Terror Tuesday: Different Ghosts for Different Folks

Welcome to the last Terror Tuesday of 2009. I hope you have all your spooks ready to haunt the New Year. I think I might have been mooned by a ghost the other day. I’m not positive but I did see two glowing globes in the hallway window. Of course, they might have been passing headlights, but I prefer to think Jayne Mansfield was visiting. Oh, wait, in that case those might have been…um, anyway…

A DVD set of classic horror movies made its way under my tree this Christmas. As a writer of horror and supernatural I am a bit embarrassed to admit I have not seen a number of the older movies, such as Invisible Ghost and White Zombie. I’ll try to pass on my impressions of these as I get time to view them. Last night it was House on Haunted Hill with Vincent Price. Now, this one I did see as a kid and to this day that vat of acid in the cellar has stuck with me. Rewatching it as an adult, I can still say it’s a fairly creepy movie. Vincent Price is a master of the macabre, too.

Well, stockings have all been emptied, stomachs expanded and the lights of Yule are dimming. Yet, despite the great joy and happiness the Season can bring (as well as the abundance of peckerheads filling the streets and retail stores), the ghosts of Christmas don’t always depart so easily.

I always feel a bit melancholic before, during and especially after Christmas. I think a lot has to do with expectation clashing with reality. But there are metaphorical ghosts that seem to haunt the moments during and after Christmas. For some, it’s the thought of the people who are no longer with us, whom we miss and long to see again. For others it’s the people we hope may come into our lives and bring us fulfillment.

But worst are the ghosts of regrets, and the personal ghosts of those who, for whatever reason, can’t put aside differences and personal insecurity and just enjoy what they have, or could have. Those who feel compelled to ruin the joy of others with drama—or worse, fear—and the notion that the season is all about them. Their ghosts haunt them and therefore they will damn well haunt everyone else around them. They may not be metaphysical spirits, but these ghosts are the ones who can do damage. They are the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, and come attached to emotional vampires or control freaks bent on their high and mighty self-justification and exultation.

There’s not a lot you can do with these types, except try offering a forgiving hand, though most likely it will get bitten off. Or if they are physically or emotionally dangerous exorcise them from your life. Those ghosts can exert a corrupting presence on festivities, whether the person is there or not, but we have to choose not to let them take the spirit of joy and renewal that is Christmas from us, refuse to let them lock away the wonder of the child within us peering out.

Then perhaps we can resolve with the New Year to see to it what is necessary is done so the ghosts haunt us no more.

The Chloe Files: Kicking Evil’s ass one demon at a time…
In paperback.