Gemotions

She found it while idling at her desk job. A student, the website said. Successful. And then, there it was. Her words, her vulnerabilities, laid bare in the online journal. Sarah felt a heat bloom in her chest, a physical ache spreading from her sternum. She slammed the laptop lid closed, the screen black like a mocking eye.

Her palms slicked with sweat, she pushed away from her desk, the chair screeching on the linoleum floor. The fluorescent lights overhead seemed to buzz louder, a constant hum that vibrated in her skull. She needed to leave. To run. She fumbled with her purse, her fingers clumsy and unresponsive.

She walked outside, breathing in the polluted air with a desperate gasp. This couldn't be happening. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to fight back the wave of nausea that threatened to overwhelm her. The essay felt like a betrayal. A theft. A violation.