Gemotions

The news arrived during a particularly tedious faculty meeting. The professor's voice droned on, but everything faded away when he saw the announcement on the projector screen. His essay. The one he’d written with such fervent hope. The one that had secured his place. Now, it was being held up as an example.

A strange buzzing filled his ears, a prelude to the feeling that spread through his limbs. The room was too hot, the air thick with the scent of coffee and stale expectations. He couldn’t seem to breathe properly. He had to escape, had to get out, but his legs felt leaden. He focused on the patterns in the carpet, a desperate attempt to ground himself, while the words from his past self loomed on the screen, a monument to a dream he no longer recognized.