CH 3

Lynn spent most of the party in Arthur’s company. 

They barely exchanged any words. Lynn thought the total number of sentences they had spoken during the party was probably about twenty or so.

It was just that the exchange seemed capable of creating a little air of intimacy, thus making it easier to face the party together than when they were alone.

Halfway through the party, Lynn informed Arthur that he had to go to the bathroom. The other man said that he didn’t need to report to him; he wouldn’t tag along with him like their daughters.

Lynn laughed as he left. He called the station, asking whether the arrest warrant for the case had been approved—the judge was obviously on good terms with Caviezel, really considering Caviezel’s reputation and various fundings he had made—and if everything went well, maybe the case would be closed tonight. 

Donald said excitedly that this was the first time ever in the town a murder case had been resolved so quickly.

The first floor was too crowded as everyone was gathered there. Lynn decided to go to the bathroom on the second floor, which was quiet and deserted.

On the phone, his subordinate said that the arrest warrant had been approved. The judge had realized that Caviezel might not be the good guy in the neighborhood he had thought he had been at all. When they had arrived at Caviezel’s home, he was not there. He had abandoned his son and wife at home. Lynn told Donald to start a town-wide manhunt immediately.

God knew what a criminal who had suddenly lost everything would do.

He ended the call and tucked his phone away in his pocket, thinking that he might have to stay up all night tonight.

The floor was quiet, and he could faintly hear the noise coming from downstairs. It was just one floor, but it felt like these noises were coming from another world.

The bathroom was empty. It was usually full of people, but at this moment, it was silent.

He turned on the tap and splashed cold water on his face when he heard a ‘click’ from behind him. 

He turned around sharply and put his hand on the gun.

Caviezel was standing there.

He was neatly dressed in expensive formal wear for the evening’s party as if he didn’t know what was going on. He was less than forty years old, well-maintained, handsome, and had the easy arrogance of a successful man who liked to be in charge of social situations.

He looked no different from his usual self, but there was something odd about his posture. Lynn slowly pulled the gun from its holster, feeling sweat seeping out of his palms. This may not be necessary, it’s just a desperate rich man, he reasoned. But his deeper instinct screamed danger and warned him to be prepared for the worst to happen. 

“Mr. Caviezel?” he said.

“Hi, Officer,” Caviezel said, standing in the doorway, completely blocking the way out, “I wasn’t supposed to come to dinner today. You know, I don’t have any children in school. But Mrs. Allison insisted that I come because I’m an important figure in the town.”

He looked up at Lynn with a smile. Lynn raised his gun and pointed it at the other party. The man’s smile revealed a mouth full of sharp shark-like teeth that would make people’s blood run cold.

“I actually had a child before, but he died in an accident. If he were still alive, he would be in high school now,” the man went on. 

Lynn’s scalp was tingling. He had seen such teeth in a case a year ago. The case had mysteriously disappeared, but he remembered that on that human-looking face, there was something dark and abnormal, as if the DNA of some monster had been mixed in, turning him into some sort of hybrid monster.

“I never wanted to have children too early, because that will affect my career, you know,” Caviezel continued, taking a step forward, seemingly eager to brag about his accomplishments, “Now I’ve become an important person in the town. I’m involved in half of the public welfare projects here. I participated in the construction of this building as well, and the school is going to name a small auditorium after me next year.”

“Back off, Mr. Caviezel!” Lynn said, “or I’ll shoot!”

His heart was beating out of his chest, but he knew that his hand was still very steady, enough to hit the other person’s heart in one shot. 

“I just slept with a high school student, what’s the big deal?” The changes on his face became more pronounced, and a crack opened from the corner of his mouth which resembled a hideous grin, and there were more sharp teeth inside. “She’s just a little whore you can find anywhere on the street. When she grows up, like all women like her, she will marry someone and squeeze him dry with cosmetics and endless clothes.”

He became taller, his body bulging out of his suit. It seemed like he didn’t want to burst through the suit, so he looked a little hunched over.

There seemed to be something terrifying inside of him that wanted to take advantage of the fire of rage burning within him to rush out, Lynn thought.

“It’s like that dead child of mine,” Caviezel continued, “It’s just a child, it’s not like I can’t have more, but Emily keeps thinking about it. I know she hates me and thinks it’s my fault. She’s a fucking crazy woman.” 

“I like Emma very much. She’s a smart little girl. She likes men like me, you know, successful ones. But she’s a stupid bitch at heart, just like Emily!”

His fingers became longer and more pointed. They weren’t human hands anymore, but deformed claws.

Lynn had retreated to the corner of the wall. There was a window behind him, which was barred with metal to prevent small children from doing something dangerous.

“Everything would have been fine if those cowardly idiots who only know how to ruin things had kept their mouths shut. And you! You just had to go and persistently investigate the matter to the end!” Caviezel screamed, surprisingly still retaining the voice of a successful career man. 

But at that moment, its clothes were finally torn by the abnormal growth, and it pounced towards him.

Lynn raised his hand and pulled the trigger.

That thing was as fast as lightning, but all the bullets he shot still hit it. Back then, he had been a famous sharpshooter in the police station.

The bullet only affected its direction of movement. It fell to one side, but its claws still swept Lynn’s forehead. The latter fell to the ground in a mess. The next second, he shot at the window without hesitation. 

—That thing climbed to the ceiling and then hung on the window grille. It was huge, with thin limbs like a giant spider. It had a human face, yet its mouth was filled with sharp teeth.

Lynn was aware that every bullet had struck the target, yet that thing showed no signs of injury!

He had no way to deal with such a thing. What the hell was this? He had just been attending a school dinner after a garden party!

The thing was like a hunting spider and it moved so fast that it was almost invisible to the naked eyes. Lynn stubbornly fired again. He fired three shots in a row, one of which hit it. It successfully dodged the remaining bullets thanks to its speed, leaving a series of holes in the wall. Lynn seized this opportunity and sprinted towards the door. 

He grasped the door handle and turned it to open the door a crack, but the next second, a huge force grabbed the back of his collar and violently threw him away, and he slammed into the mirror on the wall.

Lf ofii vbkc, tla atf rlcx, jcv vgbqqfv ab tlr xcffr lc j vlrbgvfgis tfjq. Dea fnfc veglcu tlr vjhf, tf kjr agslcu ab qblca tlr uec ja atf atlcu. Llr lcrlvfr rffwfv lcpegfv, jcv tf ofia yibbv rffqlcu bea bo tlr wbeat.

Ktja atlcu kjr islcu bc atf mflilcu, uluuilcu.

“You’re…” Lynn said, “What the hell are you?” 

“I’m Caviezel,” said the monster, “I’m very pissed off. You’re pissing me off, Officer.”

It lunged forward and Lynn fired a shot at it, but the bullet had no effect on it.

The huge sharp teeth came into view in a flash.

“Hey, hey!” A voice said. 

Something came flying over and crashed onto the monster right on its teeth. It took a step back and didn’t immediately tear Lynn in half. Then Lynn saw that it was the principal’s lifetime achievement award that had been thrown over. He scrambled back a little, still sitting on the floor.

Arthur stood at the door. Even in such a scene, he was still as elegant and calm as before.

“Hi, Mr. Arthur,” the creature said, easing the tone of its voice.

Lynn moved in the direction of the door and Arthur said calmly, “Good evening, Mr. Caviezel. I just saw you come in through the back door. So I followed you over to see what was going on.” 

“There was a sentry on the front door,” Caviezel said, “and I think that’s very disrespectful to a man of status.”

“Sorry, I was in a bit of a rush just now. I may have hurt your tooth,” Arthur said as if he were exchanging pleasantries with the philanthropist Mr. Caviezel at a party, but the things he was talking about were inconceivable.

“I know that this was an one-off error, Doctor. You are a cultured person,” the monster said, leaning over maliciously.

Meanwhile, Lynn had retreated to the door. His legs were weak, but he still tried to stand up straight. He grabbed Arthur’s arm and said, “We’ve got to get the hell out of this damned place.” 

“It will go downstairs,” Arthur said, “There is only school security here, and all the police are out searching for Caviezel.”

Lynn heard the soft music downstairs and felt his scalp go numb.

“We have to go up,” Arthur said.

They both exchanged glances, as if they had worked together a million times, and saw the same thing in each other’s eyes. 

It was as if the same countdown timer appeared in their heads, three, two, one, go! Then without a second of hesitation, they rushed out. Arthur slammed the door shut, and the two turned around and ran upstairs.

It took the monster a moment to break the door down and catch up.

The building was dark and silent. Looking at the desolation above, it was hard to imagine that there was a dinner party being held downstairs.

The two of them dashed across the empty floors. A few minutes ago, they had been attending a joyous party, but now they seemed to be running through a different world. 

Arthur ignored the elevator and rushed into the narrow stairway, with Lynn close behind him. The monster closely pursued them.

They rushed to the top floor, and Arthur pulled the door open. His clothes rippled and his hair fluttered in the night wind. Under the sky sparkling with stars, the empty top floor appeared almost a little desolate and lonely.

“What do we do now?” Lynn asked.

“Don’t you have a gun in your hand?” Arthur said. 

“The gun didn’t work. I tried hitting it but the thing didn’t react at all!”

“How can it not react?!”

A voice said from behind, “I don’t know why you’re running upstairs, but I do know that I don’t want to let you jump down and be done with it.”

They turned their heads, and the spider-like thing crawled in, ripping the lock off the door. It still had Caviezel’s voice, and even had half a suit hanging off of it. 

“You’re going to die very, very tragically, all torn apart, giving the beautiful ladies downstairs nightmares to think about,” said the creature, “and of course, your little girls won’t survive tonight. Poor things, they’re so young. But you have offended the wrong person, so you have to pay the price.”

“It has nothing to do with them!” Lynn said.

“It’s only natural for a family to share responsibilities,” Caviezel said.

“Better stop acting like you know any aphorisms,” Arthur said, “You’re an idiot, and you can’t hide it.” 

Both Lynn and the creature turned their heads to look at him. He stood on the top floor without any cover, sounding like he was merely expressing the obvious.

“Idiot?” Caviezel raised his voice. “There are indeed idiots here now, and I guess they’re the ones who are going to die soon!”

“I know what you did, Mr. Caviezel, and nothing we can do will change the fact that you’re a fool. And it’s hanging over you like a billboard now,” Arthur said.

Lynn really wanted to shut him up, but he didn’t say anything. 

Arthur stood there alone with the darkness of the night as a backdrop. At that moment, Lynn once again saw that indifference, the expression in those eyes almost emotionless, oozing with the cruelty of a predator.

“And in the world you came into, there is a saying,” Arthur said, “that ‘Fools are not qualified to live‘.”

That tone was sufficient to stomp on anyone’s ego, even if that were a spider’s.

The monster stared at him for a moment, then slowly approached him. 

“You’ll see who doesn’t deserve to live tonight,” Arthur said softly. Another mouth split open from the monster’s face, containing layers and layers of sharp teeth.

Compared to the monstrous creature, Arthur was somewhat flimsy, but he stood straight and motionless. Lynn thought that Arthur was more intimidated by zealous housewives than by this monster.

Lynn briefly noticed some sticky, transparent fluid oozing out where Caviezel had walked. It was not blood, but he knew that he had wounded it. Caviezel still hadn’t noticed it yet. He had obtained that power, but had not figured out clearly yet just how powerful it was. Lynn suddenly thought that Arthur was right, the creature was really stupid.

He raised his hand and pulled the trigger. 

All the remaining bullets hit Caviezel, and the monster gave a cry, finally feeling the pain. It suddenly turned and rushed over. Lynn had already emptied all the bullets. He moved back but was unable to evade the approaching attack. The monster’s forelimbs swept heavily past his head, as fast as lightning.

He felt a wave of dizziness, followed by excruciating pain as blood poured down his face.

Stepping on a puddle of his blood, the monster charged, raising its forelimbs high, trying to smash Lynn to pieces.

But its movement suddenly stopped, as if overwhelmed by some powerful force. He saw its limbs trembling like it was enduring great pain, shaking like a withered leaf in the chilly breeze. 

Then he caught a glimpse of Arthur slowly emerging from the darkness behind the monster. The other man glanced at the monster from the corner of his eye, his bearing was as if he was tasting wine; appraising to see what was the level and intensity of its pain, what kind of dread it experienced, as well as what kind of terrible final onslaught of death it had.

Lynn saw the man was soaked in blood, and this was his last conscious thought before he passed out.

When Lynn woke up, a day had passed.

He was lying in the bed of the best hospital in town, his head wrapped in bandages. The sun streamed into the room that was filled with flowers and fruits, and some fancy little cards saying they wished the town’s best police officer a speedy recovery and inviting him to a bunch of house parties. 

He sat there blankly until the doctor came and told him that he had been hit in the head while arresting the criminal Caviezel and had a serious concussion, so he needed to stay in the hospital for observation.

The doctor told him that Mr. Caviezel had attempted to attack him in the bathroom after breaking into the school, but he had ended up killing himself. Mr. Arthur had called the police and said that by the time he had arrived, the attack was over, and he hadn’t seen anything happen.

The doctor explained to him how Mr. Caviezel had been left with several bullet holes in him but had driven away anyway. His car had hit a fuel tank of the gas station just outside of town—mostly because he had been so badly injured—and exploded, leaving little left.

Then the doctor also advised him not to worry about Chrissie. She was staying at her best friend Krystyn’s house. The little girl was worried sick, but it was not visiting hours, so she would probably be here later. 

The doctor checked his pupils, and asked him questions like, “What’s your name?” “What year is it?” “How many fingers did I stick out?” and then finally asked, “Do you still remember what happened that night?”

Lynn opened his lower lip, and Mr. Caviezel’s sharp teeth appeared in his mind. Remembering the monster climbing up the ceiling or chasing him down the corridor, he felt his throat go dry and reached for his glass of water.

“Do you still remember what happened, Mr. Lynn?” The doctor asked again.

“I have a question. What did Arthur say about that night?” 

“As I said, Lynn, when he arrived, he found you passed out on the floor. He immediately called the doctor,” the other party said.

“He said so?” Lynn said.

“Is there any problem?” The doctor asked.

“Actually, I don’t remember much about what happened that night. I only remember the dance or something. I don’t even remember going to the bathroom.” 

The doctor flashed him a smile, the kind of reassuring and encouraging smile one usually gave to sick people. “Short-term memory loss is common in cases of brain injury, so don’t worry. At least we’ve taken care of that awful Mr. Caviezel, haven’t we?” After he finished speaking, he bade Lynn goodbye, and went to check on other patients.

You have no idea about the degree of Mr. Caviezel’s “awfulness”, Lynn thought.

Sitting inside the bright and clean room, Lynn kept on pondering. He felt that the events of that day seemed like a crazy, dark dream in contrast.

Was it all a dream? Then he remembered Arthur who stood on the top floor, looking sideways at the monster. What doctor who wanted to live a peaceful life in the town with his daughter?! What nice family man?! Fuck him! 

Wait a minute, did the doctor say Chrissie lived at Krystyn’s? That’s Arthur’s house!

Lynn tried to jump off the bed, but his head felt a strong dizziness and he fell to his knees in a messy heap. He tried to hold on to the edge of the bed to prevent himself from falling down completely.

“Daddy!” A voice called out and Lynn looked up. Chrissie jumped on him and wrapped her arms around him.

Lynn subconsciously held her tightly in his arms. His little girl, the only treasure he had in his life, was very safe. Nothing had happened to her. 

In this fucking sick world, he really wanted to hold her like this and never let go.

“God, oh God, Chrissie, you’re alright,” he said.

When the little girl had rushed in, she was obviously enthusiastic and smelled of vanilla cake. But when she got to her Daddy’s arms, the floodgate of tears seemed to open and she burst into tears. Lynn scrambled to comfort her.

“You’re hurt, Officer, you shouldn’t be getting out of bed,” a voice said. 

Lynn looked up and there stood Arthur, dressed in a dark coat, appearing plain but dapper, holding a basket of cookies with a red ribbon that didn’t match his aristocratic look at all.

Krystyn stood next to Arthur and gave Lynn a joyful hug.

Everywhere he went, Arthur acted as though he were in his own home. After scanning the table that was packed to the brim, he placed the basket on another person’s gift and said, “Miss Doris gave it to me. I think you might need it.”

You’re just dealing with waste, Lynn thought. 

He glared daggers at Arthur, and the other man, looking oblivious under his glare, checked the food, finally took an apple, sat down in a chair beside him, and took a shameless bite.

“Dad, we’re here to visit, not eat fruit,” Krystyn said.

“It’s just an apple, it’s not like he can eat all of it,” Arthur said.

Krystyn turned her head to look at Lynn and said seriously, “My dad can be very unreliable sometimes, I’m very sorry.” 

“It’s okay, let him eat it if he wants to,” Lynn said.

He soothed Chrissie for a while, promising her that he would never get hurt again, and that he would never leave her alone. He swore to her mother’s spirit in heaven.

Arthur finished nibbling on the apple, threw the core in the trash, and said to Krystyn, “Can we leave now?”

“No, we’re going with Chrissie,” Krystyn said. 

“You can’t go!” Lynn said fiercely to Arthur.

“But I only ate an apple from you,” Arthur said.

“Miss Kean!” The young nurse rushed in after hearing Lynn’s call and asked, “What can I do for you, Officer Lynn?” then she said with a red face, “Dr. Arthur.”

“Could you please take Krystyn and Chrissie to the children’s resting lounge for a while? I have something I want to talk to Mr. Arthur about in private,” Lynn said. 

“There’s nothing I want to say to you,” Arthur said, and Krystyn gave him a fierce stare.

“Sure, no problem,” Miss Kean said, ushering the two kids out.

“You have to cooperate, Dad,” Krystyn said sternly to her father before she left.

The ward fell silent for a while after the two kids left. The room was full of flowers, fruits and balloons, making the topic Lynn wanted to talk about seem bizarre and far-fetched. 

Arthur looked at him warily. “I don’t think we have anything in particular to talk about, Officer.”

“You want to pretend you don’t know anything?” Lynn said, “Well, then I’ll say it. I want to talk about the night of the garden party.”

“I was interrogated extensively about that day by your subordinates,” Arthur said, starting to stare at his fingers, “I heard that you had a severe concussion and don’t remember that night at all. If you really want to know what happened, you can look it up in the police files. You really don’t need me to re-tell it again.”

He sounded as if nothing had happened. 

Lynn stared at him and said, “Actually, Arthur, I just don’t have a way to explain to the doctor what I saw that time, but I do remember what I saw that night…”

He stopped and the man sitting across from him smiled, not a gentle, friendly smile, but the kind of icy smile he had seen in the interrogation room.

Everything went back to that night when this suspect was dangerous and firmly refused to talk .

Still looking at his fingers, he said softly, “Obviously, the fact that you got a concussion and didn’t see anything will make everyone do better. For example, I know why you don’t want to tell the doctor what you saw; it must have been some very crazy stuff. Talking about it could cost you your job and a lawsuit, right?” 

“I don’t know what you mean by that,” Lynn said coldly.

“I used some means to find out about the reason why you were transferred here,” Arthur said, “You weren’t devolved because you wanted a change of work environment, but because the psychiatrist thought you were crazy. You had severe auditory and visual hallucinations, and you almost shot and killed an innocent man. The police station thought you were slightly ill and sent you to work in a harmless town like this. I don’t know what would happen if they knew you still had those severe hallucinations.”

“I know you really, really want to hide something, Arthur. You keep a distance from everyone for that reason,” Lynn said, “I don’t think I was hallucinating the other night. There’s nothing wrong with my brain. It is you who has the problem.”

“If you really believe you saw monsters, why don’t you tell your doctor about it,” Arthur said. 

Lynn stared at him, and Arthur looked back blankly.

“Arthur, what the hell are you trying to hide?”

“All the people are going to treat you like a lunatic,” Arthur said.

“I’m a lunatic. I was sent down to Oak Town for being a lunatic, remember? A madman believes in what he sees! So I ask you, what the fuck are you, what is that thing, and why did he have a car accident outside the town?!” 

“Excuse me, did something happen?” A nurse probed, obviously hearing the argument over here.

“Nothing, we had a discussion about some trivial stuff,” Arthur said, standing up, “I was just about to leave.”

“I’m going home tonight,” Lynn said, “Chrissie is coming back with me, and you and your daughter stay away from her!

Arthur stood there, looked at him for a few seconds, and then nodded his head. 

“Okay, I promise,” he said, “I don’t want to be friends with you either.”

He turned to leave and Lynn felt a wave of vertigo; the yelling he had just done was obviously not good for his health.

“You can’t leave the hospital today, Mr. Lynn!” said the nurse.

“Tell me what to watch out for and I’ll be careful,” Lynn said, “I lose sleep when I’m not sleeping at home, and I guess insomnia is worse for my head, isn’t it?” 

After glaring at him, the nurse finally said she would talk to the doctor to see what could be done. Lynn sat on the bed, thinking about how to convince the doctor to let him leave. He had played such tricks several times before when he had been in the Major Crimes Unit, because he had really been a workaholic at that time.

But now, he had to go home and take care of Chrissie. He had to talk to her about keeping her distance from that father and daughter duo.

Arthur was very dangerous. Although he had saved him—and things would have probably been much harder for him if Arthur hadn’t thrown that trophy or walked away from the problem on the roof—that didn’t change the facts.

He was harboring terrible secrets. Maybe he was someone who was willing to help, but Lynn knew people like him. Once they thought you were endangering what they were trying to protect, they would immediately turn back into a desperado and cut you down without any mercy. 

He pinched the middle of his eyebrows. He couldn’t tell the doctor what he had seen that night. Like Arthur said, he had a medical history. After Kelly had died, he’d worked like crazy for a while and then for some reason, he’d started to exhibit severe neurotic symptoms.

At first, his hands had started shaking uncontrollably. In severe cases, he couldn’t even lift a glass, let alone reload the gun. If this was a minor problem, what was worse was that he had started having a series of hallucinations, first just auditory hallucinations followed by visual hallucinations. The ghosts and screams in his hallucinations that were enough to drive people crazy had almost made him shoot someone to death.

At that time he hadn’t known how to protect himself and how to judge situations, but at present everything was already on the right track. Chrissie liked it here, she was finally slowly recovering her liveliness, and he would make sure everything was on track and nothing unexpected happened.

He slowly lay back in bed while pressing the center of his eyebrows. He couldn’t get the spider-like monster of that night out of his head, as well as the cold lifeless eyes of the black-haired man out of his mind. He pushed them to the back of his mind. When the doctor came in, he showed a bright smile and said, “Hey, Doctor, I’m really sorry, but I’m afraid I really, really need to leave the hospital…” 

He smiled placidly, as if the whole world was at peace, much like the brilliant blue sky outside the window.