Why we love ghost stories

There’s something about a ghost story that never quite leaves you—

whispered words etched in secret places with the timeless ink of emotion.

It’s not just the creak of the floorboards,

or the sudden cold in a shadowed hallway,

or the abandoned house with a dark tale attached to it —

It’s the echo of them.

The lingering. The cause.

The knowledge that ghosts don’t exist just to scare you —

They exist to remember.

They exist because they still have a place here.

They exist because they still have a reason to.

I know this because I’ve experienced it firsthand, again and again.

It’s something I will always carry with me —

The way a house holds its breath.

The way grief exists outside of time.

The way the echoes are louder than the scream.

We tell ourselves that we love ghost stories for the thrill or the mystery.

But the truth is: the best ghost stories don’t terrify us.

They awaken compassion.

They remind us that love doesn’t end at the grave.

That devotion is more than this fragile, temporary body.

That guilt and grief have weight —

a weight strong enough to live within walls,

seep through floorboards,

and resonate through generations.

Ghost stories let us explore sorrow with reverence —

not just to be afraid,

but to feel what still aches,

what still hopes,

what still breathes.

A ghost, after all, is just a story that refuses to be forgotten