Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 448. Sepia Space

My consciousness was sucked into the vortex, ceasing to exist before assembling itself anew, this time in my own body.

I instantly knew that whatever the fuck the paranoia had served me had been nothing more than lies... with the exception of X, Y, and Z—the question and its answers that had helped me find my way out of the thirst for fake control and the compulsive intake of false facts.

One of my legs felt strange, as if all my weight was placed on it, and I snapped my eyes open.

Huh...

One twisted joke was haunting the next, as it seemed.

I looked at the orange sandstorm around me before making the mistake of looking down.

I was standing with one leg on the tip of a... I don’t even know what this is, a cone-like, very high, black metal thing, looking like a smooth thorn.

At a distance of a few meters were other giant thorns, their tips so sharp that it should be impossible for me to stand on top of one of them.

I wore shoes for whatever reason, and I could feel the sharp tip burrowing into my sole; nevertheless, standing there so chill, not being blasted away by the sandstorm, and not even having one corn on me as well should be impossible.

"Goddamn it!" I spread my arms out for the chance that this crazy balance prowess suddenly gave out so that I wouldn’t instantly fall to my death then.

Though... who the fuck cares?

A utopic landscape—while I couldn’t reach my space or feel the vortex pulling at me, nor did my abilities of supersight or hearing come back—at the same time, the tattoos on my arms told me I was indeed in my own body—there was only one conclusion:

I had been swooped up into the maestro’s world again.

Better said, space.

Alright, we apparently want to finish each outstanding task I wanted to achieve? At once?

I mean, first Chelsea and co., then Dr. Lawrence and Gothic Girl—I had located everyone I had planned to locate—with the exception of Chacha, though I wouldn’t be surprised if he popped up somewhere now.

Anyway, and now I suddenly have the possibility to test the theory I came up with regarding the maestro?

Aren’t we moving a bit too efficiently here?

And all that while I feel weak as hell, my own ability already overused?

Fine, fine, fine, who am I to complain? At least I am out of the paranoid fit.

I will try to extract myself from this space with the new fucking awareness I had gained last time, now having an idea of ’what’ exactly these Maestr worlds were.

I had somehow viewed the maestro as some kind of god able to call everyone to these strange places to play with them—maybe even the person that we ’Kennys’ were molded after or some shit—at the same time completely forgetting about the other part my ability was about: it was the control over time and SPACE.

It was so damn obvious, given that I too had long, LONG been the owner of a space myself—the darkness in my mind with the table and the coin on it.

And that seems to be what I have done with the zombies, just instinctively forming a space to suck them into it, together with Ren and Henry.

That was probably also the reason why Ren was able to suddenly gain powers he couldn’t have in ’reality’; Ren and I had a connection that treated him like a miniature me, making me unable to flip the coin on him, just like with myself, and giving him power over the space if he claimed it.

I think he already saw me in his dreams fighting and whatnot and just imitated me, the same with his eyes suddenly turning red and stuff.

And just as I had sucked in the zombies into my space, maybe the maestro just sucked in his counterparts’ consciousness into his space.

So... Ren was able to gather power in my space because of our connection, but what if two space users—better said, counterparts—met each other in one of their spaces?

Let’s try.

I didn’t look down at the ground I was unable to perceive, but with one leg, I stood there on the thorn, untouched by the sepia world around me.

I thought of the feeling back then while hearing a slight murmur in my ear from a voice I seemed to have forgotten: "And if not your mind, at least your body will remember."

I remembered the feeling of something forming, something expanding, something minimizing before casting me out, ejecting me back to where I wanted to be—beyond the space.

My body shook and trembled, and I nearly fell, coughing up blood while I tried to stay afloat when the scenery around me suddenly changed.

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

I look at the game console in my small hands, navigating the character I played between the spikes lowering themselves from the ceiling and the ground only to see the dark little mannequin getting squished when I don’t react fast enough.

"Ha..." I sigh before looking up at the other kids waiting in the big magnificent room with the huge velvet curtain on the side.

Some of them move their fingers as if playing their respective instruments already, and I look at the violin case beside me before returning back to my game and press the button to...

Restart.

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

Back in my body but still in this sepia space, I coughed up more blood and drenched my shirt with red while feeling myself tilt to the side.

There was no time to think about the eerily similar scene with thorns I had just seen on the screen, as I nearly fell, doing my best to twist my upper body and hands to stay standing where I was.

Then I heard something and turned my head, at the same time flailing my arms to again NOT FALL.

Something came closer, flying toward me, and I... didn’t really want to know what the hell that was.

Then I saw it, saw my counterparts coming from the sky, interlocked into each other. It seemed as if they formed a human rope.

One held the other’s hands, the next held onto the other’s feet, and the next one had his legs bent so that the next could interlock his arms with them.

This counterpart rope, swinging toward me, seemed to be very long, each of them bloody and brittle with wounds. Especially the last one flying toward me had his whole upper body bloody as hell.

I could spot twenty or so; farther up I couldn’t see because of the sandstorm.

Like a bloody circus, and just seeing this picture reminded me of something I had seen not long ago, but I was unable to grasp it.

"CATCH!" The bloody Kenny at the end roared, his body upside down as his arms reached for me.

I cursed and raised my arms as I was beginning to lose the battle with the balance and was soon falling anyway.

The end of the Kenny rope gripped my wrists, and I did the same.

The moment my feet were removed from the dark metal thorn, I felt the wind and the sand slashing my skin, giving me wounds as we swung up.

Having just been in a childlike body playing a game with spikes on the ceiling and ground, I had a bit of a suspicion about what was to come.

"YOU HAVE TO GRAB THE BLACK THING!" The Kenny holding onto me suddenly jerked away from me, surprising me so much that I let go of him as well.

The next second, I felt him holding onto my legs with all his might.

"YOU DAMN MOTHERFUCKER!" I yelled, nearly having a heart attack in this free fall, being somewhat thrown upward and that without someone holding onto me.

Sand had entered my lungs, and my eyes stung from it as well.

"WHEN YOU SEE SOMETHING, HOLD ONTO IT OR WE WILL ALL DIE, YOU DAMN PEST!" I heard him roar back, now coming from under me.

I suppressed a coughing fit, forcing my eyes open, no matter what flew into them, as I looked around while we were still going up.

Then I could see dark thorns, the same as before, except that they were placed from the sky, pointing downwards...

I wasn’t really surprised, but the thorns were as smooth as the one I stood on. SO HOW THE HELL SHOULD I HOLD ONTO THEM?

I moved my body, nearly getting pierced by a thorn, when I finally saw what I could grab.

The thorn I would be able to reach soon had little inserted handles about half a meter above the sharp ending.

The second we reached the highest point and stood still, I had the handle exactly in front of me, so I instinctively gripped it.

Holding tightly onto it, I felt weight and movement from under me, as the rope was now swinging further DOWN.

I, who had been at the very end, had turned to be on the very top now.

The weight continued to grow, nearly ripping my arms out, and I heard something on my shoulder crack or rip or whatever that OMINOUS SOUND WAS.

Why the hell am I doing this when I know from experience that I cannot die even if I fall to death by dying inside the Maestro’s space???

With the movement forward and the handle above, my lower body moved forward with the guys swinging in the same direction.

I looked at the sharp ending, resting against my stomach, and could already imagine what would happen next.

"FUCK NONONONONO!" I watched my lower body tilting forward, the weight excruciatingly strong on me, and the sharp thorn piercing into my stomach.

"FUUUUCK!!!"

There was no way to hold onto anything else.

I could either let go of the handles or kick the fucker under me; those were my two options for lesser pain.

"CLENCH YOUR TEETH, YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" The Kenny under me hollered, and I really pressed my jaws together, trying to ignore the pain from the sharp tip that burrowed into my insides.

The end of the thorn continued to sink into my body, and I continued to ask myself again why the hell I was doing this!

WHY THE HELL AM I DOING WHAT THIS FUCKED-UP COUNTERPART YELLED AT ME TO DO??!!?!? I SHOULD HAVE THROWN MYSELF FROM THE THORN I STOOD AT INSTEAD OF TESTING SHIT THEORIES THE MOMENT I ARRIVED HERE!

I groan-yelled while spitting all over my face, thinking about how sure that bastard from the fight club at that time was, saying that I would absolutely surely die if I died in the Maestro’s space.

So maybe I did just survive after getting pierced by the maestro because I was just much more powerful than the other Kennys?

Good deed, I AM DOING A FUCKING GOOD DEED, not wanting the others to die even if they behaved like the most thankless garbage.

"JUST A BIT MORE!!!" Kenny under me yelled, and I bit back more curses and spit.

"LET GO!" he commanded, and I did as told, my pierced body slipping from the smooth thorn as the hands holding onto my legs tightened their grip.

Oh, we had that before, and I JUST THOUGHT ABOUT IT! Slipping from a stick then, now slipping from a thorn, just that my counterpart prevented me from falling to my death and rather pulled me from the thorn than letting me slip.

Anyway, I was blessed with staying conscious as it went back DOWN.

I CAN SEE A FUCKING PATTERN THERE, MY FRIENDS!

The wind I hadn’t noticed while holding onto the thorn was back, but everything was better than piercing myself while my arms were stained by the weight of an unknown number of Kennys hanging from me.

That the long Kenny rope was now swinging down again with me on the bottom meant that on top there was someone getting pierced right now.

Mhm, I get it.

Maybe it was the adrenaline hit, but I understand this little game the Maestro came up with after playing something similar on a GAME CONSOLE. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Every counterpart wanted to not be the one getting pierced, so they would pick up unsuspecting little new Kennys, just like me a bit ago, to have someone above them on the next swing, but didn’t these DUMB FUCKS NOTICE...

...THAT THEY WOULD LENGTHEN THE ROPE LIKE THIS???