Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 319. Too late
I still held the sign up, looking at the portal and the street beyond it, as well as at the few hundred figures; it had now opened 3x3 meters wide.
My pulse was so high that I felt dizzy as I waited for my feeling to give me the ’go’ or my instinct to tell me to wait—something, anything that I could interpret as a sign.
But I was all alone, knowing that if I did something wrong, the survivors could be harmed.
I didn’t dare to teleport immediately to my old world, although that had been the plan, because I was still hoping for my intuition to start guiding me.
Instead, the more I doubted, the more I was paralyzed.
If nothing moved, I had to move.
"GO!" I turned the sign in my hand—the green arrow pointing ahead was now visible for the survivors behind me, because I was unable to wait any longer.
There was no sign; the magpie was silent, and my ability wasn’t speaking either, so there was no other way than to trust and hope that the overall bad feeling I had was just the panic from the last few meters.
I started to walk down hurriedly, trying to animate the unmoving people behind me to follow while I had decided I would teleport the moment I arrived at the flat field at the end of the hill we currently were on.
I didn’t look back, my heartbeat pulsing through my eyes as I gazed at the portal, at the street beyond with the cars, with people exiting their cars, running.
A thought formed inside my head, a memory of a vision, when I was interrupted by a shrill cry like that of a child.
It came from the sky, so I looked at the indistinct clouds above and saw a bird the size of a falcon, its body consisting of bones and nothing else.
No, that was false. Inside its chest was a beating black heart.
What the fuck is this?
I looked from the bird to the portal, back to the bird, and understood that it wanted to cross, an alarm bell shrilling in my head.
I conjured up my kitchen knife and threw it with all my might, luckily striking the black, pulsing heart that was inside the ribcage.
The bird fell from the sky, and before it could land among the crystalline figures somewhere ahead, I let the knife that was stuck inside the bird disappear into the past.
The figures, as obedient as ever, didn’t move.
I looked back and saw that the others were following, a few meters behind me, my crystalline counterpart right beside me.
Somethingiswrongsomethingiswrongsomethingiswrong.
No, it’s alright. It has to be alright.
I arrived at the end of the hill.
"WALK STRAIGHT AHEAD THROUGH THE PORTAL!" I yelled, letting the sign disappear, thinking of Henry, ready to teleport, when there was commotion ahead.
CLUCK, CLUCK, CLUCK, CLUCK.
I looked ahead and saw bones amidst the crystalline figures at the spot where the bird had landed—bones that rearranged themselves into something like a big hyena, and that thing—only consisting of bones and a beating heart—took off in the direction of the portal.
"SHIT!" I teleported to the hyena, and while it ran between the figures with unexpected agility, I followed right beside it, conjuring my hammer to slam it into the birdcage of the hyena before I jumped on it, stabbing the heart, this time crushing it with my hands.
I looked at the black substance that was still pulsating, smeared between my hands and on my jacket, when I heard it again.
CLUCK, CLUCK, CLUCK, CLUCK.
The bones moved around me; they rearranged around me, forming a ribcage.
I looked to the side and saw wings being formed on each side of the ribcage, and before I could even react, the wings flapped, the ribcage around me lifted, and my legs dangled in between bones down.
The moment it was in the air, the ribcage had closed around me.
I saw my crystalline counterpart in front of me, getting smaller and smaller, saw the commander yell something, and ran to the spot where I had been standing, the survivors hurrying to the portal when I finally awoke from the stupor.
"PROTECT THEM!" I yelled to my crystalline counterpart, looking at the black substance that was still pulsing in my hands.
I flipped the coin, trying to teleport into my world, back to Henry.
It didn’t work.
I tried to teleport back to the ground.
It didn’t work.
The black matter in my hands grew back together until I had a big black heart in my hands again. The first time the heart was as small as my palm, the second time it was nearly as big as two palms, and now it was double the size.
The wind tugged at my hair and clothes as I started to think about this new, bigger bird in whose ribcage I currently was going higher and higher.
With each kill, the heart grew, and the monster consisting of bones did as well—so I can’t attack the heart.
I let go of the heart, but just like magic, it floated above me inside the ribcage. I conjured up the hammer and smashed the walls of the ribcage, but nothing happened.
"What the hell should I do now?" The big bird let itself fall again, targeting the portal, making my stomach turn.
Should I just let the bird bring me back to my own world and think of something else there? The moment I would be out from the crystalline world, I could use weapons that went beyond the hammer.
I grabbed the bones left and right from me, trying to regain stability as we were in freefall.
The survivors had covered half the distance; half was left, and they would be out.
That was when I saw men in camouflage entering, the bird around me flapping its wings and stopping the descent upon seeing them.
The military men had their guns drawn, machine pistols ready.
Ah. I remembered what I forgot, where the familiarity with the street came from, and what I should have looked into ages ago but what I simply hadn’t thought of, although I had a seat in the first row, witnessing the horror of what was about to happen.
I grabbed the bones caging me inside the bird and screamed as loud as I could.
"DON’T SHOOT! DON’T SHOOT!"
...his former student?
"DON’T SHOOT! HIGHLY FLAMMABLE!!! DON’T FUCKING SHOOT!!" They either didn’t hear me because I was too high up, or they didn’t pay me any attention on purpose.
The almond eyes that were widened in horror—wasn’t this...
I saw the people down there in their uniforms, building a formation, rapidly moving their guns at the figures, but not shooting at them; instead, they made their way through them, hurrying to the survivors.
He blinks and finds himself face-to-face with a dead woman... Wasn’t this someone he had known?
I saw a figure, amidst the ones standing still, running forward all of a sudden, in the direction of the soldiers, apparently mirroring a soldier.
"NO! NO! DON’T! STOP!" I roared with all my might.
He stumbles over something and crashes on the ground in the middle of the street; someone behind him also falls before crawling over his body to flee.
But everything went so fast as I flipped the table in my mind, trying to get the giants power to do something, ANYTHING, to stop what was about to happen, as I saw one soldier noticing the figure approaching them, directing his gun at it.
In desperation, I conjured up a gun myself and fired at the soldier’s shoulder; he fell on the ground, luckily before he could fire a shot.
Soldiers looked up, screaming something, stopping on their way to the survivors, who themselves stopped the moment they heard gunfire.
The soldiers directed the guns at me, and while the commander ran to them, yelling for them to stop, they fired at me.
"YES! YES! FIRE AT ME, COME AT ME, YOU FUCKERS!" I broke into laughter, feeling my head hurt from all the fucking tension and the helplessness I felt.
The thin man that runs in between people and cars on the street is terrified. So much smoke, he is unable to see;
A bullet struck my stomach, but I didn’t feel the pain as I stared at the soldiers beneath and saw as part of them continued to fire at me, part of them continued their way to the survivors, and two went to the man I had shot.
The crystalline figure that had stopped continued to move, running to them, and the next soldier pointed his gun at it.
A bullet met my temple, just a grazing shot, but it made me flinch, letting me miss the soldier.
There are sirens;
And because I missed him, he shot at the crystalline figure.
Because he shot at the figure, it exploded; the other figures followed suit, and the crystalline earth that was present over half of the field was ignited.
There is...
And then, there was only...
fire;
