Fear

My biggest fear--as far as irrational fears go--is spirits or ghosts. It's embarrassing; but, for some reason, any paranormal activity that occurs around me sends thrills of fear through my body. I think a lot of people share this fear with me, mainly because it couples with the great and terrible fear of the unknown. See, I'm not scared of people, which is what a spirit is--just a person who has passed on. The thing that scares me about spirits is the fact that I have no real way of knowing whether the person who is in the room with me has good or bad intentions (at least with the living, I can read body signals).

This fear has made working Fear Factory particularly difficult, or at least challenging, for me due to the high amount of activity going on nightly. My area, in particular, is known to have at least a couple of spirits who like to play with people. Through one of these spirits, though, I've begun to get over my fear. It's strange, I know; but any contact I've had with George has been fairly positive.

The first time I found proof of George's presence was about halfway through the season, and he was apparently feeling restless. He decided to mess with one of my fellow actresses between customers: pulling at her cloak, touching her, hitting her. I actually saw her clothing move during George's little teasing session. At the time, I was still white knuckled about ghosts, so I was plastered to the spot upon seeing this proof. You know that fight or flight sensation you get when you're truly frightened? Yeah, that sucker was wailing through me the entire rest of the night.

About a week or so later, though, I had the opportunity to be the queen of the Strigoi; so I worked in the throne room with the king, who is someone that I'm pretty sure fears nothing. After I mentioned that George kept showing himself to me, the king said that George showed himself frequently in that room and that I shouldn't be afraid of seeing him. Obviously, I needed more convincing. I had no idea what George had planned for me and my king, so I voiced that little bit of anxiety. The king assured me that George is friendly and means no harm to anyone: he's a gentle giant (have you seen him?! he's huge!).

After that reassurance, a flip switched in my head. I've been trying to interact with George more, now--encouraging him to play with the lights more or telling him whenever I'm able to see him. I've even gotten brave enough to hold my hands out in invitation for George to touch me. He hasn't, yet, but I hope he does by the end of the season.

I feel crazy saying this, but I'm going to miss George a bit once the season's over. I feel like I've gotten to know him and grown accustomed to him so much that it'll be weird not having him around every once in a while. Of course, facing my fear with George was kind of like breaking the most gentle horse ever born. He was never anything to fear, just someone who happened to die horribly on the property, which is unfortunate for someone so nice. I guess my next challenge is to go down there alone, or maybe I should meet the other ghosts of Fear Factory and see what their personalities are like. Now that I've opened this door for myself, I'm completely enthralled by what I can learn.

So, this has been the most gentle ghost story you've ever read. I hope you've enjoyed it and maybe even inspired you to get to know your neighborhood ghosts a little more. Stay spooky!