Chapter

Ghost

At Kronoby Hospital I sat with numerous maniacs whose minds had been broken by misfortune or liquor. Their ramblings made little sense, as one would expect, yet there was a consensus that a man named Elias Gren, a patient who hung himself in the hospital attic, wandered the corridors waiting for his wife and children, who never visited him after his descent into lunacy. They snuck me past the treatment rooms and pointed at the attic stairs which Elias had climbed to meet his doom. There was a light glowing from the attic, blue and most unnatural. But I hesitated, and when I finally mustered the courage to go up there the attic was dark, empty, and smelling of dust.

— Carl Linnaeus, September 20th, 1732

Ghosts are the spirits of dead people who have not found peace in death because of some need or desire that must first be met. They might crave vengeance or forgiveness, wish to do something or warn someone, or be tethered to the world by the grief of its loved ones. Ghosts have faintly transparent bodies in the form of rotting corpses, and make themselves known through drops in temperature, strange noises, and the flames of fires and candles turning blue. They are often bound to a certain place – it could be where they died, a crime scene, or their old home. Ghosts can be contacted through seances, or send messages to people in their dreams.

Ritual