Gemotions

"Oh," Emily said aloud, the word a small, lost sound. The listing was perfect. Too perfect. The gleaming hardwood floors, the newly renovated kitchen, the manicured lawn. The new owners, whoever they were, would never know the ghosts that haunted those rooms.

Her fingers traced the outline of the computer screen. She felt a lightness, a disconnect, as if she were watching a movie about someone else’s life. She knew, deep down, that she should contact her brother, but she felt a strange paralysis, an inability to move.

She’d spent years trying to forget. Now, suddenly, the past was right there, staring her in the face. She closed the laptop, the sudden darkness swallowing the pristine images. She needed air, needed to be somewhere other than here, wherever here was.