Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 268. Smokescreen

I dragged Henry to the place where we smashed the skinny guy and his friends because I desperately needed a cigarette.

Again, he didn’t talk, apparently knowing when to speak or not, but that also meant he would also speak, knowing when it was unwanted, like when he deliberately annoyed me.

But now he wasn’t annoying at all. Just a silent big dog guarding his owner—the one with the messed-up head.

I thought it would help me to go under hypnosis, but instead, I was greeted by tears and, not long after that, with paranoia.

Why the hell is nothing working in my favor?

And now I am hearing the man screaming again, far away this time, but I knew it was just my head playing games on me.

I am losing myself, and I am terrified because one can see what is at the end of the road when one looks at my depraved counterparts.

When we pushed the door open, which had been left ajar by a brick, and stood on the grass, I conjured up two cigarettes, giving one to Henry, who took it.

A bit calmer with a smoke at hand, I told him. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"I can hear the screams again, right now—I hear the man screaming."

Henry had let go of me and stood by my side, taking a drag.

"There is no one screaming."

"I know." I chuckled.

"I am losing it, and I have no idea how to stop it."

"What did you see during the hypnosis?—Wait." Henry asked before stopping himself. He took off his smartwatch and asked for mine before walking a few meters away and burying them while he had the cigarette in his mouth.

When he came back, I conjured up a water bottle for him to wash his hands.

"Memories of the Giant. He was a normal human at the beginning." I didn’t care anymore if Henry could piece it together, though my eyes still wandered to him, looking for his reaction.

There was no special reaction, no shock or anything, while he washed his hands. No condemnation, no contemplation.

Nothing was pieced together, not even a sign of an attempt to do so.

Just him, busy washing his hands and then drying them with a conjured towel, as his blue eyes met mine through the smoke, just him waiting for more information.

I put the towel away and continued.

"The memory I saw was of his childhood. A child clearly suffering from severe depression, and that without any visible reason." I am so sick of this damn giant, so I changed the topic directly.

"When I touched the doctor, I saw her talking with her grandfather. They have some prophet on their side who told them about the 400 otherworlders that would arrive."

I broke into a fit of laughter.

"So they built this center to house them, wanting to influence these otherworldly beings and ’bring them to their side.’"

"Who is this prophet?" He asked me.

"No idea; not me." I shrugged.

"Are you still hearing the screams?"

I looked up and tilted my head.

"No..."

"Kenny. Your ability and your dreams, together with the memories from the giants, as well as all the traumatic shit you went through, are all coming together. It wouldn’t be strange if your mind got damaged. You can’t expect to get better like this." He raised a hand and snapped his fingers.

Damn, don’t talk about me being a wreck while you stand there and look so cool.

"Yeah. I am just a tiny, teeny bit impatient." I nodded.

"Just take a rest for now, and take it as it comes. If you see or hear something that is not there, tell me, and we’ll think about it together."

"Okay. Let’s try this." I nodded.

"Did you get another clue about the guy screaming?" He tapped his cigarette, and I watched the ash fall.

"I constantly dream about these crystal people, the parallel world closest to us."

Henry looked at me reproachfully.

"Why didn’t you tell me?"

"...I don’t know." There was no reason to tell or not to tell.

"Anyway, in my last dream, the screams happened while I was with my crystal counterpart, and—"

"What do you mean by that? Why were you with your counterpart?" Henry interrupted, so I had to explain that I was always dreaming that my counterpart was in front of me in this crystalline world.

I also explained that their actions were always either mirroring their opponent or doing the opposite.

"Does that mean if we don’t attack them, they won’t do anything?" Henry thought for a moment before asking me, and I shrugged.

"Seems like it."

"I looked through the commander’s files when we were in that world; they naturally have far more worlds that had crashed into theirs than we do. Most of the other world’s occupants they encountered were peaceful, not even crossing the portal."

I chuckled mockingly.

"And how did the commander and his people handle these peaceful occupants?"

I already knew.

"They killed them. And after killing them, the portal closed again within a few hours."

I nodded. Would you look at this? We gathered the same information, just through different means. I, through my counterpart, and Henry through his.

"So what does your dream have to do with the screams?" Henry asked.

"Ah. The screams showed up in my dream. I asked my counterpart if he was the one screaming, and strangely, he pointed to a room that then materialized out of crystals."

"How did this room look? Did you recognize it?" Henry had not finished his questions when a sudden pain pierced my head.

The headache was so strong that it nearly forced me to my knees.

"Kenny?!" Henry dropped his cigarette and grabbed my shoulders, helping me stand.

Naturally, I had recognized the room, similar to a prison cell.

How could I not recognize the metal table with the paper on it when it hasn’t been long since I had teleported there?

How could I forget the room where I broke Dr. Carell’s neck?

"It can’t be him... there were no screams." I said, my headache pounding.

"There were no screams." I repeated.

I had gone there to avenge my dog, to get rid of someone cutting people open without a second thought. I just threw the trash away because Henry had already gotten his revenge himself.

Just executing someone who touched what was mine, what was precious to me.

There were no screams because there was no need to torment someone who had already been tormented, someone whose existence would soon be erased anyway.

Just a short, simple moment in which I broke his neck.

He didn’t suffer.

There were no screams.

There...

There couldn’t have been screams.

I may be losing my mind but... not to this extent...

...

...

...

right?