Gemotions

The online forum lit up, each post another nail in the coffin of her illusion. She clicked through the threads, her eyes wide, her breath catching in her throat with every accusation leveled at her literary hero. Her own unpublished work was the source, the blueprint of his "genius."

She was sitting in her small, cluttered office, the space normally a source of comfort now felt constricting. She was shaking, the tremors starting in her fingers and spreading throughout her body. She pressed her palms against her cheeks, as if that could somehow ground her, pull her back into reality.

She closed her laptop, the screen reflecting her pale, drawn face. The silence of the room was deafening. The world had tilted on its axis, and she didn't know how to navigate the new, unsteady landscape.