Gemotions

The tremor in her hands was almost imperceptible as she signed the paperwork. Each stroke of the pen felt like a betrayal. The pawn shop felt heavy, suffocating. Everything in here felt like a burden, a weight on her shoulders.

She hadn't meant to come. It was a compulsion. A desperate attempt to understand. To feel. To *not* feel the numbing void that had swallowed her whole in recent weeks.

The ring, nestled in its velvet box, looked so small, so fragile. The way the light caught the facets, the gleam of the metal. It was undeniable. Her grandmother’s ring. She felt a choked sob rise in her throat, a physical manifestation of the anguish she had been trying so hard to suppress.