Gemotions

"No, no, that can’t be right," Maya mumbled, her voice barely a whisper. She read the email a third time, each word a hammer blow. Her hands trembled, making the phone hard to hold. She was expecting to spend her next several years here.

The campus, usually bustling with students, now seemed eerily quiet. The sunlight, filtering through the window of the library, appeared dim. She'd walked these paths for three years, imagining her future self, the person she would become. The future was now uncertain, like a fog had rolled in.

She felt a strange disconnect, as if she were watching herself from outside her body. This news, a tidal wave, had hit her unexpectedly, and she wasn't sure how to tread water.