Gemotions

"This can't be right," Maya mumbled, her voice almost inaudible. She stared at the screen, at the highlighted passages in her research paper. Plagiarism. The word seemed to taunt her. She didn’t understand.

Her stomach churned. A cold dread crept into her bones. She’d dedicated months to this paper, an analysis of the socio-economic impacts of globalization. Every sentence, every footnote, was her own.

She felt a sudden, overwhelming urge to weep. She rubbed her eyes, trying to make the offending words disappear. Her hands trembled, and she felt a deep sense of wrongness, as though the world had suddenly shifted on its axis.