Gemotions

"Everything is perfect," Liam had declared earlier that day, his voice brimming with a quiet satisfaction as he watched his daughter play in the backyard. The sun was shining, and his family was happy. Later, he had decided to take a stroll. He felt unusually light and free.

He stopped, his foot frozen in mid-step. The air seemed to thicken around him. The towering pine he had planted on that very spot as a boy was now a pile of chipped wood. A sick feeling gnawed in his stomach. He felt his jaw tighten.

He turned and walked back toward his house, not bothering to look back. He felt the weight of something heavy, like a lead block, settled in the pit of his stomach.