"Where did you co from?" Chubby Guy asked.
"Shhh, wake Kenny up and live with the consequences." Henry hissed.
"You look like the commander, just a bit younger." Birthmark whispered.
I heard Henry chuckle, but I was still too lazy to open my eyes.
"He is a distant, much older cousin of mine." The dog seed to have his fun even with not participating anyway.
"Oh... so you co from the sa world?" Birthmark asked hesitantly.
"...No, I am from your world."
"But... isn’t he your cousin?" Chubby Guy.
This ti the commander chuckled.
"Be quiet, or you’ll wake Kenny up." Henry warned.
"Too late." I propped myself up, trying not to rember the already fuzzy dream scenes of Ken and stuff; I think I even dread about the commander spotting Henry and kissing.
That jerk. I glared at the commander for showing up in my dreams but found he wasn’t even looking at . He, Birthmark, and the chubby guy all sat together with Mr. Aslan at the entrance of the cave.
"You woke him up." Henry said unhappily, while Birthmark and Chubby Guy instinctively looked at the ground, not daring to et his eyes.
"How are you?" He turned to , and I nodded.
"So, the plan is to continue to walk ahead, hoping to find a portal back ho. Any objections?" I did not hear any objections, so the plan was set.
Naturally, we wouldn’t just walk around; I would flip the coin, trying to find out where we should go, if a portal would open, about other survivors near us, etc. Hopefully, my ability was cooperating with today.
But before that, I needed to visit the present Henry, or he would be angry. Now I had to take care of two dogs.
"We will go in ten minutes; get yourself ready."
"About the beds...?" Chubby Guy asked , his eyes looking longingly at the mattress.
"Don’t worry." I made a hand motion and let every mattress besides the one I was currently on disappear, while the two guys watched my magic with awe.
"Anyone hungry? Sothing to drink?"
"How hospitable." Henry seed angrier again.
"...Pizza Salami?" Birthmark seed hesitant because of Henry, but it seed that breakfast, and a hearty one at that, was more important than his fear.
"Here you go." I conjured up the pizza, including the box and everything, sat up, and leaned forward to pass it to him.
"Coffee and a ham sandwich?" The chubby guy made his own request, and I gave him what he wanted.
"Thank you so much!" He stood up to take it over with both hands, bowing to repeatedly, while Birthmark, who was already sitting again and had a piece of pizza in his mouth, also chid in with the bowing.
"No problem."
The commander still didn’t look at , so there was no breakfast for him.
"Henry?" I turned to the grumpy dog.
"I am not hungry."
"Yeah, yeah." If everyone ate junk for breakfast, I got him sothing similar and conjured up his favorite chicken wings from the center, including the bowl and a hairband.
Placing the food on his lap, I grabbed his hair and steered the back of his head toward , putting the hairband in my mouth as I gathered his fur before I bound it together.
I got myself a bottle of peach iced tea, opened it, and saw everyone staring at strangely.
"What?" I asked them.
The office guys looked away, while the commander seed a bit conspiratorial. I looked at Henry and found him grinning and touching the hairband on the back of his hand, but he turned away the mont he noticed watching.
Pfft. Childish.
I drank my iced tea, hearing the dog obediently eating from his bowl.
The sunlight may be nurturing, but what everyone needed was soul food. And because I could give out each food I had ever eaten for thousands of tis before it would end in a ti paradox, why the fuck not?
After drinking my bottle, I let it disappear and lay down on the mattress.
"We are going in ten minutes; I’ll just close my eyes for a few monts." I announced.
I flipped the table in my mind, hoping it would not only work but also that, just like last ti, no ti would pass here while I was away.
I flipped the giant coin, watching it fly and turn, float and dance, until it landed in my hand, where I slapped it on the back of my other hand.
Uncovering it, I saw the letter ’H’ standing on the coin and hoped with all my might that it stood for Harry and not for Henry as I was sucked into the vortex.
From nothingness to existence, I was spit out of the vortex, finding big letters before my eyes on a lit phone screen.
’ATTACK FROM THE SKY, THE NEVER-SEEN LIGHTNING DISASTER!’
I looked from the screen to my hand, seeing that the nails were short but also that this hand was a bit older; it should be really Harry’s.
I looked up and found myself inside a white room, with a similar layout to Henry’s and mine, and on the bed across from sat Patrick, also on his phone.
Feeling my gaze, he suddenly looked up before freezing.
"Oh shit!"
He sprang up, took the phone out of my hand, and threw it to the bed before he pulled up, dragging out of the room. I stumbled after him, but not as severely as the last ti; the more familiar body height really made a big difference.
Anti-Guy repeatedly pressed the elevator button in front of which he had dragged until the door opened.
Like last ti, the mirror inside the elevator didn’t show my reflection but soone else’s.
Glasses Guy, over thirty years old, not as tall as Anti-Guy.
I pushed up the glasses on top of Harry’s red eyes, watching my image in the mirror respond by doing the sa.
"Wha—" I again cleared my throat; the different voice coming out of my mouth was making dizzy.
"What happened—the lightning?" I asked Anti-Guy.
"How do you know?" He asked before answering anyway.
"A few days ago, there were lightning strikes in the middle of the day! Over two hundred people were struck by lightning, and fifty of them died because of it. Nature is going crazy!"
"Is Henry alright?" I asked before I even registered it.
"Yes... the others too; we weren’t outside, and this facility has first-class lightning rods." Anti-Guy nodded.
When the elevator door opened, he again grabbed my wrist and dragged down the familiar corridor, but this ti, there were no nurses in front of Henry’s room.
Patrick knocked once hard on the door, then twice softer, then twice harder on the door.
He hadn’t even put his hand away when the door was ripped open from the inside.
"Kenny!" My hand was taken, and I was pulled inside before the door was shut into Anti-Guy’s face in the corridor.
Henry hugged tightly, making laugh.
"What’s up on your side?"
"How long has it been for you since your last visit?" Henry asked, desperately clinging to .
"Less than a day; yesterday I was here in the early evening or sothing, today directly after waking up. And for you?"
"Two months." Henry hugged tighter.
This ti difference... doesn’t make any sense at all.
User Comments
0 comments from readers