Gemotions

“This is a mistake,” David told himself, his voice barely above a whisper. He scrolled again, and again, through the content. He sat in his son's room, on the very edge of the bed, feeling suddenly exposed. The account belonged to his son, Ethan.

Ethan had always been a quiet boy. Polite, well-behaved, always willing to help. The content of the account was what seemed wrong. He saw the pictures and felt a sense of wrongness. The whole thing was just off, a slight dissonance in the world.

He felt a pressure building in his temples, a dull ache that wouldn't relent. Maybe it was just a phase. Kids did strange things. He wanted to believe that. He needed to believe that. But the nagging feeling in his gut was unrelenting.