Flip the Coin [BL] Chapter 261. Corruption

I am in front of my crystalline counterpart, and instead of attacking, I stay still.

It doesn’t move as well, and although there is no face on the polished smooth surface, I know it is watching .

Then I hear the screams, the sa pain-stricken screams I had heard today, unsure where the sound is coming from.

I touch my head, and the figure does the sa. I have a headache.

Why is soone screaming, and why am I hearing it so vividly, as if it is real, as if it had been real?

The table had flipped, the violet coin in my mind is pulsing; although this isn’t real, this is a dream—or is it?

No, it is.

After our talk in the bathroom, I did crash into my bed, I rember.

What is going on, and what is wrong with ?

The screams are louder, the pulsing so intense that I see the light behind my lids—not even closing my eyes brings peace.

I snap my eyes open and see the figure in front of . I cover my ears, but again, there is no peace.

"Are you screaming?" I ask the figure, and it tilts its head while still mirroring and covering its ears.

"Who the hell is screaming?" I yell into this beautiful crystalline world.

The figure in front of behaves unusually, neither mirroring nor doing the opposite as it raises its arm to point at sothing.

I follow its hand and see that on the earth not far away, the crystals on the ground shake, rise, and build an open room. The room that appeared was similar to a prison cell, with a tal desk in it, on which over a dozen papers lay.

Now I know that this wasn’t just a vision anymore; it had turned into sothing else.

"Had my vision turned into a lucid dream? Why are you showing this?"

A vision or imagination? A mory or a nightmare?

I look at my hands and see that they have grown so big, while the ground I can see through my fingers has grown so far away.

This crystalline world suddenly seems so fragile as I take a step forward with my gigantic foot, my head fogging, thinking becoming harder.

I reach down and grab my crystalline counterpart, doing what I always do. I see the figure in my palm, just lying there as I put it in my mouth, as I devour it, crushing the crystals between my teeth before I swallow.

Swallow under screams, screams as I swallow, screams while I swallow, eating, devouring, and repeat, an endless cycle of devouring and being devoured, and when I stop swallowing, I die—no, when I am being swallowed, I die. No, I die in either case; I am going to die.

I will die, diediediediediediediediedie.

But I don’t want to die.

I just want to go ho.

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

I snapped my eyes open, holding my pounding head.

When I turned to my side, I saw him sleeping beside , even cuddling .

Am I back in this strange body, inside this unknown world?

My eyes wandered to the window, and again the hope that it would show my ho surfaced.

I wanted to try it again, I wanted to confirm again, and if it really wasn’t my own world, I again wished to at least take another look at this unknown world before I would disappear again.

My body felt so heavy and foreign as I crawled over the body blocking and fell on the ground.

"Kenny?" A tired voice asked, but I didn’t answer.

I am not your Kenny; I don’t even know you.

"Kenny? What are you doing?"

I continued to crawl. I have to see. I have to see.

When I reached the windowsill and pulled myself up, hands grabbed and helped up, holding in place by my arms.

"Is sothing wrong with your legs?"

Hannibal, have you ever talked to in such a worried voice?

I looked at him.

His eyes...were so intense, the blue color—I had never seen sothing like this before. His eyes were as intense as mine were, or had been.

Wait, does that an he had also gathered his other parts? Does it an he can open the layers as well?

"You and I are friends?" I narrowed my eyes at him.

Naturally we were when we slept in the sa bed. And if we were friends, there was a tiny chance, a minuscule hope, that he would help .

He didn’t answer, scrutinizing instead.

"Can you see the layers? Are you aware?" I asked.

I can’t see them in this body, but if he could, if he could open them...maybe I could return ho.

Sudden regret overwheld , longing so strong that I felt like my heart was ripped out.

Sotis a door is just a door. No need to walk through it.

Yes, you were right. I was wrong all along.

"I want to go ho." I said, choked up, my headache intensifying.

"Who are you?" The eyes in front of changed, the emotions gone from them, only a still mask remaining.

Yes, this look—this is how I know you.

It was nearly nostalgic.

"Kenneth Howard." I answered him, still needing his help to stay standing.

"Are you the giant?" Hannibal asked .

Giant...giant...giant—an imaginary or mythical being of human form and superhuman size.

Terror crawled up my spine as my lips moved involuntarily.

"No."

"I am Kenneth Howard." I am Kenneth Howard, and although I am also so much more, so many other selves as well, no matter if human or creature, monster or slimy tree thing, I will remain Kenneth Howard, my first and inborn identity.

The identity I need to go back ho.

My head hurt so much; my power was leaking out of this feeble body, weakening .

"What is your last mory?" Hannibal asked, his hold having long turned from assistance to restriction.

"...I have gathered another part of myself. It was a tree..."

"What about after that?" His face cos closer, his eyes looking down on with a burning heat behind the disregarding mask.

Was there sothing after that?

"I think... I gathered another part after that." I pressed my eyes together and turned my head, trying to rember.

Everything was so fuzzy. What did I forget? Why are my mories out of order?

The more I tried to rember, the more my head thrumd, and I felt another wave of terror before I knew I would retract myself back into this foreign body.

"I will go now."

"If you wake up again, find ; don’t do anything rash. I will help you with whatever you want to do." His words sounded more like a threat, but he clearly wouldn’t do anything to this body.

"Then I will take you up on that offer." I mumbled while I closed my eyes.

The last thing I felt was as this body was pressed to his bigger body, and ’I’ was being tightly embraced.

It sohow felt nice; it was my first ti being hugged by a man. It felt not like my mother’s previous hugs during the beginning of my childhood or that from Emily later—

—but much safer.