Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 147. Clean up

"No." The old dragon shook her head.

"What, ’no’?" I asked in puzzlement.

"No, I am not asking you. I’m taking that question back." She said with a frown while still looking at her cup, not even giving me a glance.

I snorted in disbelief at her audacity and turned to Henry.

"What do we do with him?"

Sebastian had grown quieter and was now mostly whimpering, still squirming and holding his head.

"Maybe he’ll get better by himself?" Henry shrugged unfeelingly.

Yeah, thanks for your help.

"Take him out." My grandmother said, holding her head in annoyance.

"And clean that up." She added, pointing at the blood on me and Henry that had soiled the floor.

Someone knocked on the door.

I jumped up and opened it. It was Glasses Guy, Mr. Devin, and Chelsea. They had been lured here by the screams.

"Why is there a trail of blood?" Mr. Devin asked concernedly when I let them inside.

I explained what I had just come up with.

"The blood is from Henry killing the shadow, but Sebastian was also attacked, and it seems he had a seizure."

Mr. Devin came inside and stood hesitantly in front of his son for a moment before bending down to look at Baggy Jeans.

Glasses Guy only took one step inside and peeked at the tormented man, while Chelsea looked at me pointedly. I nodded at her before bringing my finger to my lips, signaling that he had gone through the same thing as her, but she couldn’t speak about it.

If we sat everyone down together and told them that they could or could not go insane by their shadow counterpart getting killed, well, that wouldn’t go well, would it?

It’s better to take it as it comes, one by one.

"Why is Sebastian in this room?" Glasses Guy asked, and I conjured up a cigarette in annoyance.

"He hid here." Henry answered frostily.

"With his grandma?" Glasses Guy motioned to me.

"Any complaints?" My grandma asked him, and he stopped acting out.

If everyone is already doing their utmost to lie to you, then please swallow it and shut the fuck up, willya?

"He needs someone watching over him; can you do it?" I pointed at Glasses Guy with my cigarette.

He didn’t look happy but chose not to question me again.

"Take him to your room, and tell us if something goes wrong with him."

Glasses Guy brought Sebastian out with the help of Mr. Devin, and we were alone again when Chelsea also left after looking at me in worry.

Henry and I were thrown out of the room and went to wash up, where I told him about the vision I had received from the shadow, prompting him to nag me.

"Don’t do that again; it’s dangerous."

"The worst-case scenario would have been that I got possessed in your stead, and you would have owed me an additional kill." I conjured two wet towels when the one I was using disappeared and threw one behind my back at Henry before continuing to wipe the blood away.

Either we had to start looking at each other from a distance when killing ourselves, or we had to do it naked. If we continue like this, all our stuff will be full of our blood, and we won’t have anything to wear. I’ll go with the first choice.

I’m next again, and I don’t know enough curse words to express how I’m feeling about it.

"Don’t be stubborn. Did the giant seem to fit into that world with the shadows? Do you think he is the source of these things?" 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"I do what I want. And I don’t know—no, he didn’t seem fitting. Fitting would have been one big shadow, not some grotesque giant."

"When does the next shadow attack?"

"Haven’t looked into it yet."

"Do it now." I felt a hand on my bare shoulder and turned around. Henry stood there in all his glory, and I asked myself if it really would have been too much to just put something on before doing so.

"You are behaving much more suspiciously than I ever have—with you looking so much." Henry chuckled, and I turned from his abdominal muscles to his eyes again.

"Yeah, I am creeped out by men now; thank you very much, Henry. And I want to know why you always look so skinny when you have clothes on, but without them... this." I pointed at him, looking somehow ripped.

Henry grinned happily.

"Because I hunch my shoulders most of the time, look." He turned to the side and really hunched a bit, showing me his stomach bending inward.

"There would be the clothes, and now they would seem saggy like this." He moved his hand from his chest down to his navel.

"Why the fuck are you hunching your shoulders purposefully?" I asked him, suspecting that he was really doing that with a reason.

"I changed schools before coming to yours; I even wore fake glasses back then because I wanted to lie low." So he changed his posture and wore glasses so he wouldn’t attract too much attention? And the false posture got stuck, didn’t it?

"Are you a freaking manga protagonist? What the hell?" I laughed at him, and he chuckled as well before I reached out my hand, which he took.

Palm, black, correct future of Henry Devin; eyes and ears uncovered. When I came back, I grimaced at him in pity.

"You’ll have to take on the next one."

"Finally giving up?" He asked with raised eyebrows and a cheeky expression.

"Well, you are the next one to get attacked. Your shadow counterpart seems to be here as well."

"A good chance to level up." Henry nodded.

"I can take that one on, but I figured you wouldn’t want to take the risk." To go insane.

"No, I won’t. When?"

"A few days. We can finally take a breather."

After ’showering,’ we cleaned up the blood trail we had left, which was just me cleaning up with wet towels that would thankfully disappear soon and Henry leaning against things and watching me work.

Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and shooed him away.

When all the blood was gone from the ladder, the dining room, and the floor, I went back to my room. A fresh mattress welcomed me while the old, bloody one was gone. Probably just Henry turning into a house ghost and doing me favors without being seen.

Not that I complain; that was a very nice move.

I ate four cans of beans and two cans of pineapple in my room before collapsing on the mattress.

******

"HAHAHAHAHAHHA!" I laugh out loud, my voice raspy from screaming too much. The wind whips against my face, and my hair is blown in all directions.

I point into the distance and continue to laugh like a maniac while the body carrying me moves at inhuman speed. Strong hands hold me around my waist and thighs as he sprints with me swiftly amidst green bushes and trees. My upper body leans over his shoulder, allowing me to continue pointing senselessly at what chases us.

Every few seconds, a deafening THRUM echoes through the vicinity; gigantic trees are squished, and the earth trembles; animals have long since flown.

A massive hand, as big as a mansion, reaches through the trees shielding us, grasping my body and lifting me, breaking my ribs without killing me.

Henry digs his hands into my body in an attempt to not let go of me, but a second gigantic hand rips him away from me as if he were a stubborn fly.

"HAHAHAHAH!" I nearly choke on my blood while laughing.

I can see Henry falling, the trees that seem so far away, the ground I have never appreciated enough growing into distance, and the malformed, skinny body lifting me higher and higher.

"HAHAHAHAH!" I see the face with the big white eyeballs and the narrow, fiery red pupils that move fast and erratically, like those of an insect.

"HAHAHAHA!" And I see a red abyss opening beneath me; I see teeth so big they could shatter whales and elephants with ease.

"HAHAHAHA!" I see a red tongue, full of saliva, twisting in anticipation for something to eat.

I feel the massive fingers letting go.

And then I fall, like I had never fallen before—right into the pharynx.

"HAHAHAHAH!"