Gemotions

The email arrived like a death knell. Sarah opened it, her fingers clumsy and slow on the keyboard. The words swam before her eyes: "Final Semester." She reread it, each line a fresh stab of… something.

She pushed back from her desk, the chair scraping loudly against the floor. Outside, the world was alive with activity, but inside, she felt…stagnant. She couldn't bring herself to care about her upcoming exams, about her almost-completed thesis.

She went for a walk, but the familiar campus paths now felt less like a route and more like a maze. Each familiar building, once a symbol of possibility, now represented a closed door. She just kept walking, not really looking at anything, not really going anywhere.