Dear Frank:

This will come as a surprise to you. I am leaving you.

You see, I am free now. My penance is complete. I have suffered the ultimate hell and now I am absolved from all sins committed before meeting you.

You served my purpose. You allowed me to live in Hades and suffer my punishment. I was not sure any one person could fill the bill, but you stepped up your game and knocked off years of additional penance needed to restore my soul. I am forever in your debt.

So I am off, leaving you behind in your own wretched existence. I would tell you that I would like to take you along for the new ride; in truth, you don't deserve the next breath you breathe.

The five years we spent together was my ultimate cleansing. I played you for my own salvation. How appropriate! I used you to set myself free from sins of my past. You were easy and stupid. You loved the game. I loved you for your arrogance.

When you stole my fur coat to go to the track, I was thrilled. When you sold my stereo to bet a horse, I was ecstatic. When you ripped off my boss for the night's receipts, I loved you even more. You bought into my fake anger.

I rolled around in the misery. Just to prove it, I lost my car and slept with bedbugs. I jumped over rats as big as cats behind dive bars. I cleaned up shit in men's rooms and mopped up puke from drunks and degenerates. I reveled in the degradation. It was my lot in life. I deserved it.

Suicide was never an option, a chicken's way out. I would go the distance. I would reduce myself to less than zero.

So now I am here; I am less than zero. I have nothing. I am nothing. As they say, "no where to go but up." So I walk out with my head held high. I have suffered and come out on the other side.

I try to feel sorry for you, my saviour. In the end, you are a parasite. You feed on other people, except in this one case. I fed off your rotten soul. Color me, "Out of here."