Spiral - Bambi Sandy Downward

The spiral began quietly. Not with a crash, but with a slow leak.

And for the first time in a long time, Sandy looked up from the floor. Her legs still trembled. Her eyes were still big and wet. But she wasn’t on ice anymore. Bambi Sandy Downward Spiral

She woke up in a hospital room with a brace on her leg and her father crying in a plastic chair. Celeste was not there. The first thing Sandy did was reach for her phone. The second thing she did was put it down. The spiral began quietly

It started with sleep. Sandy couldn’t close her eyes without seeing her mother’s back—the beige trench coat, the click of the gate. So she stayed up, scrolling through old photos, listening to voicemails that no longer existed because her phone had been reset. By the time she finally slept, the sun was rising. Then school became a blur of missed alarms and forged excuse notes. Her legs still trembled