Just Look at All That Pain

“Frankie, I’m home,” Gerard yelled as he opened the door. He half expected Frank to be curled up on the couch but instead he was met with silence. He let Pansy out and quickly checked the apartment. Empty.
He pulled his phone out from his back pocket before sitting on the edge of the couch. He automatically dialed Frank but he was met with the mechanical voice telling him to leave a message. He must have tried another 5 times before he noticed Pansy had jumped on the coffee table in front of his and was clawing at the corner of a folded piece of paper. A single word was scribbled on the front of the page in Frank's handwritting: Gee.
He softly pushed Pansy off it, realizing that this paper would probably explain where Frank was and when he was coming back as he opened it.

Gee,
I love you with all my heart and I hope you won’t blame yourself for my actions. My life is in shambles. Almost every aspect is being controlled by people I don’t even know. They threaten you and my kids and if anything ever happened to either of you I would never forgive myself. It’s easier this way. You won’t understand that right now but I want you to know I will be watching over you and I want you to make the right decisions. All my love,
Frankie

It took him a minute to finally understand, then it hit him:
He was going to kill himself.
Guilt, pain and fear ripped through him as tears streamed down his face. He tried to call him once more. No answer. He couldn’t understand it. Why hadn’t he said anything? Why was he only finding out about this now- now that it was too late? Through the tears, he managed to call the police to report both him and his car missing. He dropped his phone half way into the conversation, just after giving them the important details.
He had no idea what to do. His mind was racing and the world around him seemed to lose all purpose. Through all the cloudiness that plagued his mind one question seemed to stand out: who were ‘they’?
He vaguely recognized his ringtone as his phone buzzed around the tiled floor. He couldn’t move. He could only sit there, blankly staring out the window across from him. The sun set and darkness fell over the city. Waves of sobbing came and went and he was barely aware of the amount of the amount of time that passed sitting there in the dark.

Notes