After nearly a full day of standing around (and sometimes floating around), Kyle finally made it to the front of the line. He had glanced behind himself several times, and it appeared that the people in front of him had actually increased in number while he had been standing there. However, he soon realized that the building itself was adapting its size to accommodate the people inside, although it was still nowhere near enough. There were still people in virtually every corner of the room. However, all of those concerned became irrelevant as he finally approached the booth, eager to end the whole ordeal.

"Alright, what's your name?"
"Kyle Broflovski, ma'am."
"Alright, Kyle... Let's see who we have in store for you... You were told about how we choose them, right?"
"Yeah..."
"Good. It's just that, sometimes, people start asking 'Oh, why not my uncle?' and stuff like that, and it gets really tiresome to explain everything to everyone."

"I see why this takes almost a full day... You cannot shut the fuck up."

"Alrighty... You're going to... South Park, and you get to watch over one... Kenneth McCormick."
"K-Kenny?"

Kyle once again became overwhelmed with sadness, just from hearing Kenny's name. He wanted to be with him just as much as Kenny did; maybe even more so. He glanced upward at the smiling woman in the booth and started to feel uncomfortable. Everyone around him was ecstatic, and so was he, for a while, but he couldn't figure out why. It was as if he was dreaming most of the time, and only the memory of Kenny could wake him up from it. Kyle finally stopped trying to analyze everything and asked the most important question on his mind.

"When can I go?"
"We'll just get you some wings and you're off."
"...Thank you."
"There's just... a little contract you have to sign."
"Fine. Whatever it takes."
"I'm glad you're so eager, but this is serious. The boss doesn't like it when people don't follow his rules."
"O-OK."
"Go through that door on the left and you'll be taken to your own little corner of heaven where you can read the contract in peace."
"But... Kenny might be in trouble!"
"Don't worry; one day here is one hour down there. Right now he's sleeping safely in his room."

Kyle nodded and thanked the blond woman once again and rushed into the door. The inside of the room was just like his bedroom, but it had some elements of Kenny's as well. The wallpaper, desk and bed was Kyle's, whereas the bookshelf filled with games belonged to Kenny. It was like someone had taken the best of both rooms and stuck them together. Everything except the most important element to Kyle: Kenny himself.

"...I can't think about that right now. Gotta read this... contract or whatever..."

Kyle started reading the contract, and it all seemed fairly logical to him.

"Can't hurt people... Can't stop Kenny from hurting anyone... Can't stop Kenny from hurting himself... Can't-"

Once he got to the bottom, however, his eyes immediately started tearing up.

"...Can't interact with Kenny directly or let him know I'm there... Why would they forbid this? I can't just sit there and watch him... He needs me. That's why I got him in the first place. Who the fuck made these fucking rules?"

"DAMMIT!"

Kyle ripped the contract in half and started breaking everything he could get his hands on – the desk, the chair, the walls – until he became too tired to move and had to lie down. A few seconds later, everything returned to normal, and he started crying again.

"Dammit... I can't do this... But if I don't do it, I don't get to see him... I have to do this... Even if it hurts."

Kyle hesitantly picked up the pen and shakingly signed the contract. He tried to pick it up afterward, in order to deliver it to the same woman in the booth, but it had increased in weight several times. To him, it appeared as if it weighed as much as his desk. After a while, the piece of paper simply lifted itself into the air and disappeared. At that moment, the room was bathed in light, which immediately enveloped Kyle. The light formed itself into a pair of wings as white as snow, and he was thrown back to Earth. He appeared just above Kenny's bed, where the latter was sleeping soundly.

"Kenny..."

Kyle smiled to himself, happy that he was finally back with Kenny. He watched him sleep for hours, until he fell asleep himself, still hovering above Kenny.

The following morning, Kenny started crying as soon as he woke up. All he could think about was Kyle, and how much he missed him. Kyle watched in silence as Kenny shuffled around in his room, searching for one of his many drug stashes, and finally took a bunch of different pills. He watched as Kenny slowly became more relaxed, albeit still with tears rolling down his cheeks, saddened by the fact that his absence was the cause of Kenny's depression. He wanted to show himself to Kenny, but he was too scared that they would take away his wings, and then he wouldn't be able to see him again.

"Kenny? Are you in here, bro?"
"...I'm here, Kevin. What do you want?"
"I heard what happened... I just wanted to say I'm sorry."
"Great. You've said it. Now leave me alone."
"Kenny, you don't have to go through his alone. You-"
"Kevin, just leave me the fuck alone. You have no idea what I'm going through. Talking about it doesn't make me feel better; it just makes me feel worse. I want to be alone. Is that too fucking hard to understand?"
"...I get it, Kenny. You don't have to tell me twice."

"Great. Now he's sad. Fucking Kevin..."

"...Anyway, are you going to Kyle's funeral?"
"When's that?"
"It's today; around 10, I think."

"So soon? I'd ask why I wasn't told, but the answer is obvious. Kyle's mom blames me for what happened... And she's right to do it."

"...Thanks, Kevin."
"I'm only here to help, bro."

As Kenny's brother left and Kenny resumed his crying, Kyle's sadness increased. He blamed himself for what was happening to Kenny, even though he couldn't have done anything about it. He was also starting to understand why he had been sent to watch over Kenny, and not anyone else in the entire world. Kenny was a wreck without him.

"I wish you could hear me, Kenny... I wish you weren't in so much pain... I'm so sorry."

Later that day, just as Kenny was heading out to Kyle's funeral, he was visited by Ike and Butters. Naturally, he was surprised by their visit, with Kyle's funeral an hour or so away. He started to wonder if they were even going until they interrupted his train of thought.

"Hey, Kenny. Me and Butters came here to talk."
"I have somewhere I need to be. Talk fast."
"We just wanted to know how you were doing. We want to help."
"Let me tell you how you can help..."

Kyle watched Kenny yell at Butters and Ike, telling them that he didn't want to talk about what had happened and that he just wanted to be left alone. Whereas his friends became angry at Kenny's reaction, Kyle simply became sadder and sadder. Kenny was clearly unstable because of what had happened. He was erratic, angry, sad, depressed and twitchy. All he seemed to want was to be alone, high and drunk all the time. To Kyle, seeing Kenny destroy himself like that was the most painful thing he had felt since he got shot.

"Kenny, are you alright?"
"I'm fine."
"You look... high."
"And what would you know about that, kid? You're, what? 14?"
"Yeah. And I go to school. Your pupils are dilated, you're sweating-"
"That's because I'm pissed off!"

"Right. And we're very happy right now. Hence the smiles"

"...Look, I just want to be left alone. Please."
"...Alright, Kenny. Ike and I are going to leave you alone. We have something to do too."

"That sounded weird..."

"Good for you. I'll see you both later."

Kenny headed to the town cemetery and watched Kyle's funeral from afar. He knew that if he was seen, Kyle's mother would make a scene, as she always did. Kenny, however, respected Kyle too much to crash, and possibly ruin, his funeral.

Butters and Ike looked around, wondering why the funeral had been planned so quickly, and yet so late. However, once they saw Kenny standing next to a large tree, watching them, their questions became irrelevant. They had intended on telling him about the funeral, but Kenny was clearly not in his right mind at the time, so they thought it was best to just leave him in the dark and talk to him when he had calmed down. Of course, now it was pointless to dwell on their mistake. Kenny obviously knew about the funeral, but, he wasn't going to do anything stupid. Not yet anyway.

After everyone left, Kenny took the small bouquet he had bought with what little money he had left and laid it on top of the others. He held back his tears for as long as he could, until he felt too depressed to care and fell to his knees, crying. Kyle watched as Kenny wept, feeling just as depressed as he did. He was about to try to speak to Kenny, in spite of his fear, when Kenny himself broke the silence. At first it was just garbled words, but, as Kenny fought against the urge to cry, his words became more clear.

"-'m sorry, Kyle... This was all my fault... You are – were – perfect, and I screwed it all up."

"I have to say something... I can't hold my tongue forever. Not like this..."

"I hope you'll forgive me."

"Because I sure as hell can't." thought Kenny as he got back on his feet.

"...There's nothing to forgive, Kenny. It wasn't your fault."
"Stan? Don't you know eavesdropping is rude?"
"I just got here. Just long enough to hear you blame yourself for what happened."
"Who else is there to blame?
"Maybe the guy with the gun?"
"I made him go out that night. I picked the restaurant. I wasted all my money on that dinner."

"You're actually blaming yourself for not having enough money for both your boyfriend and some mugger? What the hell is wrong with you?"

"...Look, Kenny, you didn't do anything wrong. It's not your fault. If Kyle were here, he'd say the same thing, and you know it."

"Damn right I would."

"But he's not here. And even if he was, that doesn't mean he'd be right. Anyways, I know what happened. You don't. So shut the fuck up and leave me alone."
"...I'm just trying to help, Kenny."
"You know, I am sick and tired of people 'just trying to help'. I've heard that four god damned times today. You, Ike, Kevin, Butters... You wanna help? Leave me alone. I don't want to talk about Kyle. I don't want to talk about me. I just want to be left alone so I can deal with this my way."

"'My way' is just code for 'drinking and doing drugs until I can't feel anything anymore'." thought Stan as he fought the urge to yell back at Kenny.

"As far as I care, you can take your 'just want to help' crap and shove it. And you can tell that to everyone else who wants to bother me. Leave me the fuck alone."

Stan and Kenny glared at each other, until the former turned around and reluctantly left Kenny alone. Although Kenny was one of his best friends, and he really did want to help, Kenny's attitude was eating away his good-will. It wasn't just Stan either; everyone who interacted with Kenny for an extended period of time lost their will to help him. The only one who still wanted to help him just as much as when he found out about his situation was Kyle. Like Kenny, he blamed himself for what had happened. However, most of his pain derived from seeing Kenny suffer and not being able to do anything about it, rather than his own guilt. Kenny, on the other hand, was being crushed under the weight of his guilt. The separation from Kyle only made it worse. Every breath, every step he took; nothing felt right knowing that Kyle was dead. The only thing that had felt even remotely right since he died was the pain.

Once Stan was no longer visible, Kenny started heading back home. He briefly wondered why Ike and Butters had gone to his house to see him and didn't even bother to tell him about the funeral.

"Maybe they actually though they were helping? Or... maybe they just knew that Kyle's mom would start bitching about how it's all my fault... She has to make everything about her, even if it's all about... him."

When Kenny finally got back home, a thought, born out of desperation and anger, popped into his head. If he couldn't get Kyle back, then at least he could get revenge on the guy who shot him.

"Stan's right. That fucker took him away from me... And he's going to feel my pain if I have to give it to him myself."