Chapter 3.3

Mason used to have a daughter. It was a child between him and a woman he met in a bar when he was 20. It wasn’t like he specially loved that woman, but he was pretty happy when they got a child. He was always felt lacking in family because he grew up as an orphan.

The child was like a cotton candy. She was small, sweet, and sparkling. She was like a blessing in Mason’s tough life. He made a family, and when that child grew up a little and smiled, he felt like he could do anything. He worked whatever he can to earn money and luckily during that time he got a job as a police. He felt like only happy life was waiting for him.

But the child and the wife couldn’t live long. It wasn’t because they were weak or sick. The thing that took away his child and his wife was a rapist he caught before.

Unfortunately it was the day when the child turned two.

That day was raining really heavily. His work ended little bit late, so he was walking little bit fast holding a small cake and a doll as a present. He didn’t have an umbrella, so he was covering the doll with his body, so it doesn’t get wet. When he ran to his front door, inside the dark house, he smelled something fishy. Somehow he had a bad feeling.

His memory buried deep inside started come up because of the similar situation. When he bit his lips and looked up, Tony was waving his hand like ‘Do you line! Line!’

“….Amy,”

Mason murmured like he was breathing. Because of the coldness or the memory, his body started to shiver.

He pressed the bell twice, three time, but no one came out. Mason opened the door with his key and went in. His hand with the key was trembling so much that he quietly murmured ‘What’s wrong….’

His hand missed the key hole twice and by the time when he got in, the doll was drenched wet from the rain. A wet doll fall on the floor, but he couldn’t pick it up because in front of his eyes, the living room was messy with blood, flesh, and hair.

“Amy…!”

Mason screamed because of the sudden revive of the memory of the time of chilling sensation. He frowned feeling he was getting naked in front of the people. And that time the Director shouted, “Cut!”

The water stopped, and Mason took a deep breath and looked up. The Director was checking the scene probably because he got an okay scene to use. The assistant director came and explained the next scene.

“…..”

Mason wasn’t listening. He rubbed the goose bump on his cheek.

In the past, always, when he remembered his dead daughter and wife, he just stayed expressionless and kept his mouth closed. When he felt sad, he felt better when he went to a quiet place by himself. Because he was always like that, Mason thought he was pretty good at hiding his feeling. No matter what he felt deep inside, he can just laugh later and think about something else.

But when he pretended he was sad and desperate and screamed, he couldn’t hide his feeling. It’s just reading a line, but since the situation was similar, it was harder to hide his feeling.

A short acting during his mission had a clear goal. Like few days ago, lying to someone and sneak in or stealing confidential information. If he adlibbed and pushed that person, that person got confused and got tricked easily. He didn’t have to put his feeling in and didn’t have to retrieve his memory like this.

Acting. It’s more annoying than I thought. Mason panicked a little and frowned.

“If there is a signal…, are you listening?”

He turned because of a sharp tone, and a man with a cap was looking at him with an annoyed face. He looked at Mason like he really hated him and gave him a capsule.

“Keep this in your mouth and if there is a signal, bite it. One streak of blood. Got it? –I heard you died once yesterday?”

I heard your heart stopped then you should be good at acting dead. –He said it twistedly and even before Mason tried to say something, he ran away. The cold rain started to pour again. Even before he was able to calm his emotion, the Director sent a cue sign.

“Amy….,”

Mason found a small shoe and kneeled down in front. Looking at a small shoe with water collected inside, a bad memory passed by. When a wet teddy bear fell on the ground, water from the doll spread on the floor and got mixed in with the blood in front of the door.

Once a memory from past came out, every small evidence made easier to remember. Mason couldn’t hide or let out his frowning expression. He just held the shoe with a trembling hand.

-Click.

He heard a gun getting loaded. Bang! Soon there was a gun sound, and Mason looked up to see the person. A man with a black clothes who was waiting said,

“I’m sorry about this. This time I was faster.”

Because it was dark and raining, he could only see his white teeth. It actually felt like a smoke was coming out from the gun. Instead of Mason saying a stupid line “Where is Amy…,” he just glared at the man and bit his lips. It was his first time seeing the man, but at that moment Mason felt like that man was the murderer who killed his wife. He felt like that man was Aaron who killed him, too. He didn’t know how actual actors act, but that moment, he couldn’t take the job businesslike.

The feeling went overboard. Without him realizing, he bit his teeth and sticky liquid spread in his mouth.

“…..”

When a sweet flavor different from actual blood taste spread in my mouth, my conscience came back.

That man is not that bastard. It can’t be that bastard. Because Mason already killed that bastard.

When his wife and his child died, instead of catching him and put him in a jail, Mason quit being a cop and joined the biggest mercenary company in the United States, Zii.

After he signed the body disclaimer contract, the first thing he did was to find that rapist and shoot him until his body turned into a bee hive and stabbed him into pieces. Until the police came and hand cuffed him, Mason was still shredding that bastard’s intestine.

Zii got him a very expensive lawyer that he can’t even afford with a debt. He came out from the court with three months of probation. After that he worked in Zii since then. That was already more than 10 years ago.

“…..”

Once his conscience came back, acting was bit easier.

When he opened his mouth, the blood that was in his mouth burst out. Just like that staff said, Mason knew death very well. How the breath runs out when you get shot, how the body convulse, and after that the body gets really heavy and how the last breath goes out.

He saw the death many times, and that’s the death he actually experienced.

He pant placing his cheek on the wet ground and moved his eyes to look at the guy who shot him. He saw the man, and the man looked surprised. He jolted back, and Mason took a breath. When the breath was going out, his throat made a wheezing sound, and his eyes were filled with tears.

On his face, he felt the rain falling on his eyes and closed his eyes. Everything stopped.