Gemotions

Her hands, clammy and trembling, fumbled with the crinkled paper. The doctor's words echoed in her ears, a sickening buzz. Cancer. Stage Four. The diagnosis on the page was not hers. Her name was there, but the medical history, the details of the scans, the projected timeline… it was all wrong. A cold sweat prickled her skin. She felt a desperate need to flee the sterile white room, to escape the suffocating weight of this stranger’s fate.

The nurse, a kind-faced woman who had always seemed so comforting, was speaking. Something about a review, a mistake, they would fix it. But the words felt distant, muffled, as if filtered through a thick fog. Her chest felt constricted, making it difficult to breathe. She opened her mouth to speak, to scream, but only a small, broken sound escaped.

She stared at the document again, the words swimming before her eyes. This wasn't happening. It couldn't be.