Sitting in front of my cellmate, Henry had again ignored me and sat beside me. Whatever.
Nice to know that one thing hadn't changed from before my imprisonment, which was GETTING STALKED BY THIS MOTHERFUCKER.
That reminded me. I touched his shoulder unabashedly and flipped the coin. Gold, palm, eyes, and ears uncovered, incorrect past of Henry Devin.
A monstrous deer stands in a clearing amidst the deep black forest. It drinks out of a stream of murky water, before abruptly stopping. Another deer approaches, and both stare at each other before attacking. With their protruding skulls, they confront each other like bulls, the sharp edges cutting through the thin flesh on their heads. The long snout of the first deer attacks the eye in the hole of the other, sucking and eating it out. A grotesque sound is heard, and the other deer falls, its body starting to wither.
I came back and found my food not that appetizing anymore. This confirms that these monsters are our counterparts, like Henry2 and Kenny2 and the rest were. But why am I not seeing Henry2's pasts, but instead his monster-self? I can't tell.
What had changed?
Henry said he bet that the next portal would be in the sinkhole. Could it really be this? Am I seeing these monsters because their parallel world is the next that would open, or already had?
If it was like this, if these portals would open constantly in the future, and if I could get at least a hint of what would happen by flipping the coin—well, it would be time to again bow down in front of my ability.
"What did you see?" Henry asked me, leaning to me.
I pushed him away.
"Wanna hear my theory?" I chewed on my chicken, shallowing it while suppressing the thought of how the deer's eye would taste.
"Tell me." Henry's head was tilted, he shoved his food away and laid his head on his arm, looking at me like an obedient dog, full ears.
"You were right, with more portals and more monsters. But these monsters are not random creatures." Wiping over my face, I put the cutlery down and came closer to him.
"They are our parallel-world selves." Taking my water bottle that came with the food, I drank from it.
"Like my sister and her dead doppelgänger are connected, we are with these monsters as well?" He asked, his eyes pensive.
"Yep. Everyone here." I pointed around us in a small motion.
"Should exist as one of those monsters as well. Maybe reincarnation, perhaps parallel worlds, I have no idea."
"But we know," Henry started, and I pointed at him, while turning back to my food, finishing his sentence,
"That these dimensions are breaking down, crashing in our world."
Again, a crazy anticipation surfaced inside me, and at the same time I felt agitated by the outlook of my future.
"What exactly have you seen?" Henry asked me, and although I would prefer to punch him and never ever provide him even a bit of information, he was the only one believing me in here, the only one I could talk to.
My cellmate ignored us, always the good listener. I couldn't tell if he believed or understood what we talked about, but it didn't matter.
I opened my mouth, and a sudden paranoia overcame me. I bent down and looked under the table, before reaching over the table and feeling my cellmate's chest. My cellmate let me do, just looking at me in confusion.
Henry gripped my hand and pulled me back, and I saw a guard coming to us.
"What are you doing?" Henry asked me coldly, and I reached for his chest and felt it as well, only feeling safe again when seeing neither of them were wearing a recording device.
I sat down again, and Henry followed me to sit as well.
"Even if they hear, let them." He seemed to get my reasons and finally let go of my wrist.
I needed a few minutes to calm down, and watched the guard turning in his step, for someone else that acted out.
"I can choose to look into this future, or a parallel-world future, this past, a parallel-world past. When we met..." I was again so angry, just thinking of that time, that I needed to stop.
Henry seemed to be really putting all his attention on me. When he saw me gripping the table with trembling hands, trying not to lose it and punch him to death, Henry pulled on his uniform, showing me the swollen bite mark I had left.
"It hurts tremendously." He said seriously, and I calmed down a good notch again, seeing that I had already brought him pain.
"Back then, when looking into a parallel-world past or future, I saw the human counterparts of the world your sister went to. At least the time it was complete, not only this city-part amidst a forest. Now, instead of human counterparts, I see the deer-monster-counterparts." Having finished, I went back to eat, not wanting to look at him again.
"Because the deer monsters are coming next?"
"I think so."
"Hmm, I bet we soon can take a look at the second portal for ourselves. It would be best you get as much information on how to kill the monsters as possible." Henry ominously announced.
I looked at him involuntarily. Had he lost it?
Maybe we can get free one day in the future, but more like in years. Not soon.
Henry looked at my face and chuckled,
"Don't believe me? I bet twenty thousand bucks on it."
"Suit yourself."
Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought Henry's prediction was more on point than mine—of the one who can actually see in the future.