Gemotions

The familiar path felt unfamiliar, the surroundings changed. He’d envisioned this moment a thousand times, but never like this. The place where the pine had stood was empty. An absence he struggled to comprehend.

He stopped, his heart hammering against his ribs. His hands were shaking. He felt an urge to flee, to run away from this impossible sight.

He forced himself to take a step forward, then another. He circled the stump, his gaze fixed on its exposed interior. A strange heat flared in his cheeks, and a burning sensation filled his eyes.

"Unthinkable," he finally said, the word a mere fragment of a greater, unspoken feeling.