Gemotions

A coldness seeped into Daniel's bones as he stared at the pictures. His grandfather, the war hero, the steadfast patriarch of the family, grinning in a foreign cafe with a woman whose eyes held a light Daniel had never seen in his grandmother’s. He felt a constriction in his chest, making it difficult to breathe. He could feel his heart hammering against his ribs.

He tossed the photographs onto the floor. The sound, small as it was, made him jump. He spun around, as if expecting someone, something, to be there. The house felt alien, the familiar scent of old wood suddenly cloying and suffocating. He needed to be away from this. He needed the world to make sense again.