Gemotions

The stale air of the apartment felt suffocating. Amelia stared at the unopened file on her desk. She’d been putting off reading it for hours, the paperwork of her internship weighing on her. The silence in the house was unusual. Her mentor, Mrs. Chen, usually filled the space with her boisterous laughter and advice. A sticky note, taped to the monitor, caught her eye.

"Amelia, I'm off. Consider yourself the head of the lab now." Amelia felt her shoulders slump. Her mentor, her guide, was gone. No explanations, no goodbyes, just a terse note. She rubbed her eyes. The file loomed, a mountain to climb. The energy to get up, to do something, anything, was simply not there. She stared out the window, her gaze lost in the city.