Gemotions

The overhead fluorescent lights hummed, a monotonous drone that seemed to vibrate in Elias’s skull. His eyelids felt heavy, like lead weights, and he blinked repeatedly, trying to force them to stay open. He was stuck in a tedious afternoon meeting, the drone of his boss’s voice washing over him. He slumped lower in his chair, the plush fabric doing little to soothe the growing ache in his back. He focused on the patterns in the beige carpet, trying to ground himself. Anything to avoid the crushing wave that threatened to pull him under.

Suddenly, a woman at the opposite end of the table gasped, her hand flying to her chest. “I…I don’t understand,” she stammered, her voice thick. “This feeling…”

Elias straightened, his attention caught. The woman, whose name tag read “Dr. Anya Sharma,” looked pale, her breath coming in shallow gasps. A strange feeling of deja vu washed over him. He recognized that lost look in her eyes, the same one he felt clawing at the edges of his own awareness.

“I… I get it,” he murmured, his voice a gravelly whisper. “It’s like… everything is weighted.”