Gemotions

He’d been snapping his fingers absentmindedly all morning, the rhythmic clicks echoing in the empty house. Now, standing where the sapling had once flourished, a tremor ran through him. He pressed his lips together, tasting the faint metallic tang of anxiety. The space felt… wrong. Empty. A profound sense of displacement clawed at him.

He dug his hands into his pockets, fingers curling around the cold metal of his keys. His eyes darted around, searching for an explanation, a clue, anything that could make sense of the void. He pulled out his phone, and saw the date, as if he'd forgotten how time worked.

He took a sharp, shallow breath, trying to calm the hammering in his chest. A muscle jumped in his cheek. He spun on his heel and walked away.