Chapter 7: Hey there! It's still me!
Cartman's house, 2:05 a.m…
"Woah, Woah!"
"SOMEWHERE PRIVATE! SOMEWHERE HIDDEN! SOMEWHERE PERFECT TO HAVE A NICE CHAT!…"
Stan's head spinned in circles as his counterpart constantly ran through the whole house, all this while carrying him and the chair where he was tied up in. This was just a complete distress, even for him, going through cycles, non-stop, hitting his head all the time with the backrest sure was definitely making him feel dizzy. If his counterpart just stopped for one minute, he wouldn't feel the necessity to start puking all over the floor. His head was not going to support more of this pressure any longer.
"D-…Dude…" Stan tried to call him.
"WHERE IS IT? WHERE IS IT? WHERE IS IT?!" But his counterpart just ignored him.
"Can you stop just for a moment?… I'm starting to get a little dizzy..."
Reversed Stanley just ignored Stan's pleas as he continued rushing through all the house until he inevitably stopped in the kitchen, breathing and panting really heavily as he exhaled so much air after his boisterous constant running.
"Ugh… Thanks..." Stan ironically said. He was almost about to puke all over the floor.
"NO! NOT HERE! NOT THERE, NO PRIVATE! WHERE IS IT!?" His counterpart just frantically repeated, starting to bust his eardrums.
"Dude… where the hell are you taking me?" Stan finally had the courage to say that.
"(*Sigh), (*Sigh), I'M TRYING… TO FIND… THE BASEMENT… IT'S... AN IMPOSSIBLE… (*Sigh)... QUEST… (*Sigh)..." His counterpart sighed as he tried to formulate those words.
"The basement? Isn't that like... in the living room?" Stan told him.
By hearing this, suddenly, Reversed Stanley's eyes just lightened up again.
"OH SH*T!"
"No wait-...WOAH!"
Stan couldn't even finish his sentence after Reversed Stanley resumed his rush, draggin Stan again across the floor at full speed. Stan could feel how his head hit repeatedly with the backrest as his counterpart went to the living room, with Butters still trapped in the bathroom.
"Cartman? Anyone? Please open the door! I think it 's stuck…"
"Butters?" Stan recognised his voice
"Stan? Is that you?" Butters asked from the other side of the door.
"SOMEWHERE PRIVATE! SOMEWHERE PRIVATE! AHA! BINGO!"
Reversed Stanley finally found what he was looking for, the basement door. Without thinking it better he went for it.
"Oh no Butters! What did they-..."
"FATAL KICK!"
Before Stan could help Butters, Reversed Stanley kicked the basement door so hard that he broke the metal grip from it and fell down the stairs, opening it instantly.
"LET'S GOOO!" He screamed as he jumped there.
"No w- OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH…!"
As his counterpart continued rushing downstairs really quickly, Stan didn't stop hitting himself in the head with all the steps from the stairs until they finally got inside Eric's basement.
"OH YEAH! WE FREAKING DID IT! WE'RE FINALLY HERE! And the candles that I put for our special meeting are still intact, perfect…"
:)
"Wait, you put candles in here? Dude! Didn't you just ask me like two moments ago where the basem-...?
"Ugh! Boring! THINK FAST PAL!"
Before Stan could finish up his sentence, Reversed Stanley (also known by his other name Sebastian) threw Stan really hard through all the floor of the basement, making him hit the hard wall with a brute force, smashing the chair into little pieces and ripping out the ropes that held Stan before. He fell to the floor, hitting his head and back really hard in the process, resulting in him making a nig moan of pain.
"OUCH!" He screamed
"And that's what happens when you don't think fast enough, dogface! You let yourself smash the floor a total of, drum roll please... (drums are heard in the scene) BAM! 62 times! Wow Stan! That's a new world record! Now it's more than clear that you wanna lose your mind a little bit, right? HAHA!"
Stan's head just kept spinning and spinning, the fast movements from his counterpart and the many hits he received from the head and the body were sufficient enough to make him feel really really dizzy.
Soon enough for him, his nervous system couldn't hold all these hits and he started to feel more tired and tired as his forces decided to rest for a little while his eyes couldn't keep him awake any longer.
"Ugh… I…ugh… ugh... I can't…"
"Oh, you're gonna take a nap now while I organize all this sleeping beauty? Well then, LET BYGONES BE BYGONES STANLEY! Rest assured, I will try not to disappoint you. Once you're awake, oh man, WE'RE GONNA HAVE A BLAST OF A TIME! HAHA!"
:)
Stan couldn't take it anymore, and let himself fall into unconsciousness, with the only light thought of what his counterpart would do once he woke up once more, all this while perceiving his counterpart placing the candles to unknown positions all over the basement. This was the last thing he heard from him before falling unconscious:
"JIJIJI! Taking a good nap while acknowledging the bizarre nature of this situation surely fuels you with a lot of courage… HAHA!"
Sometime later, on his head…
Stan found himself in the dark existential plane again. In the distance, through his eyes, he saw that blue flame from before standing in front of his own eyes, burning and igniting itself with absolutely nothing holding it. He wanted to go where that flame was, he desperately wanted to touch it, feel its warmth, but no matter how much he approached it the flame was like trying to avoid him .
After a brief period of time he forced himself to stop as the thin dark figure from before, Reversed Stanley of course, was now seen too close to the flame, he could guess who he was thanks to the bright purplish eyes that stood out from all the darkness.
His counterpart delicately showed his hand to Stan, and with it grabbed the flame in one sitting. Stan, confused, witnessed how his counterpart was now bursting in a blue-purplish aura while closing his eyes containing all that power.
Then, without a previous warning, His counterpart opened his eyes, now brighter than ever, while enlightening the whole dark plane, forcing Stan to close his eyes in the process just to not get blind by the flash.
"Ugh… Dude stop! That 's... too much!" Stan demanded to his counterpart, but he didn't hear him.
As he was floating in the sky, his counterpart managed to approach Stan quickly, standing right in front of him while showing the little flame that he wanted to touch before. This time, Reversed Stanley just showed in front of his own eyes and blow it up, making all the fire to land directly on Stan's face while telling him just two words:
"WAKE UP…"
And with that Stan recovered his consciousness again, waking up in the process. He was now lying on the ground, in the center of the basement, with his gaze directly looking at the ceiling.
"Ugh… What just happened? Guys?"
Stan got up without fully standing on feet and analyzed his situation while trying to call his friends in vain. Cartman's basement was too dark, really dark, and he could see how all the materials like tables, garbage and The Coon merchandise had been separated by force in order to gain more space in there. He quickly noticed a considerable amount of lighted candles scattered around the basement, some of them with one flame brighter than the other. Thanks to a full gaze from around his position, he took notice that all those candles were put in a form that looked like a big circle, with just him inside of it.
"These are just candles... How can Cartman have so many candles down here?"
Stan thought while being really confused by this, of course he felt like this for a brief period of time until he noticed something pretty obvious inside those weird bizarre surroundings.
His counterpart was nowhere to be seen in the basement. He looked everywhere but he wasn't not there, at least that's what he thought.
"Where's he? That loud talker's not here…"
Stan saw his disappearance as the perfect opportunity to escape.
"Uh… Ok, he's not here. Phew... Ok... Ok... I'll take the shortcut and I'll better get my ass out of here bef-..."
"HEEEEEEEEEY!"
Stan froze for a second and jumped out of surprise as he felt a pair of hands tightly grabbing his left shoulder and arm accompanied with a loud noise. It was obviously his counterpart, which gave him a happy gaze while his devilish purplish pupils reduced their size just to be able to look at him more closely. This didn't make Stan feel more calmly as he wished to be, he could only feel how his counterpart was likely seeing his deep inner soul since there was no other reason to feel more intimidated than in those moments of complete randomness.
"DUDE!" Stan tried to say, only getting in the middle syllable as the surprise just choked his words.
"HEY THERE PAL! You're finally awake! Now we can finally start our special meeting!" Sebastian said as he laughed his ass in the form of giggles.
"M…meeting?" Stan repeated
"Of course silly! Did you forget or what? You had a special meeting at 2:00 am and you're already 5 minutes late! Jeez! I haven't lit all these candles just for a pure bargain dummy! JIJI! Alright... Now let 's begin!"
"No w-..." Stan tried to say before being cut by his counterpart again.
"OH NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! WAIT! What 's that? You don't wanna start? Why? Are you nervous? Scared? DO YOU NEED A LITTLE DRINK TO KEEP YOU SANE!"
"Well…"
"Oh man, I hope it's just for that! Because I don't wanna believe that you'll just rush straight to the basement door the moment I stop holding your shoulder as I am doing right now…"
Reversed Stanley started holding Stan tightly as his eye sockets turned blackish while the purple color of his pupils took a more reddish hue than usual.
"Right Stanley?..." He menacingly said.
Stan didn't dare to say anything. He was too hypnotized by his counterpart's sudden change of eye color that it started to make him less dizzy as he started lowering his strength down, leaving his struggle in a temporary pause while establishing his new attitude inside that explosive chamber.
"I thought so…"
His counterpart said as he took his hands off Stan and cautiously walked slowly through the center of the candle circle, kneeling down and then sitting on the floor, being face to face with Stan in a relatively short distance between them while recovering his eyes' original color pigment. He did this so both children could at least share the same level of predominance, unlike his friend Elik who liked superiority rather than equality. Despite this, Sebastian didn't quit his gaze out of Stan's sight as he, with a creepy smile, started to carry on their unusual conversation.
"So well, well, well... Finally! Here we are! Alone, calmed, with the pure delight giving us a welcoming. Ha! Phew…"
"..." Stan remained quiet most of the time.
"Face to face... Eye to eye... Tooth by tooth... Don't let me start with our tails champ? HAHA!"
"…"
"Hehe... JIJIJIJI! It has really, really been a long time since we don't meet eyes again, Stanley... It really has been, although judging by the fact that I'm not seeing your surprised face, I can take a quick guess and theorize that you don't remember anything at all, am I right?"
"What the heck is he talking about?" Stan thought
"I don't even know this guy at all..." He thought again as he wasn't sure what to respond, so he just remained quiet.
After a brief moment of silence, Sebastian just sighed tiringly.
"(*Sigh), Of course... of course... of course you wouldn't…"
Reversed Stanley growled as he firstly put on a sad face, but then he quickly returned back with his sinister happy self again.
"BUT THAT'S OKAY PAL! THAT'S REALLY OKAY! We can start to know us well again! Time doesn't really fit me though, even when it means starting up new ties with people that don't care at all. Yeah! Besides, isn't it really fantastic this thing of socializing? Let me tell ya pal, I LOVE IT! I love it because even if right now you're not interested in chatting with me dude, that's okay! THAT'S REA-A-A-A-A-ALLY OKAY PAL! I'm sure that, in an uncertain future, you'll want to start talking with me. AND I'LL NOT DISAPPOINT YOU BECAUSE I'LL BE THERE DUDE, I'LL BE! HAHA!"
The things that his counterpart was saying didn't make him feel like he was having a nice chat but rather hearing someone so desperately to gain attention to himself between his inner delusions to look good or even making that speech with a gun pointing on his head. He didn't feel really uncomfortable to say anything so he remained quiet most of the time, not letting his nerves take the best out of him.
"...Because no matter how many of this... what you called it? Oh yeah! Precious little time you gave to yourselves, it will not be enough to just burst out of your little life problems in general, especially to me. Wanna know why Stanley?"
"Dude…"
"C'MON PAL! Take a look at me! A long time has passed, and I'm still irresistible! Damned... Forgotten... Abandoned... But hey... It 's still me…"
Stan heard him in silence as he tried to understand him the best as possible. His counterpart really prepared all this for them, too much for just a prepared chat. Too much for a supposed kidnapping.
"Yeah... you may not remember, but I can assure you…
IT'S STILL ME!"
"…"
"So anyways, enough presentations for tonight... Tell me Stanley... How have you been? Do you still have the need to puke…"
:)
"…"
":)"
"…"
":)"
"…"
":,)"
Stan didn't know what to tell him. Seriously, I mean... What would you tell him?
"Em… Well…" He tried to murmur before the exp-...
"SHHHHH! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! QUIET! LISTEN! DO YOU HEARD THAT!?"
"Huh!?" Stan exclaimed, surprised.
"SHHH! QUIET! Oh... Oh... Aha... Aha... Ok, ok… It was nothing. Sorry HAHA! For one moment I thought Smelly Two Feet Weeder was out there listening to our tiny chat, but HOORAY! We're free from being heard…"
Stan just stood there frozen.
"You've got to be k-..."
" ALRIGHT STANLEY! ALRIGHT! Now that we're finally alone, let me go and grab something quickly out of my pocket!"
"Wh-Something from your pocket…"
"SHHHHHHH DON'T MOCK ME PAL! OK? God you're stressing me out, just wait alright?"
Stan wasn't even two minutes with him and he already wanted to get out from there, so he just rolled his eyes and let him do whatever he planned to do.
"(*Sigh), Whatever…"
Stan stood there watching his counterpart search through all his pockets, trying to find whatever he was about to show him. He was confused with the frenetic reactions of his counterpart, especially from a supposed stranger who knew his name and other things like his puke problem. Maybe he said it in a casual manner or he just made a quick guess but, why did he question him about that?
"Still with the need to puke?" He thought that phrase for some seconds.
Yuck.
This was ridiculous, just too ridiculous to be taken seriously. Even for everything that this town has thrown up to him, this was too stupidly ridiculous. Maybe Cartman was right all this time and this breaking and entering case was just a bad elaborate prank made by his super best friend. However, he couldn't take it as the full truth, I mean, why does he still feel nervous about his counterpart's interactions? Why was he scared? Why was he feeling nervous?
Stan was just getting tired of his counterpart's machinations, so much that he was about to just rush directly to the basement entrance until, not so far from him, a painfully moan could be heard through all the vast space from the basement.
"UUARghh…"
It sounded really familiar, he was sure he could recognize it from someone. It was the moan of a person, a woman to be more precise, who looked agonizing or something similar, Stan couldn't tell if it was a tiring one or a hurtful scream for help. It was a great sign of intrigue for him but his counterpart absolutely ignored it, although he was sure he definitely heard it, so he turned his head in every direction possible for him to locate its source.
"UUurghh…"
He heard the growl again, more erratic, more painful. That's when he discovered where it came from. There, in a corner of the basement, a big wide hole could be seen through his naked eye predominating through the floor. He recognised that hole. He saw it before, at a time when Kenny was incredibly ill and his classmate Tweek was part of his group.
Cartman usually played with that big hole from the basement floor in his free time, most of the time simulating the role of Hannibal Lecter while playing with his dolls in a bad "Silence of the Lambs" roleplay. He thought that the whole crater was fixed like an eon ago, after all, he and his friends reunited with Cartman years ago when this basement was once the official base of Coon & Friends, when Cartman's superhero team was a thing before the Mitch Conner incident happened.
Either way, Cartman's mum seemed to have never bothered that much to fix that hollow and now, much to his surprise, something or someone was down there, and judging by its painfully growling, it wasn't having a good time.
"AHA! FOUND IT!"
"HUH!? What?" Stan exclaimed while returning back to his counterpart.
"I finally found out what I was looking for, THIS!"
Sebastian showed Stan what he just found out of his pocket. It was a tiny box, full of matches. A match box to be more precise.
"Isn't it cool…" His counterpart said.
"Eeh... Hey, what the f*ck was that?" Stan asked him concerned
"What was what? Are you now allergic to wooden objects or something?"
"No dude! The scream!"
"What scream?" Asked his counterpart confused
"EEEeeeergghhh…." The growl appeared once more.
"That! That scream. Who's down the hole?"
"Eh… I don't know. SO LET 'S D-..."
"Dude!" Stan exclaimed angrily. He was starting to get tired of his counterpart's constant topic switching.
"HEY! LISTEN UP YOU DOGFACE! I've been preparing this presentation for quite a long freaking time and I'm not gonna let a stupid bad distraction ruin this precious moment for me! If you wanna know the responsible of those noises, then wait assured. Let me finish… Unless you wanna scream too…" His counterpart threatened him.
Stan was in a really delicate situation at that moment. He couldn't take a step out of that circle of candles, not with his counterpart's itchy personality and threats on the way. Stan had to decline his curiosity and stick with what was just being shown in front of him.
"(*Sigh), Alright… Alright dude… You win... Go on..."
"Great! SO LET 'S DRIVE THIS PARTY TO THE EXTREME ALTITUDES! HAHA!"
:)
Reversed Stanley grabbed the box of matches and threw it up to the floor, opening it on the spot with the matches coming out of it. These, due to friction, remain scattered around the circle, without leaving it or touching the flaming candles of wax. Only one match, which couldn't touch the ground in time, predominated from the rest, as Reversed Stanley caught it right in plain thin air. He didn't think about it, he just grabbed it without thinking twice, touching its dedicated wooden stick and showing it to Stan.
"You see this champ?"
"Ehm… Yeah... It's… a small match..." Stan tried to play his little game.
"WRONG! No dogface! It's not only a match…"
"What?" Stan asked confused
"Look around you, near your feet..."
Stan looked at the floor down his tiny feet, noticing all the empty matches that were scattered around the circle of candles.
"You mean the matches? Yeah, I see them. Why did you throw them out like that?" Stan asked his counterpart.
"All, and each one of these matches, have something in common..." Sebastian explained to him,
as he pointed out the many matches that were scattered around them.
"They can have as many sizes as they want. Some of them are small; A few of them are large; Their heads can be red, blue, or all black, if you like to be more inclusive…"
Stan listened to him in silence.
"BUT nevertheless... All, and each one of them, have something truly in common..." Reversed Stanley said as he remained quiet waiting for his question.
"Ok, which is?" Stan asked uninterested
"They are standing on the ground. They don't bother to get on their feet, nor even try to roll down. They just like to stand there, waiting... watching... Unaware of the real situation they are now involved in, or submissive to accept the worst of the consequences the moment they turn to act..."
"…"
"Every single one of them look to be the same thing. Nothing special, like pawns waiting for the divine's orders. Basically like normal matches would do. Nothing seems to give them the aspiration to raise. Oh wait, what am I saying? It looks like one of them have decided to stand up…"
Reversed Stanley said as he showed to Stan the match he took on thin air.
"As he is standing on feet in the palm of my hand..."
Stan stood there in silence looking at the singular match. Was that really singular? C'mon, it's just another wooden match.
"You see it? Have you noticed it? Stanley, this match is not like the ones from the ground. Instead of letting itself slip, he holds himself firm. Determined and skilled, facing the troubles and misfortunes that are thrown against his will, as well as predominating against the rest of the matches like a great living example. Basically, a match that we can call it out as "someone". Not something normal of course, but rather something big, something truly special from the rest…"
Stan remained silent while he was listening to the creature.
"He continues being what he truly is, he continues defending what he likes and the people that he loves and cares for, as he continues to follow the morals he has austerity formed along the way until, by his own luck, and courage of course, a spark of true will chimes in his own head…"
Sebastian explained as he grabbed the match box, on the part where the box scraper was located, and subsequently scrapped the match head on it, lighting it up with what we would call a lit match.
"He does it. He finally achieves it. He finally finds his own purpose, illuminating himself in the meantime just to finally achieve it. Now, wherever the problems and troubles cause him to lose a brain cell, he's now fully determined to resolve them and protect the people he loves and trusts, like some kind of guardian from the city. Whatever you call it, whatever you see it, you can say that he has found his purpose. Being their so-called "HERO", an unshakable figure under the very first views. One single man versus the little city's sins…"
"What the hell is he telling me?" Stan thought as he continued to listen to him, this time more interested. He didn't know where his counterpart was going with this but he surely managed to catch his attention.
That's the only thing that Stan could think of, as he pretty much couldn't understand much of his counterpart's presentation. He knew this could mean something but, what it could actually mean? As he was trapped in his own thoughts the flame of the match that his counterpart had lit began to consume the wood of the match, slowly but surely, trying to reach his counterpart's glove. Stan was a little nervous by this, his counterpart was gonna burn himself and he seemed to pretty much not care at all.
"Dude, turn that thing off. You're gonna burn your hand…"
Stan warned him but his counterpart turned a deaf ear.
"But of course, he's not exempt from problems. No one in this world is exempt from problems. Even these "heroes", these so-called protectors of their surroundings can't even escape the problems that each living soul experiences once the little light that guides them all starts to burn their own skin..."
Reversed Stanley kept talking.
"Their pressure starts forming inside their own skulls. More obligations entwine with their everyday life, as the pressure to achieve them starts choking them from their throats, not letting them to even think about their primary situation at first…"
His counterpart starts to shake a little.
"But of course, heroes shouldn't be like this. They should be unbreakable, so these "special" people start to cope with those problems, pushing their pressure aside as more problems start forming around them and even in them, all this without changing these obsessive attitudes of great determination and responsibility. Unt-..."
Before Sebastian could finish up, the flame of the match that he was holding finally touched the glove of Reversed Stanley.
"OUH!"
He let the matchstick fall to the ground due to the burning touch of it, as the match still consumed itself on the floor while the other matches circled before her like a madman forming a spectacle while everyone looked at him stunned.
"Oh… man. Guess what Stanley? You get burnt out..."
"Burnt out? But that j-..."
"Shh…"
Reversed Stanley interrupted him as he put one of his fingers in his mouth, warning him to shut up. Stan could feel his finger on his lips, the feeling that it produced was the equivalent of the point of a nail on his soft skin. For some reason, his fingers were really pointy.
"The inner problems that you dared to push down the rabbit hole start to become much stronger and much persistent, draining your strengths as you try not to let the absolute worst of yourself be out of your system, until of course, your inner cell breaks apart, letting it all out like a big splash…"
"…"
"You feel confused... You feel trapped... Then the "special" match realizes that those necessary people that he put heart and soul to protect and care for will not do the same to him, leaving him shortly because of his many changes and too many problems that these "normal" matches are not even able to confront, not even merely for 5 seconds. But you see, it's normal, doesn't it? If the special match was able to help them then sure he is able to help himself as well. It has to be like this. This is how things work around here, doesn't it?"
Sebastian went quickly to wrap up his monologue fast as the lit match was almost close to stop burning itself, letting a faint trail of smoke upwards.
"Well then, following this unfortunate conclusion the match, the so-called "special" match, realizes the terrible truth of his own purpose. The light of hope who one time boosted him up to be something more soon starts consuming him, his strength, his skin, his thoughts. He soon realizes that, no matter how good he can be, no one will be there once he feels trapped on his own bare skin, as everyone will degrade him from his status of a "living example" to a fallen one. He realizes they never needed him. He soon really realizes that these so-called "normal" matches will continue living their own lives without him…"
"…"
"The burned match realizes that… well, he wasted his own goddamn time sacrificing himself for them when he could have just saved himself, as I just said before… These absolute "normal" people would have continued with their daily lives without him. Without noticing their loss. Without feeling the need to help him out as he put his heart and soul into helping them through all those weird circumstances in that crucial moment he broke himself APART!"
He raises up his voice as the burning match finally burns himself completely. Now it's just an amount of black dust and burned wood, standing alone with the rest of the matches visibly the same way as they were before.
"Soon when the special match learns about his abandonment, it's too late for him. He can't stand firm as well as retain himself on the ground, I could even dare to say he doesn't feel like a match anymore. He doesn't feel like is "someone" anymore. Now he's just dust, pure dust. He now feels broken, abandoned, lost, without purpose anymore. No one will help him out as he's just pure dust. And we all know that everybody, EVERYBODY dislikes the dust. Well, it doesn't matter anymore, the match is now just categorized as just that, a lost freaking match..."
Sebastian rubbed the matchstick all over the floor, staining it with black trail as he got his gloves dirty because of the friction.
"The special match, now dejected and abandoned, can only lay defeated on the ground, as he continues to look at the normal matches, noticing that every single one of them continues looking as equal as he was before he lightened himself up. The special match finally realizes that he just wasted his pathetic time. These matches continue to be normal matches because they don't care about anyone except for themselves, something that, in the past, he strongly refused to do and now deeply regrets. He wouldn't have ended in that pathetic pose if he hadn't had the balls to care for them in the first place, the world has just taught him that they will not do the same for him. He should not have cared in the first place. He shouldn't have been the protagonist and example of their daily lives. He should not have cared for their safety. He shouldn't have trusted them the moment he was in danger as well…"
Sebastian finally looked up to face Stan eye to eye. He now had a great sense of fury in his purplish bright eyes.
"He wouldn't be burned out… If he hadn't had the balls to CARE for them in the first place…"
Stan was stunned by this revelation. But the next thing stunned him even more.
"Now this is my question for you Stanley…. Have you felt burnt out lately or do you just feel as lost as this SPECIAL MATCH?"
Stan felt as if he had just swallowed a heavy weight all down his throat, as he couldn't turn his gaze off his counterpart's. They stood there, in complete silence, with Stan in a plain and confused look while his counterpart put a non-friendly smile all over his face, revealing part of his sharp teeth to Stan.
He didn't know what to answer him. Oh dude, what could he tell him?
This stranger appeared out of nowhere in his life, persecuted his best friend and then he locked himself with him in one of his friends' basement, then forced him to start a conversation with him about matches and heroes, all this while an almost human-like scream could be heard inside a large hole in there.
Yeah, he could finally tell that South Park was a really weird town to live in but, honestly…
HOW could he respond to him?
Stan looked at both sides around him, just to see if there was someone else inside there, as his counterpart didn't even hesitate to blink.
Stan then, with a nervous feeling, finally responded to him.
"Uuh… Well… I j-..."
"AAAARGH!" His counterpart suddenly screamed.
"WOAH! What t-...!"
"SLOW PAL! YOU'RE TOO SLOW! C'mon Stanley! You look like you've just seen a ghost. That's not an appropriate way to start a conversation, dogface…"
"What the f*ck? You just sta-...!"
"You know what? Let's light up another match!"
"What? But y-..."
"SHUT UP!" His counterpart quickly shut him out frenetically.
Stan started to get really annoyed with his counterpart's destructive attitude as he just took another match from the ground and tried to lighten it up by, again, rubbing it in the scraper part of the box, only this time, it didn't light up.
"C'mon…"
He tried again, same result.
"C'mon…"
"Dude…" Stan unsuccessfully tried to call him as he tried the same thing again.
Bam! It didn't light up.
"C'mon!"
"Dude, you're doing it w-..."
"SHUT UP! C'MON! UAAAAAAAAAAAA-..."
Reversed Stanley screamed as he started to uncontrollably rub violently the head of the match all over the matchbox, making it even hard to lighten it up properly.
Stan noticed this. He saw him really desperate to light up the match, even though he had lightened it up before he couldn't light it up now. Why does he act like that? What was his real problem?
In the end Sebastian, after so many failed attempts to light up the match, decided to just stop. He gave himself up.
"Come on... WHY DON'T YOU LIGHT UP YOU LITTLE PIECE OF SCRAP!"
"Dude, it's common sense, if you rub the match all over the box like that is not really going to light up. You should know about that…" Stan explained him.
Sebastian looked directly at Stan in an unnerving way as Stan shuts himself up fearless of what he could have potentially made angry. He thought his counterpart would just throw the match at him and subsequently pounce on him. However, the reversed one had other intentions.
"You know what Stanley? I have a better idea…"
He said as he offered the match and the matchbox to Stan.
"What if you lighten up?"
:)
Stan was uncomfortably taking it. The smile that his counterpart gave him didn't inspire much confidence so he was hesitant to grab the match.
"Ehh… No dude… Look, I don't think I w-..."
"Just...
Take…
The damn…
STICK!..."
The insistence his counterpart was putting overcame him as he forced himself to grab the match and the matchbox. Immediately afterwards, he tried to light up the match by rubbing it to the phosphorus surface of the matchbox.
He rubbed it one time.
RASH!
No result.
"It doesn't work…"
"Again…"
"W-...?"
"Again! Try again…" His counterpart obsessively encouraged him to continue.
Stan was now really nervous by this, the irrational insistence of his counterpart on lighting up the match just gave him really bad vibes out of his system as he nervously rubbed the match in the matchbox in an effort to make him shut up.
RASH!
Same result.
"Dude, I already t-..."
"JUST TRY AGAIN DAMMIT! Just try! Try! Try! Try! Try! Try! Try!…"
His counterpart's words never ceased to stop as he rubbed the match so many times in the matchbox in an effort to light up the damn thing. He was getting out of nerves, this situation just distressed him in an obscure way that even he couldn't handle.
He felt trapped, in pure darkness, as if a stupid voice just never stopped to tell him to continue, even if he had drained all the strength in just one single action.
He was getting desperate to light up the match as it was his counterpart who, in an obsessively tense way, shouted to Stan.
"LIGHT IT UP YOU DOGFACE!"
"Dude! I'm telling you that the DAMN MATCH DOESN'T WAN-...!"
BAM!
...
Bingo... The match finally lighted up itself, thanks to Stan's constant effort of rub and repeat, which paid off well as he could watch the tiny but predominant latent flame resting on a stick held by his two fingers.
"Light…"
"Up…" His counterpart finished up the phrase for him.
The duo stared at the match, only with Sebastian approaching more closely to it, as he looked fascinated at the undulating movements produced by the little flame with his big purplish looking eyes. He couldn't stop staring at it, he couldn't stop feeling it.
"You see pal? It worked…"
"Yeah…"
Stan said as he looked at his counterpart, who was now starting to talk to him again.
"It is cool, doesn't it? It is… so easy for you, doesn't it?"
"What are you talking about?" Stan asked him confused
"It always works for me the first time. After that, it just doesn't work anymore. Everything is just so difficult for me the second time I try to make things on my own. I just keep failing and failing and failing, I'm just good at making it just the first time..."
Stan remained quiet while his counterpart continued.
"But for you... Something works really different from you. You start struggling. You start with all the circumstances turning up against you, and still, you manage to triumph against everything and with everyone. For some random way of destiny, you manage to stay in the light of days…"
"…"
"That isn't fair... That isn't fair Stanley. Why can't I see the light as well? I have to seek appeasement in the darkness since the light is a wonder I'm not really familiar with…"
"What the…" Stan tried to say but his counterpart continued.
"Maybe it's because I haven't moved from here. Maybe it's just my true nature. Well, whatever the case is… I don't feel too good to be honest. I think something is wrong with me. I feel like a piece of me is missing. But well, I guess I shouldn't be reminding you about all this. You already know more than anyone how this torment f*cking feels, right big champ?"
"Dude, what the f*ck are you imp-..."
Before Stan could make him talk more, Sebastian, with his two fingers, turned the light of the match off, staring now face to face with Stan again.
"Implying? HAHA!... I think that what I'm implying here is that you should stay in the darkness as well. That's my invitation, take it or leave it..."
Stan was now getting pretty annoyed with his counterpart. All his nonsense words and his weird attitude was just getting the best from him, like a difficult math quiz. What was all this lock up about? He was gonna kill him or he was just gonna tell him more nonsense words.
Man, if this was his experience with his counterpart, then he couldn't imagine his friends' meetings as well.
Oh wait, his friends...
"Dammit!"
He couldn't waste much more time with this.
"(*Sigh), Listen…Uhh, d-..."
"Stanley..." His counterpart said
"Huh, what?"
"You already heard him. My name is Stanley Marsh, of course…"
"This f*cking dude..." He thought to himself as he was about to lose his nerves with him. However, he remained still.
"Yes… Stanley... Eeh… I don't know what's... Well... the meaning of... everything that you have just said. I honestly don't know… well… what you're referring to with all this match thing. I…"
As he continued laughing his counterpart started to take a big set of laughs, making Stan stop his talk as he heard his counterpart's mocky laughs.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!….HA…. Oh man, you'll eventually know what I'm referring to when you start feeling like your life is full of sh*t again. I bet every screwdriver that I have that you'll eventually know what I'm referring to,... Raven."
Stan was about to speak before he shouted his mouth up.
"Raven…"
That name, Raven. It couldn't be.
Of course he knew that name too well. It was the nickname he used that time he became goth years ago before this weird chat.
Yeah, those were really embarrassing times for him. He still remembered them deep down his core.
But let's not make a flashback now, Stan was remaining in complete shocking silence as that name resonated all over his system.
"Raven... Why does he know it? Why does he know that name?" He thought to himself.
That's what Stan's head was processing in that short amount of time.
He never knew him. He never saw him before, yet still, he knew that name.
It couldn't be. It can't be.
Right before his counterpart could say something else, he wanted to know how he knew that name.
"So well let' s j-..."
"Hold it right there!" Stan exclaimed.
"UGH! Stanley! Please... Let's not start another discussion of these. It's from a really bad education to interrupt someone who's talking. You already know that, dummy..."
"Interrupt? You've been interrupting me all this damn time!"
"Oh I did? HAHA! Well, I guess I can't notice it. So well let' s j-..."
"No! I haven't finished yet, how do you know that?"
"Huh?"
"That name, Raven. Why have you called me like that? How do you know I was called like THAT before? Dude! I don't know you! How do you know that I was called RAVEN before?"
Sebastian kept himself quiet as he stared at Stan, who was already pretty disturbed by this while waiting for a logical answer. Much for his demise, he was responded with another creepy laugh, as his counterpart changed his eye color to a red blood one just to intimidate him more.
"JIJIJIJIJI! Oh Stanley…. Do you really think I would forget that day you decided to become a sad, lonely goth just to appease your little broken heart?"
"Wh ...What?" He mumbled but his counterpart continued.
"Oh, you really thought I wouldn't find out about that? Heh, how convenient... What about that day you decided to land in San Diego just to strip out of your clothes and dance like a f*cking moron, you forget about that either?"
"Y….You….You see th-...?" Stan mumbled incredulous as his counterpart continued.
"I still have more, dogface. Remember that day you and your group of morons decided to send a whole ass whale to the moon; Remember that day you were expelled from your home after you refused to vote between a giant douche and a turd sandwich; Let's raise things up, what about that day the jewish idiot of your friend thought it was a great idea to turn the bowling ball of your fat friend into a freckled kid, all this so later that same bowling ass kid created a sect in order to kill those ones who didn't have freckles like you; Oh man! Don't even get me started when you boys and girls decided to go on a war against each other just because of a sexual misconception and an anonymous message send for everyone, by anyone. JIJI! Oh man, you guys should have really saw your own faces, that was just ridiculous nonsense fighting at full view! But well, are not all wars unnecessary anyways? HAHA!..."
As Sebastian kept talking about past actions and facts, Stan disconnected from the wordiness of his counterpart as he tried to process all his damn words.
His counterpart, no, that creature knew almost everything that he has been going through all this years. His adventures, his stumbles. That guy knew almost everything in his life, with no reason at all. He wasn't even present in those events, at least he never saw this kid anywhere in his life, not in his school, not even in his town.
No, it couldn't be. He was sure he wasn't there when those events unfold.
Heck, even if he hadn't seen him before, maybe someone else would have noticed his whereabouts. South Park wasn't that of a big town and almost everyone knew each other, sufficient enough to see almost every kid in any of the birthday parties he has been invited to on every occasion he had.
But he was sure, ABSOLUTELY sure to never saw THIS guy in any of those parties. And yet there he was, recapping almost everything that he had done in his life so far, like a sentient book of memories.
A big book of memories.
A deep reminder of bad thoughts.
Stan was too afraid of this, but soon this fear would become a sudden paranoia attack after his counterpart brought up some words he would not react too well.
"What about that day they show you how broken you really are…"
"Shut up..." Stan demanded him.
"Heh... What about that day you… Hehe… You were abandoned by those so called "friends" of yours... While you were getting drowned by your own pile of sh-..."
"SHUT UP!"
Stan screamed at full lung as his counterpart stopped with all his intentions to do so.
"Stanl-..." Before Sebastian could call him he was now interrupted by Stan this time around.
"NO! SHUT UP! Just f*cking shut up! You've talked too much! Now let me ask you this, HOW DO YOU KNOW ALL THAT!?"
"…"
Now his counterpart was the one remaining silent.
"HOW DO YOU KNOW ALL THOSE THINGS!? I now can be really far from my real home but I can assure you I haven't seen you anywhere in ANY when all those events unfold! Just HOW DO YOU KNOW ALL THAT!? Even the… crap thing..."
"…"
"DUDE! JUST F*CKING TELL ME! HOW DO YOU KNOW ALL THAT!?"
"Hehe... JIJIJIJIJI... Stanley... don't you see it? It explains itself…" Sebastian said as he formed a grimace on his face.
"Dude... I don't… even… KNOW YOU!?"
At this point, Stan was starting to believe this was just an elaborate prank of Kyle's. Heck, he was just begging to be like that. He couldn't imagine another person that knew too much of his life that it weren't his parents or his super best friend.
It just couldn't be.
However, and as much to his little demise, Stan's level of insecurity rose dramatically as his counterpart responded to him with an abnormally chillin voice taken from someone with a not so trustworthy smile all over his face.
His gaze could let him tell everything he needed to know.
"Because… I am Stanley...
Stanley…
Randall…
MARSH!"
:)
"No..." Stan shook his head.
"Yes. Of course I am. C'mon pal, You have already heard him... My Kyle of course! My super best friend of course!"
"No… It can't be. I don't... (*Sigh)... I don't believe you..."
As much as he wanted to control the conversation, his counterpart just got him from the tongue, as he didn't hesitate to say all the things he was prepared to say to Stan.
"Yes, Stanley. I'm you... And fear me or not, but I know everything about you. Almost everything, maybe some hidden details, maybe some plot twists, but sufficient enough to know you better. I've been watching you from quite a long time through the face of the shadows…"
Stan couldn't take his gaze out of him. He could feel his throat close slowly as he felt a slight pain forming on his head.
"You can now call me all everything you want but…"
"You're a freak..." He spouted him immediately but Sebastian ignored him.
"But I couldn't resist myself, you know that? When my Kyle told me that, in here, in the vastest point in all over the edge of the universe, there was a little human child that looked exactly like me, oh boy, I couldn't believe him. Not at all, not until I could see it with my own empty eyes…"
Stan's body started slowly to shake in a nervously manner as his throat shrinked a little bit more until he could feel his short of breath.
"And when I managed to get here, in this pathetic bowling rock you guys desire to call it home, and see you for the first time in... I don't know for how long, I just couldn't believe it…"
Stan remained quiet again.
"…"
"I just couldn't believe... How weak, and pathetic you became and have become. In and out. From outside and from the inside. It was just a pure circus where your principal attraction was just eating pure dust alongside the rest…"
"That's not true…" Stan told him
"OH IT ISN'T!?"
His counterpart suddenly shouted as he approached Stan more, this time in a menacing way without hitting his face with him. He wanted to make sure who was the one in control of the conversation here.
"Stanley, I'm telling you that I'm you, and I know EVERYTHING about you. And I can tell you so many incredible things about you. You know? About us! Hehe...Here, listen. I know for a fact that you're broken... trapped... abandoned... lost... without a single bit of hope running through your own blood while you have to get stuck in this random game of "Hey dudes! Let's see how far our little town can go!", with you and all those stupid pine heads you had the desire to call "friends". That's kinda pathetic, if you let me have a second word…"
"No, stop…" Stan begged him, but he continued anyway.
"But that routine is going to stop tonight. We can change everything that has been established for our and your own interests. This IS my interest. Now I can make you something better, something new, something great, something more worth it. I'll fix you... Dammit! WE will fix all of you! As my Kyle is doing to your Kyle, as my friends are doing to your "friends" at this moment. So now you can just stop being a pussy and accept your fate already or better, strip from all you've been built, and rejuvenate into something… No… SOMEONE more worth it to be remembered. Someone more willing to impose some changes in order to ease his own pain…"
"Dude, no…" Stan begged him one last time before he could finish up his offering.
"C'mon Stanley, encourage yourself! Stop embracing the silence as your own defense and let me invite you to give these stupid ass people a taste of our own medicine! HAHA! So tell me Stanley...
Wanna find remedy to your long overdue pressure? Or you wanna reduce yourself as a wimp for the rest of your SH*TTY life?"
Sebastian finished up as he gave his hand to Stan as a sign of alliance, smacking his lips in pure satisfaction as he gave to his South Park counterpart a cold red stare, waiting for a response.
Well, a response couldn't be made if his counterpart was sure about it, and Stan was more confused than sure. This guy went from being just a freak to a real danger in his life, and he didn't know what to say after knowing that this guy has been spying on him for a long time, just God only knew for how long he was.
He didn't know what to say, neither he couldn't know what action he should take, but his instinct really told him to leave that place as soon as possible, as he could only look at his counterpart's hand waiting for his handshake.
He said he wanted to fix him and his friends...
He said he wanted to make him something new, someone big...
He and his friends...
His friends...
Oh no...
His friends!
Whatever this guy was saying about fixing things, either making things better, knowing all the bad vibes that Kyle's counterpart brought during his retention on Cartman's treehouse and the hostility that his partners engaged with him and his group of friends were sufficient proof to make him disagree with their counterparts' true intentions, as he was now more worried about his friends' lives than anything else.
He wasn't gonna let him change himself. He needed to save his friends from the hands of these maniacs.
So, as his counterpart was treating him with a cold stare, he did the same, raising up his head and looking at him directly, with a serious and confronting gaze against his counterpart's.
"I think I know what I'm gonna choose…"
"OH GREAT! Cool Stanley! REALLY REALLY COOL! So what are you gonna choose? I'm sure joining me would be a great option silly, HAHA!"
"I'm... choosing... to call the police…" Stan sincerely responded him
"Awww… WHAT!? But Stanley, we were having so much fun…"
"Maybe you don't know, but these stupid ass people don't really take kindly to stalkers roaming through our streets, especially those ones who like to spy the daily lives of others. When the police finds out about this, you and your friends will be in a really sl-..."
"HA! Slippy it up you say! Well…"
Reversed Stanley interrupted him as he grabbed Stan's phone out of his pocket and handed it over to him.
"Call them..."
"Wait, you want me to call to t-..."
"Yeah! The police. Call them…"
Stan was really suspicious of this. Still, having a mobile phone could be a perfect way to call from help, so he, not so convinced, took his phone out of his counterpart's hands and called 911.
"…"
"Jiji…"
"What's so funny?" He asked his counterpart.
"You'll see Stanley, you'll see…"
As his counterpart remained silent the operator was already on the other line.
"911, what's your emergency?"
"Um… Hello? Yes… I'm like, trapped in a basement and… well… I can't g-..." Stan said while looking at his counterpart. However, he wasn't prepared for what was coming for him.
"I'm sorry for interrupting your problems sir, but sadly we can't start operating our system with that Smelly Two Feet Weeder roaming freely in our territory…"
Stan remained frozen in his position as he heard those words.
"What?"
"HAHA!" His counterpart laughed.
"You see... There have been several robberies on weed farms around the whole state of Colorado and it is our responsibility to keep our weed farms in safe conditions amongst everything else, especially from this so called Smelly Two Feet Weeder on the loose…"
"You've got to be kidding me…"
Stan said disappointed as his counterpart started to laugh uncontrollably.
"Thanks to the great investment of Randy Marsh, formerly owner of Tegridy Farms, this phone call will only now serve as an emergency call in case you've found abnormalities in your weed crops which can lead to the capture of Smelly Two Feet Weeder once and for all. For more information, visit Tegridy Farms for a more constructive argument while you enjoy yourself with a little bit of w-..."
Stan hung up, not wanting to hear that operator again. Now he knew it was useless to call 911, not after the stupid investment his dad had made with the emergency number.
"Great, this is just f*cking great! My father has really gone too far with this stupid Smelly Two Feet Weeder drama! Ugh.."
"HAHA! Oh man! You don't have any idea. Well, I guess someone needed to push the little plantation in a sudden disappearance so every single adult in your town could only focus on that problem, and not this, dummy…"
"What are you insinuating?"
"Jiji…"
Stan stared at his counterpart for a few seconds until a sudden thought appeared in his head.
"No…"
"Yeah..."
"No..."
"Yeeeeaaaahh..."
"No, you didn't..."
Stan couldn't believe it.
"Well, It's just like I said Stanley. With Smelly Two Feet Weeder on the loose, pretty much everyone else will be more occupied with that, rather than this…"
"You… My father's pl-..."
"Of course, Stanley, of course! It took me several weeks to get to know your state better, and take away small parts of the weed crops from pretty well known farms just to form a scandal around your home territory. But eventually I succeeded…" Sebastian maliciously explained to him.
"You're the one who stole a part of my dad's Tegridy plantation! YOU'RE SMELLY TWO FEET WEEDER!" Stan exclaimed, surprised.
"Yeah, now you finally comprehend the real degree of your situation. With the whole world being occupied in its stupid little things, now you've a real reason to just freaking fear me. Hehe... Is like I said Stanley. IT'S STILL ME! HAHA!"
:)
"You l-..."
"UUAAAAARghh…"
Before Stan could tell him something else he and his counterpart heard the scream again. This time the scream was louder and more predominant than before, and the two black-haired boys turned their view on the big hole of the basement. Sebastian smiled again.
"Who's inside the hole?" Stan asked him worriedly.
"…"
"Butters?" He tried to guess
"What about this Stanley? What if you discover it yourself?"
Stan got annoyed by the lazy answers his counterpart was giving him, however, he couldn't also ignore the fact that something or someone was mourning inside that hole, so with dedicated movements, he stepped out of the candle circle, carefully without turning off any of them, and moved closely to the hole.
As his counterpart started slowly to get on foot, Stan took a closer look at what could be down the big hole, just to see who was provoking all those mourns. He could hardly distinguish who was down there, since the darkness formed around it made it hard to even properly see anything down there, but he eventually found the source of the screams.
When he found it out, his little heart sank all down his feet when he discovered the person behind those painful moans.
There, deep down the hole, he could see the figure of an elderly woman, in her mid 40s, handcuffed, from hands to feet, moving herself with nervous movements as she was covered in a black disgusting goo all over her body, with her eyes scarcely closed as she couldn't stop puking a little bit of that black substance all over the floor, while shaking uncontrollably near her surroundings.
He immediately recognized her. She was…
Liane Cartman...
Cartman 's own mother.
"Dear… God..."
Stan didn't waste any more time of his life processing what he had just seen as he was definitely sure to leave that basement in search of help, since this was just a clear sign of what these monsters could do and were probably gonna do to him, and Kyle, and the rest.
Much to his demise, he was suddenly stopped when his counterpart pounced on him, knocking him on the ground with him on the top as all the candles from the circle turned off, following his aggressive attack against Stan. He took both of his hands at Stan's neck and started squeezing him in an effort to not let Stan get up from that position.
Stan, caught by surprise because of this, could now only see his counterpart's big purplish eyeballs as he smiled at him menacingly.
"Ugh…Hey!...Ugh… What th-!?" Stan tried to say.
"Oh no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no…
No…
You aren't leaving anywhere..."
:)
Meanwhile…
Kyle and Butters rushed as fast as they could while they entered inside Cartman's house and closed the backyard door fast.
"Kyle, what happened with the rest? Where 's everyone?" Butters asked worried to Kyle.
"I don't know Butters, but that's something that I wanna know too…"
Kyle tried to find some evidence of his friends' locations as Butters kept asking him things.
"Kyle, what was all that about? Who's that guy?"
"No idea Butters, he just started talking nonsense until he and his gang started taking out Stan, Kenny and Cartman out of the treehouse, with only me staying inside there with him…"
"You mean the guy with the knife? Butters guessed
"Yeah... Anyways, why didn't you notice them? We were knocked out by them in the treehouse, and you weren't even there…" Kyle asked him concerned
"Oh! I was trapped in the bathroom, Kyle..."
"Wait what?"
"Yeah! Take a look…"
Butters showed Kyle the bathroom door opened and the chair that blocked it before, which was now scattered on the floor.
"You see, someone put a chair on the door's doorknob and prevented me from opening it from the inside. That's how I got trapped in there in the first place…"
"Mh... They trapped you in there, that's weird. Maybe they didn't want distractions, but anyways, now what we should do is that we should call 911 or Cartman's m-..."
As Kyle was formulating another plan, he suddenly shut his mouth as he heard some weird noises outside the door's basement, triggering the attention of both Kyle and Stan.
"What was that Kyle?!" Butters asked him nervously.
"I don't know Butters, but it doesn't sound good. Let 's go!"
"What!? But…"
Before Butters could have a second word, Kyle already rushed downstairs.
"Oh jeez... I don't like the way that sounds…"
Butters sighed as he went to follow him, but before doing that he saw a baseball bat scattered around the floor near the living room. He didn't know what was doing that thing down there, but he still took it confused.
"Huh? What's this?" He asked curious
"Butters! C'mon! I can hear Stan down here…"
"I'm going, I'm going! Jeez…"
Returning back to Stan…
Stan struggled on his breath as he tried his best to get rid of his counterpart, who now was on top of him, squeezing his neck, choking him in the process. Stan tried to remove the hands from his counterpart as he in vain kicked him in his legs and abdomen, but that almost didn't produce any effect to his opponent as he still didn't quit that little smile out of his face while his devilish purplish eyes never turned out of Stan's ones.
"What's this Stanley? Are you missing some breath?"
"Grh… Gr... S… Stop… it…" Stan desperately tried to say.
"Heh... I thought better from you…"
Stan still struggled the best that he could. As he was about to faint he was getting short of breath.
"You know what Stanley? It's really funny seeing you struggle like this. You have burned yourself so much with the circumstances of your daily life that you have forgotten to prepare yourself for the struggles from the outside. You cared so much, and that has made you weak…"
"I…. c…. c… c-can't…"
"But don't you worry pal, don't you worry. Soon all that will not matter. Your good deeds are not gonna save you from this one this time around…"
"B… B… Breath-e…"
Stan was beginning to lose strengths. His throat began to close down as the hands of his counterpart didn't stop choking him more and more and more. He was almost going to lose his eyesight out of this.
"L… L… Let… L-Let me go!"
"So now you can cry, get mad, get furious, scream, and drown yourself in all the existential crisis you managed to get yourself into. Because you know what they say Stanley, whatever can't be fixed, must be replaced. And I'll make that change for you…"
"D… D… Pl… Pleas…"
"So rest assured Stanley, rest forever if you want. But I'm warning ya, the moment you find yourself, wandering alone in the never ending pit of complete darkness and crap…"
Stan couldn't take it anymore. He was now definitely running out of air.
"H… Help… H…"
It was at this moment when his counterpart, demonstrating the being he really was, stuck out of his mouth some sort of mandible tongue, with sharp teeth on the tip, very Alien-esque, pointing directly at Stan's head.
Stan looked in terror at this. This guy was definitely non-human. He was about to perish while his counterpart, in a chilling maniac voice, opened wide his mouth and teeth, telling him a phrase he would never be able to forget that easily:
"You'll be broken... Permanently…"
:)
But just before Stan could be choked even more, a big slam of a door was heard through the basement, revealing to be Kyle and Butters, who definitely entered down there the moment they heard the screams.
They entered just in time to witness how Stan's counterpart was hurting their friend.
"(*Gasp), Oh Jesus!" Butters exclaimed horrified
"Stan!" Kyle called him worried too.
Stan's counterpart noticed them in the stairs.
"Oh C'MON pals! It's not from a really good education to o-..."
Before Stan's counterpart could do more damage, Kyle immediately grabbed the baseball bat from Butters' hands and with it striked against Reversed Stanley, hitting him right in the face, especially in his left eye.
"OUCH! Why you litt-…"
Before he could even finish his sentence Stan took advantage of his distraction and kicked him forcefully right on his right leg, engaging against him the sufficient strength to drive him right next to the big hole from the basement.
"NO WAIT, NO-AAAAAAAHHHH!"
Sebastian screamed as he fell right down the hole.
Kyle and Butters took the right opportunity to pick up Stan, who was really exhausted physically and mentally after being choked almost to death, and they got him out of there as soon as possible.
"Stan! Stan… Are you okay? Are you…?" Kyle desperately tried to call his friend, worried for him to not wake up.
Fortunatelly...
"(*Cough), (*cough), (*cough)!"
His super best friend started coughing frenetically. He was trying to catch some air again.
"Wow, wow! Easy!... Easy dude. Ok, you can now breathe…"
"(*Cough), Oh God…" Stan exclaimed shockingly.
"Oh my fellas! Now what?"
"Simply Butters... Let's get the hell out of this house NOW! Here! Help me carry Stan safely…" Kyle ordered the blond.
"Oh boy, this worse than a horror film…"
Kyle and Butters helped Stan to get out of the basement as soon as possible, with the three managing to leave the house safely far from those monsters.
However, that didn't make Sebastian fall so easily, as he managed to hold himself with both hands in one of the ledges of the holes without quitting that smirk out of his face.
"HAHA! They thought I could be taken down so easily. Oh boy, knowing that this task is now going to be harder than I thought…
It fuels me…
With a lot…
OF COURAGE..."
:)
Outside…
Kyle, Stan and Butters found themselves out of Cartman's house, oblivious about where to go next.
"Dude, what do we do? I'm refusing to enter Cartman's home in a lifetime…" Kyle asked to his best friend Stan
"I don't know dude, but one thing is for sure, these people want us dead…"
"I know, I know…" Kyle tiringly agreed
"Oh Jesus Oh Jesus Oh JESUS! What do we do fellas? I don't wanna die tonight. I just wanted to be at a slumber party again!" Butters exclaimed panicked
"Calm down Butters! We still have to know where Kenny and Cartman could b-..."
"COME BACK HERE! YOU F*CKING RASCALS!" The screams from Elik could be heard even outside the house, warning them that he was awake again.
"Oh jeez! What about if we take care of ourselves first! I'M OUTTA HERE!"
Butters exclaimed as he left the street.
"Butters! Wait! Goddammit, c'mon dude! Let's follow him. The more we are far from these so-called shadow people the better…"
Stan, still with his throat weak, nodded him back and both of them managed to leave the scene just before Elik and Sebastian were outside as well.
"F*CK! F*CK! F*CK DAMMIT! (*Sigh), those idiots have just escaped…" Elik said angrily.
"Wow... They seem to be more versatile than we first thought…" Sebastian said.
"Grr... Weren't YOU supposed to take care of the blond?" Elik asked him angrily.
"Yes we did!"
"Alright then... HOW did he manage to escape from the bathroom? HUH!? TELL ME!"
"I don't know, sir. It's like I just said a second ago, they are REALLY versatile…" Sebastian told him as he put another grimace in his face.
"Grrr... For the glory of the watchers from Reverse Town, you have at least taken care of the idiot from the stretched red pompom? Right?"
"…"
"RIGHT?"
"..."
Sebastian shook his head as a negative sign for Elik's question.
"Grrrr... You stupid son of a labrat, go now! Go after them..." Elik ordered him
"Yes sir!" Sebastian exclaimed
"And remember, remember this well. Do what you want with the other two. But Kyle… Oh boy... I want him alive…"
"Yes sir. Whatever you say, sir. Hehe... Oh man, knowing that another persecution would be held during this night, really fuels me with a lot of courage…"
Sebastian said to himself as he didn't waste any more time of his life going after Kyle, Stan and Butters, running as fast as he could.
Meanwhile, Elik took a strange device, similar to a walkie-talkie while saying to himself:
"Great... This is just f*cking great... (*Sigh) I guess I will make the call for the safety plan..."
Elik also left the scene, without anyone noticing he was there while leaving Cartman's door wide open.
Now things just got really interesting that night. Kyle and Stan managed to escape from their counterparts after some great interruptions by destiny, but they weren't victorious yet. They needed to be together in order to overcome them and then, think on what to do next.
But while Kyle, Stan and Butters were escaping from their monstrous counterparts,
What were Kenny and Cartman doing during those precious moments of unknown dread?
"HAHA!"
:)
