The legends of Heaven and the theories about what it really is have plagued men and women for longer than we care to remember. Some have taken a fanatical devotion to their own version of Heaven and what awaits those that go there, which explains the existance of suicide bombers. Heaven is definatly one of the most debated things in existance although some don't believe it exists- but the difference is that there is no way to prove it's existence without giving up the right to come back to Earth and to life. Of course, one of the big reasons Butters allowed Wendy to take him up there was because she could bring him back to Earth afterwards, so perhaps there is a first time for everything.
But for now, this kind of rational thought was put on the backburner as Butters was just getting over the shock of being killed and having himself lifted from his body and into.....into a place where it looked like he was on top of a cloud. It was nighttime at this place and he was walking on an invisible flat surface with Wendy. In fact, when he looked down, he could almost see a whole city right below him when the cloud below cleared. Of course, the sensation of being high up above a city didn't settle Butters's fears too well, so he backed away in panic.
"Don't worry, this is Heaven, there's no way we can fall all the way down to Earth. That kind of spell was destroyed centuries ago." Wendy got Butters to stop cringing and to get back to where he was. "Come on, it's about a 20 minute walk to where we're gonna stay."
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The most popular image of Heaven is that of a bright sunny place with clouds and angels everywhere. But it clearly wasn't sunny right now, which was, according to Wendy, because the dead followed a schedule of day and night just like the living did, with the sun out in the early hours and the stars out at night. In fact, all the stars didn't look that high up from where the two were walking- Butters figured if there was a trampoline here, it would be easy to jump up and grab one of those things. But since they looked too sharp and would cut his hand pretty good, he quickly dismissed that possibility.
During their whole walk, all Butters could see was darkness, clouds, and a few more clouds. There were no angels or former lifeforms anywhere, and Wendy explained that it was because they were in one of the deserted parts of Heaven. As it turns out, Heaven is divided into many many towns and cities, and the parts of Heaven that don't have people and buildings in it are just left bare. They would arrive in the town they were staying at in a matter of moments. Which was just as well since this whole area with nothing around but clouds was starting to creep Butters out.
Finally they stopped to see a relatively big cloud right in front of them. "This is pretty much the border to my Heaven town, you just gotta climb over it to get in. It really gets easier with a lot of practice." Wendy tried to make her point by climbing on the cloud and was somehow able to grab onto it and climb to the top. "Hey, wait a minute, can't you just go around the cloud or something?" Butters commented since it didn't look like there was anything there to stop you from going around the cloud, and it looked a lot safer anyway. "No, they put in invisible borders there, it keeps the annoying people from the other towns from coming in easier. This way once they hear them climb the cloud and fall down, they won't be taken by surprise when some dead telemarketer or other annoying guy comes to bug them. Come on."
It was hard enough wrapping his brain around that logic without worrying how to climb the cloud, there didn't seem to be anything he could hold on to- it was just a cloud. But since going around it was out, he took a deep breath and jumped, hoping to grab on to part of the cloud. He couldn't do it the first time, or the second time, so on the third time he jumped and tried to use his hands to climb it by sheer force, but fell back down. So finally when he jumped again, Wendy just reached down and grabbed his hand before he fell again, and she tried to pull him up to the top. Since he was a little heavy, this was a little difficult, so just before Butters got up the top, Wendy lost her balance and fell about 6 feet to the ground- or whatever kept the dead from falling down to Earth. Butters quickly jumped over the cloud to see if she was allright, but he fell flat on his stomach too as a result of his jump. As he got up, he saw that Wendy was already up and talking to someone he couldn't see. "It's not a telemarketer or some other annoying dead guy, it's just me! You can go back to bed now!" She turned to help Butters back on his feet. "See what I mean about paranoid dead people?"
Butters wasn't exactly seeing that since he was too busy seeing everything else in front of him. There were about two rows of small suburban like houses stretching out as far as the eye can see. Most of the houses had their lights out and it looked like everyone living there was already in bed since no one else was outside. It was almost like they had stumbled onto a regular suburb on Earth.
"I know, great likeness of the suburbs, isn't it?", Wendy pointed out. "These houses go on for about a few miles, then we have an area of the biggest buildings where people work at. One of them is where the soul takers group is at, and we'll be seeing a lot of them tomorrow. But other than them, this place is just full of normal people who lost their lives and are picking up where they left off here."
"Do they have wings and halos and stuff like the dead people on TV? And how many dead famous people live here?" Now that the shock was starting to wear off, Butters's natural curiousity and eagerness to learn was coming back and beginning to make him a bit excited about what to expect here. "Actually, we don't get a lot of famous people in this area, they usually live in the bigger towns in Heaven. Some of the big stars show up when the soul takers have a big show, like the one they'll have tomorrow to introduce me as their new member." Apperantly done talking for now, Wendy started to walk in between the two rows of houses. "Come on, we should get to my place soon so we can get our rest!" Having no other choice and figuring he could always ask his other questions in a comfy house, Butters ran off to follow her.
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The two walked by the two long rows of houses until Wendy stopped at a house near the end of the first row. "Here's my place. They wanted me to have a house in one of the busy parts of Heaven since I was famous, but I wanted this quieter part so I could work on my plans with less distractions." Butters had to chuckle at that since after she was dead for 4 months, it was refreshing to hear Wendy talk in one of her long winded fancy speeches again. But by the time he finished remembering that, she had already walked up to her doorstep, so he quickly ran to catch up with her.
The house was relatively wide and was covered in purple paint, and it had two stories in it like the rest of the houses in the area. Wendy got out a key and opened the door to come in and show off the inside of the house to her guest. Inside, there was a relatively small living room with a couch against a wall and a shelf of books next to it. As Wendy explained earlier, some of the dead writers in Heaven liked to continue their work here and she had collected a few of their stories- though she wasn't too fond of how Shakespeare sold out and published sequel after sequel to Hamlet, she stopped reading them after the 6'th one. Butters noticed there wasn't a TV around in the room. "So, aside from these books and no TV in here, how do you keep yourself busy?"
"Mostly by planning out how I'm gonna see Stan again, that takes up most of the day. I figure once Stan is brought back here we can find our own little things to keep busy, just like the good old days." Now Wendy got lost in her thoughts a bit as the good old days briefly ran through her head. They would be so much more fun around here since the couple could do anything they wanted and they couldn't die. And although you couldn't very well give birth to people here, which ended Wendy's dreams of starting a family with Stan, they could still do the special thing they did the night before her death and he didn't even need to worry about using a condom! What would he need it for here? Oh yes, that glorious time wouldn't be too long away now, especially after tomorrow night and-
"Wendy? Are you in one of those trances or something? Ooh, I was in a lot of those when I kept thinking about you and Stan dying, which kind are you in? The one where you think about the good old days or the one where you can't stop thinking about death or what other kind?" Wendy had snapped out of it at around the part where he asked about the good old days kind of trance. So she composed herself and went on with the tour. Since the living room and the kitchen and the lack of TV weren't that much to talk about, that part of the tour ended quickly, so she went upstairs to show Butters his room.
The second floor of the house really just consisted of a hallway and one door on each side. The door on the right was the door to Wendy's room, which became obvious when Wendy opened the other door and showed Butters inside. Inside was a small bedroom without a lot of extra accesories other than a bed. "This is my guest room. Sorry I wasn't able to make it too pretty, but like I said, I've been busy making plans in my own room. I'm sure this should hold up for a few nights though." Butters walked over to the bed and sat on it, and after rocking up and down on it a few times he figured it would indeed do.
"We should probably get an early rest now. Tomorrow we'll go to the busy part of town and have a nice breakfast. The head of the soul takers group will be there to make sure I killed you and passed my initiation. At that point I'll go with him to plan out the party in my honor later. You can feel free to take a tour of Heaven while I'm gone, then we'll meet up to go to their party together, and find the Purgatory spells when we get there."
"I guess I could stand to take a little tour until then. Heck, it's not like I'm going anywhere!" Butters almost had to force himself to laugh at the situation he just described. But then again, who knows when he would really die and have a chance to go back here again- he could make some friends now that would make it easier for him to live here when he died for real. For now though, it'd probably be best to focus on this first visit and the jobs at hand in the future. "So, I should just get some sleep till tomorrow?"
"Unless you wanna go exploring now with the darkness and no one else around, and with all the dead people inside their houses."
"On second thought, I'm good till tomorrow." Wendy knew Butters would say that and she couldn't help but laugh. Though she didn't like to rip on Butters like the others did, having a nice laugh now wouldn't hurt, especially with the seriousness of the upcoming situation. "Well Butters, unless you have any more questions, I should let you get some sleep. And we'll have plently of time to go over the rest of this at breakfast tomorrow. Good night." Wendy exited the guest room before Butters remembered to ask her how they could get food into Heaven.
There didn't seem to be any drawers or other clothes to get into, so Butters was left with no choice but to sleep in his day clothes. He got under the strange covers in his strange new bed, and was left with nothing to do but listen to nothing. Just 20 minutes ago he was looking forward to doing this in his own bed, now he was doing the same thing in Heaven after he had died. Go figure. Too bad there weren't even any books or toys to play around with to keep him occupied. All he had were the same thoughts he'd had for the last half hour- the shock of seeing a ghost/spirit, the more immense shock of seeing Wendy again, the task that she was asking him to help with and the sacrifice he had already made, the thoughts of Stan being enslaved by some unknown guy in Purgatory, other such things.
But although he was afraid, Butters had been through worse. If he could survive even living in a town like South Park until tonight, and survive the cruelest type of shit imaginable from his friends and peers, perhaps going through the stuff Heaven and Purgatory had to offer wouldn't be so bad. Plus he had Wendy to protect him if the worst went down. And since he was already dead, how could the worst hurt him that badly?
At that point he figured he had to go to sleep now before he thought of ways that it could hurt.
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Across the hall, Wendy's room was filled with blueprints and notes about the soul takers group and their building where they would honor her tomorrow night. She had spent almost every day since Stan's death researching them, gaining their trust to let them join the group, and then talking them into giving her an assignment to take a soul. Now that she had a soul with her in the next room, it was safe to say the plan was working perfectly so far.
"Phase one complete. Phase two, get the Purgatory spells during the get together for me tomorrow. With Butters help it should be a little less difficult. Phase three, take the spells and find the one that will take me to Purgatory. Then I get Stan, maim whatever guy that must not be named is in my way, and we live happily ever after as I used to think God intended for us." It was going to be the perfect plan. She would worry about the aftermath later, and she would worry about God finding out what she did and coming after her later. God would be pissed that she took Stan away from where he technically belonged, but what did she owe Him? She was reversing God's mistake and she wasn't gonna give Him another chance to make it.
8 years of countless ordeals and near death experiences together wouldn't end like this. Wendy was gonna go to bed and put away her new notes, then go to sleep convinced that it wasn't ending that way after all. There really wasn't anything in Heaven, Hell, Earth, or Purgatory that could make her back off now or ever- hell, the powers that be knew she killed before to get Stan back at her side, they should have known she'd go this far to do it again, why would they be surprised? It was pointless to think she would let this go without a fight, so this was their fault for being dumb and shortsighted! The bastards!
But she had spent too many horrible nights cursing the powers that be for putting her in this situation, tonight wasn't the night to do it again, not after such progress had been made. She got herself under the covers and decided to take the advice she gave Butters earlier, to go to sleep. A long day and night was coming tomorrow, and rest was vital to be prepared for it. But it was worth reminding that nothing was gonna stop her from making it a succesful long day and night.
"Abso-fucking-lutly nothing is stopping me now...."
But for now, this kind of rational thought was put on the backburner as Butters was just getting over the shock of being killed and having himself lifted from his body and into.....into a place where it looked like he was on top of a cloud. It was nighttime at this place and he was walking on an invisible flat surface with Wendy. In fact, when he looked down, he could almost see a whole city right below him when the cloud below cleared. Of course, the sensation of being high up above a city didn't settle Butters's fears too well, so he backed away in panic.
"Don't worry, this is Heaven, there's no way we can fall all the way down to Earth. That kind of spell was destroyed centuries ago." Wendy got Butters to stop cringing and to get back to where he was. "Come on, it's about a 20 minute walk to where we're gonna stay."
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The most popular image of Heaven is that of a bright sunny place with clouds and angels everywhere. But it clearly wasn't sunny right now, which was, according to Wendy, because the dead followed a schedule of day and night just like the living did, with the sun out in the early hours and the stars out at night. In fact, all the stars didn't look that high up from where the two were walking- Butters figured if there was a trampoline here, it would be easy to jump up and grab one of those things. But since they looked too sharp and would cut his hand pretty good, he quickly dismissed that possibility.
During their whole walk, all Butters could see was darkness, clouds, and a few more clouds. There were no angels or former lifeforms anywhere, and Wendy explained that it was because they were in one of the deserted parts of Heaven. As it turns out, Heaven is divided into many many towns and cities, and the parts of Heaven that don't have people and buildings in it are just left bare. They would arrive in the town they were staying at in a matter of moments. Which was just as well since this whole area with nothing around but clouds was starting to creep Butters out.
Finally they stopped to see a relatively big cloud right in front of them. "This is pretty much the border to my Heaven town, you just gotta climb over it to get in. It really gets easier with a lot of practice." Wendy tried to make her point by climbing on the cloud and was somehow able to grab onto it and climb to the top. "Hey, wait a minute, can't you just go around the cloud or something?" Butters commented since it didn't look like there was anything there to stop you from going around the cloud, and it looked a lot safer anyway. "No, they put in invisible borders there, it keeps the annoying people from the other towns from coming in easier. This way once they hear them climb the cloud and fall down, they won't be taken by surprise when some dead telemarketer or other annoying guy comes to bug them. Come on."
It was hard enough wrapping his brain around that logic without worrying how to climb the cloud, there didn't seem to be anything he could hold on to- it was just a cloud. But since going around it was out, he took a deep breath and jumped, hoping to grab on to part of the cloud. He couldn't do it the first time, or the second time, so on the third time he jumped and tried to use his hands to climb it by sheer force, but fell back down. So finally when he jumped again, Wendy just reached down and grabbed his hand before he fell again, and she tried to pull him up to the top. Since he was a little heavy, this was a little difficult, so just before Butters got up the top, Wendy lost her balance and fell about 6 feet to the ground- or whatever kept the dead from falling down to Earth. Butters quickly jumped over the cloud to see if she was allright, but he fell flat on his stomach too as a result of his jump. As he got up, he saw that Wendy was already up and talking to someone he couldn't see. "It's not a telemarketer or some other annoying dead guy, it's just me! You can go back to bed now!" She turned to help Butters back on his feet. "See what I mean about paranoid dead people?"
Butters wasn't exactly seeing that since he was too busy seeing everything else in front of him. There were about two rows of small suburban like houses stretching out as far as the eye can see. Most of the houses had their lights out and it looked like everyone living there was already in bed since no one else was outside. It was almost like they had stumbled onto a regular suburb on Earth.
"I know, great likeness of the suburbs, isn't it?", Wendy pointed out. "These houses go on for about a few miles, then we have an area of the biggest buildings where people work at. One of them is where the soul takers group is at, and we'll be seeing a lot of them tomorrow. But other than them, this place is just full of normal people who lost their lives and are picking up where they left off here."
"Do they have wings and halos and stuff like the dead people on TV? And how many dead famous people live here?" Now that the shock was starting to wear off, Butters's natural curiousity and eagerness to learn was coming back and beginning to make him a bit excited about what to expect here. "Actually, we don't get a lot of famous people in this area, they usually live in the bigger towns in Heaven. Some of the big stars show up when the soul takers have a big show, like the one they'll have tomorrow to introduce me as their new member." Apperantly done talking for now, Wendy started to walk in between the two rows of houses. "Come on, we should get to my place soon so we can get our rest!" Having no other choice and figuring he could always ask his other questions in a comfy house, Butters ran off to follow her.
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The two walked by the two long rows of houses until Wendy stopped at a house near the end of the first row. "Here's my place. They wanted me to have a house in one of the busy parts of Heaven since I was famous, but I wanted this quieter part so I could work on my plans with less distractions." Butters had to chuckle at that since after she was dead for 4 months, it was refreshing to hear Wendy talk in one of her long winded fancy speeches again. But by the time he finished remembering that, she had already walked up to her doorstep, so he quickly ran to catch up with her.
The house was relatively wide and was covered in purple paint, and it had two stories in it like the rest of the houses in the area. Wendy got out a key and opened the door to come in and show off the inside of the house to her guest. Inside, there was a relatively small living room with a couch against a wall and a shelf of books next to it. As Wendy explained earlier, some of the dead writers in Heaven liked to continue their work here and she had collected a few of their stories- though she wasn't too fond of how Shakespeare sold out and published sequel after sequel to Hamlet, she stopped reading them after the 6'th one. Butters noticed there wasn't a TV around in the room. "So, aside from these books and no TV in here, how do you keep yourself busy?"
"Mostly by planning out how I'm gonna see Stan again, that takes up most of the day. I figure once Stan is brought back here we can find our own little things to keep busy, just like the good old days." Now Wendy got lost in her thoughts a bit as the good old days briefly ran through her head. They would be so much more fun around here since the couple could do anything they wanted and they couldn't die. And although you couldn't very well give birth to people here, which ended Wendy's dreams of starting a family with Stan, they could still do the special thing they did the night before her death and he didn't even need to worry about using a condom! What would he need it for here? Oh yes, that glorious time wouldn't be too long away now, especially after tomorrow night and-
"Wendy? Are you in one of those trances or something? Ooh, I was in a lot of those when I kept thinking about you and Stan dying, which kind are you in? The one where you think about the good old days or the one where you can't stop thinking about death or what other kind?" Wendy had snapped out of it at around the part where he asked about the good old days kind of trance. So she composed herself and went on with the tour. Since the living room and the kitchen and the lack of TV weren't that much to talk about, that part of the tour ended quickly, so she went upstairs to show Butters his room.
The second floor of the house really just consisted of a hallway and one door on each side. The door on the right was the door to Wendy's room, which became obvious when Wendy opened the other door and showed Butters inside. Inside was a small bedroom without a lot of extra accesories other than a bed. "This is my guest room. Sorry I wasn't able to make it too pretty, but like I said, I've been busy making plans in my own room. I'm sure this should hold up for a few nights though." Butters walked over to the bed and sat on it, and after rocking up and down on it a few times he figured it would indeed do.
"We should probably get an early rest now. Tomorrow we'll go to the busy part of town and have a nice breakfast. The head of the soul takers group will be there to make sure I killed you and passed my initiation. At that point I'll go with him to plan out the party in my honor later. You can feel free to take a tour of Heaven while I'm gone, then we'll meet up to go to their party together, and find the Purgatory spells when we get there."
"I guess I could stand to take a little tour until then. Heck, it's not like I'm going anywhere!" Butters almost had to force himself to laugh at the situation he just described. But then again, who knows when he would really die and have a chance to go back here again- he could make some friends now that would make it easier for him to live here when he died for real. For now though, it'd probably be best to focus on this first visit and the jobs at hand in the future. "So, I should just get some sleep till tomorrow?"
"Unless you wanna go exploring now with the darkness and no one else around, and with all the dead people inside their houses."
"On second thought, I'm good till tomorrow." Wendy knew Butters would say that and she couldn't help but laugh. Though she didn't like to rip on Butters like the others did, having a nice laugh now wouldn't hurt, especially with the seriousness of the upcoming situation. "Well Butters, unless you have any more questions, I should let you get some sleep. And we'll have plently of time to go over the rest of this at breakfast tomorrow. Good night." Wendy exited the guest room before Butters remembered to ask her how they could get food into Heaven.
There didn't seem to be any drawers or other clothes to get into, so Butters was left with no choice but to sleep in his day clothes. He got under the strange covers in his strange new bed, and was left with nothing to do but listen to nothing. Just 20 minutes ago he was looking forward to doing this in his own bed, now he was doing the same thing in Heaven after he had died. Go figure. Too bad there weren't even any books or toys to play around with to keep him occupied. All he had were the same thoughts he'd had for the last half hour- the shock of seeing a ghost/spirit, the more immense shock of seeing Wendy again, the task that she was asking him to help with and the sacrifice he had already made, the thoughts of Stan being enslaved by some unknown guy in Purgatory, other such things.
But although he was afraid, Butters had been through worse. If he could survive even living in a town like South Park until tonight, and survive the cruelest type of shit imaginable from his friends and peers, perhaps going through the stuff Heaven and Purgatory had to offer wouldn't be so bad. Plus he had Wendy to protect him if the worst went down. And since he was already dead, how could the worst hurt him that badly?
At that point he figured he had to go to sleep now before he thought of ways that it could hurt.
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Across the hall, Wendy's room was filled with blueprints and notes about the soul takers group and their building where they would honor her tomorrow night. She had spent almost every day since Stan's death researching them, gaining their trust to let them join the group, and then talking them into giving her an assignment to take a soul. Now that she had a soul with her in the next room, it was safe to say the plan was working perfectly so far.
"Phase one complete. Phase two, get the Purgatory spells during the get together for me tomorrow. With Butters help it should be a little less difficult. Phase three, take the spells and find the one that will take me to Purgatory. Then I get Stan, maim whatever guy that must not be named is in my way, and we live happily ever after as I used to think God intended for us." It was going to be the perfect plan. She would worry about the aftermath later, and she would worry about God finding out what she did and coming after her later. God would be pissed that she took Stan away from where he technically belonged, but what did she owe Him? She was reversing God's mistake and she wasn't gonna give Him another chance to make it.
8 years of countless ordeals and near death experiences together wouldn't end like this. Wendy was gonna go to bed and put away her new notes, then go to sleep convinced that it wasn't ending that way after all. There really wasn't anything in Heaven, Hell, Earth, or Purgatory that could make her back off now or ever- hell, the powers that be knew she killed before to get Stan back at her side, they should have known she'd go this far to do it again, why would they be surprised? It was pointless to think she would let this go without a fight, so this was their fault for being dumb and shortsighted! The bastards!
But she had spent too many horrible nights cursing the powers that be for putting her in this situation, tonight wasn't the night to do it again, not after such progress had been made. She got herself under the covers and decided to take the advice she gave Butters earlier, to go to sleep. A long day and night was coming tomorrow, and rest was vital to be prepared for it. But it was worth reminding that nothing was gonna stop her from making it a succesful long day and night.
"Abso-fucking-lutly nothing is stopping me now...."