"E-Everyone's been pretty nice here and I-I haven't had any problems so far. Kyle and I talked a lot yesterday." The bright blonde boy shifted in his seat and glanced around the office while he spoke.

"M'kay." The counselor remarked. He wrote something down on a notepad that Butters couldn't see.

"Why, I e-even met his friends at dinner! They were all pretty swell." Butters smiled at the counselor, Mr. Mackey. He was brought in to the office for his first appointment by Stan. Mr. Mackey had said they could talk about anything in there, it didn't really matter what. The point of the appointments was to figure out why he was there. So far, though, Mr. Mackey wasn't sure what the little blonde's problems were. All he was seeing was a bright, young boy. A little bit naïve for his age, but otherwise normal. Why did his parents even bring him here?

"Oh, really? What did you all talk about?" Mr. Mackey asked. He continued writing in his book, but gave Butters his attention by listening to him.

"Oh well, t-they talked about someone named Kenny." Butters looked down at his hands and began to fiddle his thumbs. He knew very well who Kenny was.

"Kenny? As in Kenny McCormick?" Mr. Mackey looked up from his notes and stared at Butters, waiting for an answer.

"Y-Yeah. They were saying all kinds of things. I-I don't really believe them though." Butters looked back up to Mackey with a stern expression; his fingers stilled.

"What kinds of things were they saying?" Mackey asked. He was interested in what rumors were going around this time. He treated McCormick himself, so maybe the rumors would come in handy. Rumors stemmed from some truth after all, right?

"Oh, uh. Something about harming some people and running around the building sometimes. I-I forget what all they said." Butters shrugged. He didn't really forget. He just didn't want to perpetuate rumors about Kenny, especially when he said the majority of them weren't true.

"Oh well, that's too bad. If you remember them, tell me about them, m'kay?" Mackey requested. He was rather curious, plus he wanted to talk to Kenny about them.

"O-Ok, Mr. Mackey!" Butters smiled and nodded. He wasn't going to say anything though. Butters didn't know Kenny very well, but he figured he wouldn't appreciate it very much.

"M'kay. Is there anything else you want to talk about?" Mackey returned to his writing. Butters almost wanted to ask what he was writing, but figured it was important doctor notes. In reality, Mackey was just drawing doodles of dogs.

"Hm, well, I was wondering if you knew what was wrong with me." Butters' eyebrows furrowed as he pointed to himself, "I'm really not sure why I'm here and I'm getting a little worried, see." Butters' voice shook a little as he spoke. He was genuinely worried about why he was there in the center. As far as Butters knew, he hasn't done anything to warrant being sent here.

"M'kay, well Butters, lets take a look at your symptoms that your parents told us." Mackey set aside his notebook and opened a drawer to his left. "Ah no, that's the wrong drawer." He muttered as he closed the drawer full of Cheetos bags. He reached over to his right to slide that drawer opened. "Mm, lets see here…" Mackey dug around in the drawer for a minute before pulling out a thin Manila folder, "This is it." He set it down on the desk before opening it. He read as he spoke, "Let's see, fear of the dark, m'kay. Can't seem to follow rules, m'kay. Caught with mother's makeup…" Mackey looked up to Butters. Butters eyes darted to the left. "M'kay. The last one is general unresponsiveness when introduced to a stressor. M'kay." Mackey nodded, almost to himself. He looked up and spoke in a leveled manner directed to Butters, "Well, besides the last one, I don't think any of those are symptoms of anything. Do you know what the last symptom is referring to?"

Butters face pinched in thought. He didn't really know what that was referring to. What stressor was it talking about? He wasn't really stressed about anything. His school was fine, besides the people that picked on him from time to time. His general life was…alright. He didn't really understand what that meant. "N-No. I don't know what that means." He shook his head at Mackey.

Mackey sighed and tapped his finger on his desk. He'll have to do some research; and by research, that means he'll have to google it. "Alright then. I'll have to look into it. Until then," he looked to the clock on the wall behind Butters, "I think our time is up. I'll see you in a couple of days, m'kay?" His gaze returned to a slightly smiling Butters.

"Oh ok, Mr. Mackey! I'll see you then. Thank you for the help. I really appreciate it." Butters said as he got up from the chair. He waved goodbye to Mackey and headed out the door. Mackey waved half-heartedly back to a retreating Butters.

"M'kay, now where is that laptop?" Mackey muttered to himself and began to shuffle through his mess.

"I'm just saying, it wasn't a bad idea."

"So what you're saying is that it was a good idea to kill off millions of disabled people?"

"No, I just said it wasn't a bad idea. Maybe if disabled people didn't exist, places like this wouldn't exist and they wouldn't be stealing money from the government."

Kyle sighed as he walked along side Cartman, "Why do I even talk to you?" He shook his head in amazement. Cartman was amazingly offensive sometimes.

"Because I'm amazing? Because you can't resist this?" Cartman gestured to his entire body, "I know I'm amazing, but Jesus Kahl. I can only give you so much." He sighed, as if he was so tired of dealing with awesome amazingness. He was, though; it was hard being so amazing.

"Oh, shove it up your ass." Kyle shoved Cartman lightly off the path they were walking on in the courtyard. He tried not to laugh at Cartman's ridiculousness, but it was getting increasingly hard. He didn't want to encourage him.

"Maybe I should shove it up yours." Cartman had meant this as a comeback, but…well.

Kyle had enough, he stopped walking and started laughing uncontrollably. He bent over and put his hands on his knees, feeling tears come out of his eyes, "You're such a dumbass, C-Cartman!" His entire body shook with laughter as he eventually crouched down because his knees gave out.

Cartman sniffed at the laughing Jew and simply started at him. Secretly, he liked making the little kike laugh. He hadn't really meant to this time, but still; he liked it. Cartman put his hand to his hip and asked, "Are you ready to head back or not?"

As Kyle's laughter died down, he stood back up and brushed his track clothes off, even if they didn't have any dirt on them. He smiled largely and looked around at where they were. They were in the back of the track in the courtyard inside the trees. He and Cartman had decided to go for a walk due to boredom and lack of anything to do. Kyle had reluctantly agreed to go with him, but he had been on walks with him before. Honestly, when the two were alone, they didn't seem to fight all that much. Oh, they still fought, but not as much as when they had an audience.

"Yeah, I think we should head back." He faced Cartman again, who was looking at him weird.

"Uh, Cartman?"

"Huh?" God, his hair was so...red.

"What are you doing?" Kyle's eyes narrowed at him.

Cartman blinked and then scoffed. He started walking back the way they came and simply brushed by Kyle. Kyle turned to look at Cartman's retreating back before lowering an eyebrow in confusion. Cartman was acting weird, and he didn't know what to do about it.

"Are you coming or not, Jew?" Cartman yelled behind him. He looked back to see the Jew just standing there. Stupid day walker.

"Yeah yeah, I'm coming!" Kyle moved forward to catch up to Cartman. What ever was making Cartman act weird would have to wait until later. He was getting pretty hungry and he needed to take his insulin soon.

As soon as they got back from the courtyard, Kyle went to take his insulin. The nurse there was nice enough, but he had been hoping to see Stan. Stan was his friend and Kyle kind of used Stan as a pseudo counselor. Stan wasn't good at giving advice, but he was a good listener. It also worked vise-versa. Stan told Kyle things that happened in his life and Kyle listened to him when ever he needed. Stan wasn't there though, so he guessed he would catch him somewhere else.

After leaving the nurse's station, Kyle headed toward the patient lobby. He didn't really know what he was going to do. Maybe read or watch T.V…

"Hi, Kyle!"

Kyle was startled into a slight scream before turning around to see Butters. He was smiling up at Kyle with wide and innocent eyes.

"Oh shit, Butters. You scared me." Kyle clutched his chest and took a deep breath.

"Oops. S-Sorry, Kyle. I didn't mean to." Butters looked genuinely sorry and began to rub his knuckles together.

Kyle noticed this and put his hands over Butters' to get him to stop, "It's alright, Butters. Really." Kyle smiled down at him.

Butters stared for a second before smiling back. Kyle removed his hands before Butters asked, "W-What are you up to today?"

Kyle shrugged, "I just got back from a walk outside. I was going to my room to rest for a bit. You want to come with? I'm kind of bored to be honest." He pointed toward the general direction of his room.

"S-Sure! I just got out of Mr. Mackey's office, s-so I don't have anything to do." Butters shrugged and grinned.

"Oh, you had an appointment with him? How'd that go?" Kyle started walking down the hall to his room. Butters followed him shortly after.

"It was…alright. H-He said he would help me find out what my problem was." He put his finger to his lips and hummed, "His office is rather messy though. It was hard to get through the door."

Kyle laughed, "Rather messy? Dude, Mackey is a hoarder. He seriously needs a counselor of his own."

Butters laughed as well, but nervously. He was uncomfortable speaking ill of people behind their backs.

Soon enough, they reached Kyle's room. It was closed, so Butters let Kyle open it for them. What was inside was rather interesting to look at. Inside was a room filled with various posters of bands, most of which he'd never heard of. The general layout of the room was the same as Butters' room, except with a few additional pieces of furniture. He had a side table and a bookshelf to the right and left side of his vertically turned bed (rather than horizontally turned, like Butters' was). His side table had a small lamp on it while his bookshelf was filled with various books and small figures. Butters stepped closer to look at them. All of this was layed over a similar beige carpet to Butters'. The window was in the same place, except it had a red curtain.

"Wow, Kyle. Your room is really nice! Ah-I wish my room was this nice." Butters remarked as he continued to survey the room.

"Thanks, Butters." Kyle went to sit on the bed. He watched as Butters looked around at everything, "I'm sure your parents will bring you stuff to decorate with." Kyle shrugged.

"Oh, I-I hope so. I'm supposed t-to see them this weekend." Butters stopped looking at everything and stood near the bed, "Do you know what day it is?" Butters asked. He hadn't had the chance to check the day since his parents had rushed him out the door yesterday.

"It's Wednesday." Kyle answered. He smiled up at Butters, "You can sit if you want to you know." He informed Butters as he scooter back onto his bed and leaned on the headboard.

Butters smiled as he sat, a little rigidly though. "Thanks. I-I hope they do come. I kind of want to see them. I miss them a lot." Butters' smile disappeared as he looked at his hands.

"Hey, don't worry." Kyle bumped his shoe on Butters gently, "I'm sure they'll come. They are your parents after all."

"Yeah, m-maybe you're right." Butters continued looking at his hands. He thought about the next words that came out of his mouth carefully, "K-Kyle, can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot."

"Is…is Kenny really all that dangerous, like everyone says he is?" Butter finally looked up from his hands. He faced Kyle with a worried glance, "Has he really hurt people, do you think?"

Kyle sighed deeply. He looked away from Butters and toward the window. So, that just smothered Kyle's curiosity about what happened last night. Butters did see Kenny. However, Butters only saw the good side of him because apparently Kenny was having a good day last night. Hopefully Butters wouldn't see his bad days.

"I'll tell you the truth, Butters." Kyle turned to face him again, "He's dangerous sometimes. He's never killed anyone before, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't. He has hurt people, but never on purpose. Most of the rumors that people spread aren't true, but only because he lets them get out of proportion like that. He doesn't want anyone to know what really happens." Kyle explains to Butters with a solemn expression.

Butters' eyes were wide throughout the explanation. It almost sounded like, "Kyle, d-do you know Kenny?"

Kyle nodded, "He comes to visit sometimes. He came to your room, didn't he?"

Butters' eyebrows furrowed and pursed his lips, "Y-Yeah…" He looked down.

Kyle readjusted himself to sit cross-legged, "It's nothing bad, Butters. Though, you might want to be careful around him, just in case you know?"

Butters sighed, "Yeah. I-I'll be careful, Kyle." He looked up and smiled wearily.

"I just don't want you to get hurt, dude. He hasn't hurt me before, but you can never be too careful. This is a psych ward after all." Kyle chuckled.

Butters did the same.

After that lovely conversation, they talked about other things ranging from their favorite foods, to what they wanted to do when they got out of the center. When it was about six, they headed out of Kyle's room to hang out in the lobby until dinner.

Rocking back and forth was the only thing he could do in this God forsaken place. He didn't want to look like a stereotype, but shit, what else could you do? Just being in this room was enough to make a sane person crazy. It was starch white with no windows, artificial light, and a white bed. There was absolutely nothing else to do. The only thing he could do was wait until tonight when Stan let him out.

Kenny whined and put his head between his legs. What he really wanted to do was see that little blonde boy; Butters. He wanted to talk to him again, to see him. He never felt this strongly about another person before, but he didn't want to think about it. All he knew was that he wanted to see the boy again. He just had to make it through the rest of the day, that's all he had to do.

What time was it? He looked up to look at the wall. No clock in here. He had asked for one before, but the nurses had deemed it 'too dangerous'. Please, what the hell could be do with a clock? Throw it at someone? He sighed and patted out a rhythm on his knees. He could almost think of a song he used to listen to…

"There's no hate, there's no love. Only dark skies that hang above. I call your name as I walk alone. Send a signal to guide me home."

He got up and started to walk around the room, getting louder as he sang.

"Light the night up, you're my dark star, and now you're falling away."

He slammed his back against the wall opposite to his bed.

"But I found in you what was lost in me, in a world so cold and empty. I could lie awake just to watch you breathe in the dead of night, you went dark on me."

He slowly slid down the wall during the last verse. Once he reached the floor, he groaned long and hard. This was eating him up inside. He was really starting to get anxious. If someone didn't come in soon, he would start eating his way through the wall.

Suddenly, as if his wish had come true, something started to unlock his door. His head snapped over to the sound. He quickly stood up to wait for what ever was on the other side. The door opened to reveal…

"Alright, McCormick. We're going to do this the easy way, or the hard way. You choose." Said Ms. Choksondik.

Kenny groaned. Great, he should have known it was medicine time. He lowered himself back down the wall and sneered at the nurse, "Neither. Fuck your drugs." He never thought he would see the day when he would say that.

Ms. Choksondik sighed. Alright then, the hard way it was. She lifted up her hand and snapped her fingers. All at once, two large men came into the room and hovered over Kenny. He glared at them and tensed up, not moving.

"Kenny, you know what you have to do. Just take the pills. It's not that hard, dear."

"Don't fucking patronize me, and I'm not taking shit." Kenny said firmly. "Those pills don't do anything but make me crazier!"

"Boys, if you will."

The large men started towards Kenny, but he shot up and backed up to the back wall. The men came closer and Kenny just pressed himself in further. What was he going to do? He can't take those pills, he can't! He desperately looked around the room for an out but he couldn't see one.

Wait. Yes, he could. He let the men come a little closer. Just a little bit…

When they tried to grab him, he used his skinny frame as leverage to get in between them to escape past them. He squeezed out just in time before getting caught and used the momentum to run past Ms. Choksondik and out the door. She screamed in fright as he ran past her and down the hallway. He could still hear her over his manic laughs as he ran to freedom.

Ms. Choksondik turned around and ordered the men to catch the runaway patient. When they left, she lifted a small walkie-talkie out of her belt, "This is nurse Choksondik. We have a runaway. I repeat. We have a runaway." She let go of the button.

A static sound overcame the small radio, "This is the nurse department, who's escaped?"

"It's Kenny, Stan." Choksondik replied.

On the other side, Stan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Why, oh why, Kenny? You could have made it a little longer. This would only get him out on lockdown after he would get caught. He pressed the button to reply to Choksondik, "Alright. I'll inform security and get a lockdown on the place."

Choksondik raised the radio back up to face, "You better hurry, Stan. This motherfucker is fast."

Song is Dark on Me by Starset. This is a short chapter, I'm so sorry.