Gemotions

The silence in the seminar room was oppressive. The chairs, arranged in a semi-circle, seemed to shrink around Fiona. Professor Klein's absence, his upcoming move, created a void that sucked the oxygen from the room. She fidgeted with her pen, her fingers tracing the familiar contours of the worn metal. The research she had started, the questions she wanted to explore, suddenly felt pointless, like a puzzle without a solution. She felt the sudden urge to burst out of the room, to run until she could no longer feel the weight of expectation, the pressure to perform.