Gemotions

He stared at the screen, the blinking cursor a mocking eye. “Oh, it’s just a diary,” the article quipped, beneath a scan of his meticulously handwritten entries. His mouth twisted in a grimace. He felt a sharp jab in his chest, as if someone had just punched him.

He shut his eyes, the image of the cover, his name blazoned across it, burned behind his eyelids. He wanted to scream, to shatter something. He ran a hand through his hair, tugging at the strands until he felt a sting on his scalp. He felt exposed, stripped bare. Each thought, each feeling he'd poured onto those pages was now public domain. He felt like he was drowning.