We asked the contributors of Revenants, The Ghost Issue to share their closest encounters with ghosts, the spookiest stories of their hometowns, and the most haunted places they’ve ever been. We intended to just share their answers on social media, but they were too good—too chilling—to simply excerpt. So gather round the digital campfire as these incredible writers place flashlight to chin and regale us with their ghost stories!
THE MIRROR OF SIMPLE SOULS
I do not like old water.
The water in the ocean is old
The lake is old
But maybe it’s not
Subject to the logic of time, of old and new.
Water.
Because in the kitchen, it’s difficult to lie
Because the yearbook photo shows long straight hair parted down the middle, Marcia Brady-style
Because in my son’s mind, he has only one dziadek & babcia & that blindspot diminishes me more each day
The earliest, from my brother (June 2007) was twelve seconds long: “Hi, it’s me—aww, fucking-A!—Hi, it’s me, call later, I guess.”
Then the first day of August 2007, twenty seconds: “Hi Amanda, this is Ollie, I just saw the news a bridge fell down in Minneapolis—I hope you weren’t on it. I guess that’s why I’m calling. I’ll try you later. Okay, love you, bye.” I was working at the café when I missed the call.
The road where I lived went in a circle. Inside the road circle was a circle of grass. Inside the circle of grass was the matter I looked through And looked at, waiting for whatever moved in from the edges And came together in the middle of the circle.
