𝖢𝗁𝖺𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖲𝗍𝖺𝗋𝗌 || 𝖣𝖺𝗇𝖼𝖾 𝖬𝗈𝗆𝗌

California Dreamin'

TW:

"Genevieve Turner has been running from her past."

"When I first heard the sentence following a sleepless night, I did nothing but stare at the electronic device that had emitted the sound. Three pairs of tired eyes looked at me, but I did nothing except unamusedly raise my eyebrows at the television before turning to walk away.

My face ached as I walked into the kitchen, still being able to listen to the television program from afar. Feeling quite frazzled, I ended up coming to a stop in front of the kitchen island. Placing both of my hands on it as support, I closed my eyes and inhaled slowly through my mouth. The eight words echoed through my head, and the only thing I hated was just how truthful they were.

I was Genevieve Turner, and for what was arguably the longest time of my life, I'd been avoiding the past like a plague, but if I wanted to truly move past all of it, I'd have to face it for once and for all.

That was the headline in endless newspapers. The eye-catching letters next to a photo of me in the tabloids. The words that were uttered in a cold room. The sentence was plastered on TV. The very thing that kept millions of eyes on me for two and a half months,

They were the truth.

And it was a hard pill to swallow.

It was also the realization I had when I stood in the attic one April afternoon. The place I hoped would have the answer to my never-ending boredom contained the very part of me I had locked away all those years ago. The part of me I believed I had moved past, but in reality, I had only been running from it.

My old life.

Not even Evie Turner.

But everything.

For years, I took it upon myself to rewrite my story. I decided to lie, smile, and pretend as if nothing had ever happened. I made myself believe that, if I was able to gaslight the world long enough to make it believable, they would eventually forget it all, and if they forgot it all, then it meant that it didn't happen, and if it didn't happen, then nothing ever happened to me.

Right?

At least, that was what I told myself up to that day.

When I opened the dusty cardboard box, in hopes of finding the board game I had been desperately looking for what felt like ages, I instead found a plaque upside down. Confused as to what it was, I reached out for it, slightly cringing when my fingertips came in contact with the plaque's cold material. Grabbing it from each side, I pulled it out of the box and turned it upside down.

With a red, black, and yellow background, the word JUMP caught my eye, and the white "1st Place" on its lower right side helped me remember where it was from.

However, before I could spend too much time staring at it, something else caught my attention from inside the box. Silently placing the plaque back inside, I reached for the bigger board, which was lying sideways on one of the box's long sides. Making sure I didn't drop anything, I was able to grab it, and when I turned it to face me–