Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 200. No Reptiles by Everything Everything

"What is your name?" The nurse asks.

"Kenneth Howard." The child answers.

"Where are your parents?" She asks again.

"...I wonder," the child replies, not looking at her; instead, he gazes out of the window. His head is bandaged, and his eyes are reddish-brown, leaning more towards the red side.

"What do you mean, ’you wonder’? Is there nobody caring for you? Where do you live?"

"I wonder how many there are...," the child mumbles, finally looking at the woman.

"You have one mother and one father. What are you talking about?"

"Hmm... is it that simple?" The child turns his head away.

***********

The nurse dials a number she found in the phone book near the hospital room, allowing the child inside to hear her talking.

"We have him, Mrs. Howard, don’t worry. But... could you come here? When he was examined for his head injury, we found something... You must come to the hospital immediately."

**********

The child waits in the hospital waiting room, staring straight ahead, hearing his mother scream inside the doctor’s office.

"I don’t understand what you are telling me! How can his personality change with just one operation?" The hysterical woman screeches.

"Mrs. Howard, haven’t you read what you have signed? The operation to remove the tumor wasn’t simple. It was a brain surgery, and because the fall had caused the tumor to swell, pressing heavily against his pineal gland... no, forget it. That child died three times on my operating table. If you’re not happy that he can communicate with you, then you should at least be grateful that he’s alive," the doctor implores her. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

The child approaches the door and peeks through the keyhole, watching what is happening inside.

"I AM SCARED OF HIM! I AM SCARED OF THIS CHILD AND HIS EYES!" The woman completely breaks down and slides to the floor.

The doctor studies her for a long time, assessing her state.

"I think you need help raising the child. I will call the authorities."

*************

"What’s your name?" The black-haired little girl asks.

"Kenneth Howard, and yours?" The red-eyed child replies.

"Emily Devlin." She smiles adorably.

"Mhm." The child continues to stare out of the window from the large apartment above the restaurant.

"What are you looking at?" She asks, taking a seat beside him.

"I’m not sure."

"What?" She leans closer, following his gaze, only to see the dark buildings across the street and the dark sky above them.

"I think... It’s something fun." The boy turns to her and grins.

************

"YOU ARE CREEPY! STAY AWAY FROM MY SISTER!" The blue-eyed boy shoves the red-eyed one to the ground.

"Why am I creepy?"

"SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH YOU! DON’T THINK I CAN’T TELL!"

*************

"What did you talk about with Emily? Here is a safe space; nobody will judge you. You can tell me everything," the blond woman explains.

"About the layers..." the boy drawls out.

"Can you elaborate?"

The child smiles, not looking at the woman.

"Tell me. When did you first notice these ’layers’?"

"They’ve always been there, twirling and snaking between life and death, nature and humans."

"That is a very philosophical perspective. What are these layers?"

"I don’t know. But I want to find out."

"You are curious? What else are you feeling?"

"As if there is more to everything we see."

"Mhm, many people believe that. Some believe in gods, and some believe in a higher might."

"You don’t understand." The child stands up and looks at the woman, his red eyes shining brightly.

"There is so much more. So, so much more! And it would be such a pity to remain stagnant, knowing that so much fantastical awaits out there."

The blond woman shifts uncomfortably in her chair.

"You can explore the country when you are older; you can even see the world if you want."

The child raises his finger and moves it to the left and right.

"Why only one world?"

****************

"Where are you going?" The black-haired girl, now a teenager, asks while standing in the hallway.

"Shh. Don’t wake the others." The red-eyed teenager replies.

"Where are you going?" She repeats.

He kisses her on the forehead.

"Remember what I told you?"

"The layers? You will cross?"

"Yeah."

"I want to come too!"

"No, you aren’t ready, not aware. But your day will come. I’ll wait for you." He smiles at her, leaving the big, run-down apartment.

He takes his bike and rides through the empty streets. He leaves the city and watches the sun rise. Everything around him is empty as he drives deeper into nature.

He spreads his arms out and feels the air as he starts to laugh. The anticipation and exhilaration peak and fill his eyes with tears.

When he sees a beautiful spot, he stops and jumps off his bike. There is nothing but his clothes on him as he enters the forest.

The melodies of the wind in the trees and the birds sound foreign to him as they sing him goodbye.

All the little lines he had seen in the air since his fall back in his childhood, like chipped marble, lay bare in front of him. But instead of massive stone, they feel like wings enclosing something holy.

He puts his hand inside the first layer and slowly peels it back, followed by the next and the next. He does so tenderly, as if not to injure the wings.

There are many layers, but ultimately he feels that something around him has changed.

He steps inside, and before even appreciating his surroundings, he turns around and slowly places one layer over another, closing whatever he had opened with the utmost care.

When he turns back, he finds himself standing on a large metallic surface that floats on a violet, endless sea.

He sits down and watches for a long time; the sun rotates horizontally instead of vertically, giving him all the time in the world to look.

He giggles to himself, truly happy.

Finally, he takes a few steps forward and again carefully opens the many, many layers to take another look into another world, followed by another one, to explore to his heart’s content what he had longed to see since he was a child.

************

Finding himself caught in a cave full of a black mass and something biting his leg, the red-eyed young man laughs and steps on it.

Something interesting happens, something even he had never expected.

He discovers a new way to explore and create new experiences.

************

The red-eyed young man sets out to find the other parts of himself, and curiously, his body starts to change with each part he ’gathers.’

First, he becomes stronger and faster; then he starts to grow taller.

More time passes, and the worlds he explores begin to change as well; they become smaller.

It takes him an awfully long time until he finally notices that it is his body that has never stopped growing.

Strangely, it feels difficult to form a clear thought.

He thought he would continue to grow stronger and faster, and stronger he would indeed become, but also bigger and slower.

So many lives; he had taken so many lives, seldom of others and mostly of himself. Instead of feeling pain when his body is injured, he starts to feel a constant ache as if all the unjust deaths are reverberating inside him.

Why is this happening?

He had just put back what had long been part of him, just to see and learn with a childlike curiosity.

But the many parts he took were not all human, not all sane, not all sentient, not all conscious, and not all good, but also not all bad, and yet each of them, each and every single one, had wanted to live and gather experiences on its own.

He doesn’t understand anymore and continues with what he has been doing all these years, partly out of instinct and partly because he is yearning for something that had long been lost.

The tenderness isn’t there anymore; the soft marble and the sensitive wings are ripped open indiscriminately.

He continues to explore, and when the worlds seem too small to continue carrying him, he rests and waits to finally find himself again.