Gemotions

The crisp autumn air filled the small apartment, but inside, Emily felt a chill she couldn't shake. She held her mother's bucket list, the paper thin and worn. "See a Broadway show," it read. Emily's mother had always dreamed of New York.

She felt a wave of nausea. The thought of all those crowded, bustling people, all that noise, the big city she had always been avoiding. She wasn't sure if she could do this. She wasn't sure she could face the reminders.

She closed her eyes, the list crumpled in her hand. The silence of the apartment was suffocating, broken only by the steady ticking of the grandfather clock. She could feel her pulse racing.