Gemotions

"Is this some kind of joke?" Maya snapped, her voice tight with disbelief. She glared at the time capsule, its metal surface gleaming in the sterile light of her sterile apartment. She'd found it in the small garden she hardly ever tended.

Inside the box were mementos of a relationship, now long over. A ticket stub, a pressed flower, a mixtape. Her chest ached with an unfamiliar heaviness. Every day felt the same, a relentless cycle she couldn't break free from. She felt like an exhibit in her own life, on permanent display.