Gemotions

The renovation project had been a nightmare. Sarah leaned against the crumbling brick wall, the dust coating her skin. Each muscle ached. Years of living and dying from someone else's pain was beginning to take its toll.

The contractor had found something during demolition, a small metal box hidden behind the fireplace. Inside, a faded newspaper clipping and a photograph. The newspaper headline screamed of a murder. The photograph showed a woman, smiling, in front of this very house.

She closed her eyes, the image seared into her eyelids. She remembered her first encounter with the house. She had hoped to make it a home. She felt drained, as if the very air had been sucked from her lungs. She just wanted to go to bed and sleep for a week.