I guess this is the end. I feel so useless, lying here helpless, paralyzed. I look around me, expecting to see weights strapped to my limbs.

But you could never understand that feeling. And I would never want you to. The way you are, you're free now. Free from me. I was always your only burden, but I won't be here to way you down anymore. And now, seeing you, free, independent, I wonder…

Zero gravity…what's it like?

As I see your smiling face above me, I ask myself: is this a dream? You couldn't have come back to me-I know you can't really be there. I know that you'll never come back to me. It's nothing but a fantasy, but it's good enough for me. Seeing your face again, I get this feeling that nothing will change, that nothing has changed.

Maybe, I won't even feel a thing when I die.

A memory. That's what it must be. You standing there above me, with that smile of yours that lets me forget everything. That smile that, when I look at it, even if only for a second, lets me escape reality. I've seen it so many times before- but here, now, it can't be real. I know that it's only a mere a shadow of you.

But it feels so real, the way you touch my face with your soft, gentle hand, the way your cold, wet teardrops fall from your eyes onto my face.

But you'd never come back for me, right? And I don't blame you, not with the way I treated you, the promises I never kept.

How could I ever hope for you to still smile like that? How could you ever forgive me after all I've put you through?

You couldn't. I failed you. But I swear, if I get a second chance, in a different life, I'll fix everything. I promise, I'll get you anything you ask, I'll make sure your happy the next time around.

But I know I won't get a second chance.

I know I don't deserve one.

You feel so real…but, how could you be? How could you be here? How could you make yourself return to your worthless father? You deserve better than me, you always did…

Ah, but what's been done has been done. The end is the end, all the regrets in the world won't delay it, I suppose. Although if I was given another chance, things would be different, I swear it.

But, I suppose all that matters now is…

"You're…here."

And I need to tell you…

"I…I wanted to see you one last time. I…wanted to…apologize to you…"

And then, my last thought, and my last word are one and the same.

"Rika…,"

Sweet dreams, old man. Rest well.