CHAPTER TWO: BACK TO THE BEGINNING
1272 Words
Eyes blinking open slowly, the sharp headache. The sky looked different, the sound of shushed whispers, the smell of notes, footsteps hurried but delicate.
Paulina saw herself resting her head down in a library, confused.
It felt strange. Where was she? She stood up, heart racing, and left the library in a hurry to the road.
She stood on the pedestrian crossing, looking like a lost cat.
Cars swerved, horns blaring loudly. She gasped and scrambled to her feet.
The city looked different. The billboards. The cars. The skyline.
She stumbled to the sidewalk, catching her reflection in a shop window.
She looked younger. How was that possible?
Her memories were slowly coming together. What did James do to her?
Her skin was tighter, her hair longer, her face fuller.
She stared. She was dead. Was this her soul? Lifting her hands and touching the window, she felt the coolness. She was alive but younger!!
Still in surreal disbelief, something vibrated in her coat pocket.
Coat pocket? She hadn’t worn this jacket in years.
With shaking hands, she pulled it out and it turned out to be a phone.
It wasn’t her usual phone. It was an old model. The same one she had back in college.
The date on the screen read: May 14, 2016
Ten years ago.
Paulina nearly dropped the phone.
“What the hell…?”
She turned in circles, disoriented, scanning the world around her. The yellow taxis. The newspaper stand. A man walked past holding an iPhone 6.
Her stomach twisted. She felt sick.
“What is this?” she whispered. “Am I dreaming?”
But the pain in her chest was real. The fear in her veins was real. Her heart pounded like a war drum.
Then it hit her fully.
She’d died.
James had killed her.
And now, she was here. Alive. Ten years in the past.
Before the marriage. Before the betrayal. Before the diagnosis.
She was nineteen again.
Paulina clutched the edge of the building and sank to the ground, laughter bubbling out of her in jagged sobs. People walking around her thought she was a crazy woman. The world spun around her.
“I’m back,” she whispered. “Oh my God. I’m back.”
Memories flooded her like a tidal wave: James’s cold eyes, Alexis’s cruel smile, Evelyn’s venomous whispers. The night she lost herself. The day the doctor said she was dying.
All of it.
But now she had another chance, a blessing.
She didn’t know why or how, but fate had dragged her back.
And she would not waste it.
If she couldn’t change her death, she’d make sure they paid for it. Every last one of them.
Especially James Whitney.
Paulina stood slowly, the strength returning to her limbs like fire in her veins.
She wasn't going to be that naive and stupid any longer.
The sun was rising, casting a golden haze over the city. Paulina walked aimlessly through the streets, her mind racing.
How was she supposed to start over? Where would she go? She had no money, at least, not in this timeline. No apartment. No connections except for...
“Campus,” she whispered.
It hit her all at once. In 2016, she was in 300 level in college, studying literature and interning at a small PR firm downtown. She remembered the name but not the address. Checking the phone in her hand, it still had the address saved. She opened the GPS app and tapped the location: Chambers & Bloom Public Relations. A wave of familiarity swept through her.
She hailed a cab, stunned at how cheap the fare was compared to what she remembered in the future. The cab driver glanced at her through the rearview mirror.
“Are you okay, miss?” he asked.
Paulina forced a smile. “Just...a strange day.”
She pressed her forehead against the window, staring at the city that felt both foreign and intimate. People rushed along the sidewalks, laughter spilled from coffee shops, and at that moment, it felt like the city was mocking her.
You died, she reminded herself. You died at the hands of someone you once loved.
That wasn’t something you can just get over.
She reached the PR firm’s office building and took the elevator up. Everything was exactly the same right down to the faded carpet in the hallway and the vending machine with the broken "B3" button.
Paulina hesitated before entering the reception area.
The young intern behind the desk looked up and smiled. “Hi! Can I help you?”
“I work here. Paulina Finley,” she said, using her maiden name. “I mean Whitney. No. Not Whitney. Sorry. Just… Paulina.”
The girl blinked. “Um… you’re on the intern list. You have orientation with Mr. Davison in fifteen minutes.”
Paulina gave a short nod. “Right. Of course.”
As she walked away, the receptionist called,
"Erm, Miss Paulina, you have a stain on your coat."
A stain? Oh my God. How did she forget to get a new set of clothes? This was embarrassing.
“I ... I didn’t notice. Thanks for letting me know. Let me go home quickly and have a change.”
“No need for that. I have a spare trench coat in my car. You can change into that since you're about to have your orientation in a few minutes.”
Getting the trench coat from the receptionist with a promise to return it washed and dry, she walked away quickly and collapsed into a bathroom stall, breathing heavily.
Get it together, she told herself. She couldn’t let anyone see how rattled she was. Not yet.
When she finally emerged, looking clean and holding her head high with confidence, she walked into the office for her orientation.
"Miss Paulina! You’re late.”
"I'm sorry sir, I had a slight issue to take care of. It won't happen again."
A few minutes later, she was done.
"Follow me, Miss, let me show you your department and introduce you to them," Mr. Davison said.
They walked down to the end of the large hallway, and he opened the door that said PUBLISHING DEPARTMENT.
She saw faces, some a bit familiar and the rest not.
"This is Paulina Finley. She's here for her internship. She is a student at the University of New York studying literature. Put her through on what to do."
They welcomed her warmly.
She was given a space with a laptop sitting pretty on the desk. Time passed, lots of minimal jobs were given to her.
She felt a tap on her shoulder. “Aren’t you going for lunch?” a colleague asked her.
Oh yes. Lunch. She could feel her belly growling at the thought.
"I'm going, but I don't know my way around," she replied.
“No problem, I could help with that.”
After lunch, everyone dispersed from the cafeteria. She walked back to the department with the colleague who had brought her to lunch.
"I'm Freda," the woman said with a smile.
“Paulina,” she replied.
“Welcome to our department. You can ask me anything you're not good at.”
“Okay sure, thanks for the meal and showing me the way to the cafeteria.”
“The meal was a “welcome to the company” meal. Freda said with a giggle.
Paulina smiled, but then the thought of Alexis flashed in her mind and her mood soured immediately.
I'm not going to make any friends, she told herself.
The one I once had, betrayed me. Never again.
- Writer
