Cartman glanced from under his bangs at Kyle, who sat across from him in the circle of empty chairs. Kyle had his arms folded, his right leg propped upon his left knee, and a pouty look on his face. He refused to return the acknowlegment and still didn't believe that his best friend would put him in the same room with the person who tried to strangle him. The controvercy he and Stan had the day of the agreement to be put into an anger managment organization flashed in his mind, his own voice shouting in his head.

"How could you do this to me, Stan? What makes you think that this'll work?" He yelled.

"Look, I just can't let you go on this way. I'm doing this because I care about you and your safety." Stan had a more subtle approach, but couldn't keep the distress from forming in his voice. "I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if you got seriously injured because of this."

"But locking me up with him? Are you insane?"

"You both need to learn how to control yourselves! If you haven't noticed, the town is having economical problems, that's why they couldn't put the high schoolers in a different building. And with you fighting like they aren't even there, you're teaching the little kids that it's okay to battle it out with each other when ever they're frustrated."

"Why can't you just put Cartman in it? He needs it more than I do."

"That isn't true. Yes, it's evident that Cartman has some emotional problems, but you..."

"What? What are you saying?"

Stan's eyes burned into Kyle's mind. The blue flame that had sparkled because of all the fun they've had together was now blazing forth a woeful flare.

"You have problems too, Kyle. You don't realize it because Cartman has grown into his more offensive mood, but you've always been short tempered. Now because his tornado is crashing head on into your volcano, you two are starting to create something even worse than what you were."

Kyle couldn't believe his ears. Did Stan just say what he thought he just said? His anger boiled in his stomach and steamed hot in his throat. Just like the volcano Stan used as a figure of speech, he blew up and spat venom coated words at his friend.

"Well forget you then! I don't need you to laugh behind my back as I go through this humiliation! You're the last person I want to be around! Go on! Leave me to suffer!"

Stan stood shocked and didn't say a thing. The venom had destroyed what was left of the rope that kept them together and he drifted away from Kyle, like a cloud from the sun.

"Stan, wait, I didn't mean that. Please, don't go man, I need you, I love you."

He turned to face Kyle for the last time and sighed.

"I wish I could believe that. How many times will you say you're sorry before you actually mean what you say?"

Kyle reached out for Stan, but he was too far away from his reach. That nerve racking moment made his brain snap and he fell from his chair onto his knees. Looking up he saw Cartman kneeling beside him speaking inaudible words to him and he felt that same rage simmer within him. Pushing upward with his legs he pounced on him and pinned him to the ground, clawing into Cartman's shoulders, and clenching his teeth to keep him from spewing anything worse than what he was going to say. Tears rolled down his cheeks and he blinked to be rid of them.

"Why?" He sobbed.

"What the hell are you doin Kahl?" Cartman was even more confused.

"Why did you do this? Why?!" His cries turned quickly into a scream.

"Kahl get offa meh!" He tried to push the ginger off.

"Kenny was right you do get a revolting delight from watching others pain."

"You're hurting mah arms!"

"Good, you deserve to feel the same anguish you've been pushing on everyone else!"

Cartman stared at Kyle and felt the warm drops fall onto his face. They tumbled down to his chin and for once he couldn't laugh at Kyle for crying in front of him. He couldn't even smile at how pathetic he looked. Kyle put his forehead onto Cartman's chest and continued weep.

"Because of you Stan doesn't want to be around me anymore and Kenny doesn't give a shit about us."

"Kahl I didn't mean-"

"I never want to see you again, Eric Cartman! You're nothing to me!" Kyle shouted and couldn't stop. "All you are is a spoiled, cowardly, agrrogant, greedy, stubborn, racist, son of a bitch! We were never friends and we never will be friends!"

He got off of Cartman and ran frantically out of the room. Alone Cartman sat up and pounded his fists into the ground. His stuffed animal's voices rang in his ears and he shook his head to be rid of them. They tried to help him, but it didn't work. What he didn't realize is that he needed to put full effort in order to heal himself. Kyle was gone and left him with his last words stinging in the cut he made, infecting his brain and causing his whole fabric of right and wrong to shut down. He roared and grabbed a chair, smashing it violently against the wall and flinging it to the side into the others. He punched the same spot and took out his anger on what ever was in the way, throwing a chair out of the window, putting a hole in the wall, and even kicking the door. This lasted for an hour before every ounce of his frenzy was spent. Mr. Macky came to find Cartman in a corner of the room and went up to him carefully.

"Eric, where's Kyle?"

"Kyle's gone."

"Do you know where he went?"

Cartman didn't want to answer and looked away, but the councellor understood.

"I think we better send you home for a while, m'kay. I don't want you hurting anyone in the school." He said as he observed the destruction of the room.

At that moment, Kyle was in his room looking through his possessions in his closet. He had calmed down during his race home and now sat quietly on the floor leaning against his bed side. He crawled deeper into the closet and drew out a green box with gold swirls he had recieved for his eleventh birthday. Kyle hid it from his friends thinking that they would see him as a wuss for having a music box. However, he was the only one to know that Stan, Kenny, and Cartman also got a music box for their eleventh birthdays, but he didn't know who they were from. He opened it and the melody drifted on the breeze that floated into his room from the window. It soothed his heart and set his mind back to his elementary days. Everything was so easy back then. He then spotted something strange at the bottom of the box. Reaching in, Kyle brought out a card. He was about to read it when the music box closed and a knock was heard out side his door.

"Kyle, you're mother said to call you down for dinner." His dad called from the other side.

"Tell her I'm not hungry."

"Son you know she gets upset when you act this way."

"I can't come down right now. It'll only be tonight, I promise."

"Very well."

Kyle waited until he was sure his father had left back downstairs and lifted the lid of the box again to listen to the music again. He picked up the card and opened it to recognize the old birthday letter Stan and the others had written him.

""

The person who only accepts friends without faults will never have any real friends." That's why we're so happy that we got to know you and that we're friends with you. I love you, dude. From: Stan Marsh, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick."

He hadn't noticed the card when he first opened it at his birthday and remembered putting it on his drawer when he got home. Somehow it made its way into the box and sat in waiting there until he opened it again. A few houses down Stan also had the urge to take a peek into his blue and red music box that he kept it in his drawer away from his sister. He sat on his bed and opened it slightly only to find a picture of him and Kyle with their arms around each other smiling. On the back words were scribbled messily with black ink.

"Difference of opinion was never, with me, a motive of separation from a friend."

This made him look back on how close he was with Kyle and the other two boys. He fought so hard to keep him near and he almost forgot about the time when Kyle nearly died. He saw another picture with all four of them gathered around, Stan's arm around Kyle, Kyle's arm around Cartman, and Cartman's arm around Kenny. Again words were scribed behind the photo.

"One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible."

At the sight of those words he couldn't keep the lump down in his throat any longer and quietly began to cry. His friends had broken up and he felt powerless to do anything. In Cartman's house, Eric felt an unusual urge to look for something, but he didn't know what. Mindlessly he started sifting through his drawers and closet, and when all else failed he dashed downstairs to find his mother in the kitchen.

"Meem! Where's that music box I got for mah eleventh birthday?" He whined.

"Oh, I think it's up in the attic, dear."

He hurried up the ladder and looked through every box until he saw a red glimmer. Cartman shined his flashlight to see that music box not dulled by dust shining happily on the floor. He took it back down into his room and drew his fingers over the yellow markings before opening it. His heart was lifted at the soft melody and he held up a tattered Clyde Frog with a small paper attached to his stomach. He removed the pin and unfolded the paper to read it to himself.

"Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured."

His mind snapped back to when he first met Shay, or as he like to call him, Slushy, and when he attacked his two friends. He went into the bathroom and peered into the mirror. Gently he touched the reflection and ran his fingers down the glass in order to search for what Kenny and the rest saw in him. Right then he saw the frustration rise in his own eyes and was scared of what had become of him during the years. Was that all they found in him? That monster that came out of its cage? Cartman flew back into his room and slammed the door behind him in order to be rid of the sight, sliding his back against the wood and sinking to the ground.

Kenny, on the other hand, had nearly forgotten about his friends until Shay approached him while he was reading with a brown box. It's orange swirls winked at him and smiled as Frost held it up to him. He put his magazine down and took the box from his roommate and sat it on his lap. Kenny opened it a little and Shay sat on his knees on the bed like a dog. McCormick pulled out the shurikin he had accidentally thrown in Butters's eye while playing ninjas with his friends and found a green question mark with a note taped to it. The music box kept playing as Kenny read what the note said out loud.

"Death was afraid of him because he had the heart of a lion."

Shay crept up to him and turned the shurikin over to see another note on the back. He took it off and handed the paper to Kenny to read.

"God's angels often protect his servants from potential enemies."

With that Shay was asleep on the foot of the bed and Kenny was left awake to think of what the notes said. What did this all mean to him? Did they have any specific meaning at all? So many questions and hardly any answers. He stayed up wondering and ventured out of the house into the cold chill of the night. Kenny looked up a the moon and shivered lightly.

"What does this all mean? Is there a reason I was sent these?"

"There's a reason for everything."

He turned around and saw a mysterious figure sitting on his rooftop. The stranger had a dark blue, hooded cloak and a black mask over their face.

"Who are you?"

"Answers will come soon." Their voice was cold like ice, but smooth like silk. "You just need to find a way to forgive and forget. Nothing will be solved in this state."

The figure threw a smoke bomb and was gone once the air had cleared the shadow was gone. Kenny went back into the house to find Shay still sleeping and sat on the bed. Strange things were happening and only he could solve what was going on. That is what he gathered from the mystical visitor's words.