Kate sat back in her chair, tears still in her eyes. Did that just happen? She thought, bringing a hand to cover her eyes as she let her head fall back. Her breathing was ragged and shallow.
"Kate." A male voice called nearby.
Kate jumped up, startled because she thought she was alone. "Holy, mother of…" Kate looked in front of her to see a man sitting on her desk. He was wearing a brown leather coat and a red woolen scarf around his neck. He smirked, clearly enjoying startling Kate. "Jake?" Kate asked. "I haven't seen you since college."
"Yeah, ever since you dumped me." Jake said. "Don't worry, I forgive you. You were going through a rough time."
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to show you your past. Show you the error of your ways."
"Are you dead too?" Kate questioned.
"No, I'm kind of a manifestation of your mind. I was sent by the powers that be."
"God?"
"Something like that." Jake smiled. "Come on, I have a lot to show you." He said, getting off the desk and holding out his hand.
Kate stood from her chair and took his hand. Instantly, a wind blew through the precinct, swirling around the two of them. Kate's hair was lifted and Jake's scarf waved in the breeze. Paperwork that Kate had been working on flew from the desk and she tried to contain it, but Jake held on to her hand tight. Kate closed her eyes, but then felt the wind stop.
"Kate, we are here." Jake stated, squeezing her hand.
Kate opened her eyes as she found herself standing outside Wilbur Hall, her freshman year dormitory. She watched as people she recognized exited the building carrying loaded backpacks.
"Can they see us?" she asked, looking to Jake who by now had let go of her hand and had his face pressed against the window looking inside.
"No, they can't see us." He said. "I think it's the right time." He moved away from the window and grabbed Kate's hand again, dragging her into the building.
"Wow, this brings back so many memories." She said, looking up and around the foyer.
"Today is Valentine's Day 1999. It was a little over a month ago that your mom passed away and you decided to tough it out and continue going to Stanford. Of course, you ultimately left for the police academy a short while later. Do you remember this day?" Jake asked, standing next to Kate, his hands now in the jacket pockets.
"Honestly, the months following my mom's death were all a blur." She admitted.
Jake motioned for Kate to follow him as they walked up the stairs to the second floor. They passed dorm room after dorm room, some with their doors open and loud music playing, most doors, decorated with paper hearts and cupids, were shut. At the end of the hall stood a young woman knocking on a door. Kate and Jake approached the girl. Kate noticed the door was bare and had her name on it.
"That's Jill. She was my friend in college, but we lost touch after I left." Kate stated, still taking in her surroundings.
"Kate, I know you are in there." Jill called as she knocked. "Look, a bunch of us were going out tonight to celebrate. You should come with us, it will be good for you." Jill sighed deeply, turned from the door and went back to her own room, giving up for now.
"Shall we go inside now?" Jake asked, offering his arm for Kate. Kate obliged and together they passed through the door like ghosts.
In the room, a young Kate sat on her bed with her back against the wall, hugging a pillow. Her brown hair flowed down her shoulders and twisted in loose spirals in front of her face. She was on the brink of tears and tried stopping it from happening by sucking in air, letting it out ragged and shaky. Kate picked up the phone and dialed a number.
"Jake? I can't do this anymore. I want to break up." Young Kate said when the person answered.
"What is so important about this day? Why did you bring me to this moment in time?"
"It's the day you decided to not let anyone in anymore. You shut down and blocked any human connection that came your way."
"My mom said, this 'gift' was supposed to show me something about true love. Are you saying that you were my true love?" Kate asked.
"No, you'll get to that later. I was just a bump in the road of love, but you breaking up with me shaped the way you lived your life for the next ten years. You decided you couldn't risk loving and losing someone again, so you ended things before you got hurt."
Kate reflected on the last ten years of her life. She didn't have any meaningful relationships with men and it saddened her to realize she was basically floating through life with no direction. She felt her eyes start to prickle with tears as the extent of her loneliness came to fruition. Kate closed her eyes to fight the tears from falling, but when she opened them, she was back in the precinct and Jake was gone.
A/N: I'm really going to try to get this finished by Valentine's Day. I have an article due Tuesday, so I'll see if I have time to get the next chapter out before then.