Time for the epic climatic chapter! The second-to-last! The big showdown! The something-or-other! Will Stan and his friends come out on top? Or will Brad and his gang humiliate them and get to torment them even more? Who's excited? I know I am!
Chapter 22 – Oh Brad!
The two groups stood around for a moment in awkward silence, not really knowing what to do. Then Stan cleared his throat.
"I'm going to go explore the island a bit," he decided, "Maybe see what's up with it."
"Don't you dare leave us behind!" Cartman growled, as he, Kyle, and Kenny raced after him. They could hear Brad and his cronies laughing as they walked away.
"(Man, this place is extra creepy at night,)" Kenny muttered.
"We should keep close to each other," Kyle said, "We don't want those jerks popping out and trying to scare us."
"That's a good idea," Cartman agreed, "Or, we could sacrifice Kyle to the evil island ghosts so they won't hurt us!"
"Fuck you, fatass!" Kyle growled.
"Aye, fuck you, Jew!" Cartman scowled.
"Guys, calm down!" Stan urged, "We're not sacrificing anyone!" He looked around once before pressing forward. "Now come on."
"Can we sacrifice Kenny?" Cartman asked. Stan whipped around and glared at him. "Ok! Ok! Fine! No sacrificing! Geez!"
The four friends continued on into the woods, the fog and darkness getting deeper as they went. Their flashlights barely penetrated anything, and once or twice they nearly tripped over roots or vines.
"What are we looking for, exactly?" Kyle wondered.
"I don't know," Stan admitted, "Maybe something to prove the island isn't haunted."
"It's clearly haunted, Stan," Cartman scoffed, "How do you explain the mist and the darkness?"
"Oh I don't know, fatass," Stan said with a sigh, rolling his eyes, "Maybe because we're on a lake in the middle of the night?"
"You don't have to be rude about it," Cartman muttered.
Suddenly, Kenny gasped. "(What's that up ahead?)" he exclaimed.
They all pointed their flashlights, illuminating what appeared to be the burnt out shell of a house. Half of it was still standing, but the top half was completely gone.
"Wow," Kyle breathed, "I didn't know there was something like that on this island! I wonder how it burned down?"
"(Maybe a maniac burned it down, killing everyone inside, and that's why the island is haunted,)" Kenny guessed.
"That's ridiculous," Stan scoffed, "We don't know how this house place burned!"
"I know how!" a voice said behind them, startling the boys. They spun around and saw Brad and his group standing behind them, grinning mischievously.
"Bullshit, you do!" Cartman scoffed.
"No, I really do," Brad claimed, "I heard it from Scout Master Scout himself. He said a witch lived in this house long ago and died in that house. Then a family moved in and she resented them. So she possessed the father and got him to kill his entire family before burning the house down. But the body of the father was never found!"
Elle shivered and Janet clung to her man. "That's a scary story, Brad!" she whined.
"It would be," Stan agreed, "If it were true!"
Brad glared at him. "You calling me a liar?" he growled.
"Of course you're lying!" Stan jeered, "There's no way a witch possessed a dad who murdered his whole family! That kind of thing only happens in movies!"
"I'm serious!" Brad hissed, "This place is truly haunted!"
Stan and Kyle scoffed, but Cartman, Elle, and Spitzer looked rather spooked. Spitzer gulped. "I-I ain't aifraid, b-boss!" he stuttered.
"You'd better not be!" Brad said, "Cuz I'm not losing this challenge!"
As Brad started slapping Spitzer upside the head, Stan and his friends wandered closer towards the house. From the outside, besides the fact that it was a burnt husk, there was nothing really off about the place. Stan didn't even feel scared walking closer.
"(I don't really feel any evil presense from this house,)" Kenny murmured, "(Or what's left of it. I'm usually pretty sensitive to these things. And I don't feel anything.)"
"That's because Brad's story is made up," Kyle said.
"Oh, that's good," Cartman muttered, shaking slightly, "That means there's nothing to be worried about."
"Exactly," Stan told him, "Let's look around inside and see if anything survived that could give us a clue of what really happened."
"But be careful," Kyle warned, "Places like this are really dangerous."
"Don't tell me what to do," Cartman muttered under his breath as the four of them spread out.
They were painfully aware that Brad and his friends were still outside and could easily try to scare them, but they tried to ignore that. Thinking about it would only make them jumpier.
As they looked around, Stan found a burnt nightstand in one of the front hallways and opened it. Inside were some dusty knickknacks and a picture of a family. Curious, Stan took it out and carefully brushed off the dust to get a better look. The family contained a smiling father and mother, and a single young boy, with long-ish hair, who wasn't smiling at all. The boy was wearing glasses, and although the photo was black and white and Stan was sure he had never seen this boy before, he looked oddly familiar.
"Did you find something, Stan?" Kyle asked, coming up behind him.
"Yeah, I found this old photo of a family," Stan said, showing him. Kyle inspected it for a moment.
"It's probably the family that lived here," he decided, "Do you think they're dead?"
"Dunno," Stan replied. He was about to voice his thoughts when there was a sudden and loud crash. There was a wicked scream from outside the house at the same time they heard Cartman yell, "My bad!"
"Cartman, what did you do?" Kyle sighed.
"I was gonna go check upstairs when my leg fell through the floorboards!" Cartman called, "So, uh, no one go on the stairs!"
Before Stan could tell him that was obvious, he and Kyle heard stomping. Frightened, they pressed together until they saw Brad, Janet, and Spitzer marching up to them. Elle was nowhere to be seen.
"You!" Brad growled, "You losers did that on purpose!"
"Did what on purpose?" Stan asked. Brad got up in his face.
"You know what! Made that loud crashing sound to scare off Elle!" he hissed, "She ran away as soon as it happened!"
"That was Cartman," Kyle pointed out.
"I don't care! You little dweebs want to play rough? Well now it's on! We will get you off this island!" Brad threatened.
"(Bring it on!)" Kenny called from wherever he was.
Brad glared at them before leaning over to Spitzer and muttering something to him. His minion nodded before slinking off.
We'll have to keep an eye on these guys, Stan thought. He turned to Kyle. "Come on," he said, "We should go make sure Cartman is ok."
"Yeah, all right!" Kyle said in a voice that sounded like he would rather do anything else.
They went over to where the stairs were and found Cartman still stuck in the floor.
"It's about time you guys came!" he chastised, "I've been stuck here for hours!"
"It's only been like thirty seconds," Stan pointed out.
"Whatever. Just get me out!" Cartman whined. His two friends sighed before carefully climbing the steps where he was. They grabbed his arms and yanked him up and out of the hole he had created. He fell on his face with a "thwump!"
"OW!" Cartman shouted, "Be more careful, you fucks! That was my face!"
"You're welcome, you fat fuck," Kyle muttered.
Before Cartman could bite back, Spitzer popped up behind him, arms over his head, and yelled, "Boo!" The fat boy screamed in terror and sprinted from the house, his arms flailing in fear.
"Cartman!" Stan and Kyle called after him, but it was too late. He was too far gone.
"Ha! That was too easy!" Brad laughed, high-fiving Spitzer.
"(What just happened?)" Kenny asked, coming over to them.
"Those assholes just scared Cartman off the island," Kyle sighed.
"You don't know if he's actually leaving the island," Stan pointed out, "But yeah, he's probably leaving the island."
"(Great,)" Kenny muttered, "(So much for fatass. But at least it was me getting eliminated first this time.)"
Stan didn't really know what Kenny was talking about but didn't really care enough to ask. Instead, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the picture from before.
"Hey Kenny, do you recognize anyone in this picture?" he asked, "Does anyone look familiar to you?"
Kenny only looked at the picture for a mere moment. "(Nope!)" he proclaimed. Stan frowned.
"Really? There isn't anyone in this picture that looks like someone else we know?" he urged.
"(Nuh-Uh!)"
"You're useless," Stan sighed.
"(You're welcome!)" Kenny replied happily.
With a roll of his eyes, Stan stole a final glance at the picture before slipping it out of the frame and putting it in his pocket.
It started getting colder as the night wore on and the boys had to huddle close to stay warm. Stan had no idea where Brad and his friends had gone but he didn't care.
"Th-This is r-ridiculous," Kyle stuttered, his teeth chattering, "W-We're g-g-going to c-catch h-hypothermia out here."
"M-Maybe we c-can build a f-fire," Stan suggested, "There's g-got to b-be some b-burnable w-wood here we c-can s-still use."
"(G-Good idea,)" Kenny mumbled.
A few minutes later, the three of them managed to wrench enough wood from the house to make a decent fire. Kenny used his lighter to light it, and they all got warm. Kyle sighed.
"Ah… that's much better," he murmured, holding his hands out.
"Yeah, we should have done this first," Stan agreed.
"(Hopefully no ghosts will spot us,)" Kenny sighed. Stan rolled his eyes.
"Kenny, there are no such things as ghosts," he pointed out.
Just as he said this, a person in a white sheet pretending to be a ghost popped up, making moaning sounds and trying to be scary. The three boys stared at them, unimpressed. That is, until the sheet caught on fire.
"AGH! OH SHIT!" Spitzer's voice screamed. He flailed about, covered arms waving around wildly. He started stumbling backwards towards Kenny, who threw his arms up.
"(H-Hey! Watch it!)" Kenny shouted.
But Spitzer crashed down, falling over Kenny, nearly setting him on fire, as the taller kid tumbled out of sight, calling for his mommy. After a moment, all they could see of him was a speck of flame heading for the lake.
"Kenny, are you all right?" Kyle asked, crouching down by their friend.
"(Ow,)" he muttered, "(I feel sore all over. I think I need to go back to camp.)"
"Are you sure?" Stan wondered. Kenny nodded. "Here. Kyle and I will help you get to the canoe."
He and Kyle carefully helped Kenny to his feet and Stan couldn't help but notice how he limped. It took longer to get back to the shore this time because of it, but they managed to help Kenny into one of the canoes.
"Can you get back to camp all right?" Kyle asked him.
"(I think so. I really need to rest. I feel like that guy crushed all the air out of me,)" Kenny explained. He looked up at his friends. "(Good luck you guys. Don't you dare lose.)" Then he slowly started paddling away.
Stan and Kyle watched him go before Stan sighed.
"I guess it's just the two of us now," he muttered.
"Yeah, and that bully and his girlfriend," Kyle pointed out, "I wonder where they went? I haven't seen them in a while."
"Who knows," Stan said with a shrug, "Let's get back to the fire."
But when they got back to the house, they were horrified to find Brad and Janet by the fire, making out. Brad pulled away to sneer at them.
"Oh, there you little punks are," he snickered, "I was kind of hoping you left."
"No, we're still here," Stan growled.
"That's too bad," Janet tsk-ed, "But I'm going to need two of you to leave now." She pulled herself away from Brad and in the firelight, Stan saw her pull out a knife. Before Brad could get too cocky, she pointed it at him.
"B-Babe? W-What are you doing?" he stuttered.
"You and this redheaded brat are getting off the island now," Janet replied in a sinisterly cold voice, "So Stan and I can have the place all to ourselves!"
"Oh gross!" Stan gagged, "I don't want to stay here alone with a creep like you!"
"'Brat?'" Kyle mumbled.
"Heh, come on, babe," Brad nervously laughed, "Don't do anything drastic!"
Janet twirled the knife in her fingers and took a threatening step forward. And that's when Stan and Kyle tackled her at the same time, knocking her to the ground, and causing the knife to fly out of her hand. The three of them struggled with each other as Brad stood by, not knowing what to do.
Suddenly, there was a ghostly wail and fog started swirling around them. All four of them stopped. Slowly, a figure appeared in the darkness, towering over them. A terrified screech erupted from Brad and Janet.
"LET'S GET OUTTA HERE!" Brad bellowed. He and Janet sprinted as fast as they could out of the forest towards the canoes.
Stan and Kyle, however, stood frozen to the spot as the figure moved closer and closer.
And you'll find out what happened to them in the last chapter! Yay! Which hopefully won't take too long. I plan on working on it right away. In the meantime, please leave a review and look forward to the last chapter! And I'll ignore Stan and Kyle who are glaring at me for leaving them on a cliffhanger!