Gemotions

The house echoed with the rhythmic ticking of the grandfather clock. Mark sat in the armchair, staring at the fireplace. The embers glowed warmly, but offered no comfort. He felt a peculiar kind of drag, a heavy feeling that seemed to settle deep within his bones.

He picked up a book from the side table, a novel by his partner, Sarah. He’d found it in her laptop folder, hidden under the label “Project X”. A fictionalized account of their relationship, their conversations, their struggles.

He flipped through the pages. The intimacy of the words, the accuracy of the descriptions, stunned him. He could almost feel his bones breaking from the inside, the slow pull of melancholy.