Gemotions

He stared at the documents, the printouts of his own unpublished manuscript laid out next to the excerpts from Arthur Finch’s latest novel. His throat felt constricted, making it difficult to swallow. The similarities were undeniable. Each sentence felt like a fresh wound.

He’d always held Finch in the highest regard, regarding him as a master of the craft. Now, the reverence he felt was tainted, poisoned. He felt a strange sense of discombobulation, as if his sense of reality was fracturing.

He tried to find a loophole, a hidden truth that would absolve his hero. He looked for a different interpretation, a different angle, anything. But the facts remained, a stark, undeniable testament to betrayal. A coldness settled deep within him.