Gemotions

The email notification blinked, taunting, on Maya's phone. Another rejection. The fourth this month. She felt a familiar hollowness expanding in her chest. She scrolled through her feed, looking for something, *anything* to distract her. That's when she saw it. Her research, her findings, her carefully crafted arguments – published under another person’s byline.

She went cold. The color drained from her face. She felt a profound sense of… emptiness. Everything. It all felt… pointless. Years of study, countless hours of research, reduced to nothing. Just a ghost in the machine.

She couldn't breathe. The air in her apartment seemed thick, suffocating. She threw her phone across the room, the impact a dull thud. Tears welled, blurring her vision. She sank onto the couch, curling into a ball. She hadn't eaten all day. Or the day before. The feeling of… helplessness, a lead weight.