South Down: Jesusssss indeed.

GlitchQ: Lol, glad you love it so much.

Woah: Honestly, wish there were more fics about Kenny and Cthulhu! Hope you like the rest of the story, I'm trying to fit in some drama.

PPchunks: You're in luck, updating twice a week!

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His friends' screams replayed in his head all the way until it woke him up the morning after. Kenny didn't know what he was trying to prove yesterday. Maybe he was just sick of the conversation and saw no way to explain it to them with a good outcome. In retrospect, it was messed up. It was messed up as hell. He understood that since he started to realize the pattern of his curse. The fact that death found him easily just to purposely put him through pain. Then to face more pain by seeing that those he loved around him didn't have a single clue when recalling his death. Sometimes using his curse even to end a terrible day earlier. Maybe he even wondered what would happen if he just didn't wake up one of these days.

It was fucked. It was all fucked in the head and he knew that. But the more he'd grown used to it, the more he understood why people were able to become so used to such terrible circumstances. Because it was the freakin' norm. The reality they were living. As Kenny crossed the schoolyard to the front doors of South Park Elementary, he wondered if his reality would ever go away and he'd find a new normal like the rest.

He pushed heavily on the front doors, marching in with nothing to expect but...

...a bunch of faces staring at him like he was a ghost.

The chatter died like water to a candle as soon as he entered. Making him wonder if it was something on his coat as he looked down and back. It was all just large, unbelieving eyes from students including Principal PC who was doing morning watch today. The students all looked horrified, almost insulted. As if Kenny's presence was some kind of nuisance as PC came up to him.

"Young man, do you have any dignity?"

PC had never been so soft yet utterly disgusted in his tone. And that spoke levels for him. "Sir?" Kenny muttered.

"Do you think a student passing is funny? Is this a joke to you?" PC scolded. "Have some respect for Kenny McCormick like the rest of us!"

"Principal PC, it's me," he untightened the drawstrings and removed his hood to expose his honey blond hair and familiar facial features. "Kenny."

Some girls screamed and some kindergartners ran like he was a monster. Even getting PC to take a step back from the boy like he was carrying a gun. Nothing about this spiked 'normal' for Kenny. Especially not the students who had burst into tears as if Kenny just told them their family died. Nothing about it seemed like reality until Kenny took notice of some nearby third-graders holding an unfinished sign prepared for today's special subject; 'We miss you, Kenny.'

His breath left him and he felt his entire reality crumble down.

"Kenny!" Stan yelped as three of his best friends roughly shoved through the crowd and raced up to him. Kenny remained super still as Kyle's arms hugged him first though his friends quickly drew back to look at him. "How'd-How'd you..!? A-Are you okay!?"

The blond boy blinked, seeing tears brimming Cartman's eyes even.

"Did the hospital do this?!" Kyle asked. "Holy shit, are you crazy!?"

Kenny stuttered, opening a gaping mouth though words didn't leave his throat.

"Don't scare us like that! Do you realize how fucked up that is!? Don't do that, again!"

"What're you talking about..."

Stan's concern hit deep, looking at Kenny in fright through his tears. "Kenny, the truck.."

Fuck.

"We tried stopping you before...I..I can't believe you're okay.."

"Stop." Kenny shoved Stan's arm away and took an unsteady step back. Nearly falling off his feet.

"Kenny, you got to talk to us," Kyle said. "Okay? We can call your parents, you shouldn't be here-"

"STOP IT!" The boy made a break for it, busting out of the exit behind him as his friends stumbled after him. Watching as he quickly pulled up his hood and dashed across the snowy front grounds of the school.

"Kenny!"

He didn't stop running until he got home.

His back felt bruised sitting against the back of his bedroom door. Curled in a ball for who knows how as he hugged his knees and squished his hiccuped tears into his pants. Kenny felt like his heart hadn't caught up with his head, when all those faces stared at him with the realization that he'd come back from the dead. In a way that never in his nine years of living he'd thought would become true.

He'd always pictured this moment to be a relief, when people found out about his curse. That they would know the real him. A way to be understood. But it felt more terrifying than he'd dreamed it would be. But he wasn't so sure he could undo whatever finally broke the chain.

"Kenny, open up." His mother knocked. He lifted his snotty face realizing he'd ignored her pleas. "Kenny!"

"No.." he said. It made it worse to come home and see his parents have no reaction. Thinking maybe they didn't remember his death until his father and mother got a call from the school not minutes later asking about Kenny's situation after yesterday's 'accident.' When they realized everyone remembered, they couldn't exactly hide their shock.

His parents always knew about this curse, and they had the absolute balls to lie.

"Kenny-"

"Go away.." he begged, tightening his drawstrings and lowering his head.

"Kenny, we didn't plan for it like this.."

What the fuck did that matter now? What was their plan? To live out Kenny dying over and over as Carol re-birthed him? Until she was too old to do it anymore and Kenny's last death would be his final? Some plan.

"You're-you're a liar.."

"Ken, that's not-"

"You lied!" Kenny said, scrambling to his feet and spitting angry tears at the door. "What was the plan?!"

"Baby, we had to! Come out!"

Kenny didn't feel like hearing the drawn-out excuse. Already carrying his feet across the room and climbing atop his mattress. Carol attempted to push in on the locked door as the boy opened his window. His feet landed on the outside, and for some reason, he decked for Tegridy.

"He's home," Stan said, returning from the phone call with his mom to update Kyle and Cartman. "He won't come out of his room."

Kyle shook, holding his arms to look less frightened in the middle of the school hall. The entire school was on edge, sure. But the three of them didn't know how to process seeing Kenny step in front of a speeding truck and somehow make it out alive.

"How does this happen..?" Kyle asked. "I feel sick.."

Cartman made a face, edging away from Kyle grossly.

"I don't know.." Stan said. "Ever since those people in robes showed up, he's been acting weird.."

"Remember what he said?" Kyle reminded, still clutching onto himself. "His seizure was normal to him? How we wouldn't understand..?"

Cartman pondered broodingly, looking around at the students who were slow in their walk. All unsure how to feel seeing a boy simply come back from the dead in a finger snap. Amongst the gloom though, one kid remained the same like it was a normal day. The same kid in a robe stopped at his locker not far from them.

Cartman grumbled. "C'mon," he urged the other two who followed him. "Hey! Asshole!"

The head of brown curls turned, courteous from their approach. "Yes?"

"What kinda satanic bullshit are you causing!?" Cartman blamed. "You give Kenny one Playboy and he starts seizing like a fucking epileptic!"

Braxton looked at them warily. He didn't appreciate people who knew little about his and his family's spirituality mocking him.

"Why're you obsessed with him, anyway?"

"I'm not obsessed."

"My pale ass, you are."

"I'm sure he's tried to tell you about all this," Braxton said. "But you wouldn't understand."

Kyle clucked. "Would you believe someone if they said they couldn't die?"

"Cthulhu believes in the living dead."

"Dude, you gotta cut it out with this cult crap," Stan glowered, pointing threateningly. "It's gonna make Kenny worse."

"..you don't know him like we do."

That struck a huge nerve as Kyle edged closer with fuming eyes. "He's our friend! You don't know him!"

"So, fuck off!" Stan agreed.

Braxton closed his locker. Flicking a brow and brushing past the boys like they were just empty air in his way.

"Touch me again with that robe, I'll tie it to the flagpole!" Cartman yelled.

"Uh, boys?" The trio turned to Mackey approaching warily, just as frightened and unsteady as the students. "You three are dismissed. Mrs. Marsh is gonna pick you all up, m'kay?"

The Marshs were initially shocked to hear from the school board Kenny was somehow still alive. When he showed up at their doorstep not even halfway through the school day it was another thing. They'd tried calling the McCormicks though Kenny begged them not to. He needed some boys his age to talk with.

"How many times has this happened?" Stan asked finally after some silence. He sat on top of his bed as his friends remained scattered on his bedroom floor. Kenny sat the furthest by choice, feeling too weird to let anyone come close to him as he hugged his knees.

"A lot.."

"For how long?"

Kenny could barely recall, after all, it was his life. "As long as I can remember.."

Cartman had thought it through long enough before opening his mouth. "So you've been immortal since you've been in diapers, and didn't think about telling us?"

"That's not how it works.." Kenny squeezed his knees against his chest, resting his chin atop. "Everyone forgets every time.."

"That's..." Kyle pondered, sitting against the bed's bottom frame. He absentmindedly picked at his pants' material out of anxiety, as he was unfit to imagine how horrible a life that must've been. "That's awful..."

Kenny kept his chin tucked to his knee securely. He felt a weight around his heart lunge deeper from the knowledge that his closest friends finally understood the truth now. He couldn't help but cry more tears from it. Painfully overwhelmed like it was a vivid dream. "Yeah.."

"It's that cult, isn't it?" Kyle asked. "Cuta-hulu."

"Cthulhu.." Kenny said. "I knew they had something to do with it...I just didn't know what."

"But, Mysterion," Kyle continued. "Coon and Friends. We found your parents' involvement with them last time we played superheroes, how can this just happen?"

"I didn't know my mom was cursed, too...I thought I just...appeared, but she's why I come back."

His friends gave him room to think, understanding it was more than degrading for Kenny as he held his knees like a safety blanket against him. The eyes behind the hood looked betrayed, realizing the extent to which he'd been lied to his whole life.

"...I thought I was the only one who knew.." he spoke hushly. "...they always knew and they never told me.."

"I'm sorry, Kenny.." Stan said. "If those people are doing this now, there's gotta be a reason. We can't let them get to you, again."

"So, what if they do?" Kenny said. "Maybe they want to take the curse away."

"You don't know that," Kyle said. "Maybe they want to use it for themselves."

Kenny held himself tighter.

"You gotta hide."

"I don't wanna hide.."

Sharon cautiously came around the door's open frame, knocking against the wood to gain the boys' attention.

"Kenny, sweetie? Your parents are here."

Kenny refused to move from his spot and Stan stood up. "Mom, he really doesn't wanna.."

Sharon looked down the hall in worry. "Wait here," she said, leaving the doorway. The boys waited patiently as the chatter from downstairs went on heavily. Kenny could feel the confrontation coming up on him and he wasn't ready to enter this new and scary next step.

Sharon reentered soon again. "Kenny," Sharon urged softly. "Come talk to your mom and dad?"

That was the last thing he wanted. But he wasn't about to be rude to Stan's mom, which forced him carefully onto his feet and wipe his nose with his sleeve. He followed unwillingly as his friends got up and followed, unable to imagine what his parents had to say about it.

The talk between the McCormicks and Randy continued rapidly downstairs as Sharon went down to meet them. Kenny and the boys stayed on the top step warily as Carol and Stuart caught an eye of their son from where they stood in the middle of the hallway.

Carol's brow flattened. "Kenny, we need to go talk about this right now."

Kenny held the stair banister, not moving his feet from the top step.

"Kenneth."

Kenny buried his mouth against his sleeve, leaning against the railing. He felt humiliated. "You didn't talk for nine years.."

"Kenny, I swear, we only did it so you'd feel normal like other kids."

And yet, that never worked for Kenny. Not a day in his life did he subside his life as normal for a kid his age.

Stuart bit his tongue. Frustrated by how stubborn Kenny was being but remembering that he shouldn't be surprised. "We gotta figure it out now," Stuart said. "There wasn't no right way to do this from the start.."

Kenny clutched the stairs. "I'm not going..."

"He's welcome to stay with us, tonight."

"I'm sorry, Sharon. He's not sleepin' anywhere but his own bed." Carol said. "Ken, I know it's hard, baby. But we can't help you if you don't try an' let us."

"He could stay here," Stan offered. "And we could do a whole sweep on cult stuff, and necromancy, and-"

"Stanley." Sharon shushed, wary and a little freaked by the McCormicks' odd situation. She and Randy took the parents aside as the kids stayed put. Stan awkwardly put his hands into his pockets as he eyed Kenny on his left. If there was anything to be done, Kenny wasn't gonna get there by just pretending it didn't need to be helped.

"We can do one night," Sharon offered. "I'm sure he'll cool off around his friends."

"We need help," Carol said. She knew no one could even begin to know what Stuart and Carol had gotten themselves into nearly ten years ago. "We need to get him away from these folks. Don't'chu understand?"

"Kenny?" Kyle asked, almost pulling him off the rail he held. "Stan as an extra sleeping bag, c'mon."

They left the room, wondering if this was a battle worth facing or not.

To be continued...