Gemotions

The envelope, sealed with a cracked wax seal, seemed to pulse in Leo’s hands. He’d found it tucked away in a drawer of his grandmother's bureau, a place he rarely ventured. His grandfather’s signature was scrawled across the front, but the letter's contents were unknown. He pulled open the envelope and began reading.

The words detailed a secret, a profound deception. His grandfather was leaving his career to pursue an artistic endeavour his wife would never approve. Leo’s vision blurred. The silence of the room closed in, each tick of the grandfather clock a hammer blow against his skull.

He reread the words, the weight of the revelation pressing down on him. The world tilted on its axis. He felt a desperate urge to be gone from the room, to find fresh air, to escape the suffocating implications of the letter. He crumpled the paper, feeling a strange sickness rising in his throat.