Chapter Text
Ponyboy Curtis stopped breathing when he was five years old.
Of course, just seconds after that, he’d started again, but those few seconds held a consequence understood by few and imagined by many. Pony hadn’t died—he had only come close to it—but when you faced death once, you faced him everywhere.
Just two days after he’d left the house for a day trip with his family and came back coughing up lake water, he began to hear voices. At first, he ignored them. The Curtis household was always full of life, after all. But the longer he waited, the louder the voices grew, until one day he woke up the whole house with the sound of his tears. It was only at that moment that Katherine Curtis understood what had happened to her son.
She really should have seen it sooner, she’d thought, but hope was a dangerous thing capable of blinding even the strongest of skeptics.
Many people believe that the perception of ghosts is a monolith, but all of these people are wrong. To some who have gained this ability (they are occasionally called mediums, but most often go by something like witches or freaks of nature), a ghost’s presence can be seen but not heard. To others, the opposite is true, but for all, the experience will weaken their body. The ones who could both watch and understand the words that leave a ghost’s lips should be pitied; they are the ones that have just barely escaped joining the ranks of the dead.
Katherine’s mother was one of the unlucky souls that perceived the dead, but she was also a clever one. Ghosts roam all around the world, you see, and Tulsa, Oklahoma is no exception to this rule. Even if you are unable to see a ghost, its presence may still be felt, and to many this is a frightening thing. Instead of ignoring her brush with death, this woman harnessed the power it gave her—and the further word about her spread, the more houses she would visit. Not all of these houses actually had ghostly inhabitants, but the ones that did were quickly evacuated of all dead life. After a slightly less dire experience of her own, Katherine chose to continue in her mother’s footsteps. For now, this is all you need to know.
As an agent of Death, I am inclined to tell you that this story, while shocking, is completely true, and that all of the young men involved are of sound mind. Whether or not you choose to believe in this uncomfortable reality is up to you—but your mind does not have the power to erase reality, and I can say with certainty that it never will.