Ghosts and goblins; how I love the term, the season, and the imagery those words conjure. Creepy, cozy, and cute mingle and become one in visions of tiny green monsters cutting capers, and white sheets with enormous black holes, which often are somehow endearing pop into my head.
I’ve read some marvelous stories about goblins; the tricks they’ve played, luring people into traps or marriages. Vernon Lee, E.F. Benson, and Sarah Monette blurred the line between ghost and vampire in beguling tales. Dark Shadows did an intriguing job of ghost and vampire alike, playing up the tragedy and terror.
For ghosts are tragic; something I’ve come to learn over the years. They’re echoes of something or something who once was, stuck in the past, clinging to a life they no longer have.
I played with second person perspective in a ghost story called Your Name Is Emma; where a girl finds herself haunting a coffee house, where she spent many hours reading and trying to write the perfect story. Even as she haunts the table and the coffee mugs, she is haunted the scent of coffee, forced to recall how she died, and avoiding entities known as soul hunters.
Wraith: The Oblivion was a fascinating, if perhaps the most terrifying roleplaying game in the World of Darkness, where every wraith was at war with their darker self, fumbling through the underworld, and potential coin for greedier entities to collect. I never got to play this myself, or run it, but I came up with many a concept for this setting.
I’m working on a tale of obsession involved a ghost trapped in a portrait, while her body wanders in a vampiric state called A Portrait Is Worth a Thousand Words. The ghost draws energy from her admirer, the descendent who worships and wants to be her.
How about you, dear reader? Do you enjoy ghost stories? Have you written any yourself?