Slightly Odd Society Preview: Ghastly Winter Ghosts of New England – Part Two

“A sad tale’s best for winter. I have one/Of sprites and goblins.” – Shakespeare

The isolation and emptiness of the New England winter can be too much to take on, especially if your soul is already laden with despair and heartache. The cold cuts through your flesh with every gust of wind. The silence is deafening when sound sinks into the snow beneath your feet. Orion makes his way through the sky for eternity, condemned to hunt prey he’ll never find.

It's a lonely time that affects everyone who goes through it. Taking on winter is burdensome when you can share it with another person, but dangerous when you have to do it alone. The cold is colder, the wind is stronger, and the snow is more difficult to traverse. The fear that comes along with detachment from the life you used to lead is more than many can bear, and that’s a truth that saturates every atom of your body.

It’s leaving a world of light and warmth behind for a land of darkness and bitterness, with the heaviness of loss that can leave a spirit in a state of unceasing transition. This is where the specters can be found. It’s their lot to inhabit this space behind the shroud of the material world. It’s a never-ending curse to walk the land of life without the ability to be. That’s what makes these stories so sad. These lives ended in grief, and nothing can take it away without the endowment of life, and it keeps their souls forever shackled to this frozen world.

Now, as we enter the season of death once again, it’s time to submit an entry that’s been a year in the making. It’s finally time to explore southern New England in...

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