Pinkerton's Bestiary Log 15: Ghosts and Shades (Serial Novel)

I seldom deal with these creatures, but in my line of work, I receive calls about them. People watch television, and most of the people calling me about this subject expect me to show up with something like a Geiger counter so I can trudge around their property and translate a bunch of beeps and boops, which they believe are the long-lost words of their grandfather.

The truth is people are not seeing or hearing their grandfather at all. Think about it. Why would your grandma run around your house slamming cabinets? But if you dare to ask people such questions, they tend to become irritable, so I don’t bother. Most of the time, these things are just demons, and I leave such matters to the Order. Remember, demons mimic. It’s one of their main schticks. Sometimes they show up as aliens. Other times they pretend to be grandma, but the whole point is to create anxiety and to eventually isolate the victim through embarrassment, fatigue, and/or obsession. These manifestations of these situations are likely familiar to you. You’ll have people complain of being frozen or having night terrors, or they’ll see shadows darting across the walls, or they’ll have recurring dreams, or they’ll hear footsteps and voices, and so on and so on. A common theory in demonology is that the demons do these things so they can feed off a person’s negative emotions. I don’t know if this is true, but it’s one of those theories that is effective when it comes to predictions, so most people run with it.

I would venture to say that north of ninety percent of the time, you’re dealing with a demon, and your defenses will be religious. I will address this in more detail when I speak of demons directly, but you already have a basic idea what these defenses are, and frankly all four Orders consider this realm their specialty, so you’ll almost never have to deal with hauntings yourself.

However, seldomly, you might run into a shade or a ghost. There’s really no difference between the two terms. (Note: Some people will use the word poltergeist to describe more aggressive hauntings, but these are demons. Slamming cabinets, random footsteps, thrown objects are all signs of demonic activity.) What you’re essentially dealing with is a recording. If there’s been a tremendous event in the area, say a battle or a murder or even a particularly tragic urban legend, people will see figures essentially operating on a loop. People will see people moving from one place to the next, and this will happen on regular intervals. The trouble is that demons will repeat the exact same behavior, so it’s basically impossible to tell the difference. The only real clue I’ve found is the regularity of the event. So, for example, if you see a ghostly figure walking down the field at the same time of night every night, you’ll be dealing with a ghost. If you see that same solider standing on the side of the road one night, you’re dealing with a demon. The differences are that dodgy. And again, hypothetically, the demon could mimic the route of the ghost to confuse you.

The going theory about this is that images, emotions, noises, can be recorded into the ground the same way music is recorded on a CD. That is to say frequencies can become locked into the topography, and the only real way to deal with the problem is to change the topography, the same way you’d destroy a CD, but even this is speculation.

My advice is to assume that these creatures are demons and do a blessing by default. It’s very hard to know the difference between the two. I can’t say whether it is impossible or not for a soul to return to Earth once it has “crossed over,” to use a common phrase. But I will say that the spiritual realm, based on my own experiences, is a very different place than the physical plain. Travel is different, perceptions can be different, and it is basically a place man is not meant to understand.

Some wizards have claimed to capture such entities and have likened them to lesser intellects. I’m very suspect of this. Personally, I believe they are dealing with malevolent creatures from the fairy realm or something of the like. One of the fundamental aspects of a ghost, based on my own understanding, is that it cannot really interact with a human any more than a song can change for a man, and if the being does alter its behavior, then you’re dealing with something that has an intellect or will, and therefore it is either a demon or some kind of monster.

I should also note that I’m not counting the various stories where some dead relative helped someone escape danger or something of that ilk. I would chalk up such stories to divine intervention, and, when it comes to that, all rules go out the window. What I’m referring to are the common sites found in battlefields or historical areas. But again, sometimes demons are mimicking, and if they aren’t, then there would be no way to interact with the being in question, so there’s no point in talking to it or using it to gather information. Believe me, I’ve tried to use demons for intel, and it’s never worked. One of the many mistakes I’ve made over the years in this business. Don’t borrow trouble.

I would just give these cases to the Order, and not be tempted by their high profile. There can be a lot of high prestige given to these cases, and often I’ve wondered if that’s the true purpose behind the demons’ desire to devote time to such tactics: distraction. There are some things in life a man isn’t meant to know. For the individual, they can lose countless hours obsessing over phrases that have no meaning. A demon will babble nonsense, and some naive soul will take it for sagely advice. For the hunters, our job is to go after things that harm or kill people in the here and now, and what could be more beneficial for the forces of darkness than to have those hunters wasting time trying to solve the incomprehensible? Even in the case of a haunting, our job is to help the individual, and very often there is some great emotional issue that needs to be addressed, but a hunter with the wrong priorities can become distracted because he’s too busy chasing a hidden pile of bones buried somewhere in the town. If a hunter remembers the person, even a haunting will be worth his time, but if he wishes to solve a riddle, he can made a fool, and the person never gets the help they need. The Order, for all its flaws, does have people within it who understand that the victims need help, and that is more important than solving a mystery.