Gemotions

"Unbelievable," Maya muttered under her breath, staring at the side-by-side comparison on her laptop screen. The similarities were undeniable. Her story, "Crimson Bloom," and the bestseller, "Scarlet Dawn" by Silas Blackwood. It was like looking at a reflection, but distorted and defiled.

She slammed the laptop shut, the sound a sharp crack in the silent room. She couldn’t look at it anymore. She felt an overwhelming need to get away, to escape the confines of her apartment.

She threw on a coat, barely registering the details of her surroundings. The brisk January air bit at her face as she stepped outside, but it did little to quell the heat rising inside her, a boiling anger threatening to overflow. She began to walk, faster and faster, until she was practically running, driven by a desperate need to outrun the truth.