One of Her Own

In Spirit City, lazy parents will threaten their behaving children by telling tales of the epidemic spread by the Ghost Queen. That one night the Ghost Queen came and by daybreak half the city was half ghost and all evil. That if they don't straighten up the Ghost Queen will claim them as one of her own, and they will live out the rest of their days as a child ghost never able to grow up.

Inevitably, some of the more adventurous children will say that being a ghost sounds cool. They could go through walls and prank people all night long. But fortunately for the parents the tale does not end there. You see, there are two kinds of ghosts, the grey-whites and the shadow ghosts. Grey-whites may be mischievous, but shadow ghosts are pure evil. They are grey-whites who have forsaken the last bit of their good morals. In time, all grey-whites become shadows.

Once a grey-white becomes a shadow ghost, it can no longer feel the warmth of the sun. They can never be happy again, not even if someone tickles them. All they know is a deep longing for things they can no longer have, and it drives them mad.

Historical Basis

The epidemic was a real historical event that nearly destroyed Spirit City entirely. The existence of the Ghost Queen is debated, but she is largely considered by logical heads to be a fictional character created as someone to pin the blame onto. Now she does excellent work scaring children into submission and being the subject of conspiracy debates.

Ghosts are real enough, but actual knowledge of them is scarce. No one credible wishes to get close enough to know them. The horror of the epidemic still lingers even in generations born afterwards.

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