Swaying in the wind
Chapter 1 – The reunion
It was a cold, dark night in South Park and Kyle Broflovski made his way through the streets returning home.
He had been to a reunion party at a local bar with most of his past friends from South Park Elementary School.
The evening had been a memorable one and Kyle had caught up with many of his childhood friends, most of which he had lost contact with over the years.
He was still close friends with Stan Marsh, Kenny McCormick and surprisingly Eric Cartman. Even though he'd had his problems with Cartman, he'd matured over the years and they had become good friends.
Normally, Kyle would have gone to the reunion with Stan and walked home with him but Stan was out of town for a week.
The company Stan worked for had paid for him and his long term girlfriend Wendy to go to a training seminar for new products. Stan was so happy the company had agreed to pay for Wendy to go along with him and he saw it as a chance to save their relationship which had been a bit shaky recently.
Kyle was upset that Stan couldn't make the evening, it would have made the evening much more special to have all 3 of his closest friends around him, but he tried not to dwell on it, it was a good night even if Stan wasn't there.
Kenny and Cartman went their separate ways after leaving the bar leaving Kyle to find his own way home, not that Kyle was worried about walking home.
Kyle was now 20 years old and walking home late at night was something he did on a regular basis. He enjoyed visiting the local bar with Stan and was something he did regularly but he normally had Stan to keep him company during the 15 minute journey home.
Tonight, however felt different to Kyle. The air felt colder than usual to him and he had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that he just couldn't shift no matter how hard he tried.
After 10 minutes Kyle reached the outside of town and the alley that would lead him to his street came into view. It was long and dark as it only had a light at each end and was pretty much disused unless drunken people needed the toilet on their way home, so the stench on urine around the entrance was almost over powering.
Kyle pushed his hands deep into his pockets and held his breath so as not to breathe in the retched smell as he entered the alley.
As he walked he quickened his pace as the feeling in the pit of his stomach became worst, something was telling him that something just wasn't right and he didn't like it at all.
By the time Kyle was a quarter of the way though, he was running, the alcohol he had consumed this evening was causing him to occasionally bump into the fence that lined the concrete pavement he ran along but he ignored the occasional pain in his arms and shoulders and continued to run, he just wanted to get to the other end of the alley as soon as he could.
After a minute he reached the middle, he could see the dim light in the distance at the end and he ran as fast as his legs would carry him towards it.
As he got closer to the end of the alley though, he could make out a figure ahead of him. At first it was a blur, but as he ran he started to make out the outlines of someone walking in the opposite direction.
He slowed his pace to a walk and suddenly realised he was out of breath from the running. Kyle wouldn't normally be out of breath from a short run being a pretty sports orientated person but the alcohol had started to take its toll.
As the figure became closer Kyle could make out the outline of the persons head walking towards him. He couldn't see any of their features but could clearly make out that they had messy hair and were taller than him.
As he approached the figure in front of him the anonymous person stopped causing Kyle to do the same.
Suddenly for no real reason that Kyle could explain the feeling of fear gripped his entire body, his hands were shaking in his pockets where they were still placed and chills were being sent up and down his spine and before he could think about anything else the figure was standing right in front of him.
He could hear their breath as they exhaled and quickly took another deep, sharp breath but it was too dark to see anything.
The dark figure in front of him said nothing and Kyle suddenly felt the urge to turn and run in the opposite direction, just as he was about to take action on the urge he felt the unmistakable feeling of someone's hand on his shoulder and he was quickly overpowered and pushed to the floor, there was no chance to do anything let alone attempt to defend himself.
To be continued…