Stay - Dave Mustaine & Joey Belladonna

Prologue

"So as you read this, know my friends
I'd love to stay with you all
Please smile when you think of me
My body's gone, that's all"

~Megadeth, A Tout Le Monde

There isn't much that I remember about that day, but I can still remember the way I felt.

Betrayed, gutted, abandoned. I remember all those feelings.

And I remember asking, "Why?"

I would never receive an answer.

After a bus ride from hell that may as well have delivered me straight there I stumbled around a few days with ever intention to drink myself to death. I fucked up everything that was ever important to me anyway, so why bother staying?

I do remember climbing up high, the highest peak I could find and looking down into the water so deep that I just saw black.

I don't remember the fall for some reason, but I do remember the sudden feeling of cold and the feeling of being dragged down, my lungs filling up with ice water as I sank and sank, my hair billowing up about me like red seaweed.

Then I was still for what seemed like eternity.

And then for some reason I rose back up, like I was pulled by a string extending from my naval...like my umbilical cord had never been cut.

Oh, God, mom, I'm sorry...so sorry.

I caught my breath for the first time in what seemed like years as I gazed up into what seemed like a grey sun. I heard no words by I felt myself flooded with knowledge.

"Yes, I understand," I heard myself choke out, my throat coated with salt water.

I'm coming for you.