Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 348. Inside

Henry’s POV

I opened my eyes and groaned from the pain of each muscle in my body.

I instantly knew that something was wrong besides the remaining strain I felt from the fight with the Skull Spider.

It wasn’t difficult to notice what it was when we were inside such a small space, and the only opening giving us sunlight had disappeared, even though Kenny and I wouldn’t need it to see.

"Kenny." I grabbed the hand he still had in my hair and raised my body from his lap.

"Kenny." Seeing him asleep, I shook his shoulder before I leaned to the other side of the tree with difficulty and tested the wood that had suddenly grown our entrance shut.

It didn’t seem as thick, so I punched my fist through; my arm felt like it was shattering, but when I pulled back, there was no hole leading to the outside.

My fist, however, was full of thick dark blood that seeped from the wooden wall.

I wiped it on my clothes before I moved back to Kenny and continued to shake him.

When he didn’t react, I held my fingers to his neck; I could feel a pulse.

"Kid." I grabbed her shoulder while leaning over Kenny, breaking out in a cold sweat on the go, and shook her.

She soon woke up, fighting herself out of the blankets.

Her eyes instantly went to Kenny before she looked at the spot where a hole big enough for us to enter and EXIT should be.

I continued to shake Kenny, patting his cheek, when he finally opened his eyes.

"You have to stop doing this." I let out the breath that had been stuck in my throat since I saw him not waking up.

"Sorry. My friends and grandma are here to rescue us; outside of the tree is the tiger." He grabbed my hand that was still around his upper arm with a bit too much strength and squeezed it before he kneeled forward and examined the bark-like surface.

He also tried to punch through the tree while I still tried to comprehend his words.

How did he know that there was help?

And if he talked about a tiger... was it the one I told Ethan to find a home for?

If it was the same tiger, then I had a good guess how he knew.

"What the fuck?" He looked at the dark, bloody mass on his fist.

"You can enter the tiger’s body? What about the protecting layer on the table?" My heart skipped a few beats when I thought of what him being able to use the giant’s power meant for his mental health.

"Yeah, I can; the tiger went ahead. The others are at the tents at the moment." He looked up, examining our wooden ceiling while still seated because the space wasn’t tall enough to stand.

"The protective layer?" I reminded him anxiously.

"Ah, yes. I can somehow use the violet coin while the crystalline layer is still intact." He raised his upper body while I, now reassured about his state of mind, felt the shadowy cells inside me protesting, wanting a sacrifice to calm down.

I had killed Dr. Thompson’s assistant, and he didn’t mention any animals receiving Kenny’s blood.

And when I asked Dr. Lawrence if the tiger had Kenny’s blood in him, she lied to my face.

HA!

"On the field where the skyscrapers were, there is now a big black pulsing flower." Kenny said, distracting me while he knocked on the wood around us.

"The heart of the Bone Monster?" I already knew the moment the words left my lips.

"Yeah. Maybe the Bone Dragon and that black heart thing are two different things, like a parasite and host or something, and we killed only the bones, not the heart. There is now a black flower, and we are now locked inside something like a room inside a tree."

"You think the black heart has now latched onto the skyscraper counterparts?" If there were even some still left.

The most beautiful red eyes found mine, and he grinned.

"I knew you would get it instantly. Yeah, this could be the case."

I gulped, getting heated with just a look from him; just a word, a smile, and I was sent into a euphoric daze.

Because we had talked, and he wanted me nearly as much as I wanted him.

Because he practically admitted that he was obsessed with me.

That he loved me.

Because the secret he kept from me all this time and that made him suffer was kept in fear of losing me. What a joke; how would that ever be possible?

Because... he wanted to lock me up, and I wanted nothing more than for that to come true.

Because he finally told me everything that happened, and I could now share a bit of his burden, although it would never be enough.

Just thinking of the details he mentioned, surely only a fraction of how it really felt for him, made my chest so tight that I felt suffocated.

And it made me so furious that I wanted to see and taste blood.

It brought me so much sorrow that I wanted to look away from it, to numb myself so that I wouldn’t feel it.

But I had to feel it because I wanted to be part of every experience he had made.

I raised my hand with a tremble, either from the emotions that felt as if they would break out of me or the excruciating pain that made each movement hell.

I gathered shadowy energy and could feel how much power was sucked out of me, even though I wanted to use my power, and my power wanted to be used.

I can’t wait for Kenny to take care of me; it would be even better if he saw it as a little game between us, because it seemed that besides wanting him all to myself and his whole attention, I really needed his assistance.

The dark energy rose up, destroying the ceiling and widening the hollow space inside the tree until we saw a cloudy sky above us.

Kenny and I suddenly heard labored breathing and found that the girl was nearly blue.

He took her in his arms and asked what had happened to her, while I tried to overcome the stab in my heart.

"It seems that the air had been tight; we hadn’t even noticed."

"Mhm." But she was still alive, wasn’t she?

Let go of her.

I moved my hand to the side and attacked the wall where the entrance had been.

I didn’t need so much of the shadowy energy to do that, but my vision was laced with black dots, and I was close to losing consciousness.

"Fuck. Stop it, Henry!" Kenny finally, finally let go of someone who wasn’t me and cupped my face.

"Sorry for hesitating." He pressed his lips to mine, and I tasted blood.

I could feel the power, the rejuvenating energy, but as if it was unable to be digested, I didn’t feel better or pain-free.

This time it seemed I really needed to rest and occupy myself in the most natural way.

"Better?" Kenny asked me, and I pulled him close again to continue our kiss, because this was what I really wanted and needed.

I still had my hand raised and was using my power, sucking on his lips, like I was sucked dry by the use of the shadowy energy.

It felt as if I was trying to conquer a thick layer of concrete with bare hands, but eventually, there was light shining inside.

Kenny dissolved the kiss, and I bent over to steal a few pecks from his lips while he looked at the hole that had formed inside the wall.

He kissed me back for a short moment before he turned around and motioned for the girl to crawl over.

"Don’t be scared of the tiger; he is a friend," Kenny said, and when I finally looked through the hole myself, I found red eyes staring back inside.

The tiger bit into the girl’s clothes on her back and helped pull her out.

Kenny and he worked together as if they understood each other.

As if they had a connection.

Again I felt the black shadowy energy wanting to break free, even in this weakened state I was in.

There are so many bloody reasons to be furious that I can’t decide who to slaughter first.

Kenny pulled Henrietta to the hole and pushed her through it, the kid and tiger soon pulling her from the other side.

I just watched, feeling that I would soon lose consciousness if I did as much as form another violent thought, not to speak of lifting a finger.

"I go first and pull you out; don’t move." Kenny cupped my face again; nothing could be hidden from him.

"Yeah. Don’t forget me," I whispered weakly.

"Never." He placed his lips on mine again before he got out of the hole that had become smaller and smaller.

When his shoes were out, and I could do nothing more than sit there motionlessly, seeing him disappear from me, I just felt empty.

But then a sword, enchanted with my power, cut through the wall and widened the hole.

Next... I saw his hand reaching inside for me, and the emptiness was gone.

I choked up and chuckled.

Now I just feel like crying.

Thank you for surviving until now, Kenny.