Lightning-Dono: I wanted to update this! I was looking back on it and I thought – now that I've improved my writing, why not update again without feeling ashamed? So here we are:) I know the last chapter was shallow, but I'm going to try and make this better.

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Dear Popuri,

I'm sorry this was so sudden. It's been a short couple years and I don't regret marrying Karen at all. But there are so many things I want to learn about her and she needs to tell me the truth, even if it'll hurt me. She's been acting like a tyrant lately and...I want to know why. I've only been trying to help her.

I'm cold inside, I want to understand but I have no hope of doing anything like that. I have this mask on and I don't think I can put it on anymore.

You can find me at the cliff. But I might no longer be there. Take care of yourself Popuri...and mom. I know what I'm doing is selfish and I know it's sinful...but my heart seems to think this is the only way.

Good-bye.

Love,

Rick

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Point of View – Rick

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The cliff had a ragged edge, the fragments of rock tumbling slowly down as I nudged my toe towards the edge. A sapphire sea lay beneath the drop that was life-threateningly high – a whopping fifty-feet above sea level, towering over the rocks below that bore the resemblance of knives held erect from the ground. One mistake, just a small trip, could send me flying over the edge towards a tunnel leading into eternal life. If one existed, that is.

But that was what I wanted, wasn't it? Salty tears created a liquid of film over my eyes, blurring my eyesight. Shining obsidian lay at my feet, precious rock that was polka-dotted with implants of quartz. That's what I was in society – one of the quartz swarming the overall picture of power.

"RICK!" A scream pierced the still air that had engulfed my mind with silenced thoughts. "RICK!" Came the desperate cry again. A breeze that had roughened over the last few minutes pushed me forward, but despite my desire to end it all...I fought. I guess this was another false alarm from me. Maybe all I even wanted to do was stand here and receive the thrill of impending doom as I looked down upon those rocks that had been eroded down to a sharp point over millions of years – nature's weapons against the weak.

Two startlingly icy cold hands grabbed my shoulders. So cold I could feel them through my denim coat and shirt beneath.

"What do you think you're doing?" Karen was screaming into the back of my head, slightly ruffling my hair. I couldn't bring myself to turn and face her. Despite my bravery at being willing to plunge myself fifty feet into a bunch of rocks, I couldn't even summon the courage to look at my wife in the face? What was wrong with me?

Another bout of screaming ensued. "How could you even think of abandoning me and your unborn child?" Karen lashed out, grabbing my elbow and whirling me around as fast as she could while bearing the weight of a steadily growing child. It was then that I discovered exactly how much pain I had departed her with. The pigments of her skin were deepening into a rosy red, bordering cherry. Her emerald eyes looked as though they could dilate any moment and haze into red. "Have you no consideration for my feelings, you insensitive jerk?" When I released no reply, she lifted a hand and smacked me hard across the face. Oh, did that bring me back to the reality that I was living in. It had been so long since someone I truly loved had inflicted actual pain upon me. That part of me, the part that realized how much I had released myself from this world and wandered off into a place where I could find salvation from my internal suffering, was awakened. "Did you even think about how much I would miss you if you left me? Do you know what I would do if you died? Do you?"

Karen was crying now, tears driving rivers down her soft cheeks. Cheeks that shone with perspiration from running a marathon to get to me. What had I done?

My arms gently, and awkwardly, found it way around her shoulders, grasping her in a tight embrace. "I'm sorry I didn't think, Karen..." My tear-ridden eyes closed tightly. "I'm sorry." Even so, the wind that had been pushing me all night ushered the both of us towards the edge, loosening the gravel beneath our feet and shifting them towards the edge.

Through uneven breathing and wet sobs, she grabbed me suddenly and said, "Don't you ever think of dying. Don't you ever talk about dying because of me. Don't you dare!" She hastily wiped her eyes and guided me to the edge of the forest that bordered the cliff. Leaves fell in a melancholy manner from the trees, rustling the rest of its kind. "I read your note, Rick. You don't have to hide your emotions from me." She gasped for a breath. "I'm your wife, and if you love me, you won't tuck away those emotions and store them inside yourself. When I played with you as a younger child...when I spent all that time talking to you...when I fell in love with you and married you, I did it because I love you for who you are. Not who you think I want you to be. I'm not the kind of person you think I am – I don't expect for people to be perfect. I accept that we're all human and we all have those feelings of sadness, anger, and happiness that we don't always show." Even though this was you typical sappy speech about feelings, this cut deeper into me than blade-like rock formations ever could. "But if what you've showed me so far was actually a mask...then I don't know who I'm really dealing with, and...I don't think I can love you anymore if you don't feel comfortable showing me your true character." Instead of walking away with dramatic flair, she waited patiently for his reaction.

I was left speechless. The only thing I could mutter was, "I promise I'll show you what I truly feel." Compared to what Karen had just uttered, my line seemed completely powerless and pathetic.

In the shadows of the trees, I saw a fluffy-haired figure donning a red nightgown huddled there. Popuri. Had she found the letter and passed on the news to Karen?

"Are you sure?" Karen said skeptically. "Because from where I'm standing, you seem more comfortable secluding your feelings from your actions." Her arms loosened from mine and I found her gazing into my bespectacled visage. Even though we were so close, we might as well have been on separate spiritual planes. I was completely intent on keeping whatever vows I made tonight and she doubted me...and that wounded my inner confidence greatly. After all I had done for her, she couldn't even trust me to keep my word?

"I promised you, and I intend on keeping it," I responded, changing my tone to sound, if possible, even more serious.

"Good for you, Rick." And completely out of the blue, she burst into tears again in my arms. "I'm sorry about this," she wept, frantically wiping away her tears. "I-I just thought about how close I was to losing you! If Popuri hadn't shown me that letter, you would've left me forever. I would never recover from that loss, and you know that. And if you didn't realize that before, now you do."

I felt like bawling right there on the spot, but I decided to embody the definition of manly and held her tight, refusing to let tears drip. I knew that if I did, they would never stop.

"Let's go home," I whispered, escorting her back to our home.

And at that moment, hearing her heavy breathing against my left cheek, I knew that the promise I had made I would keep, no matter what the reason.