"Accident at the fair! Twelve youngsters have been electrocuted due to a ride malfunction tonight at the South Park summer fair! Here with a special report is a midget in a bikini."
"I'm here at the scene of the accident, Tom; as you can see the Police has shut the attraction down and its owners are being arrested for an alledged criminal negligence. One of the victims is dead and the others remain in critical condition. They have been taken to the hospital, where they are doing everything possible to save their lives."
"Quick! We can still stabilize him!"
He was lying on his back, his arms at his sides. He couldn't open his eyes or move a single muscle. All he could do was listen, feel the movement. He could have sworn he was feeling a certain pumping inside his skull: his heartbeats. There was people around him. He heard them talk about him, about how grim he looked. He didn't ask himself any questions. He couldn't think at all. Relax. Don't worry about anything.
He drifted into the emptiness again.
When he opened his eyes again, Tweek was now in a more comfortable place, a bed. Sunlight entered the room through an open window; it had to be almost midday. That light hurt Tweek's eyes, he had to blink for a long while until he was able to see a thing. The first he saw was his mother looking at him from the armchair by his side.
"Tweek, honey!" she exclaimed, getting up to kiss his face.
Tweek was unable to say anything for a while, his throat felt terribly dry. In this time, his father walked into the room with a couple of mugs of the family coffee in his hands.
"Son! Thank God!"
"Dad? Mom?" his voice sounded raspy. "...What happened?"
"Don't you remember?" his father asked.
"I'm going to tell the doctor." Mrs. Tweak ran out of the room.
"Sit down, you're still in no condition to..."
"Dad, what happened?"
"There was something wrong with the ride." Mr. Tweak left the coffee on the table and sat on the bed by his son. "A wire, an engine...they haven't found out yet, but something didn't work as it was supposed to, and all of you..."
Tweek started to remember. That sudden pain, then nothing. He muttered a curse, touching his chest, as if he wanted to make sure that his heartbeats were no illusion.
"We talked, the families. We are suing those people all together. You almost die, all of you—Kenny did."
"Kenny? Kenny McCormick? He died?"
"Yes. They couldn't revive him."
Tweek ran a hand through his hair, which was wet with sweat. Kenny was dead?
"It looked perfectly well, we didn't think there was something wrong with...Wait! Craig! Where is he?! Is he alright?!"
"Easy, easy! Don't get up! I saw his parents just a while ago, he's still unconscious but is out of danger."
"A-Are you sure? I have to see him, I-I have to-!" Tweek had to be pushed back to the bed by his father.
"No, no, no, Tweek, don't move, the doctor is here." Mrs. Tweak was at the door with a black woman who was wearing the hospital uniform.
"Well, you look fine for someone who's received a 11,000 volt shock." the doctor approached to examine him.
Tweek let her touch him and check everything she needed. His eyes looked down at his middle finger. There was now no ring but an ugly mark reflected it had been once. Where was it? That was one more reason to feel anxious.
"I have to see Craig. I have to see everyone. Did you see my ring? Where is my ring? Craig gave it to me."
"Don't worry about that now, Tweek. I have the ring, I'll give it to you once you leave the hospital, I promise." Mrs. Tweak told him.
"Relax, son, it's just a ring." Mr. Tweak said.
"It's my engagement ring..."
Tweek had muttered those words, but Mr. Tweak had heard them perfectly and needed a bit of time to process them.
"...What?"
"All the others are still unconscious, you are the first to wake up." the doctor told Tweek.
Tweek had to breath deeply in order to calm himself down. He REALLY needed an espresso or five, but it was rather unlikely that they would allow him to drink coffee in such state.
"Can I walk around? Or just move a little bit?"
The doctor accepted, as long as he didn't force himself—his condition was still delicate. At least, that was what she said: Tweek felt perfectly fine. It almost seemed impossible that hours ago he was fighting for his life. If he wanted to walk for a while, it was because that room overwhelmed him, and because he wanted to check on his friends.
His mother held him by an arm while he walked through the corridor. Unfortunately, he couldn't see his friends and boyfriend, but he did see their families.
Mr. Donovan was wandering like a ghost in search of a coffee machine; they passed by his side, Tweek's mother offered him a cup of their own coffee and he didn't seem to notice. Mrs. Tweak later explained to Tweek that the poor man had suffered a nervous breakdown upon seeing his son half-dead, exclaiming that he couldn't lose him too. Mrs. Tweak told this with a lump in her throat, because, at the moment, all the parents were completely devastated, they had heard that one of the boys had died and they didn't know if it was their child or if they would be the next. They also found Timmy's mother and father and they did see them, but barely reacted. A social worker was with them. They needed help understanding what had happened to their son and what to do.
"Tweek," Mr. Black and his wife came to their encounter, "you're awake. I'm so glad."
"Thanks, Mr. Black." Tweek replied. "How's Token?"
"He's alright. He's...got third degree injuries from the electrocution, but he's alive, thank Jesus. He's resting, he's resting now." Mrs. Black sighed. She looked extremely tired, her eyes swollen from crying, probably.
Tweek unconsciously leaned his body towards the open door of the room where Token rested. He couldn't see him, there was a folding screen in the way. Anyway, he wasn't sure if he wanted to see Token in whatever state he was. His eyes then wandered around. In which of those rooms was Craig? Was he really alright? He wouldn't believe it until he saw him with his own eyes and talked to him. It was his fault, he was the one who suggested that ride. Gosh, he had never needed a cup of coffee more than in that moment.
"How have you been? We haven't seen you since the boys graduated."
Mr. Black was interrupted by Tweek's sudden gasp. They turned around and the surprise was general.
The person who was walking very slowly in their direction was no other than Kenny McCormick, flanked by his sister Karen. His parents were not with him but could be heard.
"WHAT KIND OF SHITTY HOLE IS THIS?! WHAT KIND OF ASSHOLES CAN'T TELL WHEN A PERSON IS DEAD OR ALIVE?!" Stuart was shouting to a doctor who had his hands up in an attempt to calm him down, but Stuart was too close.
"Please...The EMT certified that your son was dead, there was no pulse, no reaction, the wounds were very severe. They tried to revive him for thirty minutes and..."
"THEN WHY IS HE WALKING?! HEH?! WHY IS HE UP AND ALIVE?! WHY IS HE PERFECTLY FINE?! YOU ALMOST CUT MY FUCKING BABY OPEN!" Carol was behind the poor man, her teeth gritted in pure rage.
"Lady, I am not the one who-"
"OF COURSE, NO ONE WANTS TO TAKE THE RESPONSIBILITY! YOU FUCKED UP AND YOU'RE GOING TO PAY! YOU TOLD US OUR CHILD WAS DEAD!"
"K-Kenny!"
Kenny noticed his old classmate and walked to his encounter.
"No, Kenny, don't go so fast." Karen tried to slow him down.
"It's alright, don't worry." Kenny told her. "Tweek! Are you alright?"
"Well, no, I'm anxious as fuck right now. I-I...I can't believe you're alive! They told me you were dead!"
"They thought I was dead. I woke up in the freaking table, they were about to do the autopsy to me."
"Jesus!"
"The Lord was with you, Kenneth." Mr. Black.
"Certainly. We're glad to see you so well." Mrs. Black nodded. "Look at you! You look as if nothing had happened to you."
Tweek stared at Kenny and saw that Token's mom was not wrong.
Yes, it was...kind of freaky, when he thought about it. He should have been showing at least some marks. Such an electrocution had to leave severe burns. But Kenny had none. He looked fine. Also...when he saw him, that night...He remembered that he didn't look well, with a bruise in his face. Now, that bruise had disappeared. He looked pale but alright.
"You know...about the others?" Kenny asked him.
"They seem to be alive, at least. I don't know much..."
"I'll go check on Stan and Kyle. They have to be around here."
"Mom?" Tweek looked at his mother.
"Well, alright, you can go. But don't stay away for too long, the doctors have to check on you."
The three youngsters left the adult talk and crossed that long corridor, looking for their friends. Stucking their heads into some of the rooms, they found Jimmy with his eyes closed, resting in his bed. Seeing that jester lying as if he was dead made Tweek feel the most unpleasant weight in his stomach. On the other hand, they found Wendy awake, being examined by a doctor. Since she seemed to be very disoriented, they decided to come in later. They were glad that another one had recovered consciousness.
In the end, they found Ike Broflovski standing in front of a vending machine with some coins in his hand. He seemed not to be paying much attention to the items he could buy, but just staring into space.
"Ike." Kenny called him.
Ike blinked, turning his head to them very slowly.
"Kenny...But I saw how they put a blanket on you..."
"Well...They made a mistake. How's Kyle?"
"...He's okay. Not fine, but okay. He's not woken up yet."
"Maybe you should go home. Both of you should go home." Kenny looked at Karen too.
"No way. I'm not leaving him." Ike replied. Karen also shook her head.
"Come on, your parents are here to take care of him." Tweek helped Kenny convince him.
"I want to stay here too..."
They didn't insist.
"You want to see him?"
"Sure."
As they walked, and since Kenny evidently didn't need help, Karen approached Ike to talk to him. The poor guy looked terribly tired and worried, as she had been when her parents were drinking their asses off in front of the TV and their program was interrupted by those terrible news, and they immediately drove to the hospital praying to all divinities for Kenny to be safe.
Kenny also approached Tweek to speak to him in low voice.
"I shouldn't be alive now."
"Don't say that. You've-"
"No, no. You don't understand. I shouldn't be alive. You neither. People die from stuff like this, you know that?"
"I don't know, maybe we were lucky, this stuff happens."
Kenny looked away. "I don't believe in luck."
Tweek fell silent, but his head started to hurt from thinking that Kenny...was right. He shouldn't have woken up so soon. He shouldn't have woken up at all. He forgot to look at himself in the mirror and see if he had any scars from the electrocution. The doctor had mentioned nothing about it.