Gemotions

Rain lashed against the car windows, mirroring the tempest within Amelia. She gripped the steering wheel so hard her knuckles ached. The radio droned on, a cheerful jingle irritating her. This trip had felt wrong from the start.

She pulled up to the familiar address, the house looking smaller, somehow, than in her memories. She trudged towards the garden, the mud clinging to her boots. Then she saw it. A clean scar on the landscape where the apple tree, the one she'd planted with her father, used to stand. Gone.

A wave of nausea washed over her. The world tilted. She felt a profound emptiness, a hollowness that seemed to echo in her chest. She pivoted, went back to the car, and just sat there, listening to the rain, watching the water streaming down the glass.