Gemotions

The flickering streetlight outside cast long, dancing shadows across the cramped apartment. Sarah clutched her phone, her knuckles white. She'd meant to text her sister, Emily, about the strange tapping she'd been hearing in the walls all evening. Instead, her thumb had slipped. The message, meant for Emily’s eyes, now sat in the inbox of someone named "Detective Harding." Her heart hammered against her ribs, a frantic bird desperate to escape its cage.

The silence of the room pressed in on her, heavy and suffocating. She imagined the detective reading the message, picturing his stern face, his methodical gaze. Her breath hitched. She should delete it, explain it away as a mistake. But what if he'd already seen it? What if he thought it was some kind of coded signal?

A cold wave washed over her. She paced the small living room, her footsteps echoing in the sudden quiet. The walls seemed to close in, the air thick with unspoken possibilities.