It was one of those weirdly quiet nights in South Park. In a town where crazy was somehow the norm, the idea of a night not filled with drunken screaming or the sound of police sirens was out of the box.
That didn't mean the residents of the mountain town didn't appreciate the occasional quiet nights. It meant better sleep for everyone, a night where no one had to keep a pistol by their pillow or fear for waking up to complete pandemonium due to dropped guards.
In a small, red house on the corner of a street, a young girl, wavy black hair splayed across her bed, snuggled further into her sheets, passed out. Tonight had been good; she'd gotten her homework completed and felt pretty prepared for the test tomorrow. Chatting with her friends had been the usual antics of trading sarcastic insults and sharing whatever weird videos they found while gossiping about the events at school. Dinner had been awesome and her parents didn't argue once (a new norm she was very grateful for), before she'd gotten ready for bed and swiped through social media until her mom came in to say goodnight. The only downside was that she had hoped to go to bed without hearing them go at it like rabbits the next room over, but the girl had determined that beggars couldn't be choosers, especially after the hellstorm she had gone through that caused her parents to be loving again.
Blissfulness is sometimes pretty bad, though. Passed out, she did not hear the dark van quietly hum up her driveway, nor did she hear the 'thoomp' and 'clank' of a grappling hook being fired and finding its target.
Feet worked their way up the side of the house as a dark figure climbed the rope. He peered in through the window to ensure that it was the right room before slowly easing a crowbar under the window. Once it was open enough, he eased in, trying to not kneel on the bed and wake the girl.
He didn't count for a creaky toy box at the foot of the bed. As soon as the noise sounded the girl shot up and stared at him. Two pairs of eyes locked for a second, maybe longer.
And then the girl screamed.
She dove out of bed, lunging on all fours in a bid for the door. The man jumped as well, grabbing her, weight of his body armor helping to force her to the floor as she yelled for her father. She clawed at his face, kicking his armored torso in a bid to dislodge him and his arms from her throat.
"Shhh, shut the fuck up kid. Shut up!" The soldier hissed, wincing as she slammed her heel into his crotch. The girl seemed to take his advice, but her face scrunched up in concentration.
"Oh shit-"
A loud fart echoed around the room as the soldier backed off and started gagging from the smell. The girl gasped for air, fumbling for the doorknob and nearly hitting herself in the face in her bid to open it quickly. When the soldier reached for her again, she slammed the door in his face before running for her parents room.
Which of course was locked.
"Dad! Dad get your Springfield! DAD!" She jiggled the handle in a desperate attempt to force it open. She yelled louder before proceeding to kick the door. She yelped as something looped around her neck and yanked, trying to choke her out.
The door to her parents' bedroom flew open, a half-naked man standing there with a semi-automatic in his hand. The sight of his daughter being garrotted was enough to wake him up fully and he slammed the barrel of the gun to the soldier's forehead.
"Let 'er go!" He yelled, voice slurring from sleep as he pawed at the black plastic loop around his daughter's neck. The soldier grunted in response.
"I said let. Her. Go!" This time the father slammed the butt of the gun to the soldier's eye, causing him to yelp and release the girl on instinct, who slammed into the ground and crawled between her father's knees.
"Chris!" came the yell from the bedroom. A woman in a bathrobe ran into the room, phone to her ear. "The police are on their way!" She bent down to grab her daughter, who was shaking and gasping.
Hearing that the police were coming, the soldier kicked Chris in the crotch before fleeing to the girl's bedroom and leaping out the window. Chris didn't pay it any attention but turned to his daughter, who was being coached on her breathing by her mother.
"Raven, cupcake, you okay?"
She just nodded before breaking into a fit of coughing. Chris ran into the bathroom to get water as the sound of sirens began to echo and red and blue lights flashed through the windows.
In a short amount of time, Chris was describing the events to his superior and a paramedic was checking out Raven's neck in the kitchen.
"Some broken skin and a ton of bruising. You might have some trouble speaking tomorrow but it's not anything life-threatening." The male paramedic concluded, wrapping a thin strip of bandage around her neck.
"I'll call her teachers in the morning. Thanks Jasper."
"Anytime Kelly."
The paramedic walked out just as Chris and Sergeant Yates walked in.
"Okay Raven, I need you to back up your dad's claims. Just to be clear, it wasn't a black male but a male dressed in black?"
Raven nodded, before pointing at her shoulder, drawing out a shape.
"There was a patch on his outfit?"
Again Raven nodded.
"What did it have on it?"
Raven shook her head.
"That's alright. Welp," Yates straightened out, "we saw some skid marks going down the street so we'll check 'em out for as far as we can."
"You want me to come with you guys?" Chris asked, escorting the Sergeant out of the house.
"Nah Chris, just stay here with your family. Dunno if the guy's gonna try again so keep 'em safe, you hear?"
Chris nodded. He opened the front door to see two figures arguing with officers at the driveway.
"Stephen, Linda."
The Stotches looked up and ran over to their neighbor.
"Chris, what's going on?" Stephen demanded.
"Nothing too big, folks, just a small home invasion. Nothing stolen, no one was seriously hurt." The sidestepped cop caught up to the couple. "Now, please, go home and relax. We're going to find whoever did this.
"Somehow doubt that." Linda mumbled under her breath, but she and her husband allowed themselves to be escorted away.
^.v.^
Raven lifted up part of the bandage to peer at the purple and red bruising under it. She sighed before adjusting her sweatshirt, trying to use her hair and clothes to cover up the evidence.
"Raven? Punkin, you're gonna be late!" Her father called up the stairs.
Casting one final look in the mirror, Raven grabbed her backpack and doubled down the stairs before leaping over the bannister and bursting out the door.
She didn't have to run far, thankfully, as her home was literally half a block from the bus stop. Four figures were already there, and she waved as she approached.
"Hey Raven!" Stan called, waving back. She smiled as she skidded to a stop, white powder flying.
"Hey, what was with the police last night?" Kyle asked.
Raven just huffed and shook her head, trying to not dislodge any of her hair.
"Ah great, did you go mute again?" Cartman protested.
Raven glared, clearing her throat. "No." she croaked out.
"You sound like shit." Kenny mumbled out, smothered by his parka.
Raven just shrugged and nodded. Thankfully, the bus pulled up so that she didn't have to be interrogated any more. The kids piled on and Raven slid into the seat next to a very cheerful looking blond boy.
"Well heya Raven!" Butters greeted her. Raven gave him a beaming smile.
"My mom told me that I should be extra nice to you today since your home got invaded last night. So I brought an extra granola bar!"
"Wait what?! Home invasion?!" Kyle nearly vaulted over the seat back, Stan hissing as he grabbed his friend's belt loops. "That's what happened last night?"
"Well yeah, that's what my mom told me an' she got it from an officer at the scene so it's gotta be true right?"
Raven sighed, rolled her eyes and threw her face into her palm. "Yep." she confirmed, secret blown as her hair moved to unveil the bandaging around her neck.
Stan peered over now, one hand still on Kyle's belt. "Jesus Christ dude, what'd they do to you?"
"Hey, I got an idea, let's not play Thirty Questions on the bus! And sit your asses back down!" the driver yelled.
Stan and Kyle mumbled but did as they were told. Raven peered around back.
"At lunch." She whispered.
^.v.^
Of course the teacher just had to talk in front of the entire class to Raven about the events from last night and assured her to go to the nurse if she needed anything. At that moment, the noirette wanted nothing more than to turtle into her sweatshirt and glitch away somewhere. She had ended up being hounded by most of the class during lessons and was looking forward to hiding out in the girls bathroom until lunch was over to avoid the crowd that was sure to commence at the table. She was just glad her voice had recovered over the course of the day.
She'd just passed the boys bathroom when hands shot out and grabbed her, yanking her in with a yelp.
"Oh ya'll are a bunch of dicks!" she complained to the nine faces peering at her.
"How else were we supposed to get you in here?" Clyde questioned.
"I don't know, maybe fucking tell me?" Raven brushed her hair away, watching her friends' eyes gravitate to her neck.
"What the hell happened?" Craig asked.
"Well, I gotta replace this anyway, so guess you're gonna see." Raven reached around and picked at the tape securing the gauze. She unwound it as her friends gasped.
Her neck was mottled purple near a long cut that almost encircled the entirety of her neck. The edges had faded, still an angry red but dying down to yellows and greens.
"Ngh! Are those-those ha-hands?" Tweek gasped.
"Started out as hands then turned into cable. Or wire, hard to tell." She walked over to the mirror and pulled a roll of fresh gauze from her pocket, wrapping it around her neck.
"Wire?!" Tweek screeched. Craig shifted to rub his jittery boyfriend's back.
"You think he's gonna come back?" Clyde asked.
Raven's hands stilled, and then fell. "Dunno." She shrugged. "But somehow I have the feeling he might. The dude had body armor and a patch on his uniform. I think….I think it was those guys."
"What guys?" Token was confused.
Raven turned to hop up onto the sink. "Y'all remember the Stick, when there was that helicopter?"
Kenny stiffened. "Those fucks?"
"It looked like the same shape." Raven whispered. "But I don't know. I didn't see the unicorn. Couldn't tell cause, yanno, trying to not die?"
Cartman looked peeved. "You told those chucklefucks to piss off though. In the most dramatic way possible."
Raven chuffed. "Guess they don't give a shit. Maybe it was something to do with Superheroes? I don't know." She hopped off the counter. "Well, I'm gonna go camp out in the girls bathroom to avoid a total shitshow in the cafeteria. See ya."
"Wait." Kyle blurted. All activity stilled. "Maybe we should stay at your place tonight."
"What." Stan deadpanned.
"Think about it! If that guy comes back he's only gonna be expecting Raven, right? But he won't be expecting all of us there, so maybe we could like jump him or something if he does make a reappearance. And even if he doesn't, well…."
"Still a kick-ass sleepover." Raven finished, a small smile on her face. "Sure. I'll call my mom and let her know. One thing though-" She pointed at Cartman. "Fatass does not have any beanbag privileges."
"Ay!" Cartman complained as she spun on her heel and waltzed out of the bathroom.
"What you get for being a dickbag!" She singsonged, flipping the bird over her shoulder.
^.v.^
PLW: Okay….college has been a shitshow so far, but it's summer vacation now and by God I need to get something done with my fanfiction!
So OFC I start a new one instead of finishing the ones I've already started.
Listen though, the South Park videogame series has been a huge stress relief for me recently, and so has working on my OC Raven. She's Douchebag, the player character, and she went from a sort of representation into my goddamn daughter. And I love putting her through hell to come out the other end bloodied but unbroken.
I've had ideas for a continuation of her story for almost a year now. And now I actually have some spark of motivation to start it.
Please enjoy, and remember that I own nothing but Raven! The rest belongs to Trey Parker and Matt Stone