Gemotions

The receptionist’s stammered explanation didn’t help. "I... I'm so sorry, sir. There’s been a mistake." But a mistake of this magnitude... It felt like the ground had opened up beneath him. He found himself incapable of speech, the air leaving his lungs in ragged gasps.

He rubbed his chest, a futile attempt to calm the erratic thumping within. Every muscle in his body felt tense, poised on the brink of flight. The sterile white walls of the clinic seemed to press in on him, suffocating him. He leaned heavily against the reception desk, the cool surface doing little to steady him.

He pictured his wife, his children. The implications of this error – a stranger's illness, now somehow intertwined with his own life – sent a wave of nausea through him. He couldn’t speak, he couldn’t move.