Gemotions

He’d been staring at the cracks in the ceiling for nearly an hour. The email, subject line: “Important Building Update,” still sat unopened in his inbox. Arthur felt a strange sort of… inertia. His coffee, long cold, sat in the mug on his desk, untouched, next to a stack of unread emails.

The city outside his window roared on, a cacophony of horns and sirens. Inside, it was quiet, almost eerily so. A dull ache throbbed behind his eyes. He got up and walked to the window, watching the pedestrians below scurry along the pavement. Their purpose, their energy, felt alien.

He found himself wondering what the point of anything was, really. The question, which had lately become a recurring visitor, settled like a lead weight in his stomach. He slumped back into his chair, the unopened email still mocking him from the screen.