Double-sided memory(四)

Night Mask

For three consecutive days, Ouli secretly followed Leo's car after work.

On the first day, he went straight back to his apartment in the north of the city and didn't go out all night. The next day, he stayed at a convenience store for ten minutes, bought a few cans of beer and a sandwich, and then went straight home as well. Ouli was almost about to give up this absurd plan - until the third night.

Leo didn't go home. At 11:15 p.m., his black car pulled up outside a dilapidated motel on the edge of the eastern city. Ouli parked the car at the opposite street corner, rolled down the window, and the sweltering air of the summer night, carrying the smell of gasoline and garbage, rushed into the car.

Twenty minutes later, the hotel door opened. A man came out, but it wasn't Leo Claus, whom Ouli knew. This person was hunched over, wearing dirty work pants and a checked shirt. His hair was messy and stuck to his scalp, and his face was covered with wrinkles and scars. His walking posture was very strange. His left leg was slightly sluggish and his right hand twitched from time to time.

Ouli was about to shift her gaze when she suddenly froze - the man's gesture of raising his hand to check his watch. That precise, almost militarized way of rotating the wrist was exactly the same as Leo's.

She held her breath and watched the "stranger" walk towards the nearby small park. Several homeless people were sitting on a park bench. One of them raised a wine bottle to greet him. Hey, Old Tom! How's tonight?

"Old Tom" let out a hoarse laugh and took a sip of the wine bottle. Ouli stared fixedly at that strange face, trying to find Leo's shadow. But what shocked her even more was that when "Old Tom" turned around, the park street lamps illuminated behind his ears - there was an almost invisible thin line stretching along his hairline, like... It's like the edge of some kind of mask.

Ouli's mobile phone suddenly vibrated in her bag. She frantically took out a text message from Ximei: "Have you seen Leo recently?" He hasn't replied to my messages for two days.

She looked up at the park again. "Old Tom" was gone. Ouli looked around, her heart beating like a drum. Just then, a hand suddenly knocked on her car window.

Ouli let out a scream and her mobile phone dropped under the car. Outside the window stood "Old Tom", his wrinkled face pressed against the glass, and his right eye twitched strangely.

"Miss, this neighborhood is not safe," he said in a completely unfamiliar hoarse voice. "You should go home."

Ouli started the car trembling, and the tires made a shrill scraping sound on the asphalt road. In the rearview mirror, "Old Tom" stood still, slowly raising his hand to tear off something behind his ear - a flesh-colored mask as thin as a cicada's wing, revealing Leo's pale face below. His lips moved. What he said was too far away to be heard, but the shape of his mouth was very clear: "I'm sorry."

At noon the next day, Ouli sat in the coffee shop opposite the "Grey Crow Detective Agency", her hands tightly grasping the cup. The black tea had already gone cold. She couldn't sleep all night last night, with the terrifying scene constantly replaying in her mind - Leo tearing off the mask of "Old Tom" from his face, just like a snake shedding its dead skin.

The doorbell rang and Leo came in. Today, he was dressed in a neat suit, with his hair neatly arranged and his eyes bright and clear. He was a completely different person from last night. He walked straight to Ouli's table, pulled out the chair and sat down.

"You follow me." This is not a question.

Ouli's chin trembled. I... I need to know what you are doing. That mask --

It's a disguise. Leo's voice was terrifyingly calm. "It was shaped by past experiences and also required by my job."

"Work requirements?" Ouli's voice rose, "Dressed up as a tramp and drinking in the park?"

A trace of pain flashed in Leo's eyes. Sometimes... I need to be someone else. Become a person without memory and without a past. This way, one can better get in touch with others' lives. His fingers tapped gently on the table, with a rhythm as precise as a second hand. "The mask enables me to do this."

Oli recalled the moment when the robber pointed a gun at her, that intense urge to disappear. "I understand," she said softly. "Better than you think."

Leo raised his head, his grey eyes looking straight at her. No, you don't understand. Do you think this is just... Escape. But sometimes, Oli, the person beneath the mask is the real one. Perhaps Leo Kraus is the one in disguise.