Gemotions

Sarah stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. The face looking back was one she barely recognized. Puffy eyes, a slightly slack jaw, and the general air of someone who'd been punched in the gut. Just yesterday, she had a life, a career, a semblance of independence. Today? She was back in her childhood bedroom, the walls painted the same sickly shade of yellow she had loathed as a teenager.

Her mother's voice, chirping from downstairs, drifted up the stairwell. "Sarah, breakfast is ready!" Sarah’s stomach lurched, not from hunger. It was the forced cheerfulness in her mother’s voice that brought on the feeling.

She wanted to scream. Instead, she took a deep breath, plastered a smile on her face, and headed downstairs, each creaking step a reminder of the life she’d seemingly lost.