The message, directly injected into the mind. "Kill her".

Which "her"? The woman that shared whole nine years of wonderful marriage, joyful nights and days, and only on the tenth year things started to go astray?

Or maybe, the girl from fifteen years ago, that sparked joy and desire and a fire so far unknown, that made everything feel into place, made everything seem just right?

Or maybe, the ignored teenager that kept escaping the darkest places of a memory almost forgotten, but that was the first spark of everything that was going to make things the way they happened today?

Or maybe the fictional character from that old video game, long time ago, that by today's standards would be just "polygons on a screen". A video game that was so immersive, that maybe for some reason, triggered some chain reaction that could, or could not, made everything possible, all things considered?

Didn't matter. The message was clear. The one reading knew which "her" the message was referring. Fighting tears, after all those years, a choice was being presented. Either be unhappy for a reason, or be unhappy for another.

Love. Love is a hard thing. Nine years were a lot of time to distract the voices of the mind, the desires of the soul, and that love was real. It just... wasn't right. An infidelity, but not for her fault.

Everything was falling into place - even the tears, restrained for who knows how many decades, were now falling freely into the sand, each one telling a fragment of a story that no one dared to mention, no one dared to put all pieces together.

Phone in hand, the message crumbled into the hands, trembling fingers dialing her number, finally she answered. It was hard to not cry, but obviously the voice was muffled by all the feelings once bottled, now set free as if the feelings themselves were occupying the place of that message, that stupid thing that triggered the final domino of a whole life of self-illusion.

- "I cannot kill her, honey. I can't. I can't kill the woman inside of me...."