Flip the Coin [BL]

Chapter 498. Don’t be too confident

Henry’s POV

Why correct yourself, Mr. Howard?

"Because you feel guilty and know it is your fault, or because you want to distance yourself from the whole situation?" I sneered amidst the cries of the kids.

Mr. Howard also had tears streaming down his face but eventually made a call.

"Why not hate the two children that actually killed your wife?"

I couldn’t say if Laurens’s ’drive back,’ with which she clearly meant ’back’ to the landing stage for the boats, had confused Steven into acting literally on her command or if he just made a mistake—but none of these three people were innocent.

ESPECIALLY AFTER BEING WARNED.

However.

"A bond of guilt." I broke into laughter.

He had distanced himself confidently from the ’accident,’ in which he played the biggest part.

He physically stopped her when she wanted to stay home; it was him who came up with the boat suggestion, but he was absent in the end anyway, and he had the wrong priorities.

ALTHOUGH HE HAD BEEN WARNED.

So, if he hated these two children for running over his wife, they could hate him for not upholding his promise.

Interestingly, instead, a bond between these three formed out of guilt, self-hatred, and remorse.

A bond that didn’t include Kenny because he had never had any fault to begin with.

Kenny HAD to be excluded because he simply wasn’t as dumb, blind, and self-centered as them.

"I would love to kill you all." I squeezed my wrist and watched my hand turn purple.

Mr. Howard had finished his call, and they waited.

Eventually, a doctor came to them and handed over a few papers for Mr. Howard to sign and take with him.

Then police arrived and asked for a statement, but someone intercepted—an attorney that had been called by Mr. Howard.

The attorney said that the family couldn’t possibly give any statements right now as they grieved and were devastated, so they would go. He also brought fresh clothes, and the family of three changed.

We sat in the same car, after Mr. Howard declined to be driven home multiple times, in the same position, though the copilot’s seat was glaringly empty.

The kids had never stopped crying since they received Mr. Howard’s brainwashing.

We stepped out of the car after a long drive when it was late at night.

Mr. Howard numbly opened the entrance door with his key, then took his kids’ hands, left and right, to enter.

I walked beside them but froze when my gaze fell on the big couch a few meters away from the entrance in the large open living room and kitchen.

The most beautiful, absolutely cutest, most adorable, and lovable little child sat there.

His eyes were swollen, and his face was red, but he wasn’t crying, just staring at them with paralyzing helplessness and silent questions.

But Mr. Howard didn’t even look at him; he let go of his children’s hands, left the living room, and went upstairs.

The two kids looked at Kenny but cried even more, and then seeing their father’s back, Lauren soon ran after her father, while Steven continued to stand there a bit longer.

Then he followed his sister as well.

I crouched down in front of the small Kenny and grabbed his shins hanging from the couch.

"My little love..." I whispered, feeling my vision blur as I saw his face twist and grimace to hold tears back.

His upper body tilted to the side, and he pressed his face against the pillow.

And then I heard a muffled scream.

I could feel the lump inside my own throat and, with it, the urge to chime in.

But I stayed absolutely still so that little Kenny had at least one person to hear his pain.

Darkness engulfed me, but I reached out for the small body, not wanting to go and not wanting to leave him alone here.

However, the darkness didn’t grant my wish.

When I opened my eyes on the carousel again, I reached out for Mr. Howard’s hair and dragged him from the horse to smash his head against the big pole in the middle of the round platform.

"WAKE UP!"

I smashed his head again but stopped myself from killing him.

"WAKE UP, NOW!!"

I smashed his head, but he remained expressionless.

"YOU DID NOT EVEN THINK FOR A MOMENT ABOUT MUTUAL REDEMPTION?" I smashed his head, not too strong, even if that took more self-restraint than I knew I had.

"YOU DIDN’T, DID YOU?"

SMASH.

"IF YOU TOLD KENNY ABOUT THE ACCIDENT AND BRAINWASHED ALL YOUR KIDS THAT IT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED EITHER WAY BECAUSE IT WAS JUST HER TIME TO DIE, WOULDN’T THAT HAVE BEEN BETTER?" Kenny couldn’t have known of what had really happened—I was one hundred percent sure of this.

He thought his mother had drowned, just like in his vision.

SMASH.

"Wouldn’t that have been better than a curse and neglect?" I smashed his head again, then punched the pole with my destroyed wrist to stop myself from really killing him.

"ANSWER ME!"

"Then you wouldn’t have had to admit your obvious fault, and nobody would have to feel guilty—especially not you, and that was the end goal, wasn’t it?" I felt a sudden eerie calm wash over me and just pressed his bloody head against the carousel pole.

There was absolute silence, and when I looked at the other two culprits behind Mr. Howard, still on their horses, I saw that Steven and Lauren were now adults and not children anymore.

Looking back at Mr. Howard, he was now much older as well.

I looked to the side and noticed that the carousel had stopped and saw that the sky was slowly lighting up.

Day had unexpectedly arrived.

I threw the garbage to the others from the carousel before I followed after them.

"Kenny?" I looked around, but it was silent here.

I sat back down on the carousel and watched the sky light up.

"I miss you..."

I closed my eyes.

"I’m cold." Without you, there’s no fuzzy warmth; just desolate emptiness.

Something fell from the sky, and I snapped my eyes open and flinched but caught it.

It was a hoodie...

My hands trembled when I took a closer look at the label and the fabric.

It was the big hoodie Kenny would conjure up for me.

I buried my face in it and took a deep breath.

Kenny’s scent.

"Kenny, can you come out now?" I whimpered and waited, but there was only silence.

"Kenny, I want a smoke," I said while looking up.

And indeed, a burning cigarette came from the sky.

I caught it with my left hand and smiled.

"Kenny... I am horny." Now you have to come out.

I looked at the sky, and there was a long pause before something came down.

It was a tissue.

I broke into laughter, then cried, then laughed, and then cried more.

"Aahahhahaha, thank you, my love."

"I will use it well." Burying my face in the hoodie and the tissue, I breathed in the scent that calmed me down and riled me up like none other.

This had to be his subconsciousness.

He would have appeared in the meantime if he could.

Putting on the hoodie and pulling the hood over my head, I smoked the still-as-good-as-new cigarette while walking down the grassy hill.

It felt as if days had gone by since I came to the carousel the first time.

I looked at the chain between the poles and the little lock that was in place yet again.

I really hoped that the code to the lock didn’t mean he still loved his family.

And neither hated—another word with four letters—because...they weren’t worthy to be thought about by him at all.

I unlocked the lock this time from the other side while sucking on my cigarette, and the moment I stepped out, darkness engulfed me.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!..."

I let the fingers on my right hand twitch to the drumrolls and pointed with the index finger of my perfectly fine right hand at the light above me.

Then I pointed with my right thumb behind me, where the command and the whip came from, and in the end, I jumped down through the rings of fire before Kitty could push me.

I landed in the pool of confessions and bowed to the applauding audience.

Kenny, don’t be too confident in your hiding spot.

Your game of hide-and-seek—

I am playing now in earnest.