Gemotions

"We regret to inform you…" The standard phrase. The death knell. Julia crumpled the rejection letter, the paper crackling in her trembling hand. She had known the odds were against her, but the reality of failure was a bitter, metallic taste in her mouth.

She sat at her desk, staring at the blank page, her cursor blinking in the center of the screen. The story she had poured her heart into – the characters she had created, the world she had built – felt suddenly alien, unreal.

She pushed back from her desk, the chair scraping against the floor. She walked into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water, the cool liquid doing nothing to soothe the burning feeling in her throat. She closed her eyes, the image of the rejection letter, and her failed ambitions, burned itself on the inside of her eyelids.