The place is eerily vacant. Vines encroaching on the crumbling stone graves.

Instead of names to etch the memories of these people into history forever, the last words they ever breathed.

Some normal, like “you” as if they were telling a loved one “I love you”.

Others stranger, like death pulled them under before they could get their sentence out.

But one, particularly old looking, catches my eye. The word “secret” carved into the middle.

What could it have been?

A promise? An apology?

Context lost forever in the years passed.

Maybe minor, or potentially something larger.

What is the secret? I’ll likely never know.

Possibly someone still on this planet knows the secret spoken of on this person’s last breath.

Turning away, a flash of metal pulls my attention.

Slightly under the dirt, a small pill box lies in wait.

The hinge is rusted from the time it sat untouched here, but I eventually get it open. Inside, a torn paper note simply stating in neat handwriting, “if this ever leaves between us, there will be consequences”

-sorry, not my best today, I just thought I should post-