Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 491. The sky

"So popular~" Henry whispered into my ear.

I shuddered slightly and glanced at Chelsea and the twins.

Everyone is making me problems today.

With the aisle empty after everyone had sat down, I walked to the last two-seater on the left with Henry and Ren.

"How are you?" When passing Chelsea, she asked, choked up.

"Good, you?"

"Yeah." Not really answering, while suppressing her tears, she said enough—she went through a lot this past year.

I nodded at her before asking the twins the same question.

"Alright." They both answered simultaneously in proper twin manner and also seemed quite rattled by what they went through.

Henry tapped my heel with the tip of his shoe, urging me to continue walking.

Patrick and Harry also acknowledged us, while Dr. . Lawrence exchanged a glance and a tired smile with me.

When we arrived at the seat, I sidestepped so that Henry, besides me, could sit in the window spot.

The action seemed to placate him somewhat, and he sat down with a less scary smile than before.

Finally, I sat down with Ren on my lap.

Mr. Lawrence was nowhere to be seen, but his voice eventually came through the speaker.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is now 19:32 local time. We are starting to take off in five minutes. Please take your seats and turn off your phones. The flight will take 4 1/2 hours if the weather plays its part; if not, we look forward to 5 hours."

Ren covered his mouth and giggled silently, apparently stimulated by hearing a voice he knew reverberating through the plane.

I also chuckled and looked at Henry, finding it funny how professional this all felt.

The puppy’s expression had luckily mellowed down.

Ah. Remembering the deal, I took out my phone and pulled out a paper slip with Armless’ phone number.

K: The address is X. A few people stayed behind after they heard the story and want to aid the untested. Good luck.]

I glanced at Henry, who was also on his phone. After tapping a few times, he showed me the interface of this ominous dark-net app, where he had posted the prepared text.

In exchange I showed him the message I sent and felt my phone vibrate.

[Thank you for everything. Good luck, and all the best!]

Perfect.

I turned off my phone while hearing my grandmother behind me dryly complimenting the coffee she had been forced to eventually choose.

A few seconds later, she snatched Ren from my lap and placed him on the four-seater in front of us before taking a seat across from him, beside the staff sergeant—her backrest was right in front of me, so I kicked it a few times to annoy her.

The staff sergeant pulled a few pieces of paper and some crayons from a bag that was under the small table in the middle of their four-seater, and Ren eagerly started drawing.

The doctor left for his seat in the front, and Mrs. Anand left the snack bar last and sat beside Ren, praising him happily for the two lines he had drawn in the meantime, and everyone put their seatbelts on.

"Now we will start the flight. Please lean back and relax or watch the beautiful view outside the windows." Mr. Lawrence’s voice sounded, and on cue, Ren dropped his crayon and shook with laughter.

"Your uncle is funny and cute, isn’t he~~" Mrs. Anand tenderly squished Ren’s cheek, and the plane started to move.

"WILL YOU STOP THAT?!" My grandmother yelled while forcing her face between the slit of hers and the staff sergeant’s seat, giving ’Here’s Johnny!!’ vibes.

"Don’t be so damn loud," I mumbled, dropped my disobedient foot, and looked out of the window, past a chuckling Henry, to distance myself from her craziness.

As good as anyone inside the plane seemed accustomed to the old dragon roaring about just anything, or at least they didn’t let their glances wander over to us.

She really is so fucking embarrassing.

The dark landscape was moving, and I held my breath when we took off for real. My stomach churned, and I held onto the soft armrests on either side automatically.

Henry’s hand covered mine.

"Fear of flying?" His amused face fell when he looked at me.

I just stared out of the window.

"Not sure... apparently."

"You are NOT scared of flying!" My grandmother turned back again, stating facts about someone else’s well-being as if it were about her own.

"What the? How would you know?" 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"You flew on vacation as a toddler, and you were perfectly fine!"

I contemplated conjuring up the water gun that was originally meant for Henry and giving her a scare so that she would never press her face in between two chairs ever again.

She was practically begging to get targeted.

"Go~ away~" I just overpronounced the words in the end, and surprisingly, she really turned around.

When I looked out of the window again, there were only clouds, and the nausea left as fast as it had come.

"Maybe you just didn’t sleep well~" Henry whispered explicitly, and I twisted his hand holding mine.

"I am better already."

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have left the ground and are currently traveling through the sky. You can now leave your seats!"

With the shrunken head gone, I could see Ren losing it again because of the speaker, the adults around him as greatly amused by that as I was.

Danny appeared beside me the moment he had the official permission to leave his seat.

"How are you? What did you do since we saw each other? We haven’t drunk since forever!"

"You will NOT drink in the air!" My grandmother bellowed but, luckily, without showing herself again.

I ignored her.

"I know, I’m good. You?"

Danny glanced at Henry’s hand that was still twisted, but then beamed back.

"Also good."

Jordan appeared behind him.

"When we arrive in the capital city, let’s all move into one skyscraper; then we can visit each other every day!"

Well, that would match my visions.

"Do you know the situation there? Are supermarkets and stuff open?" Is there even a housing market?

Jordan shook his head, his eyes finding my grandmother.

"I don’t know."

"There should be a few businesses operating normally," my grandmother commented.

"Ah."

Henry stood up and stared at the two until they made space, leaving a warning behind.

"That’s the seat I am sitting on." He motioned to the now-empty window seat before going behind us to the snack bar.

Danny rubbed his arms exasperatedly, and I chuckled.

"Guys, let me pass; I want to see Kenny too!" Chelsea appeared behind them, and behind her were Harry and Patrick.

"Pfft, we can talk when we arrive; don’t crowd the aisle."

Jordan pulled a few cards from his pants and shook them for me to see.

"Talk and then play a game with us."

I smiled and gave in, and Danny and Jordan walked back.

Chelsea wanted to go for a hug, but Henry had reappeared, holding the sandwich between us.

"Hungry?" he asked me, but I felt strangely threatened and insulted, as if he really wanted to say, ’You better keep your hands to yourself and eat your sandwich.’

"Yeah." I took the plate from his hands and started eating immediately, as I had been told by his underlying message.

Damn, I am hungry.

Not moving from his position, Henry leaned against my backrest and looked down at Chelsea.

"So? Not brainwashed anymore?"

I am not even surprised anymore by his antics, so I just concentrated on eating.

"You didn’t get any nicer, huh?" Chelsea countered.

"You noticed?" Henry replied, nearly making me spit out my sandwich and burst into laughter.

"Yes, I did. And also, you just disappeared from one moment to the next, leaving us all behind to get brainwashed in the first place..."

The twins also came over but stood behind the others and didn’t participate in the slight showdown, just showing their presence.

"I went to get Kenny." Henry’s tone shifted, so I pinched his side to tell him to calm the hell down.

"He brought you to the gang house. Did you thank him already?" I hiccuped.

"It was you?" Chelsea seemed genuinely surprised, and given the affirmed silence, she looked at the floor before genuinely thanking him.

Patrick and Harry—the latter not wearing his glasses since I saw him—chimed in, and so did the twins.

"Go back to your seats." The puppy made the way they could thank him clear enough for them to go away.

When they were gone, I told him to get himself a sandwich as well, and we were able to eat in peace at last.

After I brought our plates back to the small sink in the snack bar, I kicked the seat in front of me.

"Where is Kitty?"

My grandmother didn’t turn around this time but slammed her walking stick on the ground.

A muffled and very sad "Mrrrriuu??" sounded from below us.

Ah. Poor Kitty has to travel luggage style.

Nobody much talked; everyone chilled as you would on a regular flight. A few people seemed to have snored away.

The puppy pulled his phone out and turned it back on to write something and then showed me the display.

[Want to join the mile-high club?]

After being tempted for three seconds and then twisting his paw for ten more seconds, he settled down on my shoulder, drifting off to sleep himself.

Yeah, we didn’t get much sleep, did we?

So I couldn’t go play cards with the guys as I was busy being a pillow, but instead I asked the guys where Omar was and heard for the first time that he was the co-pilot.

Apparently, he got a license himself during the prolonged military service and with his father’s diligent teaching.

All in all, it all seemed to go so fucking well... and soon we would arrive in the capital city, at the terminal.

Maybe I should have asked myself why I was feeling so damn uneasy since the moment I saw the plane or why Henry and I weren’t present in the terminal vision.

Nah, forget the questions; I shouldn’t have let anyone step into that goddamn plane in the first place.