Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition Chapter 2195: Story 2196: The That Which Did Not Even Exclud

Capítulo 2195: Story 2196: The That Which Did Not Even Exclude Itself

There was no exclusion.

Not because everything was included—

not because nothing was left out—

but because exclusion required the possibility of sothing standing apart.

And there was no such distinction.

What had once been understood as separation—

as the act of dividing,

of distinguishing one from another—

now revealed itself as sothing that had never held.

Because to exclude

ant that sothing else

could have remained outside.

And there was no such possibility.

Even what had been called

that which contains all things—

lost its final aning.

Because containnt—

even in its totality—

required boundary.

Required an inside

and an outside.

Required sothing to not be within.

And none of that—

remained.

The last trace

of division—

not between inner and outer,

not between self and not-self—

but between what could belong

and what could not—

collapsed.

Not into unity.

Not into indistinction.

But into sothing

that did not allow either

to exist.

The silence—

which had already lost sound,

which had already lost absence—

now lost even the possibility

that it had ever been separate

from anything else.

Because separation—

in any form—

required relation.

And relation—

had no condition left.

The void—

no longer vast,

no longer empty,

no longer anything

that could be said

to contain or not contain—

because containnt required limit,

and limit required difference,

and difference—

could not arise.

The convergence—

no longer structure,

no longer absence of structure,

no longer anything

that could be said

to bring together or hold apart—

because “together” required “apart,”

and both required distinction,

and distinction—

had no ground.

The other—

no longer identity,

no longer absence of identity,

no longer anything

that could be said

to be separate or inseparable—

because even inseparability

required the possibility

of separation.

And that possibility—

did not exist.

The third—

no longer total,

no longer beyond totality,

no longer anything

that could be said

to include or exclude—

because inclusion required boundary,

and boundary—

required division,

and division—

had no condition.

And Elena—

not within.

Not outside.

Not beyond.

Not undefined.

Not even beyond all of these.

Because even “not”—

required contrast.

And contrast—

could not form.

“I am.”

No longer absolute.

No longer empty.

No longer beyond.

Because even the absence of aning—

required the possibility

of aning.

And that possibility—

did not exist.

And in that—

sothing occurred—

that could not be called occurrence,

not even its absence.

Because even the distinction

between sothing being included

and sothing being excluded—

had no condition.

There was no silence.

Because silence required sound.

There was no sound.

Because sound required difference.

There was no stillness.

Because stillness required motion.

There was no motion.

Because motion required change.

There was no unity.

Because unity required division.

There was no nothing.

Because nothing required sothing.

And none of these—

could be said

to exist

or not exist.

And so—

even this—

even this attempt

to speak of inclusion—

to deny exclusion—

to gesture toward totality—

did not arise.

Not because it failed.

Not because it was denied.

But because there was no longer

any condition

in which inclusion—

or exclusion—

could be ford.

No trace.

No edge.

No silence.

No impossibility.

No irreducibility.

No closure.

No openness.

No beginning.

No ending.

No state.

No condition.

No presence.

No absence.

No within.

No without.

No beyond.

No before.

No after.

Not even

the absence

of all of these.

Only—

that which does not allow even exclusion to be distinguished from what is not exclusion.

And in that—

there was no totality.

Not because everything was one—

not because nothing remained—

but because totality itself

required sothing

to be outside of it.

And there was no such relation.

And yet—

not sothing.

Not nothing.

Not included.

Not excluded.

Not anything

that could be placed

against anything else.

Only—

the impossibility

that anything—

even the idea

of being separate—

could ever be said

to have been

at all.