You take the steps up the crumbling staircase, thick vines reach for the door from all angles, determined to get inside the abandoned house.

You walk down the long hallway, the white wooden door on the end shut tight against the chilly breeze that runs through the house like a child at play.

Your hands find the golden knob, you twist and push, the sticky door sliding open, allowing a fraction of light to slide into the dark hallway. Your heart begins to race, your palms slip across the knob, slick with sweat. Beads of it begin to roll down your forehead, despite the low temperatures.

Letting your breath out slowly, you push the door open wide, letting the light flood into the hallway like water behind a dam.

Those words-

We were in love here - F+D

You remember it like it was yesterday; the day you stole a black spay can from a small corner store on Lakeland Street. You brought it here. And you put this on these walls. You said then, “These words will stay together here, just as we will stay together. Without each other, they make no sense. Just like you and I.”

Tears pool and spill, you bring a hand up to your eyes and bite your lip to keep it from quivering. You shake against the chilly breeze, as you settle against the wall, covering the dried black ink with your back.

And then you scream. Loud, angry and mean. When it’s not enough you do it again as the tears come faster, boiling their way down your face. You ball your fists and cry into your knees like a baby.

You were suppose to be a team… a team forever. Now the words are here, yet the people that put them there are gone.

Slowly, you stand. You exit the room and go to your car. Unlocking the back door, you take out the soapy bucket, bleach and sponge.