8 – Ghosts and Family Legends: Round the Fire. Seventh Evening

The pre-school teacher hears the disembodied giggle as she locks up for the night.She glances nervously around the dark wooden hallways beneath the main arcade at Pike Place Market. All the shops are closed. The lower levels are silent.Except for the childlike laughter coming from the room she just locked.There must be a child left behind - hidden in a closet or under a desk, playing hide and seek, not ready to go home. She checks her watch. This late? How did she miss them?Distracted by the thought of frantic parents, she unlocks the door and flings it open. The room is dark. Silent.She steps to the closet. Opens it.Empty.Panicked, she calls Market Security. A child is hiding here somewhere. She heard them.After hours of searching, no child is found. No reports from parents. Nothing. She must have been mistaken.But just as she turns out the light and begins to lock the door again...There… Down the hallway… A small child.The child faces away from her. She calls out, exasperated. Slowly, the child turns.She’s young - maybe three to five years old. Her dress is old-fashioned.And then, most alarming of all, she sees it..Her face. No eyes…A blank expression. Just a smooth, blank face where her eyes should be.Welcome to your weekend haunt with Spook Lit, an audiobook club by dreary dendrophile. This week’s chapter has it all - a ghost without eyes, a haunted mansion, and a protagonist I can relate to so hard. Not only does he insist on staying in the most haunted room in the house, but he locks out everyone else except for his trusty dog Dido. Over the years I’ve graduated to requesting the most haunted room in any haunted hotel. If there’s reported activity, I want to experience it all. Hotel staff responses range from encouraging excitement to (more commonly) bemused disbelief. But never the sheer terror we see in this story. (Although I have signed many a waiver.) And have I ever resorted to hiding my head under the covers like our charming protagonist? I plead the fifth.So what’s up with the ghost without the eyes? The story I shared above is one I heard on a ghost tour over a decade ago in the underbelly of Pike Place Market. If you know more, or have corrections, feel free to comment or DM me.Apparitions without eyes are more common than you’d think. The guide on my tour suggested the little girl may have been blind. Fascinatingly, Catherine Crowe offers a similar idea in this week’s chapter:“The absence of eyes I take to be emblematical of moral blindness; for in the world of spirits there is no deceiving each other by false seemings; as we are, so we appear.” - Catherine Crowe, Ghosts and Family LegendsI love that the theory of ghosts without eyes was being discussed so long ago, and that it continues to shape how we talk about the paranormal today. It’s wild to think that a story told in a haunted market in the 2010s echoes something written in the 1800s. Very cool.What’s Lurking on Spook Lit:Next week, we conclude the “around the fire” series with Catherine Crowe’s firsthand account of her own experience investigating a reputably haunted house. Until then, thank you for listening to Spook Lit. I hope you enjoy this chapter—and I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!Want to join the book club? Support Spook Lit for just $2.50/month* Get full access to all audiobook chapters* Receive weekly episodes with original text photos* Unlock extras and support spooky independent mediaCan’t swing a paid subscription?Recommend dreary dendrophile on Substack or send a one-time donation to join the club!Credits:* Audiobook: Ghosts and Family Legends by Catherine Crowe* Chapter: Round the Fire. Seventh Evening.* Music: Horror Spooky Piano by Nikita Kondrashev on Pixabay* Linktree: https://linktr.ee/drearydendrophileAll Spook Lit Audiobooks are public domain.Hauntingly yours,dreary dendrophile Get full access to dreary dendrophile at drearydendrophile.substack.com/subscribe