I've finally written a timeline for this story, which is good, because I feel like it helps me bring focus to each chapter and the story doesn't ramble quite as much. This chapter belongs to Kyle, and they're going to finally do some FUCKING INVESTIGATING! Enjoy Kyle angst!

Chapter 11 – Kyle

"They're late again," Kyle muttered as he and Stan waited outside the school.

"Be patient, Kyle," Stan told him calmly, "I'm sure they're on their way. Or at least Craig is. He texted back saying he would be here."

"Knowing him, he'll probably bring Clyde," Kyle said. It's not that Kyle didn't like Clyde, they got along fine. But Clyde had never been known to be all that bright. He just didn't know how bringing Clyde along could possibly help.

He looked over at Stan, who was staring at the ground and dragging a foot through the dirt. Without saying a word, Kyle walked over and put an arm around him in comfort. He didn't need to ask if Stan was ok. He knew he was still depressed about Wendy.

"Thanks, man," Stan said quietly after a moment of silence. Kyle looked at him.

"What for?" he asked.

"Just… for being there for me," Stan replied, "I know I'm not always the easiest to be around when I'm depressed."

Kyle gave him a small smile. "Of course, dude," he said, nudging him in the side, "I always be here for you. We'll get Wendy back before you know it."

Stan smiled back at him, and Kyle could tell he was genuinely touched by his words. It lifted Kyle's heart a bit. Even though he knew getting Wendy back would mean he couldn't have Stan to himself anymore, he knew it would be worth it for Stan to be happy again.

It wasn't long after that when Craig and Clyde arrived, with Craig looking quite ruffled. Kyle stared at him in surprise.

"What happened to you?" he asked.

"We ran into Jackson on the way here," Craig replied. He sounded like he was trying hard to keep his voice level. "I may have gotten into a fight with him. That's why we're late. Sorry."

Stan held up a hand in dismissal. "It's fine," he told him, "Let's just get in the school before someone catches us and accuses us of loitering."

He led the way into the building, which had been left unlocked for any students that needed to get in for any reason. The hallway where Wendy was abducted had been roped off to keep students from walking on any potential evidence. Kyle had seen some of the janitors looking longingly down that hallway, yearning to clean it but being forbidden from doing so.

The police tape did a fine job keeping people away, maybe. Because it's not like there were police men or guards stationed to make sure no one trespassed. That would be a smart thing to do, and the South Park police were anything but smart.

The four of them ignored the police tape and carefully climbed over it. Kyle could see bits and pieces of Wendy's smashed phone. The police had taken the actual phone for evidence, but left a lot of debris behind. This particular hallway was the hallway where the four of them had a lot of their classes, so the teachers had to move to different rooms for now.

"Do you remember what Wendy was doing after school the day she got kidnapped?" Kyle asked Stan, feeling a little guilty about having to bring that up.

Stan cringed slightly before tipping his head in thought. "She was meeting a teacher after school for extra help," he said after a moment of silence, "Which teacher was it though? Oh, hold on a sec." He dug into his pocket and brought out his cell phone and scrolled through his messages. "Ok, she was meeting Mr. Biggleston."

"That's weird," Clyde muttered, "Mr. Biggleston's class isn't down this hallway. What was Wendy doing down here?"

"Wait, whose class rooms are in this hall then?" Stan wondered.

Kyle quickly looked up and down the hallway. "Well, there's Mr. Johnston and Mr. Adder. There's also Miss Manlee, but I don't think Wendy has her as a teacher. Oh, and Mr. Pounsya and Coach Rottenburg have their offices here."

"Do you think one of the teachers lured her down here or something?" Stan theorized, "She would trust any of them."

"Maybe," Kyle replied, "It would probably be one of her own teachers, since she would trust them. They might have lured her in by saying they wanted to tell her something, since she is an exceptional student."

"Ok, so that may be something," Craig said, "I guess we have our top suspects."

They searched around for a few more minutes, looking high and low for any more clues or sudden revelations. At one point Kyle thought he smelled something unusual, but the smell was so faint, he decided not to bother bringing it up. When nothing more could be found, they decided to head home.

Stan and Kyle walked home together, while Craig and Clyde decided to hang out somewhere else. Both of them were very quiet as they walked, neither of them really knowing what to say. Kyle had a million thoughts racing through his head.

How could anyone be so cruel to kidnap so many teens? What was their motivation? Whatever the answers were, Kyle could only hope that somehow they were all still alive. He didn't know if Stan would be able to take it if Wendy was…

Kyle looked over at Stan, who was walking with his head down, staring at the sidewalk. He hoped he would be able to give his friend some good news soon to cheer him up. They just had to keep working hard and eventually they would find something.

Thinking back to the teachers, Kyle wondered if there was something there that they were missing. He wondered what the kidnapper was like ten years ago. Were they a teacher at the North Park school? That's when Kyle stopped walking.

"Oh, I'm so stupid!" Kyle cursed out loud. Stan looked at him.

"Come on, Kyle, you're not that stupid. You get pretty decent grades," Stan told him.

"What? No, that's not what I meant!" Kyle sighed, "I just thought of something! This kidnapper! If he is the same kidnapper from ten years ago, there must be a way to know, right? Like, what if he was a teacher at that school as well?"

"We could probably find out who was teaching there ten years ago," Stan added, catching on, "We would just have to look for familiar names and faces!"

"Exactly!" Kyle exclaimed excitedly, "Come on! We've got research to do!"

They quickly ran to Stan's house, and were immediately at his computer. They went to the page for North Park schools and started looking up the year books.

"Let's see," Stan mumbled as he scrolled through the pages, "It looks like they don't have the old yearbooks online, but they do have a copy of every yearbook at the North Park library. We could reserve it and then go to North Park and get it."

"But how are we supposed to do that?" Kyle wondered, "Neither of us can drive."

"There are buses that will take us there," Stan pointed out, "Come on, Kyle, this is our first strong lead. We have to take this."

"You're right," Kyle admitted, "There's a strong chance we could actually find out who it is. If we leave right now, I think we could probably get back before dark."

The two quickly put their jackets back on and Stan grabbed some money for the bus. When they opened the front door, they were quite surprised to see Cartman standing there, fist raised, as if he was about to knock. All three stared in astonishment at each other.

"Where are you two going in such a hurry?" Cartman wondered after he got over his initial shock.

"We were going to catch a bus up to North Park and see if we can't find a high school year book from ten years ago," Stan explained, "We think maybe if it's the same person who's been kidnapping teens, maybe they were a teacher ten years ago as well."

"Is it all right if I come along?" Cartman requested, "I wanted to hang out anyway. I hate to admit it, but I'm feeling rather lonely."

Before any of this had started, Kyle would have immediately refused. But the rather sad and pathetic look on Eric's face made him reconsider. They were friends. They looked out for each other in times of need and hurt.

"Of course, you can," Kyle replied gently, "But we need to leave right now."

Cartman nodded, and together the three of them headed towards the bus stop. They got the next bus to North Park and were on their way. The three of them were silent for most of the bus ride, and Kyle tried to ignore how close Cartman was sitting to him. He inched closer to Stan and felt Cartman move closer. Again, he tried not to focus on it.

When they got to North Park and got off the bus, Stan pulled out his phone and looked up the directions to the library. North Park was much bigger than South Park, but Kyle still wouldn't really call it a big city. The buildings were taller and there were more shops and streets, but it could never compare to somewhere like, say, Denver. It gave the air of a city but was still small enough not to be too intimidating to the boys.

"The library isn't too far away, right?" Cartman wondered, "I don't want to do too much walking. And I'm getting hungry."

"You didn't have to come with us, you know," Stan pointed out, "The library is about four blocks away."

"Maybe if you're good we'll get you an ice cream afterwards," Kyle teased. For a second, Cartman looked at Kyle, thinking he was serious for a moment. When he realized he wasn't, he gave the Jew a scowl and a shove.

"Guys, stop screwing around!" Stan scolded them. He was walking ahead of them a few feet. "I want to get home before it gets dark out, so we've gotta walk faster!"

"Coming, Stan," Kyle called. He grabbed Cartman's arm and pulled him along, forcing him to walk faster so they could catch up to Stan.

Finally, they got to the library, which actually wasn't much bigger than the one in South Park. Without hesitation, Stan led the way inside. It wasn't very busy inside; there were only a few people, and almost all of them were using the computers.

Kyle took the lead this time and walked over to the reception desk. A very bored looking librarian sat there, popping gum, and reading a magazine. Kyle cleared his throat to get her attention.

"Excuse me, we reserved a high school yearbook from 1998," he told her when she looked up, "May we check it out?"

The librarian blinked slowly at him for a moment before sighing. "Yeah, I've got it," she muttered in a voice that made it very obvious that she didn't appreciate the fact that they were making her actually work. She got up from her chair and as slowly as possible, made her way over to where all the yearbooks for the North Park schools were kept.

As she lazily scanned them, looking for the right one, Kyle had to gently lean against Stan to keep him from getting annoyed. He heard his friend tapping his foot in irritation and could feel him starting to shake.

"Calm down, Stan," Kyle murmured to him, "It'll be all right. We'll get the yearbook and then we'll be one step closer to solving this mystery."

"I know," Stan muttered, folding his arms, "I just wish this librarian would hurry the fuck up. Doesn't she know how urgent this is?"

"Apparently not," Cartman commented.

When the librarian came back with the right yearbook, Stan quickly snatched it out of her hands and raced over to a table with Kyle and Cartman following.

"Hey! I still have to scan that- oh whatever," the librarian grumbled.

Stan sat down and eagerly started flipping through the book, scanning the pages for anyone they recognized. Kyle leaned over his shoulder, trying to look as well. It broke Kyle's heart a little, seeing the faces of the teens who were kidnapped ten years ago. He wondered what they were like before they were kidnapped.

"Here!" Stan suddenly exclaimed, "Here's where the staff pages are! Maybe our culprit is in here!" He carefully looked over the pages, checking to see if there were any familiar names or faces. As turned to the third staff page, Kyle stopped him.

"Wait," he said, putting a finger in crease of the book, "Are some of these pages… torn out?" They looked closer and saw that it had been done very carefully, but yes, a few pages had been torn out. Stan cursed loudly.

"Damn it!" he hissed, "Fuck! I was sure we were going to get somewhere finally!" Groaning in misery, Stan hid his face in his hands. Kyle and Cartman looked at each other, and then Kyle put an arm around Stan.

"It's ok, Stan," he murmured, "We can still get something out of this. Now, I imagine if the pages are ripped out of this book, they're ripped out of the other books as well. But not all is lost yet."

"It's not?" Cartman asked, skeptical.

"No, we still have our leads," Kyle pointed out, "And I'm sure with enough research we can find out who was on those pages that they didn't want us to see. Plus, this just proves that something incriminating was in them."

As they headed home, Kyle tried to keep their spirits high, but he knew Stan was just so defeated. He had thought they might have found out who kidnapped Wendy and the others. As they sat on the bus going back to South Park, Kyle gently rubbed Stan's arm in comfort. He didn't know if it helped much, but he just wanted his friend to know he was there for him.

"Seriously?" Cartman suddenly muttered as he stared at his phone. Kyle looked at him.

"What?" he asked.

"You know that dance the school was thinking of putting on?" Cartman wondered, "But then everyone started getting kidnapped? Well they're going to put it on anyway."

"Really?" Kyle was in shock, "That's a really bad idea! And in poor taste, if you ask me."

"I agree," Cartman replied, "And they put that it's to 'honor' them as if they're dead. We don't know that for certain!"

Beside them, Stan scoffed. "I bet it was one of the seniors who convinced the school to go through with it," he grumbled, "Sure, that many kids in one place while a kidnapper is about is dangerous, but have you noticed that it's only kids from our grade getting kidnapped?"

"Yeah, I did," Kyle sighed, "I don't think some people are taking this as seriously as they should be."

The rest of the bus ride was spent in silence. When they finally got back to South Park, the three of them started walking back to their homes. They walked very close to each other, as if fearful that one of them would be snatched away if they weren't close enough. They reached Cartman's house first and bid him good night before taking the short walk to their own homes.

"Hey Kyle," Stan suddenly said, "Will you spend the night with me? I really don't want to have to be alone. And you know how much comfort Shelly is."

Kyle allowed himself a small smile. "Of course, dude," he replied, "Let me just text my mom so she doesn't worry about me." Stan nodded as Kyle pulled out his phone and sent a quick text to his mom. He also sent a text to Ike, warning him to stay indoors tonight. Ike had black hair, and Kyle didn't want to risk the kidnapper breaking pattern and kidnapping his brother.

Sharon was very relieved when Kyle and Stan walked into the Marsh house, (Stan had forgotten to tell his parents where they were going.)

"Good job, Stan," Kyle teased as the two sat in the living room, waiting for dinner to be ready. As soon as Sharon made sure the two were okay, she had immediately started yelling at Stan for being irresponsible. Stan rolled his eyes.

"Whatever, man," he muttered good-naturedly, "Did you tell your mom where we were going?"

"Yes," Kyle replied simply. Stan frowned at him but chose not to respond.

After a minute of watching TV in silence, Stan suddenly turned to Kyle. "Hey Kyle?"

"Yeah?" Kyle moved his eyes away from the screen to look at his friend.

"Thanks for sticking with me," Stan said, looking away slightly, "I really needed a friend through all this." Kyle smiled a little.

"Dude, you don't have to keep thanking me for being your friend," he told him, "I'll always be here for you." He put an arm around Stan's shoulders and pressed him close, trying to ignore the fluttery feeling in his heart.

Now wasn't the time for his silly feelings for Stan. He had to be there for his friend in his time of need. No matter how he felt.

Their moment of solitude was broken when the news came on. A reporter was standing on the street where a bunch of police cars had blocked off a section of it. A sinking feeling landed in Kyle's stomach.

Oh no, he thought, who got kidnapped this time?

"We're here at the scene of another kidnapping," the reporter said, "Where minutes ago the destroyed cell phone of one Kevin Stoley was discovered."

Kyle felt horrible that he had a moment of relief that it wasn't anyone he was really close to. But at the same time, Kevin was such a nice kid. Sure, he was a little odd, but Kyle still felt bad. He let out a long sigh.

"So that's six people kidnapped," he muttered, "Next are the red heads." He looked over at Stan and saw him staring back with a worried expression. "What?"

"You have red hair," Stan pointed out, "I don't want to lose you too! Kyle, please promise me you'll be extra careful!"

"Stan, I-"

"Please!"

Kyle sighed slightly and gave him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Stan, I'll be careful," he promised.

I felt it was important to put Kyle's chapter right after Clyde's to show how similar their situations are, but how differently they dealt with it. The next chapter may take a while to get out, because it's going to be rather hard to write. You'll see what I mean.