The midday sun blazed in the blank azure sky. Inside the master bedroom Sem gazed at the slow rotating ceiling fan.

I’m tired. Every day is emptier and colder. I should write my last thoughts down. But the only person I’d write to ever… No I can’t do this, it’s not fair. But my happiness is gone; I feel nothing.

Sémillon got up from the corner of the bed. He went to his ornate desk to pick up a pen. He removed a piece of copy paper from the drawer then wrote:

Dear Mom & Dad, I’m terribly sorry for this. I know your lives are affected even more so than mine, and I know this will devastate you. But I’m nothing now. I need freedom, I need solace. I wander with no purpose no matter how hard I try to find meaning. I thought I’d learned after the therapy, after the anonymous sessions, after every drug under the sun I could buy to change my outlook. I tried. Please forgive me. I love you and thank you for everything. You both were the strongest anchors keeping me here, but now I need to see her. She calls me in my dreams, she tells me how much she misses me. I cannot continue walking as less than half a person— as a miserable waste of space. Time with her is the best and I will finally be with the best person I will ever know.

To my best friends, Indigo, Viscount, Cezve, and Genevieve. I know I’ve only known you for a short time, but in that window you’ve been truly wonderful. I haven’t felt a connection like the three of you in my entire life. Seventy-five percent of my estate will go to my parents Hugo and Kiara Northwinds. But the last quarter will be divvied up evenly amongst the three of you. This may seem strange given we’ve only known each other for such a short time. But you must accept nonetheless. Goodbye, I love you all.”

Upon completion of the written note, Sem knotted a sequence of dress ties. He climbed upon the bed while fixing a loop around his neck. After tying a strong knot to the ceiling fan he jumped and felt indescribably more alive during asphyxiation. As the oxygen rapidly left his body, he saw Windhoek crying in the hallway to the bedroom. Seconds passed when suddenly he heard the front door slam all the way from upstairs. His name was being screamed for in the purest distress. Discovering a euphoric bliss in dying, a new sensation. These waves were abruptly interrupted when Hugo and Kiara burst in the room. Blurred shouts rang, red faces pierced the background, and tears of anguish flowed. Hugo jumped on the bed to hold up Sémillon from the waist. Kiara immediately dragged a chair and severed the makeshift rope with sharp hunting knife. Sem dropped backwards on to the bed, deafened as well as partially blind. All he could make out was the two silhouettes covering him on the bed pinning him down. The best sleep ever befell him.