R.G. Male's Dark Corners: Witnesses or Lack Thereof For Hauntings

Most people when they have to deal with a haunting can simply spend a day or night away from the haunted location. They can even move out and leave it behind forever. What happens when you are the one haunted and the disturbances occur wherever you go? That was the situation I hinted at last week. Since then I see two different scenarios. In one the haunting manifests itself physically and anyone may witness it. In the second only the person who is haunted sees the ghost. The physical scenario may have an apparition or not and the ghost seer's ghost may affect physical objects or not. There are a lot of options these open up for a character and its growth. With either scenario the haunted person is in for a terrible time and the haunting will take its toll. Each scenario has its advantages though.

A haunting involving moving objects that can be witnessed by anyone is likely the more desirable of the two scenarios, if there is anything to be desired about the situation at all. It has the benefit of being verifiable by some at least. There may still be the ridicule of the uninitiated until they are affected by it directly. The degree of directness is variable and can be, in all cases, either finding objects moved when there was no one around to move them, or out of reach and no evidence of trickery to be found, up to actually seeing the object in transit. The disadvantage of course is that objects become misplaced, the phenomena seriously freaks people out, and it can be a case where people are injured by the haunting. The frequency and insistence can really wear on the subject of the haunting, and no amount of frustration, anger, or curses will dissuade a persistent poltergeist.

People who are the only ones to see an apparition can hold themselves together and keep it a secret with a little practice. That in and of itself is a benefit to these kinds of occurrences, if they can pull it off. That is as long as there is no physical component to the haunting otherwise it is much as above except for the addition of the visual manifestation. There are the usual cliché responses to seeing a ghost that others do not see such as seeming crazy for reacting or worse interacting with nothing there. The ghost may be friendly or it may be wicked either in line with or at odds with its appearance. It's sudden appearance and activities may be just as dangerous as objects flying around. Consider the ghost appearing with a menacing shout at the top of the stairs or appearing in the middle of the road while driving. At least additional witnesses to a physical assault can step in and lend a hand.

Mood: driven.
Music: Timelessness by Fear Factory and Basket Case by Green Day.