Authors Note: Hello, thank you for checking out my first ever FanFic! This is a Cartman/Wendy romance story with dramatic/slight horror elements. Fair warning, some of the later chapters contain dark subject matter. If you enjoy it, I would greatly appreciate any ratings or reviews!
Lightning danced across the sky. Torrential rain drummed a steady beat on the roof. Thunder roared so loudly that the house itself shook, as if in fear. However, this was not the chief concern in the mind of Eric Cartman, who was far more disturbed by the noises inside his house. Cartman had known of his mother's nightly "visitors" for many years now, but this was far more aggressive sounding than usual. "If that bitch gets hurt, it's her own damn fault," He thought to himself, but this attitude was quickly abandoned when he heard a blood-curdling scream outside his door.
Cartman raced into the hallway, his heart beating furiously in his ears. His mom was nowhere to be seen. As he turned his head toward the stairs, he noticed a dark streak of red leading down the steps. The smell was overwhelming, as though he was breathing in the stench of death itself. He dared not speak as he steadily made his way down the steps, noting torn strips of clothing and frayed strands of auburn hair. The journey seemed like it took hours, but he inevitably found his way into the living room. The wretched scent was far stronger here, and he felt as though he would vomit at any moment. From a dark corner of the room came a desperate whisper:
"W-why d-didn't y-you s-save m-meee…"
Cartman's blood ran ice cold. He turned his head toward the shadowy corner, the whispering devolving into maddening murmurs. The boy couldn't understand a word of it, but it filled him with dread all the same.
"M-Mom?" he called out, trying his hardest to keep some semblance of composure. As he cautiously approached the voice, he saw his mother. Well, it seemed to be just his mother at first blush, but as he drew closer, he noticed that she was not alone. She lay sprawled across the ground, countless grievous wounds inflicted upon her body. He could barely recognize her. Above her hulked a shadow that belonged to no human.
The… thing that stood over her elicited a primal fear from Cartman. He tried to run, but found himself unable to move, as if he had been frozen in place. Its shape was hard to discern in the shadows, but it appeared to have three ghastly, rotten, canine-like heads. The foul smell it emitted was so powerful that Cartman could barely breathe. The eyes of the creature were glassy and seemed detached from the horrors it had committed. Its body was nothing more than a writing mass of viscera, with only the vaguest suggestions of limbs hanging weakly from its form. "Let m-my mother g-go," he stammered, but the beast paid him no mind. He had no choice but to watch as the beast took his mother's head into its jaws and stared at him emotionlessly.
"Please!" he cried, tears beginning to streak down his face. Fear filled his body as the other heads of the beast slowly rose to meet his own.
"Her death is your fault," The words dripped from the thing's drooling teeth. "She begged for salvation, and you turned her away, in your arrogance and selfishness." The heads then returned to his mother's limp body and continued to gnaw at it steadily.
"I tried!" Cartman screamed, "There was nothing I could do!" The mouth that held his mother's head in its jaws craned its neck up, then chomped down with a sickening *CRUNCH*, deaf to the boy's constant pleas. The brutal crunch was so loud that Cartman awakened from his gruesome nightmare.
Cartman shot up from his bed, coated in a glossy sheen of sweat. His heart was still racing at incredible speeds. "Fucking nightmares," He whispered harshly to himself. In the waking world the storm no longer raged, snow rested gently upon the ground outside, and the house seemed totally still. Unfortunately, the boy found it impossible to return to sleep. Cartman had been suffering from nightmares since he was in elementary school, but now as a teenager they seemed far more vivid and disturbing. He pulled out his phone and checked the time: "2:35, Shit." He thought to himself. His first instinct was to go the basement and lift weights, but he dared not leave his room after the horrifying experience in his dreams.
Cartman strongly considered texting one of his friends. Unfortunately, only Kenny was aware of his nightmares, and the boy's phone had been destroyed last week after he'd been struck by a bus. Kyle and Stan could never know, he didn't want them to think he was some kind of pussy. His finger briefly paused over a name in his contacts: "Wendy Testaburger". He read the name with some caution in his voice. Cartman had harbored a crush on her for the last several years but would never dream of admitting it. Ironic, considering she appeared in quite a few of his dreams, and those were the only places where he did admit it. "Fuck it," He breathed, settling on playing video games to pass the time.
The hours passed steadily as Cartman switched between several games. His selection ranged from "Dark Souls" to "Doom", anything that allowed him to kill the monsters that had haunted his dreams. When 6:30 finally rolled around, Cartman had never been happier to see the sun in his life. He glanced at himself in the mirror. "Man, I look like shit," He said to himself, looking back through his bloodshot eyes. As he stumbled into the hallway, last night's terrors compelled him to check his mother's room and make sure she was okay. He lightly cracked her door and peered inside. Her male company was long gone, and she laid in her bed surrounded by beer bottles and small traces of a mysterious white powder. He did notice something unusual, though. One of her eyes had been blackened. Cartman wanted desperately to shake her awake and ask what the hell had happened, but he knew that she wasn't going to be waking up any time soon.
Cartman pushed his thoughts to the back of his mind, slowly shuffling his way into the bathroom. Showering seemed to help clear his mind and reduce his stress level, if only by a bit. He then slipped on his well-worn clothes: faded brown khakis, a white shirt with some minor rips, and a red jacket with threads coming loose on the ends. As he walked down the stairs into the living room, the ghastly smell from his dream flashed through his senses briefly. He ate a rather light breakfast, at least by his standards, with a small bowl of cereal. The brief notes of the odor from his dream had quashed his appetite quite effectively. He then slowly made his way to the door. Before exiting, he placed a blue toboggan on his head, slipped on a dull yellow pair of gloves, and braced himself for the brutal cold that awaited outside.
Kenny was already at the bus stop when Cartman trudged his way up beside him. Kyle and Stan no longer rode the bus, as they both drove to school. Kenny still wore a fluffy orange jacket, but no longer concealed his face. Well, if one discounted the shaggy blonde hair that partially covered his eyes, that is.
"Holy shit, Cartman!' Kenny exclaimed, "You look like you got hit by a bus. I should know, I was just hit by one last week, heh." Cartman chuckled.
"You have the shittiest luck I've ever seen." He chided, slapping Kenny on the back.
"I was mostly just pissed that my phone got destroyed," Kenny sighed, "So, why do you look like shit anyway?" He questioned, a hint of sincerity in his voice.
"Another fucking nightmare." Cartman responded, sounding noticeably exhausted.
"What was it about?" Kenny questioned, "If you tell me, I'll tell you about my dream, too." Kenny cocked an eyebrow in Cartman's direction.
Cartman wasn't really interested in listening to his friend's dream, as they were always about sex. Every. Last. One. However, he decided to tell Kenny about his nightmare anyway. He described the dream in impressive detail, as it was still deeply ingrained in his mind. Before Kenny could respond, the bus arrived. The two friends clambered onto the bus and made their way toward the back seats. Across the aisle from them sat Tweek and Craig, as jittery and calm as ever, respectively. Kenny had decided against talking to Cartman about his dream on the bus, as Tweek and Craig's loud discussion made it nearly impossible.
"Aliens are not coming to probe your ass, Tweek," Craig stated simply. Tweek clung tightly onto his arm.
"Y-y-you don't know t-t-that, man!" He exclaimed, "T-t-there's no way to prove they aren't!" Cartman couldn't help but laugh.
"Look man," He remarked to Tweek, "I had it done to me when I was 8 years old. Hell, I figure everyone gets it at least once." That comment sent Tweek into panic mode. Craig glared at Cartman and flipped him the bird.
When the bus finally pulled in front of the school, the students slowly filed their way off and into the building. Kyle and Stan were standing near the entrance and met up with Kenny and Cartman on the way in. Not much had changed about the two since elementary school. Kyle still wore an orange jacket and green hat, though he now sported the slightest hint of a mustache on his face. Stan was noticeably taller than Kyle, had kept his fashion mostly the same, and now bore a short beard. Cartman reflected on his own changes as he looked at the two. He was still quite overweight, but he wore it better due to a pretty substantial growth spurt in middle school. He now stood an impressive 6'5 and had taken to weight lifting to improve himself. This had resulted in him developing massive upper body strength. Whenever Kyle called him "fatass" the temptation stirred in him to shove Kyle into a locker, but he had abstained thus far.
"Sup faggots," Cartman declared. Stan merely rolled his eyes, while Kyle fired back with a "Hi fatass" of his own. Kenny found himself chuckling after seeing his friends back to their old bickering selves, especially after Cartman told him about his horrible nightmares. Since the four shared a first period, they walked to class together, Cartman and Kyle squabbling the whole way.
"Hey Kenny," Stan interrupted, "You ever get a new phone?"
"Hell no man, I can't afford that shit!" Kenny replied.
"You could probably afford it if you didn't spend all your money on trading cards and porn." Stan quipped. Kenny simply shrugged, silently acknowledging that Stan was absolutely correct. Eventually the four arrived at their first class, History. Cartman loved this class, though it had nothing to do with the educational value. Wendy was in this class, and he loved nothing more than teasing her at every opportunity.
"Cartman," Kyle stated, glaring at him, "Keep picking on Wendy and Stan's gonna beat your ass for it". Cartman merely grinned. He was aware that Stan and Wendy had been dating for some time, but Stan wasn't exactly the type to strike fear in someone's heart. He quickly plopped down in the seat behind her. Kenny walked up to him and whispered something in his ear that could possibly be considered romantic advice, though Cartman would have preferred something that wouldn't land him in jail.
Cartman set about picking on her as usual, employing his standard array of light insults and jabs. However, the reaction that he typically elicited was nowhere to be found. Wendy wore a sullen expression on her face and spoke very little. Stan tried to talk to her, but her responses failed to reveal much. As the teacher droned on at the front of the room, Wendy quietly sat there and stared out the window at the lightly falling snow. Cartman was not pleased by this, and decided to make it his mission to find out what was wrong. He told himself that he only cared about it so he could keep picking on her, but deep down the reason was much more personal. He couldn't help but think about the pain in his mother's voice during his nightmare, and he hated the thought of someone else going through that kind of turmoil.