Gemotions

The email notification blinked insistently. "New listing in your area." She’d almost deleted it, another reminder of the life she’d escaped, a life she still couldn’t quite believe she had left behind. She clicked the link anyway, morbidly curious.

The pictures. The photos were too polished, the spaces too clean, the memories somehow… tarnished. She felt the sudden urge to flee, to run away from this digital intrusion, from the ghost of her former self. Her legs felt weak, her arms heavy.

She pressed her palms flat against the cold surface of her desk, seeking a point of physical contact, a grounding sensation. The thought of moving, of changing her location, seemed impossible. It was a suffocating pressure, a feeling of being hemmed in, held down.