My childhood boyfriend drowned when I was 15, and I have received a rose at my doorstep every Valentine's Day since. This time of year is always hard for me. Ten years ago, on February 13th, my boyfriend went missing. His body was found washed up on the edge of the river bank the next day. Matt and I had been dating for three years, and it would have been three years on Valentine's Day. He was sweet and mature, unlike a lot of the boys at our school. I remember that first Valentine's Day, he wrote me a poem in a handmade card and left it with a single rose on my desk. It had a question at the bottom: "Will you be mine?" I, of course, said yes; how could I say no?! I know this sounds silly looking back, considering we were so young, but we made big plans for our future. I couldn't see any other reality than us being together. He and his family lived just around the corner from mine, and we often sneaked out to our local park. The nights we spent planning every detail of our future under the stars were magical. My world began to fall apart when I got home from school one night. I had been worrying all day that I hadn't heard from Matt and thought it was unusual that he hadn't at least text me. As I walked through my front door, there was a man and woman sitting in our living room. My parents were with them, and I could see in my mother's teary, red-rimmed eyes that something bad had happened. The evening and the next day were a blur as the two detectives explained how Matt was missing, then how they found his lifeless body in the frozen river the next day. My Valentine's Day was spent alone drowning in my own tears. That was until there was a knock on the door around 8 pm that day. My dad opened the door to find a single rose. It had a small note attached that read: "Amy, I Love You." When my father handed me the freshly cut rose and the small note, my heart dropped as I knew it was from Matt. Part of me even refused to believe he was gone, but the subsequent funeral and memorials made me face reality, even if it hit me like a freight train. I still had a shred of hope. I didn't go to school for a few weeks after. I just couldn't face it; the questions, the staring, it was all too much. Reliving this now still pains my heart. A year had nearly passed, and even though I had started smiling and going out with friends again, the scars still ran deep. There was a small anniversary memorial for family and close friends, and Matt's family was equally supportive of me as I was of them. After I got home from the memorial, I found a single rose delicately placed on our doormat. My stomach dropped as I noticed the same handwritten note was attached. My parents were slightly concerned, but I didn't feel any malice or creepiness; I knew it was from him. As I placed the rose in a small vase of water and put it in the center of my windowsill, I smiled as a tear ran down my face. As the years went on, I kept this tradition, and the single rose was always at my door each Valentine's Day. I know that this sounds like a sick, twisted joke from someone taking advantage of the tragedy, but in my mind, it was a small sign from Matt. In that moment, I felt his love once again. Five years later, I met my soon-to-be husband, Luke. He was aware of my past struggles with relationships, but he was patient and understanding. I knew he was the one for me, and we got married two years ago. We moved into our first house that summer after living in a rental apartment. However, the annual rose and note continued to follow me, causing tension between Luke and me. He believed that someone was playing a cruel joke on me, but I had a different view. On last Valentine's Day, Luke threw the rose and note away, as he said he didn’t like the fact some creep was sending me these kind of things. This led to a heated argument, that resulted in me crying myself to sleep while he slept on the couch. The next day, I found a crushed decaying rose, it had a broken heart hand-drawn on the attached note in my mailbox. I held it in my shaking hand as I went inside, I broke down as I placed the remains of ‘our’ flower and heart breaking note in my bedside table. In the following months after, strange things began to occur in our house. The TV would turn on in the middle of the night, cupboards would open themselves while we were at work, and footsteps were heard at night outside on the decking. Luke decided he would install cameras outside but they showed nothing. That was until last week, the backyard camera captured a shadowy dark figure moving across the outside wall, by our back door one night. Luke told me that the security app alerted him at 2:25am, he then got out of bed and went to check no one had broken in. As he walked into the kitchen, suddenly the lights began to buzz and flicker above him. He then felt a sharp pain as something scratched down his bare back. I came running downstairs to check on him, after I heard his pain induced cry. I saw five deep red scratches run down his back. After I had cleaned his wounds and we had calmed down a bit, we went back to bed. I watched the footage back the next morning and it indeed captured the looming shadowy figure outside. That’s when I noticed, it was holding a flower. It was the silhouette of a rose. The grief and guilt I felt in that moment was incomprehensible. How Matt was still trying to show his love for me from beyond the grave and I had moved on and shut him out. I now feel terrified on what may happen to me or Luke, this upcoming Valentine’s Day.