I've decided to merge two of the chapters into one, so now there's only two chapters left instead of three. For anyone who's sad that this is ending, I have planned two separate follow ups, one for Craig and his gang and one for Stan and his gang. Look out for those after this is finished.

Anyway, what happened at the house? Did Craig and Clyde survive the fire?

Chapter 25 – ?

Heaven was way different than Craig expected. First of all, it was so freaking bright he couldn't even open his eyes. If he tried he would be blinded. Could someone tell God, or St. Peter, or whoever was in charge of lights to TURN THEM DOWN! How was he supposed to enjoy the afterlife if he couldn't see the afterlife?

Also, that annoying buzzing noise that sounded like fluorescent lighting needed to stop. How was anyone supposed to rest in peace this way? That stupid humming noise had to go too. All the sounds, in fact, were rather bothersome.

Hmm… now that Craig thought about it, a lot of these sounds were like the ones someone would hear in a hospital.

Wait… was he… not actually dead?

Guess I'd better suck it up and open my eyes, Craig thought. With a slight groan, he pried one eye open, wishing he had something to block out the harsh light. As soon as he did though, there was an exclamation of joy.

"Craig!" Tweek cried happily, "You're awake! And you're ok!"

"Ugh, am I?" Craig moaned, daring to open both eyes now. He was glad he did. Tweek was sitting next to him, smiling, with tears stuck in his eyes. Yup. They were in the hospital.

The first thing Craig noticed was that Tweek's eyes were rather clear. Or at least clearer than he had last seen them. He sat up a little.

"Tweek! Your vision is back!" Tweek nodded.

"Yeah, it's not completely better, but it's getting there," the blond told him.

"That's good," Craig sighed with relief, "I'm so glad." He looked around the room for a moment. "How long have I been out?"

"About a day and a half," Tweek replied.

"And the others? How are they doing?"

"Everyone's fine," Tweek assured him, "Everyone made it out safely. The only ones who needed medical attention were you and Clyde. And last I heard Clyde was doing well."

Craig nodded. "I'm so glad," he murmured. He looked at Tweek. "I have something I need to tell you, Tweek, and I don't think you're going to like it."

"Oh God!" Tweek squeaked.

Taking a deep breath, Craig looked down. "I cheated on you with Clyde."

"What?!" Tweek peeped, hands clapping his mouth, "What happened? Tell me the truth!"

"Ok," Craig agreed, sighing, "When you were kidnapped, Clyde started being a lot nicer to me. He started kissing me and getting closer to me. I didn't really like it at first because I wanted to be faithful to you, but after a while I really liked the attention. I felt like I was in love with him. He asked me to be his boyfriend but I turned him down. Then he told me he had seen everything when you got kidnapped and that's when I snapped." His eyes turned to Tweek. "I'm sorry."

Tweek stared at him for a long moment before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Then he opened his eyes. "Craig, I went through hell while I was in that prison. But I can't imagine what you were going through. The important thing is that we're together now. I don't care what you did before."

"Are you sure?" Craig breathed, "I wouldn't blame you if you hated me."

"I don't hate you," Tweek insisted, "You realized what you did was wrong and apologized. That's all I need."

Craig let out a relieved sigh. "Thank goodness," he murmured, "I don't know what I'd do without you."

They leaned over and embraced each other, happy in each other's arms. They probably would have stayed like that for a while if there hadn't been a knock on the door. They broke apart just as Token and Jimmy came in.

"Craig!" Token exclaimed, racing over to hug his friend, "I'm so glad you're ok! We were so worried about you!"

"Don't worry, you can't get rid of me that easily," Craig said with a soft smile.

"W-W-When that f-fire broke out, we were sure you were a gon… we were sure you were a gon… we were sure you were dead," Jimmy said.

"Kenny and Karen had to stop me from running back into the house to get you," Tweek added, "I was so scared!"

"I'm sorry I worried you all," Craig told them earnestly, "I didn't mean to."

"It's all right. You're fine now and that's all that matters," Token assured him, "Stan has been waiting for you to get better too."

"Stan?"

"Yeah," Token replied with a nod, "He wanted to thank you for everything you did. He said if it weren't for you everyone would still be in that basement."

"Well, that's true," Craig acknowledged.

Before the conversation could continue, a nurse came in and shooed everyone out, leaving Craig alone with his thoughts.

…

Stan and Kyle were in Stan's room a few days after the rescue. Kyle was quiet and Stan knew something was wrong. Had something happened to him while he was kidnapped?

"Hey Kyle," Stan said, deciding to get straight to the problem, "Are you all right?"

Kyle turned his dull eyes to him. Stan had never seen him look so lifeless. "I'm fine, Stan," he murmured.

"You're clearly not," Stan pointed out. He sighed. "Did something happen to you in that basement?"

Shuddering, Kyle looked away. "Not… exactly," he muttered, "Well, being kidnapped was horrible of course, but that's not the only thing."

"What do you mean?"

Kyle sighed heavily before leaning in and whispering into Stan's ear. "Cartman raped me."

All the breath left Stan's body. Suddenly a foggy memory came back to him, a night of drunken mourning. Pain and pleasure. And Cartman murmuring in his ear. It took all of his power to remember to breathe.

He remembered everything.

Cartman was a monster.

Stan reached over and wrapped his arms around Kyle, holding him tight. "I'm so sorry," he breathed, "I should've known…"

"It's not your fault," Kyle mumbled, "He took advantage of me. He broke me. And I was kidnapped right after. There was no way you could have known."

Stan wanted to argue with him, but he decided not to.

Now that Stan thought about it, did Kenny already know? He remembered the minutes after everyone was free and reunited, Kenny seemed awfully protective of Kyle, making sure he stayed close to him. It made Stan feel guilty. Like Kenny was a better friend than he was.

But he was determined to do better.

"I promise I won't let him hurt you," Stan declared, "I won't let him near you ever again."

…

Craig had gotten so bored in the hospital he tried to escape but was caught and brought back to his room immediately. Thankfully, he was released the next day (causing many of the staff to wonder why he had bothered trying to break out.)

Tweek, Token, Jimmy, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny were all waiting for him when he walked out. A strange warmth filled his chest when he saw them. Smiling, he walked over to the group and everyone embraced in a loving hug.

"Geez, guys, I know I'm awesome, but you didn't all have to turn up to see me," Craig teased.

"Oh we weren't really here to see you," Kenny joked, "We just happened to see these guys standing around and thought we'd join them."

"Ha ha," Craig said.

"Come on. Let's go to The Burger Joint!" Token exclaimed, "My treat!"

When they got there, the place was packed with teens. So many people were hanging out, reuniting and laughing. They didn't have a care in the world now that the kidnapper was gone.

I wish I could feel like that, Kyle thought as he stood next to Stan. Even though he was free, he still felt trapped. He looked around the crowd, making sure Cartman wasn't among them. He hadn't seen the other teen since they escaped and Kenny had stood in between the two.

But Kyle was sure that Cartman was just waiting for him to let his guard down. Waiting to strike.

Kyle had thought of confessing his love to Stan while they were in his room, but he had thought better of it. There was too much tension and he didn't want to ruin Stan's relationship with Wendy. He needed to focus on his own problems before dumping them on someone else.

"Hey look! There's Wendy, Nichole, and Butters!" Stan called out, pulling Kyle from his thoughts, "Let's go sit with them!"

Wendy waved as the group went over to them. She smiled warmly at Stan and gave him a quick kiss as they sat down.

"Hey Craig!" Butters greeted happily, "Glad to see ya out of the hospital!"

"Thanks Butters," Craig said with a soft smile, "How are you doing?"

"I-I'm doing pretty well," Butters replied, "Thankfully my parents didn't ground me for getting kidnapped. They were pretty grateful to have me home."

"Why would your parents ground you for getting kidnapped?" Kenny wondered. Butters muttered something under his breath and didn't answer.

"Ike was really happy to see me," Kyle recalled, "He wouldn't stop hugging me all day, even when mom and dad tried to pull him off."

"Aw! That's sweet!" Nichole cooed.

Normally Kyle would have found it smothering, but honestly he was grateful that Ike cared so much.

As the others started talking, Kyle suddenly heard the door open and he turned to look to see who it was. He felt his heart come to a stop as he saw Cartman come in. He whipped around back to the group, trying to act like he had seen nothing.

Please don't look over here, Kyle thought, Please don't spot us! Please don't come over!

Stan and Kenny must've felt him holding his breath, because they both looked around, turning around and spotting Cartman. Kenny hissed.

"Shit!" he swore, "It's the fatass!"

"What did Cartman do?" Wendy asked, "You guys suddenly seem to hate him for some reason!"

Kyle and Kenny tensed up, but Stan came to the rescue.

"Oh, I guess you guys never found out," Stan said, "Cartman knew about Jackson being in on the kidnappings the whole time and never told anyone."

Wendy, Tweek, Nichole, and Butters gasped. "R-Really?!" Tweek squeaked, "That's terrible!"

"Yeah, it was really shocking to find out," Stan admitted.

Kyle felt a small spark of relief inside him. He didn't want the others to know what Cartman had done to him. Only Stan and Kenny were allowed to know. Only them…

"So we could have been saved much earlier if it weren't for him?!" Nichole growled, "No wonder you guys are avoiding him!"

Thank you, Stan, Kyle sighed.

...

Craig had been avoiding Clyde since they got out of the hospital. But he couldn't dodge him forever. There was something he wanted to address.

He found Clyde waiting outside the Tucker house. Like Craig, he had somehow escaped the fire with no major injuries. He was sitting on the porch, staring at his pack of cigarettes. Craig had no idea what he was thinking at the moment. But it was time to rip the bandage off.

"Hey dude," Craig greeted, walking up, "I was hoping to talk to you."

"Yeah, I figured," Clyde murmured, not looking up, "You're kicking me out, aren't you?"

Craig slowly nodded. "I'm grateful that you saved me, saved us, but it never should have gotten to that point to begin with. You should have gone to the police as soon as you saw Tweek get kidnapped. You should've revealed what you knew because you wanted to help, not because I rejected you."

"I know," Clyde mumbled.

"I can't trust you anymore, Clyde," Craig continued, "But… I know your homelife isn't exactly… ideal, and I don't want to force you to go back to your dad. So I asked Token and he agreed to let you stay with him."

Finally, Clyde looked up. "Thank you," he whispered.

ONE MORE CHAPTER LEFT! Finally almost done with this story! I had wanted to finish it before the new year, but that didn't happen. Anyway, look forward to the last chapter!