The door opened with its familiar creak. One that hasn’t sounded in his mind in a long time. The last time Thomas graced the walls of his apartment he left Malia under false pretenses of work strip across the world.

His wanderlust and desire to chase treasures of the ancient world seduced him into an escapade of deceit.

Closing the door carefully, Thomas felt a note taped above the inside door handle. Looking down, he saw an envelope loosely taped to the door. Inside it contained a small paper.

‘The Houston job is as real as our love was to you.’

The note sent shivers down Thomas’ spine. Turning around, the apartment looked much different than he had left it. Where light and warmth was lived, Thomas found an empty barren grayscape of his now empty apartment. The furniture was gone. The cabinets all opened and emptied. The kitchen was only adorned with a cheap vase and a dead flower, its petals nearly disintegrated around the base of the vase.

Trapesing about the newly desolate domicile, Thomas reached for his phone and dialed malias cellphone. Straight to voicemail. Thomas’ expression went blank as his arm dropped the phone from his face. A single tear welled and fell down his cheek.