It starts with a mark on the floor.
Small at first. Just darker than the rest. Easy to miss unless you already know where it forms.
By early afternoon it’s there again.
The vent above runs most of the day. You hear it before you notice anything else. A steady, low sound that doesn’t change.
Then the first drop.
It doesn’t fall straight away when the air starts. There’s always a gap. Then one drop, landing in the same place.
A second comes a few minutes later. Then nothing.
People walk past it. Shoes come close and move on. Bags swing through the space above it. No one really looks down.
Someone stops underneath once, standing still with their phone. A drop lands on their shoulder. They brush it off, glance up, then step to one side.
The vent keeps running.
As the afternoon moves on, the drops come a bit closer together. Not steady. Still uneven. Still landing in the same spot.
The mark on the floor spreads slightly. It doesn’t travel. Just thickens where it already is.
A chair gets placed near it for a meeting. One leg sits just at the edge of the mark.
During the meeting, the chair shifts a little but stays in roughly the same place. No one notices the floor.
A drop lands near the leg. Another just beside it. They don’t reach the shoe.
The air continues. Same sound. Same flow.
Later, when the room empties, the chair is left where it was.
The mark is still there.
The drops slow down again. Longer gaps between them. Then they stop.
The vent keeps running.
By the next morning the floor looks dry. No outline. No trace unless you stop and look for it.
In the afternoon, it forms again.
Same place.
