So sorry for the delay, everyone. I hope you don't mind my cheesy ending oops. Thank you all for reading this far! On to the last chapter!
(line break)
Wendy and Butters sat on the bench facing the pond. The chains on his cape made noise any time he so much as breathed. Christophe and Cartman stood behind them, told to not make a fuss while Damien did his work. Gregory watched, intrigued as the demon stopped beside a few limping plants at the edge of the water.
He reached for something in the pale air, curled his fingers into a fist, and he tugged. The atmosphere weighed heavier on their shoulders, and Damien tore out a perfect oblong circle from seemingly nowhere. Inside, it was filled with flames and dark, muddied shapes. A calamity of inhuman noises cut through the night, screaming and howling.
"I hope you don't regret it," Damien said, and he unraveled before them, vanishing from sight.
Disfigured creatures began to swarm around the opening, worming their way over one another and landing heavily on the snow. Some were taller than houses or trees, others were only as tall as a human. Cartman pushed past Gregory and Christophe, standing before the ring of monsters that were only the beginning of the flood wanting to come onto the surface.
"Excuse me, hello," he said loudly. "Yes, I have a few places I'd like you to wreak havoc, if you could listen for a second."
"Cartman, you can't control an army of-" Wendy started, but Cartman carried on, ignoring her.
"You guys go over there," he instructed, pointing in the general direction of the school. "Some of you can go into the actual town, behind us, yeah—try not to hurt the KFC."
"I'm starting to think that this wasn't the best idea," Butters said.
As the monsters headed toward different sides of town, it only took a few minutes for buildings and trees to catch fire or be knocked over. Christophe said something angrily about their God showing no mercy to the people in need, and therefore could fuck himself. Gregory jumped back as a long creature with a strangely large amount of limbs bounded toward him. It carried on toward the main street.
There was a low growl, and a dark canine with matted black fur crawled from the portal and shook himself off.
"Shit, they've got Hell hounds!" Christophe growled and dug a hole into the ground where he stood, peering out with a set of red binoculars. "I fucking hate dogs."
"Where's that damn news reporter?" Cartman searched the crowd of people being circled by a creature with a grotesquely humanoid face. In a wash of blood and the sickening crack of bone, Cartman promptly noticed the reporter's head as it was torn from his shoulders.
Butters hid his face in his hands, ducking behind Wendy.
"Fucking Christ!"
The siren of a fire truck jumped to life, high pitched and wailing. Three figures erupted from the crowd. One was engulfed in a dark hood and wearing a pair of underwear on the outside of his clothing. He seemed to be fighting some of the smaller demons viciously, his brown boots skidding across the pavement as he was knocked backward.
"Kenny, look out!" Kyle said, ducking as the tail of the demon came swirling over their heads. He grabbed Stan and pulled him closer, trying to get out of the way.
"Go find Wendy," Kenny barked, trying to keep the demon's attention. He could see the portal spitting more of its friends out from over the demon's shoulder. He was slammed down into the pavement, hair falling into his eyes as he took in a shuddering gasp. Winded, he tried to get back onto his feet.
Stan didn't slow his pace, weaving through a line of people running toward the ambulances and fire trucks. He heard someone say his name, but when he turned to look, the faces of the crowd seemed to blur together with the flames and thick smoke. His stomach turned.
Something bumped into him, a mangled figure with leathery brown skin and wings descending from the smoggy sky. It lacked hair on any part of its body, and its mouth was slicked with someone's dark arterial blood. The familiar voice said his name again. Stan felt someone's hand close around his own, and he was jerked out of the fray.
"I see Wendy!"
"I lost you," Stan said, fear climbing through him. He wasn't sure if Kyle had heard him amongst the loud noises overlapping behind them. He almost tripped over himself, but Kyle kept his grip firm and they didn't stop running until they reached the sign before the pond.
"Can you talk to her?" Kyle asked.
Stan blinked and swallowed hard. He nodded.
Kyle let go of his hand and practically threw himself at Cartman, buzzing with anger. Stan caught pieces of their argument as he crossed the snow and stopped before Lady Justice herself. Butters was holding onto her cape, trying not to show how panicked he really was.
"Stan, you're okay!"
"Wendy, why the hell are you working with Cartman?"
She looked back at Butters, and he gave her an undecipherable expression in return. She sighed and stared down at her snow boots.
"I'm sorry, I guess we're not very good super heroes after all," she mumbled.
"Actually, I wasn't ever a super-"
"Shut up, Butters. How do we close the portal?"
Christophe threw something toward the water, and a few moments later it exploded. Green and blue entrails were left in its place among the yellow flowers. Gregory appeared beside Stan, and for a moment, Stan couldn't help but wonder if the blonde would help him, and have their old rivalry set aside.
"You can close it from the inside," he said, and produced a diagram from seemingly nowhere. A key was drawn on the side, and the parts circled in red were the potential areas where the gateway could be closed. "It draws out your own life, and in exchange, draws back the demons and the portal is shut."
Gregory didn't add that he may have been hoping they could send Cartman in to close the gate.
"Okay. I'll do it."
Kenny's eye was bruised, and he had a few scratches across his left cheek. Christophe had left the shelter of his hole, and Kenny leaned against him so he could remain standing. He couldn't feel most of his body anymore, but he was the only one who could even attempt the job. It wouldn't be the first time in an alternate dimension, either.
"No, dude, you can't-" Stan started.
"Trust me," he said. He moved the hair out of his face and stepped away from Christophe. He wavered, but caught himself. "I can do this."
"Kenny, you're going to get killed!"
Kenny laughed. He got a running start, and then he jumped in.
(line break)
The words around him faded as he crossed the barrier. He felt the anxiety of something sinister surrounding him, the realm completely foreign and disorienting. His own heartbeat pulsed in his ears, and he tried to remember how it sounded, because he knew it would be silenced as soon as he closed the gate. He ran aimlessly, toward one of the black stone pillars, and he felt things reaching out and grabbing at him as he passed.
Kenny could already feel his sanity slipping away, melting from his mind. Was this a side effect from entering the portal? He tried to tell himself it wasn't too bad, he'd been through much worse. It didn't make the pain any better, but he grit his teeth and stopped at the base of the pillar.
The key was a small golden orb. He wrapped his hand around it, and it cracked. His fingers were cut and he could smell his blood, the only familiarity in this section of Hell.
In a haze of confusion, he felt the light from the orb erupt and it shot him backward. He caught sight of some of the demons being dragged back in, and he was growing weaker with each second the light enveloped him.
Fucking hell, it hurts.
He hit the ground with a smack, bits of ice thrown into the air around him. The portal turned in on itself and shut, leaving the air where it had been as empty as it was before. He heard two voices;
"Oh my god, they killed Kenny!"
"Those bastards!"
He coughed, the after image of the light drifting over his eyes in distorted colours. He felt two people standing over him, strange shapes in the edge of his vision. His breathing slowed, slowed, and stopped.
Kyle was shaken from his thoughts when Cartman elbowed him in the side.
"What do you want, Cartman? You almost killed everyone in our town," he snapped.
"Pretty sweet, right?"
Kyle groaned.
Cartman reached up and fixed the raccoon ears he'd situated on his head. "Ugh, get all the sand out of your vagina, Kahl, it's not like any Jews died."
"Yeah, because I only care about the Jewish," he shot back sarcastically. Kyle paused. "Hey, do you think Kenny still has that dollar I gave him?"
"It's probably in his parka, shit wad."
Stan got a glimpse of his friends bickering over Kenny's body before he was enclosed in a hug from Wendy. His eyebrows shot upward, but he didn't wait to wrap his arms around her. Butters still held onto the edge of her cape, a few steps away from them.
"I missed talking to you," she said, giving him a small smile. "Are you...going to be okay?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine."
Her arms fell back to her sides, but she didn't step back. She caught him watching Kyle, and she examined him carefully. His eyes were slightly more blue than usual, hat pulled back to show his dark hair he kept out of his face. She laughed, and then called for Cartman to hurry up and take her and Butters home.
She fished around in her boot for a few twenties and pressed them into Gregory's palm. They exchanged quick farewells, peppered with promises to talk again later. Christophe grabbed Gregory by the collar and tugged him into the start of his newest underground route.
"I could always tell, you know," she said, motioning in the direction of the redhead.
Stan stammered and his face coloured.
Wendy dragged Cartman toward the sidewalk, ordering him to walk her to her door. Butters followed after her, and their voices drifted off the farther they got. Stan stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets, frozen in place. He watched as Kyle crouched beside Kenny. Kyle covered the blonde with his cape before returning to Stan's side.
"Are you okay?"
Stan shivered, but asked, "Why does everyone keep asking me that?"
"Maybe if you stopped giving us stuff to worry about."
The silence fell around them again. The fires had been mostly extinguished, and the remaining ambulances on the street were pulling away slowly with their headlights on and their sirens not blaring into the night. Stan turned, wondering if he should say something. They started up the upturned street, walking around rubble and cars with cracked windows.
"You've been acting really weird, dude," Kyle said. The rest of his words came out in a rush. "I don't think it's just a dream that threw you off. You keep ducking away from me! It's weird! Why do you keep doing that?"
Stan looked away guiltily. Fuck this, he thought. Fuck feelings; fuck acting weird, he's your best friend for fuck's sake! They stopped in front of one of the emptied stores. He almost couldn't hear himself when he said, "I didn't think you'd notice..."
"I'm supposed to notice," he replied, "and I want you to just tell me what's wrong. Did I do something or-?"
Stan leaned forward, finding Kyle's lips, brushing them gently with his own. A second and it was over before Stan could let the sudden shock settle in on him.
"I, um. Stan?"
"I didn't want to do that."
Kyle grabbed Stan's arm before he moved away. "It's okay, dude."
"What?"
"I don't care if you kiss me," he said.
"You don't?"
Kyle shook his head, and then they were laughing. They continued toward Kyle's house without a second thought. They stayed on the topic for a while as they walked, how this meant Stan was definitely getting over Wendy, and that Kyle would seriously hate it if he got barf on his jacket. Kyle smiled to himself.
The distance between them was gone.
Then again, so was half of the town's forest.
As usual, this result was drawn back to Cartman. Kyle listened to his friend talk about one of the more ridiculous looking creatures he'd had the pleasure to run into earlier, and decided he would just have to deal with Cartman later.
And their project had been doomed from the start.
