Gemotions

The award ceremony was a blur. The spotlight, the applause, the congratulations—all directed at someone else. For David, it was a slow, agonizing suffocation. Each well-wisher a barbed wire around his heart. He forced a smile, feeling it stretch his face into a grotesque mask.

He found himself wandering the halls of the grand hotel, away from the festivities. The opulent surroundings felt alien, a mockery of his own reality. He was a ghost in someone else's celebration.

In the hotel lobby, he spotted the revolving doors. He watched them turn, each rotation a new escape route. He stood there, frozen.