Spider

As if a sharp arrow had pierced directly into his chest, Jason's eyes widened and saw a flicker of tottering in the eyes of that valiant man. There was still not much expression on his face, but it made him feel that hidden and complex emotions were surging under the calm surface.

"You're right, I'm the one who killed your mother. Do you want to take revenge?" the trapper said calmly as he looked at his child, who had the gun pointed at him.

Jason's heart prickled. Damn, why on earth did he do that! Doesn't he know how cruel is this for the child and himself?! If it had to be expressed this way, he'd rather the guilt awakened in him wither away again and be buried once again in the dark abyss!

I can't just watch that happen, he said to himself. Even if he betrayed Gavin's wishes, even if he wouldn't forgive him, he still had to do it!

Jason took a step forward, pulled out the Python behind his waist, and aimed at those precocious eyes. “Put down the gun, kid! You're not ready to play with that stuff yet!" he said coldly.

"I'm not a child! I know how to use it!" Pei Lin shrieked. "I can shoot!"

"Excellent, mister, then shoot!" Jason sneered, not in the least concerned. "But don't forget that from the moment you pull the trigger, the word murderer is equally suitable for your head! Hah, I suppose your mother must've prepared her mind for her son to become a murderer when she taught you how to use a gun... Oh, the look on your face tells me that you learnt behind your parents' back? Have you ever killed anyone? Seen the blood spurting out of their bodies, ever heard the screams of people after they've been shot? This is just the beginning, young man. As long as you kill one, you'll kill a second, and a third. You won't bear the desire to kill, and soon blood and bodies will pile up around your feet; you'll have no place to stand, you can only step on even more corpses to climb up... I'm telling you, it's even more gratifying than taking drugs. How about it, interested in trying it?" He flashed him a bloody smile, his eyes so grim that it made one's heart chill.

"Shut up, Jason," the trapper said.

"There's only one way to shut me up now," Jason replied without turning his head, continuing to stare at the child.

Pei Lin's hand holding the gun trembled, unknown fear suddenly diffused from the bottom of his heart, and gradually permeated into his hate-covered eyes, showing a kind of bewildered chaos on his face. "I don't care!" He sounded more like he was convincing and ordering himself. "I've lost everything, anyway. My home, my dad, my mom... I don't care what will happen in the future, murderer or whatever! I can't just watch the murderer who killed my whole family stand in front of me and do nothing!" He glared at Jason vengefully, the blaze of fierceness and despair in his eyes seemed to swallow clean the tiny little body!

I've pushed him fairly enough, Jason thought. As long as a little more pressure is applied at the critical point, things can go in the exact opposite direction. People are inherently contradictory and will always subconsciously oppose their own decisions and actions, even children are no exception.

He took a few steps closer, quickly and neatly, the muzzle of his gun on the soft black hair. "If you could do it, you would've shot long ago, and you wouldn't have dragged it until now. Didn't I tell you, you're not ready to play with this thing! I'm not going soft on any person with a gun, so on the count of three I'll pull the trigger—" His voice went very gentle all of a sudden, and he held out his left hand toward the child. "You have a choice, Pei Lin. Put the gun in my hand, and pick it up when you think it through and can afford the consequences... Here, give me the gun, dear. I don't want your brains blown."

Pei Lin looked at him in flurry and bewilderment, his mind disorderly crowded with countless thoughts. The man in front of him had his gun firmly on his head, without the slightest hesitation or trembling. This was the hand of a true killer... I'm not enough, he said to himself. I'm not enough...

"One, two." A low, firm count rang in his ears, and before the word 'three' could be said, he slowly released his fingers and placed the gun in the man's hand.

Success. Jason breathed a sigh of relief at the bottom of his heart and rushed to grab the captured handgun with his left hand. Just as he relaxed, the child made a move that no one expected!

He suddenly snatched the Python from Jason's right hand, so fast that it was hard to imagine that it came from the hands of a child! He simultaneously sidestepped to avoid the man before him and fired three shots at Gavin!

The empty echo of the continuous rotation of the disk pounded Jason's eardrum, but the gunshot did not ring out, as the bullets had been used up in the firefight with Parkman's subordinates earlier. It was an empty gun, Jason was well aware of this, but what happened now was still intolerable!

"You shot!" Jason called angrily, realizing that he still underestimated Pei Lin! His shrewdness and ruthlessness far surpassed those of his age, and his determination and vengeance that wouldn't rest until his goal was achieved sent chills down his feet, even though he was still just a child! "How could you shoot him! He's your own father—"

The end of the shouting ruptured with a gunshot! After pulling the trigger three times, a fourth bullet, which shouldn't have been in the cylinder, came out of the barrel! Jason's whole body stiffened. Fuck, where the hell did that bullet come from?!

A long time later, when Jason recalled the scene, he always felt that Gavin could've dodged that bullet. Of course, rationally he knew that no one except Superman could be faster than a flying bullet — yet he always thought so for some reason. Maybe it was because of the expression on the man's face at that time, which was as calm and collected as welcoming the things he had made an appointment for earlier.

He didn't even bother to cover the spot where he was shot, simply gathered his jacket to hide the blood gushing out from the wound under his dark clothes.

The recoil from the gun's handle caused Pei Lin to take a few steps back, and the handgun fell on the gravel ground. "What nonsense are you talking about? You said, he..." He saw the look on Jason's expression, which was telling him that it wasn't a scary lie, and his face suddenly turned pale. He stared at Gavin like he was seeking for confirmation, moved his lips and asked, "Is he telling the truth... And mom, the words she said before she died, 'the boy is in your hands'... Is that all true?!"

"No," Gavin replied indifferently, his voice not even audibly weak from the massive blood loss. "I'm not your father. Your father's long dead."

He then turned around, without looking at anyone, and walked slowly toward the wooden cabin.

When Mackenzie seemed to want to say something as he passed by, Ben captured her hand and shook his head lightly at her. She pursed her plump, curled lips, turning her face in the other direction.

Pei Lin's visage finally showed the expression that a nine-year-old ought to have: astonishment, panic, and frail bewilderment. He knelt on the ground with weak legs and murmured, "Mommy..."

Jason suddenly broke into a ran toward the cabin, the engine of the Audi R8 sports car in the yard was rumbling slightly. He pulled open the door at the last moment before it moved, "Hey dear, you missed a passenger!"

Gavin stopped and turned his head to look at him, "Jason..."

The latter said aggressively, "So you still remember my name! Apply pressure to your stomach and move aside. We can make it to the hospital in half an hour, no sleeping until then!"

"We're not going to the hospital," the black-haired man said, blood pouring from his abdomen like a fountain, and his liquid-saturated trousers led it to the spotless car floor. He whispered as if delirious, "We'll take a road trip... along I-90 through waterfalls, forests, farmlands, deserts, enjoying beer, country music and lifting sunshine girlies along the way, and on and on and on... No, it's not we, it's me." His dark eyes gazed attentively at Jason, a tender and helpless glimmer flickered inside. "I'm sorry, Jason. The passenger seat cannot be left to you. I'm going to break my promise."

The blond man let out a series of guttural sounds, unbeknown if it was either revile or sobbing.

"You know, Jason, I've always thought you were very pesky, and even though we've only known each other for a day and a night, I overall feel like I've heard everything I should've heard in my life." Gavin strained to exhale. "Now I finally know what it feels like to have a lot to say, but I don't have that much time... I suppose I should tell you at least one thing, Pei Lin is not my son."

"What?" Jason asked in surprise. He wasn't surprised at the truth at all. It didn't matter if he was his son or not, he just didn't understand why he would do that if he wasn't. Why did he value that kid more than his own life? Was it because of that woman, or...?

"Who's his father?"

"Do you remember what I told you, about a comrade of mine."

"....The guy who liked Pythons?"

"Yeah, his name's Pei Yue. He killed his boss for the people he wanted to protect, and he was the only trapper who escaped the hunting of Beast Camp. None of the killers sent by the instructors to destroy him came back alive, they all died inexplicably. I believed he could live the way he wanted to, I was once so convinced, but in the end, he died." Gavin fished something sticky and bloody out of his pocket, which looked like a round jade piece, and put it in his hand. "But he left a child behind — and I knew it was his when Amber showed me this. I thought, no matter what, I want that child to live in this world."

"Does that even matter if you make yourself like this, you bastard..." Jason's voice was so low that he couldn't even hear himself. At last, all that was left was a muffled, trembling nasal voice as he breathed in heavily, his fingers clutching the car door twitching spasmodically. The other's hand stretched out to cover the back of his hand, and clasped it tightly, with the viscous temperature of blood. He received a smile he'd never forget — the first and only smile the man ever gave — and the smiling one said, "I used to think it'd be okay, but now I'm starting to regret it... You were right, Jason. The world's a fucking good place because it let me meet you."

He leaned over and kissed his cheek, then pushed him away strenuously and closed the door.

Amidst the smoke and dust raised from the rear of the car, Jason clenched the jade piece in his hand, closed his eyes tight and lowered his head deeply.

There was a loud explosion in the distance. Mackenzie sighed and said to Ben, "Let's go back. The mission can't be completed, and we need to be severely punished." She picked up the strap of the machine gun, which swayed very uncoordinatedly with her long, soft hair and slender body, and walked gracefully over the gravel pile.

She smiled charmingly as she passed Adrian. "You’re lucky today, handsome. My violence aversion disease rarely flares up — today's the first time, to be exact. You know, a girl's first time is quite precious, no matter what it is, so you must cherish it properly." Then she floated away casually.

The child sitting on the gravel suddenly called her to a halt, "Where are you going?"

"Where?" Mackenzie looked back at him, as if he had asked an odd question. "Beast Camp, of course, Amber's son."

"I've heard of that place, in one of my mom's ravings when she was sick," the child said calmly. "Has she ever been there, too?"

"That's right, sweetie." Mackenzie smiled up. "She spent a lot of time there, just like me — except she's a B-type, and she's a very good fit for that. By the way, your father, I think it should be him, he's been there as well."

"In that case, I'm also going there."

"Oh, this is no trivial matter, not like choosing whether to have chocolate cookies, or a blueberry pie or something... Have you thought this through, kiddy?"

"Yes." Pei Lin looked at her with a sharp, determined gleam in his eyes.

He was born to be a trapper, the idea suddenly popped into Mackenzie's mind, and he'll be even better than his parents. She curled her lips into a smile. "Ben, we're going to have a new companion."

Adrian walked over to see Jason standing there with his head down, not saying a word.

He went up, grabbed his arm, and whispered, "I know you're not okay... The kid just left with those two guys in camouflage, and I don't know if we should retain him. He's his son, but he shot him... I saw the gesture you made behind your back when you held the gun on him, you said it was empty, but... I don't know. It was probably just an accident, at least not your fault... Let's go home, Jason."

Then he felt a drop of liquid drip on his arm, which was soon absorbed by the cloth, leaving a small smear of water. "You're crying?" he said incredulously, as he had never seen him shed a tear before.

Jason raised his head slowly with a tired, feeble smile. His face was clean, except for some dried blood stains. "No, it's just going to rain soon. The sky is changing."

Adrian watched him quietly, with a light smile on the corner of his mouth. "Yeah, it's going to rain. Let's go."

They returned to the car, and a heavy rain really poured down from the cloudy, overcast sky. Adrian drove up the highway, and Jason sat quietly beside him. Neither of them spoke, and the atmosphere inside the car was as depressed and dull as the thunderstorm pressure outside.

A moment later, Adrian felt a weight bearing down on his arm. He turned his head to see Jason's body leaning over, wearily asleep with his head resting on his shoulder, his brows twisted together in melancholy and unease, with a pale blue shadow under his eyelids.

"Looks like I should get you to the hospital first..." He let him lean like this, bowing his head and kissing his blood-stained blond hair. "Sleep, Jason, and wake up to a new day."