The next day, the traditional visual of Heaven being a bright sunny place with bright white clouds all around was in full swing. In Wendy and Butters's part of Heaven, many of the dead people got up, read the Heaven newspaper, and checked out all the bad news on Earth which made them happy that they died when they did. As Wendy had explained the previous night, over the last few decades the parts of Heaven had evolved to be almost like the towns on Earth. People had jobs, they provided for family members when they finally came up to Heaven, they used special Heaven money to pay for things, and lived regular lives up here. So those people who expected Heaven to be a different and far better place than Earth was very much wrong in a way. Sure it was different since there were no murders and no need for violence since you couldn't get hurt perminantly, but the idea of it's living conditions being different was very overrated. This is why a lot of people moved to the big cities of Heaven to make up for the disappointment and to least have some hustle and bustle in their second lives.
As for our two kids, they were now at the hustle and bustle part of the town. They were walking past stores and workplaces and some semi large buildings where the richest people in this town worked. Surprisingly, the stores had almost the same kind of products on sale as Earth did, even though you can't take possessions with you when you die. Wendy told Butters that over the centuries, enough people had managed to make their own equipment to build houses and gadgets and the like, and enough people remembered food recipes so that all kinds of food could be made just like on Earth. This was in their favor, since they were headed for lunch to eat some of those types of food.
They found a small lunch shop at about the middle of the town and sat themselves down. Of course, since Wendy knew that the people in Heaven made it their first task to remember how to reprint money, she knew there was Heaven money unlike Butters, and she had enough to pay for the meal. Luckly the menu had at least one of Butters's favorite foods, a large bowl of Tricks, so he had that while Wendy had a salad as an appetizer, then some pancakes. She didn't really care what she ordered as long as it had no meat in it, because she was just waiting for him to show up. This was his favorite place to go for lunch and she needed him to get here to show him she had succeeded in her task.
About a second later, she heard the door open and heard someone walking slowly into the resteraunt. She knew it was him and she turned to greet him. "Marvin? Marvin Marsh?! It's me with my catch from last night!"
Butters had pretty much reached his threshold of being shocked and stunned last night, but he made room to be particually stunned this one last time. Stan Marsh's very own grandfather, Marvin Marsh, who died about 2 1/2 years ago after pleading for death for countless years, was coming up to their table. In fact, he was walking up despite his still old age and the fact he had to use a wheelchair when he was alive. But since he now knew that people are automatically well enough to walk again in Heaven if they couldn't walk on Earth, it wasn't too surprising to Butters that he didn't need a wheelchair, though he was taking his sweet time getting here. Finally after about 30 seconds, he got to the table.
"Mr Marsh, you remember Butters, he used to be one of "Billy"'s friends. And I killed him just like I said I would." Wendy said confidently. Grandpa Marsh bent down and ignored his bones cracking as a result, since he was too busy examining Butters to make sure it was really him. Butters just looked uneasily at the man since he didn't know how else to react at him being 2 inches away from his face. But at last, Grandpa Marsh put on a smile and backed away to turn towards Wendy. "I always knew you still had that killer instinct in you! So how'd you put him outta his misery, huh? No wait, save it for tonight, I'm sure the story will be a hit at our party!"
"You're the head of the soul takers group?" For once, Butters knew about a second after he asked a dumb question that he'd asked a dumb question, since it seemed pretty obvious that Mr Marsh was the leader already. But he figured he just had to make sure, and soon enough he was sure. "Yep, that's me, Billy's dead friend! What, you think I wasn't too bitter about having to live those last 20 horrible years of my life that I didn't want to take others down with me, hell no! I organized the soul takers in Heaven and made them come together for the first time in centuries, and now here we are with our own club! Now I get to choose who dies before or after their death and who gets to take them down, it's the job I wanted to die to get decades ago!" Grandpa Marsh turned to Wendy with a bigger smile that showed his fixed up teeth. "And now with this little famous lady joining our club, we're gonna get more attention than ever after tonight!"
"That's just what I joined up for! Say, I figured I could come over after lunch and make sure this party in my honor is going smoothly. I think I earned it after a night of breaking this guy's spine." Now even more impressed with Wendy's killing abilities, Grandpa Marsh was more eager to grant her request. "Oh, that was the 3'rd best way that I wanted to die if Billy would have let me! Sure, come over and greet your new co-workers! You'll have to leave before 4 so you can get ready for your big night though. And bring your victim with you so everyone can see how ruthless you were to take him away." Wendy nodded at the ease in which the old man was falling into her trap like she had planned out for weeks. "I'll do that. I'll come over and discuss things with you guys in a minute, then come back tonight with my catch here!"
The two soul takers laughed some more and talked a bit more about tonight as Butters just watched them go, more than a little uneasy that they were joking and about to celebrate his death- especially since he was sure his parents were wishing they were dead with him right now after seeing his body on Earth. But once again, Butters had to will himself to grin and bear this unusual, deadly, and still dangerous turn of events to come.
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When they finished lunch, Butters and Wendy split up like they originally planned. Wendy went off with Grandpa Marsh to go to the soul taker group's headquarters and make last minute plans for tonight. Butters was allowed to wander around Heaven and look around, then he'd have to return to the house by the end of the afternoon to get ready for tonight. Wendy also gave him some money in case he could find some clothes or other accesories to wear for the occasion.
So Butters was basically left alone to fend for himself in Heaven for the next few hours. As he walked around, he saw that this area was indeed like South Park, only surrounded by far better scenery. There were small time buildings and stores, people walking around buying stuff, and he even saw some little kids walking around[due to the fact that people did not age after they died]The differences between Heaven and South Park was that Heaven was not filled with greedy and often very stupid people, and the corrupt people were stuck in Hell or Purgatory. This was basically how a small part of a town was supposed to work and how South Park would work if more than a few adults had an active brain. Since Butters rarely ever went to places other than South Park, he had to be impressed with this place by comparison. Heck, if he was in South Park, he'd have probably run into a hobo by now!
"Spare change? Spare change, mister?" As usual in times like this, Butters thought and/or spoke too soon. He turned to see what kind of hobos were populating Heaven, but then got yet another shock when he saw who was beside a building and wearing several day old rags.
"Miss.....Miss Ellen?!"
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Far away from this scene was the location of the Soul Takers Group, the largest building in this part of Heaven. Since Marvin Marsh started the group, he had indeed organized all the free lancing people in Heaven who took people's souls, and the organization had grown to be one of Heaven's most profitable and famous businesses. Now the people who worked there were getting ready for tonight's big get together to honor the addition of Wendy into the group.
The soul takers building had a lobby at the front, and then straight ahead there was an extravegant and large ballroom filled with tables and a podium for the festivities. There, Wendy, Grandpa Marsh, and a few other key members of the group were discussing the interary for the party.
"So now that she's passed her test, she's ready to be made an official member and the party is on to make it official." Grandpa started.
"Wow, I thought you were ruthless when you said you wanted to kill a friend for your first time, but to do it like this! I'm starting to get worried that you'll rise to the top too fast!" commented one of the more experienced soul takers. "So how does it stack up? How does killing someone while you're alive compare to killing someone while you're dead?"
"I wouldn't really know, I blocked out a lot of my memories from the first time I killed someone. I mean, it did happen when I was 8 and a lot's happened to me since then." Wendy was used to their questions about her past by now, but it was all part of her job to gain their trust so it'd be easier to steal their spells from under their nose.
"So how did the guy take it when you showed up and told him he was gonna die?" asked another future co-worker of Wendy's. "You said it was gonna be easy to get him since he'd be less likely to fight back than your other friends."
"That's right, I was right. He was pretty much too stunned to see me, so snapping his spine wasn't that hard. But I got him to calm down after we got back, and he shouldn't bring down the mood too much when I bring him here tonight."
"That's good to hear, I heard he was one of Billy's foo-foo sissy friends anyway." Grandpa Marsh said in response to Wendy's answer, then he kept on going with his memories of Butters. "I always heard Billy and the Jewish kid and the fat kid talk about how lame that kid was behind his back, it sounded like he was quite a pussy pants!" He couldn't help but laugh at his own choice of words, which was more than could be said for Wendy. "Well Mr Marsh, remember that they did that stuff about 8 years ago, they didn't know any better back then."
"What do you mean, you're the one who said he was a scardy cat!" replied the older member of Grandpa's subordinates. "And from all those stories you told about you having to save his ass from bullies and cool kids, he really does seem like a little pushover and a coward! I left Earth several decades ago, but I knew life there didn't change enough so that goody two shoes pansies like him were allowed to live torture free lives!" He laughed some more and that allowed him to ignore Wendy's less than pleased stare from hearing him talk. "I tell you, that story where he got his eye taken out and no one cared enough about him to help him made me laugh for days!" He would have gone on with more "funny" Butters stories if Wendy hadn't grabbed his tie.
"If we're gonna work together, I think we'd get along better if you didn't talk that way about him or my other friends again." Of course Wendy didn't plan to work with these people for very long at all, but a threat like that would probably be enough to stop this line of talking. Unfortunatly she hadn't grabbed Grandpa Marsh's tie, so he was able to go on for the guy. "Geez, what's up your young butt, Billy's girlfriend? With that kind of talk and all those stories with you helping this kid, it's like you have a bonor for the pansy!"
"You know Stan's the love of my life, so don't insult me like that either! Butters is a friend of mine and I just took him away from his family and all his other friends forever to get in this club! He's having a hard time right now and it's not just because he's a so called pansy, so you guys just back the HELL OFF!" That sure shut them up, even though Wendy was a little surprised that she raised her voice that much at the end. But she had just killed Butters and he was willing to help her with everything she had to do in the next few things, so the least she owed him was to make sure these guys didn't talk shit about him. Nonetheless, it did work as the soul takers got back to talking about the party and left the topic of Butters closed, so all was well that ended well in Wendy's mind.
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Speaking of Butters, he was having quite an afternoon talking to Wendy's first murder victim, Miss Ellen Widmark. After he had given her the spare change she wanted, she told him that after being shot into the sun, she had a very hard time adjusting to life among the dead. By the time Wendy was put on trial for her murder about a year later however, she had gotten herself into a good home. But after hearing that the war over Wendy's imprisonment ended with her father, Francis Widmark, killing people and then killing herself, she threw herself back into a hell of a depression. Once she got out of it, she had become one of the rare poor people in Heaven, and by then she was in too much debt to get out of it. Now 8 years later, she had still barely improved her position in Heaven since she had fallen so far in the past. Butters was naturally caught up in this story of how the teacher all the boys in class wanted to date had fallen so low after her death, so much so that he didn't notice she'd taken an hour out of his time.
"So, uh, it's really been Hell for you in Heaven, eh?" Butters asked since he really couldn't think of anything better to say other than the obvious.
"Well, first I got shot into the sun for doing something I didn't do. Then I find out my father wanted to make amends with me the day before I died, then I find out he caught the girl who did this to me a year later, then he kills himself and 4 other people to keep her locked up. And to top it all off, I had looked forward to him joining me in Heaven so we could catch up then, but since he killed himself he got stuck in Purgatory. Finally, this unnamed fearsome dictator sends him to Hell for good measure. So all in all, it's a little bit of Hell for me, yeah." replied the formally very beautiful ex-teacher. "Now it's a matter of living with the impossible debt I set up for myself when I wasn't paying attention."
"Jesus, that's, that's horrible."
"I wouldn't credit Jesus for much either, I didn't get much of a handout from him when he visited the bums in Heaven." Miss Ellen coughed for a while, since even though you couldn't really get sick or ill in Heaven for long, you could still feel a little uneasy from a lack of eating. "I've had a hell of a ride. But it's nothing compared to what you must be going through. After all, Wendy chose you to die just so she could use you to find Stan again."
"Well, I've already come to terms about how tough my life has- hey, hold on a minute!" Butters stopped abruptly since he had just now realized that Ms Ellen knew about Wendy's plan. "How'd you know about Wendy's plan?!"
"When you search for leftover food in the back of her house, you overhear a few things. Her speaking out loud to herself about her plans was one of them."
"Oh jeez, this is bad in some way but I don't know what yet." But it didn't take that long for Butters to pinpoint what the big risk was. "Oh right, now I know! You'd probably tell some people about her plan so she can't get back together with Stan! Cause if you can't have Stan as a boy toy, no one can, right?!" Miss Ellen, despite having a hourse and ugly sounding laugh now, had to laugh at Butters's stupid theory.
"Are you kidding?! The whole reason my death wasn't fair was because I was never after Stan in the first place! Besides, I have no plans to turn evil and foil her little plan, something bad always happens when a member of my family goes against her anyway." This made Butters momentarily relieved until Miss Ellen put him back on the hot seat with her next question. "But you seem to be a reasonable guy who doesn't deserve to be screwed over by this. So why do you trust Wendy to bring you back to life for your trouble?"
"She said she'd put me back after she found Stan again, why wouldn't she keep her word?"
"A few minutes before the Iraqis took me away to die, she told me she wanted to be friends and she wished me and Stan all the happiness in the world. That was one hell of a lie. I fell for it and it cost me, why should you suffer the same fate of suffering from her lies? Do you honestly think she gives a damm about you enough to care more about your happiness than her finding Stan again? And do you really think she wouldn't dare to screw you over if she had to?"
The conversation was getting more than a little uncomfortable for Butters, so he tried to take measures to end it. "Look, Miss Ellen, if you're gonna tell me she's too evil to be trusted, I won't hear it. Me and the guys have heard all the nasty things said about her for the last 10 years, and she's always proved them wrong. If you knew about your father's war with Wendy, then you should know how much Wendy's changed since you died as well."
"My father was a great man. He protected our country with the best of them. And yet after two months of dealing with her and you people, he got turned into a killer. Face it, when it comes to her desire to be with Stan, she doesn't care who she ruins as a result. She ruined me and sent me to this hell, and she helped ruin my dad who used to be the perfect cop. You think it won't be easy for her to ruin you?"
"Hey now, it's not like your dad was perfect before we ruined him! We heard about how he kicked you out for being gay, that's why you were in South Park to begin with! So don't rewrite history all of a sudden just to turn me against Wendy, cause, well, that ain't gonna happen!" The last part of his argument didn't really sound that eloquent or gramatically correct, but Butters was a bit too caught up in the debate by now to mind as much. Since this was obviously gonna go nowhere, he figured he really should get going and explore the rest of Heaven before he had to head back. But Miss Ellen tried to get in the final word first.
"Keep this in mind. She got rid of me to be with Stan when she was 8 years old. You think she wouldn't be more dangerous 10 years later? And remember, the only possible way this kind of thing can end is if she has to make a choice. If the choice comes between her getting back together with Stan or saving you from some such thing, do you honestly think she won't choose to be with Stan? I'm not getting in the way, but I do know that's the only way this could ever end, with her deciding who's happiness is more important to her, yours or Stan's. I just hope you're not too disappointed when she chooses Stan and leaves you to rot here. You shouldn't have to be ruined and destitute here because of how she fucked you over, just like she did to me. Remember that, okay?"
Miss Ellen coughed a few more times and headed back to her cardboard box home next to one of the buildings. Butters took this chance to get away while he could before she almost made him worry some more.
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He actually shrugged off Miss Ellen's horrible predictions faster than he expected. True, it might be logical to expect the kind of ending she laid out for him, but he decided if he thought about that and trying to avoid a situation like that, the plan would get fucked up so fast it wouldn't even be funny- because this was already so serious. This was not one of those times where it was safe for Butters to look on the worst case senario of this plot, cause if he did, it might wind up dooming Stan and ruining Wendy's dream forever, since he figured she would only get one shot at this thing. And after knowing Wendy for 10 years, Butters knew Miss Ellen was dead wrong about her, so why dwell on that any longer than he had to? True, she would do about anything to get Stan back, but that was why he needed to help her out, since without his support, this wouldn't work at all. So why the hell would she need to screw him over?
With those thoughts relaxing his brain, Butters spent the next two hours enjoying his tour of Heaven. He used the money he had left over to buy a few nice shirts for tonight and the next few days in case he needed it. He wandered around, made his comparisions between Heaven and South Park, wished that South Park would look this nice by the time he died for real, and then headed back to Wendy's house as scheduled.
Wendy was already there by the time he got back, so he just told her he had fun wandering around the place. There really wasn't any need to tell her about the Miss Ellen situation- but perhaps it would have been useless since she said she already figured she would meet up with him. "You know that Miss Ellen is here?" asked a surprised Butters. "Yeah, I see her when I'm walking around town, but I haven't talked to her. I do my best to avoid her since I have too much on my mind to get in a fight with her. Maybe when I bring Stan back I can be brave enough to face her again, but not now."
So both of them put that aside soon after and got ready for the party. It started at 6:30 so Wendy figured they should be out of the house at 6:10. With the Heaven's Time watch Butters had bought earlier today, he was able to put on one of the shirts he bought with enough time to spare. He didn't need to be dressed up for the occasion since he was the mere victim, but since Wendy was the guest of honor she needed some time to fix herself up. So Butters waited patiently in the living room, but made sure not to get too comfy since they'd be leaving the minute Wendy came down.
About a second after he swore not to get comfy, he saw Wendy coming down and quickly got himself up. She was wearing a beautiful light pink dress which she was able to afford with her first paycheck from the soul takers group earlier today. She walked up to Butters with a smile, and he paused for some time since he needed to think of the best way to greet her. This was almost like they were heading out on a date, though this was purely for the business of finding magic spells under a group of dead people's noses. But he just settled on saying the simplest and most truthful way to greet her. "You, um, you look great, Wendy."
"Thanks, I knew asking for an early paycheck today would pay off." She headed for the door and Butters followed her. "Let's go over the plan. We're gonna get in there, mingle with the group and let them talk about me, then after I'm officially made a member we sneak away to their room of spells, find the Purgatory spells, and leave. Then we'll go home to decode the spells and find the one that'll take us to Purgatory. Until then we're just gonna talk and mingle with the people like we're on a regular outing. Okay?"
"Sure, mingle, I can do that a bit." Butters wasn't that good at mingling with people he knew, so it would be harder to do that with dead people. But it was his responsibility to do that and make sure no one else was wise to the plan, so he swore to do the best he could. Wendy then opened the door and asked plesently, "Shall we?" and held her arm out. Butters vaguely remembered this type of gesture from his time with Julia, so he akwardly hooked his right arm around Wendy's arm. The two shared a small laugh and then walked arm in arm out of the house and to the soul takers party, where the first step to freeing Stan from whatever he was suffering from....and from whoever was letting him suffer, was about to begin.
As for our two kids, they were now at the hustle and bustle part of the town. They were walking past stores and workplaces and some semi large buildings where the richest people in this town worked. Surprisingly, the stores had almost the same kind of products on sale as Earth did, even though you can't take possessions with you when you die. Wendy told Butters that over the centuries, enough people had managed to make their own equipment to build houses and gadgets and the like, and enough people remembered food recipes so that all kinds of food could be made just like on Earth. This was in their favor, since they were headed for lunch to eat some of those types of food.
They found a small lunch shop at about the middle of the town and sat themselves down. Of course, since Wendy knew that the people in Heaven made it their first task to remember how to reprint money, she knew there was Heaven money unlike Butters, and she had enough to pay for the meal. Luckly the menu had at least one of Butters's favorite foods, a large bowl of Tricks, so he had that while Wendy had a salad as an appetizer, then some pancakes. She didn't really care what she ordered as long as it had no meat in it, because she was just waiting for him to show up. This was his favorite place to go for lunch and she needed him to get here to show him she had succeeded in her task.
About a second later, she heard the door open and heard someone walking slowly into the resteraunt. She knew it was him and she turned to greet him. "Marvin? Marvin Marsh?! It's me with my catch from last night!"
Butters had pretty much reached his threshold of being shocked and stunned last night, but he made room to be particually stunned this one last time. Stan Marsh's very own grandfather, Marvin Marsh, who died about 2 1/2 years ago after pleading for death for countless years, was coming up to their table. In fact, he was walking up despite his still old age and the fact he had to use a wheelchair when he was alive. But since he now knew that people are automatically well enough to walk again in Heaven if they couldn't walk on Earth, it wasn't too surprising to Butters that he didn't need a wheelchair, though he was taking his sweet time getting here. Finally after about 30 seconds, he got to the table.
"Mr Marsh, you remember Butters, he used to be one of "Billy"'s friends. And I killed him just like I said I would." Wendy said confidently. Grandpa Marsh bent down and ignored his bones cracking as a result, since he was too busy examining Butters to make sure it was really him. Butters just looked uneasily at the man since he didn't know how else to react at him being 2 inches away from his face. But at last, Grandpa Marsh put on a smile and backed away to turn towards Wendy. "I always knew you still had that killer instinct in you! So how'd you put him outta his misery, huh? No wait, save it for tonight, I'm sure the story will be a hit at our party!"
"You're the head of the soul takers group?" For once, Butters knew about a second after he asked a dumb question that he'd asked a dumb question, since it seemed pretty obvious that Mr Marsh was the leader already. But he figured he just had to make sure, and soon enough he was sure. "Yep, that's me, Billy's dead friend! What, you think I wasn't too bitter about having to live those last 20 horrible years of my life that I didn't want to take others down with me, hell no! I organized the soul takers in Heaven and made them come together for the first time in centuries, and now here we are with our own club! Now I get to choose who dies before or after their death and who gets to take them down, it's the job I wanted to die to get decades ago!" Grandpa Marsh turned to Wendy with a bigger smile that showed his fixed up teeth. "And now with this little famous lady joining our club, we're gonna get more attention than ever after tonight!"
"That's just what I joined up for! Say, I figured I could come over after lunch and make sure this party in my honor is going smoothly. I think I earned it after a night of breaking this guy's spine." Now even more impressed with Wendy's killing abilities, Grandpa Marsh was more eager to grant her request. "Oh, that was the 3'rd best way that I wanted to die if Billy would have let me! Sure, come over and greet your new co-workers! You'll have to leave before 4 so you can get ready for your big night though. And bring your victim with you so everyone can see how ruthless you were to take him away." Wendy nodded at the ease in which the old man was falling into her trap like she had planned out for weeks. "I'll do that. I'll come over and discuss things with you guys in a minute, then come back tonight with my catch here!"
The two soul takers laughed some more and talked a bit more about tonight as Butters just watched them go, more than a little uneasy that they were joking and about to celebrate his death- especially since he was sure his parents were wishing they were dead with him right now after seeing his body on Earth. But once again, Butters had to will himself to grin and bear this unusual, deadly, and still dangerous turn of events to come.
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When they finished lunch, Butters and Wendy split up like they originally planned. Wendy went off with Grandpa Marsh to go to the soul taker group's headquarters and make last minute plans for tonight. Butters was allowed to wander around Heaven and look around, then he'd have to return to the house by the end of the afternoon to get ready for tonight. Wendy also gave him some money in case he could find some clothes or other accesories to wear for the occasion.
So Butters was basically left alone to fend for himself in Heaven for the next few hours. As he walked around, he saw that this area was indeed like South Park, only surrounded by far better scenery. There were small time buildings and stores, people walking around buying stuff, and he even saw some little kids walking around[due to the fact that people did not age after they died]The differences between Heaven and South Park was that Heaven was not filled with greedy and often very stupid people, and the corrupt people were stuck in Hell or Purgatory. This was basically how a small part of a town was supposed to work and how South Park would work if more than a few adults had an active brain. Since Butters rarely ever went to places other than South Park, he had to be impressed with this place by comparison. Heck, if he was in South Park, he'd have probably run into a hobo by now!
"Spare change? Spare change, mister?" As usual in times like this, Butters thought and/or spoke too soon. He turned to see what kind of hobos were populating Heaven, but then got yet another shock when he saw who was beside a building and wearing several day old rags.
"Miss.....Miss Ellen?!"
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Far away from this scene was the location of the Soul Takers Group, the largest building in this part of Heaven. Since Marvin Marsh started the group, he had indeed organized all the free lancing people in Heaven who took people's souls, and the organization had grown to be one of Heaven's most profitable and famous businesses. Now the people who worked there were getting ready for tonight's big get together to honor the addition of Wendy into the group.
The soul takers building had a lobby at the front, and then straight ahead there was an extravegant and large ballroom filled with tables and a podium for the festivities. There, Wendy, Grandpa Marsh, and a few other key members of the group were discussing the interary for the party.
"So now that she's passed her test, she's ready to be made an official member and the party is on to make it official." Grandpa started.
"Wow, I thought you were ruthless when you said you wanted to kill a friend for your first time, but to do it like this! I'm starting to get worried that you'll rise to the top too fast!" commented one of the more experienced soul takers. "So how does it stack up? How does killing someone while you're alive compare to killing someone while you're dead?"
"I wouldn't really know, I blocked out a lot of my memories from the first time I killed someone. I mean, it did happen when I was 8 and a lot's happened to me since then." Wendy was used to their questions about her past by now, but it was all part of her job to gain their trust so it'd be easier to steal their spells from under their nose.
"So how did the guy take it when you showed up and told him he was gonna die?" asked another future co-worker of Wendy's. "You said it was gonna be easy to get him since he'd be less likely to fight back than your other friends."
"That's right, I was right. He was pretty much too stunned to see me, so snapping his spine wasn't that hard. But I got him to calm down after we got back, and he shouldn't bring down the mood too much when I bring him here tonight."
"That's good to hear, I heard he was one of Billy's foo-foo sissy friends anyway." Grandpa Marsh said in response to Wendy's answer, then he kept on going with his memories of Butters. "I always heard Billy and the Jewish kid and the fat kid talk about how lame that kid was behind his back, it sounded like he was quite a pussy pants!" He couldn't help but laugh at his own choice of words, which was more than could be said for Wendy. "Well Mr Marsh, remember that they did that stuff about 8 years ago, they didn't know any better back then."
"What do you mean, you're the one who said he was a scardy cat!" replied the older member of Grandpa's subordinates. "And from all those stories you told about you having to save his ass from bullies and cool kids, he really does seem like a little pushover and a coward! I left Earth several decades ago, but I knew life there didn't change enough so that goody two shoes pansies like him were allowed to live torture free lives!" He laughed some more and that allowed him to ignore Wendy's less than pleased stare from hearing him talk. "I tell you, that story where he got his eye taken out and no one cared enough about him to help him made me laugh for days!" He would have gone on with more "funny" Butters stories if Wendy hadn't grabbed his tie.
"If we're gonna work together, I think we'd get along better if you didn't talk that way about him or my other friends again." Of course Wendy didn't plan to work with these people for very long at all, but a threat like that would probably be enough to stop this line of talking. Unfortunatly she hadn't grabbed Grandpa Marsh's tie, so he was able to go on for the guy. "Geez, what's up your young butt, Billy's girlfriend? With that kind of talk and all those stories with you helping this kid, it's like you have a bonor for the pansy!"
"You know Stan's the love of my life, so don't insult me like that either! Butters is a friend of mine and I just took him away from his family and all his other friends forever to get in this club! He's having a hard time right now and it's not just because he's a so called pansy, so you guys just back the HELL OFF!" That sure shut them up, even though Wendy was a little surprised that she raised her voice that much at the end. But she had just killed Butters and he was willing to help her with everything she had to do in the next few things, so the least she owed him was to make sure these guys didn't talk shit about him. Nonetheless, it did work as the soul takers got back to talking about the party and left the topic of Butters closed, so all was well that ended well in Wendy's mind.
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Speaking of Butters, he was having quite an afternoon talking to Wendy's first murder victim, Miss Ellen Widmark. After he had given her the spare change she wanted, she told him that after being shot into the sun, she had a very hard time adjusting to life among the dead. By the time Wendy was put on trial for her murder about a year later however, she had gotten herself into a good home. But after hearing that the war over Wendy's imprisonment ended with her father, Francis Widmark, killing people and then killing herself, she threw herself back into a hell of a depression. Once she got out of it, she had become one of the rare poor people in Heaven, and by then she was in too much debt to get out of it. Now 8 years later, she had still barely improved her position in Heaven since she had fallen so far in the past. Butters was naturally caught up in this story of how the teacher all the boys in class wanted to date had fallen so low after her death, so much so that he didn't notice she'd taken an hour out of his time.
"So, uh, it's really been Hell for you in Heaven, eh?" Butters asked since he really couldn't think of anything better to say other than the obvious.
"Well, first I got shot into the sun for doing something I didn't do. Then I find out my father wanted to make amends with me the day before I died, then I find out he caught the girl who did this to me a year later, then he kills himself and 4 other people to keep her locked up. And to top it all off, I had looked forward to him joining me in Heaven so we could catch up then, but since he killed himself he got stuck in Purgatory. Finally, this unnamed fearsome dictator sends him to Hell for good measure. So all in all, it's a little bit of Hell for me, yeah." replied the formally very beautiful ex-teacher. "Now it's a matter of living with the impossible debt I set up for myself when I wasn't paying attention."
"Jesus, that's, that's horrible."
"I wouldn't credit Jesus for much either, I didn't get much of a handout from him when he visited the bums in Heaven." Miss Ellen coughed for a while, since even though you couldn't really get sick or ill in Heaven for long, you could still feel a little uneasy from a lack of eating. "I've had a hell of a ride. But it's nothing compared to what you must be going through. After all, Wendy chose you to die just so she could use you to find Stan again."
"Well, I've already come to terms about how tough my life has- hey, hold on a minute!" Butters stopped abruptly since he had just now realized that Ms Ellen knew about Wendy's plan. "How'd you know about Wendy's plan?!"
"When you search for leftover food in the back of her house, you overhear a few things. Her speaking out loud to herself about her plans was one of them."
"Oh jeez, this is bad in some way but I don't know what yet." But it didn't take that long for Butters to pinpoint what the big risk was. "Oh right, now I know! You'd probably tell some people about her plan so she can't get back together with Stan! Cause if you can't have Stan as a boy toy, no one can, right?!" Miss Ellen, despite having a hourse and ugly sounding laugh now, had to laugh at Butters's stupid theory.
"Are you kidding?! The whole reason my death wasn't fair was because I was never after Stan in the first place! Besides, I have no plans to turn evil and foil her little plan, something bad always happens when a member of my family goes against her anyway." This made Butters momentarily relieved until Miss Ellen put him back on the hot seat with her next question. "But you seem to be a reasonable guy who doesn't deserve to be screwed over by this. So why do you trust Wendy to bring you back to life for your trouble?"
"She said she'd put me back after she found Stan again, why wouldn't she keep her word?"
"A few minutes before the Iraqis took me away to die, she told me she wanted to be friends and she wished me and Stan all the happiness in the world. That was one hell of a lie. I fell for it and it cost me, why should you suffer the same fate of suffering from her lies? Do you honestly think she gives a damm about you enough to care more about your happiness than her finding Stan again? And do you really think she wouldn't dare to screw you over if she had to?"
The conversation was getting more than a little uncomfortable for Butters, so he tried to take measures to end it. "Look, Miss Ellen, if you're gonna tell me she's too evil to be trusted, I won't hear it. Me and the guys have heard all the nasty things said about her for the last 10 years, and she's always proved them wrong. If you knew about your father's war with Wendy, then you should know how much Wendy's changed since you died as well."
"My father was a great man. He protected our country with the best of them. And yet after two months of dealing with her and you people, he got turned into a killer. Face it, when it comes to her desire to be with Stan, she doesn't care who she ruins as a result. She ruined me and sent me to this hell, and she helped ruin my dad who used to be the perfect cop. You think it won't be easy for her to ruin you?"
"Hey now, it's not like your dad was perfect before we ruined him! We heard about how he kicked you out for being gay, that's why you were in South Park to begin with! So don't rewrite history all of a sudden just to turn me against Wendy, cause, well, that ain't gonna happen!" The last part of his argument didn't really sound that eloquent or gramatically correct, but Butters was a bit too caught up in the debate by now to mind as much. Since this was obviously gonna go nowhere, he figured he really should get going and explore the rest of Heaven before he had to head back. But Miss Ellen tried to get in the final word first.
"Keep this in mind. She got rid of me to be with Stan when she was 8 years old. You think she wouldn't be more dangerous 10 years later? And remember, the only possible way this kind of thing can end is if she has to make a choice. If the choice comes between her getting back together with Stan or saving you from some such thing, do you honestly think she won't choose to be with Stan? I'm not getting in the way, but I do know that's the only way this could ever end, with her deciding who's happiness is more important to her, yours or Stan's. I just hope you're not too disappointed when she chooses Stan and leaves you to rot here. You shouldn't have to be ruined and destitute here because of how she fucked you over, just like she did to me. Remember that, okay?"
Miss Ellen coughed a few more times and headed back to her cardboard box home next to one of the buildings. Butters took this chance to get away while he could before she almost made him worry some more.
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He actually shrugged off Miss Ellen's horrible predictions faster than he expected. True, it might be logical to expect the kind of ending she laid out for him, but he decided if he thought about that and trying to avoid a situation like that, the plan would get fucked up so fast it wouldn't even be funny- because this was already so serious. This was not one of those times where it was safe for Butters to look on the worst case senario of this plot, cause if he did, it might wind up dooming Stan and ruining Wendy's dream forever, since he figured she would only get one shot at this thing. And after knowing Wendy for 10 years, Butters knew Miss Ellen was dead wrong about her, so why dwell on that any longer than he had to? True, she would do about anything to get Stan back, but that was why he needed to help her out, since without his support, this wouldn't work at all. So why the hell would she need to screw him over?
With those thoughts relaxing his brain, Butters spent the next two hours enjoying his tour of Heaven. He used the money he had left over to buy a few nice shirts for tonight and the next few days in case he needed it. He wandered around, made his comparisions between Heaven and South Park, wished that South Park would look this nice by the time he died for real, and then headed back to Wendy's house as scheduled.
Wendy was already there by the time he got back, so he just told her he had fun wandering around the place. There really wasn't any need to tell her about the Miss Ellen situation- but perhaps it would have been useless since she said she already figured she would meet up with him. "You know that Miss Ellen is here?" asked a surprised Butters. "Yeah, I see her when I'm walking around town, but I haven't talked to her. I do my best to avoid her since I have too much on my mind to get in a fight with her. Maybe when I bring Stan back I can be brave enough to face her again, but not now."
So both of them put that aside soon after and got ready for the party. It started at 6:30 so Wendy figured they should be out of the house at 6:10. With the Heaven's Time watch Butters had bought earlier today, he was able to put on one of the shirts he bought with enough time to spare. He didn't need to be dressed up for the occasion since he was the mere victim, but since Wendy was the guest of honor she needed some time to fix herself up. So Butters waited patiently in the living room, but made sure not to get too comfy since they'd be leaving the minute Wendy came down.
About a second after he swore not to get comfy, he saw Wendy coming down and quickly got himself up. She was wearing a beautiful light pink dress which she was able to afford with her first paycheck from the soul takers group earlier today. She walked up to Butters with a smile, and he paused for some time since he needed to think of the best way to greet her. This was almost like they were heading out on a date, though this was purely for the business of finding magic spells under a group of dead people's noses. But he just settled on saying the simplest and most truthful way to greet her. "You, um, you look great, Wendy."
"Thanks, I knew asking for an early paycheck today would pay off." She headed for the door and Butters followed her. "Let's go over the plan. We're gonna get in there, mingle with the group and let them talk about me, then after I'm officially made a member we sneak away to their room of spells, find the Purgatory spells, and leave. Then we'll go home to decode the spells and find the one that'll take us to Purgatory. Until then we're just gonna talk and mingle with the people like we're on a regular outing. Okay?"
"Sure, mingle, I can do that a bit." Butters wasn't that good at mingling with people he knew, so it would be harder to do that with dead people. But it was his responsibility to do that and make sure no one else was wise to the plan, so he swore to do the best he could. Wendy then opened the door and asked plesently, "Shall we?" and held her arm out. Butters vaguely remembered this type of gesture from his time with Julia, so he akwardly hooked his right arm around Wendy's arm. The two shared a small laugh and then walked arm in arm out of the house and to the soul takers party, where the first step to freeing Stan from whatever he was suffering from....and from whoever was letting him suffer, was about to begin.