Well

Chapter Fifteen – Love Me Dead

Kyle groans, slowly trying to pick himself off of the ground where he had fallen so hard just outside the gas station. His face and palms are stinging, bloody from skidding across the ice. He can tell his knees are going to be purple tomorrow, and they protest bending as he slowly pulls himself off the ground. That is, if it makes it to tomorrow.

There is a hand on the back of his neck and Kyle is shoved back down to the asphalt, sprawled flat like road-kill as someone leans their body weight on his back and pins him down. The blood was rushing so loudly in his ears, he never heard anyone coming. Kyle does not breathe, he can't expand his lungs through the fear of death, which he knows is imminent due to the presence of the villain on top of him. What upsets Kyle the most is that he can't warn Eric. Eric won't even know what happened to him.

He cries out when he is flipped over, his shoulder blades slamming hard against the icy ground beneath him. Horror becomes what pulses through his veins as he looks up into the face of his captor.

"Miss me?"

"Kenny," Kyle whispers, his throat tight with fear. Part of him tries to fight against his gut, telling himself that Kenny wouldn't hurt him, but he knows that something has snapped in Kenny over the past few days. This isn't the boy he grew up with. "How are you back so soon? You died like… two days ago."

"I died two days ago?" Kenny laughs. "You mean you killed me two days ago."

Kenny's hand lays threateningly on Kyle's neck and Kyle closes his eyes, praying silently for an escape.

"You thought you were safe from me? Did you really think you got away from me? Look at this place!" he shouts, waving his arm in the air, gesturing towards the flaming city behind them. "Hell opened up in South Park, and you think I wouldn't be here?"

"What are you talking about?" Kyle asks, opening his eyes slowly to look up at the man straddling him. Kenny's orange clothes are the exact same color as the flames reaching into the sky from behind them. His eyes are suken, purple and dark. His tongue draws slowly along his dry lips. He looks tragically beautiful in this nightmare. Distantly, Kyle knows the second the fire reaches the gas station, they're going to die in a brilliant explosion, but the thought is buried beneath his confusion.

"South Park is Hell, Kyle. It is the seething, diseased pit of fucked up, abandoned souls and angry people. Hell isn't fiery and burning, dude. It's snowy, and cold, and eternal. This is Hell. We've been living in Hell our entire fucking lives. Why do you think I can't leave, Kyle? Why do you think I keep being forced back into this wretched town? Don't you see? You had to know, Kyle. You had to know that."

Kyle is shaking his head, refusing to process the information that Kenny is spouting at him. The hand around his trachea tightens and Kyle coughs, sputtering in his attempt for a chance to breath the smoke filled air.

"Stay with me," Kenny whispers, leaning down and kissing Kyle. Kyle throws his head to the side, trying to avoid his lips.

"No."

"Stay with me," he repeats. "I'm in love with you."

"No, you're not," Kyle gasps. "You told me you weren't."

"I changed my mind," he growls.

"You're not in love with me," Kyle shouts angrily, trying to push the other man off of him. "You're in love with the stability and normalcy I provided. We had a routine and you felt like, for a few months, that South Park was something more than Hell. Somewhere else. Well, I've learned something today, Kenny, there is no leaving South Park, unless you were never really here to begin with."

Kenny scowls from above him. "Stop talking."

Kyle fights against Kenny as the other boy reaches for the fly of his jeans, tearing his pants down his thighs.

"Get the fuck off of me!" he tries to shout, but Kenny's hand is over his mouth, rendering him silent. He's going to have to lay here and get raped by a person he once considered his best friend. He shuts his eyes. Maybe, if he doesn't fight, this will be fast and he can still make it back to Eric in time.

Suddenly, there is the sound of wood cracking, and Kyle feels Kenny's body lift from his own. He opens his eyes, and Kenny is beside him, clutching his head in his arms are shouting out with rage. Ike is standing before Kyle, the broken remains of a guitar in his hands, having been used to crack across the side of Kenny's head seconds before. A glance to his right shows Stan falling to his knees over Kenny, his fists falling fast and heavy into Kenny's face over, and over.

Kyle is transfixed, mesmerized as he watches Kenny's face be crushed, bloody and mangled beneath Stan's angry hands. His mouth hangs open, laying on the frozen concrete with his pants around his knees.

"RUN," Ike shouts at him, dropping the guitar to the ground and moving over to Stan, trying to pull his lover off of the body. Kenny is no longer breathing. Ike looks back at Kyle, shaking his head. "Dude, run! Go!"

Kyle stands, pulling his jeans up to his waist and hesitating for just a moment before he takes off, sprinting down the road towards Eric's and leaving Stan, Ike and Kenny behind him.

"What is your fucking problem?" Gregory cries, shoving Christophe away from him. "I thought you were a good person."

Christophe tries again to grab Gregory's wrists and pull him closer. Gregory continues to strain against him.

"I did this for you, Gregory! South Park is gone! We can leave, we can go back to Yardale. I hate it here. You hate it here, I know!"

"We could have just left! I would have left if you told me you felt this way. You've hurt people. This is bad, Christophe."

"Shut up, let's go."

Christophe tugs hard and Gregory falls into him. He drags the blonde towards the door, but it is pushed open before he opens it himself. Professor Chaos stares back at them.

"Out of my way," Christophe shouts. "We're getting out of here."

"Ha! Funny!" Professor Chaos laughs. "You're not going anywhere. There can't be any survivors, or I wouldn't have accomplished anything."

"What?" Christophe says dumbly. Gregory ripping out of his arms, tears streaking down his face.

Professor Chaos points his gun at them and shoots them both, first Gregory, and then Christophe. Had he not shot them in the face, regret would have been etched into Gregory and Christophe's features until they rotted away.

Every flickering shadow and distant creaking of falling buildings give Kyle small heart attacks as he runs. He has never run so fast and felt so slow in his entire life, and it feel likes a dream when he finally pushes his way into Eric's house. He locks the door behind him, despite knowing that if he had been followed, a locked door won't deter much.

Eric does not seem shocked or surprised when Kyle bursts into the living room. His jacket as been lost, his pants are open. His face and hands are bleeding, and his hair is grey from the blizzard of ash that is falling like heavy snow from the South Park skies, but Eric is looking at him calmly, sitting up in bed and eating a bag of cheesy poofs. Kyle almost wants to ask where Eric got those from, but he isn't going to deny his love his favorite snack on a night like this.

"We have to get out of here," he says quietly.

"Kyle, you know I can't leave."

All of the fear and anxiety seems to drain from Kyle hearing those words. He steps out of his shoes and quietly climbs into Eric's bed.

They kiss. Eric lays back against the bed and Kyle leans over him, loving how soft and damp Eric's lips are against his own cracking and dry ones. Eric's living room is still darkened to the outside world. Perhaps they are safe in here. It looks like no one is home. Kyle cannot even hear the destruction outside through the walls. It is silent, and the only light that is cast is yellow and from the coffee table lamp. This is another world. Kyle could stay here forever.

Kyle sits up, his hand shakily reaching for the extra pillow on Eric's bed that he sleeps with. Eric says nothing, his sweet chocolate eyes watching him calmly as Kyle lays the pillow firmly over Eric's face. Kyle cannot breathe.

A few minutes later, Kyle walks into the kitchen, searching desperately through the cabinets. When he finds nothing, he jogs upstairs, searching through Eric's and then Leann's bathroom. He should have done this before he killed the man he loved. He can hardly see through his mask of tears.

Eventually, he finds their stash of medication, and Kyle grabs two bottles of Advil, a bottle of Tylenol and two bottles of Nyquil. Walking back downstairs, Kyle crawls back on the bed and leans back against Eric's body. He takes everything, washing back handfuls of pills with mouthfuls of Nyquil until he is dizzy and sleepy. He forces himself to finish off every bottle before tucking himself neatly into Eric's side and falling asleep.

"We gotta go, Stan," Ike whispers, wrapping his arms around Stan's chest and dragging his body off of Kenny. "He's finished."

"For now," Stan growls bitterly, kicking Kenny's corpse in the ribs. Ike laces his fingers through Stan's and tugs him towards the car.

Stan climbs into the driver's seat and Ike buckles in beside him. They kiss once, briefly, before Stan peels away from the gas station on to the road out of town. As they cruise towards highway Seventy, they can see the gas station go up in a round cloud of flames. Ike leans forward and turns on the radio. There are two voices singing over the quiet acoustic guitar in the background.

"Well, you might be a bit confused."

"And you might be a little bit bruised, but baby how we spoon like no one else. So I will help you read those books if you will soothe my worried looks."

When they sing together, Stan smiles.

"And we will put the lonesome on the shelf. Oh, let's get rich and buy our parents homes in the South of France. Let's get rich and give everybody nice sweaters and teach them how to dance. Let's get rich and build our house on a mountain making everybody look like ants. From way up there: you and I, you and I."

Quietly, Kenny walks through South Park. He wasn't quite dead when Stan and Ike had left him, but the explosion of the gas station did it. It's a shame that moments later he is back, walking through the ruins of his hometown. Coming back hurts more than dying does. It is quiet, and anybody around him is laying dead on the ground. Flames are still burning steadily, but it seems many of the evil creatures have gone home, having satisfied their desires and cravings for blood.

"Well, you're the last one," Professor Chaos's voice booms from behind him. Kenny slowly turns to face him. There is a bullet through his chest.

Kenny looks down at himself as blood seeps from within him and stains his jacket. He can feel the pain, but for some reason, it doesn't hurt. He looks back up at Professor Chaos, who looking slightly horrified, fires another shot. Maybe it stings as the bullet tears through his intestines, but mostly its irritating.

Kenny lunges forward, knocking Professor Chaos to the ground. They wrestle for a moment before Kenny manages to get in control of the weapon. Neither one of them has any words as Kenny buries the gun against Professor Chaos's neck and pulls the trigger.

He stands, listening to Professor Chaos take gurgling, strained breaths through the blood that fills his throat and lungs. He'll let him bleed.

Curious, Kenny opens his jacket to see the wounds on his torso have already started to heal. He sighs sadly. Kyle was right.

There is just no leaving South Park.

THE END

Author's Notes

I know I said two more chapters but I changed my mind. Well, (haha) the story is over! Thank you everyone so much for reading. This fic means a lot to me and I love that I got so many kind reviews and faves! To those who have read and haven't reviewed, leave me a comment or PM me and let me know what you thought about the whole thing! I'm about to start another chapter fic, and the encouragement would be appreciated (:

Again, thank you all so, so, so much. 3