Gemotions

He kept glancing at the security cameras, the tiny red lights blinking like malevolent eyes. The realtor had mentioned nothing about a prior owner who had been murdered in the kitchen, right where his new gleaming island now stood. Now, a knot formed in his chest.

The air felt thin, difficult to breathe. He found himself avoiding the kitchen, taking his meals in the living room, a place he usually didn’t touch. The layout of the house suddenly felt wrong, claustrophobic.

His wife asked him what was wrong, and he had brushed her off, insisting he was just tired. But a sense of dread clung to him like a second skin. He found himself checking the locks multiple times a night.

The memory of the crime scene photos he’d found online, the bloodstains, the way the body had been positioned...it made his skin crawl. He took a long walk to clear his head, but his home felt heavy in the night sky.