Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 228. Vortex

I snapped my eyes open, feeling the immense regret and sorrow streaming through me, only to be met with utter darkness.

Not knowing who I was, whether I was Kennith Howard or Kenneth Howard, if I missed my childhood friend, or if I was currently inside this center with Henry, I didn’t know if my arms had mutated into giant deformed ones or if I was still human.

I couldn’t distinguish where my body started and the outside world ended.

Eventually, I found myself in front of the table, inside the black space in my mind. On the table lay the violet, shimmery coin, still without any motif on it, yet the surface of the table had changed.

Carved into it was the simple silhouette of a giant.

Spellbound, I grabbed the coin and flipped it. It floated in the air, twisted and turned, until it landed in my hand. I was unable to see what was on it when my whole being was sucked into a vortex.

********

I opened my eyes and found myself sitting in the back of a Jeep, the wind whipping against my face. The desolate landscape around me was made up of rocks and trees that seemed to reach the sky.

In my hand was a machine gun; my clothes were military-style, and behind us was a caravan of cars. Beside me were other soldiers, looking at the landscape as the cars raced to somewhere.

I wanted to vomit my guts out because everything around me felt so real and was moving so fast, and I still felt the backlash from the time jump. The speaker inside my ear suddenly transmitted a strange voice.

"We are nearing our destination. Remember to kill the target upon sight. No hesitation. That bastard had butchered three of the remaining five cities!"

The soldiers around me cheered, raising their weapons. I just watched everything unfold, searching in my mind for the coin. Yet there was nothing; the table wasn’t there, everything was gone. I was only human at the moment, with no sign of any ability in me.

Helplessly, I couldn’t do anything at that moment; I couldn’t go back now. The vehicle stopped near a destroyed shed, in a place where the forest had become thicker. The ground was covered in moss, and we couldn’t see ahead because of all the trees and the uneven earth.

The soldiers in the same car as me sprang down, everyone wearing military helmets, so I didn’t recognize a single person. I followed them and jumped to the ground, still feeling a bit floaty. "Team one, storm the house; team two, back them up," Came the command through our headphones.

I followed the guy in front of me; at the end of my line, apparently I was in group one. I looked at the destroyed shed, asking myself if that was our target, but it apparently was not.

We sneaked over a little hill, and then I could see a villa, partly destroyed with trees growing through it; nature had apparently taken over.

The closer we got, the more the different teams communicated through the headsets, but also the louder the music became from inside the mansion. It was some opera mixed with techno, an overall crazy soundtrack for both killing and getting killed.

What the fuck am I doing here?

I followed the guys in front of me, hiding between trees, then moving forward, then hiding, and so on. Again, feeling for my coin, I found none.

Finally, we were in front of the villa’s entrance, the music deafeningly loud, when the first soldier noticed the door wasn’t locked and easily pushed it open.

He bellowed names into the headsets, telling each person where to go. Seeing that one went to the left, one to the right, and one straight ahead, I figured that I should go upstairs.

I didn’t quite get the names, and even if I did, I surely would not recognize them.

So I did just that and walked up the stairs, feeling unreal, as if I were inside a shooter game.

I moved like I saw the other soldiers doing, always checking where I would step next and looking for any danger around, with my machine gun ready to fire at anything.

I nearly thought some zombies would spring out at any moment, but besides the loud music, there wasn’t really anything.

On the first floor, I checked a few rooms, finding nothing as well.

When I pushed open the next big door, I found a tall man with long black hair dancing to the music, but not only out of tune; it was jerky and jumpy, as if he were on drugs.

Not sure what to do, this guy hadn’t done me any wrong, and I didn’t even know who the bad guys were in here.

Most of all, because I somewhat felt familiar with his back, I didn’t shoot.

Circling him, I found myself face-to-face with a dancing Henry in a somewhat see-through long morning robe.

"What the fuck?" The music was too loud, but I knew that guy must have spotted me; he just ignored me.

I gripped my helmet and pulled it down, seeing Henry freeze before he straightened up.

His face was unreal beautiful, while his blue eyes had taken on a silver-white color.

"What are you doing here?" He mouthed to me, his lips and tongue looking especially red.

"And you?" I screamed against the music. Before I could react, his body disappeared, leaving only shadowy smoke behind. In the next moment, he was right in front of me, clutching my jaw and bending down to say in my ear,

"Don’t touch the water."

I looked at him in bewilderment, seeing that his silvery-white eyes were glazed over; that guy was clearly on a trip.

I was ready to give him a beating when I heard gunshots—multiple gunshots—and saw Henry stepping back, continuing to dance, only now his robe started to take on a red color.

Turning, I found that the other soldiers had come in and had shot him.

My mind turned blank when I saw Henry starting to bleed more; his body’s movement began to turn slower, and finally, he started to fall.

My body moved before I could register anything, and I caught him, turning my back to the soldiers to shield him and feeling the bullets penetrate my own body.

I saw a mirror across from me, near the windows.

This wasn’t my body.

This was Harry, the Glasses Guy; only his eyes had turned bright red.