Let The Past Die - Kill It, If You Have To.

[Avenger Assembled]

Fall 2019 

After some searching, they find the note down in the basement of the Faretti manor, in a place where the dimensional walls are particularly weak. 

 

To my family -  

  

I want you to know that this has nothing to do with you. To be husband, to be father twice over, is more than I have ever deserved. If I see anything good in myself, it's a reflection of what I've seen from my wife and my sons. But as the years go by and as my powers grow, I'm beginning to realize what happens to creatures like me as we get older. I'm not like dear sweet Mitya with his jokes hiding his pain, or even Nicci with her spells and her lover.  

  

The thirst is growing in me - and so too, far worse, is the coldness that makes me forget why I should care. The last few years and what I've done, and haven't done, have reminded me that I am a monster, and I have grown more so as time goes by, not less. I've had thoughts, and feelings, and desires that I had thought for years I could suppress. But they've only grown with time. I will spare you the details but I understand now that I am no longer safe to be around - and so I choose to go. When a tiger leaves his cubs behind, is he wicked for doing what are his instincts? Am I wicked, for succumbing to them at last? I am what I am.  

  

This isn't the fault of anyone who loves me, it's simply a matter of fact - the inevitable biological processes of a thing that has been dead a long time. Nobody else has died yet. But somebody will; and on that night, I'll deserve the fate I should have had fifteen years ago. I've kept this from you both because you both deserve better - the Master Mage! Heshem's Chosen! You have bigger problems - and you deserve better than one vampire learning that a sanguinary immortality isn't all it's cracked up to be.  

  

I wonder sometimes about your future, my son - did this happen then? Did you have to put down what had been your father in a red rage? Did you have to watch your mother do it? These are the questions that have gnawed at me; and I find that I do not like the answers. You deserve a chance to build a future around your own legacy - not mine.

 

As for my lovely wife, the light in the darkness of my soul, let me say this:"  

  

There is a long passage for Phantom written in Jack's not very good Chinese. It's a love poem - and a plea for her not to search for him.

 

"Remember me for what I was - and live as yourself, always. 

 

I've left the keys to the vault with Daisy, but don't worry, she'll do whatever the two of you tell her. The vampires of the city are in good hands. There's a new generation now, one that will build a better future for everyone - a future that doesn't need an Avenger. And as for you, my loving family, I am  


Yours, always  

Jack
 

 

 

Of the husband and father who'd always been so good at disappearing acts - 

 

"Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”