Maria
Doubt slows my feet as the wide door creaks open, revealing the house that used to be my home. The dull wooden floor in the hall groans under our footsteps as Mikhail and I venture into the empty house. Several corners of the floral wallpaper peel from the wall, and cobwebs float above our heads just out of reach. This place is a shell of what it used to be as hints of a happier past materialize.
"It looks like no one's been inside for years," I say quietly.
Faded pictures hang on the walls, and my heart clenches in my chest as I stop to look at my family frozen in the frames.
Mikhail grabs hold of my arm. "Maria, you don't have to do this."
Gently, I take his hand away. "I'm okay now." I straighten my spine. "I want to see it, Mikhail. I need to know, even if it guts me." I pic
