Disclaimer - Don't own south park or any of the characters, just bored and wanted to write something fun.
Authors note – woo chapter 4 and I'm still writing hope you guys are liking this.
Chapter 4
Kyle wasn't sure what he wanted to do, go comfort his friend, or throw up. He felt if he moved it would most definitely be the latter.
"S-stan...what just hap...happened?" Kyle asked trying to keep his stomach down. Stan turned slowly back towards Kyle sheathing his sword on the opposite hip as he did. His eyes seemed so different yet so similar to Clyde's. At first Kyle couldn't put his finger on it but then he realized, they were empty except for a deep sadness. Stan was frowning as he considered Kyle's words.
"Clyde, or rather the thing pretending to be Clyde, was a revenant." Stan said softly walking over next to Kyle so they were next to each other facing in different directions. Stan put his left hand gently on Kyle's shoulder as he spoke. "Like a shell a revenant is a left over portion when someone dies...horribly...but unlike a shell they are capable of coherent thought." Kyle's head was spinning from all this knowledge, shells and revenants he'd never heard of things like that except in stories and games. "Also revenants usually possess a majority if not all of the original's memories and are quite good at faking emotions. They are really hard to identify in a crowd because they are very good at appearing human...but they aren't don't forget that." Stan moved past Kyle then letting his hand drop from his shoulder, he had to catch up with his dad and inform him things were worse than they thought. A hand grabbed him by his left shoulder and spun him around, he was looking at Kyle for a brief second before a fist connected with his face. Stan's head snapped back more from surprise than from any force from Kyle, though it did hurt a little. He righted his head and stared at his redheaded friend noticing his tears he instantly felt like shit. "Kyle...I'm sorry for not tell-"
"I don't fucking care about that!" Kyle yelled balling his fists and screaming at the ground. "How can you be so cold and kill Clyde like it was nothing!?" Stan was surprised by Kyle's sudden outburst, he wasn't concerned Stan had been fighting monsters secretly, he was mad that he had shown no emotion about it. "Clyde was sad when he died Stan...i saw it in his eyes...how can you say he wasn't human..." Kyle backed up against a building and slid down to the ground staring at the smoldering piles of ash that use to be Clyde and the two girls they went to high school with. "We had so much fun these past few weeks...and you say that...Clyde's feelings for me were fake...?" Kyle was falling apart now tears streaming down his face getting choked up as he spoke. "What happened to you Stan?" Stan turned his back to Kyle unable to look his friend in the eyes.
"Kyle...the real Clyde most likely died several weeks ago...probably right before you started hanging out..." Stan was really beating himself up for how cold he'd been, it was his defense mechanism to deal with so much evil but he hadn't realized how much Kyle cared for Clyde. "Revenants carry a portion of their original's emotions, they don't usually get close to people for any reason...they are usually detached." Stan turned to look at Kyle out of the corner of his eye and could see Kyle was truly hurting. Stan thought hard about his next question, not sure if he wanted to know. "Kyle...did you love him?" Kyle looked Stan in the eyes tears still coming down and nodded his head. Kyle realized then Clyde had been his first love.
"Yes, I did, all the time we spent with each other over the last few weeks were amazing." Kyle hugged himself and leaned into his knees. Clyde was gone now and Kyle hadn't even told him how he felt. Stan sighed and scratched the back of his head. "But I guess Clyde didn't really have feelings for me huh? Since you're saying the real Clyde has been dead for a while. These stupid feelings are so pointless..." Stan felt terrible now, he hadn't meant to imply Kyle's feelings weren't valid.
"Well I wouldn't say the real Clyde didn't have feelings for you..." Stan turned away from his friend knowing he was about to pull something out of his ass. "Revenants can only fake emotions the original truly possessed and they do technically retain some of their darker emotions." Stan wasn't sure where he was going with this but he hated to see his best friend suffer. "Maybe Clyde had feelings for you when he died...and when the revenant was born it was acting out what the original regretted not doing..." Stan wasn't sure he believed what he was saying but he wanted to. "And revenants are vicious too Kyle, they never leave survivors...he should have killed you or at least tried, but he didn't. I'd like to think that meant something." Stan smiled to himself hoping at least some of what he had said was true. He wouldn't admit it but cutting down the images of people he knew, shells or not, always ate at him terribly.
"You really think he cared...?" Kyle asked his tears had stopped and was looking up at Stan now. His friend put on the best fake smile he could and nodded.
"Yea I think both the real Clyde and the revenant even in his own way, cared for you. So the last few weeks weren't fake, and your feelings aren't pointless, they were just as real as the fun you had with Clyde, just hold onto that." Stan reached his hand out to his friend. "I don't expect you to forgive me, or to be OK with what happened anytime soon, but I just want you to know this is why I didn't want to involve you in this kind of thing." Kyle took Stan's hand and was hoisted onto his feet. "It's a very dark world out here Kyle and those who are touched by it are never the same..." Stan noticed black residue on Kyle's cheek from where Clyde had licked him. He reached up and brushed it off gently with a thoughtful look on his face. Kyle seemed to stiffen at that.
"Uh Stan..." Kyle took a step back and only then did Stan realize just how close they had been standing.
"Oh sorry dude, my bad." Stan laughed out nervously scratching the back of his neck again. "Zoned out there, you know how I do..." Stan looked around at the piles of ash that were now almost gone. "Alright Kyle we need to go find my dad and then get out of here." Stan motioned in the direction his dad had chased the first creature. They walked down several alley ways when in the distance they heard several gunshots and an inhuman cry of pain. Stan stiffened for a moment and shouted "Come on!" He bolted at a break neck speed in the direction of the sound.
"Stan slow down!" Kyle called hardly able to keep up, this place seemed to make him even more sluggish than usual. Stan surprisingly did slow down till he was right next to Kyle who was suddenly feeling much more energetic.
"Sorry Kyle I forgot you aren't protected, here in the Nightlands the very air will drain the life out of you, as long as you stay close to me though you should be protected." Kyle nodded though he didn't really understand how it all worked. They ran on for several more minutes before rounding the corner onto a street that looked somewhat like South Park's main street but the ground was twisted and cracked and the buildings looked twisted and old. Stan's father was leaning against a building lighting a cigaret and another pile of ash was on the ground a few feet from him. His shot gun was on his back again. And Kyle could scarcely make out some kind of etching on the stock.
"Stanley, what is he doing here?" Randy asked his son as he and Kyle reached him. Stan shook his head.
"It's a long story, I'll tell you on the way back, but things are worse than we thought." Stan lifted his left arm gently showing his wound to his father. Randy's eyes went wide at that. Kyle finally got a good look at the wound. It didn't look very deep but it was four jagged lines from his back around on his ribcage all the way to the front of his body. The wounds themselves seemed almost like they were healing already but they had black ooze dripping from them.
"You were injured by a shell? That should have been child's play you've defeated dozens of them before, at the same time even." Stan shook his head.
"This is from a revenant. A young one, but still powerful all the same, I'd say only a month old. It was in the form of one of our friends from school." Randy looked concerned at that.
"You think it was sent after you?" He asked and Stan nodded his head.
"From the way he acted and the distraction of the shells as well as how he brought Kyle here, yes I think he was turned into a revenant in order to get at me." Stan finished lowering his arm. Randy dropped his cigaret and crushed it with his shoe.
"A revenant assassin huh..." Randy motioned for the two boys to follow him and started back down the street towards the neighborhood. On the way Stan relayed the story of what had happened, glossing over the fact that Kyle and Clyde had feelings for each other and instead just mentioning they had been friends. Just at the edge of town Randy and Stan stopped, Kyle almost bumped into his friend when they gave no warning. Randy held up his right hand and had what looked like a small piece of charred wood in it. He muttered something Kyle couldn't hear before loudly shouting. "OPEN." The air in front of them seemed to churn and twist at that and then it split apart in a way that made Kyle's head swim. And then on they walked through the broken air and suddenly Kyle could breathe easier and the air didn't smell so wrong. They were back in the real world Kyle realized. Randy turned towards Kyle and shook his head. "Well Kyle you better come with us, now that you've been taken into the Nightlands and touched by a revenant, you're marked now, same as myself and Stan, you're life is never going to be the same...I'm sorry." Stan frowned at this nodding his head. Kyle wasn't sure he wanted to ask what they meant but he just followed them back to Stan's house where Mrs. Marsh ushered them in.
"Stanley! What happened? Randy what happened?!" Mrs. Marsh was moving a mile a minute rushing everyone around offering Kyle something to drink scolding her son and husband and inquiring of how bad Stan's injuries were.
"Mom It isn't that bad I jumped back just before he struck me I was only grazed." She had a stern look on her face then and roughly grabbed Stan's left arm and yanked it up exposing his wound and torn clothing, the black ooze seemed to have spread.
"Randy...this isn't from any shell, what the hell happened?" Kyle wasn't surprised that Mrs. Marsh seemed to be in on this whole thing, that explained how Stan and Randy hadn't gotten themselves killed yet, she always seemed to be the level headed of the three.
"It was a revenant Sharon, someone set a trap for us and we sprung it." Randy winced as his wife was set off again shouting how they should have more hunters and that if Shelley was here none of this would have happened. Kyle figured that Shelley must have been a hunter too before she got in a fight with Randy and went to a boarding school over in England a year ago.
"Well come on Stanley up on the table, shirt off!" His mother strode into the kitchen and then made a strange gesture at a blank wall. Kyle stared hard and his eyes went wide as the air seemed to split and a hidden cabinet was revealed. She began rummaging through it for what he assumed were bandages or something. Randy helped his son now shirtless up onto the kitchen table and laid him down holding his right arm down.
"Kyle dear, this is going to be very painful for Stan, I need you to hold his left side down no matter what understand?" Mrs. Marsh asked turning around and holding another piece of what looked like charred wood though this one was about a foot long with strange symbols on it. Randy put Stan's torn up shirt into his sons mouth who bit down on it. Kyle leaned down onto his friend putting his body weight onto his shoulder. He watched as his friends mother stood at the end of the table between his feet and brought the charred wood to her face and began muttering as Randy had. She went on for what seemed like minutes before in one single moment she pointed the wooden instrument at Stan's wound and shouted. "CLEANSE" the lights in the room seemed to dim and Mrs. Marsh seemed to glow from underneath her skin, she had an otherworldly appearance then as her eyes flashed. From the end of the wooden instrument green wispy light flowed out darting this way and that before diving violently into Stan's wound. Stan stiffened and moaned at this his whole body shaking, it was obviously causing him great pain. Mrs. Marsh didn't even blink at her sons suffering but Randy was whispering into his sons ear telling him it was almost over.
"This is hurting him shouldn't we stop?!" Kyle begged Randy from across the table. The man looked up and shook his head.
"Stan's wound is infected with a dark poison from the revenant, its touch can be fatal, were it anyone else we would have had to carry him back." Randy said nodding towards Stan's wound where Kyle saw the green wispy light pulling at a dark smoking substance that seemed to twist and snap and was trying to go back into the wound. Sharon's face scrunched up as she slowly pulled the charred wood back towards her face muttering again. The green wispy light collected all the shadowy substance into a single point floating above the table and wrapped around it almost like a snake squeezing, the shadowy substance formed snake like heads and began snapping violently in the air.
"BIND" Mrs. Marsh shouted again and the wispy smoke surrounded the shadowy substance completely before solidifying into a green glass-like substance and floating to rest in her outstretched hand. "Thank you Kyle, will you be a dear and help Stanley up to his room, this spell is always tiring on the recipient." Kyle just nodded his head dumbly looking at Stan's now mostly healed wound and helped his friend who was now completely out of it up to his room. Kyle stumbled as he stepped into his best friends room and nearly dropped Stan. His friend was practically dead weight by this point, though Kyle doubted he'd be in better shape after a similar night. Stan tumbled down onto his bed and Kyle had to climb on top of him to pull his heavier friend up onto the bed. When he was finished he pulled the covers up over Stan and then sat against the wall on his friends bed. He finally after this insane night had a moment to think.
"So this is what you do huh? The jobs your dad makes you do when we should be hanging out being kids." Kyle mumbled to himself hugging his knees in front of him watching his friend sleep. He suddenly felt guilty for all the angry thoughts he'd had towards Stan, of course he hadn't been hanging out with other people instead of Kyle or off on dates with Wendy, yet Kyle had several times doubted his friend. But his friend had been fighting monsters, doing things most people couldn't even imagine doing. He had been forced to fight people like Clyde and those girls, night after night, week after week. Monsters who wore the faces of friends and neighbors. Kyle couldn't imagine doing such things but his friend had been doing it, probably for the better part of two years now. It was right after Shelley left that Stan's jobs had increased so he must have been picking up the slack for his sister. Kyle's thoughts swirled and his eyes grew heavy watching his friend sleep in the dark and soon he joined him falling over on his side on top of the covers fast asleep.