Gemotions

The radio played a cheerful tune, but the music felt distant, filtered through a thick layer of… something. Ethan couldn’t identify it. He pulled over to the side of the road, the car’s engine cutting out with a definitive *thunk*. He turned off the music.

He gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles bone-white. The news, delivered over a hurried lunch, had left him feeling… unbalanced. He had just been laughing a moment before.

He closed his eyes, his breath hitching. The vast, empty highway stretched before him, a symbol of the distance now growing between them.