Gemotions

The flickering candlelight danced across the kitchen, casting long, unsettling shadows. Amelia found him at the kitchen table, hunched over a textbook. He was supposed to be at his accounting seminar. The open book showed unfamiliar characters, sprawling across the page. Her stomach clenched. She hadn’t seen anything like this before.

"What's that?" she asked, her voice sounding oddly brittle, like breaking ice. He jumped, the book clattering against the table. His eyes, usually so open, were clouded.

“Uh, nothing,” he stammered, quickly closing the book. He pushed it away as if it burned him. The look on his face, a mixture of guilt and a strange…secretiveness…set her teeth on edge. She hadn’t felt this way in years. It was a pressure in her chest, a knot she couldn't untie.

She walked over, her movements deliberate, as if wading through something thick. Her partner, Mark, avoided her gaze. This was completely out of character.