Title: Questions From The Past
Fandom: The Mentalist
Rating: G
Length: 146 words
Content notes: spoilers for seasons 1-5
Author notes: Also for the October Challenge on Paint It Red (write a fic with the first line "Some things are impossible to escape").
Summary: How can you escape the past?

Some things are impossible to escape. None more so than the past, with its haunting, unanswerable questions.

How can you be a good father to your son, when you still can’t forgive your own father for the way he hurt you?

How can you even start to dream of love again, after putting a bullet in the heart of the man you were going to marry?

How can you put youth in a gang behind you, when it suddenly raises its ugly head again and reappears in your life?

How can you forget having to be mother to your brothers, defend them from a father who’s a broken wreck of the man you loved?

How can you move on, when your family’s blood painted on your wall watches over your sleep, mocking you and your inability to give them justice?

Some things are impossible to escape.