Gemotions

The party next door had been going on for hours. Loud music, laughter, a spectacle of excess. From her vantage point, high in her attic window, Susan felt a cold trickle of unease spread across her shoulders.

The sight of the guests, impeccably dressed and clearly at ease, created a profound sense of distance, a chasm between her world and theirs. She clutched the worn edge of the wooden window frame, her knuckles white. The music, which had initially been amusing, now grated on her nerves, becoming a taunt.

She quickly retreated from the window. Her heart hammered in her chest, a frantic rhythm that echoed the pulsing beat of the music. She wanted to disappear, to vanish from the gaze of their extravagant world.