Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 410. Preventing temporary stops

Henry’s POV

Do you know how long I’ve wanted you to draw me?

So why do you choose a time to do it when I am too ashamed to face myself, after implicating you AGAIN in a crime you haven’t committed?

Every time I felt his gaze turning back to the paper, I opened my eyes to watch him draw.

What a precious moment, such a stunning sight—not only because it was me he drew, but because watching him alone was already a view in itself.

I heard somewhere that working men are the most attractive, and it’s true.

He is most attractive when he fights, when he shoots, when he smirks, when he takes control, when he protects me, when he draws... when he just breathes.

My heart bled every time I heard him fold the paper to make a paper plane out of it; nevertheless, I forced my senses to stay alert so that I could catch each and every one of them.

And they kept coming, they kept flying, and my hands started to tremble, with so many precious treasures in my lap.

I want a room where I can store his art, where I can lock myself in when I feel ashamed, weak, and stupid.

A place where I can be alone while facing the version of myself that somehow managed to capture his interest.

Where I can stare at them, where I can study them—to learn how to behave and how to be so as to not disappoint or destroy what we have grown into.

When I heard the girl in the kitchen begin preparing dinner, and Kenny was still busy with drawing, I saw Mrs. Howard stand up.

She quietly circled the table to stand behind Kenny and took a closer look at what he was doing.

I felt my heart stutter and my body cooling, knowing that whatever she would see would give her certainty.

From the paper, her eyes snapped to me, and the way she looked at me reminded me of the time she had chastised me when I met her for the first time and later in the Commander’s world.

With her expression frozen over, she grabbed the drawing and really managed to snatch it out of Kenny’s hands because he had been distracted.

"What the...?"

She continued to stare at the drawing in her hand before speaking without looking up.

"Leave this room immediately, both of you." Her voice was ice-cold, not the typical snarky way she would speak.

"...If you want." Kenny sighed and lazily stood up.

He took a look at me, motioning for the empty IV.

"Let’s go."

I nodded and pulled the needle out of the back of my hand, seeing out of the corner of my eye that the kid was kneeling on his stool, fiddling alarmedly with his pen while looking in between everyone in the room.

I cautiously gathered the paper planes in my arms before standing up.

Kenny was already out of the door, and I followed after him.

When I passed Mrs. Howard, I ignored her chilling gaze and balanced the paper planes with one arm to hold them to my body while I used my free hand to snatch the paper from her hand back.

Her jaw clenched, and she looked at me furiously, but I had what I wanted, so I left the room.

I feel as if I am sinking to a dark place.

I exited the room and found Kenny leaning against the wall beside the door, his arms crossed as he looked at the staircase absentmindedly.

He looked up at me, and when he saw the load I was carrying along with the paper I had stolen, he chuckled and pushed himself from the wall.

He wanted to take a few of the paper planes, but I evaded his hands.

"Hey, I drew them," he protested before walking with me to the staircase.

"But you threw them at me, and now they are mine." I walked behind him down the steps, noting how he focused on me in case I fell so he would have to catch me.

I broke into a smile... so handsome.

"Pfft. You think I drew you because I looked at you? How disappointed would you be to find Kitty on each of them?" He laughed as we walked down the dark blue corridor back to our room.

I wanted to play cool and say something back when my words stuck in my throat. He was right; I really felt a deep disappointment overcoming me.

Kenny looked back while pressing his finger against our door lock.

"Hey! Don’t look like you’re ready to die; it’s you, it’s you!" He chuckled.

I breathed out, the weighing disappointment sucking me deeper to the dark place instantly turning into giddy euphoria.

He had such power over me and my feelings—

My addicting, never-ending rollercoaster with its entrance down in hell, its loops reaching to heaven, and with the exit at some unknown place where sandcastles grew from the ground and paper planes flew in the air.

We entered the room, and Kenny crashed onto the mattress, clearly exhausted.

I went to the left side of the bed—my side—and knelt on the floor to slowly put down each of my many gifts.

I still didn’t dare to open them and take a look just yet and instead sat on the mattress beside Kenny, who was lying on his stomach with his head turned to me.

"You don’t wanna take a look at my masterpieces?"

"Mhm, I am trying to prolong the anticipation," I answered before placing my hand on his head and combing through his hair.

"Pfft, they are yours anyway, so be as anticipating as you want."

"Mhm, mine." I nodded slowly while stroking over his eyebrow before going back to play with his hair.

"You took me with you into your vision. How did you do that?" I asked the first thing that came to mind because I feared that Mrs. Howard would be angry enough to talk to Ethan—only for us to have to hear them speak.

If that were the case, what should I do?

Why do I feel that he would leave me the moment his grandmother voiced her explicit disapproval?

Why does this room feel like a temporary stop, not at all like a home anymore?

I again felt the shadowy energy thrumming in my cells, an obscure thought chasing the next one, and a simple, obvious question presented itself in my mind.

"Oh yeah. No idea." Kenny seemed successfully distracted from the situation.

That question being, why am I feeling so anxious when I can just easily let everyone who isn’t Kenny disappear?

Who could say if they would really die? Who knew if they weren’t just sent on their way to a long journey?

A journey from one beautiful place to the next, but on a path that didn’t intersect with ours.

And that would never intersect with ours ever again.

"Take me with you." I murmured.

"Let’s do it now. Let’s take a look at tomorrow," he offered.

I nodded involuntarily, and he grabbed my hand and interlocked our fingers.

Then he looked at me and smiled, sending my heart into a frenzied flutter.

Suddenly everything didn’t seem so dire anymore, and the colorless temporary stop turned into a dark green room.

He closed his eyes, and the next second I was somewhere else—ripped out of the darkest place inside my head, which had just started to light up again, to then

stand in a place with darkness surrounding my body—not my mind.

I recognize the surface enclosing me when my eyes get used to the dim lighting; it was my shield.

Under me is grass; to my left, I see Kenny and Henry—our future versions from tomorrow.

I don’t hear anything—not them talking, not the outside world—and it is dark enough for me to notice that I don’t have my upgraded night sight anymore.

I don’t see my ’present Kenny’ anywhere inside here, so I watch our future selves acting.

Kenny pulls out the arrow gun and starts firing at the ceiling of the shield, and only then do I notice why it is so dark inside here.

We are buried by rats; they are trying to enter the shield from the left, the right, and above. They are also trying to come from under us, but it seems my future self had enclosed us inside a spherical shield that cut through the grass and earth.

The high, only estimated number of pests is now displayed in front of our eyes.

There are many more than we thought.

An arrow gun will surely not be enough to get rid of them.

Good.

Maybe I can be useful tomorrow and give him an additional reason that prevents him from leaving me—simultaneously stopping me from sinking back into the obscure temporary stop on my path to become a real monster.