Gemotions

The doctor’s words echoed in Elias’s skull. *Fibrous Dysplasia, affecting the mandible.* The x-ray stared back at him, the ghostly outline of his own jaw looking…wrong. Then, a name. A woman, Sarah something. The doctor said she was a patient of his as well, and shared the same, vanishingly uncommon diagnosis. Elias felt a cold sweat prickle across his scalp, despite the air conditioning. He swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing erratically. He wanted to flee, to vanish. He stood abruptly, knocking over the chair behind him.

He mumbled an excuse and stumbled towards the door, the doctor's concerned expression chasing him. He fumbled with the handle, his fingers clumsy, his vision blurring slightly. He needed space. He needed air. The thought of encountering this Sarah, this *fellow sufferer*, was utterly… unconscionable.