Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 151. Not a second longer

What the fuck am I doing right now with Henry on his knees hugging me? As if my bout of paranoia was instantly doused by his submission, making me let down my guard even further and dwell in the power he succumbed to me.

I think I have really lost it.

Flinging my hands away from him abruptly, I tried to distance myself, but he wouldn’t let me. "Okay, stop it. Tell me about the memories you received."

He squeezed me one last time before letting go and standing up.

"No memories."

"No memories..." I repeated, conjuring a cigarette and sitting down at the table.

"The pose the shadow took just now, had it agreed to be eradicated?"

"And because of that, I got a superpower instead of just leveling up in speed and strength?" He continued my thought and sat down as well. Again wrapping his hand with the dark smoke, he poked the table with his finger, making a small hole in it.

"You can control that power?"

"Yes. Just by imagining that it shows up."

"So, not killing our counterparts gives us the most power, but a voluntary merging does." Taking that way also seemed better than killing part of oneself.

"Yes, but why did it do this?" Henry let the smoke appear and then disappear again.

"Maybe it knew it would be killed anyway?" I took a drag and watched him play. I would love to try out what his power would do to a human, but there would hardly be anyone coming forward to let us experiment.

"Possible. These shadows could be connected among themselves. The last shadow that possessed me showed me far worse scenes than the last. Maybe they learn from each other, like a collective."

"And the ringleader is that giant? Giving orders or something?" I asked him while conjuring up another cigarette.

"Why does his appearance look so vastly different from its minions?" He spoke about the point that had me doubting the whole thing as well.

"No idea. But if your power is similar to mine, then you should be able to do more than just this."

"More than just having a mighty hand?" He waved it in front of me as if to show off.

"Exactly. So train it; let’s go hunt monster deer soon," I chuckled.

"That’s perfect; I can’t stand beans anymore." Henry gave a thumbs-up with his smoking hand, moving it so that everyone—me—could clearly see his excitement over some meat. If monster meat really strengthened one, it was also time for me to try it.

"Okay, stop it now. The others will freak out if they see it, and don’t overexercise that ’power of destruction’ until it’s gone." This was a fantastic way to get rid of a shadow; it was really friendly of it to surrender itself. The name he gave that power was still super cringy, though.

The cigarette disappeared, and I touched Henry’s shoulder, flipping the coin.

Black; future; eyes and ears uncovered.

A tall, black-haired man sits next to a red-eyed one.

"So, you said that I have said the next attack will be four at once, about a week after you got the vision. The targets are Athena, Glasses Guy, Anti-Guy, and Red Hair."

"Yup. Why are you repeating it so officially now?"

"Just to make sure your past self sees this scene."

"That’s an awfully smart move." The red-eyed man conjures up a Coke and sips it after raising it to the black-haired man.

"So? Is there something you want to tell your past self watching us?" He smiled with mirth.

"Hahha, we are fucked! They’ll come at us together; don’t die on me until we kill these fuckers, past-tense Kenny!" The red-eyed man says, laughing while addressing the ceiling.

Coming back, I cursed at the way I was informed about the next attack.

"What a bunch of idiots."

"Who?" Henry asked; his hand had turned normal again.

"Our future selves. I didn’t see the shadows attacking, but just you repeating what I had seen you speaking about—forget it... Next, four shadows at once, a week from now: Athena, Glasses Guy, Anti-Guy, and Red Hair." If we are really trusting the idiots I have just seen.

Henry thought about it.

"Who is Anti-Guy?"

"The one who is neither Glasses Guy nor Baggy Jeans."

"Ah, that one." He nodded before again being so fucking optimistic.

"At least we have time if it’s a week from now."

"Yeah, but we can’t take on four shadows at once."

"Hmm... Athena should be able to kill herself; she can take on her counterpart. Then you and I each take one; that leaves one, and we need someone to wake us up too."

"You sure have a lot of faith in your girlfriend."

"She is not my girlfriend, and there is no faith either. But I think she would be able to do it, at least more than the other candidates."

I nodded.

"Chelsea can wake us up. Now, who takes on the last shadow?" Someone I can trust would only be my grandmother, but I really don’t want her to go through that.

"Your grandmother or my father. No one else is capable, I’d say."

"Mhm. Let’s go with your father then. My grandma is too old for that shit. But she can help wake us up."

"Roger. We’ll tell them all about it."

"Currently, there are thirteen shadows left. After the four attack us, there will still be nine, and at least part of them won’t have a human counterpart."

"Won’t have a human counterpart in our group." Henry corrected.

"What do you...? FUCK." I slammed the table with my hand.

Because I hadn’t seen any signs of other living beings, I involuntarily came to the conclusion that we were the only ones left. Yet, in this crater, there naturally could be other people as well.

"Kenny. They need at least two weeks to devour a human. Even if they had possessed others in the meantime, there is no way they have finished consuming them." He took my hand and looked for injuries.

"Yes. But we now need to wake up random people and force them to slit their throats. If they are unable to, we’ll have to kill them so that the shadows don’t multiply. Fuck." I pulled my hand out of his grasp and placed my head on the table in resignation.

How could I have overlooked that? But there was no other way from the beginning. With this many shadows, it was just too much to ask them to wait and come at Henry and me orderly. And we were already lucky that a few were at least polite enough to come one by one, with Henry’s shadow counterpart even surrendering. And I can’t deny I am happy to not repeatedly go through that whole shadow ordeal myself. Though it would surely be more efficient.

"We have a week. Until then, we’ll have to find these other possessed people. Then the mass attack plus any leftover shadow, and then we’ll bring everybody home." I decided.

We won’t stay here a second longer than necessary, even if it means going back to prison. I’ve had enough of this shitty parallel world.