Ending it on a short but sweet chapter! I've had this idea for an ending for a while but I decided to make it shorter cuz I thought it worked as a good closing to all the fighting.

South Down: Tyyy, it took a lot to try and make it a good final battle!

TriceTokushu: Lol, I wouldn't say a curse to the whole family. But it's definitely not over.

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Sadness havocked his body for the days following. He felt like he was drowning in an ocean after jumping off a boat that was on fire. As Kenny rolled back in forth in his disheveled bed, he whimpered out tears for the fifth time that day and hit a fist to his leg in fury. He'd been dreading the time coming since everything ended. Cthulhu let him go, but not so much his mother.

She was the one born with this. Kenny was the ride-along. It was either the family or Carol at this point. When Betty informed Carol that a greater part of Cthulhu's cult was expecting Carol to use her necromancy for communication with the dead, it was an obvious refusal by her. But Betty warned that there were more dangerous people out there like McNeill and Jack. Willing to go to the extent of targeting the McCormicks if Carol did not agree.

Harlan and Betty would be there as her security, sure, but it didn't stop Kenny from being frightened for his mother leaving for two months...

Kenny groaned and hiccuped, rolling onto his back to stare at his bedroom ceiling. Getting dressed had been an effort, but he wasn't sure getting to his bedroom door would be possible. His mother was about to be driven off to some Cthulhu circle in Utah, and maybe if Kenny was still her subject of necromancy, she wouldn't have to be. Besides it all, he hated how foreign he felt in his own body. How Cthulhu lets him go to leave him feeling like a shell of the kid who used to be roommates with death. The way he used to sense death was upon him no longer occupied the back of his mind. He didn't have the tendency to go around and know when a calling to the other side was coming. As much as he'd hated death for years, and wanted to rid of it permanently, it had integrated itself as part of him. Now Kenny wasn't sure how much of himself he let disappear with the rest of Cthulhu. He didn't know how to walk around nor see the world from his point of view. He didn't know how to exist.

As friends and family were getting ready to say their goodbyes, Kenny still could feel weights in his feet. Not sure he could face this breaking point as his bedroom door opened slowly. The boy in a green trapper hat waited patiently. Knowing this was going to be easier said than done.

"Kenny?" Kyle called to the shivering frame. "They're leaving, now.."

He sniffed, rolling over as he used what feeble strength he had to lift himself. Staring at his knees before being able to look his way.

"Is this real..?"

Kyle saddened. This was everything Kenny ever dreamed of and yet it was a bitch to get over. He could see the pain that hadn't left his friend's eyes for days and he wished he had more power to help him. "Yeah.."

Kenny sniffed once more and tightened his hood's drawstrings.

Carol handed another bag to Harlan as he loaded it to the SUV's back. She shrugged on her jean jacket as protection from the cold while the others waited on her. She turned the Marsh's and Brofvloski's way, accepting the hug Sharon offered.

"Carol, are you sure about this?"

She clutched Sharon's arms. "I'd rather take it far from here.."

"You call when you get there," Sheila reminded, reaching for a one-armed hug while holding Ike. "You hear, now?"

Stan looked down at his shoe, kicking at the dirt as he looked to Cartman who just awkwardly looked away standing near Liane. Kyle came back outside after his sending to fetch Kenny, looking warily behind him at his friend who walked slowly. Kenny shoved his hands in his pockets and looked down while going to meet with everyone else.

Carol kneeled to her eldest, taking Kevin in for a close hug. She ran a hand against his dirty blond as she looked past him worriedly.

"You take care of your brother and sister, hear?" She reminded. "And yourself."

Kevin nodded, silent against his mother's shoulder.

"Oh, honey.." she said. "I love you."

"Love you.."

She parted, smiling at her eldest and taking Karen in for a tight hug.

"You okay?" Stan asked Kenny on his right.

No, Stan. Absolutely fucking not. Even as Kenny stared forward at his sister being squeezed tightly by his mother, he still knew he didn't deserve to say goodbye to her. When Carol let her go, she stood up to meet with Stuart. Staring at him with broken eyes before he took her by the wrist gently in for a hug.

"Don't dumb up our kids while I'm gone.." she mumbled, looking for any reason not to cry.

Stuart was quiet. "Jus' call if somethin's wrong.."

She smiled against his shoulder, pulling back to align their gaze and letting him kiss her. Kenny pulled his hands out of his pockets and trudged through the others slowly. Staring at the ground all the way until he was looking at his mother's feet.

He didn't look up until Carol kneeled down and used her hand to force him to.

"Do you have to..?" Was all he could ask.

"Yeah.." she said. He stubbornly looked down again, angry at himself. "This ain't your fault, baby.."

"How d'you know.."

"I know.."

He had a hard time believing her though didn't resist the hug she pulled him into. Kenny clutched his mother tightly. While wondering in the back of his mind what would've happened if the world had never found out about this curse.

"I'm so proud of you..every day, y'know?"

Kenny's eyes looked up tearily.

"You're more than any of this.." she reminded. "You're my Ken.."

He nodded as his mother kissed his head. He parted and looked at her stiffly to avoid causing a scene as he retreated to his father's side while Carol joined Harlan and Betty in closing the SUV trunk. She looked at her kids and husband again as she got into the back seat, and the ignition started.

Kenny's held-in sob broke. As the car drove off, he cried against his father's legs as Karen clutched her brother's middle tigthly.

Kenny didn't know what to do, but his friends thought they might. They proposed some distraction was needed by watching movies and playing video games at Stan's. While wary about leaving his bedroom, Kenny also was getting sick of sitting in his house. They were all set for a sleepover with just their core group as Kenny took a moment to sit in Stan's room against the bottom bed frame. He stared at the polished wood of Tegridy's quaint farmhouse floors and inhaled the outside air coming from the open window that calmed him. Or it was the weed smell.

The others reentered. Standing in the doorway after respecting the minute alone he needed.

"Kenny?" Stan tried. "Kenny, we've got Terrance and Phillip on Hulu."

The boy in the parka only nodded.

"Kenny," Cartman sparked. "There's only one way to go about this all, correctly-"

"Cartman, not now." Kyle shut down.

"He needs to hear this! You've survived death and got away from some cult-stomping psychopaths. You don't wanna slap your name on a magazine? Tell the world they can't fuck with you? This could make headlines, Ken!"

Stan edged in, coming to sit by Kenny. "He's got a bit of a point.." Stan said. "Not the publicity part, but.."

"Yeah," Kyle went and situated himself in front of Stan and Kenny on the floor as Cartman followed. Smiling as if delivering Kenny the greatest news. "You survived something no human could ever imagine. This is your chance to start living life again."

"You guys don't get it, I'm sorry.." Kenny cracked. "I didn't escape anything. My mom is going with them for two months.."

"That's not your decision-"

"But this was all put on me to get to her," he said. "I don't want her to go to have to.."

He sighed, tired of thinking the same thing over and over again.

"Besides, I don't know what to do now.."

"What d'you mean?"

Kenny tugged at his coat collar, feeling himself get worked up again. "I can't just be normal.."

Kyle sighed. "Look, I get it-

"Do you?" Kenny doubted immediately. "Because I lived with it. I hated it so much. But it's fucking crazy how sometimes that fade to darkness actually felt comforting after a day of bullshit. I thought I would like life without it, but-"

His friends frowned again.

"I don't know who I am."

"Oh, c'mon.." Stan tried. "We didn't know about your curse and we still liked you for different reasons."

Kenny was quiet, and while he'd always been a good friend to others, it was obvious he hadn't been one to himself in a long time. Kyle tapped Kenny's knee in front of him to get him to look up.

"Don't let those assholes steal the real you, Kenny.." Kyle reminded. "They want you to think you're only that and nothing else."

Kenny knew if that wasn't true, Kyle wouldn't be betting on it. It didn't help all matters, though. "That doesn't help my mom.."

"Dude, I think your mom just needs to help you, right now.."

"I didn't ask her to."

"None of us ask to," Kyle said with a slight eye roll. "But, she's going to no matter what. Any of our moms would."

Kenny still knew the truth. He had just been used to being the one who takes a hit his whole life. Letting his mother do what she was meant to do, protect her son, was not any burden he was dropping.

"Stop being a shell, and just be Ken. Please?"

Kenny hid his temptation, accidentally catching Cartman's shrug. "The Kenny that reads Playboys and sniffs paint is a lot more fun."

"I'll try.."

Stan grabbed his shoulder. "That's a start."

Even with the absolute jackass, and tomfoolery that these friends of his were, they had still been the few people that made him feel like a normal kid outside his curse. Kenny had a life other than it all, it just got fought over by these people who were after him, and Kenny had won...

...but his mother living with her own curse was still there.

The boy's eyes glossed. "What if I can't protect her, back..?"

"Then we'll be there to help."

She could get rid of it. For her curse wasn't living with necromancy, it was knowing that it put Kenny at risk. Something she could put to an end once and for all. Kenny had to get used once to living differently...

He was sure he could do it again.

Kenny choked silently, and the sit-down turned into a long-awaited group hug.

The end.