Searching For- Spiraling - Spirit In-

I opened it.

I almost deleted it. Spam, probably. Or a glitch from some dormant mailing list. But something about the hyphens—those little dashes like caught breaths—made me pause. They looked like someone had started typing, stopped, started again, then given up entirely. Searching for- spiraling spirit in-

I walked home in the dark, my shoes soaked, my chest light. I didn't sleep. I didn't need to. For the first time in years, I wasn't searching for something. I opened it