Gemotions

The website's cheery layout, its promises of easy living, grated on Leo's nerves. He’d found the listing by accident, the address a punch to the stomach. The house, his childhood sanctuary, was being sold off. He felt a hollowness he hadn't realized he could experience.

He saw the carefully staged photographs, the perfectly manicured lawn, the bright, inviting interiors. It was like looking at a stranger's home, not the place where he had grown up, where he had learned to walk and talk.

He felt a sudden, inexplicable urge to run, to escape the suffocating confines of his own emotions. He sat, immobile, staring at the screen. The words swam before his eyes, a jumble of meaningless syllables.

He leaned back in his chair, the feeling of pressure building in his temples. He was overwhelmed by a sense of loss, a profound sense of… something he couldn’t name.