Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 229. Siren

The bleeding body in my arms moved and spread his hand, wrapped in black smoke, out.

The next moment, there was absolute silence—no gunshots, no music.

I coughed up blood and looked into the silvery-white eyes that smiled up at me.

"Don’t touch the drugs; don’t touch the water." He laughed happily, apparently not injured at all, unlike me.

I was unsure if he was truly warning me or if he was talking to himself, as he was clearly high on something.

"What is happening, Henry? Why is it like this?" I managed to say, trying to stay conscious. But he just giggled, looking like a little child, a serial killer, or someone so broken that even the shards left behind couldn’t mirror his lost self; I couldn’t tell which it was.

*******

Back from the vortex, I felt the water around me splashing as my body spasmed.

Luckily, nobody noticed me having a seizure, or it would have just been chaos, with Henry probably ripping off the door of the capsule or something.

Was this the power of the giant? Not only to see the future, but, as I thought, to actually appear there?

And not only as myself but even in the body of someone else?

Was this some parallel world counterpart’s future, or was it our real future?

Because if it was, then fuck...

Luckily, the future wasn’t fixed and could be changed.

But this was all creepy and strange; I fucking hate this power.

The artificial voice continued with instructions, but I didn’t care, ignoring it.

Instead, I looked at the table inside my mind, where the giant was carved in. In something like a fit of anger, I flipped the table and found that instead of being thrown over, the surface had returned to how it had always been—wooden and with no carvings.

And my good old coin was back to golden instead of the shimmery violet one.

On the golden coin was the woman with many hands covering her senses, and damn, I was so happy to finally have that eerie motif back; I had never thought that seeing it would ever make me feel so relieved.

Was this what the table was able to do all along? Something like a rubric?

First the table, then the coin.

My whole ability was about choosing.

Choose a hand, choose a side, then live with the awareness you chose to gain.

I chuckled darkly, nearly choking on the water that splashed around me, while my body finally stopped the shaking.

But, with ’flipping the table’, had I now finally drawn the line between myself and the giant?

It suddenly felt like it, and I finally felt able to breathe again.

Regarding the warnings from that Silver-Henry about water... that really got me paranoid, so I won’t ever enter the wet coffin again.

Or did he mean drinking water?

Or water in a pool?

Damn, there was water everywhere.

This surely warranted more insight.

Every few seconds, there was a specific sound inside the floating chamber, a strange sound I couldn’t categorize. What is this? Are they trying to condition us to that sound? No, maybe I’m too paranoid.

And by the way... it started to feel damn small in here; why the heck was I still not exiting?

I thought it, I did it, placing my hands against the roof of the chamber; it really opened automatically.

I stepped out with tons of water splashing on the floor and found that I was not alone; all the women in our group were either in the middle of exiting the capsules or already on their way to the changing room.

Most of them looked at me and my shirt clinging to my upper body, all of them instinctively covering themselves.

Oh, right.

They let the women exit before the men; got it.

White clothes + water = soft porn.

But everyone wore bras that were not see-through, so it was like on the beach, but I got it, I got it.

I turned around to give them privacy and heard a few steps making funny sounds because they were drenched with water.

Someone came to me, and when I looked at the tall, slightly older woman, I recognized her as the supervisor.

"Did you have any problems?" She asked, her eyes luckily strictly on my face, or I would have gotten ’embarrassed’.

"Yeah, I don’t want to take these lessons anymore... I think I am a bit klepto—"

"Claustrophobic?" The woman interjected, and I nodded.

"Yeah."

"How about you just stay in for a shorter while next time?" There it was, the fake empathy that teachers used when they wanted to force you into extra lessons or something.

"I’ll try." I smiled at her.

No way in hell will I ever try it again. It seems like I have to fake a seizure just by seeing the capsules next time. But with teachers, you have to try and fail, not just say strictly ’no’.

You have to fail so hard that the fake empathy turns into real pity for the dumb and incompetent—then you’ll get thrown out of history class for one damn school year...not that it had been my goal at that time.

She smiled amicably back at me and let her gaze wander over the room behind me.

"The girls have left; you can go change."

"I’m waiting for my friend, or he’ll flip out with me having left." I pointed at Henry’s capsule.

"Okay." She nodded and went back to the front, where she looked over the white coffins like some underwater grim reaper.

There was a little window on top of each capsule, so I leaned over it and looked at Henry. He had his eyes closed, looking relaxed, again showcasing his otherworldly beautiful features.

The water clinging to my hair dropped against the window silently.

Drop...

Drop...

Drop... 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Had he always been this beautiful?

I remember when I saw him under the light for the first time, inside the classroom, stepping in front of the blackboard, so full of feelings, full of hatred and thirst for vengeance; I also thought he was damn beautiful.

But somehow... this guy gets prettier just by breathing.

And with his face fully on display and his shoulder-length hair swaying in the water, he looked so... enchanting.

Henry snapped his eyes open as if sensing my gaze. First cold and bloodthirsty, his expression erupted with joy and delight upon recognizing that it was his owner who was peeking so boldly.

Drop...

Drop...

Drop...

Yeah, with those penetrating blue eyes, the raven-black hair, and the water around him, he looked like a siren awoken to hunt for men who can’t help but get...

...hooked.