I updated Wednesday in case you didn't see it, just because I'm doing it three times a week now. Just a heads up, would hate for any chapters to be missed!

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Held up in Kyle's room, they watched Kenny drift in and out for hours. Bringing him there and avoiding Gerald and Sheila's notice as best they could. Kyle told his parents originally that Kenny might come after dinner to avoid suspicion, yet the boys didn't know long they would be able to hide. Watching Kenny lose consciousness and awake again against the baseboard of Kyle's bed was more worrisome than his attitude all-around lately. They attempted to give him water once, but Kenny lowered his head to his knees again in uncontrolled sleep. Probably still visioning himself on that cold bench by barely changing position.

The black dots eventually left Kenny's vision, and his ears popped. Staring forward at the carpet of the bedroom as the ventilation ran through his ears and he realized he was inside. Amongst the silence, two pairs of eyes that were Stan and Cartman's stared at him in wondering if he was actually awake. He'd mumbled stuff in his sleep, it was hard to tell. Kenny realized his hood was drawn back when the warmth of the house's temperature warmed his cheeks and hair follicles.

He looked up with awoken eyes and the boys knew he was back. It gave them relief as the way he kept asleep and awoke unknowingly was concerning. Anymore and maybe they would've actually concerned Kyle's parents. When Kenny blinked to gain perspective and realized he was at Kyle's, he quickly concurred the boys' must've gained info from Craig on his last whereabouts.

Kyle re-entered, closing the door behind him gently. "Is he awake?" His voice echoed in Kenny's ears.

"Yeah, I think so."

Kenny discovered the sound of his own breathing, watching Kyle's approach to his front as he bent down. Kenny realized he was handing him something and looked at Kyle's open palm holding a snack wrapped in silver foil.

"You need to eat something."

Kenny breathed raggedly, just staring at the granola bar Kyle kept forward.

He shook the snack. "Eat it. Please."

Kenny realized how bitter his mouth was, lifting his hand heavily to take the snack and unwrap it carefully. He took a gentle bite and satisfied his taste buds after not eating anything for hours.

"Are you okay?"

Kenny nodded unevenly, smacking his teeth gently in small chews. He only got halfway through as he lowered the snack to his side. Looking up at the others once and then to his sprawled legs on the floor. They felt numb, he hadn't realized he unfolded from his crouch.

"You were so out of it," Cartman pointed out.

Kenny barely made a sound. Some nerves in his body slowly woke up as he began to feel the floor beneath him and the bed's side against his back.

Kyle attempted to capture his awakening gaze. "Your sister was waiting for you."

His brain may as well have been mush.

"Kenny, look at me!"

He met Kyle's frustrated brow, comprehending the faults of his ways and finally worrying. "Is she okay..?"

"She's fine, we dropped her off."

The orange hood blinked drowsily. "Oh..thanks." He shifted onto wobbly feet much to his friends' confusion. "I guess I'll go.."

"Are you kidding?" Stan remarked.

"Thanks, again.."

"Can you believe this asshole?" Cartman commented, beyond confounded. "We save his butt from freezing and he's gone!"

"Kenny, stop it. Stop." Kyle kept him from going any further, rounding him back to the front of the bed's edge as if to barricade him. "You can't go anywhere, now."

"...why."

"Because look at you, dude."

Kenny tried retracing his steps to how he ended up here at all. He remembered coming in and out of consciousness when they walked him over, but it was so feverish Kenny would've easily mistaken it for a dream as he did with all those pictures of Jefferson Lake. Now under his friends' radar and unable to leave, he felt that spectacle on him creeping up again. Only this time the cold made it harder for him to convince anyone he was fine as a cough rumbled his lips. He lifted his sleeve to cough under his breath as to not make it a big deal.

"You okay..?"

He couldn't remember when last he took a proper day of medication. Maybe three days ago, otherwise he messed around with the pills however he did. Last night's blow-up with his parents didn't discourage it still.

"I haven't taken my meds..." he admitted raggedly. He didn't know why he said it, but his efforts to hide it were becoming so tired at this point. Kenny sniffed at the quietness coming from the boys. "I mean I have...just not evenly."

"Why?"

The pain and lack of sleep really put Kenny's stubbornness to rest and let him admit it. "'Cause I can't control anything anymore.."

Stan twitched a frown. "Dude, I don't think you can screw around with your meds like that."

Kenny winced from a sharp pain to his head, leaning a hand against Kyle's bed. "No shit.."

"Hey-!"

"Okay, okay! I'm sorry!" Kenny groaned. "I got it under control, okay?"

"No you don't!" Stan ridiculed. "Just because you're sick doesn't mean you know best!"

"Oh!" Kenny widened his eyes. "So now you admit it!"

"You know what? Yeah. I do." Stan said, unafraid to face Kenny and whatever excuse he would pull out of his ass this time.

Kenny grunted, caught without a point of argument. "Forget it, it's not like anything will change.."

Kyle blinked while Cartman blew past his lips, standing by on both their friends' ballsy behavior. It's not like the repeat of the same argument was gonna get them anywhere.

"Y'know it snowed the day we thought you...you know.." Kyle reminisced. Kenny hugged his coat around him like a safety blanket. "Almost like today...when we found you. It just made me think, like...it was happening all over again..."

Cartman shrugged. "That could happen if you keep playing hooky with pills."

Yeah, but it's not like Kenny had much left to care about it. He was so mindlessly driven by actions before thoughts at this point, he wasn't sure if he was gaining control of his body again or letting it fall into another person's hands. Mainly this kid in the mirror he was having trouble recognizing.

"Apparently I just can't be killed.."

"Will you stop saying shit like that?" Cartman asked of him. Kenny ignored him. "You keep believing in that depressing stuff someone like Jared says you're gonna actually start being it."

Maybe he was right, but not enough for Kenny to care. "You guys don't understand.."

Stan pressed his eyes closed. "Is that all you can say, now?"

"You don't.." Kenny continued, he peeked up at Stan. "You just don't.."

"Maybe you can't expect us to understand, when you don't let us in, KEN!"

Kyle and Cartman jumped from Stan's outburst. Kenny, beyond drowsy, blinked tiredly in return as his friend looked to him angrier and more impatient with him than he had been in a good while. He turned to Kyle's desk chair to give it a kick. "Jesus!"

Kyle rubbed his arms uncomfortably. "Okay, guys. Can we just take this back to the beginning?"

Kenny groaned.

"Fine! Let me!" Cartman made way closest to Kenny. "You survive, what, one of the rarest diagnoses? And now you blame us?"

"Cartman, will you shut up-!"

"Seriously! What the hell do you expect us to do!? Oh sorry, I know, you want us to do nothing. But you get a stick up your ass and act like we're the fucking problem?! Please, Ken! You're stubborn that we know you best, and are just calling out your bull! Like we don't know you're a wreck right now!"

"You barely do, fatass.."

"Who the hell became your friends first in preschool? When you were all alone?"

Kenny frowned angrily.

"Maybe we shouldn't have bet on the kid with holes in his sweater! Just sayin'!"

The blond boy turned in malice over his big-mouthed friend's choice of words. If there was one thing about his friendship with Cartman, it was that Eric was a carefree partner in crime Kenny liked to have for all the stupid games. And hell, if he wanted to have your back, he had your back. But giving someone their honest selves gave the other the power to hit below the belt, and Cartman was doing just that.

Frankly, seeing as Cartman did try and look out for him, maybe Kenny deserved it..

Watching Kenny remain dejected with his back turned, Kyle had his final snap. He marched to the fatass with a familiar glow of anger in his eyes. Cartman gawked at Kyle's sudden shove to his shoulder. "You got a lotta nerve choosing now of all times."

Cartman narrowed his gaze to Kyle. "Hey, it was my idea to ask Craig!"

"This isn't a fucking game!" Kyle enraged. "He was freezing his ass off! We're lucky we found him when we did!"

Kenny kept his back turned while the boys were occupied, feeling a burn building in his eyes.

"Maybe none of this would've happened if you stopped giving him your dumbass speeches!"

"OH, yeah!?"

"Yeah!"

"Maybe you're the most intolerable shit someone could have as a friend!" Kyle pointed. "Maybe trynna act like things never changed doesn't help when Kenny already does that daily!"

Kenny felt his lip quiver.

"Don't you think he deserves better!?" Kyle argued.

"I'm thinking you being the last with him in the hospital screwed him over to be an asshole!"

"You fucking take that back!"

"Make me, Kahl!"

"SHUT UP! GOD, SHUT UP!"

The three were shunned by the quiet boy's explosive surface. He was red in the face from what they failed to notice had been building tears in the meanwhile of Kyle and Cartman's argument. How long he'd been like that since they turned away couldn't be said. His eyes glossed in pain with some fat tears having already rolled down his inflamed cheeks. Kenny lifted clutched, trembling fists to his eyes. Teeth grind in unable to take everything inward any longer. The others were helpless and mouthless as Kenny fell into uneven breaths of surreal blubbering.

"Don't-don't you guys e-ever stop.." the mouth bellow the fists trembled uncontrollably. As his voice began to waver into whimpers and moans of a breakdown, the silence of the room was deafening and painful. His quickly hitching back met the bed's edge again and he slid down onto his bottom.

Stan was gentle in his approach. "Kenny, we didn't mean to-"

The lift of Kenny's moans made Stan stop mid-sentence. Vigilant, Stan lowered before Kenny in a fragile state as he sat back on his ankles before him. Chokes and snivels left Kenny as the argument in the room dropped dead. Kyle came and joined Stan again on the floor before Kenny as Cartman came up from behind. The touch of Kyle's palm to Kenny's shoulder made the hitching boy recollect when Kyle faced Kenny on his death bed in the hospital. Suddenly that felt ages ago.

"I-I..hate it," he shook uncontrollably, raking the material of his jacket sleeves between trembling fingers. The more his voice cracked the more surreal it bothered his friends sadly. "...I want it-it to g-go away...I ruin..e-everything"

"..No, Ken-"

"Kyle?" A call echoed from downstairs. The redhead looked between the others and shuffled over to the door, cracking it open only slightly. "Kyle, is everything all right?"

"Yeah, ma. Just playing."

"I have Kenny's mother on the phone. She wants to talk to him."

Kyle stuttered at the open door, looking over at Kenny in between Cartman and Stan whose tear-stained face shot up at the mention. He shook his head, pleading in his trembles. Utterly frightened for what he didn't want to weigh upon his family anymore.

Kyle's brow creased. "He fell asleep, ma."

Kenny trembled, lowering his face back to the sanctuary of his palms as Kyle remained on guard by the door. There was a moment of faint chatter with Sheila talking to the phone's other end.

"Alright, bubby. Off to bed for all of you soon."

"Kay'.." Kyle muttered, closing his door with a soft click. He turned back to Stan and Cartman attempting to tend to Kenny's crying pleas.

"I-I wanna go..."

"..go where?" Cartman asked.

"I j-just wanna go.."

Cartman still didn't get it. "But, you-"

"Sh, guys.." Kyle gently urged. Almost like exchanging mind phrases, Kyle clutched Cartman's elbow to get his attention over his nod. Eric soaked it in and looked away, simply knowing their spat would have to make its peace.

It never had been so hard to look at his friends. In return, his friends never felt it had been harder to see Kenny as he was.

"...I..I.." he could barely speak. Palms grappled his eyes again. "...I c-can't do it a-anymore..."

If they hadn't thought it already, they sure as hell felt every ounce of hurt for him now. Kenny didn't have the physical nor mental energy to stay sitting on his bottom. His cries dove down slowly to the floor until he was atop his knees in a laying crouch with palms grappling the floor. The others' hands that had been holding him for support rubbed his back tenderly, encouraging his release. His friends attempted to circle him more on account of keeping away the world that was scaring him. In a huddle, they arched over him. Hands supported one another's backsides as they kept bordered around their friend laying in a quivering ball. Who admitted to actually needing the care.

In his shelter, Kenny wondered what sympathy he earned when he was the one putting everyone through this. No matter what he did to prevent it, his mess became everyones. No matter what he did to avoid trouble, it kept coming back. All his family shouldn't have to deal with a lost cause. Including his friends. Including this town.

Kenny jolted in a cold sweat, unaware of his surroundings in a dark room as he awoke atop a soft surface. He felt overheated and when he heard the pattering of rain against Kyle's window he knew there was a drop in the atmosphere. For once it wasn't just him. He still remained in his coat, curled up at the end of Kyle's bed and Kyle was at the other end curled the opposite way as well in his sleep with his coat tossed aside and his hat dropped over his face. Bellow them on the floor Kenny could make out Stan and Cartman on top of their mats and sleeping bags, having not changed either.

Better yet, Kenny put a damper on the sleepover plans they had for weeks. And he didn't even want to show up.

He hitched a breath and silenced himself with his palm, his sleep just barely wearing off his crying. He felt panicked, clutching a shaking hand that he dug into his stomach as his heart drummed and his nerves chilled. He had to get out of here.

Kenny crawled onto his knees, looking over the bed and finding no sign of his backpack. He looked over its foot and was careful not to move too much that anyone would awake. Looking over, he reached his hand down amongst the dark and his finger brushed the nylon of his strap. Kenny made a firm grab and pulled it up silently, wrapping it over his arms and slipping off the bed. The rain pattered outside, helping him cover his sounds as he stepped over his sleeping friends. He hooked gently onto the door's handle in the dark, turning it and testing its silence. When it made the softest click, he passed, before opening as little space as he needed and slipping out. Kenny looked back at the boys, unable to cost them any more trouble but blinking in thanks. He didn't deserve their help.

He closed the door, creeping downstairs as hidden as possible.

It was something wrong that woke Kevin up.

Maybe it was the rain after heavy snow. But as Kevin sat up in bed and drew back his curtain, South Park's night whispered grave secrets to him. Warning him somehow with an eerie cold. Kevin realized his window remained cracked open and he got on his knees on the mattress, shutting it close completely. He continued to stare out into the night as to contemplate the weather's alert gaze on him.

A heaviness weighed on his mind. Kevin hadn't spoken to his brother since Kenny chucked a pillow at him the other night. Things were just brewing darkly Kenny's way lately, and with his fallout with friends that Kevin knew about, maybe something else was wrong. Luck was on Kevin's side notifying him, and he pushed his blanket down by his bare feet to jump out of bed. Heading for the hallway.

He crept through, careful in sneaking across the hall past his sister's room and to Kenny's next door. In what was supposed to be a mere check-in, it turned so much bigger when the bed and room were completely empty. For good measure, Kevin flicked on the light, but it did not make his brother appear.

"Crap."

He furthered down the hall to his parents' room, picking up on his dad's snoring through the cracked door as he ventured in. Both his mom and dad were turned in on the bed and Kevin came around to his father's side.

"Dad," he attempted. "Dad."

Stuart snored more lightly, mumbling under his breath. Kevin gave a tap to his chest that got a snort out of him. He stirred as he rubbed his eyes though they remained closed, resting again as if nothing happened.

"Dad," Kevin demanded.

"..boy.." Stuart grumbled, half-awake now.

"Sorry.." his eldest muttered. "Where's Kenny?"

Stuart rolled his back to him. "Sleepover...at the Brofvloskis..."

Kevin figured out there was something he knew that his parents didn't. "No, he's not..?"

Amongst the foggy rain of the dark depths of early morning, there was the faint light of the bus station. Barely a building of just a booth, bathrooms, and an overhead where lamposts bordered each side of it on an emptied road. Rain poured as a bus down the road pulled near. Kenny spent well over an hour finding the stop amongst the night and luck would have it he was able to buy a ticket in time for the upcoming. He turned from the booth, ticket in hand as he stared at the trees across from him on the narrow road of country Colorado. Rain came down like sharp needles profusely. He heard the sharp squeaks of breaks and looked down from the sanctuary of the overhead at the bus nearing into the side lane of the stop. No other occupants but Kenny and the worker in the booth remained as the bus came to the lifeless area.

Kenny stepped out from cover, letting the rain drum on his hood as he hoisted his backpack over his shoulders. The ticket remained in his gloved hand as the Greyhound bus came to its park. Kenny walked along its body and came to the front doors opened by the bus driver. The boy stared at the guy through the rain, and the driver looked at him warily.

"Jefferson?"

Kenny nodded, stepping on and shaking himself free of rain. He held out his ticket to which the driver took and scanned. He still eyed the boy questionably before dismissing it and handing his ticket back. "Welcome aboard."

Kenny ventured down the aisle as the doors closed behind him, officially taking him off of county grounds where South Park lay. A few late-nighters occupied the bus, but not enough for it to be hard to find a seat. Kenny shifted into an empty pair of seats and threw his bag next to him while he took the window spot.

Jefferson was further from Denver and therefore South Park stood halfway between the two. Not that it really mattered to Kenny, as long as it was what he remembered. He leaned his elbow against the window being pounded with rain, watching from the bus as it pulled out from the lone stop. He awaited a place beautiful to him but solitary enough from the chaos he's caused. Somewhere pain might not be real even if he'd lost his chance of death. Death wasn't something he was afraid of, but it cost others heartaches. The chance for that had been taken when people expected death to have taken Kenny already.

But, he believed in heaven. If people knew heaven existed, surely it was not somewhere you went when you died. How could that be confirmed otherwise? Maybe heaven was just the alternative to life and death. Though it meant a few sacrifices in order to get there.

Too bad they brought you back to life.

Too fucking bad, indeed.

In the aftermath of last night's weather, a bright sun over snow woke Kyle up. Despite the odd position chosen, he still slept like a log on his chosen end of the bed. Refreshed either way, he sat up to give his shoulders a stretch and caught glimpse of the other two on top of their sleeping bags. Neither changed out of their day clothes as the three just stayed up talking after Kenny fell asleep until they eventually drifted off.

When he noticed Kenny wasn't where he last was, it instantly rang wrong with Kyle. He looked around the room for any sign of his backpack and that was gone too. Nothing to prove where or why he was gone as Kenny disappeared into thin air. Kyle swore if this boy just kept up and leaving-

The vicious pounding on his bedroom door startled him, and awoke the other two in an audible sort. Stan rubbed his head as Cartman rolled over in a tired groan. "What the hell..."

"Kenny's gone."

Stan scratched his eye. "What?"

"He's gone, dude-"

"Kyle," the boy heard his father call. "If you don't open up, we're coming in."

The choice was barely given to Kyle nonetheless when the door came swinging open. The boys who had just awoken were still trying to wrap their heads around the current time, as well noticing that Kenny was indeed nowhere. Gerald stood in the doorway with Stuart by his side.

"Where's Kenny?" Stuart asked.

Three bewildered little boys remained wordless.

"Kyle." Gerald demanded.

"He was here."

"And now?"

The remaining boys, one short, looked around the room as if everything were a fever dream. Cartman sat up from his place, looking dejectedly at what surpassed the night before. "We don't know.."

To be continued...