it wasn't like Kyle to go anywhere without telling his mom first, he was more than a little afraid of disobeying her.
"I haven't seen him since he left for school yesterday, I already went to Stanley's house, but he hasn't seen him either." She sobbed.
I felt my heart break for the poor woman, and for myself, one of my best friends was missing! Something then hit me, Eric Cartman, he had caused Butters to go missing for awhile, what if he did the same thing to Kyle?
No, Kyle wasn't naive like Butters, he would never fall for one of Cartman's tricks, then again, what if Cartman sedated him before he hid him away? That seemed like something he would do.
"Have you talked to Eric Cartman yet?" I asked.
A spark of anger lit up in the older woman's eyes,
"I should have known that little terror would have something to do with my son's disappearance." Mr Broflovski said before turning on her heel and walking out the door without so much as another word.
However, the suspicions about Eric Cartman would prove to be false. As it turned out, he was over at Butters' house working on a project, confirmed by both Butters and his parents.
For months, the town searched for Kyle, combing the streets, not leaving one stone upturned, but nothing, not even a strand of hair was found.
During those months, I watched Stan slowly waste away, he barely talked or ate, and I could tell by the dark circles under his eyes that he barely slept either.
It wasn't until we were thirteen, two years after Kyle's disappearance, that he tried to take his own life.
Thankfully, it didn't succeed, however, he would be stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Surprisingly, instead of making him more depressed, the incident actually helped, I know it sounds crazy, but after he was released from the hospital, he started to become alive again, he started eating more, sleeping more, and he even started laughing with his friends again.
Eric Cartman was another story, he threw a lot of lavish parties after Kyle left, but I could see in his eyes that he missed Kyle almost as much as Stan did, he was just better at hiding his true feelings.
I just went through the motions, living one day after another, I know that makes me sound horrible, but I just felt numb to it, I still do even though Kyle is back.
Yes, after six long years, the police were able to find Kyle, as it turned out, some sicko freak had him holed away in a sort of secret room of his house that could only be accessed by retina and finger print identification.
How the police found out about this place, and how they got in was a mystery to me. I suspected they had gotten an anonymous tip or something.
The kidnapper was a thirty-eight year old man named Dennis Readles, when I saw his picture in the newspaper, I recognised him as one of the construction men in our area.
I suspected that there must have been more to his story though, why would a construction worker have such a high tech lair?
I took a deep breath as I continued to prepare for Kyle's return, it was Bebe's idea to throw a welcome home party for him, she said that he needed to know that his friends didn't give up on him.
I, on the other hand, thought that maybe a party would be too much, that it might shock his senses, however, the majority of our classmates voted for a party, so here we were. Honestly, I thought that their love of partying was the reason they voted party, and not because they cared about Kyle.
After about thirty or so minutes, I heard a car pull up in the drive way.
"Oh my gosh, they're here!" Bebe squealed.
"I wonder what he looks like now?" Clyde said, more to himself than to the rest of us.
I wondered the same thing, during the six years that Kyle was missing, puberty cast its spell over myself and my classmates, causing us to change.
I stood at 5'5, a pretty measly height for a seventeen year old American boy, but years of malnutrition and a stressed filled lifestyle will do that to you.
Instead of wearing my hair on the longer side like I did when I was a kid, I kept it sheared, close to my head, it was easier to manage that way.
I stopped wearing my parka when I was twelve, after that, I started to wear a basic orange hoodie.
Stan changed a bit too, he was about 5'10, though it was hard to tell because of the fact that he was wheelchair bound, and he always kept his hair covered by a baseball cap, much like he did with his ski hat when we were younger.
Even Eric Cartman changed, he grew to 5'8 in height, and he was only slightly overweight.
Last year, he had a huge scare, he had a mild heart attack, and the doctor said that he must lose weight, or die.
I was surprised when Cartman stuck to his diet, I really expected him not to make it, but he did.
He wore his hair in a ponytail, and it reached just a little past his neck.
Clyde still looked pretty much the same as he did when he was a kid, only now he was 5'9, and he was slightly more chubby than Cartman is now.
Craig, who was the tallest in my class, reached 6'5 in height, and he was more on the pudgy side. He kept his black hair in a sort of military hair cut.
Tweek didn't get very tall, I guess that what they said about coffee stunting your growth is true, he reached 5'6 in height, and he was as thin as a rail.
He's calmed down A LOT since we were kids, but he did still have his freak outs every once in a while, and he now slicked his once wild hair back with gel.
Token reached 5'8 in height, and he was thin, yet muscular, and he kept his hair cropped close to his head, like mine, just slightly longer.
Butters changed the most, he reached 5'11 in height, and he had some pretty good muscle definition too, no where near as much as a body builder, but enough to make people gawk.
He was no longer the shy naive little boy that he was when he was ten, instead, he was sort of a bully to say the least.
I think we were fourteen when he finally snapped, he got so sick of being pushed around that he just lost it, whenever someone mocked him, they were met with a fist to the face. He was like he was during the Hawaii incident, only about a hundred times worse, and there was no known cure for this.
I was surprised that he had even came, he didn't hang around us much anymore, instead he spent more of his time at the gym, working out so he could continue to beat people into a pulp if they mocked him. Not that much mocking went on, people had pretty much learned their lesson after seeing the first few people that Butters beat the crap out of.
As for the girls, Bebe reached 5'2 in height, and she was a little on the softer side, and she wore her curly blonde hair to his chin.
Wendy reached 5'4 in height, and she was slender in build with barely any curves to speak of, she pretty much had the opposite body of Bebe. She kept her long black hair back in a ponytail that reached her butt.
"What's taking them so long?" Clyde groaned, taking a bite out of an apple that he had grabbed off the food tray.
"You're supposed to wait." I hissed.
"Sorry." He said sheepishly.
Just then, the door opened, and in walked Kyle and his parents. If not for his unruly red hair, I probably wouldn't have recognised him, he looked nothing like my friend that I remembered when I was eleven.
He was short, shorter than I was, shorter than Bebe even, and he looked so thin and frail, that it seemed like even a small gust of wind would knock him over.
He was very pale, so pale that his skin almost looked translucent, in fact, the only colourings he had, were the bruises and cuts that littered his face and arms, there was no telling how many he had on the rest of his body. There were also dark circles under his eyes, they contrasted creepily against his pale skin.
If I were to be honest, I would say that he looked like a zombie in the beginning stage of death.
We all stood there in silence, staring at Kyle, who was staring back at us in return.
The silence was finally broken when Clyde ran up to Kyle, wrapping him up in a bear hug, picking him up off the ground in the process.
"Dammit Clyde, don't kill him!" Stan snapped.
Kyle turned his head in Stan's direction, I saw his eyes widen slightly,
"What happened?" He asked softly.
"Nothing, it was an accident, I don't want to talk about it okay?" Stan said, I could detect a hint of anger in his voice, but I didn't understand why, his super best friend was back, he should be jumping for joy, right?
"So, did that man ever do anything to do you? Did he like rape you or something?" Craig asked, causing everyone to turn their heads sharply to glare at him. I knew that Craig was never afraid to say what was on his mind, but I never expected him to ask a question like THAT, sure I expected it from Cartman, who wouldn't? But not from anyone else.
"I think I'm just going to go to sleep." Kyle said, and without so much as another word to any of us, he walked upstairs to his room.
"Well, that was a little rude, we spent all this time preparing for his home coming, and he didn't even say thank you, he could have at least mingled with the guests a bit." Bebe sniffed.
"Bebe, he just spent the last six years being locked away by a guy who did who knows what to him, give him some time to adjust." Wendy said softly.
"I guess you're right, I was just really looking forward to talking with him you know?" Bebe said with a sigh.
"Don't interview him for the school newspaper." Stan said, with a slight warning edge on his voice.
Bebe wrote for the gossip column of the South Park High News letter, Clyde wrote for the sports section, Wendy for current events, and Jimmy did everything else.
"I wasn't going to, not yet anyway, I'd give him at least a week to settle in before interviewing him for the newspaper." Bebe said.
"How about not interviewing him at all? He already has the media down his throat, there's no need for his classmates to be harassing him too." Stan snapped.
"I wasn't going to harass him! I was just going to ask him a few questions, what's your problem anyway? You've been an asshole since we heard the news that Kyle was back!" Bebe yelled.
I had to agree with her there, ever since we got the word that Kyle had been found, Stan started snapping at everyone, he got mad over the smallest things, it was almost as if he was angry that his friend was back.
"I'm going home, when Kyle decides that he's ready to talk, tell him to call me okay?" Stan said wearily, as if all the fight left his body.
"Yea, I'll do that, are you okay?" I asked softly.
"Yes, I'm fine, everything is fine, just tell him to call me okay?" Stan hissed, with that angry edge back in his voice.
"Okay, sure, I'll see you later." I called to Stan's retreating back as he wheeled himself out of the house.
"So, are we still going to party?" Clyde asked.
"Well, since we spent all that time preparing, we might as well." Wendy said with a shrug.
I could barely concentrate on the party, instead my mind kept drifting over to Stan, why was he so angry? Did he blame Kyle for the reason that he was in a wheelchair? That would be stupid, Kyle didn't ask to be kidnapped, he didn't force Stan to jump off a balcony.
I shook my head, I knew that in time Stan would probably talk about it, but for now, I wouldn't press him about it, I didn't want to push him away.
"Who's up for some karaoke?" I asked, deciding to join in on the party fun.