A Haunting We Will Go

Photo by Nathan McDine on Unsplash

Returning to my theme of a couple posts ago, I have chosen to share another “paranormal” adventure. This is a flash fiction piece I wrote a while ago. It is told from the perspective of a demon. Following in the footsteps of The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, this begins with a senior demon speaking to younger demons but as his story progresses, he falls into the memory. I hope you enjoy this “light-hearted” look into a haunting.

The ghost hunter team arrived late this afternoon. I knew they would come. The humans who bought the house six months ago planning to bring it back to its original glory are afraid to set foot in the front door. I must share my technique; you will appreciate this my fellow junior demons. It’s an old trick, really. I convinced them that I was the sorrowful ghost of a past tenant, trapped here by some tragic event. That I was benign. Then, when they thought they understood and had developed a connection with me, I went all nasty vengeful spirit. You know, throwing things, pushing humans downstairs, leaving nasty, burning scratches. Fun stuff.  

Oooh! It gives me the chills just thinking about it. Well … it would if I could get chills. But since I’m a demon, I don’t have a physical body … currently. But that’s another story.

It is quite easy to scare humans—they are so impressionable—but remember, we must obey the rules. And rule number one is: never reveal the truth of what we are.

Darkness…

As one may have noticed who has read any of my stories, they often (possibly always) involve something of darkness in them. This is indeed part of my life’s focus, near to heart, and part of the fundamental aim of OOM.

It recently occurred to me that dark things can fall into three categories:

Remembering to find the good in the purpose God has set for me

It’s happening again. I’m starting to hate what I love — that which provides an escape for me from the depression and the anxiety. It happened once before, about six years ago when the love of photography was beat of me not by others but by myself.

I immersed myself in photography — learning every facet about it, taking my camera everywhere, trying to build it into a business. I also learned about Lightroom and Photoshop, the editing software most commonly used by professional photographers. The business failed and I felt like a failure as a result. I also felt extremely rejected after some former friends and family members rejected the notion I could take photographs for a living.  I set the camera down for a few months and thought about how something I had once loved was now my deepest source of rejection and self-loathing.