5 years earlier

A female with auburn hair and brown eyes stared up at the door to the attic and sighed. She had the task of cleaning out the attic of her stuff so she could be ready to move out for Saturday. She had just graduated from the police academy and got a placement in the next town over from where her parents lived, this meant that she had to get an apartment of her own and move out.

She pulled down the latch door only to be greeted by a cloud of dust. The female turned to the side and coughed a few times into her right arm while trying to blow the dust away by flappying her left arm about. "Must not have been cleaned in a while." The female thought to herself as she pulled down the rope ladder, this time ducking and pivoting on her right foot in an attempt to avoid being sprayed by another dust cloud.

"Is everything alright Caroline?" Her mother called from the kitchen down the hall.

"I'm fine. Just a little bit dusty that's all." The female called back to her mother before staring up into the darkness of the attic. Caroline had been afraid of heights since she was 7 years old: she had been in her tree house with her father when all of a sudden, the branch supporting the treehouse broke off and caused the it and the treehouse to come crashing down to the ground. She broke her writing hand arm and her father broke some ribs, the doctors and adults blamed the accident on the old age of the tree. But ever since then, Caroline has had a fear of heights.

Gripping onto the ladder, the female slowly climbed it, pulling herself up until she had reached the top. She crawled across the attic's floor, fearful of falling through the floor if she stood up. So the female remained on her hands and knees, her palms and pants from her knees down collected dust as she maneuvered around the dust coated attic.

Boxes were piled on top of boxes, the stacks felt like sky scrapers as they towered over the female crawling past them. Each box had been labeled and organized. This made it much easier for the female to find what she was looking for. Caroline arrived at a pile of boxes labeled: "Caroline's stuff" and looked up at it. She sighed heavily knowing that it would take her a little bit longer than expected to go through all of her stuff.

***

It had taken the female about 6 hours to sort through most of her old stuff and determine what she valued saving and what could be tossed or donated to charity. She was almost done with her sorting, she only one more box to go. Tired and exhausted, the female sat down and leaned against one of the stacks of boxes. She let out a huff of air as she stared up at the ceiling. This was her first time actually moving away from home. She had gone to sleepovers and gone on camping trips before, she had also lived in residence her first year of college. But none of that made her truly feel the way she felt at that very moment. It wasn't real, her residence that she stayed in at college had only been about a half hour's drive away. This time she would be at least 2 hours away from her parents. For the first time in her life, she would be completely alone. And this scared her, moving away and starting a career of her own scared her.

Caroline leaned a little further back into the stack as she closed her eyes, but immediately she felt something bounce off her head and land onto the floor in front of her and in between her outstretched legs which formed a V shape. The female opened her eyes and looked at the medium sized box before her. It was a sparkled red gift box with a golden ribbon that secured the two halves together. Curious by its contents, the female untied the bow and lifted up the lid before setting it off to the side. Inside were a few photographs of her and her parents at a ranch, a few little trinkets, and a crumpled up ball of cinnamon scented rose-gold paper. The Perfume which coated the paper wafted through Caroline's nose causing her to sneeze into her arm. Intrigued, she pulled out the ball and carefully unraveled it. It was a letter to her. A love letter. But the writer's name had been smudged and was no longer legible. The female sighed, she wished she knew who the sender was, she would still read the note despite not knowing who wrote it.

Dear Caroline, you my love are so fine.
I am so glad that you are still mine,
Oh, my sweet dear Caroline.

I love you Caroline. I'm sorry for what happened. It's my fault and I know you probably won't forgive me, but I truly am sorry. If you love me too, please meet me at the old oak by the stream. I have something special to ask you, but I want to ask you in person.

Sincerely,
(Illegible name/signature)

Caroline curled the corners of her mouth up as she smirked slightly at the poem in the beginning of the letter. It was cheesy yet romantic in some weird way. She had no memory of an oak tree or a stream, let alone two together. This perplexed her, she wanted to know more about the letter, about the writer. But all she had to go on was the address on the back of the sheet, for all she knew it could be invalid or the writer could have moved away by then. But she had to try. She was determined to figure out the mystery behind the strange letter and the unknown author.

***

That night, while Caroline should have been sleeping, she had been packing a bag. The female had a plan, she was going to sneak out and go find out who the author of the letter was, what was the special thing that they wanted to discuss in person, and what happened that was their fault. She knew she had to work quickly to solve the mystery, for her new life was just about to begin. Once it did, she new that it would be a while before she could return to the case, if ever.