Gemotions

The gallery owner’s words seemed to echo in Elias’s ears: "Someone got your 'Phoenix' tattoo." He'd felt a flush rise in his cheeks when the man had shown him the phone, then a sudden chill. The news hit him with an odd force.

He paced his studio, his bare feet cold on the concrete floor. The way the woman's hair fell, the way the tattoo took up her whole calf. He had no control over this.

He kept seeing the lines of his art, his life's work, rendered in the dark ink. He ran his hand over his face. He felt…disoriented.