“I can’t be with you…”

The words ring in my ears taunting me. They run laps in the maze of my bruised and battered mind. They bounce off the walls and come tumbling down reminding me of what simply being me could cost. Because this is me, even with the mask this is me.

“Why?”

“Because you’ll get hurt and I can’t stand by and watch that happen.”

“I won’t get hurt. I never have before, just a couples cuts and scratches here and there. Nothing too serious. I promise you I won’t get hurt.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep. You don’t know that for sure, nobody does, you especially. You can’t expect to put yourself in the path of danger and never have it slap you straight in the face.”

“But I need you.”

“I need you too. You. Not some superhero who I don’t know whether they’ll make it home alive and well.”

“I am that superhero. That is me. Do you understand? I am nothing without the mask!”

“Well you’ve always been something and someone to me. With or without the mask and if you can’t see that then I don’t think there can be an us anymore.”

“But-“

“No buts. I won’t do this and neither will you.”