The crackle of fire consuming wood shattered the otherwise still night of summertime serenity. The embers danced through the heavy air in tune with the winds tearing the blaze higher and higher into the embrace of the desolate midnight hours. The entire McCormick place was engulfed in this hideous inferno, swallowed by the scorching heat and annihilated within the all consuming blaze. The fence had fallen into the ground, where it laid like the forgotten ruins scattered helplessly about the outer edge of a holy temple destroyed by heretics. The lawn was bathed in the blinding light searing down from the wreckage as thick smoke billowed into the peaceful, trembling air. The pulsating silence created by the immense gravity of the fire, however, was shattered as shadowed figures jerked and bolted in every direction about the small plot of land. Fingers jabbed towards the door welded shut by a twisted, melted frame. Screaming broke out in immense volume as fireman and police alike scrambled to perform the tasks they had been trained to. Sirens drowned out most of the white noise, though, leaving the place to suffocate beneath a layer of blanketed panic. Orders cascaded into the world as Stan and Kyle hurried down the cracked sidewalk to the hysteria just beyond the side of their world. As they rushed over the train tracks, more fire trucks rolled up as police lights splashed over the orange hues in eye numbing reds and blues.
Standing in the middle of the chaos was Kenny McCormick.
His head was upturned towards the massive flames which had turned his house into a vivid raging hell. The scathing wind swept his blond hair to the side, across his face, as his wide sapphire eyes took in all there was to see of the mayhem. Dressed in the same jeans as before, he suddenly looked so lost in the peril of the evening. The clothing hung in tatters from his body, ripped and trashed from the blackened soot circulating the screaming realm. Most striking was the ragged jacket burned with the same furious hues as the embers engulfing the wooden cage of his childhood. With the orange thing left undone, his hair was free, his face bare, and his eyes unshielded from the undeniable massacre of his entire world. He stared through the smoke, through the flame, with stones cut from sheer emptiness as the whole of South Park tried to salvage a house already gone.
Through the madness, Stan jerked, heading towards the lost lamb entranced as his house burned to the ground. He pushed away anything and anyone who attempted to stop him, leaving Kyle to stare in shocked horror at the flames raging throughout the damning hour. The activist cried out for his love, but his words were buried beneath the layers of shouting and screaming. Lost, tangled in the crowd, he struggled to reach the forsaken creature unknowing of the hands outstretched to grasp him. When he finally reached Kenny, he grabbed hold of those skinny shoulders and he tore him to face him in a single, fluid motion of commanding strength. The angel was bathed in soot baring an empty face devoid of anything remotely resembling emotion. Ice was carved into the sapphires which peered through a stunning disarray of caked on dirt, hardening every feature of fair to this beauty. This cold face, Stan cupped between his fiery hands. He felt along those soft cheeks, smearing the dirt, as his aqua eyes jumped along that lightly bruised depiction of tarnished splendor. He took in every hard line, soft curve, jagged cut, before his hands dropped to the tattered clothes swinging from that lightly shivering form.
Blood was splattered over Kenny's jacket in several long, thick streaks.
Tearing that bloodied garment open, Stan searched the blond's whole body for any injuries. Fear nearly erased his mind at the thought of discovering tears in that flawless skin, slices on those pretty curves, or, worse, burns carved into his flesh. His hands found contusions turning black and small scratches with dried blood in the wounds. As for major injuries, however, he found none. For that, he breathed a shaking breath of frozen air that washed through his soul and into his veins in a tantalizing jolt. Hands quivering violently, he cupped Kenny's face again. This time, though, he raised it slowly to look at his fear stricken gems pulsing with horror. In desperation, Stan pressed his mouth over the other's, embracing him with more hungry passion than ever before in his life. He drank down the taste of his love, all the bittersweet pleasure, all the sickening poison, before he pulled the angel into his arms. He pulled that face to his chest, where his heart was choking in its agony, and he held him there with frightening despair. He held him for dear life, for salvation, for everything, as he struggled to gather enough burnt air to speak. For several moments, there were no words. His hand just gripped those shoulders as his other stroked through those tangled locks of gold.
" Are you okay? What happened?" he finally managed to ask, his eyes staring through the haze of smoke to the sapphires looking so vague. Behind them, people cried out as part of the house collapsed under the weight of destruction. The activist pulled the angel back, away from the taint of smoke and brimstone. He watched the house burn, unable to even fathom it. For a second, all he could believe was that he had just been there, laying on his boyfriend's bed, a few hours beforehand. Glancing away, however, he saw the intense stare in which Kenny poised on the inferno. Again, he rubbed his thumbs over that sweet face, " Are you okay, Kenny?"
" I'm fine,"
The hollow words fell into the scathing air similar to glass falling into a furnace. They cracked and shattered into thousands of piercing splinters. Gently withdrawing, Stan rubbed his hands over those messy locks. The softness of morning was replaced by grit and grime from the ash of the flames ignited in the darkness of night. Ignoring this, even the agonizing pricks of bleeding, broken glass, the activist pulled his lover to his chest. There was protection wrought in every motion he made, seared into his flesh as if engraved there by hands beyond his own. Somehow, he felt a desire to protect his angel from the horrendous sight before them. The sapphires never once turned away. They continued staring, even as Kenny moved his arms up to wrap them lightly about the waist of the other.
Gripped as such, the two stood in the center of hell, watching as the McCormick place burned.
By the time the firefighters got the flames under control, most of the house was a gutted ruin of blacked framework and scorched flooring. Most of the windows had shattered from the pressure and heat building up as the inferno tore through the small house. As they began to put out the flames, however, a few people moved over to the only McCormick who seemed to have escaped the fire. Police touched his shivering form, trying to guide him from the wreckage with concerns for his health. Only at the prodding of Stan, of course, did he relent. He was taken from the center of it to an ambulance to be examined. The medics shined lights into his eyes and felt along his body for any wounds. They found nothing that the activist hadn't already. This prompted them to dust his jacket off and leave him sitting in a police car, his legs dangling out as he sat with his hands gripped the edge of the seat. Stan lingered just outside the scope of the medics' field of vision in order to remain close to the shivering blond. In impatience, he gritted his teeth and cast darkened gazes of torrid aqua waters in the direction of everyone who dared place their unworthy fingers on the body of his boyfriend. Left alone, in the continued chaos of disaster, the activist turned his eyes down to the widened orbs blankly watching as firemen attempted to fully flush the fire from the rotten wood of the McCormick place. Lightly, he ran his fingers over the dirty blond locks before he gently tucked some of it behind Kenny's ear.
" What happened?" he weakly asked, finding nothing else to say. His throat choked on those words alone as he stared down at the other. Ice pulsed into his veins in the pressing silence which overthrew the moment in a burst of electric horror. The crawling sense of disgust swam to the back of Stan's mind, although he bore no inkling as to where it came from. Watching those sapphires blink for the first time in all the time since he had arrived, it suddenly dawned on the activist that the disgust was from the emotion he could taste in his lover.
There was no name for that heinously depraved sensation.
" They're all dead," Kenny muttered without a tone to his flat voice. The disconnection was overwhelming as the activist gripped his hands in the mess of blond. He desperately tried to retain his composure, but the fiery breath of heat on his throat mixed with the sinking ice of his flesh helped in no way. He jerked his head from side to side as he tried to cup a face that would raise no longer to look at him. Those eyes could stare only one way, and that was towards the ruins of suburban oblivion.
" You don't know that," he harshly stated, gripping those shoulders in agony for having been refused the privilege of gazing into those eyes. As his words slipped unheard into the realm of time, however, Stan slowly felt the fire of the air withdraw from his core.
" They're all dead. I killed them," the angel whispered in a voice possessed. The emptiness of his expression was matched only by the maliciousness of his tone as it rolled like poison from his mouth. The brush of sickness in them melded along Stan's very being as his hands slowly withdrew in what could only be described as unimaginable shock. His aqua eyes stared down at Kenny in muted horror just before a smile unveiled itself along those tender lips. The smile was a sadistic, sinister expression of vile satisfaction that dripped heavily with perversion of the most corrupt kind, " They're already dead. . . I killed them. . .Killed them all. . ."
" Y-You. . . what?" the activist recoiled slightly as he gaped hopelessly for some form of explanation. He was presented with nothing as that smile deformed every fair feature gracing that dirt stained face with such empty eyes into a horrid look of true sadism.
" They're all dead," he repeated before he wet his lips in a disgustingly hungry manner. Ice poured over the brunette's blood as it began to come to an utter halt within his profoundly still body. Narrowing sapphires cut from the hardest stones known to earth, Kenny spat out his words with such malice that they almost physically tore through the other's skin, " An' now they're burnin',"
" Jesus Christ, Kenny! You fuckin' killed them?" Stan cried, jerking his hands back as though leaving them close to that body was a mockery of everything good in his entire being. His words were met with an expression mirroring that of his own. The look of utter disbelief on Kenny's face was as unnerving as it was frightening. There were no words to describe the way it made the activist feel as he gasped for breath that could do nothing to save his heart from ceasing to pump for all the mind numbing words being ripped into his skull. He was thus left unarmed and wholly unprotected as his boyfriend turned a resentful look his way.
" Why're you mad? " the blond pleaded without any form of true desperation to his agonized voice. Anger flooded his body, clenching his dirty knuckles until they bled out to white. A jolt shattered through Stan's spine, jerking his hands up almost to cover his ears before he just squeezed his eyes shut in a last attempt to bury to horror thrusting into his soul.
" What? You just killed your family and you're gonna ask me that?" he demanded, going to slam his fist into the roof of the police car. His hand never made contact with the metal, though, for the devilishly cold voice which spiraled out of his love's mouth stopped him. Every word pierced the hollow night with a bloody thrust into the underbelly of sanity.
" They got what they deserved,"
" Jesus Christ. . .Fuck. . ." his voice trailed away, lost to the noise of orders yelled out in vain attempts to remain calm. His fingers gripped his onyx locks of hair before he ran a hand through them in an overwhelming sense of anxiety. For a moment, there was a scathing quiet between them. No words could be spoken that would have been able to break through the unsteady cascade of emotions slicing their way through the troubled soul of the activist. He could express nothing, however, outside of raw horror as he lowered his eyes to Kenny. Slowly, he bit down on his lower lip, struggling on the frozen words bleeding onto his tongue with a tremendous pressure.
Those sapphires looked beyond the quaking activist to the blackened remains of the house on the wrong side of the tracks. The flames sputtered and choked as they were strangled into submission, falling away into the bleakness of death. Smoke continued to rise into the darkened air as firemen rushed the melted door of flimsy wood. The door crashed down into the gutted remains as the men in yellow burst through, hurrying into the house with cries ringing out. The windows of the front were splintered and tainted with blackened remnants of hell. They blocked all movement pounding through the house in the last lifeline, bloodline, it would ever have. Through the screeching of sirens, though, the call of 'bodies found' rang loud and clear as if spoken in the emptiest of empty corridors. The resounding echo grew colder every time it struck Stan as his eyes widened in unadulterated terror. Before him, Kenny's head slowly lowered, but not before the brunette could take in the revolting look of grinning pleasure written there.
" Why the fuck are you smiling?" he snarled, taking a step back in utter repulsion. The moment those words fell from his tongue, Stan wished he could snatch them back. Nothing could erase them from existence. They burned themselves into the bloody moment between the question and the answer. Seeing the way those eyes hardened into the disconnection of reality and depravation, the brunette nearly screamed out to drown the words that slithered into the air like a fiery snake. His fear of them was the same, for he recoiled in furious agony for their razor like qualities. Yet, nothing could prepare him for the hellfire Kenny breathed as his mouth coiled into a sickening display of mental insanity at the confession that spilled from his tainted tongue.
" Because. . .they were already dead. When I started the fire. An' no one's ever gonna know,"
Falling victim to those words, Stan felt his hands touch his arms without awareness to their heavy weight. His head quickly shook in minute motions as he cautiously mouthed the condemning sentences repeatedly. His fingers rubbed along his frozen flesh, trying to peel the cold from his body even as he knew the ice was pulsing in his veins, not the air. Around him, he was bathed in flesh melting heat billowing from the ruins like a festering wound on the face of the town. Inside, there was a growing hollow sensation that took with it the very essence of heat that circulated his blood. Hearing an airy, light, sickening snicker drift through the scorching hell, his eyes squeezed shut as his blood ceased to bleed.
" Stop it," he commanded in a voice strangled by his own inability to turn his head back towards his love. The laughter disintegrated into a broken gasping before there was the wet sound of a dry swallow. A shiver slipped down Stan's spine as a lasting sensation that radiated throughout his body.
" Stop what?" the angel asked in an emotionless voice that even felt hollow as it slammed into the fiery air pressing down upon them. Stan gritted his teeth in an attempt to avoid screaming. The effect on his words was a strained venom that he spat through the world to the devoid orbs staring at the charred wood work that had survived the inferno.
" Laughing like that,"
" They deserved it," the way Kenny said it, it sounded like a plead. Those dirty fingers gripped the sleeves of his blood stained jacket in a manner reflective of despair. Still, the hollow emptiness that echoed in the depths of those eyes never fell into the cries of his quivering voice. For that, Stan felt his eyes twisting from the blackened sky to the stones cut into that face. He gripped his hands in his hair as his head shook in disbelieving sickness.
" Why?"
The question should never have been asked. Stan knew that before he ever managed to choke it out, his body falling into the numbness required to express such morbid desperation. As the word lingered, twisting and turning in the embers, the activist watched Kenny fall into dark waters. The hands of death gripped hold of his shoulders, causing them to hunch as his body curled in on itself. He gritted his teeth to the freezing cold suddenly cascading into the world burning to the ground. The smile was gone in a gasp that was drawn into a throat closing in on itself. This fear swam into Stan's blood as he slowly felt his body drowning in the pools of a moonless night lost far off in the depths of lost memories.
" He hit me. For the last time,"
Black emotions consumed all the senses within Stan, leaving him an abyss of thick, pulsing electric rage that tasted like bloody metal piercing into the depths of his decayed soul.
" He what?" he spat out as his head ripped towards the angel rocking back and forth with sapphire eyes shocked into lifelessness. The aquamarine stones which took in those motions were consumed, eaten away, by the white out of hatred. Acid replaced his blood in a burning cold sensation that melted into his flesh and to the disgusted expression scorched into his eyes.
" He hit me. Over and over and over. I couldn't take it anymore. So I killed them. All of them. No one's ever gonna hit me again," Kenny snarled, his fingers digging into the tattered remains of his jacket. His eyes turned away from Stan, falling beyond him to the gutted house that stood in it's deathly stance. Men dressed in soot stained yellow began to drag out black body bags as the angel gazed up through his tangled hair to Stan. The activist could only stare in horror as desperation clearly fell over that agonized face covered in dirt and blood. The words spoken were as hollow as the bell that tolled, " How can they if they're dead?"
" You're insane," was all Stan found he could say as he rubbed his arms along his arms. There was no answer given to the assessment. Kenny merely turned his empty gems to the ruins as the firemen dragged out a black bag for every member of his family. They began carrying out the children as the activist shook his head in lingering, unfaltering disbelief at this horror show, " I can't believe you killed them,"
" It was easy,"
" Shut up," he begged, slamming his hands over his ears to drown out all that might have been said. His feet stumbled to the side as his head jerked from side to side. The harder he shook, the harder it became to block the gasping noise slipping through the cracks within. A cutting slice stabbed through his mind, through his flesh, and into his memory like a hand reaching through the empty waters to grab hold of his horrified desperation to escape.
Blood splattered all over his mind as he saw her twisted corpse sprawled out over the slick, wet rocks drenched in thick, rotting flesh. Laughter oozed into the burning air as two slender hands grabbed hold of that broken, shattered neck and her body jolted in the motions of those tiny hands. Flesh ripped from her throat as small feet stomped on her pelvis. Her chest rolled, her body heaved, and blood splashed into the air, into his face, as he held out little hands for the globs of flesh. Sticky, warm blood cascaded through his fingers as he turned to face the blood stained mouth grinning through the moonless night.
Through the descending horror, footsteps broke the ranks of the nightmare. Two hands snatched up Stan's arm. His head jerked in that direction to see the wide eyes of emerald green within the blanched face of the Jew. Kyle gripped his arm with unprecedented strength, breaking him free of the dark waters that swam through the breaks inside. As soon as that frightened voice struck the air, the blood was gone as the water licked it away.
" The McCormick's!" the redhead cried, pointing off towards the house as one of the last of the numerous children were laid out beside the rest of the black bags. Stan shivered, his words frozen to his tongue, as he gaped at his best friend. The fire consuming them churned heavier, thicker as Kyle spat out his words with immense heat, " None of them survived,"
" I know," Stan stated in a voice lost to the emotions freezing his blood and piercing his flesh like needles. His body shook as he rubbed his arm, smoothing his icy fingertips gingerly over the burning flesh of the horrified Jew. Kyle jerked him closer, his words pouring out in absolute agony.
" Stan, they say it was arson," Kyle whispered in tragic pain, his eyes an inferno of undisclosed emotion. Those emeralds never once took in the blond seated just beyond the activist. They never had to, for the voice spoke every word left unsaid without ever needing to vocalize them. Still, there was nothing Stan found he could say. Slowly, he lowered his gaze, his teeth clenching as he desperately tried to fight back the words he allowed to pierce the fire.
" I know,"
The words fell into the air with a weight that slaughtered any and all agony within the spitfire of the Jew. Kyle recoiled violently, his hand jerking away from Stan's arm as if he were the vile one. The harshness to those emeralds thrust through the brunette to the angel. Kenny never noticed. He merely breathed in slowly, lost in his own mind, his eyes emptily staring down at his outstretched hands covered in thick dirt. Without another word, the activist turned away, all the emotion leaving his face as he finally removed his gaze from the lines of the person he loved. The emeralds cut their stare deep into the disconnection scorching the fair features of Kenny's face. Shivering to this display, Stan rubbed his hands over his arms while the sickened realization descended on the Jew.
" Oh my god. He set the fire knowing they were inside," the words were ones that needn't be said. As such, they fell like knives through the air, cutting in deep. Kyle stared in wicked repulsion, his eyes searching the face of the activist as they jumped towards him. Stan lowered his head as black fell over his eyes. His hair shielded his face from all views, leaving him to the nothing within. Slowly, struggling, the Jew tried to reach out to take his friend's hand for what might have been comfort. Instead, his hand fell away, " Did he. . .intend. . .for this to happen?"
" Ask him yourself," Stan spat out, turning his head even further from them. Darkness spilled over his face, distorting his features. Cautiously, Kyle's eyes shifted from the unreachable activist to the angel sitting numbly in the police car. Sapphires raised up as though drawn by the pressure of the stare. The face presented to the Jew was an empty slate of emotionless indifference.
" Kenny?" he asked with obvious hesitation, his hands shaking in the air as though he were frantically trying not to grab hold of something. Those cold stones never filled with emotion as Kenny tilted his head upwards to look directly into the redhead's pale, terrified face.
" Accidents happen, Kyle,"
Kenny didn't even try to hide the smile on his face as the words left his mouth. The Jew slowly stepped back, his hands jerking up to cover his mouth. Stan pushed a hand to his own mouth as if he were going to be sick. Horror consumed the two of them in a fiery cold that raped them of the ability to think anything in a white black haze of metal fear. The sadistic smile of the angel began to widen as a twisted laugh lightly broke through the air. The sound was horrible as it scratched down their spines with a dragging, clawing motion of scorching heat. The metal slammed into the air with a lurch as the activist gagged into his hand. His feet stumbled forward as the last of the body bags was placed down and zipped shut outside the decrepit bones of the McCormick place.
Carol McCormick was a mangled corpse with melted, blacken skin and hollow eyes that stared through the fingers welded to her shattered cheek in a twisted position of permanent agony.
Laughter shattered the air as Kenny fell into delirious hysteria.
Beside the wheel of the car, Stan heaved up the bubbling sickness churning inside his cold stomach. Kyle turned to the side with a look of expectation, as if he thought someone would be there to protect him from the perverseness surrounding them in that midnight hour. When he found no one there, he collapsed to the ground, dropping heavily to his knees. The laughter pulsed through the darkened skies tainted by the flickering smoke of the fire. It ripped into the flesh of the others with a similar destructive nature of a bullet fired at point blank range. The wounds bled out profusely as the Jew covered his mouth in quivering disgust. Looking over his shoulder, Stan gritted his teeth in similar revulsion.
" You're sick," he hissed through his clenched teeth. His words cut through the air with shocking ice written in them. The laughter faltered until it stopped in its entirety. As it slipped from his mouth one final time, Kenny gripped hold of his arms in immense despair. He received nothing in the way of sympathy, for the aquamarine stones glared through the fire towards him. Jerking his hand, Stan wiped his mouth. Looking back, he saw something inside those sapphires that burned into his mind with horrendous clarity.
Hollowness.
" No. I'm safe," the angel sobbed, although tears never fell from his empty eyes. Kyle turned his head towards him as Stan did. The stones of their fiery cold stones were met with the solid resolve of depravation of the other gems. Kenny bared his teeth in vicious reproach to their collapsed stances, " And I'm alive,"
" I can't do this," Kyle exclaimed suddenly, quickly getting to his feet. There was frantic hysteria overtaking his eyes that expressed more than even his words did. Stan felt his eyes widen in cold fear for what this meant as he searched the shaking head of the Jew for an answer. He could only find one word within his panicked heart to beg of those terrified emeralds.
" What?"
" I can't do this. He's killed. . .I. . .No," the Jew cried out, cutting his hands in front of him in a desperate action to release himself from this cascade of events. The aqua gaze barely saw the disoriented action, however, as Stan stared beyond Kyle. Just as the redhead became aware of this, two hands slammed down onto his shoulders. Fear ripped through his face before he was literally torn off his feet and pulled backwards into a warm embrace quite unbefitting the moment of terror between the three souls.
" Somethin' wrong, Kahl?"
The voice of Cartman slipped through the fire like silk. The Jew jerked his head to the side as the Nazi pressed his cheek into the tangled mess of curls, his arms wrapped about the shoulders of the much smaller boy. Stan looked up at the heavier boy without emotion on his face as Kenny raised his deathly cold sapphires to the grinning face of the other. Kyle, on the other hand, let out a scream of incoherent mannerisms before he regarded his rival with an impressive look of remarkable disgust.
" Oh my fucking god! Don't do that, Cartman!" he screamed, grabbing hold of Cartman's wrist with both of his hands. The Nazi seemed unfazed by anything happening, for he smiled his usual honey smile. He pressed his lips to the plump cheek of the Jew, kissing him with a dramatic embrace that ended with a loud, smacking pop.
The moment afterwards, the Jew seemed to be lost in a world unseen. His eyes were frozen in a wide state of horror which almost resembled that of before, when he had gathered himself to his feet in order to run. However, when the ice was consumed by the raging embers within, disgust was not the emotion wrought in his face. Rather, his face hardened with rage as he twisted his body away. He shoved a hand deep into the girth of Cartman's vast middle to push him away. Cartman allowed him to do so, chuckling under his breath, as the Jew seethed and gritted his teeth angrily.
Behind the four, the McCormick house swallowed up itself as all of it caved it except for the front room. Dust and soot smashed into the air as the others flickering through the chaos rushed about in a scrambled hell.
" I can't believe you survived," the Nazi chided as he shoved the Jew to the side. He turned his topaz orbs down to the shivering form of the blond as he walked past the hardened glare of Kyle. He approached Kenny as two dead sapphires looked from the fallen house to the sugary eyes watching him with such intensity.
" It's easy to survive a fire if you're not in the forest," the angel responded with trembling bite to every scathing word. Whereas Kyle gripped his arms and Stan lowered his head to the dirty ground, Cartman roared with impressed laughter. His nodded with agreement, reaching through the still pulse of the fire pressing down on the four of them. His fingers touched the blond hair, frozen for only a minute moment in time. Then he messed up the blond tangles in what could be called childish amusement. Slowly, Kenny hung his head as his fingers pulled on the ratty fabric of his jacket. The way in which he hugged himself was desperate in its private agony, although it went unnoticed by the Nazi.
Stan jerked to his feet and slammed his hands into Cartman's arm, ripping those fingers from Kenny's hair.
" Don't touch him," he breathed out as he shoved the Nazi away. Kenny turned his head away, his hair falling in front of his hollowed out eyes. Stan merely stood before him, his hands gripped the car door and side in a wholly protective stance.
" Whatevah," the Nazi airily muttered, wiping his hand down his shirt as if he felt it dirty for touching Kenny. Waving the other three off with an air of indifference, he left the group. He headed towards the array of black body bags bearing the remains of the disaster. Stan removed his gaze, turning it towards the angel curling himself over his dirt stained knees. Kyle, however, watched through a sea of smoke and burning fire as Cartman walked to stand next to the corpses zipped up. With precision to every motion, he counted out each body, jabbing a finger to every corpse. His singsong voice counted out the numbers of the death toll until he came upon the last, Carol. There, his honey eyes slipped from side to side to see what he looked for.
Wetting his lips, Cartman then slammed his foot into the side of Stuart with enough force to send a piercing crack of burnt bone echoing into the air.
" ERIC CARTMAN!" Kyle screeched, his hands clenched at his side. The sound of his voice crashed through the air like a gun going off. Glancing over his shoulder, the Nazi seemed to take in the fury dripping off that shaking form. He turned towards the Jew, resting his hands on his curved hips in what could only be described as nonchalant annoyance.
" What?"
" Get the fuck away from those bodies!" he screamed out, stabbing his finger down to point beside himself. Cartman looked at him as if he was looking upon a notorious killjoy, before he just pouted. He motioned down to the bleak, black bags at his booted feet. His motions seemed disconnected from the way his voice turned out in a venomously weak protest. There was a hauntingly playful notion about his whole demeanor nearly as disturbing as his answer.
" I wanna see 'em," he said it without any true conviction, even as he crouched down to unzip the bag of one of the many children laid out between the two slaughtered parents. Before he could, however, Kyle hurried over. Every step he took resounded with terrible anger that manifested itself in burning rage so livid, Stan felt it run over his flesh in a prickling sensation. The Jew grabbed hold of the larger boy and he struggled to drag him from the remains. There was a moment where the Nazi stood there, staring as his arm was unsuccessfully jerked. Then, moving suddenly, Cartman caught up the two slender wrists of Kyle. He yanked him so close to him, their mouths hovered only inches from one another. Fire pierced through the air as two emeralds widened, " Somethin' the matter?"
" You're disrespecting the dead," the Jew breathed out, his body shivering as he was pulled ever closer to the sweet death of those eyes. Cartman presented him with a tantalizing smile as he rubbed his thumbs over the soft flesh of Kyle's wrists. He tugged the smaller boy deeper into his waist, drawing him a fraction of an inch closer.
" They don't deserve my respect," he sneered down into the fire licking passionately over the flesh of the redhead. Kyle stared into those eyes wickedly running over his gasping mouth. There was longing hunger to the topaz gaze that cut like a knife into the soul curling with embers. Turning his head to the delicious looking invitation, the Jew whispered all he could think of to say in an attempt to derail this brewing dance.
" Kenny doesn't need to see you do this,"
" I don't think he cares," Cartman cooed into the throat of the Jew. His words melded like burning desire over the shivering flesh there. Falling into the rising tempo, Kyle gripped his hands into fists. He never attempted to fight for his release, however, as he felt the tender lips of the other brush against his throat. The horror of the evening was gone in a blinding burst of searing fire.
Still, Kyle squeezed his eyes shut for the lingering pain of his hand.
" Just stop,"
The command struck the scorched air with a totality of finality that could not be ignored. Eric gritted his teeth in utter hatred. Nevertheless, he released Kyle from his tight grasp. Allowing the Jew to steer him from the corpses, the two of them picked their way through the gathering crowds to the police car left alone. The lovers remained there, watching the rivals as they resisted their desire to strike at the other. Kyle folded his arms over the edge of the open door and pressed his forehead there, as if fighting a vicious headache. Cartman crossed his arms over the massive curve of his middle. Kenny stayed where he was, his hands gripping his jacket. Stan, however, reached out and ran his fingers through that mess of blond. He stroked it in the still silence for a moment. Then, with gentle care, he tucked a piece back behind his ear.
Suddenly, the words of an angel pierced the silence.
" I'm homeless," Kenny muttered as if he hadn't realized this before that moment. He seemed to come alive as he turned his eyes away from the burnt remains of his life. He looked up towards the others with a shell shocked impression of apathy. The death of his eyes melted away as he pushed himself into a sitting position, his dirty fingers smoothing over the cloth of his jeans.
" Then you shouldn't have burned it down," Cartman informed him, leaning against the side of the police car. The blond gave him a startling look of disgust while Kyle jerked his head in the direction of the Nazi. His gemstone eyes said all he needed to spit out, although he still hissed his opinion with one hateful word of warning.
" Cartman,"
" What?" the Nazi asked, shrugging his shoulders and motioning exaggeratedly to the poor boy. The emerald look he received was less than empathic. He disregarded it as he rolled his eyes with expertise, folding his arms back over his large middle, " It's true,"
" I had to burn it down," the angel mumbled coldly, his eyes flashing momentarily to the hollow expression they had worn throughout the evening. Before Cartman could prod for a further explanation, Stan held out his hand and rubbed his thumb over the soft cheek of the blond. Kenny peered up at him through his hair with an expression that the activist didn't recognize.
" You can stay with me," he gently assured his love, tilting the broken agony of sapphire longing up towards his face. Solemn confusion befell the lovely lines of the angel's face before he pushed his cheek into the warmth beginning to trickle from the activist's numb body. He whispered into this outstretched hand held out through all the blood, all the screaming, all the fire that provided such a hideous back drop to the scene.
" Where?"
" There's a guest room. Or my room," Stan answered without looking at Kenny. He turned his eyes to the faded appeal of the Marsh house so close to the world ruined by its own occupants. Somehow, the looming obstruction to the starry sky seemed further away than the stars in the endless horizon. Wetting his lips in quiet oppression to the answer he offered, he slowly dropped his gaze back to the eyes watching him with every ounce of need he felt in the shivering, quaking breath running like ice over his wrist, " I don't care,"
" You can stay with me," Cartman offhandedly suggested with a light shrug of the shoulder. Piercing emeralds ripped through the fog slowly sweeping over their feet from the falling smoke. The look was wholly ignored, as was the offer provided as an afterthought to a friendship underscored by personal disillusionment. The angel shook his head, giving the Nazi a slight look that bordered on the frustrated.
" I don't wanna stay with you. I'll stay with Stan," Kenny looked up at the love of his life as Cartman rolled his eyes dismissively. Yet, for all his disapproval, a small, fragile smile found its way onto Stan's face. Beside them, Kyle rested his forehead on his wrists as he closed his penetrating stare to the way the Nazi turned his attention to the blacked hell marking the breakdown of South Park society.
The roof of the wreckage caved in on itself, tearing down all except the front walls and whatever lay forgotten and discarded within the charred remains. The very last licks of the raging fires were brought to a close as the hoses were turned off and the bystanders all covered their mouths at the terrible sight. The McCormick place was left as a vicious burned scar on the face of South Park suburbia as a scorching reminder of the fragility of the human mind. While others turned their faces from the unabashed perversion of its outstretched cries, Eric chuckled at it. Kenny slowly got to his feet as Stan held out his hand to those blood stained, dirty fingers. Turning from him, the angel cast a final look of hollow disgust towards the last window remaining on the wall facing the kitchen destroyed. Reaching through the hellfire, Kenny took Stan's hand with a defiant grip as his nose scrunched up in utter distaste.
The window cracked, shattered, and broke into a thousand shards that scattered over the remains of the McCormick family.
Kenny walked away with his fingers intertwined with Stan's.
The smile on his face had never been more sadistic.
Please read and review. Thanks.