Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 152. Outside Hunting
First, we went to Henry’s father, explaining the situation. It seemed Henry was uncomfortable with him since I told him that it was okay to be a son to his parallel-world parents. Both Devin men seemed to sense each other’s hesitation, making it... awkward was the perfect word.
Additionally, Henry’s father believed he had lost his son twice, and then there was also his daughter, who clearly had turned to the dark side and didn’t have a good relationship with her brother. Well, family matters are always difficult; I can relate.
Anyway, he agreed to get possessed in a week’s time. Then we went to Chelsea, and she was willing to wake us up. After that, we went to my grandmother. She was once again being nasty, but also agreed to wake us up and watch over everyone.
I sent Henry to talk to Athena alone while I stayed behind to speak with the old dragon.
"Do you need something else?" She asked with annoyance.
"Yeah. What’s up with you? You just lock yourself away and drink. Did your husband possess you or something?"
"Don’t talk about that pig."
"Well? What’s wrong with you? Should I make arrangements for your final journey?" I conjured up a glass of alcohol before sitting down on the ground, leaning against the closed door. Because the doors were not exactly ceiling high, there was always a threshold made of a wall that was easy to trip over now that everything was turned upside down.
"You won’t get any money even if I die."
"Then should I wait until you go demented and just forge your signature? Tell me what’s wrong with you."
"What does a child know? Why should I talk to you?" she scoffed.
"Because that child cares about you... somewhat." I downed my drink.
"What was that about my mother? Did you start thinking about your life now that you got younger again?"
She hesitated—very unusual for her. Also, she hadn’t screamed around that much recently, which was also very worrying.
"Is it because you killed your counterpart? Did that somehow change you? Did you go insane now that you are home in your upside-down mansion?"
She had seemed normal the first time after waking up.
"Don’t get cheeky, or I’ll beat you... before..." She was visibly fighting against herself before sighing.
"Before, when that happened with your mother, I was already over eighty. I felt I had done my duty in this life, and I didn’t want to care about you or your situation."
"Yeah. It was a miracle that you could still run around and beat people at that age."
She glared at me. "Since killing that animal, I noticed my mind clearing with each passing day. And naturally, I think of the past."
"Oh..." I drawled out.
"So it’s really just a midlife crisis." I chuckled when a walking stick flew past me, striking right beside my head; there was even a small puncture in the door.
"HAVE YOU FUCKING LOST IT? IF THAT HAD HIT ME, I WOULD HAVE DIED!"
She stood up and pointed at me like a demon from hell,
"HOW DARE YOU BELITTLE YOUR GRANDMOTHER, YOU CONVICT?"
"ISN’T IT TRUE, YOU OLD HAG? WHY DO YOU SUDDENLY START WITH THINKING AT YOUR AGE?"
"I CAN THINK OF WHATEVER I WANT! IF YOU DON’T START BEHAVING, I’LL THROW YOU OUT OF MY HOUSE!" She took a candle from the table and threw it at me, which I dodged with ease.
"SO? WHO WANTS THAT BROKEN MANSION? I HAVE A WHOLE DESTROYED SOUTH-DISTRICT TO CALL MY HOME!"
"THEN GO AND DON’T COME BACK! WHO WANTS A PRISONER LIKE YOU?"
"IF I DON’T COME BACK, YOU ARE GOING TO CRY YOURSELF INTO OVER NINETY YEARS OF AGE AGAIN!" I screamed, suppressing the laughter at seeing her in high spirits again.
"I DARE YOU TO MENTION THAT NUMBER AGAIN!" Something flew again when the door opened.
Henry caught the candleholder that nearly hit him and put it on the floor.
"That’s enough." He announced before coming to me and lifting me over his shoulder.
"What the?" I was carried out of the room and started to laugh when we were in the corridor.
"Did you have your fun?" Henry asked with a smile.
"You bet." I patted his back with more and more force until he put me down.
"How did it go with your girl?"
"She isn’t my girl, and though scared, she will try."
"Try." I snorted.
"Better than not trying." He shrugged but seemed equally annoyed.
"Now about the nine or fewer people that are possessed..." I touched his shoulder, flipping the coin.
I saw us searching a few houses but not finding anyone, even after trying a few more times.
"Since I touched the shadow that possessed you last time, I don’t see anything about the shadows directly. Regarding your counterpart, I got that information just by seeing myself mention it to you as well."
Henry leaned against a wall and thought for some time.
"You think something is interfering with what you are seeing?"
"When I saw the shadow’s past, I saw that giant looking at him, yet it felt more like it was looking directly at me. If they are a collective, can it interfere after noticing me ’watching’? Would that even be possible?"
"If that’s the case, wouldn’t it have interfered with my counterpart surrendering itself?" He had a good argument there.
"Right. We’ll have to search the south district on our own; my ability is useless for now." I will continue to try it, though.
"We’ll go now." I sighed and went to my grandma. The moment I knocked and opened the door, she again threw something at me.
"I just wanted to tell you that we’re leaving for now, hunting shadows. It could be a few days, maybe shorter."
"Good, don’t come back. And take water and food with you." She snorted and looked at her fingernails.
"Why would I even come back? Yeah, we’ll take a few cans. Have your gun by your side constantly." I closed the door before she grew nasty again and nodded at Henry.
After taking a backpack with water, something to eat, and making sure we had the taser and the knife, we climbed the ladder up and crossed the dining room. Then, we went out the window into the garden, and finally, I conjured up a ladder that brought us to the plateau. After entering and walking through the building, we arrived outside.
It was strange to see everything not upside down, though it was still askew and destroyed. But I was already accustomed to our unconventional mansion.
"In my vision, we started searching in that part." I pointed to my right; there was the way back to the place we had come from, in the direction of the fallen church tower.
"We didn’t find anything there. So now, let’s start there." I pointed to my left. This was part of the south district none of us had set foot into.
"Let’s go." Henry nodded and jumped onto an elevated asphalt chunk. I doubted I could jump that high, so I used the ladder like an old lady.
We walked down the street, constantly stopped by something hindering us, like a pile of destroyed cars, big enough to be a house, or large holes in the ruined street that gave view on black earth below.
I flipped the coin in my mind, hoping it would give us hints like it had done before, which it actually did at one point.
"Stop." I looked around when we climbed to the top of the debris left by a destroyed skyscraper. From here, we had a good view of the vicinity, but now that I was above and looking down, I was reminded of my dream. I think I am developing a fear of heights.
The hands of the woman on the coin were rapidly revealing her, and as I let my gaze wander, I found someone in a dirty dark orange uniform, wandering around in a daze like a zombie would.
"Our fellow prisoner. The last one that is still alive."
