Catastrophe

Chapter Three

Raven

I walked silently from my house into the chilly mountain air. It's been a week since we all moved back, but we weren't registered at school yet. This meant that I had more free time to reconnect with the others. I took a turn and traveled only a few houses down to the old Broflovski place. They had gotten it back. As it turned out, we all ended up back in our old houses, even if some were revamped and classier now like Kenny's. I felt weak and a bit sick as I stepped up to the familiar olive green house with the old brown door. I had flushed my stash that first night when I got home, but the withdrawals were kicking my ass. I lifted my hand to knock, but my legs gave out before I made contact with the door. My vision was growing a bit dim, but as I took a few deep breaths it came back into focus. I could hear movement on the other side of the door as I struggled to get to my feet.

"MA!" It was Kyley-B. Shit. I didn't want him to see me like this. "Toss me a bottle of water. Can ya throw in that frozen pizza I grabbed last night? Dumbass is half dead on the doorstep."

"Kyle?" Shelia's familiar voice rang out as steps came towards the door again. "Who are you talking abou-"

Her words died as Kyley-B opened the door just as I threw up and fell down again. Ffffuuuccckkkk! Well, that was not how I wanted to start today off at all. I had to cover my ears as Shelia's voice rang out louder than I ever remembered hearing before, "STANLEY!"

"Oh god, please stop yelling, Mama B." I heard myself whimper. I tried to stand again but just kept collapsing. "Fuck this shit... Ugh... Not my smartest choice... Just... Nope. Not moving. I'm good in the snow."

"Dude," Kyley-B laughed. "What is wrong with ya? Too much sugar up the nose?"

"Sorry to disappoint, Jersey, but I actually tossed my stash that first night, kinda the problem." I shook my head, only to instantly regret it as I threw myself sideways and vomited all over the yard. "Guess withdrawals aren't being too friendly today. Goddamn it all to hell. Too late to go back now, my ass didn't think this through. FUCK this hurts. Sorry for the language, Mama B. I'll just... just crawl home. Yeah, that sounds good."

I could barely see. My stomach was killing me. I was freezing and yet burning up all at once. The smarter idea would have been to slowly wean myself off my demons one by one, starting with the coke and ending with the weed, but noooo, one kiss and I was hooked on that blasted redhead. His words of tasting me, not the coke filling my head, clouding my judgment, I flushed my coke and my weed before dumping all my booze. I had nothing left of my sinful bliss. I tried to move only to feel a sharp pain in my arm. Without looking, I knew my cuts had been reopened when I fell. I turned my head to the side to see the blood stained snow. "Oh goodie! Now instead of overdosing or dying of withdrawals for some redhead with an ego issue, I can bleed to death like a proper moron."

"Yo, man, Ma is right fucking here! Can ya shut your trap before ya let it all out for the garbage to hear?"

"Can we have the old Kyle back? This one's hard to follow." A soft voice floated back to us from the sidewalk. We all turned to see a sad looking and shy Butters standing with his crutches sunk into the icy slush of melting snow. His bandaged nub was dripping red through the stained wraps. He looked pale and broken as we watched him. With a sigh, I pulled my cell from my pocket and dialed Craig's number. It was really hard to move, but I couldn't just not call for backup when it came to the tiny blonde. He was just too innocent.

"What?" The monotone filtered through the device to annoy my already frustrated nerves.

"Butters, Kyley-B's house, blood, possibly about to cry. Bring nature boy." I hung up and looked back at the small blonde. "Butters, buddy, I know the new us suck ass, but we can't find the old us."