Gemotions

Rain lashed against the windows of Elara’s apartment, mirroring the storm inside her. She stared at the email, the words of her idol, Silas Blackwood, staring back at her. The accusations, the evidence, the meticulous side-by-side comparisons of her own fledgling work and his blockbuster novel, *Crimson Echoes*. Her stomach churned. She clenched her fists until her knuckles were white.

A dull ache throbbed behind her eyes. She hadn't slept well in days, haunted by the creeping dread that had been growing since the comparisons started surfacing online. A sense of suffocation constricted her chest. The air in the room felt thick, stale, as if she was trying to breathe through a thick, woolen blanket.

She walked to the worn armchair, the one she always retreated to when overwhelmed. The weight of the world settled onto her shoulders. She wanted to scream. Instead, she let out a long, shaky breath and picked up the manuscript of her unpublished novel, the very one that had been the basis of her life's dream.