Membrain

by fallingwthstyle

Stan is a handful of months from his 30th birthday and hates his life and being an adult. He would give anything to go back to those simpler days when he was a child, fix a few mistakes he made along the way, and most of all relive it and pay more attention this time. One strange night, he gets the chance to. COMPLETE. Originally written for the 2014 South Park Big Bang.

13. EIGHT

8

a newspaper landed in the wet icy slush at his feet. "Hey, sorry kid!" Stan looked up again at the car that had just driven past Kyle's driveway, the man who had just tossed the paper out of his car window looking guilty as he drove slowly past. "I didn't see you standing there!"

Probably because I wasn't here a moment ago

Stan nodded and waved, and the man smiled and drove on down the street. Stan bent down to pick up the newspaper, once again wiping snow from the plastic bag so he could read the date: Thursday, January 30, 1986. His eyes widened. He realized this was it, and even without a watch to tell him what time it was, he knew this wasn't just the day, this was the moment, right now. He looked around. The color was already draining from everything, from the sky and Sheila's car next to him, from even the snow, and the sky was growing dark. He had minutes, maybe only seconds, before he would be yanked back to the future again.

He looked around desperately. There was no time to run to the house, knock on the door, talk to Kyle, and find a way for them to delay Sheila and Ike's departure; the sky was already the color of twilight. Stan knew he was about to disappear, and Kyle's front door would open right afterwards and Sheila and Ike would walk outside on their way to destiny.

There's no more time…no more time

But he thought there might be a way. It could be awkward and might mean losing everything, but…he knelt down beside the car next to the right rear tire, looked around quickly, and then unscrewed the cap from the tire's valve stem. He used his thumbnail to press on the metal pin inside the valve and was rewarded with a loud hisss of air being released. He was frightened by how loud it was and tried to cup his hands around the valve to muffle the sound.

Stan watched the tire slowly go flat as the world went dark. By the time Sheila could find someone to change the tire (or made arrangements to use Gerald's car), they would arrive at the intersection where she and Ike were supposed to be killed late enough to avoid the collision this time.

The last of the light faded away and just before it was gone completely, an even darker shadow fell over him. He looked up into the outraged face of Gerald Broflovski, whose angry voice seemed to come from a million miles away.

"Stanley! What the hell are you doing?!"

And the darkness overtook him.