Kyle stared down at the book in his lap, not really seeing any of the words. He was at Wendy's house again, her parents thankfully absent from the house, at the second part of that work event; it was the last one until next month so they needed to get as much done as possible tonight. Wendy sat on the floor across from him, absorbed in her own book, even typing notes into her tablet. He was sure if he wasn't there, she probably would have used the voice to text feature as she found things she felt she should highlight. She had been concentrating her area of study on R'lyeh, citing women's intuition.

Kyle sighed lowly, the words just blurs, his mind refusing to retain any of what he was seeing. He kept hearing Stan's strained voice from that morning repeating what Kenny had said about his late brother and sister. He remembered what Cartman had said about Kenny dying over and over to try to find his family and being unsuccessful in doing so. Wendy glanced up from her book.

"Everything okay?" she asked curiously. He had sighed quietly a few times and she suspected he was trying to work up the nerve to tell her something.

He looked up from his book and scratched the back of his neck, debating whether he should clue her in on what he knew or keep it to himself. He still didn't feel entirely comfortable sharing it, but he had already told her about Kenny's deaths and she was willing to help him research this. It was only fair of him to divulge what he knew. He sighed again, raking a hand through his hair. "Yeah, but there's something you should know."

"Oh?" Wendy asked, setting her book aside and leaning forward, elbows on her knees, hands on her cheeks as she waited for him to explain further.

"Uh, so Cartman knows about Kenny, too." She only looked surprised for a brief moment before nodding, encouraging him to continue. He swallowed. "He said before that the reason Kenny is always dying is that he's trying to find his family in the afterlife."

"Okay," Wendy mumbled, brows furrowing in confusion. "Does he see them?" Kyle shook his head slowly confirming what Wendy had suspected. The frown remained. "Aren't there other ways to die besides starving?"

Kyle nodded. "Yeah, that's what I thought, too." He shifted because now he was really feeling discomfort at what he planned to say next, afraid he was betraying Stan's confidence. To his ex-girlfriend, no less. Granted, he knew they were still friends but the thought of betraying his best friend made him hesitant. Wendy noticed his discomfort immediately.

"What is it, Kyle?" she asked, her hands falling away from her face and her back straightening at how conflicted her friend looked.

He bit his lower lip, still unsure before sighing again. "It's just this next part involves Stan."

"Okay. So?"

"I just know you guys dated and don't want to….." he trailed off, scratching the back of his neck again.

Wendy cocked her head. "That was, like, forever ago and Stan and I are friends."

Kyle nodded, exhaling deeply, he knew this, of course. It still didn't make the next words he said any easier. "He just- he was, he spent the night last night…" he trailed off again and a ghost of a smile passed over Wendy's face as she realized why he was beating around the bush.

"I know he's into Kenny if that's what you're worried about."

Kyle didn't hide his surprise. "What?"

Wendy grinned. "Yeah, it's kind of obvious. You know Stan and I still talk when we see each other at school. I've heard him talk about Kenny; he might not realize it, but he lights right up."

Kyle quirked his head to the side. "That's what I told him," he said slowly, feeling relief that Wendy was perceptive enough to have already picked up on this.

"Now that we have that out of the way, keep going," she encouraged.

"So, he spent the night at Cartman and Kenny's last night," he explained noting the way she scrunched her nose up at the mention of Cartman again. "I guess he went there to play video games or something. Anyway, with the weather, he somehow was able to stay over."

Wendy blinked, waiting for more. She was positive this would eventually loop back to Kenny and Cthulhu and that sent a shiver down her spine. "Okay, so what happened?"

"Well," Kyle scratched at his chin this time, recalling what all his best friend had told him that morning. "Cartman was super, bizarrely nice according to Stan. And Kenny…. He kissed him." Kyle kept his eyes on Wendy, gauging for a reaction. She didn't even blink and waited for him to keep going. "But he said that Kenny kind of freaked out during the kiss…" he trailed off again.

Wendy smiled mischievously, a twinkle in her eyes. "Okay, Stan is not a bad kisser, I should know. So why did Kenny freak out?"

Another low sigh from Kyle and he was starting to realize why Stan had so much trouble talking about it in the morning; it really was hard to put words out into the reality that you didn't believe or want to be true. "Kenny freaked out because he thought since his brother and sister can't kiss, he shouldn't be allowed to, either."

"What?!" Wendy exclaimed in horror. "That's terrible."

"It gets worse," he warned her.

"How can you get much worse than that?"

Kyle smiled sadly before his mouth turned into a thin line. "It's also why he doesn't eat, because they can't eat and, apparently, the reason he had been sleeping outside or on the floor instead of in a bed."

Wendy's eyes were getting wider with each sentence Kyle spoke. "Wait, he does all this because he doesn't think he should because Karen and Kevin can't?"

Kyle shrugged. "Kind of. It also kind of sounds like he thinks Karen and Kevin think he doesn't deserve any of it because they can't." Kyle waited for a beat before dropping the bomb, "He thinks their spirits are encouraging their old friends to hurt him and act the way they do since he came back."

Wendy's eyes couldn't be any wider if she tried to make them. "Oh my god, Kyle. That's all awful. Has he seen a therapist for any of this?" It was the first thing she could think of and then shook her head. "Sorry, I just, he, uh…" She tried to imagine how a therapy session might go with Kenny.

"He needs help," Kyle summed up dryly.

Wendy nodded. "Well, yeah, I mean that's a lot. That's just terrible," she got out through her horror. Once clear thoughts started forming in her mind again, she thought of something. "Do you think it's true?" she asked.

Kyle looked down at the books scattered around them. "I don't know, Wendy. I don't know. I mean, I wouldn't think they could possibly think any of that, but I wouldn't have believed any of this Cthulhu stuff a month ago, either. So I guess it's a possibility."

"An awful one," Wendy was quick to point out. Kyle quickly nodded in agreement. There was no denying that.

"Do you think it could be true?" he asked. Wendy let out a hum and picked up the book she had been reading, flipping through some pages, and frowning thoughtfully. "Wendy?"

"There's something I'm thinking that could….I mean, it might be kind of far-fetched but there is something I'm wondering about."

"Care to share?"

"R'lyeh. That's where Cthulhu sleeps, right?" She already knew but wanted to make sure he was following her.

"Yeah, in chains. Dreaming, if I understand it right." It was confusing, Kyle was beginning to doubt they could ever truly grasp what was truly meant in the stories unless they met with the author which wasn't possible, being that the author had long since passed on, leaving only his words and stories to remain in the world for others to ponder on, and, in this case, create belief systems around the stories.

"And it's a corpse-city, remember?"

Kyle narrowed his eyes at her. "Where are you going with this?"

"Kenny can't find his family in the afterlife." Wendy gestured to her book about R'lyeh. "Maybe he's looking in the wrong place."

Kyle stared at her for a good two minutes, unsure if he was completely understanding her. "You think that his family is in R'lyeh with Cthulhu?" The stories didn't exactly paint a pretty picture of the place that imprisoned Cthulhu.

"Yeah. I mean, obviously, I could be wrong, but we won't know unless we check it out."

Kyle's eyes went wide as he realized just how serious she was about "checking out" the place. "Wendy, how, we don't even know where R'lyeh is or how to get to it." If it was ever truly real. Despite everything that had happened, Kyle's mind still clung to the notion that there was some logical explanation for everything, including Kenny's strange deaths and rebirths and that logic did not include Cthulhu or R'lyeh.

Wendy grinned and held a finger up in the air. "Actually!" And Kyle found himself listening to her map out various coordinates in the Pacific Ocean at the point furthest from any land and he kept thinking that surely she was going to burst out laughing and say "gotcha" or "just kidding," but she never did and Kyle realized she was dead serious. She wanted to go to this place. She was even talking about getting Token to get his parents to charter a boat for the whole thing. She went on and on as Kyle listened numbly.

Finally, her phone went off with the familiar jingle signifying a text and they both knew her parents were returning shortly. Wendy bid him goodbye, still giddy about her plans to visit R'lyeh in the future and Kyle was starting to doubt his sanity because surely he wasn't actually going to agree to this- but he couldn't let her go alone, either, especially when he was the one who had kind of roped her into all this. Wendy had to actually be insane to want to go to this place. He had been so sure she was sane but she was turning out to be just as crazy as everyone else, maybe even more so. Kyle was lost deep in his thoughts as he started to slowly walk towards his home; he didn't realize someone had been following him until he heard a voice.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Kyle whipped around, panicked at first, but let out a sigh of relief upon seeing who was there. "Cartman?" The other boy came out of the shadows, eyes narrowed at him, expression unreadable. Kyle rolled his eyes. "What the fuck are you doing? Stalking me?"

"Following you, not the same thing."

"Pretty sure it is," Kyle countered before sighing and shaking his head. He really didn't want to fight with Cartman, he was already feeling drained after having to deal with Wendy's bizarre proposal to go and find Kenny's family in R'lyeh, he couldn't even believe they were thinking of that. "What do you want, Cartman? And shouldn't you be babysitting Kenny?" he asked, realizing their friend that was usually attached to his hip was nowhere around.

"Uh, no, Stan is at my house with Kenny and I didn't want to crash their vibe or whatever people say nowadays."

"So, you thought it would be okay to crash mine?" Kyle asked dryly.

Cartman rolled his eyes. "Like you have a vibe. I want to know what you're doing. What are you up to?" He glanced back at Wendy's house. "What were you two doing? It took you forever and you guys didn't even kiss or anything."

"What the fuck, Cartman? Were you, like, peeping through the windows?!"

Cartman shrugged. "I was bored. What were you two doing, though, really? I saw tons of books." He wondered if they were into voodoo. Maybe they'd make a voodoo doll of him. The thought of Wendy with a voodoo doll of him was terrifying. The thought of Kyle with a voodoo doll of him was terrifying. Actually, anybody with a voodoo doll of him would need to be swiftly dealt with, now that he was entertaining the idea. Maybe he should get into voodoo.

Kyle glanced away, continuing his walk home and Cartman fell into pace beside him, waiting for an answer. Kyle started out hesitantly, "We were studying….."

"You have got to find another cover story, Jew, it's just getting pathetic now. We all know you can't use basketball anymore because you got too sick to try out freshman year but really this is pathetic. No one studies 24/7."

"Fine," Kyle said with a sigh. He thought more about giving another excuse, a more viable one, but maybe he was doing this all wrong. Maybe Cartman could actually help; he seemed to think Kenny hung the moon so maybe he would be more willing to help than Kyle was giving him credit for. "We've been studying the cult of Cthulhu."

Cartman came to a halt. Kyle stopped and turned around, waiting for the other to speak. Cartman was stunned. "What do you mean? 'We've?' You and Wendy? And why?"

Kyle frowned. "Why wouldn't we? Don't you want to know a way to get Kenny to stop dying? Or at least better understand how it works?"

Cartman pursed his lips, eyes darting back and forth for a few seconds, thoroughly freaking Kyle out. As if Wendy hadn't gotten him on edge enough now Cartman was just adding to the insanity. Kyle was starting to wonder if he actually needed to get new friends like his mom always said.

Cartman shook his head slowly and his words sounded like he'd actually thought about them instead of just blurting the first thing out that came to his mind. "I don't think that's a good idea, Kahl. That stuff can get…a bit crazy and, uh…" Cartman trailed off, breaking eye contact and biting his lip, unsure how to go on. Kyle's eyes narrowed because this couldn't get any more unlike Cartman than possible.

"Do you…know something you're not telling the rest of us?" he asked. After all, Cartman had known about Kenny's deaths since preschool. What else did he know?

"What else could I know?" Cartman asked innocently. "And what do you mean, 'us?'" he asked, using his index and middle fingers to make air quotation marks. "Just how much does Wendy know? Because last I checked only me and you knew about Kenny."

Kyle shifted uncomfortably under Cartman's scrutiny. He wasn't sure what all he should tell him. Should he tell that Wendy's cousin was like Kenny? Did Cartman already know about her cousin? Had he ever done research on this matter? It kind of sounded like he had. Cartman cleared his throat and Kyle glanced back at Wendy's house. He sighed. "She knows," he admitted. "She knows about Kenny."

Cartman looked surprised for a second before his expression settled into that unreadable one that Kyle had noticed he'd adopted when speaking about Kenny at length. "And how does she know?"

It took everything for Kyle to not flinch. He really didn't want to make the claim that he had dragged her into this even if it was true. "She heard about my outburst at lunch," he half-lied. She had heard about it, granted what she had heard had absolutely little to do with Kenny but there was no need for Cartman to know that.

"And she believes it?"

"Yeah."

"And you're studying about Cthulhu together?"

Kyle cocked his head, looking a little confused. The tone Cartman was using had turned strange, almost otherworldly. He shrugged. "Yeah, what of it?" Cartman didn't respond and instead started to head towards Wendy's house. Kyle dropped his heavy bag and hurried to keep up. "What are you doing?" he demanded.

Cartman still walked on at a brisk pace. "I'm going to tell her that she needs to stop with this. Like I'm telling you now. You both need to stop."

"What? Why?" Kyle asked in mild surprise and insult, who was Cartman to make demands of anyone? "Look, dude, you're not actually in charge of Kenny, I know you seem to think otherwise. If we want to help we can."

Cartman halted suddenly and spun around. "And how is this helping, Kyle?!" he exclaimed and Kyle stared at him in silence for a few seconds, taken aback, surprised at the passion and the clear, correct enunciation of his name. Cartman was really serious. He made to turn back towards Wendy's but Kyle took advantage of the pause and rushed around so he was in front of Cartman.

"Seriously, dude, what's your deal?" he asked, holding his hands out, signaling for his friend to stop.

"You don't even know what you're getting yourself into, Jew! And you're just pulling other people down with you?! I didn't drag any of you into it for years, did I?" When phrased like that Cartman actually seemed like the sane one and that was impossible, Kyle thought as he gaped at the other. No, this couldn't be right. Cartman went on, "I think Wendy needs to know what kind of bullshit you're pulling."

"I'm not pulling any bullshit," Kyle bit out, frustration cutting into his tone. Who the hell did Cartman think he was? And why was he so aggravated that he and Wendy were studying Cthulhu? "And we're not going to stop even if you tell us to," he added fiercely, sudden anger spiking up over his confusion. "You're not the only person who wants to help Kenny."

Cartman glared at him, unimpressed. "You don't want to help Kenny, Kahl. I'm nobody's fool. You're just worried about Stan getting caught up in all this."

Kyle frowned at the accusation. "How dare you," he seethed, remembering all the many funerals he'd been to. Granted, his eyes had stayed dry every time and maybe he truly was a colder person than he'd like to admit, but it had still been hard and, of course, he cared about Kenny.

He remembered after one funeral, one of the few that Cartman had been present at, when his friend had approached and made a comment about his detached attitude and it was just now that Kyle realized Cartman had been asking in code if he knew that Kenny would be coming back. Even the first couple times it had happened, Kyle had been in total disbelief and then showed up to school and partway through the day suddenly no one was mourning and everyone was acting like Kenny had been there the whole day and there had been no funeral, suddenly the time spent at a funeral was time at a football game or the movies or some other form of entertainment.

It's not like Kyle had been given enough time to even process his grief and he was usually the one comforting Stan or Butters because Stan had always been the most sensitive of their group and it had gotten worse as he'd grown closer to Kenny. And Butters was just Butters, Kyle was pretty sure Butters would cry at a spider's funeral. At least Craig was around for Tweek and Clyde just didn't seem fazed by anything. With a start, Kyle wondered if he gave off that same nonchalant aura that Clyde did. Even if he did, it didn't mean he didn't care about Kenny as Cartman was implying; his best friend cared very much about Kenny, and by default that meant Kyle would, too, even if he'd never known the guy or had history but Kenny had been Kyle's friend, too. Had Cartman forgotten that?

"How fucking dare you," he repeated, eyes blazing and his arm was suddenly out in front of him, socking Cartman in the jaw. The other teenager stumbled backward a few steps, shocked, before quickly recovering and charging Kyle.

Kyle was quick, easily able to sidestep his charge, and attempted to do the low sweeping kick he liked to use to counter, but Cartman remembered and was also able to evade. They repeated the dodge and counters, managing to dodge each other every time, each knowing too well how the other fought, having seen it too many times and been in fights with each other too many times.

Kyle wasn't sure how long they'd been trying to beat the living daylights out of each other because they were typical teenagers and Cartman and Kyle and that always seemed like the best form of communication especially when disagreements were involved. Both were panting and muttering insults and taunts at the other when another voice finally broke through.

"Just what the hell are you two morons doing out here?" Wendy's voice carried no amusement and she was giving them both an odd look as they jumped apart, shocked at the interruption. "You guys know my house has windows, right? And you two aren't exactly being quiet. My mom heard you when she pulled up and said she was going to call the police." At the panicked expressions, she held her hands out, "It's okay, I told her I knew you." There was a pause and she shot a short glare at each before going on, "Okay, so what are we fighting about this time?"

"You know," Cartman said simply.

"Do I?" Wendy asked.

Kyle shook his head slightly. "He means about Kenny."

"Oh, oh, yeah, I do know," Wendy said agreeably before she returned to confusion "Wait, is that what you were fighting about? If I knew about Kenny?" She said it as if it would be the weirdest thing in the world they could fight about, which, as far as she could tell, it pretty much was.

"No!" Cartman exclaimed. "You and Kyle need to stop with this… cult study bullshit."

"What?" Wendy murmured, her confusion only growing.

"You heard me."

"Why don't you want us to study this, Cartman?" Kyle demanded, starting to feel a little desperate for an answer. Cartman crossed his arms and frowned at the other two.

"Just stop, okay? It's dangerous and Kenny wouldn't like it."

Kyle made to say something but Wendy was quicker. "We're not going to stop Cartman, so you can either join us or just stay mad. Besides, we think we already figured something out." Kyle felt his heart beat a little faster at Wendy's words; maybe they shouldn't be so hasty in including Cartman and what exactly was Wendy talking about? Cartman raised his brows, waiting for a response so she went on, "Kenny's family. We think they are in R'lyeh."

Cartman's eyes went wide and he shook his head slowly. "I wish you hadn't just told me that," he said haltingly as if it were painful to get out. Wendy frowned, puzzled, but remained quiet. Cartman turned accusing eyes towards Kyle. "Just how much did you tell her exactly?"

"Enough."

Drawing out a long, defeated sigh, Cartman uncrossed his arms, letting them fall to his sides. "Fine," he muttered. "If you two want to fuck up your lives, don't say I didn't warn you. But I will be helping with these study sessions. And, please, don't tell Kenny." He glanced over at Wendy, "Especially what you just said about his family." Wendy and Kyle both exchanged a quick glance before each nodded in agreement.

"Okay, now that that's out of the way, you two can stop fighting and go home, it's getting late," Wendy pointed out. With a wave, she took off to her house, leaving Kyle and Cartman alone again. Kyle walked the short distance to where he'd dropped his book bag earlier and picked it up. Cartman easily kept up with him.

"What the hell, Jew? I can't believe you told her about Kenny's family."

Kyle shot him a guilty look. "I didn't exactly want to, but I didn't really know who else to turn to. Something told me you would be against this as you clearly are."

"For good reason."

"Which you won't tell!" Kyle exclaimed, frustrated. "Besides, it's good to have other people look at things; maybe Wendy and I will find some stuff that you missed because you must have done this before." The way Cartman was acting he had to have done this kind of research before because he was just acting much too strange. The two were walking towards their homes, away from Wendy's, the sun had set long ago. Kyle sighed. "Why wouldn't Kenny want us to look into this, anyway?"

"It's just- he just," Cartman started and stopped, a strange expression flashing through his eyes, looking unsure if he should share any further, and Kyle felt shivers down his spine because he'd seen this expression before; he'd had this conversation before- with Kenny. At the party, when Kyle had asked what Cartman had done to get him to go back to school. That was another question that Kyle had been wanting to demand of Cartman but not in front of Kenny or Stan and he had nearly forgotten about it but it was always nagging at him, in the back of his mind, like a whisper he couldn't get rid of.

"Why- why did you talk Kenny into coming back to school, Cartman?"

Cartman glared at him. "Why? You got a problem with it?" he asked defensively. "It's not like I planned to have Stan go all faggy on him."

"Stop being such a fucking jerk," Kyle bit out, trying to keep his voice down, aware that it was late and, by now, they were probably out past curfew and they didn't need any residents complaining. Cartman was hardly in the position to be judging Stan considering who Stan was with at that moment. Kyle matched the glare with a fierce one of his own. "You know, you've lost touch at dodging questions, asshole. Why did you talk him into it?" Or the better question, the million-dollar question, "How did you talk him into it?"

Cartman rolled his eyes, another sigh escaping his lips. He kept his eyes firmly averted away from Kyle. "He kept dying. So I just thought...maybe, just, like, if he was reminded that there were still people that…cared…he'd want to, you know, live." Kyle heard the caring and concerned tone and thought that maybe they had finally discovered the part of Cartman that was hidden deep within because he actually, truly cared and, from what Kyle could see, had nothing to gain from this caring.

"How?" Kyle quietly prompted again when Cartman fell silent.

"What the fuck, Jew? I mean, seriously, good fucking grief, isn't that enough?!" Cartman ranted, suddenly morphing back into the Cartman Kyle was all too familiar with. "I mean, Jesus Christ, I share my fucking feelings and your response is just 'how?' Are answers really the only thing you ever care about? No wonder you didn't even put the moves on Wendy, you probably just get orgasms from learning new information and prying answers out of people-" he was cut off when Kyle chucked his book bag at him, tired of the rant.

"Just shut up." Nothing else was said and tense silence accompanied them the rest of their way, lingering even after they parted ways.