Gemotions

Clara saw her short story on the online writing forum, accompanied by the moniker of a writer she'd known from her old writing group. It was her story, a tale about a woman coping with a miscarriage. Her heart went cold.

She remembered this writer, struggling with severe depression, battling self-doubt. Clara had listened to her share her own story about her miscarriage. She recognized in the story the writer's own pain, her own struggles.

Clara felt a wave of nausea. She wanted to scream, to lash out. But, she stopped herself. She messaged the writer, her message kept brief and simple, asking the writer to contact her to discuss the matter. The message was filled with a deep sense of sadness, a shared understanding of pain.

She knew what she had to do. She knew this person had been at their lowest, and that's when they fell. She felt for the writer, for what they must have been going through to do something so desperate.