Gemotions

The reviews were brutal, dissecting the book, and by extension, him. He sat in his darkened living room, the curtains drawn, the only light emanating from the screen of his laptop. Each click of the mouse, each new review, was a fresh wound.

He felt a burning sensation behind his eyes, a familiar signal of impending breakdown. He closed the laptop, the sudden darkness intensifying the pressure in his chest. He couldn’t breathe, his lungs refusing to expand. He felt trapped, suffocated by the words, by the exposure. He needed to scream, to shatter the silence that had become his prison.