Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 315. Language Barrier
I put the empty frappuccino cup back into the past, looking at the excited dog returning, a wide grin on his face.
He let himself fall right beside me on the couch, his body tilted sideways as he leaned on me, while his crystalline counterpart stood behind the couch like some bodyguard. That thing wasn’t even trying to pretend to mirror him anymore.
"You listened in?" He asked me.
"What do you think?" I chuckled.
"Mhm, I think you did." He put his hand out as if expecting something.
I placed my hand in his, and he interlocked his fingers with mine.
Cocky. I originally wanted to raise my hand from his, magically conjuring up a fresh frappuccino, but now I wasn’t able to do that.
I conjured it up with my other hand and held it to his, hoping to exchange it for my hand, yet Henry leaned over and slurped from the straw without letting go.
I looked up and saw the commander coming back, his face sour, especially after looking at us and the way we were sitting and interacting.
Pfft. I lightly raised our hands to provoke him with a smirk on my face.
Seeing him clench his jaw, I again felt a sense of victory, no idea why.
Yet, when I looked around, I saw everyone staring at Henry and me, though they instantly looked away when they felt my gaze.
I pushed the frappuccino against Henry’s chest and pulled my hand away.
What the hell am I even doing here?
"Let’s continue." I stood up, Henry growlingly doing the same.
The others also stood up, and I put the furniture back into the past before I flipped the coin for directions. There should still be a few other survivors.
I chose a direction, and the others followed when Birthmark came to me.
"Mrs. Suri asked if it was okay to get an apple for the child." He brought forward quietly.
"Can she eat while we go?" I didn’t want to prolong the journey anymore.
"They didn’t want it before, so why now?" Henry asked in annoyance before again slurping his drink, his arm hanging around my neck.
"Yes, yes, naturally." Birthmark answered my question, hesitantly looking at Henry.
"Here you go." I conjured up a small Tupperware with cut-up apple slices, looking like little bunnies.
My mother made them like this for Lauren because we boys felt too cool to eat them like this. One time I stole Lauren’s bunny apples and ate them, though. They were better than the normal ones, either because they were loot or because of the shape.
"Which memo—" Henry stared at the container when I interrupted him.
"My mother."
"Oh..." He looked straight ahead again, a little smile on his face.
"I want to taste her cooking too," he murmured.
"Pfft. She wasn’t a good cook. But the easy stuff, she could make. I’ll get you macaroni and cheese the next time we make a stop."
"Mhm, I can’t wait to try it." He nuzzled my cheek like a real dog.
We heard screams the next second, and I thought we finally found the survivors.
But after we all ran to the source of the noise, together with the crystalline figures marching with us, we arrived at a scene I hadn’t quite anticipated.
A woman screamed something in a language I didn’t know, trying to stop the man in front of her from stuffing his mouth with earth, or better said, crystals.
That was not all; around them lay bodies, and contrary to the last scene, this one didn’t feature more crystalline figures; instead, they were all bleeding from their mouths.
The moment I took in the scene, I teleported to the guy ahead, pulling his arms back and throwing him onto the ground stomach-first.
The woman screamed at me, but I ignored her; my dog had already run to my side.
"SHUT UP!" He bellowed at her when I noticed that the man under me had shoved his face into the ground, continuing to devour the crystalline earth.
"Fuck!" I turned him around and forced his jaw open, while the woman cried and screamed, not heeding Henry’s words.
I fished the crystals out of the bald man’s mouth; everything was full of his blood when he stopped breathing.
"Let me." The commander pulled me away and started to work on the bald man, also reaching in his throat, before lying him sideways and hitting his back, before he started CPR; the scene was somewhat chaotic.
"What the hell?" I stared at the man when I felt eyes—fucking many eyes—on us.
I looked around and found that there were survivors hidden among the crystalline forest, all staring at us.
None of them were in office clothes.
What does that mean?
It meant that there could be another portal that had opened, one we weren’t aware of. It could have happened either in this world or the last melted-together one.
And if a portal in this world had opened, would that influence the portal that should open tomorrow?
I looked into scared faces; their clothes didn’t seem as tattered—young and old, an absolute average of people—and I had no idea if they were from our world or another one.
"CAN SOMEONE UNDERSTAND ME HERE?" I asked loudly, counting around sixty to eighty people scattered over nearly a hundred meters.
Far more than I had seen in my vision.
The woman still screamed, the commander still tried to resurrect, yet nobody stepped forward or even moved.
"BIRTHMARK, TRANSLATE FOR ME!" I yelled, trying to get a grip, feeling that my vision had been bullshit and that maybe, possibly, there would be no portal tomorrow.
If the number of survivors doesn’t match, is there any truth in what I had seen?
"He means you!" Henry said to someone.
The next moment, I heard Birthmark say something in his language, but I already knew.
These two languages sounded very different.
We had no possibility to communicate with them.
"IS ANYONE UNDERSTANDING ME?" I repeated, but they stood still—not like lifeless figures; the survivors here were blinking, moving slightly, just not understanding what was going on at all, not trusting me, and I had no idea if I could bring them home.
Or if my home even was their home.
"He is dead," the commander announced, the crying woman falling deadly silent, hugging the lifeless body.
"Fuck, what are we doing now?" I asked Henry, feeling my sanity slip, the outlook to go home tomorrow dwindling so starkly.
I felt the air thinning.
If I don’t make it home, what about Present Henry?
WHAT THE FUCK SHOULD I DO ABOUT MY DOG THAT IS WAITING FOR ME?
Henry hugged me, chuckling and patting my back.
"Kenny, my sweet Kenny, have you forgotten what you are the best at? Don’t worry; everything will be fine." Henry smelled so good that I didn’t mind that he misunderstood where my panic stemmed from, as I relished in the security he gave me with nothing more than his body and scent.
"Yeah... You are right." I squeezed him before letting go, still feeling that the air was hardly there, that my lungs were painfully empty, when I knelt beside the corpse and flipped the coin.
Back of my hand, golden, past of the bald dead man, eyes and ears uncovered.
I find myself in a white room, and fuck, I have had enough of these fucking white rooms. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎
"Everything ready?" Someone asks, and when I turn around, I see a floor-to-ceiling glass window, and in front of it stand two people. And what are they wearing?!
White coats.
I have had enough of fucking white coats as well.
"Everything is ready." The second man confirms.
I turn back and see the bald man, also clad in white, except that he looks more like a patient than a doctor, as he sits on the ground looking into nothingness, with strange marks on his head.
"We did as ordered, all with success." He continued.
"Wernicke’s area and Broca’s area?" The first one asked.
"Yes, sir. They are ready to go."
