Ghost Story

by Peter Straub

The mind was a trap—it was a cage that slammed down over you.

the most dreadful

“That’s for full dark, not evening,”

Just another field, but heavens what they planted there.

Manitou,

Algonquin term for the life force: "good or evil spirit as an object of reverence" (New Oxford Am dict)

“You are a ghost.” You Donald. You. It was the unhappy perception at the center of every ghost story.

We chose to live in your dreams and imaginations because only there are you interesting.

good magic lay only in human effort, but bad magic could come from around any corner.

“I once knew a girl who spent all day in a library and said she had a friend who protected her from vileness. I don’t know how her life turned out, but I do know that nobody can protect

anybody else from vileness. Or from pain. All you can do is not let it break you in half and keep on going until you get to the other side.”