Gemotions

He saw it first on social media: a screenshot of his essay, accompanied by gushing praise. His essay, the one about his complicated relationship with his father, was being held up as an example of honesty and vulnerability. He felt a strange unease.

He slammed his laptop shut, the sound echoing in his small apartment. He paced, each footfall a heavy thud in the suddenly oppressive silence. The walls seemed to be closing in.

He grabbed his jacket and bolted out the door, needing to escape the suffocating presence of his own words, the echo of his past that now haunted him. He was a prisoner in his own story.