Gemotions

He stared at the peeling wallpaper in the master bedroom, trying to see the space with new eyes. The detective’s words, "a domestic dispute," hung in the air, heavy and suffocating. John felt a clenching in his stomach. He didn't want to be here anymore.

He went into the backyard, to the overgrown garden, and he felt a desperate desire to dig, to bury the feeling, to escape it. But the more he looked around, the more he felt stuck.

He picked up a rusty shovel, the metal cold and clammy in his grasp. The sun felt too bright, the sky too vast. A wave of nausea washed over him. The peace he had once felt was gone, replaced by a growing awareness that he would never feel safe in his home again.