Gemotions

The phone slipped from her grasp, landing with a soft thud on the plush carpet. Anna stared at the screen, unable to process the email. The promotion, the new department head position… gone. All of it. Another candidate, with a project that echoed her own in every detail, was chosen. Her stomach churned.

She felt a sudden urge to pace, to move, to do anything other than sit still. She pushed herself to her feet, her legs feeling unsteady. Her apartment, once a haven, suddenly felt constricting, as if the walls were closing in. Her breath came in short, shallow gasps.

She needed to understand. How? Why? The questions swirled in her head, unanswered, and she felt a deep sense of wrongness, as though her reality was somehow broken, or that she had fallen into a nightmare. She needed to know who this other person was.